14. Chapter 14
Chapter 14
Abby
The back of my neck tingled as I hung up the phone and punched the address to some fancy mountain mansion into my GPS app. Gage was agitated. I don’t know how I could tell by a two second call, but I could. Almost as if I could feel his fury radiating through the phone.
Of course, he was. Someone tried to shoot one of their clients the night before. I remembered what Ezra had told me about Gage feeling responsible for everyone around him. Maybe he felt responsible for Cargill too. He didn’t do any of the bodyguard work, but he created the entire security system. If it failed, he might take it as a personal failure.
Somehow, I didn’t feel like that was the reason he was asking me to drive over an hour to meet him.
My palms were sweaty during the entire drive. Twice I tried listening to the radio and twice the tinny sound of music through my old car speakers set my nerves on edge. The silence became deafening, leaving too much room for my mind to run wild. This whole situation had me spooked.
I’d never even seen a gun before, much less been around someone that had been shot.
Well, excluding the team at Silver Bullet because I had no idea if they’d been shot at it. I wasn’t going to ask.
I was just turning down the long driveway to Cargill’s country home when I slammed on the breaks, gawking out the window. Moving through the trees was a massive, lumbering shape. The clouds had swallowed up the afternoon sun, but I was sure of what I saw.
A bear. The biggest brown bear I’d ever seen. Bigger by far than the ones sleeping cozily on their rock structures at the zoo.
Holy shit. Was it even safe to be out here? I didn’t know much about Washington wilderness, but I’d done some research to make sure I wouldn’t get eaten by a bear while camping at Deer Base. There weren’t brown bears here. Not this far southwest.
I slammed the accelerator, going too fast up the winding drive. The view of the dewy moss and ancient trees was probably beautiful. I didn’t see any of it. I was focused on getting to the house and to Gage, where I wouldn’t feel like a grizzly bear was about to charge my puny car and rip the door off.
I grabbed my work tablet, a notebook, and several pens from the front seat, only pausing when I saw the shattered front windows. The house was breathtaking, more like a vacation lodge than a personal home. But the sight of those windows, broken by bullets, made my blood freeze. Then I remembered the bear, and I scurried to the house, knocking loudly on the front door.
Gage yanked it open, scowling down at me as he wordlessly let me in.
“I saw a bear in the woods!” I gasped, not bothering to properly greet him. “A grizzly bear!”
A smile threatened to soften his face for half a second before he stopped it. “That’s just Ezra.”
“Ezra. I forgot he was with you.”
I swallowed, stepping inside, and wishing I could admire the interior. I wanted to stay in a cabin like this for my honeymoon years ago. Instead, we ended up in a motel in Rochester, Minnesota. I wasn’t here to check out the décor though. I was here to do a job.
Plus, there was glass everywhere.
“Can I call someone to do the windows now?” I asked. I knew Cargill was renting this place, but Levi wasn’t planning to inform the owner of the property that someone was shooting through his living room. The sooner I got the windows replaced, the less likely there was to be water damage from the rain.
Gage ignored my question. “Come into the kitchen.” There was an icy edge to his voice, and I shivered.
“Is everything okay?” I was stuck on the night before, remembering the way he met my eyes as he caught me on the sidewalk. The way his arms came protectively around me.
Then there were the keys. Was I supposed to thank him or never mention that he left me the keys to his place? To never admit that I used them and had to resist sleeping in his ridiculously comfortable king-sized bed.
“This is going to be a lot easier if you tell me the truth, Abigail.”
I settled my things on a two-person table, crossing around the wide kitchen island and trying not to lose focus by admiring the woodwork. “The truth about wha—”
I was cut off by a snarl. My back hit the counter. Gage’s arms pinned me in place, his body inches from mine. Fangs protruded from his mouth, and I suddenly felt like I was in a vampire movie. “Who are you working for?”
“What do you mean? You!” Something was seriously wrong with him. That eerie shifter glow kept flashing in his eyes, flickering back and forth like a lightbulb needing replacement. Anger was written clearly on his face but the way he pressed into me felt more intimate than threatening.
That answer didn’t satisfy him at all. With his thumb he slanted my head, making room for his fangs as they dropped dangerously close to my throat. “ Who are you working for, Abigail? ”
I should have recoiled. Instead that weird heartburn sizzled in my chest, almost vibrating.
Ping .
Yes, right there .
I slanted my head, exposing more of my neck as my body softened. His strength was supernatural. I would never get away from him unless he wanted me to. I was completely helpless as he held me in place, his dewy forest scent making me woozy.
Helpless as his muscled arm curved around my back, pulling me to him. Helpless as the growl in his throat became more of a purr, husky approval at my submission.
That crackling sensation in my chest went wild, stronger than before, and it seemed an odd time to get indigestion. It warmed me from the inside out, seeping through me until I felt achy and desperate. The tips of Gage’s teeth were skimming the column of my throat, and I barely had the self-awareness to hold back a moan.
“Abigail…” The word was muffled with his lips so close to my skin. “Tell me the truth.”
My head was swimming, my skin hot. Somehow I found a current, kicking my way out of whatever haze I was in and shoving Gage away with as much force as I could muster.
“What’s your problem?”
Gage blinked, the vibrant glow fading completely from his eyes. He looked more confused than I was as he stared down at his hands.
“You’re not lying.”
My voice quavered. “Of course, I’m not lying! What would I lie about?”
“Someone told the shooter where the cameras were.”
My gaze bounced around his face, searching for any sign that this was a joke. He wouldn’t meet my eyes, wouldn’t even look at me as he clenched and unclenched his hands.
“You thought that I—” I turned away, propping my hands on the counter. A feverish sensation burned down my spine. My skin felt too tight and that alarming thing in my chest was tingling and twitching. Saliva pooled on my tongue.
I was going to be sick.
Or I was going to whirl around and slap Gage in the face.
Or maybe kiss him because he smelled so good, and I wanted to feel his mouth on me again.
What the actual hell is wrong with me?
“You seriously thought that I was—what? A spy?”
Gage didn’t answer.
“Gage!” I snapped, whipping back around.
“Someone told the shooter,” he repeated. “You’re the only person on the team—"
“That you don’t trust,” I finished for him. “Right.”
“You were the only plausible explanation,” he corrected.
“You made me drive over an hour to a crime scene so that you could accuse me of attempted murder by proxy and now you’ve decided I’m innocent in two minutes? Why not just freaking call me?”
“I needed to see your face.”
I waved at my head. “Here it is!”
“Abigail—"
“I get it. You hate humans. Does that mean you can’t offer any decency? I live in my freaking car! I have to shampoo my hair in the same shower that some hairy truck driver used to wash his butt! Do you think I would be living like this if I was taking money to give up clients? To help some shifter mafia thugs?” My voice cracked and unhelpful tears gathered in my eyes. I hated being an angry crier. “Did you really think I would take money in exchange for another person’s life?
“God, this is so insane. What am I even doing here? Why did I take this job?” The floodgates were open and now I was spiraling. Gage was staring at me in horrified shock. His Adam’s apple bobbed as I continued my tirade. “I know seeing bullet holes in the wall might be an everyday occurrence to you, but it’s new to me. I’ve never even held a gun! Do you know how messed up that is?“ I covered my face with my hands in a failed attempt to hide my mortifying tears. “I’m so tired.”
Tired of being cold and wet when I went to bed every evening.
Tired of being too broke to buy a real dinner.
Tired of being alone in all of this.
Tired of handling everything by myself.
What kind of terrible thing did I do to deserve this karmic nuke?
“Abby—"
Ezra chose that moment to walk through the back door, sporting only a low-slung pair of jeans. I gaped, partly because I was so shocked to see him disheveled and without one of his flannels, partly because I hadn’t realized he had enough tattoos to compete with Kai, and partly because moments ago he’d been a bear.
Conceptually, I understood shifters, but it was still insane to see them shifted. It was bad etiquette to ask what a shifter’s animal was. Was it bad etiquette to ask them to shift in front of me so I could see what it looked like?
I was going to go with, yes.
“Abby?” Ezra stopped, sheepishly covering his chest with the crumpled shirt in his hands. As if that hid anything. The man was like a human 18-wheeler. “What are you doing here?”
There was a horrible noise behind me and suddenly everything went dark. I squeaked and clawed at the hand now covering my eyes.
“Put some fucking clothes on!” Gage said, using his free hand to turn me toward him, completely blocking my view of Ezra. Not that I could see anything with his fingers covering half my face.
I managed to free myself from his grip, blinking my eyes against the brightness of the kitchen light. Then the light was gone, eclipsed by the giant, muscled chest that was threatening to squash me into the wall. I sidestepped him, crossing my arms and regarding him warily.
He wasn’t nearly this concerned with modesty when he was naked in my campsite a few nights ago.
“What’s she doing here?” Gage’s concentration was broken by Ezra’s impatient question. He was studying me, noting the obvious tears on my face.
Levi was easygoing, but he lost his temper sometimes. Ezra didn’t. He was the steadiest person I’d ever met.
So, when he turned on Gage with a thunderous look, I was a little scared for Gage’s well-being. “What’s going on?”
“I had to follow up on something with Abigail.” Gage locked eyes with Ezra. In the dominance hierarchy Gage was higher than Ezra but if it came down to a fist fight, I don’t think anyone could topple Ezra.
“And you’re done now.” It wasn’t a question. Ezra took a moment to button his shirt, turning to me with a gentle smile and saying, “Let’s go, Abby. I’ll ride back to the office with you so you can let Levi know you’re off duty for the rest of the weekend.”
“Sure,” I agreed weakly, retrieving my work things from the table and making a beeline to the door.
Ezra was my freaking hero. I couldn’t take another second in the same room as Gage or I was going to die of embarrassment. Or worse, take a page out of his book and start swinging at him.
“That’s not necessary,” Gage said, cutting between the two of us.
Ezra stepped forward until they were face to face. I don’t think I was meant to hear when he muttered, “I thought you were better than this, Gage.”
Those words struck Gage, his face paling. He stepped away, eyes downcast, expression pensive.
We were about to walk out the front door when Gage said, “It was Cargill.”
“What was Cargill?” Ezra asked.
“Cargill hired the shooter.”
Ezra heaved an enormous sigh. “Go home and get some sleep.”
Then he led me outside, opening the door to my car so I could get behind the steering wheel. My Subaru was comically small for a man like Ezra, but he didn’t complain about the lack of leg room as he huddled into the passenger side.
“What’s with the camping stuff?” Ezra craned around the seat to look at my makeshift living room.
“I love camping!” I lied.
He grunted, going silent until we were off Cargill’s property and driving toward Seattle.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head. “No, not really.”
“Is there anything I need to tell Levi?”
“No! No. Nothing like that.”
“If Gage is a problem—"
“It’s okay, Ezra. It was a misunderstanding.” Why was I defending him? He accused me of selling out our client.
“If it’s ever not okay, you need to let Levi know. We don’t make females cry in this pack.”
I smiled. “Thank you, Ezra.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he mumbled, turning to stare out the window with a concerned furrow across his brow.