Read A Dangerous Business Online
Authors: Lorelei Moone
A Dangerous Business (12 page)
She blinked a few times, yet failed to hide the tears collecting in the corner of her eyes. "Of course. I love you."
"I love you, too."
"Morning," Jamie said as he walked into the office, shaking off his umbrella and leaving it in a bucket in the corner.
Aidan and Heidi exchanged a quick look before responding.
He wouldn't be able to tell what's going on, would he?
Heidi wondered, while instinctively reaching for the ring hanging from a chain around her neck. His mother's ring. They'd showered before coming in, but still she felt like the whole world would be able to smell the sex on them. And she'd heard it said that something happened to couples after they were fully mated. That other people would be able to tell.
No way,
Aidan responded.
We've been careful.
His hand was resting on his pocket where she knew he'd kept his ring. Maybe one day they'd feel safe enough to wear them openly, but not yet.
Heidi suppressed a smile. It was nice, having Aidan in her head. Where earlier she'd been able to catch only glimpses of his mood, it was reassuring being able to communicate with him, without even saying a word out loud.
"So where are we with the prisoners?" Jamie asked.
"They're secure in the basement. We've been questioning them one by one and so far none of them are in a mood to talk," Aidan said.
"How about you, well rested?" Jamie asked Heidi.
"Yeah. Fine. Ready to get back to work." Heidi smiled at him, let go of her chain, then looked back down at her computer screen.
"Good. Carry on." Jamie sighed and started on his usual morning routine, walking over to the coffee maker, and shoveling spoonful after spoonful of sugar into his cup, before pouring the black liquid over it.
"Aidan, I want you to bring in your informant, what was her name? Alison." Jamie stirred his coffee and turned around while taking the first, careful sip.
"Do you think that's wise? Shouldn't I meet her out in public, as usual?" Aidan asked.
Heidi pretended not to listen, but stole a glance in Aidan's direction anyway.
Who was this Alison person?
Our informant. Human,
Aidan responded.
"She's been instrumental in identifying the websites. Don't you trust her?" Jamie asked.
"I suppose…"
"Well then perhaps it's time to question her properly, both of us, capture it on video." Jamie took another loud sip, then walked over to his desk and sat down with a loud creak.
"It's your call."
"Bring her in."
Aidan leaned forward, grabbing his phone off his desk and scrolling through his address book.
"Oh, where's your brother... Derek, was it?" Jamie asked. "I didn't have the chance to thank him for his help yesterday."
"Derek left bright and early."
Of course he did,
Heidi thought.
Aidan had basically called the poor guy away from his honeymoon to help out with her rescue.
"That's a shame. Nice guy. We could've used him on the team..."
"Uhuh," Aidan responded, while playing with his phone again.
Jamie sat back and looked around the office, pausing on both of their faces for a bit too long. The extra attention made Heidi nervous, but she resisted the urge to fidget with her chain again.
"Guys. It's okay, you know..." Jamie started, "It may be controversial in some circles, but you have nothing to worry about here."
Heidi tried to swallow her worries, and looked up at him as coolly as she could manage. "Worry about what?"
"Right." Jamie grinned and diverted his attention to his computer, which had just switched on. "Worry about what, indeed... Excuse me for a moment, I am going to pay a little visit to our guests downstairs."
While Jamie gathered up some notes and a pen, along with his half-empty cup of coffee, Heidi tried her best to remain calm.
As soon as he was out the door, she pulled her chair across the office, right next to Aidan's.
"He knows! Despite being careful, he still knows!" She couldn't believe it. Aidan was right, they
had
been careful. So how did he figure it out?
"I'm not surprised. He's been doing this kind of work for a long time. Good instincts," Aidan responded.
"Now what?"
"Nothing. We can't very well undo what has happened. Neither can we force him to forget."
"But the way you act around the guy, like you don't trust him. Are you sure he won't rat us out?" Heidi asked.
"I don't think he would."
"So why didn't you tell him why you were really driving up to Skye?" Heidi insisted. "Why keep secrets?"
"Because it was none of his business. And because Jamie Abbott isn't his real name. I've only been able to uncover records for
one
Jamie Abbott living in Scotland, and he's been dead ten years."
Heidi was speechless. Jamie wasn't who he said he was? That was huge, and strangely, Aidan seemed quite calm about the entire affair.
"I don't understand. Either we're all on the same side, or we're not."
"I've found nothing to suggest he's disloyal to the cause, all I know is that for some reason or other he's chosen to live under an alias. Trust me. Things will be fine. He won't tell a soul." Aidan placed his hand on Heidi's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"Fine. I trust you." Heidi closed her eyes and rested her head against Aidan's hand. Amazing, how such a simple gesture could put her mind at ease. She
did
trust him, and her own instincts were usually right about people too. During their time working together, she'd never felt unsafe around Jamie. He had his secrets, but then that might well be a bear thing, because Aidan had his too. Maybe one day, with Aidan's help, she'd understand why bears were so secretive...
"What do you say, we head downstairs to observe Jamie as he has a go questioning the prisoners? We might learn something." Aidan got up and offered her his hand.
"Sure." Heidi accepted his gesture, and together they left the office, ready to embark on whatever new adventures might lie ahead.
~ THE END ~
The Scottish Werebears Series continues with Book 3,
A Forbidden Love
which features Jamie Abbott and his inconvenient obsession with the Alliance's human informant, Alison.
Genuine customer reviews are really important for indie authors such as myself.
If you take the time to leave a review for this book, I would love to send you an early review copy of Book 3 as soon as it's ready! Please contact me at
[email protected]
(please send me the link where I can read your review, this is very important!) and ask for your free copy.
It was late and most of Edinburgh's popular pubs were starting to close. Jamie Abbott didn't feel like heading home yet, but figured he might as well try to rest before another undoubtedly long day at the office.
A confusing maelstrom of thoughts plagued him. He had worked for the Alliance for years, laboring away day after day without much to show for it. Until now. Now they'd captured some actual members of the illustrious secret organization of humans who were trying to eliminate shifters the world over: the Sons of Domnall.
Three of them in total were being held in the basement underneath the Alliance office, while the rest had gotten away. Jamie thought about their unwillingness to talk. They may have made progress identifying and attacking what could very well be the base of the Sons of Domnall in Edinburgh, but what if they wouldn't learn much as a result? The only one who had said anything to him during questioning was the man in charge, who Jamie's colleague Aidan had identified as Lee Campbell.
Jamie knew better than to ask Aidan how he had uncovered the man's identity or what history they shared. If Jamie started digging into Aidan's private affairs, he could be certain to receive the same treatment in return. That was something Jamie was keen to avoid. Although Jamie was the senior Alliance member at the office, technically, when push came to shove that wouldn't mean very much to Aidan. Bears weren't good at dealing with authority figures like wolves were. They valued their autonomy too much, so team work didn't come naturally to them.
As Jamie had tried to gain further insights into the Sons and their activities in the city through intense interrogations, Campbell had been a constant source of frustration. He liked to speak in riddles. Jamie wasn't sure anything the man had told him was true. His gut told him that the one thing Campbell had definitely not lied about was that the Sons would plan a counterattack. They didn't take kindly to people, shifters in particular, interfering with their affairs and taking their members - brothers, as they called them - prisoner.
But Jamie and his people had always been careful. The building they occupied was owned by another, much more senior Alliance member, who had registered it in the name of a shell company. As far as the outside world was concerned, it was an administrative office for a shipping company.
After wandering the largely empty streets for about fifteen minutes, Jamie made it home. An impressive wooden door led to the ground floor of a Victorian house that had been converted into flats.
Jamie had been occupying this space for the better part of three years now. Despite splurging on the finest furniture to make it as comfortable as possible, he barely spent time here. Somehow, no matter what he did, he found it impossible to feel at home anywhere.
Jamie lived for his work, just like everyone else at the Alliance seemed to do. After hours, Jamie felt like he was waiting. For something, or someone.
The girl? How ridiculous.
He took off his leather jacket and hung it neatly on one of the elegant dining chairs he never used. Then he checked his mail, even though he already knew that all he had waiting for him were bills.
It was four in the morning, according to the wall clock at the other end of the combined living and dining space. Jamie settled down in the armchair facing the TV that hung above the defunct period fireplace, but didn't switch it on.
How could he convince those people to talk? They were fanatics who truly believed in their cause and that made them dangerous.
Hell, we truly believe in ours too, don't we?
Jamie sighed deeply and rubbed his temples in an attempt to soothe the dull ache that usually started to build up in there around this time. He knew he was exhausted, but he also knew sleep wouldn't find him just yet.
He closed his eyes and went through a few breathing exercises he'd found online. With his eyes still shut, he breathed in sharply, then exhaled in a slow, controlled manner for as long as he could stretch it. Rinse and repeat.
It wouldn't work, he already knew that, but he was nothing if not persistent in everything he did.
After a few breaths like that, he opened his eyes again and started to look at the switched off TV. Jamie felt his body relax, the tension he'd been carrying around in his limbs slowly dissipating until his body was ready for sleep. The previously clear shape of the television blurred in front of him as he continued to stare at it.
His mind refused to cooperate with his body's demand for rest, though.
He needed to get those men to talk.
Perhaps they knew something that would help him.
Jamie's eyelids grew heavy until he gave in and let them fall shut again. He was surrounded by darkness, but only for a moment, before the blackest of black made way for the gray late summer's day that always came to him at this time of night. That day at the beach, back when he was only twelve years old. The day his brother had gone missing.
The pain of the loss stabbed him right through the heart, as it had done back then, when he first realized what had happened. But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst thing was that his baby brother was only a small part of what plagued his mind.
The girl.
He couldn't get the girl out of his head.
It made no sense at all. Why was he so fixated on her? He didn't remember when exactly the memories had started to change, because it had been so gradual at first. As the years had passed, so had his recollection of that day. Every night when these glimpses of so long ago infiltrated his mind against his will, the girl had aged right along with Jamie.
They'd been probably the same age back then. Tonight what Jamie saw wasn't an awkward twelve year old, but a full-figured redhead in her thirties, like him. And so lifelike, too. Her green eyes sparkled in what little light could escape the hazy clouds overhead. Her smile could stop traffic, it was so radiant. Her ample curves invited further scrutiny, but Jamie resisted the temptation, as usual.
Sometimes he did allow himself to focus on her beauty, just for a bit. But the guilt always got him in the end. It wasn't worth it. How could he fantasize about some girl he might have very well just imagined there on the beach, when his actual, real little brother had vanished without a trace?
How could a creature so beautiful have existed in the exact same moment as a loss so terrible?
His inner bear kept insisting that if only he found her, everything would become whole again. Secretly that was why he'd joined the Alliance in Edinburgh rather than anywhere else, because that's where she'd said she lived. If he found her, perhaps he'd find
him
too. But if he found
her,
did it matter?
Jamie frowned, furious at himself for even questioning the importance of figuring out what had happened to his brother. Angry for all the pain the disappearance had caused to his parents, who had never been the same since. Guilty over his own selfishness and carelessness. It had all been his fault, after all.
Breathe in deeply, hold, slowly release.
Who was she, though?
Breathe in, and release.
Why was she so important?
Breathe and release.
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