Page 14 of Corbin (Wild Wolf Pack from the world of Gallize Shifters #2)

As Givenchy strode off the stage with her heels snapping against the hardwood floor, Adrian spoke softly to Corbin. “She just lied.”

“Twice,” Corbin confirmed, struggling to get a feel for this woman.

They never got to know each other as he’d wanted when they were teens.

Maybe she was a homicidal lunatic. Or she could be as innocent as she tried to appear.

Yet she’d lied about not talking to the injured security guard and about being driven home. Why?

Shaking off his suspicions, he asked Adrian, “What’s the plan now?”

“Follow me outside.” While striding toward the entrance door, he kept talking in a quiet tone, but one that Corbin could hear.

“I didn’t want to do this, but we’re going to have to split up.

She may eventually go home ... or not. I need to be here to find out what happened to another one of Beckham’s men, maybe catch someone lying to the police, and get a lead.

” Adrian nodded as he approached the door guard and passed through quickly.

He ignored the media shouting questions at anyone who would answer—a wasted breath with Adrian.

Corbin stayed on his heels and kept his head down, letting the cap visor shield his face above the dark beard.

“You follow Givenchy and call me when she reaches her apartment building, The Adair. It’s a converted warehouse in an older area of the city.

” Adrian hurried over to where their bikes were parked next to the highway and added, “She mentioned her trustee, but she didn’t say that she was going there first.”

Corbin suffered a wave of stress when his task should have been straightforward.

Adrian must have picked up on that surge of emotion. He stopped quickly and turned around. “Question?”

This was Corbin’s chance to prove he could work solo. “No, I’m good. This is the first time being on my own. It’s been so long, it surprised me.” The absolute truth. He added, “But I can handle this. After climbing a mountain and facing bear shifters, this should be easy.”

His wolf grumbled, You suck at mountain climbing.

Corbin sent back, You suck at being supportive.

Adrian chuckled. “Good point.” He turned serious again.

“Keep the phone Jaz stuck in your tank bag handy. Your ID ties you to my boss’s organization.

If for any reason you have a conflict with someone, keep your cool and try to talk your way out of it.

If you have no other way to survive, you can shift. ”

“Got it. I don’t expect to engage with anyone.” He had questions for Givenchy, but not today while he was on duty. He slammed the lid shut on that part of his brain.

“We’re technically part of her security team while around her,” Adrian explained.

“If anyone tries to harm her, we also protect the client regardless of any suspicions we might have about her at this point.” While Adrian continued dispensing advice, he shoved his cap into a saddlebag.

“Should trouble arise and law enforcement gets involved, don’t panic.

Be respectful and calm even if they take you in. We will send someone immediately.”

“Good to know. That had crossed my mind.” Corbin expelled a breath he’d been half holding. All he had to do was observe and keep his nose clean.

Adrian locked his hard saddlebag and straightened. “I’ll call when I have a handle on this situation so we can get back together, but ...” He glanced past Corbin. “Your assignment is leaving. We’ll talk later.” Then he turned and headed back to the theater.

You said this would be easy , Ares taunted. You already lost your target.

Jerking his head around, Corbin caught a flash of dark blue as a sedan emerged from a side street between the theater and an abandoned building also being worked on.

The car pulled out and turned right. Corbin yanked his cap off and tossed it in his tank bag, then pulled his helmet on and snapped the chin strap.

He climbed on his bike and kicked the stand up while starting the engine.

With one rev of the engine, he wheeled out of his spot into a stream of traffic.

He stood on his highway pegs to see over a mix of vehicles. Where was the sedan?

There. Now to catch her vehicle.

Cruising in and out of opportune openings between cars and trucks, he strained to drive properly when he wanted to split lanes and catch up quickly.

He had to change his thinking when on the hunt for a legitimate operation.

He no longer answered to the Romanian. Vlad hadn’t cared if he broke a hundred laws so long as he succeeded at capturing Vlad’s prey.

Once that happened, the Romanian sent his henchmen to retrieve their trained shifter.

In the past, Corbin had been given the same assurance about someone coming for him if he landed in trouble, but with a different outcome.

Where Adrian offered security and protection, the Romanian would have beaten his human body bloody if he’d gotten caught by the authorities.

Vlad considered it a waste of money to grease palms to save an animal.

Corbin told Ares, We have a chance at a better life with Adrian and Jaz.

Good for you, not me, Ares pointed out. I was more important before.

You were treated far better than me and never realized they were only using you, Corbin groused.

I’m trying to create a better situation for both of us.

He didn’t have the mental space to argue with Ares about how being fed more to kill had not made him important.

The Romanian would kill Ares with a single titanium shot if Ares had ever acted like an ass to their keeper.

Corbin narrowed his eyes at the cushy private car ahead toting around the woman who had tossed him into a Romanian refuse crusher like yesterday’s trash.

Now he had to protect the Givenchy Queen.

No one had to explain irony to him.

“Whatever.” Corbin would not allow his anger to overrule his common sense. He’d treat her like any other stranger for now. Once he and Adrian completed this task, Corbin intended to reveal his identity to Givenchy and get an answer to the one question he’d lived with for seven years.

Why did you destroy my life?

He’d get his chance even if it meant standing in line for an autograph.

Corbin wormed his way between cars, drawing a few honks, and made a questionable move with success. No time to celebrate as traffic flowed toward a street where the sedan began forcing its way from the middle lane to the left lane with a blinker flashing.

That had been a quick move.

Had the driver made Corbin?

Holding his breath, he executed a hairy move, drawing a few honks, but he reached the next left turn without causing a traffic issue.

With two cars between them, the sedan turned left, offering Corbin a brief glance at Givenchy riding alone in the back seat.

He had to keep reminding himself that the quiet young girl he’d fallen hard for was gone.

She’d grown into a stunning woman who carried herself with brutal confidence and cold arrogance.

Maybe she’d been like that all along, and his attraction to her had blinded him to reality. He mourned never having had the chance to get to know the young girl, but that time had passed. Now he had a front row seat to observe her in real time.

Still two cars ahead of Corbin, the blue sedan angled to the right, taking an entrance ramp to the interstate.

Rolling on the throttle as he entered the fast-moving traffic, Corbin shoved everything from his mind to narrow his focus on finding out all he could on Givenchy for Adrian. His stomach soured at the thought she could be involved in the security guards’ deaths, but he shook that off.

He had a responsibility to Adrian, not the memory of a girl from high school.

After following his target heading west, Givenchy’s sedan exited the interstate before downtown, where he’d expect a powerful trustee’s office to be located.

Next time, he’d ask Adrian the trustee’s location.

After multiple turns, the car drove along an eclectic retail area that appeared to have been revitalized from a past era.

The sedan suddenly pulled over to the curb on the right.

When Givenchy jumped out of the car, she no longer wore a skirt.

Striding quickly toward a boutique dress shop, she’d changed into deep green pants but still had the same beige blouse.

Her pretty hair had been tucked under a floppy hat, and she carried a large purse the size of a tote bag on her shoulder.

The most notable change on her way into the store had been from spiked heels to casual walking shoes.

None of that appeared suspicious at all, right?

Corbin pulled into a parking spot from where he could watch the shop entrance. He tapped his fingers, trying to decide if he should follow her into the store. He’d stand out like a blazing beacon. She had to be up to something.

Should he call Adrian?

No, that sounded like he needed handholding. He gave it a minute, then recalled how he’d been trained to hunt by a deadly group who never lost a target—the Romanians.

Though productive, that had often required questionable methods.

He considered his options. Leaving this spot was risky if she came back out, but his gut shouted that she would not come back out the front door.

If he guessed wrong, he’d have to explain to Adrian why he lost track of Givenchy. The one thing he didn’t want to do was fail on his first day of this operation.

Screw it. When in doubt, go with instinct.

He found an opening in traffic, flipped his bike around, and took off. He had one goal—to discover if she was only Eirene-the-Queen Givenchy or Eirene-the-Killer Givenchy.