Sam sat in his office, trying not to think about how badly his body was screaming to claim the luscious bear who was working right next door. He wanted to give her a day or two to settle in before he made his next move.
Instead, to distract himself, he searched the web for information on her. As head of security, he had access to numerous databases that weren’t open to the general public, and he wanted to find out everything he could about her.
From looking through the databases and her social media accounts, he was starting to get a picture of the family dynamic. The Jones had moved to Blue Moon Junction to crash with a group of their relatives when Clover was eight, and stayed until she was twelve. Clover had been the responsible one, dutifully letting the family drag her around the country but always maintaining stellar grades. That explained why she’d gotten into an excellent college; she’d gotten in on a full scholarship.
Her parents’ real names were Andrea and Calvin, but they called themselves Karma and Cosmic Traveler now. Good Lord, how had Clover grown up so normal?
From some social media postings, he gathered that Clover had worried about her family all the time while she was in college. She’d been in New York, they’d been moving from state to state.
The younger siblings went through long periods where they weren’t in school at all – the parents were members of a homeschool group.
Sapphire he already knew about; a party girl, a scam artist, a user.
She’d most recently been working as a night club hostess in Miami. She’d abruptly left her job and breezed into town two months ago, hoping to crash with her cousins. What she hadn’t known was that Sam had finally run her cousins out of town for good a few months earlier – they’d been suspects in a car theft and chop shop operation. As soon as she found that out, she planned on leaving town for who knew where. But then, unfortunately, she’d met his brother, dollar signs had appeared in her eyes like a slot machine, and she’d latched her claws into him.
Tried to latch her claws into him. There was no way he was letting that harpy ruin his brother’s life.
Too bad Clover was obviously so loyal to her parents and younger sister. They didn’t deserve her loyalty, but it was typical for a bear shifter. Sam would lay down his life for his family – but then, his family were good people, not a bunch of low-level thieves.
He still was determined to win her over, and the fact that she’d asked Jemma what type of woman he liked seemed extremely promising. He’d only had to pay Jemma a hundred dollars for that information – the little scam artist. Jemma had also passed along that she liked Clover and if he used Jemma’s intel for evil, she’d shave him in his sleep.
There was a sharp rapping on the door, and Flint stuck his head through.
“Can you come down to my office? The Enforcers want a conference call with you, me, and the sheriff, just to keep us up to date on the Somniatus situation. There’s been another incident.”
“Damn it. What happened?” Sam stood up quickly.
Flint shook his head. “We’re very, very lucky. It was a bear shifter attacking other bear shifters at a rave, not humans, and we actually managed to keep it out of the papers. The local bear clan played it off as a drunken bar fight, but tests showed that the bear had Somniatus in his system. If that shifter had killed a human, it would be bad news for bears everywhere.”
Chapter Four
Clover’s stomach was rumbling and she was more than ready for lunch. The last few days had gone smoothly at work. Today she’d spent the morning writing blog posts so they’d be ready when the new website was launched. The McCoy company had selected one of the web design companies that she’d recommended, and a photographer was coming tomorrow. He’d be spending the next few days on the property getting pictures of the McCoys and their farm.
Sapphire had called and checked in a couple of times but refused to come visit unless she heard from Jeffrey. She claimed that she was too humiliated to show her face in Blue Moon Junction.
Clover was debating whether she wanted to eat at the picnic tables with everyone else or grab her food and hide in her office. She really didn’t want a repeat of yesterday, and she didn’t know how often Marjorie and Michael Thomas came to eat with everyone. Michael apparently worked in the accounting department for the McCoys, so the two of them made frequent visits to the McCoy property.
There was a rapping on the door, and she looked up. Blue was standing there. “We’d like you to take a tour of the property,” she said. “We need to pick out some good spots before the photographer gets here.”
“Good plan,” Clover agreed.
She followed Blue outside, hoping that her stomach wouldn’t rumble too loudly…and stopped when she saw that Sam was sitting in the driver’s seat of a jeep that was parked outside the front door.