Free Body Master by C.J. Barry

that simple.
    “Anything I can do to help out with the agency?” Carl asked.
    “You got me this far and that was enough, thanks. I won’t risk you being discovered. Besides, I’m the only one who can find him at this point.” Max watched the bartender watching him. “What you can do is find out what happens to the Shifters that the XCEL teams capture.”
    “The policy is cryogenics,” Carl said with a frown.
    “At the rate they are developing new weapons? I don’t think so. And I seriously doubt they’d put weapons in the hands of XCEL agents unless they’re absolutely positive they’ll work on Shifters.”
    Carl shook his head slowly. “It was only a matter of time before they started experimenting on Shifters.”
    “ Live Shifters,” Max corrected. “And one of them just might be me someday.”
    “I’ll definitely check into that. Not that I can stop it, you realize,” Carl said.
    “At least I’ll know what to watch out for.” Max glared at the bartender until he looked away. “Amazing how much this planet is like Govan. Same small minds, same paranoia, same bullshit.”
    Carl shrugged. “They aren’t all bad.”
    “Right,” Max said. Just the ones he came into contact with. “Doesn’t matter that we try to fit in. Doesn’t matter that we adopt all their million rules. Doesn’t matter that I know more about their history than ninety-nine percent of them. It never changes, Carl. We’ll never be welcomed anywhere.”
    “Ell would have disagreed with you,” Carl said.
    Max stared at his beer bottle. “She was too soft.”
    “She had faith,” Carl corrected.
    And it killed her, Max thought.
    As if reading his mind, Carl asked, “So what are your plans after you catch her killer?”
    Max took a big swig and caught the scent of something else. Then he lost it in the smell of the beer. “Does it matter?”
    “XCEL could still use you. He won’t be the last bad Shifter.”
    “Probably not.” Max pushed his bottle aside and inhaled, just catching a wisp of scent he recognized all too well. Ivory soap. “I have to go.”
    Carl frowned as Max got up and tossed a few bills on the table. “Problem?”
    “Nothing I can’t handle.”
    Carl glanced around and got to his feet. “You sure?”
    Max grinned. “Oh, yes. This one is all mine.”

    Seneca ducked into a storefront doorway after sneaking out of the bar and watched for the two men to exit. This was not what she expected. Who was the guy in the nice suit Dempsey was talking to? In a dump like that? And even worse, the suit was a Shifter. Okay, that wasn’t weird, but she had expected a woman.
    Personal, with a guy in a suit? Didn’t make sense unless Dempsey wasn’t into women. It could be possible. He never said who his date was. Or maybe it was business, which would really piss her off because she hadn’t been invited to the meeting. She peered around the corner at the stairs. No sign of them yet. First thing tomorrow, she was going to see what MacGregor knew—
    A hand clamped over her mouth, and she reacted with an elbow to the gut. She heard a pained oomph , but the hand held and her elbow hurt like hell.
    “You can’t do it, can you? You can’t stay out of trouble.”
    She froze at the voice rasping in her ear. Well, crap. He wasn’t kidding when he said he could pick her out in the city. How the hell was she supposed to spy on him if he always knew she was there?
    Then Dempsey spun her around to face him and pinned her against the brick wall with a hand on each side of her. Even in the darkness, fire burned in his eyes. Anger simmered in his soul.
    No surprise, he wasn’t happy to see her.
    “I was just providing backup,” she said, lying through her teeth.
    He chuckled low, sending a shiver down her spine. He was way too close for comfort, and she tried to slide away from him, but he wasn’t having any of it, boxing her against the wall tightly.
    “Is that right? You think I need a bodyguard?” he said. “Or