29. Gage
Gage
Dr. Jahan Jovanek. I stare at the name on the screen.
My search only came back with one result.
I’ve tried various spellings and even searched for the name without the title of doctor, but I keep getting the same result.
And he lives only one state away, in Brookfield, North Carolina.
It’s probably about three and a half hours by car, maybe four.
I wish there was a photo to accompany the name, to verify that he’s the one who had Cherry all that time.
I must have spent hours looking into his background, but it’s like he’s a ghost, suddenly appearing about fifteen years ago in some obscure medical journal.
His current employment status is unclear, which makes sense if he’s working at an illegal underground facility.
The only real data I could find is the condo he rents in Brookfield. He doesn’t even appear to have a driver’s license. There’s every possibility his entire persona has been faked. But why rent an apartment under that name and yet have no other documentation?
That question along with a dozen others are burning my brain with the need for answers. I’ve tried to find any possible associates for Jovanek, but there is literally nothing else.
Deciding to switch research topics for a bit, I pull up a new browser window and type ‘Cherry Rosewood’. I groan when I see hundreds of thousands of results for furniture. This could take a while. Maybe her parents would be easier to find.
“Is Cherry awake?” I ask through the bond, knowing she had fallen asleep awhile ago. I glance over at the one couch in here and see Hunter’s still asleep so I decide not to wake him. It was cute how Cherry didn’t want any of us alone in our own home.
“I’m awake,” Cherry replies, making me smile. I love hearing her voice in my head, and being able to talk to her.
“Can you give me a hand with something? I’m in the office.”
“Coming,” she sings back, making my dick jump in my pants as I imagine her saying that in a different context.
A quick glance at the other monitor shows me all the security camera feeds, and nothing looks out of place. I have them programmed to ping my phone if they sense any movement, anyway.
When she appears in the doorway, I swear my heart swells in my chest. Standing there, barefoot in her blue dress as she looks coyly at me has me forgetting why I called her in here in the first place.
She shifts her weight, rubbing the top of her foot on the back of her calf, making me wonder if the hardwood floor is cold on her feet.
That reminds me of the gift I got her.
“One second,” I tell her as I stand and move to the cupboard, pulling out one of many gifts I’ve stored away for her. I have a feeling she’d be overwhelmed with everything all at once. And this way I get to bring her joy multiple times.
“Here you go,” I say, holding out the pair of bright red fuzzy slippers to her.
“For me?” she asks in surprise, making me chuckle.
“They’d hardly fit any of us.”
“You didn’t have to buy me anything, Gage,” she says, but her protest doesn’t last as she slips them on her feet, then turns her dazzling smile on me. “I love them, thank you.”
Unable to resist, I pull her close and use my thumb to tilt her chin up to me as I slowly close the distance between us. I hear her breath catch right before her eyes close. My lips press to hers, gently, as I explore them, nibbling and sucking softly, pulling a series of moans from her.
The sound of the door closing has my eyes opening. I see Hunter is gone and the door is now shut.
“Thanks,” I say to him through the bond.
“Have fun,” he replies, sounding amused. “Enjoy your prize.”
I’d completely forgotten about winning the game. That was put to the back of my mind when the letter from Blaze showed up.
Before I get completely lost to her, I pull back with one last peck as I look down into her beautiful blue eyes.
“As much as I’d like to continue this, I wanted to get your help with something first,” I tell her.
She licks her lips and nods as she takes a small step back from me. “Right, sorry.”
I frown at her and shake my head. “Why are you sorry?”
“I—” her cheeks grow pink, then she laughs. “I don’t know.”
I pull her back in for a hug, tucking her head under my chin as I tell her, “Darling, stop apologizing for being you.”
“Sorry.” I let out a little growl, and she laughs. “Right, I mean, I’ll try.”
“Better,” I say, kissing her head and grabbing her hand as I lead her around the desk to the chair. I sit down and pat my thigh. Without having to say a word, she hops up into my lap as I band an arm around her waist, pulling her against me as I turn us to face the monitor.
“That’s my name,” she says, pointing at the screen.
“I was trying to see if I could find anything about you online. Birth record, family friends, anything to give us a little more insight.”
“Did you find anything?” she asks, leaning back against me.
“No. Unfortunately, Cherry Rosewood is a very popular search term. But I thought I could try searching for your parents instead. What was your dad's first name?”
“Thomas.” I reach my arms around her and type his name in the search bar and hit enter.
“Oh my Goddess, don’t click that!” she gasps, seeing that the first two results are for porn.
I chuckle and kiss the side of her adorable head. “Don’t worry, I won’t. But I’m sure that’s a different Thomas Rosewood. This might take some digging. Do you know what year he was born?”
She thinks for a moment before shaking her head. “No. I assume he was like thirty or thirty-five years older than me, but I’m not sure.”
“That’s okay, his name is a hard one to find. What about your mother? Do you know her maiden name?”
“Yes, Poppy Beaumont.”
That comes back with a few results. I ignore the ones with social media profiles and immediately start digging into older records, guessing her to be anywhere from twenty to forty years older than Cherry.
“Here,” I say, finding a birth certificate for a Poppy Beaumont that would peg her as being thirty-one when Cherry was born. “This could be her.” I skim the info and find Poppy’s parents’ names. “Edwin and Rose Beaumont.”
“Those are my grandparents?” she asks.
“Possibly. Let’s see if we can find a photo of Poppy or Rose.” It’s much harder than it should be. Poppy is basically a ghost. No school records, no place of residency.
“Cherry?”
“Yeah?”
“You said your family traveled around. You never went to an actual school, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right. We were homeschooled.”
“What about your mother? Did she have the same lifestyle, or did she live somewhere?”
She tilts her head, and I know she’s thinking about it, so I keep scanning the search results as I wait for her answer.
“I remember my mom telling me stories about how she often traveled with her parents. Sometimes they would hop on trains, sometimes they would hike for days. I always assumed they were talking about vacations, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe they moved around like we did.”
She turns in my lap to face me, a frown on her face as she asks, “Why did my family do that?”
“There are a few possibilities,” I tell her, my thumb gently caressing her hip as I explain.
“They could be running from someone, but it sounds like it could be a multi-generation threat, so I’m not sure what that could be.
Another option is that they were just trying to stay hidden, under the radar. ”
“Because we’re wolf shifters?” she asks.
“Maybe,” I say, although that isn’t likely. There were many wolf families and packs hiding amongst humans.
“But you don’t think so,” she says, reading my expressions a little too well.
“It’s hard to know for sure,” I explain. “But you would think throughout your grandmother and mother's lifetime, they would have come across a community of shifters safe enough to live with.”
“Maybe shifters are who they were hiding from?” I nod, not liking the theory, but I had thought the same thing. I’m just not sure why yet. “Did you find anything on Dr. J?” she asks when I don’t respond.
“Actually, yes,” I say, switching the browser tab to show her.
She scans the property ownership document as she asks, “Brookfield? How far is that from here?”
“About three to four hours by car.”
“And we’re sure this is him?” she asks, her voice quiet now.
“No. But it’s the best guess we have. The name matches what Finn heard, and this man’s illusiveness makes me think he’s likely involved. What sort of doctor isn’t registered at any hospital or research facility?”
She nods as she stares at the screen. “When do we go?” she asks and I pull her tighter against me.
“You’re not going anywhere near him.”
“But—”
“No, my little omega. Please don’t press us on this. I can’t stand the thought of you being anywhere near that man.”
She turns in my lap, her knees straddling my thighs as she holds my face. “But you’ll all be there to keep me safe.”
I shake my head. “I don’t care.” I trace my finger over the line of heart marks etched into her skin along the top of her chest. “You have no idea how much it hurts, knowing the man who caused each of these deaths is out there, still walking around and breathing. I don’t even want him in the same state as you. ”
Her eyes bounce between mine as if searching for something. “Gage, you know I’m like… immortal, right?” she asks gently.
Grabbing her hand, I hold it over my heart as I tell her, “We don’t know what you are.
Besides, it doesn’t matter. You will never die again if I have anything to say about it.
” I lift her hand and kiss her fingers before adding.
“And I do, little omega. I have a lot to say about it. And do you know why?”