Mine for Eternity [Council Enforcers] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 2

  She thought about the night it all started. She had just gotten off work and locked up for the night. Normally she got off before dark, but that night Tammy, her replacement, had called in sick. Tessa covered for her because she could always use the extra money. The night was warm, so Tessa thought nothing of walking the four blocks to her apartment. The screams were what drew her attention as she walked past a small stand of trees surrounding the park she frequented with her son. The image of a man bent over a woman with blood dripping from his mouth and fingers was the first thing she saw. It was her turn to scream when she looked down to see a woman lying in the grass with her chest and stomach ripped open. Tessa didn’t think after that. She just turned and ran as fast as she could until she was safely inside her apartment.

  “Here, go ahead and eat this because you look like you’re about to pass out.” Mitch slid a plate in front of her.

  Tessa had been so lost in memory that she hadn’t even seen Mitch come over. She looked over and was surprised to see Nico happily munching on a piece of bacon. She had to give it to the kid. No matter what she had put him through these past two weeks by dragging him around, he was still the same happy kid that he had always been. She wished she could go back and be just as oblivious to the dangers in the world as he was. Unfortunately for her, she would never forget the image of the dead woman seared into her brain. She would also never forget what else she saw that night. Something she had never even told the police. They already thought she was crazy. If she had told them what else she saw, they would have surely thrown her in the nuthouse and taken her son away from her. No, she would never tell another living soul. She was going to try her best to forget about it herself. At least she would pretend she would.

  Chapter 2

  “This is good. Thank you.” The simple meal of bacon, eggs, and toast had to be the best thing Tessa had eaten in what seemed like forever. Nico seemed to be enjoying his meal as well, judging by the fact that he had already finished his bacon and eggs and was almost done with his toast. Without thinking, she grabbed her last two pieces of bacon and a slice of toast and put them on his plate.

  “No,” Mitch grunted. He stood with an angry look on his face and headed over to the stove.

  She had no idea what his problem was, so Tessa ignored him and watched Nico as he ate. She wanted to make sure he got enough to eat because she had no idea when they would get a meal this good again. They were down to their last little bit of money, and it wasn’t like she had a way of making any more. Tessa’s head hurt just thinking about it.

  “Eat,” Mitch said, setting another full plate of food in front of her. “There’s plenty more where that came from.”

  “Why are you angry?” Tessa wasn’t sure what she had done in the past few minutes that seemed to piss the man off, but she could tell he was very unhappy at the moment. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him “thank you for the meal” and to gather their belongings and leave, but Mitch spoke before she could say anything.

  “You do that a lot, don’t you? How long has it been since you’ve eaten a full meal without giving half of it to you son?”

  Sharing with Nico was something that came naturally to Tessa. It didn’t even register that she was doing it anymore. All she cared was the he got enough to eat, and if that meant she had to go without to make that happen, then that was her problem. She could feel her anger spike. How dare Mitch think he deserved the right to say anything about how she took care of her son? He was a stranger to them and nothing more. “Look, we appreciate everything you’ve done for us, but we’ll be on our way now.”

  “Wait. Just wait.” Mitch stood with his hands out. “I didn’t mean any harm. I wasn’t judging you. I just meant it wasn’t hard to see that you guys haven’t been eating properly. I can tell that you’re obviously running from something by the way you keep trying to dash toward the exit every ten minutes, but I meant what I said. No harm will come to you here. You and your son can stay as long as you need. I give you my word that the both of you are safe.”

  Could she trust the word of a stranger? Mitch had been nothing but kind to them since they had broken in, but it was only a matter of time before whatever was chasing them caught up to her and Nico again. She didn’t want to put Mitch in danger, but then again, he did have a real-life lion protecting his home. Maybe she and Nico could stay just for the night. A good night’s sleep would do them some good, and they could get a fresh start in the morning. Tessa’s decision was cemented when she looked over at Nico. The poor boy had fallen asleep sitting up. He was in danger of getting a face full of eggs if his head drooped any further.

  “Okay, if it’s all right with you, then we will stay for the night.”

  “Just finish your food, we’ll talk about everything else later,” Mitch ordered.

  Tessa stared at Mitch as she shoveled the last of her eggs into her mouth. She hoped she wasn’t putting her trust in the wrong person. There was just something about him, though, that made her feel safe and protected. She didn’t think those were feelings she would ever feel again, but Mitch made her feel them just by being at her side for a little while.

  “Thank you, Mitch, for everything. I will pay you back. I promise.” Tessa stood to clear the table. It was the least she could do since he had cooked for them, but Mitch stopped her by wrapping his large hand around her wrist. Sparks surged up her arm from his touch. She wanted to moan at the heat coming from his firm grip, but she pulled her arm away instead. She looked up at Mitch to see if he felt anything, but he was already heading around the table toward Nico.

  “No need to thank me. I’ll clean this up later. Come on and I will show you where you two can get some sleep.”

  Mitch lifted Nico out of the chair and started out of the kitchen. Tessa had to bite her lip to hold her protest back. She didn’t want to sound like a bitch after everything he had done for them, but she wasn’t used to anyone taking care of her son but her. It had been just the two of them since she had found out she was pregnant with him, and it was hard to stand by and watch someone else do her job. Tessa somehow managed to keep her mouth shut and followed closely behind Mitch. Her eyes darted left and right as he led them back up the stairs and into a different bedroom from the one they had been in earlier. She was definitely glad of that.

  “This is the guest bedroom,” Mitch said as if reading her mind. “No one uses it, but you should still be able to find everything you need in here. The bathroom is through there.” He pointed after he had laid Nico on the bed and stepped back.

  “I can’t thank you enough for all of this. We’ll be out of your way in the morning.”

  “Can you do me one favor?” Mitch asked. “Just promise me you won’t run out in the morning without letting me know you’re leaving.”

  Damn. How did he know that was exactly what she was planning to do? Tessa could feel her cheeks heating as she blushed. “Okay,” she agreed. Mitch had already done so much for them without asking for anything in return. Letting him know when she was leaving was the least she could do.

  Seeming satisfied, Mitch left the room, closing the door behind him. Tessa quickly went over and flipped the lock. She may have been willing to trust Mitch, but she wasn’t going to be stupid about it. Plus, she wasn’t going to make it easy for Simba to sneak in and have himself a midnight snack.

  In all the confusion, Nico hadn’t been able to take a shower, so she went into the bathroom and soaped up a washcloth. Tessa cleaned him up as best she could without waking him. Once that was done, she crawled into bed and curled around her son. As she drifted off to sleep, Tessa thought about Mitch. She had meant to ask him about his choice in pet but never got the chance. He had obviously locked the lion in his room because she hadn’t seen it since she ran out of there naked and screaming, and she hoped it stayed wherever it was.

  Thinking of herself naked reminded her of how Mitch had looked at her. Tessa shivered thinking of how the man’s eyes traced every inch of her body. T
oo bad she was leaving in the morning. Her last thought was how she wanted to run her fingers through his wild, golden hair to see if it was as soft and silky as it looked.

  * * * *

  Mitch heard the lock click on the bedroom door and smiled. His mate was something else. Not only was she beautiful with the same ice-blue eyes and black hair her son had, but his mate had inner strength that called to him. He had seen her temper several times so far, mostly when she was protecting her son. She was like a momma bear with her back up, ready to charge at anyone she felt was a threat to Nico. It was a definite turn-on to him and made him want to throw her across the kitchen table and claim her right then and there. His gums and teeth itched just thinking about sinking them into her shoulder and cementing their bond.

  Too bad she didn’t know that she was no longer in charge of protecting Nico. Since Tessa was his mate, that automatically made Nico his cub. Both their protection and safety were now his responsibility. He had a bad feeling Tessa would fight him on that point, but he didn’t care. It was one issue he wouldn’t back down from.

  Mitch headed back downstairs and grabbed Tessa’s bags from the kitchen. He should have felt guilty for going through her things, but he didn’t. His mate was tight lipped about who she was running from, so he was going to find out the answers on his own. He was glad his mate had literally walked right into his life, but she wouldn’t have been on the run if someone wasn’t threatening her, so Mitch needed to find out who it was and eliminate the problem.

  He went through both bags noticing there was nothing but a few sets of dirty clothes between them and a few pictures. He gritted his teeth when he only found twenty-seven dollars, knowing Tessa wouldn’t have made it much farther. There was no way he was letting her leave, so the little bit of cash she had was no longer a problem. Once he had Tessa’s ID, Mitch headed to his office. Working as an enforcer, he had made a lot of contacts. Contacts that owed him a lot of favors. He planned to call in a few of those favors to find out everything he needed to know about his mate. He started first with his contact who worked at the police precinct closest to the address listed on Tessa’s driver’s license. The man was human, but his mate was a shifter who Mitch had saved from a member of her old pack who had become obsessed with her. He thought of his mate as he waited for the other line to pick up. According to her address, she was from a suburb of Chicago. If that was where she had run from, then she was a long way from home. He lived about thirty miles outside of Flagstaff, which meant that she had run halfway across the country.

  “This is Detective Reynolds,” the man announced when the line picked up.

  “Hey, Detective, this is Enforcer Ericson.” Mitch used the enforcer title to let the man know this wasn’t a social call. He knew enforcers were feared. They were the boogeymen that parents told their kids about to keep them in line. No one wanted a visit from an enforcer because, nine times out of ten, it meant instant death. It was a lonely life, but Mitch took his job seriously. He did it to protect his race, to keep their secret from getting out. They were judge, jury, and executioners all in one. The gasp of breath and quiver he could hear in the detective’s voice proved his point. Evidently the man’s wife had clued him in on the shifter world.

  “How can I help you, sir?”

  “I need some information on a Tessa Palmer. Her last known address is in that area.” He could hear the detective typing as he spoke.

  “I have a Tessa Palmer, age twenty-three, listed as missing along with her son, Nico Palmer, age two,” the detective read.

  “Does it say how long she has been missing or who reported her?”

  “Yes, it looks like she has been missing a little over two weeks. It was reported by her employer when she didn’t call or show up for work for a couple of days. Also—oh no.”

  “Also what?” Mitch didn’t like the pause he heard. He had a feeling whatever he heard next wouldn’t be good.

  “It says Tessa called in a murder at a park near her home one night before she disappeared. She said she saw a man ripping a woman’s chest open. The case had been flagged as one of ours, and a cleanup crew was sent to check it out. Tessa was informed that there was no body or blood found at the scene and she must have imagined things since it had been so late at night and she was walking home by herself.”

  “So you’re telling me she watched a rogue kill a woman and she was told that she must have imagined it because she was spooked?” Mitch could feel his fangs dropping and his claws lengthening at the thought of his mate coming into contact with a rogue.

  “Yes, sir,” the detective squeaked.

  “Was the rogue caught? For that matter, why wasn’t Tessa being monitored?” Whenever humans came across a rogue shifter, they were supposed to be watched to make sure they didn’t go telling everyone what they saw. If they did, then they were quickly dealt with. Tessa should have never made it out of the city if she was being monitored.

  “This was all reported to the council, sir. We did everything we were supposed to do on our end. I can tell you this isn’t the first attack we’ve had to deal with. Over the past three months we’ve had to send out containment units for over thirty rogue attacks, and it seems like it’s getting worse every day. It’s getting harder and harder to cover up everything.”

  That stunned Mitch. Why was he just now hearing about this? Even though Chicago was out of his territory, he should have still heard something if they were having that many attacks. Something was going on, and he didn’t like it one bit. “Was Tessa’s rogue ever caught?”

  “There is nothing here to indicate that it was.”

  “Thank you, Detective.” Mitch hung up before the man could respond. He logged onto the secure council website and tried to pull up Tessa’s case file. If she was witness to a rogue attack then she should have had one, but just as Mitch suspected, there was no trace of her. He tried to pull up any case files for the territory that she lived in but was met with the same issue, none existed.

  Mitch sat back, frowning. There should have been at least thirty files according to Detective Reynolds. Anytime a containment unit was sent out, a file was started. It wasn’t closed until the rogue was caught and handled and they were sure the witness wasn’t going to talk. Then and only then were the files closed and only by an enforcer. Still those files were archived, so he should have been able to pull them up. The fact that none existed completely contradicted the detective.

  Someone was covering for a rogue, and he had a feeling it was an enforcer. He didn’t like what he was thinking, but Mitch knew deep down in his gut that he was right. He just had to do a little more research and figure out who to trust with the information once he found it. The situation needed to be handled carefully and quietly. The fact that an enforcer could turn bad would have the whole shifter society in an uproar. Mitch had three enforcers that he trusted with his life, so once he gathered all his information to present to the council, he would bring them in. He had a feeling they would be hunting one of their own very soon.

  He still had to figure out what to do with Tessa. Mitch had a feeling he knew what was going on. Tessa witnessed a rogue killing a woman and reported it. In normal circumstances, she would have been protected until the rogue was caught, but Tessa hadn’t been and the rogue came after her. She had been smart enough to take her son and run, but Mitch knew she wouldn’t have lasted much longer. Hell, the fact that she had made it halfway across the country without being torn apart was a testament to Tessa’s strength. Once rogues locked onto a scent, they didn’t stop until their prey was caught. Tessa was prey at the moment, so all Mitch had to do was sit back and let the rogue come to him. His problem was going to be figuring out how to keep his little mate from running before that could happen.

  There was nothing Mitch could do but wait. He had his mate and cub safely tucked away upstairs with no plans of letting them out of his sight in the near future. In the meantime, he needed to get to work gathering all the evidence he needed to take
down an enforcer.

  Chapter 3

  Tessa sighed as she turned over and blinked her eyes through the shining sun on her face. She felt relaxed and refreshed after the good night of sleep she had in the soft bed. She hadn’t slept that well since the night before she witnessed a woman being killed, and she had Mitch to thank for that. Tessa shuddered and squeezed her eyes closed trying to block out the memories. Instead, she focused on trying to make herself get up so that she could get her and Nico’s things together to leave.

  She was saddened at the thought of leaving, but if Tessa was honest with herself, she didn’t know if it was because she was leaving the first place she had felt safe since she had started running, or if it was the thought of leaving Mitch. Just thinking of the man sent shivers down her spine. Tessa couldn’t figure out what it was about Mitch, but there was some unexplainable connection drawing her to him. She wondered if it was all one-sided or if he felt the same strange pull as well. Judging by the way he had looked at her the day before, she would have said yes, but it could have been just because she was naked.

  Tessa rubbed her face with her hands and groaned. She didn’t need to be thinking about Mitch. She needed to think about what she was going to do to keep her and Nico safe. She knew they couldn’t keep running forever. It was only a matter of time before whatever was chasing them finally caught up to them. There had already been too many close calls as it was. Tessa feared she was going to have to do the one thing she didn’t want to do and that was find a place to leave Nico. Her heart broke just thinking about it, but that thing was after her, not him. She would die if something were to happen to her son because of her.