Head Hunter (City Shifters the Pack #3) - Layla Nash Page 0,33

disappeared back into her bedroom.

He deserved it. He’d almost expected her to wake up swinging and confront him about being a dick – insisting on sleeping in her bed to protect her, fooling around a little bit, then fleeing like a coward. Dodge figured she’d never been rejected before and it would have been a rude surprise. He waited in the kitchen, though, debating what to do if she hid for the rest of the day. He’d drag her out of there for lunch at the Korean restaurant, then he’d hand her over to the alpha. Done. That was it.

She returned, pastries gone, wearing a semi-fitted jacket that managed to look professional and casual at the same time. “Now what?”

Everything about her screamed challenge. She wanted him to know that she didn’t give a fuck about what happened the night before, and she was ready to fight over it. He didn’t meet her head-on but side-stepped, hoping to deflate some of that rage. “You go about your normal day. What would you usually be doing?”

“Great,” she said. “I would go to work.”

“At the sanctuary?”

“Since your asshole boss didn’t hire me, yes. The sanctuary is my primary place of employment.”

So formal. Dodge wondered why she wasn’t spitting nails at him instead of loaded words. He folded his arms over his chest and leaned back against the shitty cabinets in the kitchen. “Technically you turned down the job. Deirdre wanted to hire you and you ran away.”

Persephone’s eyes narrowed. If she’d been a wolf, she would have torn his throat right out.

Dodge refused to blink or back down. Let her be pissed at him. It was better than her crumpling into a teary mess. He could deal with anger.

The architect gathered her composure and squared her shoulders, fixing him with a withering look. “Technically, they were not forthcoming about the nature of the job. It was a bait and switch.”

That, at least, they agreed on. “You can’t go back to the sanctuary yet.”

“You said I shouldn’t run away like a scared bunny.” She picked up her purse. “So I’m not. I’m going to work. If I didn’t see anything, I wouldn’t be afraid of returning. If I skip work – which I never do – then what does that tell them?”

“Call in sick.” Dodge shook his head. “There aren’t enough people out there to keep them from trying to kill you and make you disappear.”

She exhaled in frustration. “I was just there yesterday. Isn’t calling in sick going to tell them –“

“Call in sick.”

Her hands clenched into fists and she geared up for a hell of a comeback. He didn’t know how or what she intended to say, because before she could give him the piece of her mind, her phone rang. Persephone tensed as she looked at it, then held up the screen so Dodge could see the name: Bridger.

He wanted to break something. It was bad enough the notorious loan shark was somehow behind the animal sanctuary, but that Persephone actually liked the woman added more complications on top of an already volatile situation. Dodge jerked his chin at the phone. “Answer it. See what she wants. Do not reveal you saw anything yesterday. You’re not coming to the sanctuary today. End the call as quickly as you can.”

Persephone’s lips thinned with irritation, but she answered the call and left it on speaker. “Ms. Bridger, good morning. I’ve got you on speaker; I’m getting ready but didn’t want to miss your call.”

A little too much information, but he couldn’t critique the set-up. Dodge held his breath. Bridger was too clever; she hadn’t survived a decade of loaning money and breaking knees to the worst criminal enterprises in the city by being stupid. Or altruistic.

The older woman’s smooth voice, with the familiar cut-glass accent he remembered from his youth in New England, slid out of the phone like a shiv to his ears. “Good morning, dear. You must be running late; we expected you a little while ago.”

Persephone frowned, though she reached out to rattle the grate on the stove, making noise to support her story of getting ready. Dodge wanted to smile and give her a thumb’s up, but didn’t dare distract her from the task at hand. The architect managed to sound flustered and irritated within socially-acceptable levels when speaking with her boss. “I should have left a note. Geordie called me midday yesterday and demanded I spend the afternoon moving a delivery around, and I was supposed to