Lion's Dangerous(Kings of the Jungle #1)(23)

"Carrie Stark," he said, reading the name printed in a sloping feminine hand.

Ares turned around. "That's the woman who contacted me through a … friend."

Jude studied the picture. The woman gazing back at him wasn't the face of a Carrie Stark. It was the face of an Lily Bristol.

Cavin's rules for the Jungle were simple and straightforward. Nobody came through the doors without submitting an application, which only he held the power to approve; no blood shed of any kind, not even at the tails of a vigorous whip; and the dungeon master's word was law. Break a rule or fail to obey one of the Jungle's appointed masters, and you were out the doors. Still alive if you were human and very lucky; no guarantees for law-breaking shifters.

If anybody had a problem with the laws of the Jungle, the application process ferreted out that information. More of a petition, the form required for admission asked invasive, intimate questions that spanned not only a person's physical desires and weaknesses but also exposed emotional and psychological cracks and scars.

All of Lily's desires and scars were there, black ink on white paper, and he was tempted. His lion prowled close to the front of his mind, as curious as Jude, but without a human's respect for privacy.

It would be so fucking easy to turn the page and find out everything about this woman who'd already snared him. His fingers flexed. With a low growl, he balled his hand into a fist and looked up at Cavin. "I know this face and she doesn't go by Carrie." 

Cavin lifted an eyebrow.

"She's a new client." Jude slid the photo out from under its paper clip. Leaning back, away from the lingering desire to read her history, he cupped the picture in his palm and studied the lines of Lily's face.

"So you ran a background check on her."

"Yes. Her name is legit." He waved the picture. "Her name. The picture is Lily Bristol. I don't know who Carrie Stark is."

"I do." Cavin leaned back, mirroring Jude's posture. "She was active in Seattle with her prick of a master. And the face matches the name. Carrie Stark must have been a play name since the Lily background held up to your scrutiny."

A play name. Suddenly as agitated as his lion, Jude shoved the folder back to Cavin. "Why did you show me this?"

"I had a feeling. Couldn't tell whether it was good or bad. Now I know."

Cavin closed the folder, stood and walked to the paper shredder.

Fuck. "Let her in."

"Against the rules," Ares said. "If she's a liar before she gets in, she can't be trusted on the inside."

"I've never asked for an exception before. I'm asking now."

Cavin turned back. "She's a problem."

"She's nobody's problem. She's mine. Let her in, Cavin. If her past shows up to make trouble, I'll deal with it myself."

Ares crossed his arms over his chest. "Yours? And she's trying to get in here?"

Jude looked up at the ceiling. "It's complicated."

"Better you than me," Cavin chuckled.

"Yeah, speaking of you," Jude said. "My sister-"

"Stop talking." Sobering, Cavin returned to his desk. He scrawled something on the front of the folder and added it to a short stack of similar files.

"Now she's in," Cavin said. "But if you're serious about this, you need to do your homework before you bring her into the Pride. The Carrie Stark I knew belonged to a man named Paul Stark. He's not a shifter, but he is a mean, sadistic son of a bitch and sooner or later, he'll come after what's his. None of us are above the law. I consider you and Ares my brothers, but I won't let this kingdom fall in order to protect you."

"I know the ways."

"Just so we're clear. Ares's going to keep the same intel on her that he would on anybody else."

"I'll handle her, but I'm not fucking with her head," Ares said. "We don't need territory challenges amongst ourselves. Jude can watch her."

"If shit goes sideways, you're both responsible for making it right." Cavin angled his chin at the cardboard cylinder Jude had brought. "Those the new plans? Let's see them. I want every corner in this building under surveillance and I want the cameras so close, I can identify a man by the wrinkles on his balls if I have to."

Jude bit back his lion's hunger for Paul Stark's blood and rolled the schematics out across Cavin's desk.

"I heard you had words with Hawk at the Phoenix," Ares said.

"I didn't like the way he was touching a woman."

Cavin glanced up from the security plans. "Something we should watch for here?"

"No. He's not our guy."

"We have to find this one." Cavin scrubbed his hands through his hair. "He'll target someone's mate sooner or later. Scared beasts are unpredictable. One calculated attack, one carefully planted rumor, and the Jungle could become a fucking war zone."