A Mate for Titan (The Program Book 7)

by Charlene Hartnady

  A few minutes later, Titan had slowed down some. He was just as tense though. In fact, it looked like he had developed a tic in his jaw.

  “Your shirt is torn,” Natasha said, looking pointedly at his bicep. There was a short lengthways tear in the fabric. Probably from when he’d gone after Luke.

  Titan glanced down and swore. “I will have to get it replaced. Brant won’t be happy.”

  “It’s not that bad, you can wear a jacket to cover it. I’m sure Steve knows Brant’s measurements. I mean, Brant uses Steve so …” She shrugged, stopping mid-sentence. She was babbling. Her chest felt tight.

  He gave a hard nod, there were still deep frown lines on his forehead. He didn’t say anything else. His eyes remained trained on the road ahead.

  “Don’t worry, I didn’t believe what he said,” Natasha finally blurted. Someone had to address what had just happened.

  Titan pursed his lips. They needed to talk about it. Get it out in the open. “What a prick. You should have torn down that door and kicked the shit out of him.”

  Titan’s lip twitched before he pursed them together again. He breathed out heavily through his nose.

  “No really, you should report him or something. People should not be allowed to spread lies and rumors. It isn’t fair, it—”

  “I won’t be reporting him because what he said was true.” Titan’s hands tightened on the steering wheel.

  “What? No …” She felt herself frown. What was he saying? “No … you …”

  “Yes!” he growled. “It’s fucking true, now can we please drop it?”

  Luke’s words ran through her head. Over and over.

  “Titan tried to force himself on a female. He likes to rape human females.” Luke had sneered as he said it. Like he was enjoying himself.

  Force.

  Rape.

  She snorted. “I don’t believe it. Not for a second. You wouldn’t do something like that.”

  “You’d better believe it,” Titan said, his voice calm.

  “Okay, fine! Are you saying you raped someone? Is that what you’re saying because I have a hard time believing it.”

  “I don’t give a fuck whether you believe me or not. I’m dangerous. I’m not nice. Not even close. You would do well remembering that.”

  Shit! Had he …? Raped someone? Had he done something so awful? So horrendous? She could hear her breath rasping in and out in quick succession. Her heart was just about beating out of her chest. Natasha couldn’t seem to get her panic under control.

  “Why aren’t you in jail? If you raped someone you would be in jail.” There was a hint of panic in her voice.

  “It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change the facts.”

  Her mind raced. It couldn’t be. Why wasn’t he denying it? It couldn’t be true … Could it?

  “I won’t hurt you,” his voice was soft and gentle. “I won’t so much as lay a finger on you.”

  “I’m not afraid of you,” a whisper. It was true. Despite what he had said he had done she still trusted him. Had she gone completely mad? She was obviously stupid but she couldn’t help but feel safe with this man. She was just shocked to her core. The idea of having to work so closely with a rapist didn’t sit well with her. The fact that she still didn’t see him in that light scared her the most. The fact that she still felt comfortable with him, moreover, that she still found him attractive, terrified her. She could smell his masculine scent. It was appealing. There was definitely something very wrong with her.

  Titan laughed. The sound held no humor. “You’re fucking terrified, and with good cause.”

  “You’re wrong! I’m freaking out but I’m not afraid of you.”

  “You should be.”

  “I’m not. You said it earlier, we don’t have to be friends. We don’t even need to see eye-to-eye. We do need to work together though.” She pulled out a file from her laptop bag. “I’m still having a hard time believing this whole thing.” She couldn’t say it. “Eliot said it was a misunderstanding. He said that Luke had it all wrong and didn’t know the full story. There’s parts to this you’re not telling me.”

  “Whatever! I’ve warned you and let’s leave it at that.” His gaze went back to the road where it stayed. He looked resolute.

  “Good idea, let’s move on.” She tried to sound assertive. “The first person we need to interview is Liam Stevenson’s mother, June, and then his younger brother. Carl Stevenson still lives at home. He is unemployed.”

  “You can go back to the office. I will interview them.”

  “Bullshit! I need to cover your back whether you want me to or not. It’s protocol. Either we,” she put major emphasis on the word, “do this together or I’m going back to Oregon.”

  “You’ll be fired if you go back.”

  “No, that … flip!” She felt like an idiot. “It was your decision to bring me onboard not my boss’s but yours.”

  He sucked in a breath.

  “Don’t even try to deny it. It’s written all over your face. I’m not sure why you would let that cow take the credit. Look, I’m going with you and that’s that. Either I go in my own vehicle trailing behind you or we can do this the easy way and go together. You can decide.”

  Titan ground his teeth together. Just when she was sure he was going to tell her to go to hell, he nodded. “Stay out of my way.”

  “Done.” She sounded triumphant.

  Titan nodded. “We’ll first secure a rental vehicle.”

  “Yeah. Let’s do that and then we’ll head to the Stevenson’s.” Her heart still beat like a mad thing.

  They drove in silence for a time. Natasha kept stealing little glances at him. Her mind worked overtime. If Titan was a rapist, he forced women. Human women. If that was the case, why was he made Head of the Human Guard? A guard that, by the sounds of things, looked after the safety of human women on vampire property. Why was he here on this assignment? Placed amongst humans. Why had he looked so upset … like he was in pain? He said that he didn’t have sex … ever … did that have something to do with it? None of it added up. It was clear that she wasn’t going to get anything more out of Titan on the subject. The more she thought about it, the more she knew that there was a whole chunk of the story missing. Titan wasn’t being honest with her about himself or this investigation. She needed to be careful around him even though she still felt like she could trust him. This whole situation stank.

  Titan pulled in the parking area of her hotel and parked the car. Then he pulled out his phone and placed a request for an Uber.

  “You’re leaving your SUV at my hotel?”

  Titan frowned. “I’m also staying here.”

  Oh … Oh!! He stayed in the same hotel as her. Surely she should start panicking about her safety now? Nothing! She got crickets. It was quite simple, she’d put her head down and do her damned job. That’s what she was there for.

  10

  The next day …

  Natasha threw her toothbrush into her toiletry bag and grabbed her hairbrush. She ran the thing through her hair a couple of times before sweeping her mop into an untidy ponytail. She’d overslept. Unbelievable!

  Then again, she’d had so much on her mind after all that had gone down yesterday that she’d set the clock for pm instead of am. Titan was waiting for her downstairs. Natasha looked at her watch. Damn, she was already ten minutes late. She’d sent him a text and could see that he had read it. Of course he hadn’t responded, which told her volumes. She pulled on some low heels and dug in her purse for some tinted lip gloss. She gave herself a once over in the mirror. Messy hair. Slightly creased blouse. Natasha sighed, it would have to do.

  Then she stuffed her iPad into her purse, grabbed her laptop bag and headed out. Natasha gasped as she turned back to pull the door closed. There was writing scrawled across the wood in ugly red paint.

  Go home

  Vampire Loving bitch!

  The brush strokes were broad and rushed. Who had done this? Surely th
e fascist group hadn’t found them out this quickly. Then she felt the back of her neck prickle. She quickly put a finger to the paint and turned, taking in her surroundings. There was nothing to see. No one else was in the hall. There was the sound of a shower running and dishes clanging together. Nothing out of the ordinary. She lifted her finger. It was clean so the paint was dry. This had happened hours ago. A shiver ran down her spine. She had been none the wiser. Natasha hadn’t slept well, she’d tossed and turned, but she’d been none the wiser. She hadn’t heard a darned thing.

  The fascists knew that she was here and based on the message, they knew why. She had known that they would find out sooner or later but this was insane. It was too soon. Far too damned soon. It could only mean one thing.

  She pulled her phone out of her purse. Her finger hovered over Titan’s number. If he came up here he’d know her room number.

  She rolled her eyes and pushed dial. It wasn’t like he couldn’t find out which room she was in if he really wanted to. She was done driving herself crazy about what had happened yesterday. Things weren’t adding up. In the end, she could only trust two things: her gut and her Glock. It felt good resting in its holster at her side. Her gut told her that Titan was lying through his ass about a lot of things. Despite this, she felt that she could trust him with her wellbeing.

  The phone rang once. “What’s taking so long?” A deep rasp.

  Good morning to you too, Sunshine! “I need you to come up to the third floor.”

  He sighed. “I don’t have time for this.”

  “We,” she raised her voice, “you need to start saying we.”

  “Natasha.” She was not going to enjoy how her name sounded on his lips. No damned way.

  “Um … I … you need to come up. It’s important. I’m in room 304.”

  Titan made a growling noise and ended the call.

  It felt like seconds later and he rounded the corner, striding down the hallway with a determined look on his face. He was in a full suit, wearing a powder blue tie this time. It brought out his eyes … Not going there! What the hell was wrong with her?

  “What is so—?” he sniffed, looking at the door. “Fuck!” he muttered under his breath.

  “We need to get forensics out. They should dust for prints and …”

  “They won’t find any but you’re right, we should try.”

  Natasha kept her eyes on his for a few beats. “This is because of an inside leak. Someone at the sheriff’s office. It’s that, or someone from my team. There is no way this group could have been onto us so quickly unless there was a mole.”

  “They probably spotted us going in and out of the castle yesterday.” He shrugged. “They could have followed us.”

  “There wasn’t anyone around yesterday.” She frowned.

  Titan raised his brows. “They could have used a drone.”

  “I thought that vampires used scramblers to prevent drones from flying over your territory.”

  “We do, but we can’t put a stop to what happens outside our fences. They could’ve been watching the sheriff’s office.”

  It was possible, but Natasha didn’t buy it. She had done extensive research on the vampires and their territory, and drones were not able to fly anywhere near them. A drone wouldn’t have gotten close enough. It was possible that someone had spotted them but she didn’t think that was the case either. She was trained to monitor her surroundings. It was easy to spot a tail if you knew what to look for. “A mole shouldn’t be excluded.” It made the most sense. It felt right dammit.

  “Agreed, but we’re sticking to our plan. Members’ family and friends should be able to shed some light on this group.”

  “Vampires killed their loved ones. You saw how things went yesterday with Liam’s mother.” The older woman had gone from crying to hurling insults and then back to sobbing her heart out again. “It was the same with his brother.” Even worse, they hadn’t gotten two words out of the pimple-faced youth. He was in his early twenties and didn’t work. Natasha noticed that he was wearing brand clothing and new expensive sneakers. The kid was getting money from somewhere. It would be worth taking a closer look at him. They hadn’t talked to law enforcement before, she didn’t expect things to be different this time around.

  “We’ll work our way through that list and identify those who need closer consideration, like the Stevenson male. We can trail them and see where it leads.”

  “Okay.” Natasha could tell that she wasn’t going to get through to him. Why was he so adamant about how things needed to run? Starting out with a plan was imperative but said plan needed to be malleable based on how the investigation proceeded. There was no give when it came to Titan. Zero lateral thinking. She’d go along, for now.

  “You need to pack. I’ll go to reception,” Titan said. “Once forensic is done, this,” he pointed to the door, “needs to be cleaned up, and I’m going to ask them to assign you a new room.”

  “Yeah … not a bad idea. On second thought though, maybe we should find somewhere else to stay.”

  Titan squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. She noticed that they looked a bit bloodshot. Then he shook his head. “No point!” He sounded tired. “We just have to be more vigilant.”

  Titan was right. These guys had found them once, they would find them again no matter where they went. She would need to be even more vigilant. Natasha nodded, feeling tired herself.

  It was tiresome going through the motions of interviewing all the dead fascist members’ familes. It felt like a waste of time. He needed to ensure that they kept up the ruse though. No one could find out what was really going on behind the scenes.

  Titan had worked until late reviewing the camera footage. He then listened to all of the telephone conversations from the previous day. Luckily the devices only started recording when someone actually spoke. Still, where the sheriff was concerned, it was a ton of footage. Especially considering he spoke to someone he referred to as his ‘Honey Bunny’ fifteen, if not twenty, times a day. The female called him her ‘Teddy Bear’ and in an annoying voice that was supposed to be sexy. All of the lovie dovie talk was nauseating, not to mention the dirty sex talk, which he could do without overhearing.

  Anyhow, he had to listen to each and every one of those conversations and try to look for hidden messages or meanings. The human, Natasha, was spot on, there was a mole in the sheriff’s department and Titan was going to find the son of a bitch. It wouldn’t take much to get them to talk. He’d find this group. He wasn’t about to take the direct route though. If the mole knew he was onto them, his whole plan would be shot to hell and the SOB would go into hiding. He needed to stop Natasha from snooping around. The female needed to stay in the dark.

  His thoughts moved back to the bugging devices; the Sheriff also spoke regularly with his deputies. So far, the male looked to be clean. As did lab tech James Dawson. The Jail department and Admin departments were all clean as well. It was early days though. Titan didn’t expect the answers to fall from the sky. He was going to have to work on it. If it meant running around pretending to be on a wild goose chase by day and pouring through surveillance footage by night, then so be it. Plus, there were still a couple of the deputies’ phones that needed to be bugged, and Milly from reception also needed a device placed in her handset. It was a work in progress. Titan needed to tread carefully, he didn’t plan on getting busted. It would be better if Natasha believed the ruse. The sheriff’s office was bugged, he’d found devices scattered all over the various departments. So far, his and Natasha’s office was clean. He’d set up a camera so that if the asshole tried to plant a bug, he’d have them red-handed. Point was, the fuckers had ears everywhere, if the human made one slip up they’d be busted. He liked the idea of tackling this thing from both angles. Digging deep was never a bad thing.

  Natasha walked in. “James is processing the prints as we speak. They lifted fourteen full sets and nine partials. He’ll call if anything comes in.”

&nbs
p; “I wouldn’t hold my breath.” Which was exactly what he felt like doing right now. Her scent was driving him to distraction. Titan was thirsty. He’d eaten two days ago, so he shouldn’t need to drink so soon. Especially since his fridge was stocked with blood. The only thing was that blood out of a bag wasn’t nearly as satisfying as blood from a vein. Still, he’d taken blood from Drago just two days ago so he shouldn’t need blood until later in the week at the earliest.

  Just thinking about the male made him feel guilty. He’d reacted harshly when Drago had flirted with Natasha. The asshole should have known better than to pull a move like that and especially in front of him. Although Lance was filling in for him, Titan was still officially in charge of the division that looked after humans while on vampire territory. Fucking around with human females was a complete and utter no-no. It didn’t matter that Drago was one of the ten and that he’d already been tested for bloodlust. What mattered was that Natasha was not one of The Program females. The asshole had been rude to her on top of that. It was something he wouldn’t tolerate.

  The female in question moved closer. The scent of wild roses and candy filled his nostrils. It was all he could do to keep from taking her scent deep, of sniffing the air. His stomach growled. She gave him a sad looking smile. “If you need to take a food break I can fill in that report for you.”

  “No,” he said too quickly. The report was to his king, detailing all the steps taken thus far. It had nothing to with the incident from this morning like he’d told her. “I’m fine,” he added, softer this time.

  “Okay. What would you like me to do?” She folded her arms.

  “You can work on the reports from yesterday’s interviews and prepare a list of questions for the ones scheduled this afternoon.”

  Her jaw tightened but she nodded. “Next on the list is Earl Fish’s grandmother as well as his father. Mother is listed as deceased. The guy’s grandmother is in a home for the elderly. She’s in frail condition.” Natasha pulled a face. “I’m not sure how much information we’ll be able to get out of her.”