Page 9

Chapter Nine

Tegan

“Is it a new email?” Barrett asked.

My fingers trembled over the keyboard. It had been left unmarked, which in my chaotic filing system, meant that it was important, or recently received.

I had saved a ton of emails from Wild Adventures and Silverclaw Associates. Or at least, I used to have them. But never any from Gideon himself. He had staff to take care of tasks like that.

Tegan,

You probably think this is some cute game. You got away from me once, and I don’t plan on letting it happen again. Show this to the beast who stole you from me. Let him know that I am coming for you.

Yours,

Gideon

P.S. This email will be removed from the server, just like all those others you had kept about our company. I will find you, and all will go according to plan.

Barrett put his hand on my shoulder, and electricity rocketed through my already shocked body.

“Are you okay?” His voice had a delicious rumble to it. It was something I never knew I craved. I wanted him to take me in his arms and tell me it would be okay. That this nightmare would end. But he couldn’t. Not yet.

I shook my head.

“I’m scared.” My voice was barely more than a whisper.

“As long as you’re with me, you’re safe.”

Bellamy grunted. “They’ve got top-notch security on the Moonlight Mates .” He shook his head, tapping the keys harder, like he would be able to convince the password to work by force. “They’re hiding something.”

“Larrie will only know what Gideon wants her to. He has her eating out of his hand. I’m not sure what their agreement was, but I’m familiar with how he operates. Don’t waste your time with the show. Go straight to Silverclaw Enterprises.” My heart was pounding. “I always hoped I was overreacting. That it couldn’t possibly be this bad, and maybe it really was a coincidence that Gideon showed up on Moonlight Mates and just happened to pick me. But it’s worse than I thought, and it’s freaking me out. I don’t know how to fix it.”

“You don’t have to do anything. We’ll take care of this,” Barrett growled.

Bellamy looked up from the computer. “How far do you want to take this, boss? The job that we agreed to is complete. This is a whole new scope of work.”

I held my breath. Bellamy would have no problem bringing up payment. At this point, I’d likely have to sell everything I owned to pay off the original job. A helicopter rental wasn’t cheap. There was no way I could pay for more.

Barrett’s body tensed. “All the way.”

“We’ve dealt with Silverclaw before,” Bellamy said, his words slower than usual. Measured. Like a warning, telling Barrett to tuck tail and run. “It didn’t end well.”

“And we finally have a chance to get the final word.” Barrett’s eyes narrowed, and his gaze was firmly set on Bellamy, like he was daring him to back down. “He’s obviously still a fucking problem.”

It had to be a shifter pecking order thing. It was also a complete turn on, but I had to stay focused.

“What did you say? You’ve done another job with Gideon?”

“Not exactly.” Barrett sighed. “I moved to Idaho when we opened Sawtooth Security. My mate—” his eyes shifted, expression darkened, like saying the word out loud caused him physical pain. “—was from here. It was a great place to start a family, and her clan was thriving. Until they took a land development deal from Silverclaw Enterprises.”

I gasped. “Gideon stole their land.”

“Yup. It wasn’t someplace he used for his tours. But what used to be a wild area that had been kept native for generations is now covered with condos and a giant resort. He offered to let us buy at what he said were discounted rates, but way more than anyone of our bears could ever dream of spending on a house. A few bears took jobs at the hotel, but the pay was terrible, they couldn’t afford to live in the area, and they had to go someplace else and start over with nothing. Humiliated that they’d been had.”

“I’m so sorry. Scratch that, I’m furious. I feel like I’m responsible, somehow, because I worked for him. I should’ve done something, but I felt like I was. What I really did was let it happen.”

“This happened before you worked there.”

I rose from my chair, pacing the room. It felt like there was an animal inside of me ready to burst out. I couldn’t imagine how Barrett and Bellamy must have felt when they had to be close to Gideon at the altar and act professionally. They’d probably wanted to kick the ever-loving snot out of him. “He can’t get away with this. Is there any way for your clan to get their land back?”

Barrett shook his head. “We’ve moved on. Many of the bears have settled here in Sawtooth Forest. They’re happy now. Living good lives.”

“Sawtooth is a strong pack,” I said.

Barrett’s brow furrowed. “Are you sure you don’t know any of them?”

“Positive.” I tipped my head. “What would happen if I did?”

He rose from his chair. Fury rolled off his body in waves. He put his hands on my shoulders. “I think you and I want the same thing.”

I gulped, bracing myself for bad news about the wolves I’d come to love through a reality show. They hadn’t had things easy, and they didn’t always see eye to eye, but they always had everyone’s backs. It had given me a romantic view of pack life and was one of the reasons I wanted to stop Gideon.

“To take Gideon Silverclaw down,” Barrett continued when I didn’t answer. “He considers you a valuable asset. There are a lot of ways he could’ve dealt with you that made this marriage look like child’s play. So what I need from you, Tegan, is every single detail about what you saw. No matter how small it seems. Even if it seems stupid. The evidence we thought we had is gone, and his guys are one step ahead of the best systems analyst?—”

“Hacker.”

“Whatever. He knows what we’re looking for. Gideon’s slick, and you’ve spent enough time with him to be able?—”

“I’ve told you everything.” Or so I thought. My panic had me doubting myself. I started pacing again. “The big stuff. There are a thousand things that happened while I was working for him, and while we were filming the show. I’m not sure what’s important and what could send us in the wrong direction.”

“You’re doing a great job,” he said. “But you’ve said it yourself, and that email confirms that Gideon’s not done with you. That’s why no one can know you’re here, and why I was concerned that you might know the Sawtooth pack. The last thing we need is a well-meaning wolf to say the wrong thing.”

“How long do you expect we’ll have to stay hiding?” It definitely would not be a hardship to spend an undetermined amount of time with Barrett as my guardian in this tiny one-bed cabin. But it was also completely unrealistic. He surely had other clients and a life to go back to. “I…I can’t pay you to keep guarding me indefinitely. I’m not even sure I can make good on the original quote beyond the deposit I already paid?—”

Barrett’s hand cupped my chin, demanding that my gaze met his. “Some jobs you do for money. Others for honor.”

Bellamy sighed. “Boss?—”

Barrett shook his head, but his eyes never left mine.

“I’m gonna head into town. Maybe hit up the Stepchild tonight. See what the locals have to say about the case.” Bellamy slipped his laptop back into its bag. “I’ll keep working on the websites. Seems like you two have some terms and conditions to work through.”

“Wait.” I could hardly collect my thoughts. Barrett and Bellamy were fully within their rights to kick me to the curb. But they weren’t. They were all in. And I had no way to repay them. “Won’t the locals know something’s up if Bellamy shows up and starts asking about the case?”

“I’m a local. I live here. And I have no plans of telling them what we’ve done. I’ll be discreet. You were on a reality show, they were involved in a reality show. All I plan to do is find out what they have to say about it.”

“And you’re headed to the Stepchild?” I couldn’t resist an opportunity to be a fangirl. The bar had been prominently featured on The Real Werewives , and it was notorious for being a place where shifters could go wild, especially in an exclusive back room known as Red Heaven. Sweet moon, the filthy dreams I had about that place after my binge watch. “Maybe we should go too. Incognito, of course. I know who Gideon has working for him. That way, we’ll know if they’re close.”

“Absolutely not,” Barrett growled. “Too dangerous.”

I raised a brow, as playfully as I could manage. But sweet moon, I was frustrated. I was responsible for creating this mess, and I wanted to help fix it. “So you just plan on keeping me here, in this tiny cabin, for the rest of time?”

Barrett nodded. “Until I know you’re safe.”

“And you’re gonna stay with me? Or will you assign other bears to watch over me?”

“Just me.”

“I just told you I can’t pay you.”

“Don’t need you to.”

Bellamy groaned. “The two of you can work this out. We’ll touch base in the morning.”

I waited for the engine of the car to start before turning back to Barrett. He looked huge in this tiny cabin, but somehow still vulnerable.

“Listen, I appreciate that you want to see this job through, and understand that you have an ax to grind with Gideon too. I want nothing more than to stop this bastard. But we have to be realistic. This is way more than both of us bargained for. And you can’t work for free forever.”

“It’s not work, Tegan.” He pulled away from me and raked a hand through his hair. For a moment, I thought he might shift. “My bear thinks…fuck! It’s complicated.”

I furrowed my brow. Barrett was full-on flustered. Fire in his eyes. Heat in his cheeks.

“What does your bear think?”

“He wants you.” He sighed. “You can’t be my mate, because I’d already found her. But he knows that you’re special.”