Free Eye of the Tiger by Crissy Smith

bag.
    Logan’s hand came down on his shoulder. “Trust me. After our little ragtag friends cause enough trouble, Mike is going to step in and calm everything down. Work his way inside where he’ll have first-hand knowledge of all the workings. When the time is right, he’ll run for office until he becomes our president.”
    Out of all the many ways that Zak saw this going, he admitted that he hadn’t seen the big picture. Smiling, he sidestepped away from Logan before bending to pick up his bag. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
    Logan turned to lead the way.
    “You still didn’t say where we’re going,” Zak pointed out.
    Grinning, Logan lifted an eyebrow. “I didn’t, did I?”
    Fuck . Zak really wanted to punch the guy. Instead, like a good little solider, he followed behind. Signs of the others were all around the first floor. Boxes, bags and backpacks lined the hallway.
    Just as Zak stepped off the stairs, a few of the guys came around the corner.
    “Hey!” Pete greeted.
    “We’re finally getting in on the action!” Seth yelled.
    “Hell yeah,” Zak agreed with as much enthusiasm as he could muster.
    He high-fived the two men before catching Logan’s wave. “I gotta run.”
    There was more noise coming from outside the old farmhouse. The morning light was soft as the sunrise hadn’t been too long ago but that didn’t stop the excited chatter. If Zak didn’t know that these men were stone-cold killers and dangerous, he would have laughed. Some of the younger men were actually bouncing around like they were headed off to summer camp or some shit like that.
    “They needed the break but now that we have the Feds out of our hair, we can give them their duties. No one’s going to stop us now,” Logan said from his side.
    I am. He would take them all down and make certain they never tasted the air of freedom again. Shifters didn’t do well in prison but if anyone deserved to suffer, it was this group. Zak tried to shake off his mood. In his line of work, he always met the worst sort of people and usually he would wrap up his case and move on. He wasn’t sure why this time was so different.
    It could be the sad teenagers he’d run across that had only been looking for a place to belong or the humans that got caught in the middle of a human and shifter war that hadn’t even known. Now he had another reason to add to taking down the SIP. He would get back at them for Luca too.
    Zak hadn’t had the time to go out into the field where he’d supposedly left Luca’s corpse. Logan hadn’t let him. Guilt still clawed at him. What if Luca hadn’t made his escape? Could he be dead? Or worse, lying in the grass bleeding to death?
    Shivering, he stomped down the rickety stairs. He might not be able to run away from himself but he could get some distance from Logan.
    He wanted to shift. For the first time in over ten years, Zak craved stripping off his clothes and letting the animal take over for him. He was just so damn tired. If he could let go, just for a little while, maybe he could his head on straight.
    Even knowing he wouldn’t, it did feel good to imagine letting his tiger play. He could shift and tear apart several of the men, including Logan, before anyone knew what had hit them. His tiger craved blood, and Zak actually found himself shaking with need.
    The sound of sirens jerked him from his fantasy.
    He dropped his bag before spinning around to see what was going on. Two big black SUVs were barreling down the dirt road at them.
    “What the fuck?” Logan exclaimed, racing toward Zak. “We have to get out of here.”
    Nodding, Zak scooped up his bag, but before he could move toward Logan, two sheriff’s vehicles came into view from behind them. They were being surrounded.
    Barely able to contain his excitement, Zak glanced over at Logan.
    Logan had an expression of pure rage on his face as he stared out the agents that had now reached them. There was yelling from the men around the yard,