by Vivian Arend
Damn bears. Far too patient. Evan wanted to do something immediate and physical, like finding an appropriate neck to wring. Instead all he had were more questions without answers.
He hauled his temper back into line. Last night had been a hell of a trip, but the time in the cell had allowed him to plan. Evan knew what he needed to do. He plopped himself down onto the coffee table, resting his elbows on his knees as he faced the bear. “I appreciate you getting me out of jail. Shaun tried, but they didn’t listen.”
“Shaun doesn’t look as impressive in a suit as I do,” Justin pointed out. “And it’s no problem. If you were in jail and Caroline heard, she’d be upset. That would make my boss upset, because they’d have to cut their honeymoon short, so for the next while keeping you on the straight and narrow is my job.”
Oh, hell to the no. This wasn’t going to turn into some kind of let’s-take-care-of-Evan deal. “Look, I said I appreciated being bailed out this morning. Don’t push it. I don’t need a nanny.”
“You won’t even know I’m around,” Justin promised.
The six-foot-six, dark-haired bear shifter who sat on Evan’s couch wore a thousand-dollar suit along with polished black shoes and a watch that probably cost more than Evan’s shiny red Hummer. “Right. Because you’re so inconspicuous and shit.”
“Like a fly on the wall.” Justin lifted his hands to shoulder height and fluttered his fingers, and Evan burst out laughing, the tension piled on his back vanishing for a moment in much-needed levity.
“Between you and Shaun, I’m going to get nothing done.”
“Oh, you’ll get stuff done, because I’ll keep the problems out of your hair.”
“You’re a bear. What do you care?”
Justin waited again.
“Caroline, Tyler, honeymoon, I understand that part. But is that all?”
“If you’re looking for some deep confession of love, nope. Not getting it.”
Evan made a rude noise, even though he was amused. The wolves he took care of were hilarious at times with their antics, but this bear hit a different part of his funny bone.
There was something other than amusement on his mind, though. He was no charity case. “I’ll pay you. Hourly rate to match whatever Tyler gives you.”
“I don’t need money.” Justin leaned forward and lowered his voice. “And you can’t afford me.”
“Bullshit.” Evan straightened up. “I’ve done all right for myself.”
Justin raised a brow. Held up a hand and twisted it so the gaudy oversized ring on his oversized finger caught the light and damn near blinded Evan.
“Fine. I don’t own a diamond mine.”
The bear shifter winked. “It’s okay, honest. I’m on salary with Tyler, and while he’s gone there’s not much for me to do. You wolves are entertaining.”
A familiar bark of laughter sounded from the door.
“That phrase gets said way too often around here.” Shaun stepped into the room. “You got a minute, Evan?”
Evan stood to greet his Beta, who looked, and smelled, far better than the previous night. “For you, always.”
“Your tires were stabbed with a knife. Something long, thin and not usually used on vehicles.” Shaun paused. “Not that blades are typically used on cars anyway, but you know what I mean. My contact thinks filleting knife.”
“For fish?” Evan dropped into his favourite chair, throwing a leg over the arm as he attempted to breathe out his tension. “Who the hell would take a filleting knife to my tires?”
“You piss anyone off lately?” Justin asked.
“He’s the Alpha of Takhini.” Shaun stomped to the side of the couch to glare at Justin. “Anyone he pisses off can take a hike.”
“Well, someone didn’t take a hike, instead they pulled off some well-executed and perfectly timed mischief. Which means someone else, probably from around here, made more than a few mistakes over the past couple days to allow that kind of trouble to go unchecked.” Justin eyed Shaun, judgment written all over his face.
Shaun bared his teeth at the enormous bruin. “If you’re accusing me of fucking up—”
“Guys. Stop.” Evan’s command snapped like a whip. Shaun straightened as if he’d been zapped with a Taser, and even Justin looked wary.
“I’m not blaming anyone, I just want solutions. Who is behind the things that have gone wrong?” He stared at the ceiling as he test-drove ideas, discarding them one after another.
For the past six months he’d been focused on a financial takeover of as many properties in the Whitehorse area as possible. The recent big bear gathering that had threatened the city had briefly sidetracked him, but for the most part, he’d thought he was in control.
Well, except for the charming little fact he’d sniffed his mate but had zero luck tracking her down. That hadn’t disturbed him at all.
Bullshit.
He couldn’t dwell on it, not only because her absence would drive him mad, but because there were no easy solutions. Obviously, he was missing some information. Now was the time to put aside his distractions and get to the root of the most demanding troubles.
He shot to his feet and paced the living room.
Shaun cleared his throat. “Suggestion. Don’t worry about who, yet. Worry about how.”
“Figure out how these seeming coincidences happened and put my butt in jail for the night? Sounds logical.” Evan glanced at Justin. “Since you’re planning on sticking around, grab some paper and take notes.”
Justin pulled a pad from his briefcase. “Fire away.”
“Bills supposedly went unpaid, and shipping orders are being changed, both for the kitchen and the hotel, that much is certain. The power is one example, but lots of recent deliveries have been cancelled.” Shaun wrinkled his nose as he concentrated.
“Bookings got messed up. We’ve had complaints about that as well,” Evan noted.
“Sometime in the past week? Month? …well, it can’t have been for very long or Caroline would have noticed.” Shaun’s eyes widened. He glanced at Justin before crossing the room to Evan’s side and whispering, “Is it safe to talk around Booboo?”
Evan nodded. “He’s got our back. I trust him.”
Shaun narrowed his gaze, giving Justin the evil eye. “I don’t know that I do, but fine.” He spoke louder. “All these weird things are happening around the hotel, your apartment or the pack house. Which means it’s got to be someone on the inside.”
Evan shook his head. “Impossible.”
“Why?” Justin asked. “There’s no one in the pack upset with you for any reason?”
“Doubt it. Also, the hotel profits go into funding the pack’s activities, and their retirement funds. It’s unlikely anyone would mess with things that affect their livelihood just to get at me.” His pack members were wild at times, but not stupid. “Plus I’ve talked to all of them over the past week. If someone was that upset, I’d know.”
Justin lifted the pen from the pad, watching Evan closely. “The wolf thing? Really, you’d just know?”
“The pack connection is an important part of us.” Evan leaned a hip on the island counter as he considered. “No. I’m positive, everyone I talked to is doing great. Maybe some of the women I turned down are disappointed. The ones who hit on me since it looks as if I’m single again.”
“Women.” Shaun and Justin exchanged knowing glances instead of being at loggerheads.
Shaun hummed. “Could be one of them. I mean, woman scorned, and all that.”
“Jeez, Shaun, grow up. You prove to me any of the females were upset enough to screw over the entire pack because I said I was taken, and I’ll quit the damn job right now.”
“You can’t quit. You quit, and that puts me Alpha, and no way do I want the pack when it’s this fucked up.” Shaun ducked under the halfhearted fist swi
ng Evan tossed.
He growled at his friend through his frustration. “You’re lucky I like you, or I’d burn off some of my irritation pounding your ass into the ground.”
“You can try. Anytime, anywhere, mon capitaine.”
All their debating wasn’t finding solutions. “This is the trouble with doing things the sneaky, undercover way. I might want to amalgamate the two packs in Whitehorse, but it would have been so much easier to march in and take over territory after ripping out a few throats.”
“You want me to get some friends to look into your troubles?” Justin offered. “I know you’ve got your own people, but the ones I deal with shift through dirty bear accounting all the time.”
“Duuude.” For the first time, Shaun sounded impressed. He was damn near bouncing with excitement as he faced Evan. “Take him up on it. I was talking with a couple bear shifters last week, and you should hear some of the nasty shit they try to get away with. I bet his guys can find the trouble, no matter how deep it’s hidden.”
A quiet ping sounded in the silence that followed Shaun’s approval. Evan paced a few more times back and forth across the floor, considering hard.
Ping.
Ping.
Justin tilted his head toward the desk. “You going to answer that?”
Evan frowned. “Answer what?”
“You got an IM.” Shaun pushed him toward the desktop computer Caroline had set up in the apartment to allow basic hotel tasks to be completed without having to go into the office.
Evan eyed the thing with suspicion. Great. More technology.
“Do I have to?” He turned back to see both guys examining him as if he were an alien creature. “Look, last night I swear my computer turned on the sprinklers without me. I don’t want to do anything to piss off the evil techno-overlords again.”
“Come on. Computers don’t work without you.” Shaun laughed. “Don’t be a scaredy-cat. You can do it.”
Evan’s fist hit Shaun’s shoulder with a resounding smack as he reluctantly passed his Beta en route to the desk. “Shuddap, you jerk. Justin? Go ahead and find out what information your people need. I want answers as to what’s going on, and I want them yesterday.”
Justin rose to his feet and pulled out a phone. “I’ll do this outside. Then lunch?”
“Sure.” Evan found the mouse and answered the summons. Ahh. This conversation was worth risking contact with a computer. His secret connection within the Canyon pack.
Amy?
Hi Evan. You okay?
Oh hell. She must have seen the news. I’m fine. Just a mix-up. Everything is straightened out
Not really, but that was as much as he was willing to admit.
Amy had been sharing bits of information about Canyon, and her intel was vital to his goal of merging the packs.
Can I help with anything? she asked.
I’m more worried about you, Evan admitted. You’ve been risking too much, getting in contact with me so often. I don’t want you in trouble. There’s always a risk your Alpha will find out you’ve been talking to Takhini
Amy paused for so long he thought the Internet had gone down.
I’m positive Sam won’t do anything
Which was not an answer, because there was no way she knew for sure how her Alpha would respond. If the shoe were on the other foot, and he discovered one of the Takhini pack had been discussing secrets with someone else, he’d be extremely pissed.
Evan grew more uncomfortable by the minute with the entire situation. Having access to information was important, but damn if he wanted to put an innocent wolf into harm’s way. He’d found out about Amy a couple weeks ago, and the longer the deception went on, the more unsettling the idea became.
“Anything good?” Shaun stepped behind him. “Oh, your Canyon contact.” He leaned down to read over Evan’s shoulder. “Sweet. There’s one thing. Confirmation this Sam guy we keep hearing rumours of is the one in charge.”
“Great. Now go find me the right Sam in all of Whitehorse so I can challenge him and take over his pack.”
Shaun’s chuckle turned to a low questioning hum. “Dude. I think… Yeah, I know her.”
“My informant?” Evan’s heart thumped like a pile driver into solid rock. “Seriously? What are you looking at? Where?”
“You are worse than useless with computers. Stop staring at your fingers when you type.” Shaun pointed to a small picture in the corner of the screen. “Right here on the contact list.”
“That entire list is like one inch square,” Evan snarled, leaning in to peer closer.
“Get some bifocals, old man.”
Evan backhanded Shaun without looking away from the screen.
His Beta laughed evilly as he rubbed his chest. “Seriously, I know her. She works at the place that fixes all the computers you manage to bust. I haven’t seen her often, but I’ve caught a glimpse or two of her hiding in the background.”
Evan could have sworn that picture hadn’t been there any other time he’d IMed with Amy. Another ping dragged his attention back to the computer as she poked him.
You still there?
Evan focused on the screen. On the small picture showing a delicate-looking woman with enormous eyes. Amy seemed far too small to be hiding the burden of deceit from her pack, and his protective nature kicked into overdrive.
We have to stop this, he wrote, desperate to assure her she wasn’t alone. It’s not right for so much pressure to be on anyone’s shoulders. I want you to come in. Come to the Takhini pack house, and let me protect you
I don’t need protection
Her response was instantaneous, and totally the wrong thing to say.
Damn. She was going to be stubborn? She hadn’t met the king of stubborn. He was about to try one last chance at diplomacy when a wonderful idea blossomed. Fine, but if you get worried, I expect to hear from you. Anytime you need a hand, you call me, and I’m there. And no more contacting me via IM.
That little warning message, the one stating Amy is writing appeared. Vanished. Appeared again, as if she were writing and erasing a note a few times. Probably planning to protest.
All he got was a final Okay
This conversation was over, anyway. Now that he knew where to find her? He was going to bring his informant into protective custody for her own damn good.
One quick trip to the computer shop, and she’d be under his wing and then he could get back to the business of straightening his pack affairs.
Because only once that mess was cleaned up could he concentrate on the aching pit inside demanding he drop everything else and look for his missing mate.
Another frustrated battle of wills raged within as the human side and the wolf pulled him in different directions. His wolf couldn’t understand why they weren’t off doing a house-to-house search of Whitehorse if that’s what it took to find her, damn the time and energy it would take.
The human side sympathized and sort of agreed, yet the truth sucked. Alpha wolves didn’t get the chance to do what they wanted. The pack and its well-being came first.
He soothed the wolf the best he could with promises of another nighttime search through the city.
In the meantime, he had a different quarry to track.
Evan rose to his feet and slapped Shaun on the shoulder. “Hold down the fort. Feed Justin, and make sure he has everything he needs. Oh, and could you ask your mate to help at the hotel front desk if she’s got the time? A little of Gem’s social savvy could go a long way to soothe ruffled clients.”
“Where are you going?” Shaun asked as he pivoted out of the way.
“I’m going to have a one-on-one with a certain secret who needs to become un-secret for her own good.”
Chapter Four
Amy leaned back in her chair, annoyance rising. Well, that hadn’
t gone nearly as well as she’d hoped. Evan had clammed up, and she hadn’t had a chance to set up the next sting.
Losing the ability to drop leading hints would have hurt a lot more a few weeks ago, though. Now she just about had everything in place.
She rose to stare out the window, the nearby leaves trembling in the slight breeze. Her skin itched, as if she’d been too long in a hot tub and was badly in need of cream.
Her wolf nudged her. Hard.
It wasn’t a trip to the spa she needed, but a good long run. Everything she did for the pack drained more of her energy. She loved each of them, cared for them deeply, but they were a group of individuals who required a unique kind of attention. Plus, there was the computer shop that was a real business even though she also used it to hide her presence.
Add in the extra time she’d put into planning surprises for Evan?
Screw it. A run would refresh her so she would have more to give. Amy pulled off her clothes and folded them carefully, stacking the articles to one side of her desk. She pushed open the sliding door behind her that led to the second-storey balcony, and drew in a deep breath of fresh air.
The sound of an email alert stopped her in the middle of taking advantage of her usual route to freedom. She stared longingly at the slim ramp built along the outside of the building at a narrow incline, stopping just far enough off the ground her wolf could make the leap but wild animals didn’t access her domain uninvited.
Amy took a quick glance at the email in the hopes she could blow it off, but this one needed attention ASAP. She left the door open, though, even as she sat, bare-ass naked in her computer chair and put out the pack fire.
But as soon as this was dealt with? She would take her cranky butt into the bush and work off her lingering aggression. The power of her wolf side hovered in the background as always. The beast made her strong and drove her nuts. One of the downfalls of being an Alpha female—she rarely had someone to work out her itch without them caving to her superior wolfie vibes.
