by Lowe, Anna
“Are you sure, Sophie?” Dell murmured.
She gave herself a little shake. “Um…yes. I’m sure. It’s fine.”
At least, she hoped so.
Anjali tapped Dell’s arm in a subtle signal, and he looked at her, confused. Then he cleared his throat and backed away. “Right. How about we give you two a minute to talk?”
Anjali led him aside, leaving Sophie alone with Chase. Well, as alone as a woman could be in a public park crowded with tourists and police. Chase looked edgier than she’d ever seen him, and no wonder. She’d already figured out he hated crowds and noise. A relic of having grown up in the mountains, maybe? Or had the explosion brought back ugly memories from his army days?
She took his hand and turned toward the ocean, tuning in to a more peaceful scene.
“You don’t have to prove how tough you are,” he whispered.
Sophie pursed her lips. Actually, she did. She’d vowed not to let fear drive her life, right?
“Really, it’s fine,” she said, trying to convince Chase, too.
The longer she looked into his deep hazel eyes, the more sure she felt. Not about work or anything in the big, bad world, but about Chase.
I love you, she wanted to say. I really do.
Her cheeks heated. Did he love her too?
His eyes flashed, and before she knew it, they were kissing. Lightly at first, then harder, even desperately. Like love was a weapon that could beat back any evil in the world. A ray of hope that could burn all doubt away. She kissed with all her heart and soul, and Chase did the same, holding her close.
In his arms, she felt safe. Content. Complete. But the outside world, damn it, refused to go away.
“Chase,” Dell called. “Sorry, man, but my shift starts soon, and we need to talk.”
“Talk?” Chase mumbled, barely looking Dell’s way.
“Talk.” Dell nodded firmly.
Sophie frowned. Dell and Chase were men of action, not words. Given the context, talk could have been Special Forces code for any number of things, like Plan. Investigate. Maybe even Seek revenge.
She kept hold of Chase’s hand, reluctant to let go.
“Don’t worry,” Anjali told Chase with a reassuring smile. “I’ll stay with Sophie, and you two will be back together soon.”
Her words were a promise, as if she knew how badly Sophie wanted — no, needed — to be close to Chase. Still, Sophie dragged her feet. What she really wanted to do was grab Chase, take him home, and dive back into that kiss. On the other hand, she had to pull herself together if she was going to work soon. That, and she had to walk the dogs, who were waiting for her at home.
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Thanks for everything.” She dragged her gaze away from Chase to Dell and finally Anjali, because she owed them so much. Then she looked back at Chase and faked a brave smile. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
Chase was as tight-lipped as ever, but finally, he whispered, “Okay.”
Sophie forced herself to follow Anjali. At the same time, she summoned all the energy she had to send Chase a mental message. It was silly, hoping he’d somehow hear it, but she tried anyway.
See you soon. I love you.
Somehow, just thinking it made her feel better, and she stepped away with Anjali. But a moment later, she whipped around, imagining she’d heard Chase whisper a reply directly into her mind.
I love you too.
Anjali tugged her along just then, and Sophie stumbled away on shaky feet. Was she just wishing hard enough to believe she’d heard those words, or had it been real?
“Have you ever felt so close to someone, you can read his mind?” Sophie asked in a hushed voice.
Anjali patted her arm and flashed a secret smile. “Believe me, I get that feeling all the time.”
Chapter Seven
Chase shook his head a little, the way he might if his ears were clogged after a swim. Maybe kissing Sophie had been a mistake, because he could barely think straight. Hell, he could barely see straight, and all he could smell was her heavenly rose-and-tulip scent. His lips still tingled, and his blood felt too thick to flow through his veins.
Kissing our mate is not a mistake, his wolf growled.
Well, no, but how could he protect her if he didn’t find out what was going on?
“You okay, man?” Dell asked.
Chase kept his eyes firmly ahead. Not really, no. But he wasn’t about to admit as much. Every time he had to leave Sophie, his soul ached and his wolf howled. So much so that it scared him, because it was getting worse and worse. His wolf was desperate to claim her, and it was becoming harder than ever to hold back.
“Look, she’ll be fine. Anjali will stay with her, and Hailey is coming out to help too,” Dell said.
At least there was that. He was only parting from Sophie for a little while, and she would be safe. Anjali was a lion shifter, and Hailey, his brother Tim’s mate, was a bear shifter. Which meant those two could not only keep an eye out for trouble — they could protect Sophie against any threat that might arise too.
His nerves settled down a tiny bit. It was good to be part of a strong pack. He hadn’t even had to ask anyone for help; Anjali and Hailey had arranged to do so without a word.
So Sophie would be all right — for the time being. But Chase couldn’t rest until he was convinced the explosion had been an accident and not the result of foul play.
Dell led him up the stairs to the Lucky Devil, where Tim waved them over to a quiet corner table. They weren’t there to work, but to convene on what they’d each managed to discover in their part of the investigation so far.
Tim greeted them with a nod, then leaned closer and got right to the point. “You talked to Dawn, right?”
Chase nodded. Yes, he’d spoken to Officer Meli that morning, but she hadn’t had much to report. “She said police experts did a preliminary check and found no evidence of a detonator.”
His brother nodded. “I had a look too, late last night.”
Chase and Dell both leaned closer. They had faith in the Maui police, but no one on the local squad had as much experience with explosives as Tim did.
“And?” Dell prompted.
“Nothing.” Tim shook his head. “I couldn’t find a thing, which means it was probably an accident. A fluke.”
“Probably?” Chase snorted. Probably wasn’t good enough when it came to his mate’s safety. Couldn’t Tim see that?
“It would have taken a real expert to set a detonator we couldn’t detect,” Tim said. “You can spot amateur work from a mile away, even in a wreck like that. And what are the chances that we’re dealing with someone with that level of experience?”
Dell looked doubtful. “Targeting a smoothie truck? I’d say not very high.”
Chase frowned. Not very high hardly equaled zero.
“There’s an outside chance someone wanted to damage the business,” Dell said. “And obviously, Mr. Lee isn’t the nicest guy to deal with. But I haven’t come across anything so far — no employee complaints, no strong competitors. No one with the motive to do something that extreme.”
Chase studied his drink. He’d come to the same conclusion that morning, though there were a few more leads he wanted to follow.
“What about Mr. Lee?” Dell asked.
Tim snorted. “Bombing one of his own trucks?”
Dell shrugged. “Maybe he wants to cash in on an insurance policy. Something like that.”
Chase tensed at the notion and started to stand, ready to rush back to Sophie. But Tim pulled him back down. “That’s a long shot. A very long shot.”
“Not long enough,” Chase growled.
Dell pushed his glass closer, as if Chase could think of drinking at a time like that. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to spook you. I’m just trying to think things through. We’ll check out that angle, but I wouldn’t worry. Anjali is with Sophie, and she’s on high alert.”
Tim gazed out over the ocean, deep in thought. “We might
be putting the cart before the horse, talking about motive. We don’t even know if it was sabotaged.”
“The dogs saw someone messing around at that end of the truck,” Chase reminded him.
Tim didn’t look convinced. “The question is, what did they actually see?”
Chase pinched his lips into a tight line. He had to admit it had all been pretty vague. “It’s hard to say, but Darcy was so sure about it. Some guy was messing around near the back of the truck.”
Tim and Dell glanced at each other then back at Chase. “I’m sure he means well, but didn’t Sophie say she thought the sanitation guys were around? To a dog, it’s all the same thing.”
Chase balled his fists, ready to shoot back, But Darcy was sure. Really sure. The same way he felt sure something was amiss, even if he couldn’t put a finger on what that might be.
But he could see it in Tim’s eyes. His brother didn’t believe Darcy. They didn’t believe him.
“What about you?” Dell asked. “You’ve walked the site. Any scent of anyone or anything?”
Chase shook his head. He’d studied every corner of the park, using his keen wolf senses to tease out scents and trails. But the park saw hundreds of visitors a day, and nothing stood out, especially not over the acrid scent of the fire.
“Nothing,” he admitted.
“Hailey and I checked the park for scents, too,” Tim said. “But we couldn’t get anything either.”
Chase’s mood darkened. Bears had the keenest noses around, and his was strong too. “If only we had something to go on. A suspect, a hint.” Then he could search for that particular scent instead of grasping at straws.
“All we really have to go on is the dog’s memory,” Tim pointed out.
“I hate to say it, but isn’t Darcy a little messed up?” Dell asked.
Chase ground his teeth. The same could be said about any one of them. Neither he, his brothers, nor Dell liked to admit it, but ten years of active military service had scarred each and every one of them. Maui had gone a long way toward helping them regain a sense of balance, and the fact that his brothers and Dell had found their mates had helped a lot too. And, hell. If Darcy counted as a little messed up, what about himself? He still felt more wolf than human at times.
“What are you saying?” Chase asked, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.
Dell put his hands up. “All Tim is saying is there’s no evidence of foul play.”
Chase wanted to shoot back something like, What evidence is there for love? That would make them stop and think. Love was totally irrational, and yet it was real. Just like fear.
Tim must have read his mind, because he nudged Chase’s shoulder in reassurance. “It’s not that we don’t believe you, man. It’s just that there isn’t much to go on. That, and…” His eyes strayed to Dell, who took it from there.
“Listen, you like Sophie. A lot. We get that. And it’s scary as hell to see the woman you love in danger.”
Tim nodded grimly. “Believe me, we know.”
Chase fought to keep his canines from extending. Did they? Each of these men had been in life-and-death situations with their mates, but they’d never had to deal with a phantom threat.
“What about Sophie?” Tim asked, cocking his head.
Chase creased his brow. What did his brother mean?
“No one has investigated her yet. You know, to see whether there’s anyone out to get her.”
Dell laughed at loud. “After Sophie? Man, that’s like asking who would want to target Bambi. No way does she have enemies. She said as much, right?”
Chase nodded. But, hell. He was starting to wonder the same thing.
Tim shrugged. “Just saying. That’s another angle to look in to.”
“No,” Chase barked.
He hadn’t meant to be that loud or that firm, but the sharpness of his voice made both men lean back.
Tim stuck his hands up. “Sorry, man. But think about it. If we want to be thorough about this, we have to investigate her too.”
Chase had thought of that. But it didn’t feel right to investigate Sophie — not without her permission, at least. Even a misfit like him knew that part of the human social code. She would never trust him again if he went behind her back.
“I’ll ask her,” he muttered at last.
Dell and Tim raised their eyebrows at each other but left it at that, and a long, awkward silence set in.
“Listen, we’ll keep at the other angles,” Tim assured him after a minute of quietly sipping at his drink. “But I have to say, if there’s no evidence, it’s only a question of time before Silas pulls the plug on us spending time on this.”
Silas Llewellyn was the dragon shifter who owned Koa Point estate and Koakea Plantation — the big boss, as it were, who kept an eye on broader developments in the shifter world.
Chase raised his eyes in a question, and Tim murmured in a scarcely audible voice, “There’s a dragon slayer on the loose.”
Dell groaned. “Not that again.”
Chase ignored him. Dell had a way of brushing things off, but Chase couldn’t bring himself to be as nonchalant about such matters. “Is that a real threat?”
Tim looked grim. “Sure sounds like it.”
Dell snorted. “Dragons. Always vying for world domination.”
He was only half kidding, Chase knew. All shifters clashed in one way or another, but dragons had a reputation for epic feuds and conflicts that spanned generations.
Tim shook his head. “This is different. It’s not a dragon fighting dragons. It’s someone — or something — targeting dragons. Taking them out, one by one.”
Chase was aware of Silas’s concerns, but frankly, he’d been too preoccupied with Sophie over the past weeks to follow the issue closely. All he knew was that the number of mysterious dragon deaths had increased over the years. Was someone targeting dragons as a species, or was there a method to the slayer’s madness? Silas had contacts on two continents investigating the matter, so he was obviously concerned.
Dell looked into his glass. “Dragon slayer. Has an old legend come to life, or is it all just bullshit?”
The way he said it made Chase shiver. He’d never paid too much attention to dragon business, at least no more than it concerned his oldest brother. But Connor had never been involved in the ongoing melodramas of the traditional dragon world, and besides, he could handle himself. But things were different now, with Cynthia and Joey as part of their eclectic little shifter clan. Chase thought back to those first, uncertain days when they’d moved to Maui. Initially, his brothers had clashed with Cynthia, but she’d won everyone’s respect over time. Cynthia had become a sister to them all, and Joey, a beloved nephew. Which meant that dragon business was Chase’s business as much as any developments in the wolf world. Cynthia had never shared any details, but it was clear she was in hiding from some evil force that had murdered her mate not too long ago. Could that have been the elusive dragon slayer?
Chase gritted his teeth. Sophie had talked about escaping from a world full of fear and suspicion. But, hell. It was damn near unavoidable most of the time.
“No one really knows,” Tim said. “My point is, we only have so many resources — especially time. And you, bro, are better off saving yourself the trouble of chasing down a phantom bomber who might not exist at all.”
Chase swiped at his ear in frustration — that old wolf habit coming through again. “And do what?”
Dell grinned broadly. “Get yourself that woman, for one thing. I swear, I’ve never seen a man make his move so slowly.”
Chase kept his lips sealed. Waiting had been torture, but it had been good in other ways. He had gotten to know Sophie bit by bit, and every moment he got to spend with her was a treasure.
“That, and that other thing,” Tim said in a more serious tone.
Dell’s head whipped around. “What other thing?”
Chase did his best not to sink his claws into the table as Tim exp
lained. “Chase’s home pack back in Montana.”
Dell’s voice dropped to a grim whisper. “They got trouble?”
Chase made a face. There was always trouble of some kind. But, yeah. This was a whole new threat.
“Poachers,” he said, wishing his voice didn’t get so scratchy.
Poachers were a regular threat, and wolf packs mourned every loss of a loved one. But this new threat was on an entirely different scale, with a bigger, more concentrated group of hunters exploring the area. A group that went far beyond angry ranchers or drunks taking potshots in the dark.
Those were still rumors, but Chase was alarmed. Wolves couldn’t get to the bottom of such things, but a shifter like him could travel the area and investigate. How real was the threat? Who was involved, and why? Then he could think about what measures could be taken to stop the bastards — or worst case, to move his pack to safer territory.
He closed his eyes. Wasn’t it selfish to stay in Maui and pursue his own interests when his home pack needed him more than ever before?
Sophie isn’t an interest, his wolf snarled. She’s our mate.
“Crap,” Dell muttered, totally earnest for a change. “When it rains, it pours.”
Chase grimaced. That was another of those human expressions he didn’t get at first. But now, he understood all too well, given the way he was juggling concerns about Sophie, his fellow wolves, and the dragon shifters he’d grown close to.
He guzzled his drink, more to hide the tic in his cheek than anything else. Who was in more danger — Sophie, his home pack, or Cynthia and her son?
He thumped his glass down and rotated it a few times, drawing circles of condensation on the table.
“Whoa there,” Dell said. “You trying to drill through the table or something?”
Chase released the glass with an effort and looked out over the sea. He was trying to figure out what to do, damn it. But honestly, he had no clue.
Tim stood and clapped him on the back. “I need to check in with Hailey. Believe me, we’ll keep an eye on Sophie for you.”