Free Cats Got Your Tongue (Shifter Squad Six) by Anya Nowlan

women back to those apartments, though.
    “We’re the only ones, huh?” Grim questioned as Grant unlocked the door and Grim tossed his bag in the corner. “Dutch leave already?”
    “His wound was fine; he ran off to watch Disney movies with the podlings,” Grant said with a shrug of his shoulders as they set off again.
    “Jealous?” Grim teased, his blue eyes twinkling with mirth.
    “Maybe,” Grant allowed in a moment of honesty.
    “Yeah? That’s new,” Grim muttered, sounding a bit surprised, but so was Grant.
    “I’m as taken aback as you are, trust me,” Grim grunted as they reached the stairwell, preferring the stairs to the elevators.
    It was an old SEAL thing. Don’t get stuck in a small space if you don’t have to. They hiked down the stairs with swift steps, in peak physical condition as they were, until Grant almost stumbled and fell about three flights lower. He heard a noise, a voice, and it rooted him to the ground.
    “Yo, Grant, watch your freaking step, man,” Grim said with a laugh, but he hushed immediately.
    The two men stared at one another, eyes wide with surprise as a very familiar, very lovey sound wafted into their ears.
    “Are you hearing what I’m hearing?” Grant asked, the hair on the back of his neck standing up.
    “Fuck yes,” Grim growled, his eyes glancing up and down, trying to distinguish where the noise was coming from. “Up,” he said, and he burst into movement, practically flying up the stairs with Grant in tow.
    It can’t be, Grant thought feverishly. She disappeared on us. And why would she be in The Firm’s designated hellhole?
    But that didn’t make his feet stop. The Aldroch brothers burst into the corridor that opened up on the fourth floor, Grim a couple of paces ahead, running toward the faint noise. Grant caught up with his faster sibling only when Grim’s steps ground almost to a stop, stalking rather than walking now.
    Grim raised a hand, hushing Grant, and he complied with the command. While Grant was a talented medic, he could always trust his brother’s instincts better when it came to hunting down something or someone. The ranger in the family had always been Grim.
    “You get that what you’re asking is fucking impossible, right?! I’d never leave them,” the spirited, animated voice of Kelis came through the slightly open door in front of Grim and Grant.
    Grant could have been knocked over with a feather at that very moment. Grim looked back at him, straightening up, a look of dumb, honest surprise plastered on his face.
    It’s her…
    Before Grant could say anything for or against it, Grim had grabbed the door handle and ripped it open. The moment Grant’s eyes locked with Kelis’s pretty blues, he thought he must have died and gone to heaven, bypassing all that repentance nonsense.
    The mission break had gotten a whole lot more interesting all of a sudden.
     

CHAPTER NINE
    Grim
     
    For the first few seconds, he couldn’t get a word out. There she was, the woman who had both haunted and graced his dreams since the one night they’d spent together. Kelis Murdoch, looking more mouthwatering than ever.
    Her blonde hair was set in a loose braid, hanging off one shoulder, and her curvy physique looked soft and lovely, some of the hard edges of muscle he remembered turned gentler, but that only meant she excited his cougar more. The animal was scratching at him, trying to claw its way out, no doubt to fucking pounce on Kelis where she stood.
    The good thing was, she looked as surprised to see them as Grim was to see her. The bad thing was she scowled at the sight of them, though for the briefest moment he could see the makings of a smile on her lips, before she apparently realized whose presence she was in.
    It was only then that Grim found himself having any attention to spare to the other person in the room. His blood ran cold immediately.
    Spade. Of course it has to be him, he thought, feeling his hands tuck into heavy fists and his