The Falcon Ridge Series Book 1 She's Not For You

ANNA

My fist hits the already bruised jaw of the one eyed Rogue. Forcing his head to the side. I lean down, forcibly grab his chin and glare in his face.

"TELL ME WHY YOU WERE AT THE BORDER!!" I reach up and grab his hair, pulling his head back.

I've been interrogating this guy for over an hour and am starting to lose my patience. When I lose my patience, blood tends to fly.

I push his head away and he spits his blood on the floor. "I'm not telling you nothing, bitch." He looks at me with his one blood covered eye and grins an ugly, bloody grin.

His wrists twist in the silver laced cuffs that are secured to the chair he's in. One yellow light, lights the matte green interrogation room. There’s a one way mirror on one wall where no one is watching, so I have all the privacy I need in here.

"Fine.” I smirk.

I stand straight and stroll around him. I run my fingers up his good arm, around to his back. I lean to his ear. My lips barely touching his skin. “I have other ways of making you talk.” I say in a sultry tone.

He turns to my eyes and his lip ticks up. “Ya…ya do?” He chuckles nervously.

I slide my hand down his chest. “Oh, yes. I can make you squeal like a pig if you want.”

His head turns to mine again. “Uh…uh, yeah…Yeah, sure…What you got?” His smile gets bigger.

I slide my hand back up his chest and down to his casted arm. He carefully watches me as I stand up and walk to his front.

I pause and the corner of my mouth ticks up as I grab the fingers of his broken arm and bend them backwards with a sneer

He throws his head back and screams in agony.

"ANSWER ME!!" I shout in his disgusting face.

"OKAY! OKAY!!" He bellows to the room. "Fuck...alright!” He desperately pants. “Some guy, okay? He comes into a bar I was at in Delwork. Says he'll pay me if I get some Intel for him." He’s hanging his head and huffing out the pain in his arm.

I stood with my arms folded against my white t-shirt. "What kind of Intel?"

"Like border weakness, numbers…That kind of shit. I needed the cash so I said sure." He rolls a pain filled eye up to me.

"The guy. What'd he look like?"

"Oh, come on. He'll fucking kill me." He’s whines and tilts his head, shaking it. Sweat drips of the ends of his filthy locks.

I slam my hands down on the back of his chair. Shoving my face into his with a snarl. "If you don't tell me what I want to know, I'll fucking kill you first, dick bag.”

"Geez, lady. You sure you're not a dude?" He scrunches his face and juts his head back.

I stood up, smiled at him and backhanded his right cheek. He whines as his head snapped to his side.

His head hung off his shoulder then he raises it to me. "Alright! Fuck! I've never seen him before, but he's got a dragon tattoo on his right arm. Looks weird. Like a crest or something and his eyes were like this light blue. Almost white. He never told me his name, but I'm supposed to meet him tomorrow in Delwork." The guy sat, defeated, chained to his chair.

"You sure about this?" I say.

My wolf is spinning circles. My heart jumped into my throat, but I wasn’t letting him know it.

The description he spouted sent a wave of shivers across my skin.

He glances up at me. "Yeah. You don't forget someone like that."

I walk across the interrogation room, grab my jacket and head for the door.

The rogues eye follows me. "Hey, you're not gonna kill me, right?" His voice dripped with worry.

I turn and shoot him an evil grin. "Once the Dragon Pack hears that you got pinched by us, you'll be begging for death."

"Yo...You aren't gonna tell them, right...Right?" His face was full of panic.

I cackle evilly and leave the room. From down the hall, I could hear him begging and pleading for protection.

I jog up the stairs from the holding area and stop by the showers to grab a towel.

I wipe the rogues blood off my hands as I walk into Drake's office.

Drake is seated behind his desk with River seated in the chair across from him.

My eyes quickly ran up and down him. He’s in a military uniform and it’s so fucking tight in all the right places. He maybe a meat head, but the quick thought of having him naked under me, had me burning where I shouldn’t be right now.

Rivers gorgeous blue eyes meet mine and he immediately stands at attention. "Agent Riker."

I snort. "Relax, soldier." Seeing him so stiff had me feeling a little weird. I’m not used to these guys and their behaviors. I’d take a brawl or loud burp over this.

He goes into a relaxed stance with his hands behind his back, but it's still stiff as a board. Creepy.

Drake looks at my bloody towel. "Please tell me you got something." He leans back in his chair and rubs his forehead.

I leaned against a bookshelf across from the side of Drake's desk and cross my feet, still wiping my fingers. "Oh, I got something, but you're not going to like it." I eye him then check my nails.

"Report." He sighs.

I put my hands down on the bookshelf. "It's the Dragons. Specifically, Karver." I glance between Drake and River.

River raises a brow. "Karver?"

“You sure?” Drake asks as he sits up.

I take the bloody towel, shake it out and fold it into a square. “Pretty sure.” I lay it down on the bookshelf.

River looks at both of us. “Who's Karver?”

Drake pushes out of his chair and walks to a file cabinet. He pulls out a file and walks back to his desk. He tosses it on the desktop in front of River.

"Cole Karver. Mean Son of a bitch. Would sooner kill you than look at ya. We've been hunting this bastard for five years. He's dangerous. He's responsible for the attacks on Helena, Silver Lake and Timber. Killed hundreds. Intel suggests he's the Dragons Beta."

"And I know where he's going to be tomorrow night." I smirk and cross my arms. My eyes meet Rivers again and we kind of have this mini staring contest. Who’s going to look away first.

Drake arches a brow. “The rogue gave you a location?”

Rivera still staring me down.

Damn. He wins. I flick my eyes to Drake. “Yeah. A bar in Delwork.”

River opens a file to show a photo of an evil face. White murderous eyes glare into the camera. He's running his fingers through platinum blonde hair. All natural born Dragons are white wolves with their humans having light colored eyes and platinum blonde hair. Those that don’t are the others.

Drake taps the photo with his finger. "If we get this bastard, that'll blow the Dragons wide open."

River picks up the file and flips through it. "I don't know. This guy's heavily guarded. Looks like a suicide mission. You'll need our help." He closes the file and drops it on the desk.

Rivers words turned my lust to anger as soon as finished. I push off the shelf, raise my finger to him. "Nuh uh. No way. This is my case." I tap my chest with my finger. "I'm not about to let some politicians send their political muscle in to fuck everything up. Forget it."

"Riker, stand down." Drake sits. "No one's taking your case, but River's right. Karver’s a heavy hitter. We need artillery we just don't have. The Security Unit could provide that for us."

River eyes meet mine again. How can such pretty eyes piss me off so damn much? "We just want to assist that's all."

I walk straight up to River's space. Once I’m close, I feel this heat. It’s probably my anger, but it feels like it’s trying to cloud me. "I have been hunting this fucker for five fucking years. If you or any one of your security unit assholes get in my way, I will end your career faster than you can blink."

River swallowed hard. He kind of looks…scared.

He put his hands up. "No. Don't worry. We'll just be back up. Just let me call my Ops leaders, bring them up to speed and I'll report with their recommendations. We only move on your word."

I squint my eyes. "Fine." I turn to Drake. "Call me when you have a plan."

"Will do. Now, go get a beer or something and calm down." He waves me off

I nod, fling my motorcycle jacket over my shoulder and walk out.

I'm half way across the station parking lot, when I hear my name. "RIKER!"

I turn and River is jogging from the door. "Hey. Um...Look. I hope you don't feel like I'm stepping in on you. I get the feeling this is important..."

"Damn right, it is." I turn and start walking.

He jogs again to fall in line beside me. "I really just want to help. This guy...Karver...He looks like one, bad ass dude. You could use all the help you can get."

We stop and face each other. "For five years this bastard has slipped through my fingers. Five years, he shows up then he goes ghost. When we finally get a bead on him, he disappears again. I can't lose him this time. He needs to pay for the blood he's spilled." I realize I’m taking out my frustration with Karver out on River. I press my lips together, put my hands on my hips and look at the pavement.

River tries to search for my eyes. "With my help, we'll get him. I promise you that."

His voice was quiet, but it was something more than that. Like he actually cared. Was he actually making a promise to me after knowing me for twenty minutes?

I feel like I should apologize for being such a bitch. I roll my eye to him and give him a half smile. "You have time for a drink?"

He smiles and it lights up his whole face. A white, toothy grin suits him. "Yeah. I think I do."

I stuff my hands in my pockets and turn toward the road. River joins my side and mirrors my image. We don’t talk the whole walk there.

The Falcon is about three blocks from the station.

We walk in and stride to the bar. River buys a couple beers grab and chooses a table close to the entrance. It's early, so the bar is barely half full.

I sit across from him, seemingly studying my bottle, but really, I’m checking him out, now that I'm up close and relaxed. His features are rugged and strong. He has a 5 o’clock shadow, but I can tell he likes to be clean shaven. His strong, muscular neck is enticing. I’ve never analyzed a man this closely since…

My eyes fall to Rivers fingers as he picks at his bottle.

"I know it's not my business, but...You want to talk about it?" He lifts his eye to me and with it, was this look that said he was open to what I had to say. I just wasn’t that open to sharing.

I raise my beer to my lips. "Talk about what?" I take a drink.

"Why this is so personal to you." He tipped his beer back.

I put my bottle down. "No. Karver’s bad news. That's enough." My head swims as I pick at my bottle.

He lean on the table. "Okay. It just seems like a personal vendetta to me."

I shrug and tick my lips down quick. "I just take my job seriously. Murderers like Karver are a threat to all of us. What happened to other packs, can happen to us. I refuse to let him destroy us."

"But you know we're all a team right. You don't have to carry this yourself." He tilts his head to me

"Yes, I do. If it wasn't for me, Timber wouldn't have happened. Hundreds would be alive today." I swallowed hard, looking at my bottle.

River sat up as confusion filled his face. "How was it your fault?"

I shake my head. "No." I look around the bar and sigh. "Can we just talk about something else?"

He sat back in his chair. "Sure. How about why isn't a girl, with your skill set, not part of the Security Unit?"

I lean back and chuckle. "Me? Part of you guys? You're joking right?"

"No." He rests his arms on the table. "I mean yeah, your attitude is a bit...harsh, but you got the skills and the brains. We could really use you."

“No offense, Top Gun, but you have no idea what I got.” I smirk and arch a brow.

“I’m artillery. Not air force.” He smirks back.

I lean forward. “Whatever.” I lean back and raise my beer. "I’m no political puppet. Sorry."

"I'm not a puppet." He scrunches his brow.

I take a swig. "Oh, please. 'Yes, sir. Right away, sir.' You're a puppet. Just a yes man with a license to kill."

He crosses his arms. "And what, you don't follow orders?"

I put my bottle down. "No. I follow my gut. I do what's necessary at the time. Sure, we have protocol, but to make a good protector, you need to be able to say fuck protocol. You security unit guys can't do that."

He gets a smart ass look on his face. “Ok. What’s your gut telling you right now?” He raises his brow as he waits for an answer.

“It’s telling me you’re trying to sell me something I really don’t want.” I narrow my eyes.

"Listen. I don't think you fully get what being with our unit really means. Why don't you try it out? If you don't like it, go back to Border." He emptied his beer.

I put my arm on the back of my chair and crossed my legs. "Why are you trying so hard?"

He picked at his empty bottle. "I don't know. I've seen you fight. You're good. I'd be happy to have you around."

I raised a brow. "You'd be happy."

He perked up when he realized what he said. "Um. Well, not...me personally." He laughed nervously. "I meant we, like the unit. Of course, why...would...I..."

I smile a bit as he tries to back himself out of the hole he just dug. "Want another?" I point to his beer.

He rubs the back of his neck. His cheeks flush red which I’m really starting to like on him. "Uh...yeah."

I wave to the bartender for two more and the waitress brings them over.

****

RIVER

I'm sitting here. Listening to her talk. I can't get over how sexy she is. She radiates beauty. I'm trying to hide my interest, but it's damn hard. Her eyes are mesmerizing. She's a complete knock out. And yeah, she talks like a dude, but for some reason, I like that. She's a hard ass and that makes her so much more attractive to me. I’ve always gone out with these sweet, damsel in distress types and now that I have Anna in front of me, what the hell was I thinking?

As I find out more about her, I find myself feeling in awe of her strength. Her independence. She could literally not give two shits about anything. I'm actually jealous of her freedom while still being in a pack. If only I had her outlook on life, I'd probably not spend my days fighting with my dad.

I didn't miss her baggage, though. She has a lot of it. I can see it. It hides perfectly behind her attitude, but I can still see it.

She blames herself for what happened in Timber. From what I remember, four years ago, Timber was a relatively decent sized pack. When the Dragons attacked, they left no one alive. I remember my dad and the other Alphas arguing about what to do. I remember seeing the trucks of Security Units driving through town to Timber in hopes of finding survivors. I remember a few days later, when they came back with the solemn news that everyone was killed. Murdered.

I don't know how it could possibly be Rikers fault, but she seems to be determined to beat herself up for it and possibly get herself killed.

I know I can turn her pain and anger into something more. I know if I can reign her in somehow, get her on board, she'd be valuable to me and our packs. But, from what I've seen so far, it's not going to be easy. She's tough as nails and won't let anyone tell her what to do.

Karver will be a start. If I can help her shut him down, she'll see that her impression of my unit is wrong. She'll have to join us. Join me. Be with me.

"Earth to soldier boy...." Her snapping fingers in my face, break my thoughts. "You in there? Where'd ya go?" I shake my head. She smiling at me. I almost got lost again.

I giggle. "Uh, sorry. Just got lost there for a second. Must be the beer."

"A lightweight, huh?" She smirked.

"Well, at least I'm a cheap date." I chuckle.

She stands up and puts her jacket on. "Well, soldier. I'm off. I got to be rested up if we're going to nail Karver."

I stand too. "Oh. Um, Ok...Do you think...I could…call you or something?"

She stands, arrogantly. "Why would you want to ruin the good thing we have, Top Gun?"

I raise a finger, open my mouth, then close it again because I got nothing.

She smiles. "Bye, Soldier boy."

I watch her leave the bar, wishing I could grab her and kiss her within an inch of her life.

This girl will be my favorite mission yet. If I could just stop being a bumbling idiot around her.