Page 5

Chapter Five

Some Things About a Woman Never Change

Bellamy

“So if we find these guys, we have full permission to kick their asses, right?” Beau asked as he shoved his shirt back into his jeans.

As someone who worked at a security firm that specialized in protecting at-risk clients, I was no stranger to working in unusual locations. But this was the first time I’d yanked my coworkers out of a sex club to start work on a case.

“We need to get Clover Crowley to safety. By any means necessary.” I scrubbed my hand over my face as we stood in the parking lot of The Stepchild, all of us trying to sober up.

“What’s the plan?” Brad asked.

That was the problem. I didn’t have a fully formed one yet. But my bear wasn’t letting anyone lay a paw on his…

Nope. This was nothing more than doing the right thing for my clan. And probably punishment for not helping Clover when she first asked.

“We check leads. I should be able to access her phone records. See when the last time she used it was, and if there is a signal. Shirley, I need all the information you can give me about her car. It might give us some clues about her whereabouts.”

Beau cocked a skeptical brow. “Wait, your mate is missing and you’re gonna spend the first critical hours of the search stuck behind your laptop?”

He’s right. You need to be out there. Paws on the earth. Tracking her down. You know her better than she knows herself , my bear argued.

Not anymore. It had been years since we’d been together.

There are things about a woman, especially that woman, that will never change.

“She’s not my mate. And?—”

“Dude, if you could’ve seen the way the two of you were looking at each other, you wouldn’t be able to say that with a straight face.” Beau grinned. “The energy was electric.”

“It’s my duty to find her. Clover’s a part of my clan,” I said between gritted teeth. “Or she was.”

“Boss doesn’t want to admit he’s got a thing for her.” Brad nudged him.

A growl rumbled from the very center of my being. I didn’t want to tell my team that Clover Crowley rejected me. I’d lived through that humiliation once, thank you very much, and that was enough for this lifetime.

I swore I’d never let anyone do that to me again. I’d be damned if the same woman got a second shot.

“I hate to say, the handsome boy is right.” Shirley grinned at Beau and patted his arm. The cocky bear ate it up. “You’re so good with computers, but your team would be better served by having you lead them in the field.”

“My team is highly trained and very skilled at their jobs.” I wouldn’t tell her they were trained to kill if needed, and I could snoop around in the most secure databases in the world without being detected. “And taking time to do research could save us hours. Days. It could be the difference between finding her and not.”

Or you don’t want to go out there and search. Because you might find her.

Shut up, bear.

“I suppose it’s more efficient than casting a spell.” Shirley sighed. “But I will if we need it.”

“You mean, if we can’t get the job done,” Beau clarified.

She grinned. My second-in-command had the old woman eating out of the palm of his hand, and that could come in handy if his prediction came true. “Let’s hope we don’t need it.”

I laughed. “Science first, magic later. My laptop is in my truck. Don’t even have to leave the parking lot. Clover’s stuff should come up quickly. It’s all public record.”

Shirley raised a brow. “Weren’t you here having fun? Don’t you ever take time off?”

“This isn’t a nine-to-five. Clover can’t wait.” Grabbing the device out of the console, I sat on the gate of the truck. The Wi-Fi here wasn’t as secure as the office, but I had enough scramblers on my system that no one would be able to track us tracking her.

Which was exactly how I liked it.

Shirley gave me Clover’s number, which hadn’t changed in twenty years, and the make and model of her expensive sports car.

Brad whistled low. “Sweet ride.”

“If you’re not interested in her, maybe she’d be willing to take me for a spin in that car.” Beau’s grin faded quickly when I glared at him. “Okay, got it. Off limits. Even though she’s definitely not your mate.”

“She hasn’t made a call since she left our office.” I frowned as I looked at the information. “Not picking up a signal. The battery must be dead.”

“Or she could be in a spot that has no signal,” Brad suggested. “Deep in the mountains.”

“We have to prepare for all scenarios.” I turned to Shirley. “Is there a possibility that Clover was headed anywhere other than clan land?”

After a moment, she shook her head. “She was pretty insistent that she could convince you to help us.”

“No plan B? In case she remembered what happened the last time we saw each other?” I ignored the loaded looks and nudges from the guys.

“She didn’t think she’d need one.”

I didn’t have time to pack for that guilt trip. “We’ll operate under the assumption she was headed home. Be on the lookout for a red Challenger. We need to cover a lot of ground, quickly.”

“Do we have anything with her scent on it?” Brad asked.

“I think she left a sweater in the back of my car. I can go grab it.” Shirley headed across the parking lot.

I closed my eyes for a long blink. I could never forget that scent, no matter how hard I tried.

“You okay, Bell?” Beau asked. “I know I keep giving you shit, but there’s no denying this woman is under your skin.”

“Never been better,” I lied.

Shirley returned with a leopard print sweater that was as soft as…

Soft as Clover’s skin , my bear finished my thought for me.

This was going to be a long night.

“A team should do a sweep of the other directions, but my instinct is telling me she headed north.”

“What else do we need to know about this woman?” Brad asked. “We’re looking for Clover, but something tells me when we find her, that’s just the beginning of this job.”

I had a bad feeling he was right. Her visit to our office and subsequent disappearance were no coincidence.

Shirley clutched the sweater to her middle. “My granddaughter is a free spirit, but she always responds to calls and texts. No one’s heard from her since she left this office. Not her best friends, not her sister, and not me. She’s wild, but she’s not stupid. I’m holding out hope that this is all a misunderstanding, and my apologies for tearing you away from a fun night, but my intuition tells me that time is of the essence, and my intuition seldom fails me.”

“What about the locket?” I asked. Clover had been cagey about the details surrounding its disappearance, which wasn’t a surprise. Shirley and the elders had guarded their magic closely from anyone who didn’t have it.

And Clover hadn’t shown any signs of carrying their gift. The clan had hoped her child would, but after she told me to take a hike, they may never find out.

Unless she found another mate.

No , my bear snarled.

“Seems like a trivial thing to have a security team look for,” Beau said, and several of the guys nodded. “We usually work on much bigger cases. Personal security. Cyber threats. Not missing jewelry.”

“The locket is very important to our clan,” Shirley said, telling us nothing. “We could lose everything if it’s not found.”

Still nothing.

“Tell us more about the magic,” I said. “This isn’t the time for secrets, Shirley. Is there a chance that Clover has anything to do with its disappearance?”

She swallowed hard. “Sharing the magic with ungifteds?—”

“Might save your granddaughter’s life,” I suggested. “She isn’t known for making decisions in the best interest of the pack.”

Shirley pushed her shoulders back and took a step closer to me. “You need to find Clover, and the locket.”

“I need to know if I’m putting my guys in unnecessary danger, Shirley. All your traditions won’t mean shit if there’s no pack to save. So you need to ask yourself, which one’s more important—the magic, or your granddaughter?”

“Clover, of course.” She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. The locket contains the spirit of our great ancestor, Artemis. For those of us who have the gift, it gives us the power to heal. But that’s not all we do. The power helps those in our clan find the one they’re fated to be with, and ensures mating is successful.”

“Thank you.” I nodded and turned to my team. “Beau and Brad, you’re with me. Everyone else can work on the sweep in the other directions. Head back into the Stepchild and ask everyone about Clover Crowley.”

I jerked my head toward my truck.

“We’re staying human?” Brad asked.

“For now.” Part of me was expecting a phone call in fifteen minutes reporting that they’d found Clover in Red Heaven. My bear had definite thoughts about that, but I had a job to do. “Be prepared for all scenarios.”

“Are you gonna tell us who the fuck Clover Crowley really is and why she’s got you coming undone?” Beau asked.

“She’s my mate,” I growled, shocking no one more than myself with the answer. “And that explanation about the magic was a lie.”