Page 17 of Caught Bear Handed (Sawtooth Security #3)

I headed toward the stage and found The Real Werewives set up. They had screens playing iconic scenes from prior seasons, and a huge banner that read Do You Have What it Takes to be a Real Werewife?

An endless line of hopeful women snaked out from the display, fluffing their hair, filming selfies from the line for socials. There was another line, waiting for pictures and autographs with the contestants of the Sawtooth Forest season, and of course, cameras catching the entire thing.

I wished I could go talk to them. I had to wonder if any of them had been targeted by the crypto thieves. But there was no way to bring that up in the thirty seconds I’d have to talk to them.

Wandering away from the stage and the Werewives, I wound up near the food tents and the picnic tables.

The vibration of wolf was strong everywhere I went.

It should’ve comforted me, but it made me feel a little lonely.

Everyone had told me how welcoming this pack was, and I couldn’t reveal who I really was.

Laughter rang out from a table full of women. I recognized Delaney from Forever Home Ranch and fought the urge to wave to her and tell her who I was. She was Sawtooth pack, which meant these other women probably were too. Amelia often told us how close knit the pack was.

I moved closer, doing my best to keep things casual, when I finally saw Amelia.

She was sitting on a bench with a woman with a blue pixie cut and a very pregnant lady. They were laughing and enjoying barbecue.

This part of the plan had been impossible to script, because I had no idea what the circumstances would be when and if I found her.

I had to stop staring at the ladies like I’d never seen a celebrity in person before.

My wolf snickered at the irony, but it didn’t stop the sweat from trickling down my spine—half from nerves and half from this wig cap.

“Barrett,” I turned and said softly into the microphone. “I found Amelia.”

Static blossomed in my ears, scrambling his reply.

“Is Beau still with you?” I asked, hoping a simple yes or no reply would be clearer.

No such luck. It sounded like my security team had been transported to another planet.

“I can’t understand you,” I said. “I’m going to talk to her.”

There was urgent sounding chaos in response, and I had to hope the head bear in charge was cheering me on, because I couldn’t come so far, put myself into character, and simply walk away from the chance to make a break in this case.

Using all the new girl on the first day of school energy I could muster, I approached the ladies. My heart pounded, but my wolf assured me my nerves were unfounded. Amelia was my friend, my colleague. But in this disguise, she wouldn’t recognize me, I had only a few seconds to gain her trust.

“Hi, I’m Gina,” I said, forgoing the fake drawl, knowing that Amelia would recognize it. “I’m here with Beau from Sawtooth Security, but he got pulled away on business. Can I hang out with you?”

“Of course.” The lady with the blue hair slid away from Amelia, giving me a place to sit in between them. Thank the moon she zigged instead of zagged and gave me the seat of honor. “I’m Luna, and this is?—”

I was pretty sure she introduced her pregnant friend as Lyssie, but I couldn’t be sure because the band had launched into a new song.

“It’s so nice to meet all of you.” I flashed Amelia a smile, not missing the look of confusion on her face. Good. “I’ve heard such wonderful things about the pack, but I can’t lie, I feel like I jumped from the frying pan straight into the fire.”

“You did the right thing,” Luna said loudly so I could hear her over the wail of the guitar. “No one stays a stranger in Sawtooth Forest for long. It’s too small, and this pack is too nosy.”

I laughed along with her, but a new wave of doubt rolled through me with her statement. These wolves would want to know more about Gina, Beau’s new lady, than she was a teacher from South Carolina.

Awkward silence followed, as the band had made conversation difficult even before there was a stranger nestled into the mix.

It wasn’t a perfect time to execute the most important part of my plan, but it was what the universe had given me, and I’d make it work. I turned to Amelia.

“It’s Kayla,” I whispered.

Her brow furrowed in confusion.

“Beau is working for me,” I continued, hoping that Luna and Lyssie were too immersed in barbeque and the band to decipher my whispers. “I need to talk to you.”

Her lips parted, like she was about to object.

“About my last day on set,” I added before she had a chance to protest. “When Jimmy got hurt.”

Her eyes lit up. No one outside The Wolf’s Moon family would know about Jimmy.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “I’ve been so worried about you.”

I nodded. “I’m safe now, but we need to talk.”

“Sure.”

“Alone.”

Amelia hesitated, then looked past me to her friends. “I’ll be right back.”

The ladies shared a puzzled look, but we didn’t wait for their full reaction before we rose from the bench.

The crowd seemed to have swelled in just the few moments since I’d separated from Beau.

There was more frenzied static in my ears, but I still couldn’t understand anything the Sawtooth Security team was saying.

I led Amelia away from the crowd, toward the parking lot. It seemed like the safest, quietest place.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Amelia asked once we stopped.

“Everyone was freaking out when they found Jimmy unconscious, and even more so when we realized you’d gone off without them.

What happened? We were told you were safe, but then that night I got a call that the show was on hiatus until further notice.

When no one could get in touch with you, we started to panic. ”

“Sorry about that. I couldn’t reach out to anyone, and I had no idea what production would do.

” I felt bad that I’d been tucked safely into my cabin with my sweet, sexy bear while everyone had been worried about me.

“My manager urged me to reach out to Sawtooth Security, and they’ve been taking care of the issue—and me—ever since. ”

“Is that all this is?” She motioned to my wig and outfit. I’d chosen a brightly colored halter and shorts way shorter than I was comfortable with.

“I had to be in disguise in case the guys from the crypto scheme had figured out I was here.”

Her mouth dropped. “The crypto guys? That’s what this is about?”

I nodded. “Have you heard from them after everything went bust?”

She took a moment before she said, “Once. They reached out and said that the original investment had been reimagined, I think was the word they used. That they couldn’t do anything about the first, lost investment, but they could give me an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of whatever they’d cooked up next. I didn’t answer.”

Interesting, because Sawtooth Security’s intel had theorized I was the only one who hadn’t given in.

Or they’re saving their highest profile client for the perfect moment, my wolf said.

“Has anything weird happened? Like, anything.” I must’ve sounded crazy, showing up in disguise at this huge party and insisting impending doom was coming. But it very well could be. “Especially since you arrived in Sawtooth Forest.”

“Nothing that I can think of,” she said. Her expression was drawn, and I had a feeling she wasn’t telling me the whole truth. “Oh. There was someone at the cupcake shop downtown. I thought they were just an overzealous viewer. They wouldn’t go away. Drew had to step in to make them get the hint.”

That was way too close for comfort. Amelia was far more recognizable than me. As the lead actress, her face was on all the show’s promo materials. She was a seasoned professional when it came to dealing with fan encounters. The fact that her mate had to get rumbly to make them go away…

Even in this heat, a shiver danced down my spine.

“Was there anything unusual about that encounter?” I asked.

“Kayla!” my name boomed from a familiar voice, and I turned to find Beau running toward me, with Barrett, Bellamy, and Brad following close behind.

“Shit,” Amelia said under her breath.

Beau pulled me into his arms and didn’t let me go. His heart thumped a steady rhythm as he held me tight.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“We lost the signal,” Bellamy said. “The band is livestreaming, and we think it might have conflicted with our secure network.”

I pulled away from Beau’s body. “You mean we got hacked?”

Bellamy shook his head. “It compromised our bandwidth. We’ve never had to compete with a system of that size before.

That’s why you couldn’t understand Barrett.

Our cameras had trouble transmitting consistent images, but GPS still worked.

We could see you were headed to the parking lot, but we weren’t sure with who. ”

Amelia let out a low whistle. “That’s quite the setup.”

“Oh shit, you’re Amelia,” Beau said. “I’m a huge fan of the show.”

“Thanks,” Amelia said, taking it in stride. I loved that even in the middle of our mission, he still gushed over one of his favorite television stars.

“Did Kay—Gina tell you about our current assignment?” Barrett asked.

“She did,” Amelia said slowly, like she was still making sense of an entire security team coming after us.

“She had a weird encounter with a fan in the cupcake shop in Granger Falls,” I added. “That’s how things started with Mark.”

Her eyes widened. “Wait, your creepy ex is part of this too?”

“It was one date. And a lot of creepy stuff. But yes, he’s in on it. I’d just asked Amelia if there was anything weird about her superfan encounter when you guys found us.”

“I don’t think so, besides the fact he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

I’d really wanted to tell him to back off, but you know how it is, everyone has a camera in their pocket.

If we’re not careful, we’re on the front page of all the gossip sites, and then we get canceled.

Drew was much more gracious and convincing than I could be.

” She shook her head. “I didn’t realize this was such a big operation.

Or maybe my brain refused to acknowledge how serious things were. ”

“The operation responsible for the crypto scam was connected to the team who abducted Kayla,” Beau said. “And we have reason to believe that they might try to contact you again if they haven’t already.”

“Oh.” Amelia blinked rapidly, but it did nothing to make her shock fade. “What should I do?”

“We can talk about that after the party,” Barrett suggested. “We’ll want to talk to you more in depth, and if needed, we can offer surveillance for the rest of your stay in Sawtooth Forest, and make a referral for when you go back to set.”

“Yeah, absolutely. I’ll do whatever I can to help,” Amelia said.

“Is it normal to have fans approach you in Sawtooth Forest?” Beau asked. “You’re pack. Seems like it would be different here.”

“You just fanned over her,” I reminded him.

“I’ve only been spending more time here recently, and like Beau suggested, I’m usually with the pack. So no, it’s not a usual occurrence.”

“It’s too close for comfort.” Barrett ran his hand over his beard. “Beau, bring Kayla back to the cabin. We haven’t picked anything suspicious up so far, so I don’t think we did any damage today. But we can’t get cocky and put more shifters at risk.”