“I don’t like it,” my father grumbled. “We should be able to find him without a bunch of charades. If I have a traitor in my Pack, he will not be able to hide from me for long. If I apply pressure, it will only be a matter of days before he is forced to betray himself. The only uncertainty is whether he has already aligned himself with another Sect altogether. That unknown makes it risky. I feel strongly that until we have more information, Jessica should go underground, kept safe where we can watch over her.”
“I understand your caution,” I said, addressing my father directly. “But if I go underground we are essentially telling Pack, and whoever’s on my tail, that we know something is wrong and we’re investigating. It may force an ugly situation before we’re ready. Or the traitor will run, taking away our only chance to find out any information about a possible connection to another Sect—one that may or may not be after me. If I spend a few more days acting like nothing’s happened, we may be able to gain a jump on who’s after me quickly, and without risk.”
My father wasn’t nearly convinced.
“Just give me two days, Dad. That’s all I ask. Nick will be with me during the days, Tyler, Danny, or James during the nights. There’s enough power in this room to do backup surveillance on all our movements. I have no doubt whoever sent that rogue will continue to come after me. If we’re inconspicuous enough, we can turn the tables on him and come away with information we need in less time than it will take you to pressure him out. He has my scent and he isn’t going to stop now.”
I looked at Nick for help. “What do the next two days look like for you, Jessica?” he asked me, and I loved him for it. “I’m fairly free and can manage all your details with you.”
“Actually, I have a meeting tonight with a potential new client,” I said. “Drinks at a public place to discuss a future case.” I looked to my father, who still wore a grim expression. “It would be a perfect location for someone to follow me in unseen.”
“Which case?” Nick asked. “I haven’t heard of any new client.”
“His name is Colin Rourke. I spoke with him yesterday for the first time.”
The uproar was instantaneous.
Everyone in the room began talking at once, a few of the wolves jumped from the table and started pacing, including my brother. Devon let out a small gasp as his hands furiously clacked away on the computer keys.
“What? What did I say?” I shouted over the din, startled by what had just happened. I raised my voice a few notches. “What’s going on? He told me he ran an accounting firm. He suspects his partner of embezzlement, or something equally uneventful. What’s the big deal?” I ended lamely with nobody paying any attention to me.
“This really is bad,” Devon said, more to his computer screen than anyone else. He shook his head slowly. “If Rourke knows, then Jessica’s already on the open market. We have more to worry about than just one traitor in the Pack.”
James loomed behind me, his knuckles stark as he gripped the back of my chair. The wood bowed and cracked beneath his fingers, and he was muttering a colorful string of nasty words under his breath—words I hadn’t heard him utter since I lit my father’s toolshed on fire by accident when I was thirteen. I turned from him to my brother.
“How in the hell did he get here so fast?” Tyler shouted. “And he told Jessica his real name! He knew she would find out who he was, and he still gave it to her. What’s his fucking angle?”
“Who is this guy?” I yelled, making sure I was heard this time. “Why are you all freaking out? Somebody better fill me in before I lose it.” Then I immediately felt foolish for not researching my own client myself. At the very least, I’d been off my game yesterday, but if I let the truth be known, I hadn’t really planned on researching his legitimacy until after I’d accepted the job. Dammit.
These rookie mistakes were going to cost me. There was no way my father was going to have any faith in me now, and by the looks of it, he was gearing up to tell me just that. I’d just showed myself as an incompetent and foolish private investigator. I was the only female werewolf on the goddamn planet, and I hadn’t thought for two seconds about changing the way I did my business moving forward. I should’ve been on high alert, not dillydallying around eating cheeseburgers.
This guy must be incredibly talented if he could cause a roomful of lethal werewolves to go crazy.
Well, shit.
Nothing about this looked good.
My father answered me first, scowling. “Colin Rourke is the most notorious supernatural mercenary in the entire country, possibly even on the planet. He only gets hired when people want the job done, meaning they want it finished, tied up tight with no loose ends. The fact that he’s already here escalates this issue to a new level. Your secret, it seems, has not been much of a secret at all. Other Sects, not just wolves, must have been waiting on your change, with plans put in place. It’s the only possible way he could be in my territory so quickly.”