Bad Cat Baby Blues (Shifter Squad Six 3) by Anya Nowlan

business.”
    “I swear, Ari, I don’t give a flying fuck. I need to find this kid and I’m going to do it with or without your help. I came here because Connor told me I had to play nice. I think I’m done playing nice,” he snarled, his temper flaring like it never did.
    He burst into movement, brushing past her on his way to the door, more than ready to drink or punch this night out of his memory, along with everything that had anything to do with Spade or Ari. She caught him by the arm at the last second, when his hand was already on the door handle. Her touch sent a fireball of need blazing through him, and it was everything he could do to keep from grabbing her, pinning her against the wall, and kissing that scowling look off her gorgeous face.
    “Wait! Christ, Dutch, okay, I get it. Could you wait for a moment? In the other room? I’ll call the office, talk things through,” she said, her voice softening.
    Dutch gave her a hard look, his eyes flicking down to her hand on his arm. Gasping a little, she pulled it away from him like she’d gotten bitten by a stray dog. The sound traveled straight into his gut. He wanted nothing more than to stay there with her, but he couldn’t shake the look she’d given him before, or the way she flinched around him.
    Shaking his head, he pushed down the door handle. “Take all the time you need, Ari. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
    He didn’t stay to see the next look she gave him, instead stepping out and slamming the door shut behind him. A drink or a bar fight wasn’t going to be enough to shake this hard lump at the pit of his stomach. At the very least, he needed both. Right now.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    Ari
     
    Ariadne was in a state of flux that was hard to put into words. It was bad enough that she’d let Spade bully her into taking the op, but it was ten times as bad now with Dutch in the mix. She’d just started feeling somewhat comfortable with the job itself, getting back into the groove of things and enjoying the shot of adrenaline every time she found out something she bet Soyo didn’t want anyone knowing, but all that excitement had gone up in a puff of smoke the moment Dutch walked in through the door.
    So there she was now, waiting for him to show up the day after his abrupt entrance, her heart trying to rip itself apart in a loud and incessant argument with her brain. She’d treated him like he was some kind of an animal the day before, mental images of the man in Spade’s story dancing in her head. But he’d been so hurt by her reaction, so raw and vulnerable that her heart maintained that Spade had to be full of shit. Or even if he wasn’t, a man had the right to be upset when his girl cheated on him, right?
    Not upset enough to blow out someone’s kneecaps, she reminded herself dully for about the twentieth time that day.
    His scent still lingered in her thoughts, and the way his muscled, bulging bicep had felt when she’d touched his arm sent jitters of excitement through her. It was damn hard keeping her wits about her and it got harder still the more she thought about him. But he had monopolized her thoughts for the day and there seemed to be no way around it.
    Ari had hoped that a call to Spade’s office would clear the whole thing up. They’d admit that there had been a mistake, even though she recognized Carter’s name from the file dealing with the agents that had worked on the case so far, and Dutch would be out of her hair. Not that she thought that to be a likely outcome, now that her brain was thudding to the beat of his existence again.
    When he barged through the door again, it being close to eight in the evening and her research space devoid of any of the other agents working the op just like the night before, she let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. Seeing him, it was like a metal vise was spun loose around her lungs and she could finally heave in air again. Despite her head screaming at her to be afraid, to be very