by Amy Lamont
But one more thing I’d learned while taking care of myself—trust my instincts. The clichés my father used to spout as excuses for his overprotectiveness came back to me. Better to be safe than sorry. Err on the side of caution. All excuses to keep me from getting to far out of his reach, but I had to admit, good advice for my current situation.
“Thanks, Dad.” If my whisper dripped with a bit of sarcasm, well, I couldn’t help it.
I slipped out of bed and, after checking to make sure my security precautions were still in place, I did another scan of the room. After assuring myself nobody hid in the closet and no monsters lurked under the bed, I went to the window and pushed the heavy curtain aside so I could peek outside.
The parking lot and road out front were quiet. The gas station and diner were closed for the night, their lights off. No movement caught my gaze.
I allowed the curtain to drop back into place and stared at the fabric without really seeing it, my mind weighing my options over and over again. Stay or go? Stay or go?
Every molecule in my body wanted me to go back to bed. But something deeper, some inner knowing started urging me to pack up and go.
Even as I turned my attention to that niggling feeling, a tingle worked its way up my spine. After years of honing my abilities under my father’s direction, I knew better than to fight the sensation. I welcomed it.
I pulled in a deep breath and allowed my eyes to drift closed as something in my mind opened wide. A vision played out like a movie only I could see. I watched as a nondescript, dark blue sedan pulled up in front of the motel office. A man stepped out. The early morning light allowed me to just make out his features—a sharp beak of a nose, the slash of his lips, the brown, thinning hair.
I did my best to memorize his face. He wasn’t someone I recognized. Unfortunately, my premonitions didn’t come with a rewind, fast forward or pause buttons. I had to take my focus off his face so I could catch the rest of the action.
He walked through the glass door and stepped up to the desk where the clerk who had checked me in just hours before sat, his head lolling on his shoulders. His wore the same clothing he’d had on earlier, leaving me to believe I was seeing something happening in the very near future.
The man cleared his throat, jerking the clerk from his doze. I couldn’t help but hope the desk clerk would prove to be more decent than my earlier stroll through his thoughts led me to believe.
But that hope was dashed quickly, as I watched the man flash a photo of me, at the same time sliding a folded twenty-dollar bill across the counter. The clerk wasted no time snatching up the cash and lifting his hand and pointing to my room.
Just great. The vision began to recede, but before it lost it’s hold on me completely, I caught a glimpse of one last thing. The door of the motel office opened and the man asking about me swung around. I had just enough time to see who stepped in before the premonition faded to black.
I gasped. How on earth had my dream man made his way into my vision of the future?
My breath came in harsh pants as I contemplated all the implications of my premonition. Judging by the quality of light, the man would arrive close to sunrise. That gave me about four hours or so to hit the road.
I hustled over to the bed and grabbed my suitcase. I decided to take a few minutes to change into warmer clothing. The temperatures in Montana in late November were nothing to joke about.
After a quick trip to the bathroom and a change of clothes, I removed the alarm and wedge from the door and the lock from the window. I made sure everything went back where it belonged in my suitcase and as quietly as possible, I stepped out of the room. I left it unlocked, the key on the nightstand.
I lifted my suitcase rather than wheel it so it wouldn’t make any noise. I stuck close to the shadows provided by the building, praying the desk clerk wouldn’t look in my direction.
I walked around the back of the motel building on the far side of the office and headed toward the bus station. The one problem with hiding out in a small town was that I wasn’t going to have too many choices when it came to buses. That would make it easier for my father’s minions to find me. But that was a chance I had to take. I’d get a connecting bus as soon as I could and be on my way to somewhere new.
I hesitated when I hit the end of the street and looked back over my shoulder toward the motel, pushing my mop of curls away from my face. I couldn’t help but think of my dream man walking through the door in my premonition.
According to the testing my father had done on my abilities, my premonitions had an off the charts accuracy rate. But they always, always came when I was awake.
The dreams I’d had of my soldier-lumberjack-serial killer were something else entirely. They had a quality of unreality. I figured I’d made him up. He was the perfect man for someone in my situation. Hot and sexy enough to fuel my fantasies for years to come, but at the same time protective bordering on scary. Just the kind of guy to scare off the stalkers my father sent.
Had I spent so much time wishing for him that I’d injected my dream man into my vision of the future?
I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth as I contemplated finding a spot close to the motel to watch things unfold in the morning. Something inside me pushed me to stay and see if my dream man really did show up in the flesh. A small flutter in my belly caught my attention. What was that?
And then it hit me. It had been so long since I felt anything like it that I almost didn’t recognize the feeling.
Hope.
For whatever reason, the idea of my dream man showing up in real life gave me hope. As if he was the one who could put an end to this crazy, lonely, exhausting life on the run.
The moment I had the thought, I turned on my heel and started moving once more toward the bus station. I’d spent my entire life trusting what the people around me, the people who were supposed to love me most in the world, told me. I believed in my father’s love and in the life I had with him.
I hoped all the time back then. I hoped we had snow on Christmas. I hoped I’d meet the love of my life. I hoped I’d find a way to use my abilities to help people. I hoped I’d find a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s under the tree Christmas morning.
Now, hope seemed frivolous and like a recipe for disappointment. The only thing I’d allow myself to hope for at this moment was that I’d manage to stay out of the hands of my father’s men for another day.
And the only way to avoid being captured was to stay one step ahead of them. Which meant staying on the move. No matter how much I wished I could stay in one place for a while. Or stick around at least long enough to see if my dream man really existed.
I permitted myself one last, longing glance behind me before moving forward into the sharp wind of the winter night. I couldn’t allow myself the luxury of believing in fairytales. Not when my freedom, maybe even my life was on the line.
Cole
I kept my eyes fixed on the office of the no-tell motel as the sun just started to kiss the sky. My orders had been clear. Dr. Quinn, the man who hired Ursus Security Solutions to track down his daughter had already sent several investigators on her trail, but all of them had come up empty-handed. Dr. Quinn wanted Ursus to step in if the current investigator was unsuccessful and take over the case.
And I knew the investigator was unsuccessful. I scented her the second I pulled into the parking lot an hour ago. I’d tracked her to the door of one of the rooms. Surprised to find the door unlocked, I’d slipped inside, finding the room empty and my prey gone.
I debated following her but one thing held me back. There was still an investigator on her trail and he needed to be dismissed. I grabbed my company-issue tablet from the seat beside me and pulled up the file that landed on my desk three days ago.
Ivy Quinn. Twenty-two years old. In custody of her father due to mental incompetence.
I scanned the file twice, though I’ve had it all but memorized since the moment it landed on my desk. It seemed pretty
cut and dried. The young woman had been remanded to her father’s custody for her own protection. There weren’t a ton of details, just a short paragraph explaining she had brief breaks from reality which left her unable to adequately care for herself. There’d been a few legal documents attached confirming Dr. Quinn’s legal guardianship along with some details outlining the steps taken so far to apprehend her and the locations she’d been spotted.
My first impulse had been to assign one of my men to the case. As the new head of the bond enforcement and fugitive apprehension division for Ursus, I was still in the middle of organizing the department. I’d been hired the day I drummed out of the Army because the owners of Ursus had been part of my division and were well aware of my skill in tracking.
But it didn’t seem like one little, spoiled rich girl who’d never traveled much farther than a ten mile radius from her home in the suburbs of Boston required my level of skills for an apprehension. Though the fact she’d managed to evade the men her sent after her for almost a month was somewhat impressive.
Still, not my gig. My job was to manage the division and plan takedowns of dangerous criminals. Glancing at the photo that came with the file, my lips curved. Nothing about her wild red curls, pouty mouth, or curvy figure screamed dangerous criminal.
But that photo did say something to my bear. In the last few years, my bear had been working his way closer and closer to the surface. I’d felt a compulsion to seek out my mate and the longer I went without finding her, the more demanding and dangerous my bear got. It was the main reason I left the Army.
At loose ends, I’d been happy to accept the job at Ursus, especially since it meant I got to live around other shifters. Part of me hoped being among shifters would make me more likely to find my mate. But in the short time I’d been in Kodiak, Alaska, I’d gotten to meet most of the locals, and my bear didn’t respond to any of them.
Until I saw the picture of Ivy Quinn. I’d read through her file with mild interest, but the moment I laid eyes on her, my bear came awake with a vengeance, fighting his way to the surface so hard and fast, I’d had to shift.
I’d let my bear take over and ran through the woods surrounding Kodiak for hours. It hadn’t seemed like my bear would ever lose the relentless drive that pushed me. But the photo of the girl kept flashing in my mind, and finally my bear brought me to the edge of the woods not far from the Ursus headquarters. And to the picture of Ivy.
I’d ended up sitting at my desk, staring at the photo for over an hour. And I sat there staring at her, it occurred to me I felt a sense of peacefulness stealing over me for the first time that I could remember since before I joined the military.
So here I sat, a week later, waiting to let the most recent hunter know his services were no longer needed. I stared out the windshield, my mind playing over the information in Ivy’s file for the millionth time. If I had the sense God gave a goat, I’d be pulling out of here and steering far, far away from the trouble that file described. I’d let the hunter I was waiting for have her.
At the thought, my bear growled and I could feel him edging his way to the surface. I tamped the anger down and realized there was no way I’d allow the slimy guy pulling into the parking lot right now to get his hands on her.
She was mine.
Chapter 4
Cole
Six days. That’s how long Ivy Quinn led me on a merry chase across the country and up through Canada. She’d mostly stayed on buses which kept me a step behind her at every turn.
And then—fuck me—the woman led me straight home. To my home.
I’d had to use a few military contacts to get information about her crossing the border from the U.S. into Canada and back again. And damned if the woman didn’t cross straight into Alaska.
I didn’t know if I should be pissed or impressed that she’d managed to get here without me grabbing her. But my I could feel my bear’s smug sense of satisfaction at having her so close to our territory.
Not for the first time, a niggle of doubt crept in about the information I found in Ivy’s file. Logic made it tough to believe a woman who suffered from psychotic episodes would find it so easy to escape capture for over a month. But I pushed the thought aside to focus on the task at hand.
From the information I’d been able to dig up, she’d gotten into Anchorage late yesterday and hadn’t gotten back on another bus. I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to track her from there. I decided to head to Kodiak for the day to check in at the office and maybe do a quick search to see if I got any hits on Ivy Quinn in the area before I tracked her down.
Finally.
I didn’t let myself spend too much time considering the feelings that surged through me at the thought of finally having her with me. Nor did I think too much about having to turn her over to her father once I apprehended her. It was enough for me right now to know she’d soon be in my care.
After spending the morning in the office with very little to show for it, I stopped at the diner in the middle of Kodiak. As I stepped through the doors, my head was on the info I’d gotten—namely, a whole lot of nothing. It seemed like the little sheltered girl I imagined when I looked at that photo just might have a few tricks up her sleeve. How had she managed to keep herself one step ahead of the men sent after her?
I swung the door open and started moving toward the counter…and stopped dead in my tracks. Sitting at one of the red vinyl and chrome stools at the counter was just the woman I was looking for.
Before I had the chance to do more than just register her presence, my bear woke up. I could feel him looking out from behind my eyes and his message was clear.
Mine.
Every instinct I possessed agreed with my bear and without even thinking about it, my feet carried me across the diner to the stool next to hers.
I slid onto it and found myself debating the right course of action. The logical part of me knew I should do my job—apprehend the fugitive and bring her back to the client.
But the bigger part of me kept questioning the information in that file. Something didn’t fit. The sheltered girl described on the page didn’t seem to describe the woman who managed to evade a host of investigators. Not to mention evading me.
Something didn’t make sense, and at the thought of capturing this woman and handing her over to her father, my bear went crazy. It took all my military training to keep still and beat back the feelings assailing me.
Before I had a chance to come up with a plan of attack, she turned my way and I for the very first time I was hit with the impact of all of her, live and in person, at full force. And it felt like someone reached inside me and rearranged a few of my internal organs. I could barely breath. My mind refused to focus.
And she was equally aware of me, I knew at once. Her big blue eyes widened and dilated. Those pouty lips parted and her breath left her on an audible gasp. She blinked up at me as one of her delicate hands moved up to her chest, clutching at the material of the fleece she wore.
Before I managed to get a word out or decide how to handle things, she spoke to me.
“I have dreams about you.” Her voice was a whisper. Her tone full of wonder.
But her odd words were enough to jar me from the chaotic thoughts and feelings churning through me.
“What?” I asked.
Her cheeks bloomed with color as she blushed. Her gaze dipped down, and I realized that we’d just spent at least a full minute with our eyes locked. The second she looked away, my bear growled, wanting her eyes back on us.
Without a thought, I reached over and used a finger to tip her chin back up. Even once her startled eyes met mine again, I didn’t drop my hand for several long moments. I liked the feeling of her soft skin too much. I barely resisted the urge to caress her cheek.
“You dream about me?” I asked.
Her lips parted and closed, and if possible, her cheeks got even rosier. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as she stared at me for long moments. And damn if the
sight of that didn’t have me fighting the urge to nip her bottom lip myself.
After a long beat of silence, she let out an embarrassed chuckle, shaking her head. “I know it sounds silly. But I swear, I’ve been having dreams about a man who looks just like you. It’s so strange.”
A battalion of emotions waged war inside me at her words. First and foremost, my bear’s satisfaction and deep sense of possession slammed into me. Her words struck him as exactly right. Of course my mate would dream about me. We were fated.
But the more pragmatic part of me, the part of me that kept me alive through some scary shit while I was in the Army, was leery of her words. My thoughts strayed to her file. Was this part of the reason she needed to be in her father’s care? Would she have uttered those words to any man who sat down beside her?
My bear roared at the idea of her having the same reaction to any other man. It took every ounce of my self-control not to snatch her up and take her and carry out of that restaurant.
Patience. I decided my best course of action was to play along.
“So you’re saying I’m the man of your dreams?” I somehow managed to tease.
But there was no trace of amusement on her beautiful face as she responded with a single word. “Yes.”
Shit. Part of me was hoping she’d laugh it off. Though again, my bear’s satisfaction that she didn’t came through loud and clear. What the fuck was I going to do?
I knew what I should do. Snatch her up and carry her home to her father as fast as I could.
But sitting beside her, her gorgeous eyes staring up at me expectantly, I knew I wasn’t ready to let her go.
“I guess if I’m the man of your dreams, the least I can do is buy you breakfast.”
She blinked and a flash of…something…flickered over her features. I couldn’t quite place it, but it seemed like a bit of wariness mixed with something else.
But then it cleared and the smile she gave me was like the sun coming out. “Okay. I think I’d like to have breakfast with you.”
