Binds that Burn: A Werepanther Romance Suspense (Urban Dwellers Book 3) Read online

  Then, just when he thought he had managed some semblance of calm, Nina Rodriguez walked back into life. He had felt her outrage as if it had been a palpable person in the room. Of all the people in the world, Nina was the one that truly had the power to undo him, and she had no idea of it.

  The three men sat down at a table and stared at each other. They had not spoken much since he had been sprung from jail. He still wasn’t quite sure how Tony and Maggie had managed to pull that off. He waited for one of the other two to speak. Silence wasn’t his strong suit, but he knew he was in deep shit, and it all swirled back to a cesspool of time when the three of them had been eighteen years old.

  He was still trying to absorb the fact that his black hole of memories had been filled the instant that he saw Jillian’s face. Even knowing that, he still wasn’t sure he understood what it all meant. At least, he hadn’t been responsible for her death. Or, he hadn’t been, until possibly that morning.

  “So have we all gotten our memories back?” Kyle finally broke the silence. Eric figured it would be him. He was their alpha and pseudo-leader, after all.

  “Yes,” Tony said. “I have.”

  They both looked at Eric. He shrugged his shoulders. “For what it’s worth, yes. I don’t know how it affects what happened this morning, but yes. I remember.”

  “The last thing I remember was the bubble, or whatever it was that the girls were in, going up in flames and imploding,” Tony said with a grimace. “Is that what you remember too?”

  Kyle cleared his throat and stared at the table top. Of the three of them, he was always the one who was more emotional. “Yes. It knocked us out. The blood…. that explains the blood.”

  “What happened to the rest of their bodies?” Tony asked.

  “What was inside the bubble sucked in on itself or whatever,” Eric said. “Does it matter? Whatever you conjured up with that damn spell did it.”

  “That didn’t wipe our memories,” Kyle said. He looked at each of them in turn. “So do we assume that was Jillian’s doing?”

  “Why? What the fuck does she want, and why is she going after us now?” Eric asked.

  “There’s something going on that we’re not seeing,” Kyle said.

  “You think?” Eric said sarcastically. He caught Kyle’s raised eyebrow. Then he saw Tony’s mouth twist in a grimace. “A girl that we thought has been dead for eighteen years showed up in my bathtub this morning. That alone is one big mindfuck.”

  “How did she end up in your apartment?” Kyle asked.

  Eric didn’t care for his tone at all. “Last night, I had dinner with the leadership team. We were going over the last couple of details for today’s press conference. Afterward, I went to the club. Things get fuzzy after that, but I know that I didn’t kill her.”

  “Nobody said you did,” Tony said in a soothing tone that Eric knew he usually reserved for his patients.

  “Don’t pull that therapist voice out on me. I’m not going to put up with any of that bullshit,” Eric said. Tony might be a world-renowned, well-respected expert on shifter behavior, particularly in the criminal space, but Eric wasn’t in the mood. He needed to figure out how to fix all of it so that it didn’t ruin everything he had worked for. Then he had to decide what he was going to do about Nina. He had been careful with her. No sudden movements, or else she might run again.

  “So maybe you should start with what you do remember about last night,” Kyle said carefully. “If there’s anything that you want to tell us before Maggie joins us, that might be a good idea.”

  Tony gave Kyle a scowl. “She can’t help us if we don’t tell her everything. We can’t keep her out of any details that might be important.”

  “I realize that you trust your mate implicitly,” Kyle started.

  “What the fuck is this?” Eric said as he looked at Tony in astonishment. “No wonder you managed to sweet talk her into being my attorney. Really, Tony? You’ve decided to settle on Maggie O’Hara of all people as your mate? I thought that was just something you were getting out of your system.”

  “Eric, that’s hardly the part that you need to be worried about right now,” Kyle said.

  “First, he brings in the person that I know has been successfully prosecuting shifters in murder cases over the past several years, and then you tell me she’s his mate. This just gets better and better,” Eric said, rubbing his eyes. He could feel his headache coming back. The one positive thing he had taken out of the whole scene that had happened that morning with being hauled downtown was that his headache had completely disappeared. He figured it came from the shock.

  “We can trust her,” Tony said. “She was helping me before, and now she’s helping you. We were digging around into everything at St. Ignacious when Jillian attacked us. She gave me my memories back because she wants something from us. When she did that, she must have given them back to all of us.”

  Eric felt like he was way behind the game. “I feel like we’re playing some kind of game, but I can’t see all of the pieces on the board.”

  “That’s probably the smartest thing you’ve said today,” Kyle said.

  Eric growled at him, and Kyle leaned forward on the table. “Get over yourself. We’re all here to help you.”

  “No, you are here because it affects you too,” Eric said sarcastically. “I’m not getting pinned for this. There’s something going on, and I’m not taking the blame for it while you two walk off scot-free.”

  “Nobody’s going down for anything. This is a set-up,” Tony said. “It has been a slow, methodical build when you look at it. She’s been targeting us for months, one by one. It is the overall unhinging of a crazy mind. Jillian has us right where she wants us, and we aren’t going to be able to do anything about it if we start sniping at each other’s heels. We are in this together, just like we always have been.”

  “What do you mean, a slow build?” Eric asked. He felt like he had been completely in the dark.

  “It started with Kyle seeing hallucinations of Jillian at the club. That was six months ago. Then, someone sent random information to Maggie to try to get her to finger me for what happened back then. When that didn’t work, today you find Jillian’s body in your bathtub. This has been something that I think she has been planning for a very long time,” Tony said.

  Eric couldn’t believe it. “Why? And why now? And if it was Jillian behind all of this, she’s dead now. Remember? So who is the one behind all of this?”

  “You’re asking for logic in an illogical situation,” Tony said. “We’ve made plenty of enemies over the years. Someone could have dug up what happened somehow and is fucking with us.”

  “To this point, it hasn’t been overtly threatening. What happened today feels different. More emotional,” Kyle said.

  “I agree,” Tony said. He nodded, as if he was thinking through something in his mind. “It’s been escalating, and now it appears that it is centered on you.” He pointed at Eric.

  “Lucky me,” Eric said.

  “You have to keep a low profile until we can figure this out,” Kyle said. “There’s too much press around all of this. They’re going to be after you every minute, and, for the time being, we need to put some distance between us.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me? A low profile? I’m about to take my company public. I can’t just disappear.”

  “You still think that’s the best idea?” Tony asked. “I think you should slow down and think about how this impacts all of that.”

  Eric realized that he’d been doing nothing but just thinking minute to minute since the moment he found Jillian in his bathroom. He pulled out his phone. He could see it had been blown up with calls and emails and text messages from his publicist, his personal assistant, and his family. He realized that he was going to have to call Thea. Luckily, she was staying in Minnesota with her new husband and mate. Their half-brother, Alex, was with her because he was out of school for the week. So far, that was the only good timing h
e could see.

  Eric knew that despite his annoyance at Kyle’s suggestion, he was probably right. “I can’t just disappear. I’ll consider what you said. But I need to think about it. I don’t want to make any sudden moves.”

  He heard footsteps coming from the hallway. He looked up and saw Nina’s pale face following behind Maggie. Maggie’s eyes swept over Eric, and the lines around her mouth tightened. He could just imagine what Nina had told her.

  No sudden moves, he had said. When he looked into Nina’s eyes, all of those kinds of thoughts evaporated. He wanted her hard, fast, and now.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  As soon as the door closed behind the three men, leaving them alone, Nina whirled on her friend. “What did you get me involved in?”

  Maggie appeared unfazed by her outburst. “I have to know this story.” She peered into Nina’s face. “You have it bad for him.”

  Nina was upset and frazzled. “There is nothing going on between me and Eric Carmichael.”

  Maggie smiled at her slyly and shook her head. “Obviously.”

  Nina was ready to stomp her foot. She wanted Maggie to take the situation as seriously as she did. “I am out of here if you don’t tell me right now what I’m doing here. Did he ask you to call me?”

  Maggie thumbed her hand at the door. “That look of surprise was purely genuine. He had no idea you are coming. This was all my idea. I had a case, and I needed your help.”

  “Obviously, it’s Eric’s case,” Nina said sullenly. “I don’t think I want to get involved in any of that.”

  Maggie stepped forward and put her hand on Nina’s shoulder. “Look, regardless of how you feel about Eric, this one is right up your alley. I need the best on it. That’s why I called you. I’m sorry if there is some kind of history between the two of you, but you are the one that we need.”

  Nina couldn’t help but be intrigued. She knew that Maggie had multiple sources for being able to dole out investigative work. She should be flattered that Maggie would call her for such a high profile case. But at the same time, it had Eric’s name attached to it. She wasn’t thrilled about that. Maggie gently pushed her toward the couch that they had recently left. “Hear me out. If you’re not interested after that, then you can go. But please, give me a chance.”

  It was against her better judgment, but Nina allowed herself to be maneuvered onto the couch. She crossed her arms over her chest. She wasn’t going to make this easy for Maggie. Not when every part of her body told her to run.

  “What do you mean this case is right up my alley? It seems pretty straightforward. Guy goes out, picks up a girl, takes her back to his apartment, and kills her.”

  “So you know Eric,” Maggie said, ignoring Nina’s diatribe. She was dutifully taking notes as she asked the question. She looked up at Nina then. “Like I’ve already said, I’m just trying to determine if there are any conflicts of interest here. Anything that you produce for me that I would take into the court room, I need to make sure is unbiased.”

  Nina stood up. “I am as biased as they come about Eric. You probably should not work with me then. You don’t want me.”

  “Sit down, Nina.” Maggie gestured towards the cushion. “What, are we back in high school here? This is a purely professional arrangement. I have some work I need you to do, and it’s easy stuff too. You don’t even have to see Eric if you don’t want to. You can work everything through me.”

  Nina sat back down with a huff. She didn’t like the insinuation that she would be anything less than professional. “If I don’t have to see him, I will listen to you. That’s definitely a requirement.”

  “Excellent,” Maggie said. She started to scribble notes again. Then she looked at Nina with an expectant look. “So, how do you know Eric?”

  Nina realized that they weren’t going to get any further unless she gave up something. “You remember that guy I told you about that I dated a while ago? You know, RCB?”

  Maggie’s eyes widened. “Eric is RCB?”

  Nina didn’t like talking about the fact that she had such a high profile ex-boyfriend. It was something that she knew she would get a lot of questions about if she ever even mentioned his name. So she had created an abbreviation for whenever she needed to reference him in conversation. ‘RCB’ stood for Rich Cocky Bastard. Maggie had been incredibly curious about the real identity of RCB, but Nina had managed to keep it under her hat.

  “Yes,” she said. She was reluctant to give any further details now. Maggie knew at least the high-level overview of what had happened in their relationship, if she remembered their drinking pity party sessions at all.

  “So if I remember correctly, you dated RCB, or now we know, Eric, for six months?”

  “Three months,” Nina corrected her.

  “Right, and you thought he was ‘The One’ after such a short amount of time?” Maggie asked.

  Nina was starting to feel like she was the one on trial. “It moved fast because I thought we had a connection. Clearly, I was wrong. I found out that the bastard cheated on me after we had a particularly epic fight.”

  “That’s right,” Maggie said with a grimace. “I don’t know Eric that well, but, he does kind of strike me as that type of guy.”

  The thing was when Nina had been with him, Eric hadn’t seemed like that type of guy.

  “Where did you say you met him?”

  “I didn’t,” Nina said. She heard Maggie’s exasperated sigh, and she realized that it wasn’t worth hiding everything anymore. The problem was she was digging in her past in a way that she didn’t like at all. The memories and feelings that were surfacing were things that she thought she had gotten over a long time ago. It annoyed her that just seeing Eric for two minutes in person was enough for him to get under her skin again.

  “It’s stupid. Not a fairy tale meeting at all. I met him in line at the DMV,” Nina said. “We were both there getting our driver’s licenses renewed. He sat down next to me, and it was obvious that he was so out of place among all of those people. I found out later that it was one task that Eric couldn’t delegate because of the eye test. So he struck up a conversation with me, talking about something random that was on the TV. We ended up talking for like three hours. He asked me out for dinner, and I said yes. It wasn’t the most auspicious meeting, but it was something that I thought was real.” Nina felt like she was exposing the most painful parts of her soul.

  There were so many things that she and Eric were opposites on, but when they had been together, something had clicked. Their relationship had flashed hot and cold, mostly because they would get along, then they would argue, and then they would make up. It was a cycle they often repeated. The arguments revolved around Nina’s work and Eric’s less than savory business dealings, of which Nina thought she probably only knew the half of it.

  “You never told me that RCB was a shifter,” Maggie said.

  “Is that really relevant to the story? We had a relationship for three months years ago. It didn’t end well. I think he’s an asshole. So if that disqualifies me from being able to work on the case, then I’m sorry that you wasted your time by calling me,” Nina said.

  “No, no. Nobody has wasted anyone’s time here. I just have to be careful how we use you. Before we get started, are there any terms that you’d like to request to make this working arrangement happen given the circumstances?”

  Nina looked at her and thought about it. “Well, for starters, my fee has tripled because of the fact that it has to do with Eric, and I don’t want to do it. So if I’m going to do it, that is the minimum requirement. Then there’s the working only with you thing. I don’t want to see Eric at all.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes, I also need to hear from him that he wants me to work on the case. This isn’t just about how I feel about it. He might also be uncomfortable with the situation, considering he was the one that broke things off with me.”

  Maggie shook her head. “Eric doesn’t get a say in how
this case gets put together.”

  “Eric always had issues about my work and my methods. So you probably want to make sure he is okay with me being on this case.” That stung to have to admit. Eric had not been thrilled about Nina’s choice of work. He had offered many times to hire her full time on the Urban Dwellers staff, but she preferred running her own business, especially since that gave her the latitude to take on the more interesting cases. Those with what she affectionately called the ‘woo woo’ factor.

  “I can’t trust anyone else with this,” Maggie said finally. “I don’t see the fee being an issue. I don’t have any problems with you working everything through me. So if we can have Eric agree that he is comfortable with you being on the case, I would like you to consider it.”

  Nina was tired of talking about this. She wanted to talk about something else that didn’t have to do with Eric, but she realized that wouldn’t be possible given the circumstances. She keyed in on something that Maggie had said earlier. “Okay, I’m listening. Just remember that my fee is non-negotiable. What is it that you want me to do?”

  Maggie pulled a file out of her briefcase. She put it on the table in front of Nina. “It’s simple, like I said. It’s just some simple background checking.”

  Nina was confused. “Surely between your resources and what the Urban Dwellers have at their fingertips, you don’t need me to do any background digging.” She reached over to take the file, but Maggie put her hand on top of it to stop her.

  “The reason I’ve asked you about this is because the person of interest that you’ll be looking into, we believe, might have some… supernatural inclinations.”

  Nina started to laugh. She laughed so hard that Maggie looked at her like she was a crazy person. Nina wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but think that in Eric’s case, karma is a real bitch.” Maggie continued to look confused.