Pride Mates

Chapter Two

Kim made herself close her gaping mouth and turn away. None of her business if Liam Morrissey was gay. Seriously disappointing, but none of her business.

The second man held Liam in a tight hug, then with a thump of fists on backs, they released each other. Liam smiled--man, how gorgeous was he when he smiled? He had his arm around the second man's shoulders.

"Sean, this is Kim," Liam said. "She wants me to help her with Brian."

Sean had dark hair and blue eyes like Liam, and a body as honed, but his face was harder, his look sterner. He had a stillness in him that wasn't in Liam, as though something had happened to him that he'd never quite gotten over.

"Does she now?" Sean was saying. "And what did you tell her?"

"I was about to explain when you barged in without warning me. What if I'd thought you were a Lupine? I'd have taken your head off."

"Your sense of smell's that bad, Liam, that you'd mistake your own brother for a wolfman?"

"He's your brother?" Kim asked in a shaky voice.

"My brother, Sean Morrissey."

Kim's face heated. "Oh."

Liam still had his arm firmly around the other man. "Why? Who'd you think he was?"

Kim tried to control her embarrassment. "I thought you were a couple."

Liam burst out laughing, a warm sound. Sean smiled slightly. "Are all humans this crazy?" he asked Liam.

"They're all that ignorant," Liam said. "I've decided to let her talk to Brian's mum."

Sean's smile faded, and he and Liam exchanged a look that held caution, warning. Because they didn't trust humans? Or something more?

Both men focused on Kim again. No one could look at someone like a Shifter. They saw everything, missed nothing. She found that having two equally good-looking men give her the once-over wasn't bad, even if they were Shifters, potentially dangerous and potentially deadly.

"Sounds good," she made herself say. "Here's my card. Call me when you've set something up with her."

"I meant I'd take you around now," Liam said. "No time like the present."

"Right now? Without warning? Not always a good idea."

"She'll know we're coming."

Kim shrugged, pretending to share their nonchalance. Her years as a lawyer had made her anal--make appointments, keep detailed records, cover your ass on everything. Their casualness unnerved her.

And yet she sensed these men weren't relaxed at all. Liam and Sean shared another look, an unspoken warning, as if they were communicating something she couldn't hear.

But whatever. Kim had a job to do, and Brian had said that getting Liam's help was key.

She walked out the door Liam held open, her head up, trying not to melt when she passed between the two men's extraordinary heat.

They walked to Brian's house. Kim had been preparing to share the close space of her car with two Shifters, but found herself walking slightly behind Liam, with Sean behind her.

The house wasn't far. A couple of blocks, that was all, Liam assured her. He wasn't the one in the four-inch heels, she wanted to growl. Kim's shiny black pumps were great for office meetings, bad for hiking.

It wasn't a hardship following Liam, though. The man had a fine ass cupped by snug jeans, and he walked easily in the heat. No wonder people came to Liam with their problems--he looked like a man who'd invite you to rest your head on his shoulder while he made everything bad go away. His brother had the same height and build, the same strength, the same blue eyes, but Kim would gravitate to Liam if she had to choose. Sean had a wariness, a pulling back that she didn't sense in Liam.

The first block had a convenience store with a littered parking lot on one corner; another bar, closed, on the opposite end; and a boarded-up store and two bungalows left over from better times crammed in the middle. No one but the three of them walked here, and any street traffic sped through to newer and more prosperous parts of town.

Liam led Kim around the corner behind the derelict buildings. They passed through a wide-open gate in a chain-link fence and crossed a field. Kim winced and watched where she stepped, knowing her legs and feet would be open season for Texas chiggers.

When they reached the other end of the field, Kim stopped so quickly that Sean almost ran into her.

"This is Shiftertown?"

Liam grinned. "Not what you expected, eh, love?"

Kim had thought Shiftertown would be a slum, a ghetto of people not wanted in other parts of town. The houses were small and old, yes. The street itself was cracked and potholed because the city deemed repairs there a low priority. But Kim looked down the street at what appeared to be a beautiful and comfortable suburb. Every yard was green, with gardens or flower boxes running riot with summer flowers. The buildings were painted and in good repair, and most houses had deep porches filled with plants and furniture.

There were no fences anywhere. Kids played in yards and ran between houses without fear. One front yard sported a plastic wading pool filled with kids and a couple of dogs, while two moms watched from the porch steps. They were young women, casual in shorts and baggy T-shirts, legs stretched to the sun while the kids played. Everyone in the yard and on the porch, including the dogs, wore collars.

One of the women looked up and waved. "Good day to you, Liam," she called. "Hello, Sean." The other woman raised her hand in greeting but didn't speak. Kim felt the gazes of both Shifter women on her dark gray suit and stupidly high heels.

Liam and Sean gave them a casual wave back. The kids jumped up and down, and one sent a big splash of water over the edge of the pool.

"Look, Liam, I've got my own swimming pool."

"It's grand, Michael. You look after your brother now."

Michael turned to the littlest child in the pool, who was splashing happily. "I will," the older boy said seriously.

They moved on. The Shifters didn't hide in their houses, the way residents did in Kim's neighborhood. They roamed outside in the hot weather, working in the yard, looking after kids, talking to their neighbors. Everyone they passed waved or smiled at Liam and Sean, some greeting them, "Now then, Liam. How's your dad?"

By the time they reached the end of the block, Kim understood how Brian's mother would know they were on their way without Liam calling ahead. Every Shifter they passed noted Liam and Sean, every Shifter recognized Kim for the human stranger she was. Someone would be on the phone or running through the backyards to alert Brian's mother.

Brian had been living with his mother, Sandra Smith, at 445B Marble Lane, Kim knew from her files. She'd assumed the address meant an apartment or duplex, but it turned out to be a house set behind another house. A driveway ran past 445A and stopped at the garage of 445B.

Both houses had the look of the 1920s or '30s, low-roofed bungalows with brick-pillared porches, dormer windows, and separate garages. The front screen door opened as they approached, and a slender woman leaned against the doorframe.

"You've brought her then," she said.

Kim had never met Sandra Smith. When Kim first started putting together the case, she had requested that Sandra come to Kim's office and talk to her. Sandra had refused, and after a while had stopped answering the phone when Kim called. That was part of the reason Kim wanted to talk to Liam, to find someone who could help her build a solid defense for Brian.

"I hope you don't mind the intrusion, Mrs. Smith," Kim began as they approached the porch.

Sandra abruptly turned and went inside, the screen door banging behind her. Kim winced. This interview was not going to be easy.

Liam and Sean pushed past Kim to enter the house, no human custom of standing back to let a lady through a door first. Brian had explained the apparent rudeness to her. To a Shifter, letting a female enter a room or building ahead of a male was ludicrous. You couldn't be sure what danger lurked on the other side. The male checked it out and then gave the all clear for the female to enter. How could you protect your mate otherwise?

Kim followed them inside and stopped in surprise. Sean had taken Sandra into his arms, letting her lean against him while he rubbed his cheek on her hair. Liam moved to stand behind Sandra. Very close behind Sandra. He rested his chest on her back and both he and Sean murmured to her.

This was crazy. The way Liam had greeted his brother had made Kim think the two of them had something going on. Now she swore the brothers and Sandra were in a threesome.

Liam and Sean stepped away from Sandra, and Sandra wiped her eyes. Kim was struck by how young the woman looked, too young to have a twenty-five-year-old son. Sandra could be thirty, though her eyes spoke of a woman who'd seen far more of the world than Kim had.

"Can I get you coffee, Ms. Fraser?" Sandra asked, her voice shaky.

"No, no," Kim said. "Don't go to any trouble."

Sean smiled at Sandra. "I think a big pot would be grand, Sandra. I'll help you, shall I?"

Sandra softened under his look, and she and Sean walked to the back of the house to the kitchen. Sean went in first, then ushered Sandra in with his hand on the small of her back.

"What was that about?" Kim asked Liam.

"Sit down, Kim. You look all out."

She hadn't really expected him to answer. Kim collapsed to the sofa with a grimace and laid her briefcase on the coffee table. Her feet were killing her. She ran her finger inside her shoes, but it didn't do much good.

"Are you hurting?" Liam sat down next to her--right next to her, inside her personal space. "Let me see your feet."

Kim blinked. "Sorry?"

"I saw you limping. Get those ridiculous shoes off and swing your feet up here."

His eyes were so damn blue. Why did she suddenly long to feel his warm hands on her feet, on her ankles, up her legs under her skirt to where her stockings ended at bare thigh...?

He was a Shifter. This wasn't right.

"I can't do that."

"You mean you won't."

"How do you think that would that look? For the mother of the man I'm defending to come back in and find you giving me a foot massage?"

"She'd think it was the first sensible thing you did. You hide behind those clothes like they're a suit of armor. She'll not open up to you if you do that."

"But she will if I play footsie with you?"

Liam smiled a heart-thumping smile. "Get your damn shoes off, woman."

Oh, to hell with it. When in Rome...or Shiftertown.

Kim couldn't stop her groan of relief as she eased the heels from her feet. Liam patted his lap. Kim leaned into the corner of the couch and plopped her ankles on Liam's thigh.

"Is everything in Shiftertown backward?" she asked.

"Backward?"

"Men enter a room first, it's better to kick off your shoes on a stranger's couch than be businesslike, and you say hello by rubbing yourselves all over each other." Kim sagged in pleasure as he moved strong hands over her feet. "Ooh, that's good."

Liam's thumb traveled over her arch to her heel, his touch warm. Did the man know how to loosen tension, or what?

Another groan escaped her. "This is better than any day spa I've been to. You could make money doing this."

"Shifters aren't allowed in any profession where they touch humans." His voice went soft. "We might bite."

Kim didn't think she'd mind being nibbled on by him. Her nervousness about Shifters hadn't quite drifted away, but Liam was dissolving her fears little by little, at least about him. "I think I'd make an exception for you."

"Pheromones."

Her eyes popped open. "Sorry?"

"Sean and I felt Sandra's distress, and we calmed her down. She needed our touch. Like you need me rubbing your feet."

Kim thought about their caressing, group hug. "She must have been very distressed."

"She is. Why wouldn't she be?"

"Was Sean distressed when he came in your office? You hugged him too."

"Of course I hugged him. He's my brother. Don't you hug your brother or your sisters?"

"I don't have a family," Kim said. She couldn't keep the sorrow out of her voice. "Not anymore."

Liam gave her a look of open pity. "No wonder you're so tense. What happened to them?"

"I don't like to talk about it."

"Talk about it anyway."

Kim had always thought it best not to open up, but Liam's blue eyes and gentle voice pried something loose. "It's no big secret. My brother Mark died when I was ten. He was twelve. He was hit by a car while he was walking down to a corner store with his friends--a hit and run. My parents passed away a few years ago, within months of each other. Old age, is all. They had their kids late in life. So now it's just me."

The story was simple, easy to relate. Her grief had burned away to emptiness long ago. She lived in the big house she'd inherited from her parents, and it was--so quiet. She tried to cheer it up with weekend parties or office mixers, but the warmth never lasted. Her parents' neighborhood was one of standoffish elegance; no kids would dare splash in plastic pools in any front yard on her street.

Liam gently squeezed her feet. "I'm sorry for you, Kim Fraser. It's the hardest thing, losing a brother. It's like losing a part of yourself."

He was too right. Kim's next words came reluctantly. "When Mark was killed, I blamed myself. I know that's stupid. I was at a friend's house miles away, and I was ten years old--what could I have done? But I kept thinking that if I'd been there, I could have warned him, pulled him out of the way, kept him home altogether. Something. "

Liam's warm, relaxing fingers slid beneath each of her toes. "Sean and me, we had a brother. Kenny. We lost him about ten years ago. You always wonder, if you'd persuaded him to do something different that day, would he still be alive?"

"Exactly." After seventeen years, Kim had never found anyone who really understood, not friends or colleagues or the child counselor she'd been hauled off to. Now a Shifter she'd met an hour ago wrung the truth from her heart. "I'm sorry, Liam. About your brother."

He acknowledged the sympathy with a nod. "Did they ever get the bastard who hit Mark?"

Kim shook her head. "The police picked up a guy, but it turned out he didn't do it. Everyone wanted him to be guilty, wanted someone to blame, but I knew he hadn't done it when I saw him. He was so scared, and his wife was crying, and I said it wasn't him--but of course, how could I know? I was a kid and hadn't even been there. In the end, evidence came to light that cleared him. But everyone was pissed that he was innocent. They couldn't catch the real guy, so they wanted a substitute."

His hands slowed. "Is that when you decided to become a defense attorney?"

"No, I wanted to be a doctor." She grinned. "Or a dancer, I couldn't decide. I was ten. But I wanted the right guy to pay. I knew that if the wrong person went to prison, then whoever really did hit my brother would have hurt that many more people, you know?"

"Well reasoned for a ten-year-old."

"I thought about it. A lot. For a while, I couldn't think about anything else." Hence the child counselor.

"I know." He looked grim again.

Kim wanted to ask how his brother had died, but at that moment Sandra and Sean returned with the coffee. Kim tried to jerk her feet from Liam's lap, but he closed his hands around her ankles and held them fast. She glared, and he smiled back, showing her nice white teeth.

Sean set a tray on the table. It held the whole works: cups, a pot, cream, and sugar. No artificial sweetener. Kim wondered whether that was because Sandra didn't like artificial sweetener or whether Shifters never had to worry about their weight.

Sandra didn't look surprised or shocked that Kim had her stockinged feet in Liam's lap. She poured out a cup of coffee and handed it to Kim without comment.

"So, tell us, Kim," Sean said, as he sat down and took his cup, "is there any chance for Brian?"

Kim couldn't lie to them. "Brian's DNA was on the victim, Michelle, and in her bedroom, and now that everyone watches CSI, they figure DNA is the magic truth. But Brian says he'd been dating Michelle and had gone to her house, so of course his DNA would be there and on her too."

"Then what can we do?" Sandra asked, angry. "If this DNA has already convicted him?"

"We can prove he was nowhere near the scene of the crime that night," Kim said. "Which is why I'm here. Neither the private investigator I hired nor my journalist friend who's been following the case can find any information on his whereabouts that night. I mean, no information at all. Like he'd vanished for twenty-four hours. But I can't believe no one saw Brian or knew where he was going."

Hell, everyone on this street had known within minutes that Liam and Sean were taking the human lawyer to Brian's house. They probably knew Kim's full name and her favorite color by now. "I'm having the investigator look into Michelle's side of things--see if she had a jealous ex or an abusive father, or even a normally nice friend upset that Michelle was dating a Shifter. I'm trying to find any evidence the police overlooked in their zeal to arrest a Shifter."

"Your investigator came around and asked me questions." Sandra sounded pissed about it. "But Brian didn't tell me himself he was walking out with this girl, so how could I know?"

"But you might know something that can help," Kim said. "I'm sorry, I know this is painful for you, but Brian's clammed up about Michelle, so I have to poke and pry. I think getting him released is more important than keeping his personal secrets, don't you?"

"Is it?" Sandra had a bit of the same Irish lilt as Sean and Liam, but Brian didn't. He'd told Kim that his father came from a different clan, she guessed not an Irish one. Either that or his clan had lost their accent after living in Texas awhile.

Kim didn't really understand how the Shifter clans worked, though Brian had tried to explain a little. She knew that each immediate family belonged to a larger, extended family group called a pride, and they belonged to an even more extended group called a clan. Shifters never married within the pride, and tried to marry outside the clan. When a female married, she joined her husband's clan and pride, leaving her own. Kim had thought clans were based on what kind of animal the Shifter turned into, but Brian said it was more complicated than that. This Shiftertown was home to several clans, as well as several species of Shifters, and there was another Shiftertown with more clans on the northeast edge of Austin.

Liam's father, Dylan Morrissey, was more or less the official head of the Austin branch of his entire clan, but also the unofficial head of this Shiftertown, even over the other clans. But no, Kim couldn't talk directly to Dylan, Brian told her. He was off-limits to non-Shifters. She could petition him through Liam and Liam only.

Why not Sean? Kim wondered, glancing at Liam's brother. What position did he hold in the clan hierarchy? Officially and unofficially?

Sean helped himself to coffee and exchanged a glance with Liam. "So you need to find someone who was with Brian at the time in question?" Sean asked.

Kim could have sworn that Liam had nodded ever so slightly, as though letting Sean know it was all right to say this. Nonverbal cues were flowing thick and fast.

"An independent witness would be terrific," Kim said. "Someone without a grudge against Shifters. And preferably not a Shifter him- or herself."

"Tall order," Sean said.

"The girl is human," Sandra snapped. "What human will come forward and say my son didn't do it?"

She had a point. Kim knew that locating a witness was a long shot, but it would be a nice change to find something concrete. Innocent until proven guilty was not working in Brian's case. The fact that he was Shifter had already condemned him in most people's eyes. Kim had to exonerate him or he didn't stand a chance.

Liam started massaging the tops of Kim's feet, which made her tense limbs start to droop.

"I might be able to find out where Brian really was," Liam said. "You should have come to me about this right away, love."

"I didn't know that, did I? Like I said, Brian is the first Shifter I've ever met, and to get him to tell me that you, Liam, even existed was an amazing feat." Brian hadn't bothered to mention Sean.

"We don't like talking about ourselves," Sean said.

"I don't see why not. Shifters exposed themselves years ago, and everyone knows all about you. There's nothing to hide anymore."

She felt the three exchange another wordless communication, and it irritated her. It reminded her of being eight years old and watching her two best friends whispering and giving her gleeful looks, not letting her in on the secret.

A cell phone vibrated on Liam's belt. He looked at the readout, and without a word gently lowered Kim's feet to the floor. He stood and walked to the kitchen, closing the door, shutting them out.

Kim felt cold without his warmth beside her, even in the July heat. "Anything you can tell me might help," she said to Sean and Sandra. "Right now I can only win this case by tearing holes in the prosecution, and there aren't many holes. I need something that will stick a fork in the case and shred it."

Sandra drank her coffee, her gaze moving from Kim to the windows. Kim caught a glimpse of her sadness as she looked away, her near despair.

She's resigning herself to losing her son, Kim realized . Sandra thought there was no hope. She'd already started grieving for him.

Sean was watching Kim with an assessing look. She still wasn't sure about him, or where the haunted feeling she got from him came from.

"I don't like to lose, Sandra," Kim said briskly. "I want to see Brian walk free and the real person pay for his crime. I won't let you down."

Sandra didn't answer. Sean nodded at Kim. "I'm sure you won't."

Liam strode back into the room. Kim realized that the other two had said very little while Liam had been gone. Had he signaled them not to? And why?

Liam took up his coffee cup without sitting down and took a long swallow. He looked over the rim at Sean, who came alert.

"Everything all right?" Kim asked. "Did you get bad news?"

Liam clicked his mug to the tray. "No, an errand Sean and I need to run. I appreciate you coming all the way out to Shiftertown, Kim Fraser, but now it's time for you to go."