The Finding (39 page)

“Uh-uh. No way.
We’ll head to the motel and meet up with Ryne and Kane. Quite
likely they have a plan already in the works.” Bryan attempted to
negate her idea as they stepped out of the airport. He headed
towards the line of people who were waiting for a taxi, his hand in
the small of her back.

“No.” Cassie
shook her head decisively. Twisting away, she resisted his attempts
to herd her along beside him. “We need to call the number we were
given. I’ll let them know I’m here so Kellen can be set free as
soon as possible.”

“Not on your
life. We don’t know what we might be walking in to. It’s too
dangerous. They could snatch you and without having done any
reconnoitring, I’d have no idea what I was up against. We need to
approach the situation cautiously, with a calm rational course of
action in mind.” Bryan glared at her, clearly annoyed.

“Who put you in
charge of all the decisions?” She turned to walk away, but he
grabbed her arm, spinning her around and pulling her close so they
were almost nose to nose.

“Ryne put me in
charge, that’s who. Our Alpha said no contact until we come up with
a plan. As Beta I enforce his rules. We’re going to the motel.” He
started to pull her along, but she dug in her heels.

“No.”

He turned
around and they stared at each other in a battle of wills. Tension
crackled in the air.

“Cassandra...”
His eyes were flashing with temper and she could hear his teeth
grinding together as he delivered the warning. A shiver ran over
her, but was it fear or excitement at seeing the fire in his eyes,
the carefully controlled temper? There was a certain thrill in
defying him and something made her continue to push. How far could
she go before he made her comply?

She tossed her
hair, her pony tail swishing over her shoulder. “It’s my life. My
choice. Kellen’s in this mess because of me—”

“Your friend’s
in this mess because he was going to hand you over in exchange for
saving his own butt.” He snapped the words at her. She could feel
his fingers clenching around her arm.

Cassie pulled
her arm free and glared at him. “That might have been his initial,
impulsive plan, but I’m sure he changed his mind. He said as much
at the house before Hugh grabbed at me.”

“And he might
have reversed that decision just as quickly, once the pressure was
put on him.” Bryan pointed out, slashing the air with his hand.

“You don’t know
that! You know nothing about Kellen, nothing at all!” She took a
step towards him, entering his personal space and poking him in the
chest. Something flared in his eyes that had her suddenly freezing
in place. A feeling of nervousness washed over her, as if she’d
crossed some invisible barrier.

“I’d tread
carefully if I were you, Cassandra.” The words were delivered in
little more than a whisper yet the warning they carried
reverberated within her, sending a shiver of fear over her. This
was a side of Bryan she hadn’t seen yet. It was more than being
bossy, there was an edge of barely controlled danger about him.

She swallowed
and stepped back. He inclined his head slightly as if acknowledging
her acquiescence and his whole demeanour relaxed. The fear left
her, but now she was left confused. What had just happened? Some
wolf dominance thing?

Making an
exasperated sound, Cassie turned around and started marching down
the sidewalk. Behind her she could hear Bryan giving an equally
exasperated huff before following her. She made her way to a bench
and sat down, pulling out her cell phone.

Bryan clamped
his hand over it. “Cassandra, you are not making that phone
call.”

She snatched
her hand away. “Quit calling me Cassandra. People only use that
name when I’m in trouble. It’s Cassie or Sandy.”

“All right.
Cassie
.” Bryan spoke in measured tones and she had a feeling
that he was barely holding on to his patience. “Put the phone down
and we’ll discuss this reasonably.”

“By reasonable,
you mean I have to do what you tell me to do. You’ll do that weird
Beta thing that makes me have to obey you.” She kept her face
averted, her jaw stuck out defiantly.

“No. We’ll
talk
about it. I only do the ‘weird Beta thing’ when you’re
totally out of line.” He sat down beside her, his thigh pressed
against hers on the narrow bench. The warmth of it seeped into her,
making her all too aware of his presence.

They sat for a
moment, another silent battle of wills going on. Cassie stared
defiantly straight ahead. Out of the corner of her eye, she noted
how the muscle in his jaw flexed in and out and she idly wondered
if he was counting to ten, trying to manage his temper.

A faint twinge
of guilt stabbed her. She shouldn’t be giving him such a hard time.
After all, he was here to help her set Kellen free, even when he’d
never met the man before. And rushing blindly into the abductor’s
nest probably wasn’t a good idea. Slowly, she flipped her phone
shut.

Bryan exhaled
loudly and ran his hands through his hair before turning to look at
her. When he started to speak his tone was calmer. “I realize
you’re concerned about your friend and I am, too. But if we just
rush in, doing whatever they say, we have no guarantee that they
won’t grab you and still keep Kellen or, worse yet, do him further
harm.”

Cassie flicked
a glance at him and then fiddled with her cell phone, turning it
over and over in her hand. She studied the ground, noticing the
dark marks from abandoned gum, cigarette butts, and a few small
scraps of miscellaneous litter. Begrudgingly, she acknowledged the
truth of his statement, knowing it was childish to hold onto her
anger when he was doing his best to meet her half way rather than
forcing his will on her. She sighed.

“I know. It’s
just that I feel responsible for this. If I hadn’t hid who I was
from Kellen all these years, if I hadn’t told him I wouldn’t help
him out of debt again, if I’d only—”

“Shh...” Bryan
laid a comforting hand on her thigh. “Playing ‘if only’ won’t help
anything. Quite likely everyone is partially to blame, but we can’t
live in the past. We need to focus on the best way to help Kellen
and that means keeping the kidnappers guessing by dangling you—the
figurative carrot—in front of their noses. They want you, so they
have to give us some concessions. If we play our cards right, we
can get them to give Kellen back and still keep you free.”

Cassie stared
down at Bryan’s hand, noting his blunt nails, the calluses that
showed he’d done manual labour before. It was a strong, capable
hand and she liked how the warmth from it seeped into her leg. It
was...comforting. For a moment she wished she could explore his
hands, feel them touching her bare skin... Then she gave her head
an imperceptible shake and jerked her attention back to the current
problem. “How are we going to outwit the kidnappers?”

“Well... For
one thing, we can check out where they’re holding Kellen. Daniel
tells me he can use mobile phone tracking technology to determine
where a call comes from. So, I’ll give Daniel the number, he can
figure out where the goon is that has Kellen and we’ll check out
the area.”

“Won’t Hugh or
Eddie or whoever owns the phone wonder why Daniel is calling
him?”

Bryan snorted.
“Daniel’s a pro at stuff like this. He’ll block his number, pretend
to be a telemarketer and get a fix on the guy in no time. We can
grab a bite to eat and he’ll have a location for us before our
burgers have even cooled.”

“Tacos.”

“Tacos?”

“Yeah. I want
tacos, not burgers.” Cassie smiled mischievously at Bryan in lieu
of an apology. She was pleased he hadn’t gone all ‘he-man’ on her
over the whole ‘rush to save Kellen’ thing. Yes, he
had
asserted his authority but she was being a tad brat-ish. And truth
be told, while she wanted to save Kellen, she wasn’t overly keen on
handing herself over to the likes of Hugh and Eddie.

Bryan grinned
at her, obviously not the type to hold a grudge if you dared
disagree with him. She found that rather endearing, especially
since Kellen was prone to pouting when things didn’t immediately go
his way. “Okay. Tacos it is. Just let me call Daniel and then we’ll
be on our way.”

*****

Daniel wandered
out of the kitchen, a thick ham sandwich in his hand. Intently
checking his cell phone for messages, he didn’t realize someone was
walking down the hall until he stepped into their path. Bodies
collided. His sandwich landed on the floor and a very feminine
‘damn’ was whispered as a load of laundry spilled onto the
floor.

Tessa stood in
front of him, an exasperated expression on her face, though it
quickly disappeared when she realized he was looking at her.

“Sorry Tessa. I
wasn’t watching where I was going.” He gave her a crooked smile
then gestured at the laundry. “Was it clean?”

“Yes, but don’t
worry. I’ll get it.” She spoke softly, bending down quickly, her
long brown hair hiding her face.

“It’s my fault.
I’ll help.” Daniel crouched as well and began picking up the bits
of clothing. Some lace panties appeared when he picked up a pillow
case, but they were quickly snatched from his view. From what he
could see of her face, Tessa was blushing. If it had been Mel, he
would have teased her good naturedly, but with Tessa... Well... She
was different. Fragile.

He closed his
mouth and said nothing, merely shoving the items in the laundry
basket then grabbing it and standing up. Handing it over to Tessa,
he apologized again. “I’m sorry about all your clean clothes ending
up on the floor. If you’d like I’ll rewash them for you.”

“No. It’s all
right.” She flashed him a panic stricken look and began to back
away only to stop suddenly and glance down.

Daniel followed
the path of her gaze and saw that she was standing on his sandwich.
The mustard was oozing out under her foot. He looked back up, ready
to brush the incident off with a gentle quip, but the words stuck
in his throat as he saw the tears welling in her eyes.

“I...I’m sorry,
Daniel. I’m really, really sorry.” The words barely made it passed
her trembling lips before she spun on her heel and ran down the
hall. Something fell from the laundry basket, but she didn’t stop,
merely racing out the back door.

A heavy sigh
escaped him. He’d hoped, now that the Loberos were living in the
main house instead of in town, Tessa might start to relax around
him. Unfortunately, if anything it was getting worse. She’d been
living with her brother Marco, his wife Olivia and their two
children in the north wing of the house for almost six months
now.

“You’d think
she’d be used to me.” He muttered under his breath. “They’ve been
part of the pack for almost three years.” Bending he picked up the
fallen clothes and then gave an ironic laugh. It was the white lace
panties and pillow case of a moment ago. His fingers rubbed over
the lace and he wistfully stared out the door to where he could see
her hanging her things on the line. “This is about as close as I’ll
ever get to her panties, too.”

“What’s that?”
Olivia spoke from behind him and he jumped, then felt his face grow
warm.

She laughed and
shook her head. “Daniel, I was young once, too. No need to be
embarrassed about what your mind is thinking.”

He grinned
sheepishly, but then sobered. “Do you think she’ll ever...?” He
didn’t need to finish the sentence.

Olivia
shrugged. “I don’t know. The experience she had back in Spain made
her wary of men.”

“Yeah.” Handing
the laundry to Olivia, he sighed heavily. “Here. If I give it to
her, she’ll likely burn it or faint dead away.” Picking up the
remains of his sandwich he dumped it in the garbage and then went
to his room, no longer hungry. Unrequited love played havoc with
his appetite.

Sitting down at
his desk, he glanced longingly out the window one more time before
beginning to work on the latest task Bryan had given him. They
needed to know where the thug was who had kidnapped Cassandra
Greyson’s friend, Kellen.

Daniel smirked
and shook his head at the ease of the task. Tracking the location
of a cell phone user was child’s play. He’d find the dude and get
the address of the building where he was holed up, then send the
information back to Bryan. While Bryan checked the outside of the
building, a little internet search should turn up a floor plan for
said building. If the girl’s friend was being held there, they’d
need a map to aid in whatever rescue plan was concocted. Maybe he’d
even check the building’s security. If he could find the company
that was in charge, he could research the systems they favoured
using and see if any weaknesses existed. Shutting off a few alarms
here and there might make Bryan’s job a bit easier.

Hunching over
his computer, Daniel’s fingers flew over the keyboard. Tackling
problems such as the ones Bryan had been giving him, always gave
him an adrenaline rush and, today in particular, it had the added
side benefit of taking his mind off a certain other problem. He
forced himself not to glance out the window again and frowned
fiercely at the lines of print appearing on the screen. It was
amazing what you could find on the internet if you knew where to
look.

*****

Mrs. Teasdale
impatiently waited for Franklin to get off the phone. She’d been
eavesdropping on his half of the conversation, but whenever she’d
prodded him for information, he’d shushed her indicating he was
listening and not to bother him. Pursing her lips, she twisted her
fingers nervously, wondering what news Meredith Mitchell was
delivering. Franklin’s face was always so deadpan—darn his perfect,
butler countenance—it was hard to determine if the information was
good or bad.

When he finally
said goodbye and hung up, she had to keep herself from pouncing on
the man. As it was she bombarded him with questions as he walked
across the room and sat down at the large wooden table that
dominated one corner of the kitchen.