The Alpha Heist: Paranormal Shifter Romance

Chapter Two

One Week Later

Eagle Creek, Colorado had two dingy motels and one restaurant that Mel felt safe enough eating at. It wasn't the clientele she was concerned about - it was the food. And she'd been known to eat her kills bloody when she ran as a cat. But a woman in human skin had to have some standards. Krista and Bob were already at their table. It was the one in the furthest corner, on the opposite side of the room from both the bar and the bathroom.

The Eagle Creek Bar and Grille – the second E, of course, made the place classy – was a small affair. Perhaps twenty tables and a sturdy bar fitted with a dozen stools. It could accommodate the residents of the town just fine, but the campers who tromped through on their way up into the mountains would probably not see the charm. Mel didn't see it herself either, but it was better than microwaved ramen from the gas station.

At seven on a Tuesday night the place was crowded. All but one table were full and the waitresses all bustled around, serving drinks and slinging food like nobody's business. From the back and forth with the customers, all of those waitresses had worked here for some time and many of the customers were regulars. In a town this size, they'd have to be.

The gruff man behind the bar was a shapeshifter, probably a cat. And if Mel had to guess, so was the family of four at the table closest to the window. But both children were pre-shift. Almost no shapeshifters were hit by the change until they were well into their teens. But the parents weren't mates. Not if the father's eyes glued to her own chest were any indication.

Everyone else was human. She could tell by looking. With the perfume she wore, it was impossible to distinguish by scent. A handicap, but worth it since it would make it difficult for the pack here to tell that she was a shapeshifter. Cash register at the front, safe probably kept in back, maybe bolted to the floor if they were smart. She could clear them out of a few grand in minutes, but it wasn't worth it. Not when they'd be in town for weeks and had plenty of cash to burn.

She saw Krista huff impatiently, her arms crossing in front of her. The woman embodied the word pixie. Barely five feet tall with short, spiky brown hair and skin that practically glowed bronze, she looked like some sort of punk forest nymph. And knowing exactly how hard she could punch, Mel knew she'd never tell the woman that.

Bob, on the other hand, was... Bob. They'd worked a couple of jobs together before she went on her own, and he was the first call she made once she needed a team for herself. But if someone asked her to describe him, even while she was looking straight at him, she couldn't. He was a man, with brown, or was it black, maybe blond hair, and eyes... the eyes were where they belonged, along with a nose and mouth. She thought his skin was dark, but couldn't quite describe the tone. It had to be a perception spell, but she never felt that pinprick of magic that any normal witch gave off. But when it came down to it, she always knew he was Bob and that he was there for her. Nothing else needed in her book.

She slid into the booth opposite her partners. At her nod, Krista activated a sound deflecting ward. It would distort everything they said so that no one around them could understand the substance of their conversation, but they'd still hear the murmur of their voices. No one ever questioned it and the magic was so subtle that not even Mel, with her highly attuned senses, could get a fix on it.

"So, why did you want us here?" Krista asked. "I thought teamwork wasn't your game anymore." There was an edge to her voice, and Mel knew it was warranted.

"Tina brought me the job." Krista's eyebrows shot up even as her lip curled, so Mel continued. "And there's no way in hell I can do it alone. I don't trust anyone more than the two of you to help me get this done."

"The Scarlet Emerald?" Bob asked, his voice as even as ever. "Do you think I have a death wish, Kitty?"

Mel's hand fisted at the nickname. He must have been really pissed off. "Yes. And in payment you can have any item from my collection you want. One each." She'd split her stash in half and give it all away for a shot at Ava. But it didn't need to come to that.