Enigma Read Online Free Page A

shrugged. “Alec never jokes when it comes to this stuff.”
    “And Anna?”
    “What about her?”
    “Have you asked her about this crazy idea?”
    Andrew looked away. “Not yet. Kat thought we should talk to you first.”
    Kat was sweet—and sometimes a meddlesome snoop. “There’s nothing going on with me and Anna. We don’t always get along personally, but that’s never stopped us professionally.”
    “Don’t bullshit me, Patrick.” The wolf leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the table. “I know you’re a pro because you’ve proven it time and time again. Maybe there’s nothing good going on with you and Anna, but even that’s not nothing. Not really.”
    “Look, you’re protective of Anna because the two of you had a thing once upon a time.” A thing Patrick might have been able to get nice and jealous over, if Andrew weren’t around-the-bend crazy in love with Kat. “The woman can take care of herself, okay? She’d eat me alive.”
    “No,” Andrew denied, certain and sure. “She really, really wouldn’t.”
    “She already has, man. That’s why there’s nothing there.” Patrick plastered on his cocky, joking little smile and patted his chest. “Good and broken.”
    The other man frowned. “So is the not-getting-along-personally going to be harder for you than working alone?”
    So much for joking his way out of the conversation. You couldn’t pull that shit on shapeshifters any more than you could Kat and her empathy—and Patrick was getting really fucking tired of these people and their impossible, unavoidable caring . In the real world, people got what they could out of you and left it alone. No long, tortured discussions about his feelings.
    New Orleans wasn’t the real world. It was the supernatural Brady Bunch, and it was making him claustrophobic. “Lighten up, Andrew. If you don’t trust me, ask your girlfriend. She can tell you I’m fine.”
    “I already did that.”
    Shit. “And she said…?”
    “She said you seem fine, all things considered. But you haven’t been out pounding the pavement with a lady who hates you yet, either.”
    That made him flinch. “If it comes to that, I’ll do what needs doing. First we’ve got to get Julio married off.” Which should give him plenty of time to force the issue with Anna, one way or another, while they were trapped in a hotel together for twenty-four liquor-soaked hours.
    “Fair enough, but watch yourself.” Andrew rose. “There are people who’d eat you for hurting Anna. The bride-to-be, for starters. Sera’s fiercely protective.”
    “I see.” It explained the edge that sometimes accompanied Sera’s overly forceful friendliness. For a sweet little submissive shapeshifter, the girl could throw some pointed looks. “That’d be awkward for the groom, I guess.”
    “Maybe.” He retrieved a beer from the refrigerator and tossed it to Patrick. “I’m not trying to tell you how to live, man. All I’m saying is…I’ve been there. I’ve been the jackass who broke a girl’s heart. It’s lonely.”
    An unalienable fact. It settled in his gut, the reminder that the only person in the world who had really known him was gone. “They’re her people, not mine. You’re her people. I know how it works.”
    There was only one thing Andrew could say, one thing written all over his face. “I’m sorry.”
    “I know.” Patrick twisted the cap off his beer and raised it. “I don’t want to break her heart. For her sake, and Julio’s and Sera’s sakes, and for the future of the little covert agency Kat’s trying to start. I promise to do my best to play nice this week.”
    Andrew drained his beer and changed the subject. “How’s your back?”
    Another unwelcome topic. Patrick shifted in his chair and winced at the slight tug. His scarred skin still didn’t move the same way, might not feel right for years, but at least he could answer honestly. “Better. Healed, according to the doctors. Most of the real