by Lowe, Anna
Sophie nearly snickered. Good old David, drawn to violence and destruction like a moth to a flame.
“Well, I’m fine.” She nearly added thanks but caught herself. What did she have David to thank for?
He didn’t look convinced. “What are you planning to do with that money anyway?”
Like it was any business of his.
“Honestly? I’ve spent more time thinking about my aunt and what I miss about her.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry,” he said, not the least bit convincingly.
“My aunt wanted her money put to a good, peaceful cause,” she said, hoping David would get the hint.
He nodded immediately. “Of course. I would do the same.”
She rolled her eyes. David’s idea of ensuring peace was arming himself to the teeth.
“How much is it, exactly?” he asked.
She frowned. None of your business was on the tip of her tongue, but the nice girl in her settled for, “I don’t know.”
He laughed. “That much, huh?”
She glared. Okay, now she was through being nice. “I really don’t know.” That was the truth. She’d put off a meeting with her aunt’s lawyers because part of her still needed time to mourn. Her aunt — the last member of her family who truly cared about her — was gone. “And to be honest, I don’t care.”
David looked aghast. “How could you not care?”
“Money corrupts.”
David snorted. “Money makes things possible. A means to an end.”
She studied him closely. What end? What exactly was David up to these days?
“However much it is, I was thinking of donating it to a good cause,” she said.
“Sure.” David grinned. “Donate it to me.”
I said, to a good cause, she wanted to say.
“For you to do what with?”
He snorted. “Are you kidding? We need to keep up with the times. Do you know what a good AK-47 costs these days?”
No, she didn’t. But the sickening thing was, there had been a point in her life when she had known that kind of thing. Growing up among an extremist militia like Maine’s Spirit of Seventy-Sixers had taught her many things she didn’t want to know.
She looked around, wishing a police officer would come strolling along. Better yet, a small army.
Better yet, Chase, she decided.
Then she drew her shoulders back and tilted her chin up. She’d vowed never to be pushed around again, right?
“Like I said, I have to get back to work. And you must have that business to attend to,” she said, looking David in the eye. Nearly cheering at his startled expression, too.
Yes, I do have a backbone. No, I will not cower before you like so many people do.
Never had she come so close to breaking into a sweat while standing perfectly still, but damn it. She held her ground.
Footsteps scuffed to her right, and she glanced up. Within the space of a heartbeat, she was smiling — really smiling, because it was Chase, and the usual burst of joy and light whooshed through her heart. The locket warmed under her hand, and a feeling of peace filled her soul.
Chase smiled back — a big, honest smile that hid nothing. But when his eyes moved to David, his face fell.
Uh-oh, Sophie nearly said. Chase looked exactly like Darcy did before he launched himself at another dog. David was glowering too.
“Chase,” she called, using her voice to signal she was okay. Chase had a darker, alpha side. If he thought David was threatening her, who knew what he would do?
“Sophie,” Chase murmured in a voice so even, it scared her.
She cleared her throat and decided to try a different tack. “Chase, meet David. He’s…” She struggled to fill in the blank for a moment. Crazy? Someone I wish would disappear?
“An old friend,” David supplied.
“David was just leaving,” Sophie said, trying to move him along.
David glanced at her sharply. Since when do you tell me what to do?
She spread her feet a little wider, happy for the height advantage the truck gave her.
Since I decided to run my own life.
Chase didn’t say a word, but he swung his arms away from his sides like a gunslinger getting ready for a fight.
David turned up the intensity of his glare to tell Sophie, You’ll do what I tell you, or else.
She shook her head slowly and stood as tall as she could. No, I won’t.
Menacing might not be in her body language, but she sure could do determined. To David, everything was about winning or losing. He had to be the winner, which gave him a loser to gloat over. Well, not this time.
Chase, meanwhile, backed her up quietly, giving her time. God, she loved that man.
“I really have to get back to work. You know, the pre-dinner rush.” She motioned around as if there really were such a thing.
David scowled and shot a sidelong glance toward Chase in a way that said, Jesus, Sophie. Are you really choosing that guy over me?
Yes. In a heartbeat.
Standing still had never been such a battle, but she didn’t give in. The locket around her neck felt warmer and heavier than ever, but it added to her confidence, somehow.
Finally, David eased back begrudgingly. “Sure. Right. See you soon?” His clenched teeth and stiff shoulders warned that he was giving her one last chance.
Last chance at what? Sophie wanted to scream. Just go away.
Chase cleared his throat, though it came out closer to a low growl aimed David’s way.
“I’m pretty busy,” Sophie said quickly. “But it was good to see you.”
David’s eyes darkened, and she wondered what he would do if Chase weren’t there.
“Yeah,” David grunted at last. “Good to see you too.”
Slowly, he turned to go. Then he paused, patted his pockets, and produced a scrap of paper. He scribbled on it and handed it over to her, all folded up.
“Here’s my number,” he said as if bestowing her with a state secret. “Call me if you need anything.”
Sophie stuffed it into the deepest part of her pocket, crushing it along the way.
“Remember what I said,” David murmured with a sidelong look at Chase.
Sophie did her best to keep her cool. “Goodbye,” she called firmly.
And good riddance, she refrained from tacking on the end.
Chapter Nine
“Old friend, huh?” Chase murmured, doing his best not to snarl at the man’s back.
Sophie cleared her throat, but when she spoke, her words came out all warbly. Why was she so nervous around that guy?
“We grew up in the same place back in Maine.”
Chase mulled that one over. Old friends didn’t have to be good friends, and Sophie sure looked happy the guy was gone.
Well, he was happy too. He’d despised David from the second he’d spotted the asshole crowding Sophie. And then there was that bear claw peeking out from the neckline of David’s shirt.
Asshole, his wolf growled.
“Sorry,” Sophie sighed once David had moved out of earshot.
Chase cocked his head at her. Why did humans apologize for problems they didn’t cause?
Her fingers plucked at her locket or touched the single braid she’d put her hair in that morning. That evidence of distress was the only reason Chase stayed at her side instead of escorting David onto the next flight off Maui. He watched the man amble across the park, and it was weird as hell. David swaggered with confidence, but at the same time, he had a twitchy, vigilant aura to him. Like a goddamn spy or something.
Chase sniffed deeply, trying to capture the man’s scent and comparing it to what Darcy had described. But comparing smells was tricky, and he couldn’t tell.
The man turned a corner, and Chase looked back at Sophie. “You okay?”
She nodded quickly — too quickly — and wiped the counter at a hundred miles an hour. “Fine, thanks. How are you?”
Humans usua
lly answered that with Fine whether they meant it or not, but he couldn’t lie to Sophie. So he answered truthfully.
“Better.”
Sophie’s head popped up. “Better?”
“Sure. Now that I get to be with you.”
She laughed, and the motion made sunlight glint in her hair.
Like an angel, his wolf hummed.
“It’s always nice to see you,” he added. Then he peered in the direction David had gone. “Not good to see him, though?”
Sophie shook her head, and he decided not to push it — for the moment, at least. David set off every alarm in his mind, though he couldn’t understand why. He wasn’t a shifter, and Sophie knew the guy. Obviously, she wasn’t thrilled to see him, but that didn’t mean the man was a criminal.
Chase scratched his brow. Now he understood why his brother Connor had been so distracted when courting his mate. Everyone looked like an enemy, making it hard to think straight.
“Mr. Lee got you back in business fast,” he said, not comfortable with that idea either.
“Like someone said, you have to get back in the saddle after getting bucked off, right?”
Chase pondered that one. Getting back in the saddle made sense if you were sure the horse wasn’t out to kill you. And that still hadn’t been determined.
“Listen, Sophie.” He shifted from foot to foot. Investigating strangers was easy. But investigating the woman he loved felt like too much like betrayal. “I hate to ask, but about what Officer Meli said… Is there any reason anyone might be out to hurt you?”
Her gaze slid in the direction David had gone, which nearly made Chase sprint after the man with his teeth bared. But she shook her head a moment later.
“I can’t think of anyone.”
He wanted to ask about Mr. Lee, but he didn’t want to unsettle her any more. Dell was off investigating that angle, and Chase couldn’t believe Mr. Lee would rig a second explosion so close to the first if, indeed, he was guilty of sabotaging his own truck. A long shot, as Tim had said.
“But…” Sophie murmured, making Chase’s head snap up.
“But?”
“I suppose someone could be after my aunt’s money.”
He frowned. “The aunt who’s place you’re house-sitting?”
Sophie bit her lip. “She died recently.”
The way her voice cracked made his heart clench. He knew all about losing family members. Like his mother, who had curled up to sleep one cold winter’s night and never woken up. At least she’d died peacefully at a ripe old age, and among family. But she was the exception. Deaths were all too frequent in his pack, and the wave of poaching had only made things worse. Another reason for him to go home, and another reason he felt more torn than ever.
He reached out for Sophie’s hand. “Sorry to hear that.”
For a moment, he didn’t say anything, and neither did Sophie. The world shrank down to just him, her, and the gradually setting sun. Grief welled up out of nowhere, and for a brief time, he wallowed in it. All those pack mates, lost in an ongoing battle for survival. All the men he’d served with who didn’t make it home. But when Sophie squeezed his hand, the grief faded, and light poured back into his soul, balancing things out. Life had some pretty shitty moments, but there was a lot of good too. Especially when he had someone to share it all with.
Would be even better to have her as our mate, his wolf pointed out.
As if he hadn’t thought of that.
“Thanks,” Sophie whispered. Then she took a deep breath and went on. “My aunt Camille was always there for me, no matter how crazy things got at home. In fact, she was the one who encouraged me to come out here and live my life the way it should be.”
A mynah fluttered overhead, and they watched it dart across the ever-deepening blue of the sky.
“She left me…well, some great memories.” Sophie smiled then frowned. “And some money to take care of. So I guess greed would be a possible motive. But I can’t imagine that anyone I know would be willing to kill for money.”
Chase shrugged. “Depends how much.”
Sophie looked as if she’d pondered that question for a while. “That’s the thing. I don’t know.”
He squinted at her. Humans had wills and lawyers and stuff, right? “You don’t know?”
She sighed. “I’m supposed to see a lawyer about it, but I keep putting it off. Kind of stupid, huh? It’s just that money isn’t what I think of when I think of my aunt.”
Chase shook his head. Stupid? It just made him love Sophie even more.
“I think about love,” Sophie went on. “Joy. The way she celebrated the beauty in the world. She never really cared about money — not for more than the basics, I mean.”
Chase nodded slowly. He got that. But a lot of people didn’t. Money didn’t make you happy, and it didn’t solve problems. “Do you think it’s enough for someone to kill for?”
Sophie drew her lips in a tight line. “She was a pretty successful artist. Maybe I should find out, huh? Sooner or later, I have to anyway.”
She didn’t look too happy about it, but yeah. Chase nodded. “At best, that might help us eliminate the possibility.”
Sophie grimaced. “And at worst?”
He shrugged. “You’d find out who was cut out of her will, maybe?”
Her face scrunched up in thought, and again, her gaze drifted in David’s direction. “She didn’t have children, so there’s no obvious heir. She said she trusted me to decide what to do with it.” She twirled her hair in that habit he loved, mainly because it made him imagine being able to do it for her. “I guess I need to get my head out of the sand and see the lawyer, though.”
Chase chuckled, and she glanced at him.
“What?”
He waved a hand. “It took me forever to get that expression.”
She laughed, and it felt good to break the tension.
A young couple walked up, and Chase stepped aside, giving them space. Sophie had to finish up her shift, after all. He walked a lap around the new truck, checking it closely, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Hating the mystery of it all over again.
Sophie tended to several sets of customers — enough to keep her busy for the next half hour. Chase used that time to go over every inch of the park and study the smoothie truck from all angles before the sun set, hoping for some clue that would either put him at ease or help him understand where to turn next. Should he investigate David? Or maybe Sophie’s aunt?
While the gears of his mind spun, he observed the comings and goings around the truck. One corner of his mouth curled up. That smoothie truck was a microcosm of all he loved and hated about humans. He loved the way customers smiled at the simple pleasure of a fresh, fruity flavor, and the way they sang out their thanks. He hated impatient visitors who barely thanked Sophie for her trouble, but he loved the customers who took the time for a kind word. One woman bought a smoothie and carried it over to an older man she didn’t appear to be with, just because.
Humans, his wolf huffed.
Chase nodded. Humans were so hard to figure out. They were capable of incredibly selfless acts, but they could be cruel at the same time. He’d seen plenty of both — even in war-torn regions where tiny gestures of goodwill had rekindled his faith in the world when he’d needed it most. But the bad often outweighed the good, and it was hard to keep the faith.
“The world needs more Sophies,” he whispered to himself.
His inner wolf growled. We need our Sophie.
He clenched his jaw, determined not to give in to the beast’s greed. Protecting Sophie was his priority, not wooing her. So he went back to surveillance mode. When business hit a lull, he stepped to the side door of the truck, and Sophie came over with a look of surprise.
“Uh…knock, knock,” he tried.
She smiled. “Who’s there?”
Chase’s stomach knotted as he was hit with the desperate wish to tell her the truth. Wolf.
Then she’d a
sk, Wolf, who?
And he’d reply, The wolf who loves you.
He cleared his throat. Man, oh man. Connor was right. Love made a man think the craziest things.
“Um, just me. Mind if I check the inside?”
Sophie’s grin faded as she realized what he was after — namely, checking the truck over for safety hazards.
“Sure,” she murmured, giving him space.
He followed the propane line through all its connections and switches as Sophie looked on.
“Mr. Lee was a little late in getting the last truck recertified, but I can’t think of anything that looked worn or out of place.”
Chase stood and scratched his brow. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you think about it again.”
“It’s fine,” she said, though her twisting hands said she was anything but.
There wasn’t a lot of space in the truck, what with cabinets and counters crowding every inch of the place, which meant he and Sophie had to stand close. Nice and close, if he had to admit it.
“Really fine?” he asked.
Her eyes brightened, and a second later, they were both grinning at each other like a couple of kids.
Why, Mr. Hoving, her raised eyebrows said. Are you flirting with me?
Wolves didn’t know much about flirting but, heck. Maybe he’d been in the human world long enough to pick up on a few things. Not that he’d ever been inspired to flirt with anyone before.
“Well, I could be finer,” she murmured in a singsong kind of way.
Now, she was the one who was flirting. Chase grinned and inched a little closer. With Sophie, it was impossible to stay away.
“How?” he whispered.
She blushed furiously before working up her nerve to answer. “Maybe a kiss would help.” She hunched a shoulder as if to hint it was all the same to her, but he could see her eyes brighten with hope.
A kiss would definitely help, his wolf murmured.
He took a deep breath. Every time he got close to Sophie, desire got the better of him, and it was getting harder and harder to keep his inner beast under control.
Just one little kiss, his wolf urged, all too innocently.
One little kiss couldn’t harm anyone, he decided, leaning a little closer. Closer. Closer…