Her eyes narrowed, sure he’d almost slipped up and called her a human. “How does it get any easier than this? It’s open to the public. Maybe not the house, but we can go into the festival, see if we can learn anything more.”
“Hell no,” he replied with a shake of his head.
“Be reasonable, Noah. No one’s even going to notice us in this crowd, and even if they did, what could they do with so many people around?”
“It’s not a good idea.”
“Tell me why. Why did the job just get more dangerous and why would you think anyone could pull anything here?” She waited for an answer, but he just shook his head, his jaw rippling as he clenched his teeth. “That’s what I thought. Let me see what else is on the website.”
“I have a call to make.”
Her eyebrows rose as she watched him get out of the truck and shut the door, the phone already pressed to his ear as he paced in agitation. It was a lot noisier out there than it was in the truck, so whatever it was he had to say, he clearly didn’t want her hearing it.
Curiosity was burning through her, but she put it aside, focusing on the website. All that was there was a short description of the festival, along with the dates and address. It was the first day of a two-day event, but that was all she could find.
She was starting to scroll back to the top when she noticed a small link on the bottom of the page about a gala being held the next night. Clicking on it revealed the cost of a ticket and her eyes shot up when she saw it was a couple grand. She tried clicking on the link for more info, but it wanted a password.
Hmmm. She could get past that with a little time.
Noah opened the door and she could tell the call hadn’t gone well for him. He yanked his keys out of the engine and slammed the door, stalking around to her side and opening hers. She arched an eyebrow as she looked at him, taking in the bright glow of his eyes.
“We going somewhere?”
He growled low in his throat and she felt her eyes widen as he cut it off. “Blake wants us to check out the festival. But I swear, Lily, you better stay next to me. Hold my hand the entire time and don’t let go. Don’t ask anyone any questions, don’t even fucking make eye contact with anyone. We’re just going to observe. That’s it.”
Nodding slowly, she unbuckled her seatbelt and put her laptop under the seat before grabbing her purse. He was holding a hand out to her to help her out, and she took it, pausing before letting him help her.
“Okay, but if your goal is to stay inconspicuous and not attract attention, you might want to do something about your eyes. They’re glowing.”
Noah’s heart raced as he walked next to Lily, her hand held snugly in his. His eyes were darting all over the festival, searching for any hint of a threat on autopilot, his years as a Marine and then Enforcer kicking in. He kept his head down, but he reached up and tugged his hat lower, just in case.
His mind was racing just as fast as his heart. What did Lily know? How much did she know, and how had she figured it out? Maybe she didn’t know anything other than the fact that his eyes had been glowing, but that felt like enough. She knew there was something more to him, because human eyes didn’t glow.
A glance down at her showed her looking around the festival with a relaxed smile on her face, her eyes constantly scanning like his were, looking for anything unusual. Her hand was gripping his easily, and as far as he could tell, she gave no vibe of being uneasy or scared since noticing his eyes.
She looked up at him with her lips quirked. “Everything’s cool between us. Now pay attention.”
Huffing a laugh, he tore his eyes from hers, even though he could stand there just gazing into the light and dark blue depths all day. But they were there for a job, so he forced himself to focus. So far, he hadn’t seen anything unusual, and he hadn’t smelled any shifters nearby.
Of course, if they were dragons, they’d have no scent at all, so one of them could be walking next to him and he wouldn’t know.
And that made him uneasy as fuck, because he had Lily with him.
He was pissed as hell at Blake for telling him to take her into the festival, and although he understood the sudden urgency the mission had taken on, he didn’t think he’d get over it anytime soon. Blake might not know for sure Lily was his mate—Noah still couldn’t believe she was—but he suspected.
It was part of the reason he allowed her to go to begin with. Not a matchmaker, Noah’s ass.
Blake was sending Dmitri, Damara and Liam the next day to take over, but he wanted Noah and Lily to stay until they got there, so they could keep trying to gather intel. And the only reason Noah agreed in the end was because of his gift.
If there were shifters around, he could use whatever gifts they had to keep Lily safe. If she wasn’t there, he’d happily stay behind, because his gift could be useful in situations like that, when the Enforcers were going in basically blind.
But he was getting her the hell out of there the second the other three arrived, and although he’d normally feel bad about leaving them when he could help, that time he didn’t. The Enforcers were his family, no question, but his mate’s safety came first.
His mate.
Shit, that statement had the power to stun him. It still hadn’t completely sunk in yet. He didn’t know if it ever would.
His reservations hadn’t just disappeared, though. He was ecstatic that he’d found his mate, and that fact that she was Lily… She was everything he could ever want in a mate and more.
But she’d been Brandon’s first, and there was a big part of him that felt like she was still his friend’s. He didn’t know if that would ever go away.
Or the knowledge that the only way he was able to have his mate was for Brandon to die first. That thought wasn’t sitting well with him. Lily thought Brandon would give his blessing to them, and maybe she was right, in a way. But he also knew that if he’d found out she was his mate while Brandon was still alive, and tried to win her over, his friend would have fought to the death for her, whether he knew Noah was a shifter or not.
And he couldn’t blame him for that.
Lily’s fingers gripped tighter and he looked around with urgency until she bumped her shoulder into his and snuggled in closer. His racing pulse slowed a little as warmth flooded him, and he glanced down at the top of her head with a smile.
She felt like his every dream come true, cuddled into his side as her other hand came up and gripped his bicep. Fuck… he didn’t even have words for how he felt in that moment.
It was amazing, and heart wrenching at the same time. Because no matter how much he told himself to try not to think about Brandon, he couldn’t help it. As right as she felt, touching him like that, there was a part of him that thought it was Brandon who she should be cuddled up to.
He wasn’t sure how much of that was guilt, and how much was because for the majority of the time he’d known her, it had been Brandon she was cuddled into, but the conflicting feelings inside him left uneasiness rolling through his gut.
Glancing around, he scanned for any threats, and when he found none, he opened his gift and searched for any possible gifts coming from other shifters. Nothing came to him and he relaxed as he saw they’d walked almost the entire length of the festival. They could get out of there soon.
He glanced down, intending to tell her they were going to walk to the truck, but paused when he saw her looking at a booth. It was some sort of carnival type game with stuffed animals for prizes—mostly dragons, he saw—and he started guiding her over there.
He might not be sure how he felt about everything, but she was his mate, and he wasn’t going to let her go without a fight. Even if the fight was with himself. And if a guy took his girl on a date to a festival or carnival or whatever, didn’t he try to win her a prize?
They were working, not going on a date, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t stop for a minute and make their time at the festival a little fun.
“Where are you going? Do you see something?
” she asked, her voice so low that he thought he wouldn’t have been able to hear her at all if he were a human.
Squeezing her hand, he shook his head. “Relax. Just going to have a little fun before we leave.”
She looked at him questioningly but when he pulled her to a stop in front of the booth and she saw where they were, her eyes lit up. She did the most adorable little hop as she looked up at him. “Really?”
Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to her forehead, inhaling her strawberry scented shampoo. “Yes, really.”
“These games are rigged, you know.”
Suppressing a smile as the operator came close just in time to hear her and scowl, he eased his hand from her grip. “Don’t worry. I got this.”
She looked between him and the basketball hoop dubiously and gestured as she stood back. “By all means. Show me how it’s done.”
Winking at her, he pulled a five-dollar bill out of his wallet. The operator handed him a basketball, and he aimed and shot, watching with satisfaction as it went straight into the hoop. He sank the other two just as effortlessly, and when he was done, even the operator looked impressed.
“Take your pick from any size,” he said, gesturing at the booth.
Noah glanced over at Lily, feeling pride fill him at the way she was looking at him. It was just a silly carnival game, and the prize was a cheaply made stuffed animal, but the way she was looking at him made him feel like he’d just snatched the moon from the sky for her.
If he could, he’d give her that, too.
“Pick the one you like,” he said, happy he’d decided to stop for the game.
Her eyes narrowed with concentration as she looked around the booth. He totally expected her to pick one of the huge dragons, but she surprised him when she pointed to an average size animal half hidden behind the dragons in the back.
And then his heart skipped a beat and he sucked in a breath when he saw that the one she was pointing at was a lion.
“Are you sure you want that one?” the operator asked her with his eyebrows raised. “Your man won you your choice. You can get one of these larger ones.”
“I’m sure,” she replied, her voice firm. “I love lions.”
Shrugging, the operator got the lion and handed it over to her. Hugging it to her chest, she looked up at Noah with a smile.
“Thank you. This was sweet, and I’ll treasure him forever.”
He felt like he was in a daze as he nodded to her. “It was my pleasure.”
Even his lion seemed stunned, stilling his usual pacing inside him. It was just a small thing, but it gave him hope. Maybe, just maybe, she could accept what he was, since she loved lions. Putting his hope into a thought with words made it seem ridiculous, but he couldn’t shake the feeling.
Forcing himself to focus, he reached for her hand again. “Want me to carry him to the truck for you?”
“Nope. He’s all mine.”
Smiling at her enthusiasm, he led her away, his senses on high alert as they walked to his truck. The whole moment might seem surreal, but he took her safety seriously, so he made sure all his focus was on searching for a threat—not on her smile, the feel of her hand in his, or the way she was still hugging the stuffed lion to her chest.
They made it to his truck unscathed and he helped her in, frowning back at the mansion. He hadn’t wanted to take her through the festival, but he’d still hoped to find out something. There was nothing, though. No threats, no danger, not even any shifters he could find—yet there was a festival for dragons going on at a real dragon’s compound.
Something was definitely going on, but fuck if he knew what.
The compound was owned by Fernandez, who was a male dragon. The dragons had a history plagued by violence, and they were rare. Part of it was because they were hunted and killed throughout history. Finding a dragon and being the one to take them out became the ultimate prize, with epic bragging rights for the shifter who was brave enough—and sneaky enough—to kill one.
The other part was because, for whatever reason, the men could only sire dragon babies if the mother was also a dragon. The gene could only be passed on through the female. And if the females mated another shifter, the baby would most likely have the father’s animal. The only way to guarantee a dragon baby was if both parents were dragons. And complicating matters further was the fact that the women struggled with infertility.
Add in the fact that male dragons were, for the most part, an entitled bunch of dickheads who thought they could do whatever they wanted, and it made for a clusterfuck of epic proportions. If the males found a female dragon, they didn’t ask her permission—they just took her so she could sire their babies. The women had no say.
The intel Blake received before he sent Noah to Idaho was that the dragon who lived at the compound, Fernandez, was hunting female dragons. That was definitely a case the Enforcers took on, but the festival made no sense.
If Fernandez was trying to secretly find females and kidnap them, why would he put on a dragon festival, of all things? The females stayed in hiding to avoid being taken. Advertising what he was seemed like shooting himself in the foot.
Something else was going on, but as much as Noah longed to stay and figure it out so they could take the son of a bitch down, he couldn’t. He had to get Lily back to Nevada and the safety of the clubhouse.
And far away from dragons who thought it was their right to take what—and who—they wanted.
Chapter Eight
Munching on a French fry from the takeout she and Noah picked up on the way back to the hotel, Lily checked to make sure her firewalls and encryption were good. She was determined to hack her way into the details for the gala, but she didn’t want to get caught, or for them to trace it back to her.
“You sure you don’t want to eat before you do your thing?”
She glanced up at Noah’s question, shaking her head with a smile. “I really want to figure out what the deal is with this gala. I love this stuff. I’ll eat while I work.”
Nodding at her, he pulled his meal out of the bag, setting it on the small round table in the corner of the room. She shook her head as he pulled out two huge burgers and an extra large helping of fries. She still couldn’t get over how much he could put away.
Absently reaching for another fry, she ran her gaze over him appreciatively. Eating like he did didn’t seem to be affecting him physically, though. Her middle clenched deliciously as she took him in. She had work to do, but she couldn’t bring herself to look away yet.
His ever present ballcap was pulled low on his brow, and she ran her eyes over his full beard. She never thought she was a beard girl, but his was definitely doing it for her. She wanted to know what it felt like against her face as they kissed, and against other, more sensitive parts.
She squirmed a little on the bed, finally looking quickly away when he glanced up. Her cheeks felt flushed, her breathing was ragged, and she was sure, if he saw her eyes, he’d see the desire in them immediately.
She wanted to be more intimate with him. Oh, how she wanted it. But this thing between them was already going fast. Warp speed, really. It didn’t feel unnatural to her—the exact opposite of that, actually. But she couldn’t help thinking they should take it slower.
Not much slower, because she couldn’t deny she wanted him like crazy.
But at least a tiny bit slower.
Blowing out a breath, she shifted around on the bed, trying to get comfortable. Her thoughts had started an ache in her core that was distracting, but she needed to focus. Her movements made her stuffed lion tumble into her side, and she picked it up with a smile, her heart flooding with warmth.
Winning her that stuffed animal was possibly the sweetest thing ever. Noah was a mountain of a man, but he was basically a teddy bear inside.
Okay, Lily, stop thinking about Noah and focus already, she chided herself.
It seemed like a nearly impossible task, but once she went to the website and started typing
out commands, she got lost in what she was doing. Her fingers were flying over the keys as she attempted to hack it. It was locked up tightly, but there had to be a way in.
Frowning at the screen, she bit her lip and then tried another avenue, straightening when it got her in. Frown deepening, she read the information, trying to puzzle it out. It looked like there was an auction going down, but the people purchasing tickets must have been loaded. The starting bids were astronomical.
But she couldn’t figure out what they were for. There was another wall between her and what the attendees of the gala were bidding on, but she was determined to get in. Her curiosity was burning through her, and her instincts were screaming that something wasn’t right about the whole setup.
It was too exclusive, too private, and the objects they were bidding on were far too expensive. She could buy a really nice house—two of them, in some cases—with the money of those starting bids. Whatever it was, it might be what the Enforcers were looking for.
Typing out a few more commands, she felt satisfaction fill her as she got past the final hurdle and into the hidden site. But as she scrolled, the satisfaction she felt turned into horror.
They weren’t auctioning off expensive objects. They were auctioning off women.
The gala was basically a front for human trafficking.
She scrolled through the page, counting seven women. Frowning, she cocked her head as she read their stats, but she didn’t know what they meant. Purebred? How could a woman be a purebred?
It didn’t matter how they were describing the women to prospective buyers. What mattered was that they were selling them at all.
“Noah. I got in.”
She was staring at him as she said it. He was just putting his empty containers back in the bag, and he looked up, his brow immediately furrowing when he saw her.
Already rising, he asked, “What is it? What did you find? It must be bad to put that look on your face.”
“I don’t think it can get worse than this,” she replied, turning the laptop so he could see the screen better. “They’re actioning off women, Noah. For exorbitant sums.”
Thief (Blood & Bone Enforcers MC Book 2) Page 8