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CHAPTER
THREE
NERO
“Uh, yeah.”I wasn’t sure why I was suddenly worried about Felix’s reaction to what I did for a living. I was damn good at my job. The check in my pocket proved it.
“That’s cool.”
I shrugged.
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s okay.” But my tone wasn’t convincing.
“Do you like bodyguarding better?”
“Dunno. This is my first time.”
Felix laughed. “Well, I think you’re doing a pretty good job so far.”
“It’s been less than an hour.”
I felt Felix smile and glanced his way, taking my eyes off the road for a second. He was beautiful—dark skin, dark eyes behind tortoiseshell glasses, full lips that begged to be kissed. He looked like the genius he was. I wasn’t a computer guy, and I was generally pretty impressed by anyone who was. My youngest brother kept all my electronics up to date and made sure I was at the bare minimum making an attempt to live in this century.
“How did you end up working for the SPD?”
Felix turned in his seat, but this time, I didn’t take my eyes off the road. “McMahon didn’t tell you?”
“No. He just told me you were in trouble. He’s usually pretty stingy with the details. Kind of his MO.”
A sigh shifted the air between us. “The short answer… I fell for the wrong guy.”
Killer whale shifters were big believers in fated mates, and I’d been told stories about how my grandparents were fated and how hard it had been for my grandmother when my grandfather died. He was gone before I was born, but my grandmother spoke about him like he was going to walk back through the door any minute. And maybe he would. Maybe he did. Killer whale shifters also believed the spirits of our ancestors walked among us until they were reincarnated in a future generation. This was especially true for the spirit of an orca’s fated mate. I’d caught my grandmother talking to my grandfather more than once, and I had to believe even death couldn’t tear him from her side. He was supposed to be the one who was there to take her to the next world when it was her time to go.
So was I surprised when Felix had revealed that he thought we were fated mates? No, not really. I’d felt something click into place the first second I saw him and caught his scent, something that made me feel like even if we could no longer physically be together, his spirit would stay with mine. And for the first time, I understood what my grandmother had meant.
When I was younger, I used to look for my mate everywhere, and I had a feeling I’d just know when I found them. I knew Felix was it for me.
But I didn’t like thinking about him “falling” for someone else. Not at all. It made me feel like I was swimming in water that was too warm. My skin felt tight and hot, and I had a sudden urge to smash something.
This fated mates thing was no damn joke.
I pulled in a harsh breath and unclenched my fingers from around the steering wheel, which was creaking under the pressure of my grip. A light grasp of fingers around my forearm and the shock of recognition of Felix’s touch and heat that came with it did more to pull me back from the edge of rage than my deep breathing had.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Felix’s voice went even further to cut through the haze.
“You didn’t.” My words were ground out through clenched teeth.
“No, I should have known bringing up my asshole ex would piss you off.”
I pulled my shoulders up to my ears, then relaxed them, feeling just a little bit calmer. When I was more or less sure I wasn’t going to crack a molar, I asked, “So what did the fuckwad do?”
Felix squeezed my arm again, then let go. “He told me he forgot his password for the company server while we were away for a long weekend and the offices were closed, and I hacked the system to reset it for him. I also helped him find some client files he’d misplaced. Turns out I was helping him move money around to fund a Ponzi scheme.”
I was seeing red again.
“Just to be clear, he’s serving fifty years in federal prison.”
