Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
Brie stared at her phone screen, willing the GPS to load, but the spinning wheel just kept turning. No network connection. She was completely lost.
She tried refreshing the app again. Nothing. The screen showed her blue dot in a sea of gray, no roads labeled and no directions available.
“Come on, come on,” she muttered, holding the phone higher, searching for even one bar of signal.
The van’s engine ticked as it cooled. In the back, her bakery delivery was growing cold.
The Harvest Moon Weekend guests would be expecting fresh pastries for their continental breakfast, and here she was, lost in an industrial wasteland, parked next to a dumpster, with no idea how to get back to civilization.
Brie opened the van door, thinking maybe she’d get better reception outside. The November air bit her cheeks as she stepped onto the gravel shoulder, phone raised high.
That’s when she heard the engines.
Around the edge of the dumpster, Brie spotted two black SUVs pulling up to a loading dock about fifty yards away, across a wide swath of scrubby meadow and eroded parking lot. Five men in dark clothing climbed out. They moved with military coordination. This wasn’t a normal delivery crew.
Brie couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. The smell of cat piss choked her lungs.
Voices carried on the cold air. Rapid and agitated. The man with the briefcase was shaking his head. The argument escalated, hands gesturing sharply.
Then, without warning, one of the men pulled out a gun and shot the briefcase carrier in the head. The sound cracked through the morning air like thunder. The man dropped instantly, briefcase hitting the concrete, blood spreading in a dark pool on the ground.
Brie’s hand flew to her mouth, stifling the scream lodged in her throat. Her whole body shook as she scrambled behind the dumpster.
They’re going to see me. They’re going to see the van. I’m dead. I’m dead.
The SUVs started again. Brie held her breath as they pulled out. Gravel crunched under their tires, and the sound of their engines faded into the distance.
She climbed back into the van and waited, counting to thirty, to sixty, to one hundred before she dared to move. Her hands shook so badly she could barely press the ignition. The van started with what sounded like a roar in the silence.
“Police. Get to the police.” She said it out loud, needing to hear something besides the echo of that gunshot. “You’re okay. You’re okay. Just drive.”
The van fishtailed as she pulled a frantic three-point turn, gravel spraying. The bakery boxes slid and tumbled in the back, but she didn’t care. She had to get out of here. Now.
She drove without thinking about direction, taking turns at random, just trying to put distance between herself and that warehouse. The industrial district seemed endless, every building looking the same, every shadow potentially hiding those SUVs.
Then finally she saw a street sign she recognized. Mountain View Drive. She knew where she was. Ten minutes from downtown.
Ten minutes from safety.
The Fate Mountain Police Department sat on Main Street, its brick facade reassuring and solid. Brie parked the van and stumbled through the front doors.
“I need to report a murder,” she said to the desk sergeant, her voice high and strange. “I just saw… someone killed.”
The sergeant’s eyes widened. “Ma’am, are you hurt?”
“No, I… no. But there was a man, they shot him.”
“Okay, okay. Let me get a detective.” The sergeant picked up his phone. “Detective Reynolds? We have a witness to a possible homicide.”
Within minutes, Brie was sitting in an interview room, a cup of water in her shaking hands. Detective Gabriel Reynolds sat across from her, notepad ready. He had kind eyes and a calm presence that made her racing heart slow slightly.
“Brianna Rayner. I hear you witnessed what you believe was a murder. Tell me what you saw. Take your time. You’re safe here.”
Brie told him everything. The GPS malfunction, the wrong turn, the warehouse. She described the men as best she could. Height, clothing, the way they moved. The briefcase. The argument.
“Then he just... pulled out the gun and shot him. Point blank. No hesitation.” Her voice cracked.
Detective Reynolds wrote steadily, occasionally asking clarifying questions. What kind of vehicles? Did she see license plates? Could she identify the warehouse?
“I know approximately where it was,” Brie said. “But I was so lost, and then I was so scared… I just drove. I took turns without thinking.”
“That’s understandable. You did the right thing in getting out of there and coming straight here. We’ll investigate this immediately,” Detective Reynolds assured her, handing her his business card. “If you remember anything else, any detail no matter how small, call me. Day or night.”
“You believe me?” The question slipped out before she could stop it.
“I believe you saw something that scared you badly, Brianna. He studied her with those kind eyes. “Do you have someone who can stay with you? You’ve had a serious shock.”
“I... I’ll be fine.” She stood on unsteady legs. “Thank you for taking this seriously.”
“It’s my job. And Brianna? You might want to avoid that part of town for a while. Just to be safe.”
The drive home felt surreal. She passed normal people doing normal things. Walking dogs, carrying coffee, living their lives without having just witnessed an execution. Brie parked haphazardly and climbed the stairs to her apartment, locking the door behind her.
She collapsed on her couch, still in her flour-dusted work clothes from the morning that now felt like a lifetime ago. The bakery. She should call the Lodge, explain about the ruined delivery. But she couldn’t form the words, couldn’t figure out how to explain any of this.
Her phone buzzed. Right, she should plug it in before the battery died completely. As she reached for it, a notification caught her eye. The app had a bright red badge.
She almost ignored it. After everything that had happened, checking a dating app seemed absurd. But her thumb moved on its own, opening the notification.
“Congratulations! We’ve found your fated mate!”
Brie stared at the screen. The timing felt ironic, like fate was playing a cruel joke. She’d just witnessed death, and now…
The profile loaded. “Hunter Wolf, 100% Match.”
His photo filled her screen, and her bear sat up with immediate interest. Dark hair with silver at the temples. Serious, dark blue eyes that looked like they’d seen things, understood danger. A face that promised strength, protection, safety… everything she desperately needed right now.
Hunter Wolf. Even his username felt like fate. After what she’d witnessed, after feeling so helpless and terrified, her mate was a hunter. A wolf. Someone who pursued danger instead of stumbling into it by accident.
She studied his profile. Forty-five. Wolf shifter. The brief description read: “Bounty hunter. Former military. Looking for someone who can handle the life.”
A nervous laugh escaped her. Handle the life? After this morning, she wondered if she could handle anything. But something about his face, the steady way he looked at the camera, made her feel less alone.
She started typing a message. How did you tell your fated mate that you’d just witnessed a murder? That you were scared and shaken and desperately needed not to be alone?
Finally, she wrote: “Hi. I’m Brie. I can’t believe we matched. Today has been overwhelming, and finding you feels like fate. Where are you located?”
She hit send before she could second-guess herself, then sat staring at the phone, waiting for those three dots that would mean he was typing back.
Her apartment felt too quiet. Every sound from the hallway made her jump. The morning’s events kept replaying. The gunshot, the blood, the way the body fell on the concrete.
Detective Reynolds’ card sat on her coffee table. He’d said they’d investigate, but what if those men found out she’d witnessed their crime? What if they’d spotted her van with the Sweet Summit Bakery logo on the side?
Her phone buzzed, and she nearly dropped it in her scramble to check.
But it wasn’t Hunter Wolf. It was Maggie asking if everything was okay with the Lodge delivery.
Brie set the phone aside. She’d deal with the bakery later. Right now, she just needed her mate to respond.