He took a breath and paused before answering.
“My mother died when I was seven. She was a wolf shifter. My father wasn’t a shifter or even her fated mate. She was the only family I had on the shifter side, and when she died the human courts gave me to him. He hated that I was a wolf. He beat me for it from the time I was small. By fifteen my wolf was strong enough that I beat him back. I left one night with what I could carry. I didn’t have anywhere to go and the only thing I knew how to do was fight. So, I fought.”
He lifted the mug and drank.
“I worked the U.S. underground for a while. Then across Asia. Ended up in Thailand. That’s where I met Dom. I’ve been with the MC ever since. He gave me a real mission and a purpose. Something to do that could help people.”
He set the mug down.
“And now you’re helping find Nell. That’s really admirable, Blaze.” She looked at her watch. “I should probably go.”
After she locked up again, they walked to her car together. The rain was coming down, drenching her jacket. His T-shirt was already going dark across the chest. His hair was wet and his face was wet, and his blue eyes were on her.
“Stella. About last night.”
“Blaze. I don’t want to talk about it.”
She grabbed the front of his T-shirt, pulled him down to her, and kissed him. He moaned into her mouth. One hand fisted in her wet hair and the other cupped her jaw. He kissed her back. Not the slow, deliberate kiss from last night. It was hungry this time. His tongue was deep in her mouth, and he pressed her against her car door.
She could feel every hot inch of him pressed against her. Her hands came up and fisted in the wet cotton of his shirt and pulled him closer. He tasted like coffee and rain.
His hand at her jaw moved down her neck and her throat and gripped the side of her ribs. The other hand was still in her hair. She could feel his erection against her stomach. He pressed her harder against the car door.
They were both getting soaked.
She pulled back first. “I need to go.”
He didn’t move. She didn’t move.
She made herself let go of him. He stepped back enough for her to get the door open.
She got in the car. Closed the door. Started the engine.
Her hands were shaking on the wheel.
She put the car in gear and pulled out of the lot.
In the rearview, he was standing where she’d left him. In the rain. Under the lot lights. Watching her go.
He was still standing there when she turned the corner.
Chapter
Fourteen
Blaze tooka chair on the long side of the table in the conference room.
“After three days of pulling threads,” Dom said, “let’s see what we have. Blaze first.”
“I called a promoter I used to work with on the U.S. circuit. He ran fight bookings in the Pacific Northwest underground for fifteen years before going mostly legit four years ago. Promotes amateur MMA cards in Tacoma now. He was one of the first calls I made.”
He set the paper down on the table where the room could see it.
“Six months ago a guy approached him. Wanted him to set up a regular fight night for a private client. Shifter-only fighters. The numbers were good. He turned it down. Fighters had to submit to searches before each event. No phones. He told me he didn’t book it because it smelled wrong.”
Siren interjected. “I called a former colleague from military intel. He now consults for a private firm that monitors organizedcrime for corporate clients. He says there’s a wealthy human in Portland running underground fighting rings with shifters.”
“In my experience, underground fights like this will run girls out the back,” Blaze said. “Same clientele. Same venues. The fights were what filled the venue. Underneath the fights, the same clientele paid for access to women.”
