Page 5

A nthony rolled into Nashville Friday afternoon, not remembering much of the drive other than the conversation he had with his mom.

Tessa called to check in, and when Anthony explained the case he was working on, she got excited.

The female was a firecracker who only calmed down while she was pregnant with his little brother.

Now that Andy was five, Tessa was getting the itch to find trouble once more.

When he mentioned not feeling well earlier and what Carleigh thought it meant, Tessa made him go over every minute of his morning.

When he told her the nausea started after getting to the office, she asked him to pinpoint the exact moment.

Thinking back, he remembered it was when he first noticed the blonde on Mason’s screen.

Tessa reminded him that her brother, Tamian, felt the same way seeing Lucy on a computer before ever meeting her.

Anthony didn’t want to consider the possibility that the thief could be his mate, so he changed the subject to Andy.

Tessa regaled him with his brother’s antics, and that carried him the rest of his journey.

Upon arriving in Nashville, he checked into a hotel near the banks Carleigh thought might be targeted.

They were all a few blocks from Broadway where honkytonks lined both sides of the street.

Wanting to forget about the conversation with his mom, Anthony headed toward the rows of bars and entered the first one he came to.

He had been downtown before, and the main difference between each establishment was the size.

Some served food, but all had live music.

All were crowded. All had single women he could flirt with.

Unlike some of his cousins, Anthony hadn’t saved himself for when he found his mate.

He was a red-blooded Gargoyle who enjoyed sex, and he enjoyed it every chance he got.

Rarely did Anthony have to push his way through a crowd.

His size was intimidating, and he easily made his way to the bar and ordered a beer.

He placed a twenty on the counter, winked at the pretty bartender, and told her to keep the change.

Being a shifter, Anthony sensed when someone wanted his attention.

He felt a female approach before a sharp nail trailed down his arm.

He gazed down to see who the brazen woman was and smiled at her.

He didn’t have to lean down to hear her, but it would appear odd if he didn’t.

“I’m Kelsie. My friends and I have a table, if you’d like to join us.

” Kelsie pointed toward the back of the bar where four women were standing at a high-top table.

Anthony checked each one out, smiling at how stunning they all were.

He had been called shallow more than once, but he truly appreciated all females with their softness.

When he got to the one on the end, something weird happened.

Her appearance glitched, the same way it had when looking at Mason’s computer screen.

The longer he looked, the clearer she became.

His little thief was staring back with wide eyes. “Fuck me.”

“What was that?” Kelsie yelled. Anthony blanched at the volume of her question, but he needed to get closer to his.

.. to the target. Placing a hand on Kelsie’s shoulder, he directed her toward her friends.

The thief turned and walked away, and Anthony tracked her movements to where the restrooms were located.

He joined the others at the table, waiting for the blonde to return.

Kelsie’s friends introduced themselves, and Anthony asked, “Who’s your other friend? The one who went to the restroom?”

“Oh, she’s someone we just met. Her name’s Ellie, and she’s waiting on her friends to get here.”

Did that mean Ellie wasn’t working alone?

Was there a group of thieves? Anthony’s stomach rumbled, and he chugged his beer.

No. Nope. Hell, fucking no. When he placed the bottle on the table, Shelby crooked her finger.

Not wanting to be rude because come on..

. four gorgeous females flirting with him?

The chance to take one or more back to his hotel so he could forget about Ellie was tempting.

Fuck! He was here to do a job, not get his dick wet.

Still, he bent down so she didn’t have to yell at him.

“Are you from around here?”

Anthony leaned his forearm on the sticky table, then immediately removed it. He knew these tables filled up faster than the wait staff could get around to cleaning them, but it was still gross. “Nah. I’m from Atlanta. I’m up here on a job.”

“What kind of work do you do?” Kelsie asked.

“I’m a private investigator. I’m following a lead on a string of bank robberies.”

Dawn giggled. “How exciting!”

The hair on Anthony’s arms prickled, and he looked over his shoulder at the restroom door. When Ellie didn’t exit, he leaned down and asked Kelsie, “Do you think you should go check on your new friend?”

“I’ll go. I gotta pee anyway,” Dawn offered. She squeezed through partiers and entered the door to the ladies’ room. A few minutes later, she returned. “She wasn’t in there. I guess she left to meet her friends somewhere else.”

Anthony scanned the bar, but he didn’t see long white-blonde hair anywhere.

Fuck, he should have followed her and waited outside the restroom, stalker behavior or not.

Carleigh was going to kick his ass. Anthony excused himself and strode to the front of the building.

When he stepped outside, he scanned the sidewalks on both sides of the street.

There were quite a few women with long blonde hair walking around.

Some even looked like Ellie from behind, but he couldn’t follow them all.

He could either try or go back inside where the four eager women were waiting.

Anthony blew out a breath. Being a responsible Gargoyle sucked.

Can you sense her?

I could in the bar, but she’s too far away now.

It would have been nice if his beast would have alerted him sooner, but there was nothing for it now other than to search different venues.

What started off as a night of seeking out human contact turned into a fruitless search for the thief, Ellie, if that was even her real name.

Anthony hit every bar and restaurant, not bothering to do more than make a loop through each one.

Several women tried to get his attention.

Hell, even a couple of men asked if they could buy him a drink.

Anthony politely declined them all and continued his search.

He settled at one of the rooftop bars, giving him a view up and down most of Broadway, where he nursed a beer until closing time.

Anthony returned to the hotel beyond frustrated.

The moment he walked into his room, he stripped down to his briefs and star-fished on the bed.

Staring at the ceiling, Anthony contemplated his next moves.

He and Carleigh briefly touched on how Ellie possibly targeted the women she chose to portray.

Since she was already in town, was she looking for her next victim?

Was that why she was at the bar? Or had she already made her choice and decided a night out was deserved?

What she deserved, in his opinion, was to spend a little time behind bars where she could think about her actions.

All night, his beast argued that they would not turn their mate over to the authorities, and Anthony ignored it.

He would rather go about his life as he’d been doing, scratching an itch whenever he wanted, than to be mated to someone who thought it was okay to steal money.

The fates rarely made it easy on them. Few of his Clan had met their mate without some sort of crisis to get through first. His own parents were proof of that.

His dad sat him down after Anthony transitioned into his Gargoyle the first time and had a talk about sex.

When Gregor was younger, mates were scarce because the female Goyles were almost extinct, and they weren’t aware they could mate with humans, so he lived his life much the same way Anthony did, bedding whoever caught his eye.

Then one day, Gregor bumped into a feisty redhead in a convenience store, and it was game over.

Anthony figured if his dad could screw around, so could he.

Now though, his beast was fighting him, and it was pissing Anthony off.

You need to give her the benefit of the doubt. The fates wouldn’t have chosen her to be ours if she were a bad person.

Deep down, Anthony knew his Gargoyle was right, but he wasn’t ready to settle down.

Was he? He enjoyed playing the field, but when he watched his parents, after all these years together, they were still as in love as ever.

Gods knew they couldn’t keep their hands to themselves, and it was the same with all the other couples.

Scrubbing a hand down his chest, Tony closed his eyes, calling forth the blonde image of his mate.

He needed to get used to calling her that, whether he liked it or not.

Did she really look the way he saw her? Tall, breathtaking, and.

.. Fuck, did she really have pointed ears?

He laughed out loud, even though there was nothing funny about it. Maybe he did have a tumor.

Scooting back so he was sitting against the headboard, Tony turned on the television and scrolled through the channels until he found an action movie he’d seen a dozen times.

Lowering the volume, he tossed the controller off to the side and stared at the screen.

His phone buzzed in the pocket of his jeans, so he rolled off the bed to retrieve it.

Carleigh: I take it you didn’t find her?