Lion's Dangerous(Kings of the Jungle #1)(49)

Whatever he saw outside didn't alter his body language. He moved away from the window and opened the door to admit a tall, dark man with the narrow build of a runner. As he walked into the shop, the newcomer gave her a cursory once over before turning his piercing blue eyes on Jude.

"I followed the trail," the stranger said, "but it's not going to do you any good. The scent cuts off at the corner of the tennis court and doesn't pick up again on the other side." He made a fist and then flicked his fingers out, poof. "The guy was here, he ran, he disappeared. Kind of like that other problem you're having."

"Hell," Jude muttered, seeming unsurprised. "You're sure he didn't splash through a puddle or something and throw the scent?"

"It hasn't rained in a week. Even if there was standing water anywhere, we're not living on a movie set. The trail starts out strong at her car and heads down the courts, like you said. And then it ends. There's a monster of a spider web that hasn't been disturbed, so not much chance he scaled the fence there, but I went over anyway and sniffed around. Nothing."

"What about an origin trail? Which direction did he come in from?" 

The stranger shrugged. "No scent. I'm telling you, it's a copy of the attacks."

"The ones at the Jungle?" Lily asked.

Both men looked at her but Jude was the one who replied. "Yes. I need you to close up for a few days. Get what you need to make bank deposits, notify your staff."

She wanted to protest but the circumstances were weird enough that she squashed any fledgling urges to stand up for her right to do business unmolested. The fact was, she might have the right, but she didn't have the freedom, not with someone out there stalking her. Still, she didn't have to like it. Lips pressed into a thin line, she headed for the register.

Once she put a few feet of distance between herself and the men, the stranger lowered his voice. "I had a thought about all of this. That shit on her car, and … "

"And?" Jude repeated.

The other man dropped into a rasping whisper. "The web."

Jude met her eyes and held them as he spoke at normal volume. "I saw it. Lily, Bailey." He angled his head toward the man. "Wolf shifter."

Lily glanced at Bailey, who grunted but didn't remark upon Jude's free share of info. Biting her bottom lip, she realized she was warmed by the deliberate inclusion, the silent declaration of her equality and welcome, but she didn't quite smile because that inclusion meant something. She'd crossed a line between human outsider with a little knowledge and … whatever this was. Human insider? Was there even a thing with shifter groups?

"Yeah, well, you can't fucking miss the thing," Bailey said, barely missing a beat. "It's bigger than any of our regular spiders would get up to. The web, plus that spoo-" He shot a look at Lily. "Plus that shit on her car. It's not normal. Not the size of the web, not that weird black slime."

"He put something on my car?" At Jude's hesitation, she pushed harder. "If one of you doesn't tell me, I'm going to go out and look at it myself."

Jude made a rough sound. "You're not leaving my sight."

"So … ?"

"He spanked it on your car," Bailey said.

"Spanked … " Lily grimaced. "You mean he masturbated?"

Bailey shrugged and she huffed in disgust, both at the act and at the fact she was apparently talking to a teenager in a man's body.

"Yeah, that's what I mean. He jacked all over your car, and then he-" Bailey waved in the direction of the tennis courts. "Then he made the web and zipped off into space, or something."

"Spider shifters aren't documented," Jude said, but he didn't dismiss the idea as ridiculous, which left Lily with an uneasy-an even more uneasy-feeling.

Almost immediately, her skin started to itch. She rubbed the back of her neck, and then her forearms. "Spider shifters," she echoed faintly.

"Think about it," Bailey said. "They can drop out of the sky like fucking birds if they want to, and then they can leap back into it at the flick of a webby wrist. They're insects, not mammals. Who's to say their spunk is the same color as ours? You smelled that shit. It stank of sex. It wasn't motor oil or paint, or your normal tools of vandalism. It was come."

Jude already had his cell phone in hand, up to his ear, and started speaking almost immediately. "What do you think about spiders?" He asked of the person on the other end of the call.

Sharp-eyed, Bailey moved a little closer, but stopped outside Jude's reach. Lily found herself leaning in, too, curious about the response to Jude's question.

"I don't," answered a male voice.