My immediate thought: Hell yeah! But conscious Wick lurked in the room and followed the entire conversation like an overprotective watchdog I considered my answer before speaking. Crap, could he hear my thoughts now? I glanced at him over my shoulder. He kept his arms crossed and remained silent, a good sign. “He’s a good looking man,” I said.
Wick growled.
I threw both my arms up, including the one that clutched the phone. I would’ve missed Booth’s reply if I didn’t possess Shifter hearing. “That’s too bad. I’d hoped Angie loved a mutant.”
“Will the SRD pursue him?” I asked.
“Unlikely. I would have to file a report and cite my sources. Besides, Landen was a wanted fugitive, there was an open bounty on his head. Yours, too. The SRD will be pleased no one will come forth to claim the reward.”
I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Tristan most likely had no choice in the matter.”
I nodded at the phone. “I have reason to believe the Wereleopards are not content being controlled by Monroe. I hope they find a loophole and avoid interfering with our siege. It’s how I escaped.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let me tell you the whole story…” And for what felt like the fiftieth time that day, I launched into the story of my investigation like a war veteran recounting the good ol’ days. Booth remained silent, either rendered speechless or asleep. As much as I would love to believe my storytelling abilities improved to the point of taking her breath away, she probably drifted off. As a glorified assassin for the SRD, I had little practice talking about myself, so it came out stilted and factual. If I threw in bigger words, which I didn’t, it would sound like I read from a scientific research paper. People got paid to research the north Atlantic honeybee’s average wing beat speed. Blows. My. Mind.
When I tore out throats of supernatural delinquents, it soothed my soul to know researchers were out there getting paid big bucks to produce research papers that would greatly impact my life.
“Andy?”
I shook my head to clear my thoughts, like my mind was one of those Etch-A-Sketches. “Sorry. Lost in thought.”
“I said, it looks like Angie’s not as evil as we’d like to believe. You might have to be cordial to her next time you’re in.”
“I hate being nice to the people I want to punch in the face.” I blew at my bangs out of the corner of my mouth.
“What will you do now?”
“I’m about to meet with the alpha of the Werewolf pack to discuss a plan of attack.”
Booth shuffled through some papers. I heard it through the phone. “Brandon Wickard?”
I glanced over at Wick. His lips curled up into a smug smile as if to say, ‘Who’s the big dog?’
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, that’s him all right.”
“Mmmm.” Booth made the same sound I did when I engulfed chocolate ice cream. I stared at the receiver in shock. That sounded wrong coming from Booth—someone I was fairly sure up to now was an asexual organism. But what really bothered me was the ferocious surge of jealousy rearing its ugly head, making me want to travel through the phone and dig my claws into Agent Booth’s neck. I caught the growl before it escaped my lips, but the bitter stench of cat pee flared out of my pores and filled the room. Jealousy—an ugly emotion, and an even uglier smell.
Wick chuckled.
“Have fun.” Her tone implied that she didn’t refer to the G-rated playground variety.
“Um. Ok. Sure.”
“And keep me updated.”
Click. She hung up before I thought of anything witty to say.
“Don’t say it.” I didn’t need to turn around to know Wick wore one of his wide smiles. What he planned to say, I had no idea, but it would be cheeky. I heard his mouth clamp shut after his words stopped in his throat. When I did turn around, Wick leaned against the wall once again with his arms crossed, eyes averted, and an ‘innocent’ expression plastered on his face.
“Ok. Fine,” I huffed. “What were you going to say?”
His eyes slanted to mine. “Not a thing.”
“Out with it.” I waved him on in encouragement.
He shook his head. “Let me show you.”
“Down boy.” My hand on his chest stopped him in his tracks. “We need to strategize.”
Wick growled and stepped closer, making my arm bend. “I don’t want to behave. You can’t dodge me forever, Andy.”
“We need to go over the attack logistics.” I shook my head at him. “We go in tonight.”
Wick flopped on the bed and draped an arm over his eyes. “You’re going to be the death of me, woman.”