Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
I t had only been a week since she’d seen Kaine and her panther was irritated with her.
All through her shift, it had been swiping at her, moving through her body and trying to slip through her control.
Sighing as the animal raised the fur on her arm again, she debated what she wanted to do about it.
A trip to Oakridge was in order this weekend because she didn’t think her panther would allow the separation for much longer.
It was an unforeseen side effect of meeting her mate that she hadn’t planned for.
She pulled up to the house of one of her regulars, honking as she spotted the older male wolf watering his mate’s flowers that flourished in the landscaping.
“Lucky,” he called out. “You got a million-dollar check in there today?” He asked that every time they saw each other, even if she was out of uniform.
“No, Mr. Craig, just more junk mail.” She slipped it into his mailbox and waved at his mate supervising from their porch.
“We’re harvesting our collards tomorrow, you want a bunch?”
“Please,” she told them. “My mama been waiting.”
Lucky’s route was on the outside of Eastfield, mostly country and farmland. She loved it because she had her regulars and the route was quiet for the most part. She’d established a rapport with so many of them.
“Y’all need anything this week?” she asked.
Sometimes she came back off-duty and helped them. It was just the two of them, up in age and still trying to do for themselves.
“We’re good, baby girl,” Mr. Craig answered.
She waved and drove off to the house a few feet down the street, honking to signal to the older woman inside that she had mail.
Lucky had a whole routine with her regulars and the elder shifters that lived in this neighborhood were some of her favorites.
Some of them had kids and grandkids that checked on them, but it didn’t stop her from making sure they were good.
Lucky was nearing the last house when her panther prodded her.
This was different than the pouting it had been doing all day, so she focused in and checked her surroundings.
She was down one of the smaller, quieter roads when she noticed an SUV behind her.
Lucky frowned because this wasn’t the first time she’d seen it.
Her stomach fluttered in nervousness as she debated who to call.
Her brother was at work. Her dad would pull up without a moment’s notice, but then he’d be nagging her for the rest of the weekend about her safety.
Plus, she still wore Ezra’s scent. Calling Sin was out. Biting her lip, she called Devon.
He answered immediately, but she could tell he was busy by the background sounds. “Yeah, mamas?”
“There is an SUV following me.”
He paused. “What?” More shuffling behind him, then his line was quieter. “Where you at?”
“Working.”
He sighed. “Out there in them damn sticks by yourself. How long they been following you?”
“Maybe for a while.”
“Like all day, or all week, ma?”
She frowned because she didn’t know. Had they been following her all week? Sin would definitely get in her ass if he knew she’d been slacking that bad. Her mind had been full of Ezra all week, so she hadn’t been able to focus on anything if she were being honest with herself.
Devon sucked his teeth. “Lucky,” he chided.
“I know, sorry.” She bit her lip.
“You may want to check with your new mate. He told me on Sunday that he put a detail on you, but I can send someone out there to be on the safe side. You know I don’t mind.”
Her mate had called Devon? She frowned because the thought hadn’t crossed her mind despite the fact that Rah had as good as admitted he would be keeping track of her.
“That’s a good point. Let me call him first. Thank you, Devon.”
“You know I got you, cuz. Call me back if it’s not him.”
“Okay.” She hung up and bit her lip, debating what to do. Pulling over, she called Rah, waiting as it rung.
He answered quickly. “Princess.”
Her body shuddered at his voice, her panther raising again. The animal damn near whined within her body.
“Did you put a detail on me?” she asked outright.
“Of course.” He didn’t bother hiding it.
“Did it occur to you to tell me that? I almost sicced my people on them.”
“You’re just now noticing?”
“That’s not the point,” she huffed. He chuckled and she tightened her thighs. Lord, this man was too potent. “You scared me,” she told him.
“I’m sorry, princess, but you’re important to me. Of course, I have someone watching you.”
“Fine,” she told him, having no answer to that.
Devon had told her how dangerous Ezra was, she couldn’t imagine how many enemies that meant he had. Him having a detail on her was not that weird.
“What are you doing tomorrow night?” he asked.
“I don’t know yet,” she hedged. She was hoping to get on the road to Oakridge, but she wanted him to invite her.
“I want to take you out.”
“In Eastfield?”
“You trying to hide me like that other bozo you had over here?” he teased.
She giggled. “No, I was just asking. Either way, I want to see you.”
“That’s what I like to hear, princess.” His voice dropped, the timbre making her shiver.
“Where are you taking me?”
“I have a party to attend, work shit that just came up, but it’s over by you. That means I can see my mate and show her off.”
Her cheeks heated. “You showing me off to your fancy colleagues?” She tried to joke off the fluttering that was happening in her chest.
He scoffed. “I need shifters over there to know you’re off the market.”
“Ezra.” She grinned. “That’s petty.”
“It’s better than leaving bodies in your wake, princess,” he said nonchalantly. “I have to get back to work, but call me when you get home. I miss your voice.”
“I call you every night, how can you miss my voice?” was her breathless reply.
He hummed. “Call me when you’re in bed too. I want to talk you to sleep,” he ordered.
“I’ll think about it,” she teased, her stomach clenching in lust.
“Think hard.” He hung up the phone.
She smiled and texted Devon that it was Ezra’s men, then went through the rest of her route, her eye occasionally drifting to the truck. The driver was being clever because sometimes she would look and he wasn’t there. She breathed a little better that she hadn’t missed an obvious sign.
By the time she got home, she was fully exhausted.
Between fighting her panther and the leftover adrenaline, she was ready to put on some pajamas and go to bed.
She took a shower as soon as she got into her apartment, throwing on a caftan and wrapping her hair.
Before she could pick up her phone to call Rah, a knock at her door sounded.
She rolled her eyes because she already knew who it was.
As she got to the door, it opened, and her brother stood on the other side.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m hungry,” he answered, holding out his hand.
Lucky tapped the back of his hand twice before sliding and joining their pinkies, their thumbs touching twice.
It was a secret handshake their father had taught them when they were little.
Sincere was always worried about safety and had warned his kids that if there was ever an emergency that required anyone other than him and their mother to get them, that person had to know their family’s handshake.
It had never been needed, but she and her brother still did it every time they got together.
Richie pulled her into a hug. “You smell like a tiger. What thug you done let mark you like that?”
“I just got out the shower!” she protested.
“Damn, then he was leaving a message, ain’t it? No wonder your apple-headed ass ain’t been to see your father.”
She snorted. “I saw them last week.”
Richie closed the door and headed straight for her kitchen.
Her brother was taller than her, a little over six feet tall, his rangy body corded not from exercise but from doing “hard labor” as he liked to remind his sister.
His tapered fade was wavy on top and meticulously lined.
Richie never played about his appearance.
A well-kempt low-cut beard covered his chiseled jaw; even his thick brows were maintained over his dark eyes.
Her brother was handsome, not that she would tell his bighead ass that.
He had already showered after work, striding through her apartment in basketball shorts and a t-shirt with socks and slides on his feet.
“I knew you cooked,” he said, lifting the top to her crockpot. “Oh shit, beef short ribs. That’s what I’m talking about. Where the rice?”
She rolled her eyes. “Talking about you knew I cooked. I worked just like you did.”
“Yes, but you plan better.”
“You’re a bum,” she teased as she pulled out the pot she used for rice.
He sat at the small island that separated her kitchen from the rest of the apartment and put his hand in his chin. “So, tell me about the thug.”
“He’s not a thug,” she defended herself.
“Well, he’s a cat, so I guess he ain’t from the West side. There is that at least.”
“Go to hell, Richie,” she laughed.
“Who is it?” he pressed. “He scent marked you, so it seems a lil more serious than your usual jumpoffs.”
She rolled her eyes at his accuracy. Lucky and her brother were close, so they shared everything with each other. Her brother knew as much about her exploits as Keisha did.
“If you must know, I met my mate.”
His eyes widened. “Say word? Who is he?”
“He lives in Oakridge,” she admitted.
“Ah, that’s why you’re avoiding the parents.”
She stood and moved to the sink to fill the pot. “Mama is going to ask a bunch of questions I’m not ready to answer.”
“It’s your mate, Lucky, she ain’t gon’ trip like that. What does he do?”
She shrugged and he snickered. She had looked him up, but information on Ezra Kaine was scarce.
That should’ve given her pause, but Lucky always went with her instincts.
If her panther was telling her that he was hers, then that’s what it was.
She wouldn’t rush into the relationship, but she wasn’t fighting it either.
“I just met him last weekend.”
“So y’all been talking a week and you don’t know what he does?” Her brother called her bluff.
She sighed. “He owns some kind of brokerage firm.”
“What kind of broker?”
“I don’t know, Richard. What does a broker even do?”
Her brother scoffed. “What’s his name? I know you done searched him up.”
Her brother was correct. That’s how she found out he was CEO of a brokerage firm.
She hadn’t gotten up the gumption to ask him what type.
Devon made it seem like he was a criminal and he certainly spent money like one.
She could tell Richie that he had ties with Devon, but then that would confirm her brother’s assumption that he was some kind of criminal.
According to Richie, his sister had a type.
“Ezra Kaine,” she told him and watched as her brother pulled out his phone.
Her brother whistled. “Damn. A fucking billionaire, Lucinda.”
She turned her back to her brother and started the rice.
Richie was muttering to himself as he went through the small bit of information the internet had on her mate.
It wasn’t much, not by today’s standards.
There was a bio on his company’s website and not much else other than a couple of business articles, one being about his grandfather who was murdered.
“This man is basically a ghost,” Richie muttered.
She watched her brother’s face from the corner of her eye as he looked further.
“Ain’t shit on him. What you think that mean, Lucinda?”
Richie looked so much like their father that she felt as though she was being interrogated by Sin himself.
“Devon knows him,” she finally admitted, hoping that would settle the concern she could see behind his eyes.
Richie snorted. “Our new, former drug dealing cousin?”
She barked out a laugh. “I’ma tell Devon you said that.”
“So, they run in the same circles?”
“I don’t really think so.” She bit her lip. “Kaine lives a whole hour away.”
“Maybe he’s the plug,” her brother speculated.
“You must’ve learned a new word on TV,” she teased, and he flipped her the bird.
Her brother pursed his lips as he considered the information. His face cleared a moment later, but she knew he would take a while to mull it over. She wouldn’t be surprised if he popped up at her door a few days from now with his thoughts.
“Dang, I moved into this building so I could be closer to you and now you finna move an hour away.” He stood, done with it for now.
She snorted. “You moved over here so you wouldn’t have to cook.”
“I be tired, girl,” he said, heading to her couch and stretching out.
Lucky’s apartment was dim, only the light of a couple warm lamps lighting the space.
Her plant babies were scattered throughout in wicker pots.
Her green velvet sofa was a three- seater, with wide cushions that made for amazing naps on the weekend.
Her brother took up the majority of it as he laid out.
“And I don’t?”
“The United States Postal Service be wearing you out like that?” he teased.
She threw a pillow from the armchair at his head. “You working tomorrow?”
“I work every day,” he said in answer. “Hard work, unlike you riding around in a truck.”
She could only roll her eyes. Her brother was a lineman for the power company and swore he worked harder than anyone else.
“Even though I’m teasing, I’m happy for you, baby sis. A mate is a big deal. But you gon’ have to convince him to move here, or else Kat baby gon’ be all to pieces.”
She sighed. Her mother would definitely be upset, but she couldn’t imagine being CEO gave him the option of up and moving his life. But it was a problem for another day. For now, she was excited about being able to see him tomorrow night.