by E A Price
Jake was under the impression that the company’s own construction crew, or even Glenn himself, were most likely responsible. A number of them had already been thrown out of the pack bar for harassing women and getting into fights. They were heavy drinkers, and it wouldn’t surprise him if they did all the damage in their drunken haze. But, Glenn wouldn’t hear of it.
No, in Glenn’s opinion, it had to be the pack. It was a well-known fact that Adam had been opposed to the hotel being built. For one thing, the hotel was being built right next to pack land, and Adam didn’t want strangers wandering into their territory. It could potentially be dangerous for the strangers to come face to face with shifted wolves. For another, the pack wasn’t happy about the increase in visitors the town would receive. The Mayor could spout platitudes about the boost to the economy all he wanted, but ultimately, the pack liked their town for the quiet, safe place that it was.
Already, as well as the run-ins at the bar, the pack Enforcers had reported numerous confrontations with constructions workers who had wandered into pack territory and didn’t like being told to get out. Nothing had escalated to violence yet, but it was only a matter of time. His wolf didn’t like it; he could sense that something else was going on here, something bigger than a few petty crimes that everyone else was happy to blame on unruly teenagers. He’d relied on the gut feelings of his wolf back when he was a SEA agent, and he wasn’t about to stop now. If the wolf was worried, then so was he.
Jake parked outside the office trailer. He ignored the construction workers as they stopped to glare at him, and knocked on the door. Not waiting for an answer, he strode inside, leaving Cain outside. He tried not to chuckle as he scented touches of fear from the workers. Cain’s influence, no doubt. The workers were dumb enough to think that they could take Jake in a fight – they really couldn’t – but they weren’t suicidal enough to think they could take the burly bear shifter.
Jake nodded at Shannon, Glenn’s secretary or something. He had yet to see her do anything other than get Glenn some coffee and thoroughly embarrass Gabe by flirting outrageously with him the last time they swung by. Another good reason to bring Cain – most women were too terrified to try flirting.
Shannon tried to smile when she saw him, but she couldn’t hide the panic on her face. “How nice to see you,” she began.
Jake ignored her. “Where’s Glenn?”
Her eyes darted around the room for inspiration. “Ummm, Glenn left town.”
“When will he be back?”
“He’s not coming back,” she admitted and bit her lip.
Jake narrowed his eyes. She was nervous about something. Every time he’d been in there previously, she’d been nothing but smiles and overt flirts. But now, she was nervous. He was curious as to the reason why Glenn had just upped and left, given that the hotel was nowhere near finished, but really it was none of his business. All he knew is that nothing about this situation sat right with him or his wolf.
“We got a call that some damage had been done,” he stated plainly.
Shannon shook her head almost apologetically. “Yes, but it’s nothing really…”
He arched an eyebrow, and she gulped. “Tell me.”
“It was just some damage to the foundations, it’s fixable, but has set us back a couple of weeks… it’s probably just teenagers, right?”
“Yeah, probably,” he replied unenthusiastically.
He was surprised by Shannon’s attitude. When Glenn was here he made sure that Jake knew the exact details of everything that was broken, how much it cost and how long it was going to take to fix, and then he went on to criticize their ‘obscure hick town’ and rail and accuse all the wolves of plotting against the hotel. It was never a pleasant experience to deal with Glenn.
Shannon, on the other hand, seemed to be remorseful over something that wasn’t her fault. Jake already knew that she hadn’t done the previous damage; she’d been installed in Bar Luna, flirting mercilessly with various pack mates, and he doubted she would start doing anything now. He still suspected that Glenn had been causing the damage, but if he was no longer in town…
“Did you put up the security cameras as I advised?”
She shook her head and managed to look like a naughty schoolgirl. “Glenn said it was a waste of money, but his replacement is arriving tonight, so I’ll talk to her when she arrives.”
“Do, I’ll send you a copy of the report for your insurance claim.”
“Thanks.”
Jake started striding toward the exit. “I’ll just take a look around at the damage.”
It wasn’t as bad as he was expecting, but it was still pretty bad. He tried to get a scent, but he guessed that whoever did it covered their own scent, and because of all the different people working on the site, he couldn’t be sure he would get the right one. He considered asking Don, the pack tracker, to try, but doubted it would help.
His phone rang, and with increasing annoyance, he was informed that an argument had erupted between his pack mate Hans and one of the construction workers. Hans didn’t like the way that the guy looked at his mate, Melanie. Apparently the guy had given her a lingering look. It didn’t take much to set Hans off. The wolf shifter was as explosive as a firecracker.
Great. They didn’t really need the pack stirring things up even more. He was already uneasy about the way things were going. There were already rumors abounding that the pack was trying to undermine the hotel. It was like freaking Chinese whispers. People were making them out to be bullies.
Both he and Adam suspected that the Mayor had been fanning the flames of discontent. A pack member, Jolene, worked for the Mayor, and although she felt guilty about it, she had reported to Adam just how hopping mad the Mayor was over the problems at the hotel. He was keen for the hotel to be built and not at all keen on the pack. Although, thankfully his anger wasn’t directed at Jolene. But it meant that the townspeople were starting to turn hostile to the pack.
He’d talk to Adam and tell him that pack members needed to stay away from the construction site and all the workers. But for now, he needed to deal with the latest blow-up from his pack mate, Hans.
*
1st March
Val sighed at the mess of paperwork on her desk. What the crap had Glenn been doing? Where were his plans? Where was his filing system? Everything was a clusterfuck of a mess.
She allowed herself a smidge of self-pity and rested her head on the desk. In her haste to run home and pack the previous day, she forgot to ask Lois about why Glenn had suddenly quit his job, but she was starting to suspect that something had seriously gone wrong. Glenn was a lot of things – misogynistic asshole sprang to mind – but he’d always been professional in the past. What the heck had happened with this job?
She slid her eyes over to Shannon and scowled. The young brunette was idly flipping through a fashion magazine. She was absolutely no help. Shannon had informed her that Glenn liked to do all the work himself and that she had no idea about what he was doing. Although she did impart the news about all the vandalism that had occurred; she suggested that Val get onto arranging for some security cameras to be installed.
In exasperation, Val had demanded just what Shannon did for the obscene wage she was apparently paid. Seriously, her pay packet was more padded than Val’s old one! Shannon patiently informed her that she was there to ‘deal’ with clients. From that, Val gathered she was there to flirt with anyone who walked through the door, perhaps to distract them from the fact that the hotel project was slowly sinking.
Val had already suggested that Shannon roll up her sleeves and dig into the paperwork and help her sort out the mess. But, after half an hour of Shannon’s questions – how could she not know what an invoice was?! – Val told her to go back to whatever it was that she did. Ostensibly, that was magazine reading. Clearly, she wasn’t hired for her organizational skills.
What the hell was Glenn thinking? The place was in such a mess. She’d known something was
wrong when Conrad threw this job at her and yet she’d allowed herself a moment of happiness. How could she have been so dumb?
Shannon looked up sharply as a fierce growl escaped from Val’s lips. “Are you okay?”
Val felt her cheeks heat up. Where the heck had that come from? “It was just my stomach,” she muttered.
Shannon looked at her doubtfully but was soon distracted when she heard a car pull up outside. She ran over to the window with more enthusiasm than Val would have thought possible – based on all the ‘work’ she’d done all day.
“Ooh, the town’s hot sheriff is here again. He probably wants to talk to you.”
Shannon smirked at her, and Val felt a frisson of unease mixed with anticipation. She felt an unexpected amount of excitement all of a sudden. What was with that?
Dragging her feet, Val went to look out the window beside Shannon, furiously ignoring just how tall and skinny the younger woman happened to be.
“That’s the sheriff?” Val eyed an enormous man in uniform getting out of a patrol car. The car almost sprung up a couple of feet when relieved from what was undoubtedly his monumental weight. He wasn’t fat; there was just a lot of him. Damn, the guy looked like Herman Munster’s love child.
Shannon clucked her tongue. “No, he’s a deputy. The sheriff’s the black guy over there.”
She pointed in his direction and Val almost gasped when she caught sight of him. “Yeah, he’s not bad looking,” she breathed.
Freaking understatement of the century. Val felt her mouth go dry, her innards turn to mush and her sex wake up and virtually wink at just the sight of him. Jeez Louise, where had this come from? She prided herself on keeping it together in front of men, and yet this one had slain her at twenty paces and with a window separating them. If this was the reaction he elicited from far away, how would she cope if she saw him up close?
“He’s a walking wet dream, alright, and a wolf shifter to boot. I hear they’re fantastic in the sack,” murmured Shannon. “It’s a shame he always seems to be pissed every time he comes here.”
Val watched him avidly. “Why is he always… Wait, what’s happening?”
The sheriff seemed to be roughly pushing one of their construction workers to his patrol car. She was annoyed to realize that her heart fluttered a little to see him acting so dominant, and even more so when she tried to rationalize his behavior and determined that the guy probably deserved it. Thoroughly disappointed in herself for thinking like a southern belle, logic took over, and all she could see was the local police officer trying to arrest one of her employees.
Fueled by her own irritation, she barreled out of the trailer and marched right over to him. Damn, why hadn’t she taken the time to get a manicure and her hair cut before now? Plus a bikini wax couldn’t have hurt. No, bad thoughts – bad, silly thoughts.
The other workers had stopped what they were doing and were shouting insults at the sheriff, who steadfastly ignored them. His huge deputy, however, cracked his knuckles and eyeballed them all menacingly. They didn’t shut up, but they weren’t quite so vociferous as before.
Val planted herself in front of the sheriff and put her hands on her hips. She must have looked like a poor imitation of Wonder Woman, but she didn’t care.
“What’s going on here?” she demanded in her bossiest voice.
The sheriff stopped but kept a hold on the man jerking in his grasp. The sheriff barely moved a muscle, and it didn’t seem to take any effort at all to restrain him, even though the man was struggling for all he was worth. The tall, dark wolf shifter raked his eyes over her body, appraising her and making her wish that she could freeze the moment and run off to the gym to lose, oh, say about, twenty pounds. Oh, well…
Unexpectedly, the sheriff’s lips curled up slightly into a smile – a half-smile that almost had her go weak at the knees. Plus the uniform that did nothing to hide his perfect body didn’t help. It clung to him so tightly, she almost expected him to be a stripper. She almost asked him how much it would cost to hire him…
She’d seen men who could have been called prettier than him, but his almost hard face and chiseled features made him downright smoldering. Added to that, his broad shoulders, long muscled legs, bulging biceps and that tight, tight stomach – lord, they grew them well out in Virginia! And oh, those eyes….
Val stared into his remorseless dark eyes. It was like getting sucked into a deep, dark chocolate pool. She could happily swim in that darn pool all day! But, lord, it felt like he was seeing into her very soul. She shivered; she was dressed for the cool weather, but she felt naked under that look. That look that could see everything, that look that made her want to tell him everything tiny detail of her life: the good, the bad and the downright embarrassing.
Oh, the moment was so perfect, and then he had to go ahead and ruin it by bringing her crashing back to reality.
“Ma’am, please step back; this doesn’t concern you.”
His deep voice was so sinfully smooth that she almost missed those words. Thank heavens her common sense started prevailing again, instead of her suddenly raging libido.
“This does concern me, he is one of my employees,” she snapped. Although, for some reason, it felt really wrong to speak to him that way. To be fair, her only urge was to leap over to him and shower him with kisses. That probably wouldn’t go down well.
The sheriff looked at her mildly. “A complaint has been made against your employee.”
Val looked down at the struggling man. She thought his name was Trip or something like that. He was the site foreman, and she’d met him earlier. Her first impression of him had not been favorable, but he did work for her now, so maybe she should show a little solidarity.
She jutted her chin. “Who made a complaint?”
“A female said he was aggressive with her, and when she turned him down, he tried to grab her, so she hit him.”
Val frowned. A female… that was an odd way of saying it. As for the rest, as bad as it sounded, yeah, she had no trouble imagining it.
“Fucking wolf,” gasped the red-faced Trip, “I told you I was out drinking with my buddies. They’ll all tell you the same thing.”
The sheriff’s face tightened slightly, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he tried to maneuver his way around Val. He was ignoring her! How dare he? She deserved to be noticed!
“Where are you taking him?”
The sheriff blinked at her, almost like he was seeing her for the first time. “We still need to talk to him,” he said gruffly.
“He should have a lawyer.”
Yeesh, the gruffer he was, the more hostile she was, all the while her temperature was skyrocketing.
“We’re not arresting him,” he muttered almost sullenly.
“Then he doesn’t have to go with you.”
Okay, dial it back Val, you’re turning into a shrew.
“Then I will arrest him, and he’ll be able to call a lawyer,” he ground out.
Val threw up her hands melodramatically. “This is ridiculous; he said he has an alibi. Maybe she’s just pissed that he rejected her.”
Oh, she hated herself for thinking that and seriously doubted that any woman would want to get herself a piece of Trip so badly that she would lie about this.
The sheriff breathed in and out a couple of times, and Val was a little cowed, and a lot turned on, by the storminess of his dark eyes.
“I don’t believe the woman in question would make a false statement.”
“So, she’s a friend of yours?”
His nostrils flared. “She’s a member of my pack and a valued member of the community.”
Val, for some reason, felt a huge rush of jealousy over this. What was so great about this woman? Whatever it was, it pissed her off even more, and worsened her already irrational state. Vaguely, she was aware of her common sense trying to pipe up, but it was being far too quiet to be heard.
“Oh, I see, so because she’s your friend you believe her
word over his?”
“I need to get both sides of the story!”
She was starting to rile him; she could tell.
“That’s very unprofessional,” she sniffed.
His jaw ticked. “Ma’am, I have to do my duty, and a complaint has been made…”
Oh, being called Ma’am made her feel so old!
“So you’re saying you’d behave this way if I made this complaint?”
“Of course!” He was taken aback by that, and actually looked worried at the prospect.
Maybe worried that he’d have to deal with a crazy female like her for longer than necessary.
“I don’t believe you,” she said stubbornly.
Okay, now he looked downright murderous, but still he maintained his cool politeness. “Ma’am, what you believe is not my concern.”
Ma’am again! Her blood boiled, and her sex fluttered.
“Stop calling me Ma’am, you butthole!”
Val slapped her hands over her mouth. She couldn’t believe she’d just lost control like that! She could hardly be called a delicate flower, but she wasn’t ever so openly brash or rude.
The sheriff stared at her for a couple of beats, before hauling Trip into the waiting meaty hands of his deputy. He nodded, and the huge deputy pushed him into the patrol car. The sheriff turned back to her, and if she didn’t know any better, she’d think he had a gleam in his eye.
“I’m sorry…” she started.
“Ma’am, you’ve just verbally abused an officer of the law, and you are standing in the way of me doing my duty, I am going to have to arrest you.”
“What?!”
He wrapped a hand around her arm, and she shivered as pleasurable jolts of electricity pulsed through her body. He stilled for a second, and she wondered if he felt it too. She sought out his molten eyes and she thought she saw something flicker in his gaze before he had to go ahead and ruin it.
He started gently leading her toward his car and then she came to her senses and remembered just what the heck was happening. Dang, he really was arresting her! The nerve!
