Page 8

Chapter

Eight

T hey sat in Symon’s fancy-assed, so-very-white living room while Rian handed over the cracked and battered smartphone with the sparkly rainbow case. It would be pretty if it wasn’t so dirty.

Eyre thought it was a little unnatural, the way that Adrian bounced up immediately to deal with the cracking phone.

Seriously.

It also made him feel a little dumb. He didn’t know what to do. He wanted to be a help. He wanted to be amazing, strong, and brave and all those other words. And the fact was, he was…not.

“What’s wrong, mate?” Rian asked, and that had Symon staring at him too.

“You, you can’t call me that.” He shook his head, suddenly, shockingly close to tears. He didn’t want to do this, not here in someone else’s—in Symon’s house—and he didn’t want to get comfortable at Rian’s house, even if he already was.

And this whole thing, this whole thing was fucked up.

“I can call you that because you are. Now, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” Wasn’t it obvious? “You’re all brave and smart, strong and…amazing. And you have money. I don’t even own my own shoes! I don’t have a job, and I don’t have any skills. I don’t, I’m not anything. I’m not anything! How am I going to be here with you and standing next to you? How could you ever be proud of me? Because I’m not.” He pulled away when Rian tried to touch him. “I’m just not. And I appreciate your help so much and you’re amazing. But I’m not amazing. I’m not even cool. I mean, how much do you have to suck when you don’t even get to qualify as cool?”

“Oh, love.” Rian nodded at Adrian and Symon, then pulled him back into a private room off the living room that looked like Symon’s office, maybe. It was like an old-timey study, all leather and wood, and it smelled nice. “I am so proud of you.”

“How can you be?” Eyre sniffled, waving a hand. “I’m just a street kid. I mean?—”

“Stop. My brother Quin is a street kid. Seriously. It doesn’t matter to me where you came from.” Rian took his hand, then pressed it to his chest, where he could feel Rian’s heart beat. Thump thump, thump thump. “I adore you. You’re my mate. That’s all that matters.”

“But it’s not! I mean, I’m just?—”

Rian kissed him, leaving him breathless and cutting off his words. “You’re not just anything to me. You’re mine. Do you deny it? I know you feel it. And I’m yours.”

“I… I don’t know what to think.”

“Believe me. Trust me. Please, love.”

He took a deep breath, then let it out. He might not believe in himself, but he did trust Rian. He did. So he leaned on him and let that strength and warmth buoy him. He could do this.

He hoped.

“Okay. But we’ll revisit this.”

“Fair enough.” Rian grinned down at him, those wicked, dark eyes so mesmerizing. “Come on, love. Back to solving this muddle.”

It took Adrian about three minutes to crack Laughlin’s phone. His face lit up like Christmas when he did, too, because apparently there was a lot of information in Laughlin’s Shiftr account.

“This is great. Accessing it from both sides will really give me some insight.” He tapped away at the computer, totally engrossed.

Eyre liked him so much.

“So, this makes how many lost now?” Symon asked. Quin wasn’t there. He was at work, Eyre guessed.

“Ten? I can name six. Like give you their names.”

“Jesus fuck,” Symon cursed. “Using my app.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Oh, Eyre, it’s not your fault.” Symon patted his shoulder, a little awkward. “It’s none of your guys’ fault. This is about the dicks taking advantage of you and breaking the law.”

Eyre nodded, but he was having such a hard time breathing right now, his whole body seizing up.

“Eyre.” Rian grabbed him, holding him close. “All is well. Just breathe. We can do this, but I need you to breathe.”

He nodded, sucking in lungsful of air. “Okay. Okay. Sorry.”

“I have you.” Rian kissed his forehead, and he would feel embarrassed if Adrian wasn’t sitting with Symon leaning on the back of his chair, playing with his hair while he typed. These Lukos brothers were a tactile bunch.

“Thank you.” Eyre cleared his throat. “Wybee said Laughlin is the most recent one to disappear.” They had talked some about his other friends before, but he’d gotten stuff like last names today from the guys while they ate pizza.

An hour later, Adrian sat back, staring at the screen. “I think we have a name. Like a solid name to start with for finding the kidnappers.”

Eyre leaned forward to stare at the screen.

“Does that name ring any bells, love?” Rian asked.

“No.” And that was so damn frustrating. He wanted to have that a-ha moment.

“Maybe Quin will.” Quin knew a lot of the sleazes in the downtown Denver area because of the bar.

“I’ll call him,” Symon murmured.

“Can I tell the guys what the screen name is on this asshat?” Eyre asked, tugging out his phone.

“Yes, but tell them to stay put at the house. And I’ll let Cy know to intercept them if they try to go after him.” Rian grabbed his phone too, giving him the stare. The alpha thing.

“Okay. I’ll tell them.” Like he would argue with that. He wanted his friends safe too. There was no way they would be a match for a ring of alphas who had kidnapped half a dozen boys with little to no effort.

Rian raised a black eyebrow. “Just like that?”

“Yes. My friends can be reckless. I need to make sure they’re safe.”

“Thank you, love.” Rian beamed at him, fingers flying on his phone screen.

Eyre went to sit on the sofa and texted the guys with the phone that Rian had given him.

Guys. It’s Eyre

Prove it

Pistachios give you the runs

Hey E!

:D

That is a SECRET!

Anyone know the screen name? PopaBear1971

He got a no from Wybee and from Nick, but nothing from John for a second, then he got,

Dude. Can I call u

yes

k

Then his phone rang.

“Dude! Eyre! I’ve talked to that guy before!”

“You know him?” Eyre rolled his eyes. Of course it was John that knew who he was.

“Yeah. Yeah, it was weird because like, I haven’t met him in person, but we talked not on chat, talked IRL, and there was just something about him that skeeved me out.”

“Really? What?”

“He didn’t sound like a bear,” John said.

“Wait. What?”

Eyre frowned for a couple of reasons. Mainly because what did a bear sound like? Surely bears didn’t all sound like that old Yogi cartoon. “He didn’t say pic-a-nic basket?”

“Oh stop it. You know what I mean. I’m totally into bears; like that’s my kink. But this guy? There was absolutely zero growl to him and he didn’t sound big. And you know, even little bears are big.”

Okay, John had a point. That really sort of made sense, which was a little terrifying coming from John. “All right, so if you had to guess what he was, if you didn’t guess bear, what would you say he was?”

“Well, I know it’s weird, but I would guess snake.”

Eyre shook his head. “But snakes don’t work with mammals. They just don’t. They don’t hang with apex predators like wolves or bears or—even the guy that stole me and Quin was a pig.”

“Well, duh.”

“No. I mean literally like oink-oink tusks pig. And still they don’t work with snakes.”

John sighed. “Look, I didn’t meet the guy, but I’m telling you. If you asked me, what does he sound like, I would tell you it was very reptilian.”

“Huh.” Eyre realized all of a sudden that Adrian, Symon, and Rian were just staring at him. “So. Um, can you forward me any texts that you got from this guy, the snakebear guy?”

“Yeah, right, the fifty-year-old snake-bear guy. I’m on it. You want it going to your phone.”

“Yeah, please. Thanks. Bye.”

He looked over at everyone and shrugged. “John says he doesn’t sound like a bear.”

Because that made as much sense as anything else.

Adrian blinked, then bounced a little. “Is he forwarding you data? The more, the better. I want to peg this guy.”

“Yeah.” His phone started to ding. “He’s sending all their texts and chats. He says they talked on the phone too, but never met in person.”

“Cy is on it now if they try to leave the house,” Rian said. “So they should be safe.”

“None of this makes any sense, you know? None of it.”

They all looked at him, and Rian tilted his head. “Tell me your thoughts, love.”

“Well, I mean… What are these guys doing with us? I mean omegas us. Trafficking? Is there a market for weird shifter omegas? And why are they so openly using your app?”

Adrian chewed his lip. “You think someone is trying to hurt Symon’s company?”

Rian blinked. “You mean, it’s not incidental that they used Shiftr instead of say, Grinder or even Primal Pairings?” he asked, naming a competitor app that had recently sprung up. He shrugged. “The whole deal about Shiftr is that it’s supposed to be safe, friendly, you know? It’s supposed to be okay.”

“I know.” He sighed. “So that’s why I think it’s about you guys and not us. I mean, there’s not a lot of similarity between the guys who were taken except that these guys think no one will look for them. It’s like John said. He has a bear kink. So this guy is pretending to be a bear, but he isn’t one.”

Eyre just kept running things through his head, talking them out.

“What about you? Why did you go?”

“I was dancing. Remember, I don’t have a phone. I didn’t have a phone. I just wanted to dance, and he snagged me. Quin saw me.” Eyre shrugged. “I guess it was fate.”

“Yeah, I think it was.” Rian grinned at him but sobered quickly. “Okay, so what we need is to get this “teddy” bear guy. Because if nothing makes sense, then nothing will make sense until I can question someone.”

“You’re not a cop,” Eyre pointed out.

“No, but he can cross-examine someone like a bitch,” Symon said, laughing. “I’ve seen him do it. He’s merciless.”

“I am a lawyer,” Rian admitted. “It’s what I do.”

Eyre chewed his lower lip. “Is this where we get Quin to help us?”

“Hell, yes. And we use John’s phone. Not John.” Rian held up his hands when Eyre would have protested. “I promise. We leave him in a safe place.”

“Okay.” Eyre hated putting John at risk, but so many young men were missing now. He was willing to do anything to stop this. “What do I do to help?”

“You’re going to be John.” Adrian shrugged. “These guys couldn’t play an omega for love or money.”

“Oh.” Well, he could probably manage that.

“No.” Rian immediately rejected the idea. “Cy is bound to know?—”

He scowled at Rian. “His people won’t know John. Not like I do. He’s quirky and weird and he loved bears. I can really do it right.”

“I don’t want you anywhere near this guy.”

“Well, how much worse can he be than the razorback?”

Rian blew out a hard breath. “What do you have in mind, Symon? I’m listening, at least. Even if I hate it.”

Symon laid out a plan, and Eyre’s eyes widened as he listened. It was wild, but it might work.

If he didn’t get himself and everyone else involved killed, that was.