Outfoxed by Love (Kodiak Point Book 2) (11 page)

It took Jan a while to corner her moose, and when she finally did, he and a grim-faced Reid stood over the body of a stranger splayed in an alley between two duplexes, a short distance from her place.

“Who is he?” she asked as she tucked herself into Boris’ side, a
pleased grin curling her lips when his arm stretched around her, automatically hugging her into his body. “Is it your old army buddy, Gene?”

“Nope, but it l
ooks like we found our shooter,” Reid replied.

“And you didn’t keep him alive for questioning?” It came out a tad plaintive because Jan sure
wanted to know the answer as to why the jerk felt a need to take potshots after torching her place. She was also miffed someone robbed her of a chance to poke him with a sharp stick and smack him around a few times for destroying her home.

“
Trust me, we would have preferred him kicking and screaming.”

“Definitely screaming,” Boris agreed with a grunt.

“But someone didn’t want him to talk. He was dead when we found him. From the looks of it, he was shoved him off the roof and then someone put a bullet in him to make sure he didn’t get up and walk away.”

“Thorough,” she remarked.

“That’s Gene for you,” Reid replied.

The alpha for t
he clan, and her boss at Beark Enterprises, didn’t appear too angry at the situation, more tired and resigned. Sometimes being head honcho, especially over a rabble of wild animals who, if left in their natural habitat, would never get along, made for some tough decisions and irritating situations. But Reid had the broad shoulders to handle it—and a don’t-screw-with-me attitude.

At six
-foot-something, he stood only slightly shorter than Boris, but he was huge, his Kodiak bear gene accounting for much of his muscle mass. Jan had known him since she was a kid, having hung out with his sister—who’d moved to Anchorage years ago for a taste of the city life. Jan at times wished she’d followed, especially when Boris spent so many years pretending she didn’t exist.

Of course, it seemed her waiting had paid off. She couldn’t help but smile again as she tucked her arm around his waist
, enjoying the solid feel of him, the tingle of awareness. She even loved his scent, a mixture of man and strong soap, none of that cloying cologne spray for her moose. She breathed in deep and frowned because the odor of fresh blood tickled her nose, odd given the body on the ground had stopped oozing a while ago, the cold temperatures freezing the liquid seeping from the perfectly round wound in his head.

Was someone injured? Reid had arrived after the fire trucks and missed the gun play, but Boris
… Boris had lumbered right out into the open. Surely he would have said something if hit? Boris, admit something? As if.

She slid out from under his arm and pivoted to check him over. She immediately saw his bloody thigh.
His freshly bleeding thigh.

H
er gaze rose to meet his nonchalant one. She arched a brow. “You’re hit.”

“Yup.”

Her lips thinned. “And yet, you’re standing around here yapping instead of getting it treated.”

“I tried to get him to see a medic,” Reid said.

“You didn’t try hard enough,” she snapped to her boss.

“He’s a grown man. I figured it was his choice.”

“He’s an idiot.”

“Who’s standing right here
,” Boris grumbled.

“
Which is even more idiotic. That bullet is still in there. Exactly how do you expect to heal properly if we don’t get it out? Not to mention the fact the longer it stays in, the more damage we’ll have to inflict pulling it out.” Because shifters healed rapidly, which meant they’d have to reopen the wound to remove the bullet.

His expression turned sheepish. “
I was going to take care of it once I knew the gunman was caught.”

“He’s dead
, and you will be too if you don’t march your butt over to the clinic and get that fixed right now, Boris Sobolev.”

Chagrin turned to stubborn mutiny. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

Challenge her, would he? She straightened her spine and met his gaze without backing down.

“Um, Boris,” Reid tried to interject in a low voice. “You might want to—
”

Jan cut Reid off with a glare. Her boss might be alpha of the clan and a big freaking bear, but even he knew better than to come between a vixen and her mate. Almost mate, but close enough. Now that they’d become intimate, whether he was ready to accept it or not, Boris was hers. And as her male, he would take care of himself or face her wrath.

“Are you seriously going to argue with me about going to see the doctor?” she asked in a sweet voice, because Momma always taught her you catch more flies with honey. Or was it trapped more bears? In her case, she needed to net a moose. Where was the family shotgun when a vixen needed it?

“
I’ll go see him when I’m damned well ready. I’ve got stuff to do and…” His words tapered off, probably because of the handgun she held aimed at him. “What the hell, woman?”

Her momma also said men were idiots and often prone to doing
moronic things because of testosterone, which meant it was up to women to take care of them when stupidity overtook their brains. “Get your sweet buttocks moving, or so help me, Boris, I will put a hole in your other leg and drag you there myself.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

Reid cleared his throat. “Um, I wouldn’t challenge her on this. She once shot Johnny in the ass with buckshot when his mom ended up in the clinic and he wouldn’t go to visit her.”

“You did not.”

“I did.” Jan shrugged. “His poor sick mother was so happy to see him, even if he was flat on his belly getting pellets plucked out of his cheeks.”

“
But I can’t leave now. Reid needs me.”

With a shake of
his head, Reid distanced himself from the brewing battle. “Oh no you don’t. You are not using me to get out of this one, dude. I might rule this clan, but I swear, Jan’s taken lessons from my Aunt Betty-Sue.”

The two males shuddered. Betty
-Sue was known for keeping boys in line, a trait Jan’s own mother much admired, hence the tips she’d gleaned from her friend and imparted on Jan, her daughter.

T
he threat had the desired effect, though. With a mumble about bossy vixens, Boris let her lead him away, his slight limp not softening her in the least but actually firing her irritation as just another sign of his stubbornness when it came to his own well-being.

“What if the doc’s not answering when we get there?” he asked as he stuffed himself in her little loaner of a car, which she’d borrowed from a friend who preferred to use their snowmobile this time of the year.

“She lives right next door. Which you well know. She’ll be around.”

“I would have taken myself you know. You didn’t have to threaten me.”

“Someone’s got to take care of you seeing as how you seem incapable of caring for yourself.”

“I’ve been doing fine so far.”

“Says the guy who has nightmares and would prefer to sleep in a closet than with me.”

“That was a low blow.”

“It was. I’m sorry.”

Her apology took him aback. “Did you just say sorry?”

“I’ll have you know I’m capable of admitting when I’m wrong, unlike a certain moosehead I know.”

“I’m not wrong.
And tonight proved it in spades. Because of me, you were almost killed. First at my hands, then by a fire set to trap me, and then by gunfire, again, meant to take me out.

“The first isn’t your fault and we can work on
it. As for the other two…” She tossed her hair over her shoulder and shot him a mischievous look. “How do you know it’s not my secret admirer lashing out because I dared cheat on him with another man?”

“I thought we’d ascertained Gene was behind those stalking notes.”

“No. You assumed he was. I just agreed he might be. Is it so far-fetched for you to imagine that, in spying on Reid, my shy stalker fell for the lovely and efficient secretary and when he saw you debauching my lovely, nubile body he had a jealous fit?”

Boris snorted. “That’s the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard. You been reading too many romance novels if you ask me.”

“You are such a jerk.”

“What did I do now?” He seemed genuinely puzzled
, so she clued him in.

“
Is it so hard to believe that I might have the ability to inspire jealousy? Or are you going to tell me that if the roles were reversed, and you saw me making out with another guy, you’d be fine with it?”

“What other guy?” he growled.

“Doesn’t matter. Would it bother you?”

“No,” he spat through gritted teeth.
“Because we are not involved.”

“Wow, you are in utter denial.”

“No, I’m doing what I have to in order to keep you safe. If Gene is after me, then anyone involved with me is in danger.”

“But if you don’t care about me, then why do you give a hoo
f if I’m targeted?”

“I never said I didn’t care.”

“Aha, so you do like me.”

“Of course, I do.
As a friend.”

Her turn to growl.

“A good friend?”

She slammed a
fist down on his injured thigh, and he yelled. Good. Tit for tat. Pain for pain.

“What do you want me to say?”

“I want you to admit what we have is special and stop pretending it isn’t.”

“But I don’t want to.”

She would have hit him again, but he grabbed her fist, wrapping his fingers around it. “Enough. You can’t beat me on this point. Physically or mentally.”

He was right.
She couldn’t force him to love her. Besides, what happened to playing aloof and making him chase her?
But I thought with our sleeping together that…
What? Boris would suddenly turn into an ardent lover and mate? That her love would cure all his problems at once?

She was the idiot, not him.

The rest of the drive passed in silence, and she pulled into the clinic just as lights flickered in the main office window. It seemed someone, probably Reid, had called ahead and warned of their impending arrival.

Boris got out and slammed the door shut
. He’d made it a few steps to the clinic before he realized she didn’t follow. He turned, a frown on his face, but Jan ignored it and, with a wave, backed out.

Right now she was too emotionally charged to be in the same room with him. She needed some distance and maybe a second perspective.
I also need a new plan of attack.

And some fresh cookies with milk.
With Momma in Florida basking in the sun, there was only one person she knew who could whip up a batch and dispense advice.

Less than half an hour later, with dawn cresting, not that you could tell by the thick darkness, she sat on a stool in Reid’s kitchen while his grandmother, Ursula—everyone called her
Ursa, which meant mother bear—mixed together the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies.

Even better, Jan had the company of her new best friend, Tammy, the alpha’s mate
, a city girl recently turned shifter who could offer a fresh perspective on her situation.

“Ignore him,”
Ursa advised. “But at the same time, run into him every chance you get.”

“But isn’t that exactly what he wants?
For me to leave him alone?”

“It is, but he can’t recognize what he wants unless he’s denied it.”

“Kind of like what Ursa did with Reid,” Tammy agreed. “She told him he couldn’t have me, which in turn—”

“Made you more tempting.
I get that, but Boris thrives on misery. He’ll think by abstaining and suffering that he’s doing good.”

“So make yourself impossible for him
to resist. You have a good figure,” Ursa said as she eyed Jan. “Maybe a little skinny, but nothing a few pounds of cookie dough wouldn’t cure.”

Tammy snorted. “
Trust me to find the one house where cookie dough cures everything.”

“Lucky.”

With a giggle, and a spoonful of batter, Tammy mmm’d her agreement.

Jan leaned her chin in a propped hand.
“So dress sexy. Run into the moose. Ignore him. And hope that he what? Congratulates himself on being a blue balled, miserable jerk?”

“Much like a pressure cooker, the emotions and need will build in him until he explodes and carries you off for unmentionable things,”
Ursa elaborated with a wave of her wooden spoon.

“In other words, drive him crazy with lust until he drags you into a closet to have his wicked way.”

Sounded fun, but Jan couldn’t help but worry. “And if that doesn’t work?”

Ursa
and Tammy shared a look before saying at the same time, “Plan B.”