by Noah Harris
Marcus watched him for a moment before giving a resigned sigh. “I can’t tell if you’re doing your normal Adrian bullshit or if you’re serious. Sometimes I don’t think there’s a difference.”
“Alas, my daddy tried to beat it out of me, but I guess I’m forever doomed to be impossible,” Adrian said in a mock wistful tone.
It was Marcus’ turn to roll his eyes. “Okay fine, you’re right, we did get the guy we were hoping to nail.”
“And?” Adrian prodded.
“And we managed to find enough evidence after arresting him to throw him away for what I hope is the rest of his life,” Marcus added, sounding like it pained him.
Adrian brightened. “See? Now was that so hard?”
“I’m still not convinced that you did it on purpose. Even if you did, next time, if you’re going to help, do it in a way that doesn’t involve property damage and a shit-ton of paperwork for me to fill out afterward,” Marcus grumbled.
It should have just been a barroom brawl that got the dealer arrested. Adrian hadn’t been counting on the dealer’s friends leaping into the fray and someone inadvertently hitting a bystander, pulling them into the mix. It had quickly spiraled out of control, ending with Adrian being thrown into the back of a police cruiser so he could spend the rest of the night in jail. It may not have been his brightest moment, but it looked like even Marcus couldn’t argue with the results.
“And there’s the grumpy alpha that we all know and love,” Adrian said brightly, earning a glower from Marcus.
“I notice you still haven’t told me what you want.”
“All this suspicion any time I show up. It’s like all of you seem to assume that I’m up to something instead of wanting to see all of your shining faces”
“If you wanted to come and see me, you could have just called when I was off-duty. Or maybe I would have found you crashed on my couch. Again. But you didn’t, you hunted me down on one of my breaks, knowing I would have to go back to the precinct at some point today. So tell me, what do you want?” Marcus asked with a growl.
“You are honestly so cute when you get all grumpy and pushy,” Adrian said as he dug around in his pockets.
Marcus grinned wolfishly. “Well then you are about to find me positively adorable if you don’t cut to the chase.”
Adrian had learned that he needed to be a little more careful when Marcus started getting a sense of humor. The alpha, second in command of the pack, had a decent tolerance for Adrian’s jokes and constant need to tease him. But he was also one of the quickest to snap at Adrian if he was pushed too far.
The only member of their pack who Adrian felt wasn’t truly comfortable with him was Liam. Marcus seemed to have somehow developed a sort of affection for Adrian over the years. At least that was what Adrian told himself when he wondered why Marcus hadn’t simply thrown him into a wall at any given opportunity. The man was even nice enough to lend Adrian his couch, despite his protests, when Adrian needed somewhere to crash that felt safer than his own apartment. As many precautious as Adrian took with his own safety, there was something to be said about sleeping in a known police officer’s apartment.
Adrian slapped a folded piece of paper on the table. “I need you to run these names.”
Marcus eyed the paper. “Run them how?”
“I need to know if any of these people have anything in their past that sticks out. I’m looking for theft, extortion, or embezzling. Hell, if they’ve got a record of breaking and entering, I’d like to know about it.”
Marcus took the paper, opening it to read the list. “There are quite a few names you’ve got here. Why can’t you do this yourself?”
Adrian shrugged. “Public records don’t always catch everything that’s relevant, whereas your search could pick up if they picked their nose in a public place when they were twelve. That and any search of public records could very well be detected, and I don’t want anyone to know that they’re being watched. They’re not going to have their shit pinged to notify them if a cop’s looking at them, and even if they do, they’re not going to think it’s anyone but a cop.”
Marcus refolded the paper and tucked it into his shirt. “Is this for the job that Eli has you doing?”
“Eli does not have me doing this job, Michael does,” Adrian corrected.
Marcus frowned. “Pack Leader Michael? The alpha you couldn’t get a reaction out of and it made you pout for a week straight?”
“First of all, I don’t pout, I brood, in a very adult and masculine fashion. Secondly, yes, him.”
“Fine, you brooded because the guy wouldn’t get frustrated when you were acting like a shit, whatever floats your boat. Why’s he need your help?”
“Why does anyone ever need my help? Because he needs information and I’m really good at getting it,” Adrian said with a shrug.
“You say as you have me getting information for you.”
Adrian snorted. “You’re one source of information. The wonderful thing about being the guy who knows how to get the details is that you don’t always have to get the details yourself. Look, it looks like someone is sabotaging his operations, and it might be an inside job. So he asked Eli if he could get me on the job because he figured I would have better luck finding the culprit.”
“That does sound like it’s right up your alley. Do you think it’s an inside job?”
“It’s a little early to tell, but if I were to guess, I’m going to say that there’s more than one finger in this particular pie. For someone to be causing this much trouble, there’s gotta be more than one person involved. The problem for Michael is that, yeah, there has to be someone on the inside helping,” Adrian said, wincing.
“It’s hard to imagine one of your own betraying you like that,” Marcus said darkly.
“Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking from the start.”
Marcus looked away, almost thoughtful, “Have you come up with any possible suspects?”
“Besides the ones whose names you hold in your hand right now? No. Why, do you have any ideas?”
Marcus grimaced. “A few of the boys in the other precincts have been talking about some new wolves in the city.”
Adrian straightened. “More werewolves? Why the hell wasn’t I hearing about this until now? Are they sure?”
Marcus’ scowl remained. “Well, it seems like it’s wolves from one of the septs around here. They’ve been staying with one of the pack leaders in the city, but I don’t know who.”
“Since when do sept wolves come out here and stay with us ‘dirty’ city wolves? The only time they leave their forests or mountaintops to come to the city is if they want to yell at us,” Adrian said in derision.
Marcus smiled thinly. “Well, apparently that’s not what they’re here for. For all we know, it could just be a rumor, but I’ve been hearing it enough lately that I’m starting to wonder.”
“Sept wolves live out in the middle of nowhere. They hate people, especially cities full of them. They’re not exactly what you would call the most intelligent when it comes to technology and business. They can tell you a lot of old stories that don’t matter anymore, and they can recite a bunch of old laws to justify why they’re judgmental assholes. But I can’t say that they’re capable of descending on a city to try to bring an alpha down,” Adrian said.
Marcus shrugged. “I don’t know much about them, except for what I hear, and I never seem to like the sounds of what I’ve heard. If I had my way, they wouldn’t even be allowed in our cities in the first place. If they want to sit out in the middle of nowhere, getting left behind by the times, then let them rot out there.”
Adrian didn’t disagree, but he smiled in an attempt to ease the tension. “Well, let’s hope that if you’re right and we do have some woodland visitors, they stay as far from us as possible. The last thing we need is for a group of them to show up on our doorstep.”
Marcus snorted. “Could you imagine them showing up to talk to Eli?”
/> Adrian chuckled at the thought. “He’s everything that they can’t stand. Sept wolves hate the idea of any of our kind living in the cities, let alone an alpha who’s happy with what he’s doing. They’d take one look at him, an alpha content with a small pack and territory, running a center meant to help humans, of all things, and they’d either turn right around and leave or try to tell him just how wrong he is.”
Marcus growled softly. “It would be better for them if they just left. Eli doesn’t need their shit.”
Adrian held his hands out in a helpless gesture. “Does it really matter though? If they’re even here, they’re not going to bother with small fish like our pack. Even if they despise us city wolves, they’re still only going to treat with the big, important pack leaders in the city. If they even know we exist in the first place, they’d ignore us.”
Marcus raised a brow. “Which is exactly how you would like it to stay.”
“Look, I chose this pack for a lot of reasons, and the fact that Eli didn’t want to make it big and important was one of them. Attention isn’t something I’m comfortable with, you know that.”
Marcus snorted. “Well, certain kinds of attention anyway.”
Adrian grinned. “Hey, there’s a big difference between getting the eye from a good-looking guy and getting a different sort of eye from someone who’s sizing up my pack.”
“And here we are, the talk of the city after bringing another alpha down,” Marcus said softly.
“Sometimes having a little attention is a good thing. I’d like to think that our smashing Richard’s pack means that we’re small, but at least we’re not seen as weak. I’m hoping it doesn’t attract the wrong sort of attention but at least everyone in the city knows we’re not easy prey. I don’t know about you, but I sort of like the sound of that,” Adrian said.
Marcus nodded. “Yeah, I suppose there is something to be said about not being viewed as pushovers. Draws a little more attention to you though, doesn’t it?”
Adrian gestured to himself. “And it’s a good thing that I’m so good at looking innocent and nondescript, now isn’t it?”
Marcus looked unimpressed. “You know, sometimes I think you’re not nearly as full of shit as you make yourself out to be.”
“Gonna prove it?” Adrian asked with a smirk.
“I have a hard enough time trying to nail criminals, I’m not going to try to force you to act like a normal person for once in your life.”
Adrian chuckled. “And this is why we don’t leave charming people up to you. Now, how long do you think it’ll take you to get me information on those names?”
“Could take to a few days. It’s quite a list, and I really don’t want to draw too much attention to myself by pinging a shit-ton of people under my login,” Marcus said.
Adrian nodded, having expected that. “That works.”
“And if you’ll excuse me, I’m still on the clock,” Marcus said as he stood.
“Gotta protect and serve this city and pack, I know,” Adrian teased.
Marcus paused as he passed Adrian, looking down at him with an unreadable expression. “The city, sure, but I think you’ve got our pack covered.”
It was precisely the right thing to say to shut down any smart retort that Adrian might have had. Marcus looked pleased with himself and Adrian might have suspected he said it just to get the upper hand. But Adrian knew that Marcus wasn’t the type to use compliments often, let alone flippantly. Adrian had no choice but to acknowledge the compliment as genuine with a flush of his cheeks.
He watched Marcus leave, eyes flicking up to the muted TV playing on the wall. His burgeoning good mood faltered as he saw the news headline reporting another fire in the city. There had been a rash of them over the past year, which he knew of only because Liam had been complaining about working overtime constantly. The warmth of Marcus’ unexpected compliment died when he saw the name of the building that had been burned down to the foundation. There were a lot of names in the files that Michal gave him and Adrian had skipped ahead. He had wanted to see if there were any current deals that were relevant, and the name of the restaurant that just burned down had been one of them.
“Damn it,” he swore, as he got up from the booth.
Chapter 6
By the time Adrian made it back to Michael’s home, the sun had been set for a few hours. As he had done the last time, Adrian moved to walk around the hedge rather than use the gate. He stopped when he saw that Michael had a large fence installed around the perimeter in just a day.
“Won’t stop them, but it’ll certainly increase their workload,” Adrian said with a faint chuckle.
Not minding that the camera could see him, it was a simple matter for Adrian to hop the gate. Before entering the house, he walked to the backyard to check on the deck. The lattice skirting the bottom had been removed and replaced with wooden boards, creating a solid barrier that would prevent anyone from easily slipping beneath the deck. Adrian had to hand it to Michael, when he set about making changes, he wasted no time.
He also noted that the locks on the doors had been changed, and Adrian would bet that the codes to the security system had also been altered. The sliding door was the weakest point, and after a moment, he had the lock slid up and the door open. There was no alarm, which didn’t surprise Adrian. So long as Michael was home, there would be very few intruders that the alpha would have to worry about.
“Michael?” Adrian called out softly, glancing into the living room to find it empty.
He wandered down the hallway that he hadn’t explored the first time he’d been there. A soft light came from a barely opened door off to one side of the hall. Adrian pushed it open, revealing a small office lit by a desk lamp. The light sat in a corner, propped up behind an open laptop and a collection of papers. At the middle of the large desk was Michael, head in his arms, his back rising and falling gently.
“You really weren’t kidding about getting shitty sleep,” Adrian chuckled as he stepped into the room.
He crossed the office, trying to make more noise than he normally did in hope that Michael would hear it and begin to wake. The last thing he needed was to surprise the alpha and end up losing an arm. Adrian had never been able to understand it, but every alpha he had ever known had a tendency to wake up swinging when startled. When he saw Michael stir briefly, Adrian felt a little more confident as he reached out to lay a hand on Michael’s shoulder.
“Hey, Michael,” Adrian said softly.
Michael’s shoulder twitched, and his head shifted. “I’m awake.”
Adrian smiled. “Well, you are now anyway.”
Michael sat up, looking at Adrian through a bleary gaze. “Adrian? What’re you doing here?”
Adrian watched Michael for a moment, trying to decide if the man was awake enough to have an actual conversation. He felt a little bad about waking him, as anyone tired enough to fall asleep at their desk probably needed sleep more than Adrian did. The circles under Michael’s eyes looked more pronounced than usual and Adrian wondered if he perhaps used makeup to cover them in his day to day life.
“Well, I told you I would be back after I did a bit of digging,” Adrian told him gently.
“You did,” Michael said blandly.
Adrian had to repress a smile, charmed by Michael’s slowness. “Want me to make you some coffee?”
Michael blinked owlishly at him, eventually shaking his head. “If it’s as late as it feels, I don’t want coffee.”
Adrian glanced at a clock on the nearby wall. “Yeah, I guess it is pretty late. I don’t really pay attention to that sort of thing.”
Michael rolled his neck, stretching a little in his seat. “Did you discover anything of interest?”
“I’ve got a trusted source digging into some things for me, but no, I don’t have anything yet,” Adrian replied.
Michael grunted. “When you said you’d be back after digging, you made it sound like you would have something for me. If tha
t’s not the case, then why are you here?”
Adrian hesitated, realizing that he didn’t have a real answer for that. He was more surprised than bothered that Michael only wanted him to return once he had something of use. The emotion was shoved aside as Adrian forced a smirk on his face, telling himself that he shouldn’t be surprised that the alpha wanted him to get his job done as soon as possible.
“Someone’s cranky when they first wake up,” Adrian said.
Michael eyed him for a long moment before sighing. “Apologies, I’m a little on edge after…”
Adrian winced. “Yeah, I heard about the fire. Sorry about that.”
Michael snorted. “Why are you sorry, were you the one who set it?”
“No, but I know that it’s not helping on top of everything that’s happened already,” Adrian said carefully.
Michael stood up, stretching. “I had hoped I had been quiet enough with this deal. That restaurant would have been a nice step toward alleviating the damage done to my income from the recent issues I’ve had. It seems, however, that my hope was misplaced.”
“Doesn’t really help get rid of the idea that it’s someone on the inside, does it?”
Michael moved to a nearby cabinet, reaching for it before stopping. “It’s probably a terrible idea to have a drink right now, isn’t it?”
Adrian chuckled. “I don’t think I’m really the best person to ask if a life choice is good or not.”
Michael glanced at him before turning away from the cabinet to sit on the edge of his desk. “I should have pulled someone like you in sooner than this.”
Adrian shifted uncomfortably, sitting uneasily in a chair across from the desk. “It might have helped, but I can’t say I blame you. I mean, shit happens in business all the time, there was no reason for you to think that something shifty was going on.”
Michael shook his head. “No, there were signs long before this that I chose to ignore.”
Adrian hadn’t had a chance to look over the files Michael had given him in their entirety. Yet he had seen enough of them to know that Michael wasn’t being careless in casting blame on himself. From what Adrian had read, there had been several incidents that should have alerted Michael that something wasn’t quite right. Michael hadn’t gone into too much detail about the frequency, but after looking over the information he’d been given, Adrian would have been suspicious after the second month. Over a period of six months, there had been over a dozen deals that fell through due to some outside, unidentified source.
