Chapter 9 - The Twins

Later that night Joss was stationed in their rental car down the street from Matt's house, while John was lurking across the street from Mark's house, watching Mark through the window.

John observed Mark leave his house and tapped his earpiece, "Joss, Mark is leaving. Keep your eyes peeled."

"OK," she replied. "Matt went to bed about half an hour ago."

Puyallup isn't a large town and it only took Mark a few minutes to reach his destination . "I see him," Joss reported. "He's taking the truck just like we thought he would."

"It makes sense," John said. "On those old logging roads the 4 wheel drive and the high ground clearance is a big help."

Joss watched as Mark backed the truck out of the driveway and drove off. "I guess since he bought his dad the truck he feels like he can use it when he wants. Matt may not even know about these little midnight trips."

John looked around as he crossed the street to Mark's house. "Follow him, but be careful."

"I'm not exactly new to this, John." Joss grumbled as she threw the car into gear.

John smiled at his mate's words as he swiftly picked the lock and entered the house. He punched the number he had surreptitiously observed Mark enter earlier into the keypad for the alarm and was rewarded with the green LED indicating the alarm was no longer armed.

He looked around the house. It wasn't very tidy, which made searching it a bit easier; he didn't have to be so careful. All the furnishings and appliances were high end, as was the hardwood floor. Mark was doing very well for himself. Much better than a small business owner in a small town should be doing in this economy, John thought.

After several minutes of searching, John finally found what he was looking for, a safe hidden behind a picture in a room that served as a home office. "Not very original Mark," John chuckled. He tapped his earpiece, "Finch, you there?"

"Always, Mr. Reese," came the prompt reply.

"I could use some safe cracking help here. I have a wall safe with a digital combination lock."

"Oh, hardly even a challenge. Please turn on the video camera on your phone and hold it up to the safe."

John did as he was told. "Hmmmm, a Magna 3000. This will only take a minute," Harold sniffed with disdain. "As much money as Mr. Ellison is making off his smuggling operation, he could have purchased a better safe." A series of rapid beeps and tones spewed forth from John's phone and in only a couple of minutes the safe swung open.

"Nice job, Finch. Are you sure you didn't work your way through school as a jewel thief?"

"I think I would have remembered that, Mr. Reese," Finch said primly. "I had a full academic scholarship, if you must know."

"I expected nothing less, Harold. You said Mark was making a lot of money in his smuggling operation?" John said as he began to rifle through the contents of the safe.

"Yes, I looked through the tax and business records of the twins' various operations. Their businesses are making three to four times the amount of money other comparable businesses in Puyallup are making."

"In other words, they are using the legitimate business to launder the smuggling money."

"Yes, and they keep buying new businesses because they keep making more and more with their illicit activities, so they need more legitimate businesses to launder all their ill-gotten gains."

John pulled out a fat wad of cash and thumbed through it. He estimated that there was around twenty thousand in small unmarked bills in the safe. "No wonder they have been willing to kill to keep their operation going. There's a lot of money here."

"Yes. I checked on the bank records for some of the dead Wolves as well. You were right about LeBlanc, Holt and of course Mark's deceased mate Karen Rodriquez, they all had considerable sums in offshore accounts at the time of their deaths," Finch responded.

John turned on the laptop that was sitting on the desk and removed the flash drive he had used in on Matt's computer form his pocket and plugged it into Mark's computer. A window popped up on the screen and a status began inching its way across the screen. "Mark's files are on their way to you now Finch."

"Thank you, Mr. Reese. I'll see what I can find. Please get me the make and license plate numbers of Mark's and Marie's cars, I would like to hack their GPSs and see if they were near the Hunters during the time of the murder."

"Will do. I'm done here; I'm going to check out Marie's condo next."

"Good luck Mr. Reese. Contact me when you get there."

John locked the safe back up, re-armed the security system, and left the house.

Joss followed the truck as Mark stopped to pick up his sister and they left town, heading in the direction of the now familiar logging road. Joss was careful to hang well back so she wouldn't be detected. Mark and Marie drove straight to the forest, completely unaware that they were being followed.

When they pulled off the main road onto the logging roads, Joss decided that she could no longer follow them in the sedan. She pulled off the road by the turnoff for the logging road and parked her car so it was hidden behind a stand of trees. Quickly she stripped off her clothes and went Wolf.

She raced down the logging road with her senses on high alert, the last thing she needed to do was blunder into a trap without John around to bail her out. As it was, he was probably going to be pretty upset with her for getting this close without him. Oh well, she thought, he's spending the evening breaking and entering, so we're even.

Joss cautiously approached the area where the twins usually parked, and was rewarded with the sight of them climbing out of the truck, disrobing, and morphing. She remained outside the range of their Wolf senses while she watched them lope off into the woods. She followed them, taking care to remain far enough back that they could not detect her.

They took a slightly different route than before, but wound up in the same place, the same logging road on the other side of the Canadian border. The same man who had spoken to them once again confirmed that Larkin would meet them in the usual place the next day as the other man filled their packs with small bundles.

Joss followed the twins until they were close to their truck, then she ran to her car, morphed, and dressed quickly. She hid in her car, hidden in the shadows at the mouth of the logging road, as the truck drove past her. She waited until it turned back onto the main road and was out of sight, then she started the car and followed them.

She caught up to them fairly quickly. They were smart enough not to exceed the speed limit or commit any other traffic violations, and following them was quite easy for the experienced detective.

They pulled into an all-night diner. Joss followed them in and took a seat at the counter so her back was to them. She ordered a cup of coffee and piece of pie and took advantage of her close proximity to the twins to clone their phones. Then she called John.

"Hi, love. How are the twins?" he answered as he rummaged through Marie's home office safe.

"Fine, they are having a very late dinner behind me. They were busy tonight."

"So was I," John sounded rather triumphant.

"So, I take it you spent the time productively and probably unlawfully?" Joss teased.

Joss could hear John's smile in his voice, "Mark and Marie both have nice homes."

"And you know this because they invited you over for tea, I suppose."

"As far as you know, my love. I won't mention the safes with all the cash in them." Pause. "You have your head in your hands right now, don't you?"

Joss indeed did have her face in her hand. "Yes, yes I do. You didn't blow the safes did you?"

John sounded offended now, "No, they had electronic locks; Finch hacked them."

"I never thought I would be grateful to hear the words 'Finch hacked them.' So much for my moral compass. You've corrupted me John Reese." Joss was smiling to herself now.

"When I get you back to the hotel room, I plan on corrupting you further," John purred in his low sexy voice one that never failed to send a rush of heat between his mate's legs. "How are things on your end?"

"Great, they did another run for the border tonight and they are meeting their contact tomorrow."

There was a brief pause on the other end of the phone. "Wait, how do you know that? Joss, you didn't follow them as a Wolf by yourself, did you?"

Joss couldn't help grinning a bit in revenge. "Yes." Pause. "Now you have your head in your hands, don't you?"

"Yes," John snarled.

Joss ignored his obvious anger. "Welcome to my world, John," she chirped. "I think we should follow them tomorrow and get a look at their contact."

John sighed, "You're probably right. Did you get a chance to clone their phones?"

"Yeah, just now."

"Good. Leave the twins and meet me back at the hotel. I think we've done all we can for tonight."

"See you in a bit." Joss rang off, paid her bill and left without the twins ever noticing that she was there.

As Joss walked into the hotel room, she was grabbed and tossed unceremoniously on the bed before she could fight back. She landed on her back and then John was hovering over her with his hands on either side of her shoulders and his knees on either side of thighs. She looked into the ice cold blue eyes of a pissed-off Alpha Wolf.

"What were you thinking? Following them into the forest without any backup? Did you forget what they did to that Border Patrol agent?" John's upper lip curled into a snarl and anger was dripping off him.

"John, I was fine. I never came near them. Now get off me." Joss gave John's shoulders a push, but he didn't move.

John's eyes remained hard and cold. "No. Not until you promise to never do anything that stupid again."

Now Joss was furious. "STUPID?! Look who's talking! The man who spent the evening breaking and entering! Get off!" She snarled back.

A power struggle ensued which Joss's 5'4" frame lost rather badly to John's 6'2" body. He soon had her completely and helplessly pinned underneath him. He sat on her thighs and his hands had her wrists pinned above her head. She could not move at all and she finally realized that struggling was futile and just surrendered to him.

"Promise me you won't do that again, Joss. They would have killed you." And he reached down and gently kissed her. She looked up into his eyes and saw something besides the anger: fear.

"John, really, I was fine," she gasped as his talented mouth slowly traveled from her mouth back to her ear and nibbled on the lobe.

"Promise me," his hands released her wrists so he could unbutton her blouse.

"I know what I'm doing…oh god," she moaned as he lifted a breast from the cup of her bra and pinched her nipple. She reached up and unbuttoned his shirt and took it off him.

"You take too many chances," his mouth was on her neck biting and then soothing the sting with his tongue while his hands continued to work their magic on her breasts.

"Look who's talking...I didn't go near them.…I'm not new to this…oh yes, right there baby…" she hissed as his mouth slid down her chest to replace his fingers on one of her nipples.

"I can't lose you, Joss," John murmured to her as he switched his mouth over to her other nipple.

"Oh Johnnnn, that feels so good… I didn't take any foolish chance. I swear…don't stop," she begged.

"Promise me." John removed her pants.

"I'm a cop," She protested as she helped him off with his pants.

"I'd die if anything happened to you…ohhhh," this as Joss took his cock into her hands, gently stroking him.

John pushed her hands off him and rubbed the tip of his penis against her clitoris, smearing it with the pre-cum, "Promise me."

"Ohhhhhh…" Joss arched her back and ran her fingers down John's back to grab his ass. "Fuck me, baby."

John impaled her with one swift motion, but stopped. He gently nuzzled her, "Promise me," he whispered in her ear.

Joss took his face in her hands and tenderly kissed him. "I promise to always return to you, my mate."

That was what John was waiting to hear. He buried his face in her shoulder and began pounding into her. "Yessss…oh God… Don't stop," Joss cried out but John had no intention of stopping until his mate was completely satisfied.

And satisfy her he did. It wasn't long before she was screaming his name and he felt her tighten around him. "Yes, baby, come for me."

Joss happily obliged. Her eyes rolled back into her head and her muscular legs wrapped so tightly around John's back that he could barely move. "Ohhhhhh….Fucckkkkk," she gasped as her orgasm slammed into her body and she dug her nails into his shoulders.

A couple of thrusts later John stiffened and emptied himself into his mate. He collapsed next to her on the bed, breathing heavily. He pulled her to him so she was spooned with her back against his front and he curled protectively around her.

"Sleep, my dear. We have a busy day ahead tomorrow," he murmured to her as he gently nuzzled her ear and neck. But he needn't have bothered, she was already drifting off, sated and content. John happily held her tight as he followed her down into sleep.

Author's Note: Wouldn't you like to have your arguments with your SO end that way?;)