by Cara Adams
Tegan told herself she was thinking through the options, but her feet were already moving her back away from the wall to a distance she hoped wouldn’t disturb the insects.
She wiggled her ass to loosen her cell phone from the back pocket it was jammed into, then she hit the speed dial for Wolf Central.
“Hi, Josie. This’s Tegan. I’ve found the nest of spiders and don’t want to leave them to walk back to the clinic. Can you please tell Dr. Thorne and Harry Harrison so they can decide what to do next?”
“Yes. I’m doing it now. I’ve gotten your location from your phone’s GPS. Where exactly are the spiders?”
“On the wall, about fifty feet in front of me.”
“Is your cell phone in silent mode? I’ll call you back when they tell me what’s happening.”
Tegan always had the phone set to vibrate when she was working. “It’s on vibrate.”
“Okay. Talk to you soon.”
Tegan wanted to walk forward and check on the spiders. Suddenly she worried they’d all left as soon as she’d found them. But her going backward and forward would be more likely to send them running than anything else, so she forced herself to stay where she was.
Maybe five minutes later her phone vibrated. Tegan slid her finger over the unlock key and answered. “Yes.”
“The wolf spiders were stolen from a company called Spiders ’N’ Things here in town. A team from Spiders ’N’ Things is on its way to collect their property. Harry’s going to meet them at the gate and bring them to you. It’ll likely be ten, fifteen minutes yet.”
“No worries. Thanks, Josie.”
“Well done finding them.”
Walking as softly as she could, trying not to make any noise or even vibration the spiders might notice, Tegan moved forward again. The spiders were behaving exactly as before, marching up the wall and into the mattress. So far so good.
* * * *
Jayden Powell had been guarding the gate at Thorne House Clinic on and off for days. Today’d been a hell of a day between the punk kids breaking in and then having to clean up after them. Not to mention when the leader of the punks had thrown a container of poisonous spiders at a woman and one of the men had thrown the woman to him to get her out of the way of the spiders and glass. He’d caught the female as if she were a football, and had even run a few yards with her to make sure neither of them ended up wearing the spiders or got hit by the shattering glass, but it had scared the shit out of him. She was only a little thing, but still a whole lot bigger than a football, and besides, his football career had been over for ten years.
The woman had taken it all very well. He’d half expected her to faint or have hysterics. She had lost her breakfast, but then he’d damn near lost his, too, so that was nothing.
It was now well into the afternoon, and they were still searching for the fucking spiders. Personally, he couldn’t imagine they’d ever find them. The critters had likely been scared halfway to Michigan by now.
Just then he saw Harry Harrison walking down the driveway toward him. Jayden was a big, burly man. There’d been a reason he’d played college football, after all. But beside Harry he looked average. The bear was four inches taller than him and likely forty pounds heavier, all of it muscle. Yet he moved almost silently when he wanted to. Who’d have thought a bear could be graceful? But somehow Harry was.
Jayden wondered why Harry was coming down. It’d be so much easier just to text him after all. But Harry was good like that. A considerate boss, firm but always fair. He took no nonsense but worked damn hard and expected everyone else to do the same. That suited Jayden. He hated working for companies where the security guards were just there to look pretty and thieves walked off with whatever they wanted to.
Jayden smiled at Harry and walked forward a little way to meet him. “Anything new happening?” he asked.
“Yes. The people from Spiders ’N’ Things are on their way to collect their missing insects.”
“Great. Where were they? Who found them? Had they made a nest? I thought they’d be long gone from here.”
“Yes, they’ve settled into the mattress the kids used to get over the wall. Since it’s still ten feet in the air, I’m not sure how the insect people are going to do this, but that’s their problem I guess.”
“The mattress? I wonder why?”
Harry looked serious. “Yeah. It’s a bit weird. However, I expect the insect people will know the way bugs think and deal with it.”
Harry leaned a hip against the guard post, and Jayden faced the road again. He wished he could watch them at work, but he wasn’t keen to have spiders biting him, so perhaps he was better off having to stay here after all.
It was only about five minutes later that a truck pulled up with “Spiders ’N’ Things” painted on the sides and a huge spider painted on the hood. “Yuck!” Jayden opened the gate, and three men drove in and unloaded a stack of stuff. Jayden understood the ladders and huge collecting jars. There was also bug spray and what appeared to be a sealed box to put insects in, but as for the rest of their equipment, he had no idea what it was all about.
“That gang took over a thousand dollars’ worth of our best stock. We’ve already put in a claim for compensation. If we get enough of them back, we’ll cancel, but only if the spiders are still in saleable condition, mind,” said one of the men.
One thousand dead presidents for spiders. Wow. Expensive.
Jayden watched them pick up their gear and follow Harry over toward the wall and head away from him. Once more he faced out the gate, ready to do his job, but the back of his neck was itchy with the thought of all those spiders out there. He’d be damn glad when these people had their stock back and safely locked up. His brain knew a couple of bites wouldn’t hurt a healthy person like him. His heart wasn’t so sure.
Half an hour later he heard movement and turned around. It was the woman, carrying a pile of stuff for the insect people. The woman had found the spiders? Well, she’d earned her money then. Being on gate duty was boring, but all things considered Jayden preferred it to hunting for spiders.
The woman casually put a couple of large containers filled with spiders trying to climb out of them on the ground.
The woman smiled. “Hi, I’m Tegan.”
“Jayden. Are you sure they can’t get out of there?”
“The containers belong to the Spiders ’N’ Things people, so I reckon they’re secure.”
“You found where they were hiding? Good job.”
“Thank you. It took a while, but yes, finally I found them. They were setting up house in the mattress.”
Jayden couldn’t imagine why spiders would want to live in the mattress. Unless there was food or something in there. He didn’t like to think about that though, so he just nodded. The woman was very attractive. Well, what he could see of her that was. She had big green eyes. Her hair was covered by a hood, and her body was absolutely poured into a pair of black jeans, which accentuated long legs. He always liked long legs on a woman. All the better to wrap around his waist when they fucked. He wished her could see her hair, though. In fact, he’d like to spend more time with her and find out all about her. She seemed a really nice person.
“Are you just here for today, or will you be back tomorrow?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Dr. Thorne asked for me today. I just go where I’m sent.”
“Yeah, me, too. But it was Harry who hired me.”
She smiled at him then they both turned at the sound of conversation. Two of the people from the van had the mattress balanced across two ladders which they were carrying. Harry and the other man had the rest of the equipment.
“I’m surprised the police didn’t want to keep that mattress as evidence,” said Tegan.
Jayden nodded. “Yeah, those kids stole everything else. Likely they stole that, too.”
“We’ll take some photographs of it before we cut it open. We want to check we got all our spiders though,” the chatty man an
swered them as they loaded their gear back into the van.
“Do you think you did retrieve all your spiders?” asked Jayden.
“It’s hard to tell. We hadn’t done a head count at all. But if we didn’t, I don’t think there’s many out there now,” he replied.
“Thank God for that. The last thing we need is them coming inside the clinic,” said Harry.
Jayden agreed. He felt itchy just thinking about the insects.
Danny Davies, the clinic carpenter, was walking down the drive toward them. He spoke to the insect people and shook their hands, then as soon as they’d left he said, “Oscar wants to talk to y’all. I’ll mind the gate while you’re gone.”
What the fuck has gone wrong now?
Chapter Two
Tegan couldn’t understand why they’d all been summoned by the clinic’s owner. Harry was in charge. Why didn’t Oscar Thorne just talk to him? She had no need to even meet him. She worked for the Alpha who had an arrangement with Dr. Thorne. She had the strangest feeling running up and down her spine that something had gone wrong. But what? She’d found the spiders, and the people who owned them seemed pleased to have them back. She’d be pleased, too, when she could take off the wet suit. It was great to swim in one, but wearing it all day under her clothes wasn’t nearly so great.
On the positive side, she hadn’t been bitten even once, so that was good news.
She also noticed that Harry wasn’t walking as fast this time. Oh, he was still taking big steps, but he was a big man with long legs. It was as though he wasn’t in such an enormous hurry to arrive. And that was very interesting. Was he wondering what this call into the boss’s office was all about, too?
They all entered the front door of the clinic, and Ambrielle Watson was at the reception desk. She was the office administrator and partnered to Danny and Oscar. They had their own apartment on the top floor of the building.
“Hey, Ambrielle. I hear that Oscar wants us,” said Harry.
“He’s up on the top floor in that big empty room near our apartment. He said to send you three up to him.”
Now what? They were walking all through the clinic to a meeting instead of sitting in his office? This really doesn’t make sense. Unless he’s doing something important up there and doesn’t want to be interrupted. But what could that be?
Tegan glanced at Jayden, but he was very obviously just as confused as her. Harry looked thoughtful, but she didn’t know if that meant he understood or not.
Mentally Tegan shrugged. She’d find out in a few minutes anyway.
The back of the top floor was blocked off with a door across the hallway as it led into Oscar’s apartment. Other doors led to the right and left from the stairs, but Tegan didn’t know what was in there as they were all closed. The only open door was the one that was right by the stairs, leading into a room she guessed overlooked the front of the building. She followed Harry in there, and Jayden brought up the rear.
It was a lovely room. Very large and totally empty, painted with pale yellow walls and a deeper gold ceiling. There were three big windows looking out to the front of the property, and they had pale gold drapes across them. Drapes which were currently flung wide open.
On the outside wall was a small room Tegan guessed to be a bathroom, and beside it a mini kitchen with a sink, a refrigerator, a counter, and a microwave oven.
“What a pretty room,” she said, then wondered if she should have kept silent until she was spoken to. Oh, well, too late now.
Dr. Thorne smiled at her. “Thank you. This is going to be a rehabilitation room for people starting their recovery. We’ll use it for hobbies, crafts, gentle exercise classes, that type of thing. But for now, I’m thinking it’ll make a headquarters for you three. You’ll be out of the way of the patients and general staff up here, and relatively independent. There’s a half bathroom through there, and you can make your own snacks,” he said, waving to the door and the kitchen area.
“Why do we need a headquarters?” asked Harry.
Good question. She’d like to know the answer to that herself.
“Shut the door please, Jayden.”
Jayden stepped back and closed the door, then the four of them gathered in the center of the room.
“We all know my cousin George is fixated on taking this house and land for himself. But no one knows why, and so far no one can prove he’s behind many of the attacks. The judge heard him threaten me. Sierra Bond, my attorney, was there when Adam Roth accused George of paying him to frighten workers at the clinic. The wolf pack has some evidence of people trying to run my staff off the road. But it’s all minor stuff and not well substantiated.”
Tegan stared at Oscar. In her experience, some greedy people didn’t need a reason to do things. They wanted something and just went and took it. Half the time people who stole things didn’t even need what they stole. Oh yes, sure, hungry people stole food, and drug addicts stole things to pawn for drug money, but a lot of white-collar criminals, which this cousin George undoubtedly was, didn’t need a reason. If they wanted something they took it.
Tegan lifted her head. The doctor was talking again. “I want you three to set up headquarters in here. I want a watch on the property to prevent any more attacks on it from anyone at all, and I want you to use the rest of your time to find out why George wants my clinic and how he is linked with the young adults. Sierra has information on them, and she’ll keep digging for more. I want you three to find the link. I want something that will prevent George from taking the clinic away from me. He has to have a reason. There has to be evidence against him somewhere. I want you three to find it for me.”
Tegan shook her head. This was not possible. No matter how hard they dug, how many rocks they overturned, there was no guarantee they’d find anything. The best bet was the punk kids, and Sierra was already getting them checked. This was going to be a massive waste of time and energy.
Harry rubbed his hands together. “No worries, Oscar. We’ll move a couple of beds up here, set up tables for our laptops, and get right on it. With three of us we can each work an eight-hour shift so there’ll always be one of us on duty twenty-four-seven. We’ll move in tonight and should be working by the time you get up tomorrow.”
What? The man’s insane. Move in here and work with them for goodness knows how long on a hopeless case?
“I agree. We can do this for you, sir. We’ll all get right on it,” said Jayden.
Him, too? They’re both insane.
“What about you, Tegan? You’re an important part of this group. There has to be a female on the team, and I trust you to stand up to these two men and keep them on the ball.”
Her head was screaming, “No, no, no,” but somehow when her mouth opened what she said was, “Yes, Dr. Thorne. I’ll do my best for you.”
Well, fuck. She was so fucked now.
* * * *
Harry wasn’t surprised that Oscar had finally decided to ask him to solve the riddle of why George kept attacking the clinic. Everyone knew it was George. Or that George was behind the attacks, at the very least. It was inevitable that Oscar would get tired of waiting for George to give up and go away and decide to catch him out.
It was also inevitable that he’d be the one to lead the team. He’d put in a lot of work already on this case and had some ideas about where they could go looking for confirmation that George was behind all the trouble.
“Right. Tegan, go home and pack a suitcase for a week. Bring anything you need to conduct an online search as well. You can also be in charge of our meals, so bring us plenty of food.”
“What kind of food?”
“Whatever you plan to cook for us.”
“I’ll need money if you expect me to go shopping.”
Harry hadn’t expected her to be quite this negative. But likely he should give her some cash. As team leader he’d claim it back. “Make sure you keep the receipts.”
“Can do.”
He watched her ass
in those tight black jeans leave the room. He had a hard-on just watching her butt wiggle away from him. Likely it was just as well they’d be working shifts on this job until they wrapped George up and delivered him to the authorities. His mind needed to be on the job, not on a woman, no matter how enticing her body was. And Tegan’s body was the most enticing he’d seen in a very long time.
He dragged his mind back to setting up the room. “Right, we need a couple of tables, chairs, beds. Let’s do it.”
Jayden nodded.
The next hour was filled with sourcing the equipment they needed then carrying it up three flights of stairs. The clinic didn’t yet have much in the way of unused furniture, so they had to take things from areas where they would be least missed. In the end they could only get two beds.
“I’ll bring a sleeping bag back with me when I go home for my stuff. It won’t be ideal, but if both of you are asleep in the two beds at least I’ll be able to take a nap as well,” he said.
“It shouldn’t be a problem. Likely one of us should always be on duty. Are we going to set up some cameras to watch the front and back doors of the clinic, or will we just keep a guard on the gate?” asked Jayden.
Harry rested his hands on his hips. “I don’t think Oscar’s got a lot of money lying idle right now. If we do three eight-hour shifts on the gate, whoever’s on the gate should have spare time to keep running some Internet searches as well. And the new back door security with a pin code is much more secure than the old method.”
“Yeah. Besides, the shape-shifters here run around and check the wall for break-in attempts as well, don’t they?”
“Yes, they do. We need to keep encouraging that. It’s good use of time. Multitasking. The shape-shifters get the exercise they need, and we benefit from some extra eyes on our perimeter.”
Harry looked around the room. It still seemed quite spacious even with two large tables joined together to form a square, four straight-backed chairs pushed up to them, and two beds over against the side wall.
