Angel in Chains (The Fallen #3)(18)
Author: Cynthia Eden

The shifter fell to the floor, gasping. Az had a killer grip.

“Who are you?” Jade demanded as her hold on the gun tightened. “And why the hell are you dressed like a cop?”

His palms flattened on the wooden floor. “Because I am a cop.” He looked up at her, revealing a hard, chiseled face—and a wicked smile that flashed his sharp canines. “And a shifter.”

“Are you working for Brandt?” Because Az had said the guy smelled like the others.

“I’m working to take Dupre down.” He said those words with vehemence. “That twisted bastard is destroying the panthers in Louisiana.” Now the stranger rose to his feet. “We’re not all psychotic f**ks, despite what you may think.”

“You mean despite what I’ve seen.” She wasn’t lowering the weapon. Jade didn’t trust this guy. Sure, cops were supposed to be all good and safe, but the only man she felt safe with was—

Az.

Az’s gaze darted between her and the cop.

The shifter grunted. “Look, my name’s Tanner. Tanner Chance. And I want to stop Dupre just as much as you do.”

“Doubtful.” Highly.

Az spread his feet a bit and straightened his shoulders, a slight movement that held an aura of menace. “How did you find us?” Az wanted to know.

“You stole a car.” The cop shifter shrugged. “There’s an APB out for you. I was just the lucky bastard who found you first.”

“I don’t believe in luck,” Jade said. Especially since she’d only seemed to have bad luck in the last few years.

The gun was a steady weight in her hand. She was a good shot, but even if she hadn’t been, it would be hard to miss her target at a range this close.

“Fine. Don’t believe in it.” The guy called Tanner exhaled heavily. “Believe in a GPS locator and a cop who hauled ass to get to you before anyone else could.”

She could buy that bit.

Tanner’s gaze slid to Az. “Who’s the muscle?”

Az crossed his arms over his chest and stared steadily back at the cop.

“Caught my scent, huh?” Tanner frowned at him. “So you’ve got an enhanced sense of smell, and you’re too damn strong to be a human.”

“I’m her guardian,” Az said. “Azrael.”

Her gaze slipped to him. As in . . . guardian angel? Seriously? Of course, it totally figured that her guardian angel would have fallen from grace.

Tanner’s gaze narrowed. “You’re also the ass**le that managed to piss off the pack of panthers in New Orleans.”

Az smiled.

Her heart did a crazy jump in her chest. Why did she like his smile so much?

“I do what I can,” Az allowed. He hadn’t relaxed his body, not yet.

But then, she wasn’t about to drop her weapon either. Jade had met far too many boys in blue that she didn’t trust.

The cop raised his hands, probably trying to show that he was harmless. The fact that he was sporting two-inch long claws didn’t help his harmless act any. “Look, you don’t have much time,” Tanner said. “Brandt has a bounty on your head, and, if they aren’t already, then every supernatural in the area will be gunning for you.”

Jade laughed at that. “He’s been hunting me for years.”

“No. Not you. Not this time.” His dark head inclined toward Az. “Your guardian.” Tanner’s green gaze slid back to catch hers. “You know panthers don’t share well.” She saw the slight flex of his nostrils.

Damn shifter senses.

“Your scent’s all over him, and even your shower can’t hide the fact that he’s been all over you.”

Az punched him. The shifter stumbled back and fell against the wall.

Jade grabbed Az’s arm. “Wait!” His muscles were rock hard beneath her touch. He started to shake her off. She just held him tighter. “Wait, Az.” Because the battle wasn’t just about her anymore.

I can’t let Brandt get Az.

“I want to hear what he has to say,” she told Az.

His jaw clenched and she knew he’d just prefer to beat the crap out of the guy. Tempting, but they needed to try another option first.

“Please,” she said, easing her hold so that she was stroking the tense muscles of Az’s arm. “Give him just a minute. If we don’t like what he says . . .”

Az inclined his head. “Then I’ll make him wish he’d never spoken.”

Sounded good to her. Jade glanced back at Tanner.

The shifter swallowed. “Brandt doesn’t realize you’ve been f**king yet,” he said as he pushed away from the wall, and Jade caught the hardening of Az’s jaw.

We haven’t, yet.

Temptation.

“But when he does, you know what Brandt will do.”

Brandt liked to play with his prey.

The cop’s head cocked to the side. “How much torture do you think you can stand?” He asked Az.

And Az smiled. “More than you can imagine.”

Tanner lifted up his shirt to reveal flesh that had been savaged. Long, twisting scars covered his stomach and swiped around to his back. With deep, old scars like that, he would’ve been injured long ago. Before his first change as a shifter.

He would have been just a child.

“Trust me, I can imagine a hell of a lot.” Tanner’s voice was a growl.

Unfortunately, she’d seen marks like that before. Brandt bore scars just like them. “You’re in Brandt’s pack.”

“No.” Tanner shook his head. “I was in the pack, until I was twelve years old, and I managed to get the hell away from Brandt and his old man.”

Because Brandt’s father had been the one to give Brandt the scars he carried. To prove I can handle any pain. Brandt’s voice whispered through her mind. He’d told her those words, the first time she’d seen the scars that marked his body.

Brandt’s bastard of a father had enjoyed torturing, and he’d passed that love on to his son.

“You understand,” Tanner said, staring at her with eyes that saw too much. “You know why I had to get away from them. I wasn’t gonna end up like those ass**les.”

Twisted. Broken.

Killers.

Jade lowered her gun.

Az frowned. “Just because he left, it doesn’t mean this guy isn’t like them.”

“I’m not. I got away from them,” Tanner said, anger roughening his voice. “And I stayed away. But then they came to my town—”