by J. D. Light
He was grinning from ear to ear, bouncing his eyebrows up and down in a ridiculous fashion that I was pretty sure was supposed to be suggestive, but honestly made him look like his nose was itching and he didn't have a free hand to scratch it.
Unable to do anything but smile at the giant oaf, I crutched over to the table, clearing up some of the junk and making room so he could put down the file that had already been huge before the rescue but now looked like it had doubled in size.
"They didn't let me talk to any of the chosen. Probably not a bad idea. We all know how offensive I can be by accident. In fact, maybe I should leave before your mate comes out." He cringed, looking at the door to the bathroom. "I don't want to say something that will freak him out if he's as jumpy as the others."
Smiling fondly at the grizzly shifter, I just shook my head. "Bentley is fine, Har. Please stay. Meet him. I bet he's going to love you."
I could understand his concern, though. Because of his boisterous personality and innate ability to stick his giant size sixteen foot in his mouth at any given moment, most people thought of him as annoying or just plain stupid. But the man was a tactical genius, and surprisingly innocent for someone in their fifties.
Though, as most shifters did, he barely looked over twenty-five.
"Are you sure? I can go out to the truck and call you while you go over all this stuff." This was the side of Harley Daniels that made me feel like he was in need of protection.
He just looked so sad. This man-child who was every bit as huge as Thompsyn Lane, Bennett's giant mate, but had the social abilities of an overly friendly baby elephant and absolutely zero confidence in himself on anything that wasn't related to planning out a mission flawlessly, looked like a sad puppy who chewed something he shouldn't have and was waiting to be yelled at.
"I'm positive. Bentley will be out any minute, and I really want you to meet him."
Harley's wide, almost violet eyes met mine, and my heart melted in a very fatherly way.
He'd been working for the FBI for almost three years now, and I honestly wished there were a way to adopt a full-grown man, because I absolutely would.
The bathroom door opened, and my freshly clean and gorgeously rosy mate walked out, smiling shyly at me and then the other man in the room.
"Bentley, this is Harley. Harley, this is my mate, Bentley," I said, gesturing to one and then the other.
Standing quickly and almost making his chair topple backwards, Harley took two of his giant steps and was suddenly standing in front of my mate, making Bentley's eyes widen humorously, before he smiled brightly.
"Hi, Bentley. Wow, you're really pretty." Bentley giggled as Harley reached out his right hand to shake.
After a hesitated second, Bentley brought his right arm forward also, showing Harley his bandage before latching on to the big guys outstretched hand with his left. "Thank you, Harley."
"Oh shit! You're missing part of your arm. Did that happen during the kidnapping?"
I cringed. Watching my mate's face with wide eyes, I waited, frozen.
Bentley's eyebrows rose comically, his lips rolling between his teeth, clearly trying not to laugh. "No, Harley. I was in a car accident when I was six and my arm got crushed because I had it hanging out the window when the car rolled."
"Oh, good." Harley blinked for a second and then shook his head. "Not good that that happened to you. Good that it isn't new." Shrugging, Harley smiled. "You're still absolutely beautiful."
Growling slightly, especially when my mate blushed and giggled, I gave Harley a warning glare when he turned a bashful cringe in my direction.
"Thank you, Harley. You're very handsome too. I don't think I've ever seen anyone with eyes that color before. They look almost purple."
I wasn't sure if I was angry with the two for all the damn compliments or happy that they both found a camaraderie where they both probably needed one.
"Come here, mate," I practically growled, patting my right thigh while a beaming Harley turned and made his way to the table.
"Uh oh," he whispered, smirking when he crawled into my lap. "Now who's jealous?"
"Be good, precious boy. Shifters can be a little illogical when it comes to their mates."
"Sorry, boss." Harley's face turned bashful and he looked down at the papers in front of him. "I would never try to steal your man, but I couldn't help but notice his looks."
"It's fine, Harley. I can't imagine that there are many people who could look at Bentley and not see how beautiful he is." Smiling sideways at my gorgeous mate, I leaned over and pecked a kiss to his pretty lips. "I guess I'm going to have to work on my possessiveness a little."
Nodding, Harley opened the file, facing it toward Kinsey. "You already knew we recovered four of the twenty-three missing, not counting Bentley." He paused, pulling out pictures of the four, three female and one male, and spreading them across the table. "The male and two of the females were among the eighteen originally identified as chosen, but the third female also had a chosen mark.
"She told Boston that she had a mark on her scalp, just like the one he showed her. The reason her parents didn't know about it was because she was adopted when she was five. Her adoptive parents had never seen her without hair, and she herself didn't find out about the mark until her best friend got cancer a few years ago, and she shaved her head in commiseration.
"Since I wasn't sitting in on the interview, I went ahead and looked up the other four on the list that weren't confirmed chosen and found out that one other was adopted, two were in foster care, and one had no living relatives, therefore no one to confirm the mark. There also wasn't a picture for him. Just a description."
Nodding, I frowned. "Carter Benson. I remember. Had no social media accounts. Not much history on him at all. I couldn’t even find a picture that wasn't nearly five years old. He dropped out of high school when he was fifteen. Got his GED a few years later, and got into a junior college. He was almost done when he disappeared. I could only reach his roommate. He assured me Carter didn't have a mark, but I didn't like the way he sounded when I asked. Almost like he was nervous. Maybe somebody should pay him a visit."
"I'll do it. I might not be good with victims, but I'm excellent with suspects." The cold gleam that entered Harley's violet eyes just then almost made me shiver.
Gone was the man-child I wanted to adopt, and suddenly I was looking at the man who'd pulled information out of those much tougher than some college kid who couldn't even lie well.
"Normally, I wouldn't unleash you on someone I wasn't sure was actually a suspect, but this is very serious. Any contacts we can get will put us that much closer to catching these people."
"That brings me to the two men who were holding the chosen. I interviewed this man first." Harley slapped down a picture of the man Burt Avers had originally put us on the trail of. "He's Kyle Grange. Kyle happily told me within two minutes that he and his partner, Bill Dern," He threw down another picture, and Bentley stiffened, probably recognizing the man who had been stalking his brother and had abducted him, "are what they call "runners." They basically care for the needs of the chosen until the auction, and then all the runner groups meet up at the site and pass them off to the auction coordinators.
"He also volunteered the information that Bill was the one who actually planned Bentley's abduction. When I went over to watch the interview between Norman and Bill, I realized Norman was getting nothing from the asshole, so I went ahead and finished up for him. Bill eventually admitted that neither twin was on the list of targets, but that he was hoping to get a promotion to auction staff so he could go home almost every night.
"When he saw Marlow, he saw an opportunity. He didn't realize they were twins." Harley paused, clearly about to say something else, but looked at my mate where he was hiding his face against my neck and shook his head, frowning. "He ended up giving me the name of the man he was hoping would promote him. I ran his name through the system, and it turns out, he's a bit of a
big shot in Vegas. Wolf shifter named Oscar Burns."
"I've heard of him. Arrogant bastard. Believes himself to be untouchable. He throws a lot of money around, but nobody knows how he makes it. He claims he's just really good at gambling. Nobody believes him, but he pays taxes on the money he wins, so there isn't much we can do unless we catch him doing something." Squeezing my mate to my chest, I nuzzled his head when he buried his face against my neck again. "Being smack in the middle of a sex trafficking ring might just do that. But I don't believe for a second that he's at the very top."
"Why is that?" Harley started stacking all the different pictures from the evening, placing them in the crease of the folder before closing it and sliding it to the other side of the table.
"I think he's the front man. Whoever is the brains of this thing, he's not going to be the type of man who spends all his time in the limelight, but he's smart enough to know that he needs someone like Oscar. Someone who welcomes public scrutiny and actually thrives on people thinking he's some kind of bad boy. In order to make money, people need to know their little organization exists. They need someone to get the word out, someone who has friends in low places. Someone that, when it all falls apart, nobody is going to have a hard time believing is the bad guy."
"Either way, we need to get to Oscar," Harley said, narrowing his eyes.
"Yes, but we have to be subtle about it. If whoever is using Oscar gets wind of us even looking into him, they'll destroy any evidence, and any chance of figuring out whothey are. In fact, we should probably keep this just within our team. You know how well I trust the FBI." Glancing down at my mate, I hesitated for a moment before continuing. "The good thing about being a shifter and dealing with shifters is they can destroy whatever they want once I know who I'm dealing with. I have no problem handling the justice part from there on out."
Bentley blinked at me for a moment before his eyebrows rose. "Hmm. Good. It would help humankind tremendously if we could do the same thing to child rapists."
"Oh, so my mate is a bit blood thirsty." I leaned in, nipping the soft skin of his long, beautiful neck, loving the way he giggled and melted against me. "I like it."
He shrugged, rubbing his face against mine, humming when my whiskers brushed against his soft, smooth face.
"Do you think we should send someone undercover?" Harley asked, still very much in serious mode.
"Yeah. Probably Boston. But we aren't quite ready for that yet. We still need to get these chosen we've already rescued settled in one way or another.”
"Okay." Harley stood, again nearly toppling his chair. We'll get a call going once I get back so we can start working on Boston's cover, and I'll get geared up to go to Oklahoma to talk to Carter Benson's roommate."
Standing also, I placed my mate on the floor and smiled when I realized he'd almost fallen asleep against my chest. "Are we boring you, precious boy?"
"No," he said, shaking his head. "The sound of your voice is really soothing. I bet you're going to be the best at putting our babies to bed at night with a story."
The lazy, happy smile on his face made my heart flip. He should always look like that. Relaxed and hopeful. Not trying to hide himself from the world but feeling safe enough with the people around him to just be content.
"I want one." Harley's voice was quiet. Almost wistful. His thoughts often spilled out of his mouth without being checked, like he'd never learned the valuable skill of filtering. But hearing this thought almost seemed like intruding.
Glancing sideways at me, my mate looked almost apologetic just before he lunged at Harley and wrapped him in a hug. The big man was so surprised, he stumbled a bit under Bentley's insignificant weight.
The look on his face had me checking my jealousy. This was good for both of them. A nurturer who'd never really gotten the chance to nurture, and a man who'd never really been taken care of and clearly needed to feel loved.
There was nothing romantic there.
Maybe Bentley would adopt Harley with me.
When they pulled apart, Harley blinked away what I suspected might be a tear and waved awkwardly before bumbling his way to the door. "I'll talk to you later, boss. Bye, Bentley. I'm really glad you didn't get sold to some nasty old man."
Blinking for a second, Bentley giggled. "Bye, Harley. It was really nice meeting you."
When the door closed behind the grizzly shifter, my mate sighed. "Is it weird that I want to adopt him?"
***
Keeping my jealousy in check was a little tougher in a room full of leopards, when everyone was passing my unclaimed mate around like a fucking joint. Every damn member had hugged him, and his brother had tried to lead him away into the kitchen more than once.
"Give me my fucking mate," I growled when Marlow again tried to steer him toward the back of the house.
"Listen, FBI. He's my brother. I just want to check and make sure you aren't taking advantage of him." Marlow's face was fierce, and even though he looked nearly identical to my mate, I had no doubt there would never be a time when I wouldn't be able to pick which was which out of a photo.
Finding it a bit hard to stay angry when I actually did appreciate the man for always having Bentley's back, I shrugged. "Mate trumps brother."
Marlow clearly didn't have the hang-ups about being angry that I did. Whatever he'd been about to say turned into a garbled, angry squeal against Arlington's hand, and I couldn't help but chuckle at the smirk the guy sent me when he pulled the feisty human against him.
"Remember, Blondie. Kinsey is Bentley's perfect match in every way. The man would do absolutely anything to keep your brother safe and happy."
Nodding, but still glaring in my direction, Marlow finally settled down. It probably had to do with the way Arlington kept running his goateed chin along the skin of his neck. When his mate lifted his hand from his mouth, Marlow crossed his arms and leaned back against the man's chest.
"Soulmates. Right. It's still kinda hard to believe that my perfect match probably has old posters of Mark McGrath hidden away in his closet somewhere."
Sighing, Bentley reached out and smacked his brother on the arm. "Quit being so mean. And I platypus-promise Kinsey has been nothing but amazing." Turning to the room, he asked, "Who's hungry?"
What the fuck is platypus-promise?
Chapter Four
As I cooked for an obscene amount of people, I listened to the rundown of exactly how the process of saving me and the four other chosen went, and then to Flynn volunteer to help any who had been exposed to what shifters were and might not have a place to go or want to go back to where they were before.
Most of that night was still a bit foggy. I could remember the men talking about not being able to sell me as a mate because of my arm, and I could definitely remember the way I felt when Kinsey had taken me into his arms, but I was still unsure where I had even been held and how long I'd been missing.
I wasn't really sure I wanted to know, either. I could still smell the lovely outhouse smell that was our prison for however long we'd been there.
I talked Davis, Marlow, Rory, and Sutton into helping me set the table and carry all the food out, but made them sit down with everyone else when they all filed into the large dining room.
I was oddly confident as I started serving everyone the large pork chops I'd grilled on the indoor grill, and even rolled the sleeve of my long t-shirt up so I wouldn't drop the platter. Of course, I did still have a bandage over the scars on my right arm, but it had been a really long time since I'd done anything other than hide it from the world by letting my sleeve act as an extension.
"Alright, precious boy. Everyone is happily eating your delicious food. It's time to sit that cute little ass down and eat." My mate reached out and snatched my wrist, tugging me into the seat next to his, leaning over to peck a kiss to the side of my head. "These pork chops are absolutely delicious. I'm going to have to be careful, or you're going to make me fat."
Blushing, I sat down in the seat
between my mate and my brother and swatted Marlow when I looked over at him to see he was batting his eyelashes and mouthing, "Oh, Bentley. You are so good with meat."
"Don't be jealous all you can make is a snow-cone and a cappuccino," I mouthed back, making him laugh.
"I make a green apple snow-cone that will tempt a man to ravish me in public places. I think I got the better skill," Marlow said dryly, sniffing.
Flynn smiled at Marlow and me before turning to my mate.
My mate! How freaking crazy was that?
"Thank you again, Kinsey, for all your team's work on that vaccine. I feel much better knowing there is one less thing out there to take out my entire leap." Shaking his head, Flynn sighed. "It just seems so crazy to me that people I thought were so strong-willed are so easily manipulated by a crazy man. These people just go from having completely normal lives to suddenly ready to take out almost every member of their pack if it serves Linus Martin."
Nodding, Kinsey finished chewing his bite—and I had to look away as his jaw muscles worked—and licked his lips. I really would like to avoid getting a hard-on at the table. Especially while sitting next to my brother.
Giving me a knowing look when I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, Kinsey cleared his throat. "The two men we took in the day of your leap meeting both admitted they were all on board with thinking they had the right to be above humans on the food chain and had no problem getting rid of them or at least showing their superiority, most likely making them slaves or something. But they had originally balked at the idea of killing off their leap members.
"Apparently, the cheetah put them on the phone with Linus. He seemed to find it very important to introduce them to the man, even if it was just over the phone. Within a couple minutes of talking to him, they were more than happy to take out every member of your leap if they didn't comply, but first they wanted to get rid of the humans."
"It's hard to believe something like taking out an entire leap is a decision that can be made in two minutes by people who were originally against it. How the fuck does he manage that? Abby was clearly not as stable as I thought, but she seriously had it in her mind that not only was I going to be persuaded to join her, but that I was going to do it at the detriment of my own soulmate." Flynn glanced over at Ridley, reaching a hand up to run the back of his finger down the side of the redhead's face, smiling softly.
