I tried not to stare at her round belly. Did she have any idea how valuable those babies would be to the government? Kaya was born a skin walker, and a few years ago she was bitten by a werewolf, making her the only hybrid shifter that I was aware of. Add to that was the fact that her mate was a jaguar shifter, one of the deadliest surviving assassins from the now-destroyed Nero Organization. The twins she was carrying were going to be in danger from the moment they drew their first breaths.
“Everything’s fine,” I lied. “I’m actually meeting someone here. Maybe you could give me a table in a back corner if you have one free?” I glanced at the woman beside her, hoping Kaya would get the hint. “Someplace private so we can…talk.”
Kaya turned to her employee. “I’ve got this Harley. Can you manage the kitchen for a few minutes?”
“On it.” Harley shot me a distrustful look, obviously warning that me she’d be close by.
I chuckled as she disappeared into the kitchen. “She’s protective of you.”
Kaya tipped her head. “She’s taking over for me in a couple weeks when I…go on bedrest for the rest of the pregnancy.”
The truth was, Kaya was probably due in two more weeks. Shifters were always born in a set of twin boys, although a few recent births both in the Reno Pack and here in Sedona had also seen girls born as shifters. Maybe we were evolving? But the gestation time for shifters was only four months, not the nine of a human pregnancy. It was common for shifters to tell humans they had to spend the final weeks of their pregnancies in bed to avoid drawing attention to full-term babies born in half the time of a human pregnancy.
She walked me through the restaurant, keeping her voice low. “Vance told me the senator knows about Judge Jones.”
“Yeah.” I scanned the few diners as we reached a table in the back corner of the restaurant. “He already had a press conference to announce a transparency initiative for the taxpayers to see how the Department of Defense has been spending their money. He’s planning to start revealing the research projects at the end of the month.”
Kaya sat down across from me. “Shit.”
“Exactly.” I couldn’t stop my gaze from wandering to her belly. “If your babies are born hybrids like you are—” I met her eyes “—powerful people will be hunting for them.”
She ran her hand along the curve of her abdomen. “I pity the person who tries. Vance will end them.”
It wasn’t an empty threat. Her mate had a dangerous reputation that he had no trouble living up to.
“I’m working to stop Senator Hanson from exposing shifters. I have a line on some intel, but I need to go to Salem to get it. The clock is ticking now so you should prepare for the worst.”
The door opened, and I looked up. Rayne stood in the entrance wearing an ivory sundress that hugged her breasts and hung loose around her hips, hinting at the curves hidden underneath. Her long auburn hair was down, and she smiled when she saw me.
I could barely fucking breathe.
Rayne crossed the room to our table, and Kaya stood. Rayne studied Kaya’s all-white chef coat. “You must be Kaya Blackwing, the queen of southwestern-fusion cuisine?”
Kaya chuckled, rolling her eyes. “I’m not sure who dubbed me the queen, but I’ve been known to cook some tasty dishes.”
She offered her hand, and Rayne shook it with a smile. “I’m Rayne, it’s great to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Kaya glanced my way. “Can I get you anything from the bar?”
“I’d love an old-fashioned.”
Rayne looked over at the bar and then back to Kaya. “How about a mojito?”
“Done.” Kaya ran a hand over her belly. “Brody will take good care of you tonight.”
She headed to the bar, and I pulled out a chair for Rayne. She grinned. “I didn’t know guys still did that.”
“They don’t?” I raised a brow, sliding her in closer to the table. “I must’ve missed that memo.” I sat across from her and smiled. “After my botched pick-up attempt at the coffee shop, I never imagined we’d be here tonight.”
“Is that what that was?” Her smile lit up the room.
“Best we don’t discuss it again.” I chuckled, shaking my head. “I have a reputation to uphold.”
“Your secret is safe with me.” She reached into her bag and took out a folder and a pen.
Before she could say anything, a server approached with menus. There was a confident sparkle in his dark-brown eyes, and his smile was a dead ringer for a young Denzel Washington. “Hi. I’m Brody. Kaya already put your drink orders in at the bar so they should be up in a minute.”
He rattled off the specials and even pointed out some of his favorite items from the menu. I ordered the fry bread appetizer and waited for him to disappear before looking at Rayne again. She already had the folder open and a legal pad in front of her.
I rested my arms on the table, keeping my voice down. “You came ready to work.”
“That’s why we’re here, right?” She tapped her pen on the notepad.
Did she want tonight to be about the work? She must have. At the coffee shop she’d brushed me off, and I was older than her—but not old enough to be her father or anything.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Sure.”
She searched my eyes and finally looked at the open file. She had laid out crime scene photos of mutilated wolves, making me even more grateful to Kaya for giving us a table so far from everyone else. She lifted her gaze to my face. “I accepted the freelance offer for this case, so I shouldn’t even be pondering discussing this with you, but I’m not technically an FBI agent anymore. I’m a consultant.”
“And I’m not technically involved in the Department of Defense anymore, but my security clearance hasn’t expired yet.” I held eye contact, hoping she’d trust me.
Finally, she nodded. “All right. We’ll pool information, but everything stays between us.”
I didn’t hesitate. “Deal.”
She took out a few more photos from her folder, but these weren’t wolves. These were human body parts. She lifted her eyes to my face. “They found a few bags of severed human body parts that I think are connected to these wolves.”
I frowned. “You think the same person killed them? Why?”
Rayne pointed to the severed hands. “See the way these were cut?”
I narrowed my eyes, inspecting the hands in the photo. They were severed just above the wrists. Beyond that I didn’t notice anything special.
She slid the photo of the wolf over and tapped the end of the pen to the front leg where the paw was missing. “The human body parts they found correspond to the same parts that are missing from the wolves. The cuts are also in the same place, and they’re too straight and smooth to have been cut with a bone saw.” She narrowed her eyes for a closer look. “Every cut, especially into bone, leaves behind scrapes and grooves based on the type of blade and its tooth shape. Even an axe wouldn’t leave this clean of a cut. What I’m trying to say is that the humans and the wolves were dismembered by the same blade.”
I studied each of the photos and shook my head. If she was right, then her case and my mission for Mathias were one in the same. Those wolves were too big. They had to be the two missing werewolves from the Salem Pack. But who were the humans? “How are they connected?”