by Elena Aitken
Voices.
Luke stopped behind the shed and listened. At first it sounded as if Chloe was talking to herself, but then…Kade.
“You deal with a lot of kids in your line of work?” Kade asked.
“Almost none.” Chloe’s voice was filled with sadness, and something else. Relief. As if she had something she needed to say.
Luke forced himself to stay put and listen, unwilling to interrupt her as she started to tell her story.
His heart cracked a little for her as he heard the details of her story: not because it was sad, but because it clearly had made a significant impact on Chloe. An impact that had shaped her career, and obviously her life.
Her voice cracked as the story progressed. Luke could sense her hurting. He could feel her pain, even though he couldn’t see her. When she said, “Ten kids got sick. Nine were lucky. Jordan Adams wasn’t,” he couldn’t wait any longer. He moved around the outside of the wall, but neither Chloe nor Kade saw him.
“But you did your job. You tested the samples,” Kade said.
“No. That’s the thing. The samples were switched. The senior researcher on the team had been paid off. But I should have known. I was the one who collected them. I should have realized they weren’t the same. It was my fault.”
“Bullshit.”
Chloe and Kade both turned to see him there.
“Luke? What—”
“That’s bullshit, Chloe.” He strode across the space and pulled her from the table and into his arms, taking the notebook out of her hands as he did so. “You did your job. If the samples were switched, it wasn’t because of anything you did. You did everything you could.”
She shook her head against his shoulder, but didn’t speak. Soon, the cotton of his t-shirt grew damp where she rested her head. He didn’t press her; he just rubbed her back and kept repeating himself. “You did everything you could.”
“They got sick.” Her voice was thick and muffled, but he could hear her loud and clear. Kade sat silently, watching and listening with a respect Luke didn’t know his little brother was capable of. “All those kids.” She lifted her head a little to look at his face. “They were just playing the way kids should and they got sick because someone got greedy.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
She shook her head. “I could have stopped it. I should have looked harder. I should have seen something. I should have done my job.”
“You did do your job.”
She shook her head again. “He died, Luke.”
“I know, babe.” He rubbed her back gently and let her fold into him while she cried and finally let out the emotion she’d obviously been holding onto for far too long. “I know. But it’s nothing you did. It wasn’t your fault.”
“And more importantly,” Kade chimed in, “this case isn’t like that one. No one is going to die because you found a few bags by the stream.”
Chloe looked up and used the back of her hand to wipe her eyes before she stared at Kade. A few moments went by before she blinked, and Luke was getting a little worried that she might either start crying again or worse, was going to go after Kade. There was no telling what an emotional bear would do. Never mind an emotional female bear. He tightened his grip on her. Not so much to protect her, but to protect his little brother from what could be an emotional, unreasonable female.
But he needn’t have worried because the noise that came out of Chloe wasn’t a growl or a sob, but…a laugh?
“Chloe? What?” He held her out at arm’s length to look at her, and sure enough, her beautiful face, streaked with the tears still, was crumpled up in laughter. “Chloe?” He said her name again. “Are you…are you okay?”
The woman was clearly losing her mind. The stress and emotion was getting to her.
“He’s right,” she said after a moment. “Kade’s right. No one is going to die because I found a few bags by the stream.” She burst out into a fresh round of giggles and Kade joined in. All Luke could do was stand back to watch and wait it out. She needed the emotional release; he let her have it because he knew enough about women to know what would follow.
Sure enough, it didn’t take long before Chloe looked at him and he could see the shift in her moments before the tears started to flow once more. He held out his arms and wrapped her up once more.
“You’re right,” he said into her ear. “No one will die, but we still need to figure out what’s going on. And you’re just the woman to do that.” He kissed her cheek, knowing it was breaking every spoken and unspoken rule they’d ever had between them, but he no longer cared.
“Luke.”
She was so close, he could take her lips into a kiss and she wouldn’t have time to pull away, to deny him what he wanted so badly. What he needed. Hell, what they both needed. And he was ready to do just that, when her eyes lifted to something just past his shoulder. Her whole body tensed in his arms and he, too, turned to see what she was looking at.
“How could I miss that?” She moved toward the table, and he made no motion to stop her. “It was right there.”
“What?”
“I don’t see anything.” Kade jumped up from where he sat on the picnic table. Luke had almost forgotten he was there. “What are you looking at?”
“That paper.” Chloe crouched on the ground by the large table where the contents of the garbage bags were spread out. “Hold on.” She reached farther under the table and pulled out a folded piece of yellow lined paper.
Once she stood again, Kade and Luke both gathered around her and watched her unfold it. “It looks like a list of names,” she said.
“No.” Luke shook his head. “Not just names. Horses.” He clapped his hands together. “Blackwood’s horses. We got ’em. This was in the bags?”
She nodded.
“You’ve found it, Chloe. It’s the missing puzzle piece and just the proof we need that we’ve been set up.”
“Wait.” Chloe shook her head. “I’m not sure about all this. I mean, a setup? I don’t understand. Why would someone go to all that trouble? And how would they know I’d find the garbage?”
“They must have known you were here,” Kade said.
“Why are you here?” The moment he said the words, he wanted to take them back. “I mean…you know what I mean, Chloe. But who hired you? Why did they want you to investigate the Ridge? We never really got to the bottom of that.”
“It’s not uncommon when a new business starts up,” she said. “Especially one that’s in such a remote and natural area. It’s fairly standard, really. Especially when we get a call.”
“A call?” Both brothers asked her at the same time.
Chloe nodded slowly. “From what my supervisor told me, they got a call from someone about the Ridge. I don’t know much more than that. But it wasn’t the Blackwoods or I would have said something when you mentioned them.”
“Who was it?” The hair on the back of Luke’s neck stood up while Chloe flipped through her journal to locate the name.
“I was right,” she said. “It wasn’t a Blackwood. It was a D. Ackerman.”
“D?” Luke’s hands clenched into fists. “As in Darryl?”
“I suppose.” Chloe shrugged. “Do you know a Darryl?”
Luke nodded. “Darryl Ackerman.” The name tasted bitter on his tongue. “Cousin to Brian Blackwood,” he said to Kade. “I met him this morning at the ranch. Apparently he’s a bit of a troublemaker and Brian’s trying to straighten him out.”
Kade crossed his arms and nodded in Luke’s direction.
“I think maybe it’s time we helped out in that department, don’t you?”
“Forget it, Luke. It’s a bad idea.”
He squeezed his hands together to keep from lashing out at Axel. After discovering the note, Luke had all the evidence he needed to confront Brian again and put an end to things before they got out of control. But Kade insisted they talk to Axel first to let him in on what they’d found. It didn’t seem like a
bad idea at the time—especially considering it had come from Kade, who was usually the hothead of the three—but now that he stood in front of his older brother, who didn’t seem nearly as ready to deal with the problem as he was, Luke started to think he should have followed his instincts from the start and dealt with things himself.
“It’s your instincts,” his brother said.
“What?” Had he been speaking out loud? How could Axel know what he was thinking?
“Your instincts,” Axel said again. “They’re clouded.”
Kade nodded in agreement.
“What do you know about it?” he roared at his younger brother. This was insane. They were wasting time. He could have taken care of things by now if his brothers hadn’t insisted on talking about everything so damn much. He paced in front of the fireplace. Just being inside was aggravating him. His bear was ready to be unleashed and dammit, those wolves were going to pay for trying to set him up.
“I know you’re a mess.” Kade laughed. It was a good thing Axel stood beside him, with reflexes quicker than Luke could react, or Kade would have been flat on his back with a very angry bear on top of him.
“Say that again.” Luke bared his teeth and struggled against his brother’s grip. “I dare you.”
“Put your bear away, big brother.” Kade patted him on the chest before he had the good sense to take a step back to put a bit more distance between them. “I’m on your side, remember?”
“We’re all on the same damn side.” Axel pulled tighter on Luke’s arms. “Pull it together,” he growled. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. Your bear needs to be reined in. And fast.”
Luke forced himself to take a breath and try to relax a little bit. Kade might be an ass, but he had a point. He was a mess. But as soon as he sorted out the Blackwood situation, he’d be fine.
“You need to take Chloe as your mate.”
“What?” He was so shocked, the rest of the tension drained out of Luke, and Axel released him. “What are you talking about?”
“Your instincts are clouded. You can barely control your bear. You’re not thinking clearly. You’re a complete disaster.” Axel held up a hand when Luke took exception to the last part. “You are,” he said again. “You’re worse than I was before I mated with Harper. It’s that in-between stage. You have her, your bears are connected, but until you seal the deal, you won’t be operating properly. It’s like a fog.”
He shook his head, but there was no point protesting it too hard. He knew Axel was right. And it was only getting worse the more time that went by. The need he had for her went far beyond the physical. “I can’t.” He shook his head again. “We had a deal. It was supposed to stay casual. She doesn’t want anything else. Neither did I.”
“Did you?”
“You know me,” Luke tried to explain. “I didn’t want a mate. It was never even on my radar. Not really.” He shrugged. The truth was, although he wasn’t as open to the idea of mating as Axel, he also wasn’t as adamantly opposed to it as Kade had been. Luke had always been somewhere on the fence when it came to the idea of a mate, which was why it hadn’t been a hard promise to make to Chloe. Not at first.
“And now?” Kade asked.
“Now…I want her so badly it physically hurts inside.” It was the truth. The more time that went by with her there—being near her, being inside her, having her in his arms—it just made everything more intense. He wanted her and not just for a night or two, but forever.
Axel nodded knowingly but it was Kade who said, “Do it.”
Both Axel and Luke turned to their little brother in shock. Kade had always been adamantly against mating and especially the idea of fated mates because as far as he was concerned, they ruined lives. Or at least, it had ruined their lives when their grandfather had cast out their mother because she’d chosen a mate—their father—from a clan he deemed unacceptable. It was the exact same reason Kade’s twin sister, Kira, had been cast out of the Jackson clan. And of course the consequence of her brothers not bringing her back had been for them to be cast out as well. Which was the entire reason the Jackson brothers found themselves on the ridge, trying to make a new life. Everything bad that had ever happened to them had been because of fated mates.
But as Luke was coming to see, there could also be a lot of good.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Luke stared at Kade. Could he be changing his attitude? “Did you really tell me to take a mate?”
“Not any mate,” Kade grumbled. “Chloe.”
“And that’s different, how?”
“Because you need to. Axel’s right—it’s screwing with you. Fix it.”
Luke needed a moment to process. He turned and walked toward the big picture window that overlooked the clearing where Harper and Chloe were currently gathered around the fire pit with the guests. Harper was passing out roasting sticks and Chloe followed with a bag of marshmallows. She was laughing and from a distance, anyone would believe she was relaxed and carefree, but Luke could see the tension in her shoulders, and the way she looked as if she held the stress of the world. His heart ached to see her so weighed down with worry because of everything that had been happening. Her job was important to her, but he knew he was important to her, too. Even if she didn’t want to admit it to anyone. Especially herself.
“I can’t.” He spoke the words as he watched the woman he loved hold her own roasting stick over the flames. “I can’t do it.”
“What?” Axel came up beside him. “Why not?”
“Exactly.” Kade joined him on the other side, and together they watched the scene outside. “She’s obviously in love with you.”
Kade’s words couldn’t have been more unexpected if he’d just told Luke he was getting married. He stared at his brother, but Kade wouldn’t make eye contact. “What did you say?”
“Anyone can see it.” Kade shrugged casually, as if he hadn’t just shocked his brothers into silence. “Even me. She loves you, man. I saw the way she looked at you when she was telling her story. And the way you held her. That’s love on both sides. Flat out. So I don’t see the problem.”
“As crazy as it is to say this,” Axel ran his hands through his hair and shook his head in bewilderment, “I agree with Kade. Harper and I were talking about it, too. She’s in love with you. And we already know you’re so stupidly in love with her that you can barely remember your name. So seal the deal, brother.”
Luke focused on Chloe again and watched while she bit into the marshmallow and then laughed as the sticky mess trailed from her mouth to her fingers. “She made it very clear that she didn’t want anything to do with a mate,” he said. “I have to respect that. Her career is too important to her. It’s her life. I can’t mess with that just because of something I’m feeling.”
“She’s feeling it too.”
“But I promised her. I—”
“That’s bullshit and the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard.” Kade grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him so Luke faced him. “And that’s saying something considering I spend my days with the two of you. But I’ve had enough. You love her and she loves you. Mate already. More so we can get on with this whole bloody Blackwood problem and shut it down before it becomes serious. Because if you think for a second that we can handle this with you all screwed up and your instincts all muddled, you’re wrong. So, if for no other reason, mate Chloe so we can save her career and the goddamn ridge!” Kade shook his head and slapped his palm against the window so hard it rattled the pane and drew some glances from the women. “This whole discussion is pissing me off. I’ve gotta get out of here.”
Luke and Axel watched as their little brother stormed out the front door, slamming it behind him to take off to places unknown. He wouldn’t shift; they knew that much. Kade never shifted anymore. Not since Kira left. Whatever he was going to do, hopefully it put him in a better mood when he got back.
“So,” Axel said after a moment. “Looks like you have some
work to do. We’ll figure out everything else in the morning.”
He wanted nothing more than to make Chloe his mate, but Luke also knew he had to do it the right way. “I guess there’s only one problem.” His gaze traveled back to her. “Chloe.”
“I guess you’re just going to have to seduce her.” Axel slapped him on the shoulder and chuckled. “You’ve got your work cut out for you, little brother.”
Chapter Ten
When Luke had asked her to dinner, Chloe’s first response was to turn it down. After all, things were complicated enough and she had way more feelings toward him than she should. Especially considering the situation they were in now. And even though it was clear that Grizzly Ridge had been set up with the trash, it was still complicated. And it didn’t negate the fact that Chloe still didn’t want to get involved with anyone.
Yes, she definitely should have turned down his invite.
But she didn’t.
“It doesn’t mean anything, Chloe. It’s just dinner with a friend. In his cabin.” She glanced around the path to see whether anyone had heard her talking to herself, but no one was around. The last of the guests had left after the campfire earlier in the afternoon, and Harper said they weren’t expecting anyone for two days. Still, she kept her thoughts to herself as she finished the short walk to Luke’s private cabin. She hadn’t been there yet, but she knew very well which was his. The closer she got, the more she could feel her body hum with expectation.
She could deny it all she wanted, and she did want to. Mostly. But there was definitely some sort of instinctual attraction between them. It was impossible to deny.
It still doesn’t mean anything.
She’d put a little extra care into her appearance, brushing out her hair from its usual braid and changing from her field jeans and t-shirt to simple black leggings and a long blue blouse that she knew complemented her eyes. She straightened her blouse now and checked for stray hairs escaping the clip she’d twisted her hair up into on the back of her head.