Shifter Wars by A. E. Jones Read Free Book Online

the old van. When I opened the door leading to the office, I had a weird sense of déjà vu . Dolly was manning the front desk, and she did a double-take when she saw me.
    “Kyle!”
    “Hey, Dolly.”
    “Nice of you to blow into town again.”
    This was Dolly’s version of a warm welcome. She was tall, sleek, and beautiful—better suited to a photo shoot than a desk. And she was remote, not letting many get close to her.
    “Someone has to take care of business around here,” I said.
    She smiled. “Well maybe you can rein them in again. Now I’m having to deal with three ridiculous alpha males. And they hired a norm to replace you. I don’t know if I have much confidence in him, yet.”
    Jason chuckled. “Hel-loooo, I’m standing right here.”
    Dolly’s teasing eyes changed to concern when she looked at him. “You’re hurt!”
    “I’m fine. Just a few stitches, although I do have a headache.”
    Dolly stood. “Let me get you some aspirin.”
    I watched the interplay in awe. Dolly was clucking over Jason. I had never seen Dolly cluck over anyone before. Maybe she liked him? The idea threw me for a loop. It had never occurred to me that Dolly would be interested in a normal. To her, humans were fun, but not her cup of tea, relationship-wise.
    I meandered around the desk into the back office area and was not surprised to find the seventies décor still intact. The faux almond-colored table was littered with food wrappers and empty pizza boxes. And the lime green sofa had several stacks of manila file folders piled high on it.
    Jason walked in behind me. “Wow, I forgot we left it this way.” He grabbed the garbage can from the kitchen area and walked around the table, chucking the junk into it. “Misha and I were about to finish transferring the paper files to electronic storage when we got the call about Trina.”
    “We’ve been talking about getting rid of the paper files for a while now. How did you convince Misha to finally do it?”
    “We’re going to convert the old file room to an area for me to work.”
    I raised my eyebrows at him. “Why didn’t you just move into my old office?”
    Jason jerked his head in my direction. “No way. It’s your office. We agreed you would be back and bitching up a storm if you found me in your space.”
    I choked up a little bit and cleared my throat before continuing, “Well, I’m going to check to see if Griffin sent us the file on the poacher.” I escaped to my office. It looked the same, except the files I had left piled on my desk were gone. Hopefully they had been scanned along with the rest of them.
    I plopped down into my chair and sighed. I hadn’t been sure I would ever be back here again. I powered up the laptop and checked the office email. No file yet. I opened an Internet page and did a search for Dalton’s name, but there were no new articles. As soon as I started admonishing myself for being pathetic, the computer beeped. We had an email from Griffin Enterprises. I opened the attachment and reviewed it.
    “You look as though you never left.”
    I jumped and gasped. “Damn, Jean Luc, I forgot about your sneaky vamp skills. One of these days, my heart’s going to stop, and then you won’t be so funny.”
    He stood in the doorway, smiling. Which in itself was an event. Jean Luc was very laid back and didn’t show many emotions. He took a step in and shut the door.
    “How are you really doing, mon amie ?”
    I studied him for a second. Jean Luc didn’t tolerate bull, so I decided to be honest, up to a point. “It’s been hard. But it’s getting better. I needed to get away from here and clear my head.”
    “Did it help?”
    “I think it was good I didn’t have to deal with the supernatural for a while, yes.” I tapped my fingers on the desk. Time to change the subject. “Guess who I met while I was in Mesquite?”
    Jean Luc watched me silently.
    “Talia. She works for Nicholas in Vegas. She is quite interesting and