His to Seduce (12 page)

Kade swallowed back whatever he was going to say and pulled his own cell phone out.

The eighties metal music muffled most of the voices, but if they listened hard they could sort of make out the waitress asking Chloe whether she wanted anything to drink. Then Chloe’s voice, clearer, ordered a Sprite. And then, “Oh. You must be Darryl.”

“Hi…you…Chloe…beer…sugar.” The brothers looked at each other. The feed was too hard to make out. Kade went to the door and looked through the window. He turned around and nodded at Luke to confirm it. Darryl Ackerman was there and they couldn’t hear a damn thing.

T
he moment he sat down
, Chloe knew they had the right guy. Darryl Ackerman was definitely responsible for setting up Grizzly Ridge and the Jackson brothers. She couldn’t say how she knew, but her instincts screamed at her that he was not only responsible, but he was also not a good guy. The way he squeezed her hand a little too long when she held it out to him in introduction and then stared a little too long down the cleavage of her shirt didn’t help her impression.

“I’m glad you could meet with me, Mr. Ackerman.”

“Darryl.”

“Darryl,” she repeated for the benefit of the recording that she hoped was working. “Darryl Ackerman.”

“That’s me.”

“Right.” She took a deep breath and tried to look a lot more relaxed than she felt. She hadn’t been nervous at all until the moment he walked into the dodgy bar. She could smell the wolf in him. He was mangy and more than a bit on the wild side. He made the hairs on the back of her neck bristle. But she wouldn’t let him see her discomfort. She could do her job. Play her role. “I wanted to talk to you about what I found on the Ridge.”

“You found something.” It wasn’t a question.

“I did,” she continued seamlessly and shifted in her seat in an effort to draw his gaze back up to her eyes. She knew Harper’s top probably wasn’t the best choice for the meeting. But it gave her a good spot to tuck the mic where it wouldn’t be muffled and as long as he didn’t look too hard, he shouldn’t be able to see it nestled between her breasts. It was more than a little disconcerting to have him so openly admiring her body, but Chloe wasn’t totally without skills of her own. If he was distracted enough, she could use it to her benefit. She leaned over slightly. Just enough. “But first I wanted to ask you a few questions that might help us understand what exactly we’re looking at.”

Darryl grunted. The waitress reappeared to deliver Chloe’s Sprite and a mug of beer. His gaze momentarily redirected to the waitress’s short skirt and barely covered ass. When she’d left, he turned his attention back to Chloe. “What ya wanna know?”

She smiled sweetly and put her notebook on the table in front of her, being careful to squeeze her chest together a little bit as she did so. “The first thing I’d like to know is what your concerns were that prompted you to call us in the first place. Was there something specific that concerned you?”

“Yeah.”

Chloe waited a beat, but the answer didn’t seem to be forthcoming. “What was that?”

Darryl took a slurp of his beer. “Don’t like ’em.”

“What’s that?”

He put the beer down on the table and leaned forward. “I don’t like ’em,” he said again. “They’re bears.”

Chloe almost choked on her drink. It was shifter code. He shouldn’t have said anything. It wasn’t mentioned. She coughed and cleared her throat hard.

“Settle down, sister. I know you’re one, too.” He took another loud slurp of beer. A trail of fear slid down her spine. And she sat up straighter. “Didn’t know that when I hired you, though.”

You can do this, Chloe.
She swallowed hard.
Just do your job
. That’s all she had to do. Her job. The same way she always did. She had failed Jordan Adams, but she was not going to fail Luke. She wasn’t going to fail any of them. She could do it.

“I can assure you, Mr. Ackerman, I wasn’t aware of the Jacksons’, well…situation when I took the job.” That wasn’t entirely true. Everyone in the western states knew who the Jackson clan was, but this mangy wolf didn’t have to know that. “And it in no way affected my investigation.” She pressed her arms closer to her side, pushing her breasts up even further. The move had the exact effect she was looking for. Darryl swallowed hard and Chloe could almost see his mouth start to water.
Apparently wolves like a woman with curves, too.

She had to forcibly keep herself from shaking in disgust at the thought.

“Yeah, I know.”

“You know?”

“You found the trash, didn’t you?”

Trash?
She hadn’t mentioned what she’d found on the property. Chloe almost squealed in joy. He’d slipped up. Luke was right; he wasn’t very sharp, but she hadn’t thought it would be that easy. She took a long drink of her Sprite to keep from smiling.

“I did have a finding,” she said easily when she put the glass down. “In fact, I think my findings will be very interesting to the state environmental commission. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to do a full sweep of the area.”

Darryl sat back in the booth and stretched his arm out. “What’s that mean?”

“Just that once something is found on a property, often the state likes to conduct a thorough investigation of all the properties in the area to see if there are any other infractions.” She was lying through her teeth, but she was fairly confident Darryl wasn’t sharp enough to notice. “So I guess that means…” She pretended to look at her notes. “The Blackwood Ranch will need to be notified as well. But I’m sure—”

“The ranch?”

“Of course.”

“No.” He sat up, crossed his arms over the table and grabbed Chloe’s arm, knocking her glass over.

Chloe’s first instinct was to pull away and to her surprise, Darryl released her. “Excuse me? Mr. Ackerman. I don’t think—”

“I need to show you something.”

“Pardon?”

“Something that will change your mind about what you found.”

Chloe’s mind spun. He was changing tracks so quickly, she could barely keep up. “What I found? You mean the—”

“Trash. Yes.”

“I never told you it was trash.” She realized a second too late she’d given up her game, but if he noticed, he didn’t show it.

“I have more evidence in my truck. But you have to come now. Quietly.” He looked pointedly at her chest and raised his bushy eyebrows. “Quietly,” he repeated.

There was no way she should go with him. He was a wolf and clearly involved with the sabotage. He could be dangerous. Hadn’t Luke warned her about him? He was worried about this whole setup. She fought the urge to glance toward the kitchen, where she knew he’d be watching and waiting with Kade. But he hadn’t come out yet, so he must be okay with everything. If it wasn’t safe, he would have put a stop to it already.

It must be okay.

“
W
e can’t hear anything
.” Luke paced across the kitchen again. It was making him crazy. They’d been able to hear Chloe a little bit, but then things got muffled again and getting every second word wasn’t enough for him to know anything. “This isn’t working.” He turned to Kade, who nodded and tucked his phone into his back pocket.

“I agree. But I think we got him. At least, we have something and hopefully she’s getting something we can use, but—”

“What do you mean,
hopefully
? She’ll get what we need to take him down, Kade. My mate is more than capable.”

“Simmer the fuck down, Luke. I know Chloe’s capable, but I think we should hedge our bets, too. I’m sure the recording is working fine, but just in case, I’m going to get Blackwood so he can hear it from Ackerman’s mouth directly. You’re sure he has no idea?”

Luke nodded. “He may be a wolf, but Blackwood is straight up. I trust him. He didn’t know about this.”

“Good. I’ll be right back. Don’t make a move until we get back. We need Brian to hear it from Ackerman. Got it?”

Luke hesitated.

“Luke? Don’t be a hero. You’ll only make it worse.”

“I’ll do what I have to do.”

“Bullshit.” Kade stared at him. “Stay put. I won’t be long.”

“No problem.” He told his little brother what he wanted to hear but he wasn’t making any promises he might not be able to keep.

“Good. You got this?”

Luke nodded again and Kade left. Of course he had this. He wasn’t going to let anything happen to his mate and yes, she might be more than capable, but she was still his. And he’d die before he let anything happen to her. He’d resisted the urge to look through the window in case he was spotted. He’d give it another few minutes and then he’d stick his head out. He had to give Chloe the space to do what she needed to do, but five minutes was enough. It was all his bear would allow.

“
W
here’s your truck
?”

Darryl walked a few steps in front of her, leading her around the back of the building, and her instincts were going crazy. She never should have let him lead her away from the main street. She was being stupid, and she knew it.

But at the same time, she also knew she could hold her own. Besides, she had backup. She glanced down into her cleavage where she’d hidden the mic. Luke and Kade would be listening. They’d know if she needed help. Which was why despite Darryl telling her she needed to be quiet, she’d started to talk again.

“Why would you park back here? There were lots of—”

“I told you to be quiet.” He whirled around and grabbed her arm again. This time he squeezed and yanked her close so he was only inches away and she could smell his stale, beer-soaked breath. With his free hand, he reached into her shirt, between her breasts. Her breath caught in her throat.

“Get your hands off—”

“Just looking for this, sweetheart.” He pulled the mic from her bra and let his meaty fingers graze against her breast as he did so. He dropped it to the ground and squished the bug under his heel. “We don’t want those bears listening in any more than they should, now do we?”

“They know I’m out here.” Chloe tried hard to control her growing panic; a guy like Darryl would only feed off it.

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “But what are they going to do? Those stupid bears are more interested in protecting their beloved Ridge than they are about anything else. Especially some scientist lady.”

She shook her head. “That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?” He sneered; his lips pulled back gruesomely over his teeth. “They thought you could get me to come clean about the garbage, isn’t that right?”

“Come clean about what?” Her arm ached from his tight grip, but as long as she could keep him talking, she could still get him to admit to everything. And something in his expression gave her an idea. “The trash they hid on their property? Pretty good idea, wasn’t it?” Chloe watched as Darryl’s face changed from smug to confused. She kept going. “I mean, you gotta think they saved a ton of money by hiding the trash on their property and really, it’s so big, no one would really notice. At least they—”

“They didn’t do it.” Darryl’s face twisted in anger. “Bears ain’t smart enough to think of that.”

Chloe shrugged and did her best to look innocent. “Then who could have thought of such a brilliant plan?” She had to fight the urge to roll her eyes; it was almost too easy.

Predictably, Darryl puffed up his chest and nodded sharply. “I did.”

“You put the bags there?”

“I did. Pretty smart, huh?”

She couldn’t answer right away because she never would have thought he’d actually admit to it. She prayed that even if the mic was gone, the app Luke had put on her phone was still recording. “Wow,” was all she could manage to say.

“That’s right. I—wait a minute. Are you trying to set me up?” His face morphed again. His nostrils flared, and she could see the wolf lurking just underneath. She was definitely dealing with an unpredictable shifter. And obviously one without much of a moral code—or any code at all.

Chloe shook her head. “You got rid of the mic, remember?” Her instincts screamed at her to get the hell out of there. “Which means, they’re probably on their way out here right now.”

“I don’t see ’em.”

She tried to spin around and look, but Darryl still had her arm in a clench. He spun her back around to face him, this time pulling her tight to his body. Chloe’s bear roared with objection inside her. She didn’t want to have to shift here. Not like this.
Where was Luke?

“And ain’t that convenient?”

Before Chloe could squirm out of the way, he pressed his wet, sloppy lips to hers and shoved his tongue in her mouth. She pulled back, gagging. Her bear roared and she no longer cared whether she was too exposed: her animal was not going to be contained. But she needed him to let her go. She couldn’t shift while he was holding her. She needed space.

“Get your hands off me,” she growled.

“Or what?” he taunted her. “You been spending too much time up on the Ridge. Time you knew what a real man was—”

She shoved his chest, hard. Hard enough that he released her arm and stumbled backward into the garbage bins. It wasn’t much, but it might give her enough time to shift.

“Bitch!” he yelled behind her, but she didn’t look. Not until she heard a growl. A growl that sounded way too much like a wolf.

Her muscles twitched, and she turned, ready to shift.

But there wasn’t time. As she flew backward against the wall, she thought Darryl stunk like a wet dog who’d been rolling in the garbage; as her head hit the brick wall, Chloe’s last thoughts went to Luke.

L
uke burst
out into the bar, his eyes going directly to the booth Chloe had been sitting in.
Empty.

He’d been waiting, listening in vain and waiting. But when he’d heard her voice in his mind, calling for him, there was no way in hell he was going to stand by and do nothing. His instincts were out of control. His mate needed him and now, as he stood in the musty bar, staring at the empty booth, he cursed himself. He never should have waited so long.

The parking lot was empty. The sun, starting to set behind the mountains, cast strange shadows along the few cars that were parked there.