Page 2 of Guarding the Athlete
My fear was confirmed when we went into the bedroom. Someone had made the bed. I never made the bed, much to my mother’s annoyance when I was a kid. I stepped closer and saw that there was a stuffed animal on the pillow. A pink bear wearing a spiked collar and a leather vest, like he was doing a BDSM scene. His eyes were torn out, hanging by a thread.
Fear clogged my throat, but I pushed past it to tell the cops about the bear. They took pictures, then bagged up the bear in an evidence bag, but I doubted that they could do anything about it.
“Do you have some place to stay tonight ma’am?” the cop asked. “Since we don’t know how they accessed your apartment, it’s probably best you don’t stay here until you can get the locks changed, maybe get a security system.”
“Yeah, I can stay at my parents’ house,” I said.
I wasn’t too proud to run home to Mom and Dad. Hopefully they would know what to do.
“Would you mind waiting for me to pack and walking me to my car?”
Cassie
My fangs descended as Bella punched me in the face, making my head snap to the side.
“Damn it, Bella!” I growled. “Watch the nose! The doctor said they can’t keep re-setting it.”
My friend and coworker bounced on her toes, a shit-eating grin on her face. “I can’t help it if you have a delicate nose and slow reflexes.”
I growled low in my throat and told my inner demon to settle down. She was already ready to come out and fight. It was only through years of practice that I was able to keep her under control.
“Pavlovski! Weatherby!”
We both jumped as our boss bellowed at us from the other side of the gym. As usual Lois was dressed in a tight white tank, black tactical pants, and boots, her hair cut short in a spiky crew cut kind of thing. She was tall and broad and built like a tank, the exact opposite of her mate who was a petite and very girlie femme.
“Clean up and get to the conference room,” Lois ordered. “Now! We just caught a new case.”
“Yes ma’am,” we responded in unison.
As much as my vamp hated being told what to do, even she knew better than to cross the wolf shifter who was our boss. I’d seen grown men piss themselves with just a look from Lois. She didn’t even need to wolf out to scare people.
Not wanting to draw Lois’s ire, we made quick work of unwrapping our hands and washing up. We were both in workout clothes, but she wouldn’t care about that, so we didn’t bother to change.
Our boss was sitting at the head of the conference table, and several of our teammates gathered around.
“Thanks for joining us,” Lois said sarcastically, even though it hadn’t even been five minutes since she’d summoned us.
I slid into a chair next to Wanda while Bella took the seat next to Martha.
Bella had been the one to put in a good word for me and Darla, her sister, convincing Lois to give us an interview after we’d both retired from the military. I didn’t know Bella too well before I came to work here at Sapphic Security, but my good friend Darla vouching for me was good enough for Bella to help me out too.
It was a plumb assignment, really. Founded by a group of lesbian shifters who wanted to make their own way after leaving the military, Sapphic Security had quickly grown into one of the most respected security companies in the world. With a few exceptions, nearly every employee was a supe, mostly shifters and vampires, although there were a few other species represented in our ranks.
We specialized in close protection – industry speak for bodyguard work – as well as both on-site security and cyber security. Our clients were mostly the elites who could afford us, like politicians and billionaires and entertainers, but we also had major contracts with a few government agencies.
Sapphic Security had branches in several cities, but most of the vampires ended up at the Seattle office. The dreary weather that lingered here for most of the year suited us just fine. We’d all be parboiling at the LA office, that’s for sure. Not that we turned to dust like they showed on TV shows and movies, but our super fair skin was extremely sensitive to sunlight. Even in Seattle we all wore sunscreen whenever we went outside.
We’d started working here at the same time, but Darla hadn’t lasted too long at the company. Not because she wasn’t good at the job though. Much to our boss’s irritation, she’d found her mate on her very first solo assignment. When the job was over,she accepted a job at the local hospital, where she could both use her military medic experience and work near her mate. It was okay though, I still saw her all the time, and I loved her human mate, Kathryn.
“Let’s get started,” Lois barked.
Yes, barked. Somehow her wolf was always close to the surface. If you looked her in the eye I swear you could see the wolf looking back at you.
“It appears that some asshole is targeting women’s soccer players. Coaches too.”
“Oh, I’ve heard about this,” Wanda said. “A player got pushed onto the train tracks in Chicago and another one had her pet killed, right?”
“Did you want to do the briefing, Diaz?” Lois shouted.
