Moira Rogers: Deadlock

There was a sudden thump on the passenger door of his truck, and Jackson stood there. Instead of motioning for Alec to open the door, he grinned and passed his hand over it. The lock disengaged with a dull snap.

«Got you a soda.» Jackson tossed a can at Alec as he climbed up into the truck.

Alec barely managed to catch the damn thing before it smashed into his face. «While you were invisible? If Kat hears rumors about a haunted snack machine, she’s gonna yell at us both.»

«Nah, I delurked long enough to hit the vending machines over by the laundry room.»

He didn’t have the faintest idea where the laundry room was, since his experience with Kat’s apartment building began and ended with the parking lot in front of it and a nagging concern that security there wasn’t nearly tight enough now that Kat’s cousin had married into the most important shapeshifting family in the country.

A worry for another time. Alec cracked open the soda and watched two teenagers stroll down the sidewalk in front of them. «I left Kat with the doctor at the clinic. The new one Franklin hired a few months back.»

«I remember.» Jackson snorted. «You’ve already bitched my ear off about how Franklin’s compromising his clinic’s neutrality by hiring on a member of the Mendoza clan.»

Alec fought a flinch. «It’s a valid concern. Her uncle’s spent the last six months putting his ducks in a row so he can get his hands on that empty Conclave seat. For all I knew, she was one of his ducks.»

«For all you knew , past tense?» He squinted at Alec and chuckled. «She’s cute, isn’t she?»

Smooth dark hair, smoky brown eyes, curves to make a pin-up jealous… Cute was puppies and kids. Carmen Mendoza was a guilty fantasy come to life. «Sure. Sending hot women to spy is pretty much an institution, isn’t it? Or is that just in movies? I can’t remember.»

«Oh yeah. I’m sure, between the sprained ankles and the nasal allergies, she’s gathering some fierce intel over there.»

Appearing casual was vital, since Alec had given Jackson hell over the man’s descent into idiocy whenever Mackenzie Brooks blinked those big blue eyes at him. Unfortunately, appearing casual had never been his specialty. «Fuck off, Holt.»

«Jesus, have a sense of humor.» Jackson stretched his legs out as much as the cab of the truck would allow. «Mackenzie said Kat liked her a lot. The doctor, I mean.»

It figured that Jackson’s girlfriend had already retrieved Kat. For all the complaints Alec got about his lead foot, everyone knew Mackenzie was the one who drove like she was looking to run the NASCAR circuit. «Not surprising. Doctor’s an empath. Low level, I think, but still.» He hesitated, but setting Jackson on the case of future trouble might mean he wouldn’t have to deal with it. «She also has a smarmy telepathic brother who’s already wheedled Kat’s phone number out of her.»

«Smarmy?» Jackson considered that for a moment. «From what I’ve heard, that’s par for the Mendoza course.»

«You mean the shit with the oldest one? Julio?» Alec couldn’t help but laugh, though he didn’t feel particularly amused. «Gotta give the Mendoza propaganda machine their due. Only Cesar Mendoza could spin the fact that his little brother snuck off and played house with a psychic for over a decade. Talk to the man for more than ten minutes, and he’ll find a way to let you know the Mendozas are so badass that they father shapeshifting sons on human women. Asshole.»

«It is quite the manly feat, if you overlook the part where Diego dumped his wife as soon as his big brother told him to.»

Alec knew Jackson hadn’t meant anything by it, but he still tensed. Some things he’d never forget — his cousin, telling him that the family wouldn’t stand for the embarrassment of Alexander Jacobson the Third being married to a human. That night, he’d found his wife on the kitchen floor, surrounded by half-thawed bits of broccoli.

A few years ago, the memory would have paralyzed him. Liquor would have been the only cure. Now he took refuge in temper. «Because we all know staying is a brilliant fucking plan.»

Jackson stared at him for a moment and turned his attention to the building in front of them. «Best description Mac was able to get out of Kat was that the attacker was tall and blond. Her date, on the other hand, was shorter, with dark hair. If either shows up, it shouldn’t be hard to tell them apart.»

There was no question Jackson was pissed, but Alec didn’t have the emotional reserves to navigate an apology or — worse — a conversation about Heidi and the past that felt too raw today. Instead he accepted the tacit change of subject and tried to turn it into a peace offering. «Kat did real good. Zola says she’s been working hard, and obviously she has. She held off the guy with her stun gun.»

«Yeah.» Jackson pulled out his phone, punched a few keys and held it out. «That’s the date. I ran a check on him already. Nothing in the NCIC database, but that doesn’t mean he’s clean.»

Alec took the phone gingerly. It was the exact same model Kat had purchased for him at the beginning of the year, after she’d proclaimed them both woefully out of date and behind the times. Jackson had adapted to his just fine. Alec had gotten a week’s worth of silent treatment from Kat for trading his back in for a phone that didn’t try to load up the internet or play music every time he wanted to make a call.

He’d hated the thing, but he had to admit it had its uses as he studied the picture. A young man, probably midtwenties, smiled back at him. Dark hair, dark eyes, nothing remarkable about his face aside from a tiny bump in his nose. Probably a shapeshifter, unless Kat had broken her habit from the last five dates. If he was a shapeshifter, he didn’t come from any of the prominent families. «What’s his name?»

«Christopher Gilbert.» Jackson hesitated. «Maybe.»

«Maybe?»

«Everything I could dig up on him is too neat. There aren’t any holes. Like someone sat down and came up with his story all at once.»

«Kat would have run his info…» Alec sighed. «But she wouldn’t notice that. Damn. You should be the one to tell her.»

Jackson tapped his knuckles against the passenger window. «Yeah, I’ll handle it.»

Still pissy. Alec scrubbed his hand against the side of his face and forced himself to apologize. Kind of. «Sorry, man. It’s been a shit day. Kat showed up while me’n Andrew were still at the dojo.»

«That couldn’t have been pleasant.»

«I keep hoping I’ll turn around and she’ll be over it. So far…»

«She’s doing the best she can.» Jackson flashed him a knowing look. «And, from the looks of it, so is Andrew.»

Great. The supernatural gossip mill was operating at full speed. The fact that Andrew’s best friend was married to Jackson’s best friend didn’t help matters. «You got an earful from Nicole on the subject, I’m guessing?»

«She says you’re being insufferable again, and someone should smack you for it.»

«According to half the town, that’s pretty much business as usual.»

«You could try to» Jackson’s words cut off as magic shuddered through the truck. «Someone just set off the wards I laid around Kat’s balcony doors.»

Alec popped his door open. «Take the front. I’ll circle around to the balcony.»

Jackson grinned. «He shouldn’t be too hard to run down.» With those cryptic words, he slid out of the truck and disappeared.

Once Alec rounded the side of the building and got a good look at the courtyard under Kat’s window, he figured out what Jackson had meant. A tall blond man lay huddled on the grass a few feet away from one of the downstairs neighbor’s plastic chairs. Whatever spell Jackson had twisted into the wards had clearly triggered as soon as the man had gotten his hands on the railing.