Page 39 of Kidnapping Their Third

“I was, then Mitch called me saying the electrician I hired was threatening to beat him up or even kill him. I took my lunch early to find out what was going on.” Susan ran her eyes appreciatively over Pike. “Imagine my surprise to find you lip-locked with your assistant. Not that I blame you.”

“Pike’s my boyfriend, not my assistant,” Cora said, moving to stand in front of Pike, as if she could hide him from the woman’s admiring gaze.

Susan’s smile widened. “And you brought him on a job with you? That’s different.”

Cora liked Susan but the woman was nosy beyond belief. Then she did something really odd. She sniffed, frowned, and addressed Pike. “Does she know?”

Pike moved to stand next to Cora instead of behind her. His earlier embarrassment was gone. Now he was matching Susan’s frown. “Of course she knows. I’d never deceive my mate like that.”

Cora eyed Susan suspiciously. This conversation could only mean one thing, Susan wasn’t as she appeared. “What are you?

“Coyote shifter,” Susan said. “This whole neighborhood is mostly coyotes. We don’t have alphas or a strict pack structure like wolves, but we like to live close to each other.”

Cora pointed to the tenant side of the duplex. “What about him?”

“Human and clueless,” Susan said. “I wanted to rent to a coyote like last time, but no one needed a place. He seemed innocuous.”

“You used the wrong word,” Pike muttered. “I think you meant to say obnoxious.”

Pike surprised a laugh out of Cora while Susan looked both amused and resigned.

“That Mitch guy was getting in my face, so Pike stepped in to make him back off. That’s all,” Cora told her. “No harm done except to Mitch’s fragile ego.”

“The moment I smelled black bear, I knew Mitch must have overstepped,” Susan assured her, then looked at Pike. “You guys don’t get aggressive except for when it comes to cubs and mates. Congratulations to both of you.”

Pike beamed and thanked her, but it made Cora realize how much of a disadvantage she had in this world. Everyone could sense things she couldn’t. Imani told her vampires could see auras, shifters could smell magic, and here she was with nothing but her plain human eyes and nose. It wasn’t fair!

While she was thinking about the inequality, Pike and Susan were chatting. Looking down, she found Pike had tangled their fingers together and she hadn’t even noticed. That must be what it’s like to be in love—you don’t know where you ended, and the other person began. It would be even worse if she agreed to a soul exchange.

The part that scared her the most was how much she wasn’t scared.

***

Pike

The sun was starting to set by the time they finished the last job. Putting Cora’s tools back in Van Guts, Pike marveled that she didn’t murder more of her customers. They’d worked a long day, and it was shocking to find out that Mitch was the least annoying of all of them. He’d been the most threatening, but not the most obnoxious.

The other humans they dealt with insisted on talking to him, even after he’d pointed out that Cora was the one in charge, and he was only there to carry stuff. One elderly man even gotupset when Pike couldn’t answer any of his questions, despite Pike repeatedly explaining that he needed to ask Cora.

“Is it a human thing or a man thing?” he grumped as he slid a compartment box full of small components into its slot. Cora stuck her head into the open door of Van Guts and grinned at him.

“It’s probably both,” she answered, holding out another box.

He shook his head as he took the box and slid it in next to the other one. “How do you put up with it? They talk down to you, they demean you, and that one guy tried to get you to drop your price after you did the work. And that was with me standing there glaring at him. How much worse is it when you’re by yourself?”

“You get used to it, but today was worse than normal,” she said, stepping up into the van. “Don’t worry, more often than not, I get even. I’ve done some stuff that I should probably feel guilty about after someone said shitty things to me.”

Pike was intrigued. He dropped to a crossed knee sitting position on the van floor and pulled her into his lap. “Like what?”

She snuggled into him. “I think those are stories for another time, but I only did it to the really vile ones.”

“Can we do something to this guy?” Pike asked. “Please!”

Cora laughed and kissed the side of his neck. “He wasn’t bad enough to warrant a Cora Curse.”

Ohhhh!” Pike murmured in her ear. “Cora Curse sounds kinda sexy.”

“Stop it, care-bear.” Pushing away from him, Cora got up with a grin and a shake of her head. “Let's get home before Kimble wakes up and comes looking for us.”

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