Protected Mate (Catamount Lion Shifters #1) (8 page)

His phone buzzed again. This time Jake’s number flashed on the screen. “What’s up?” he answered brusquely.

“You got a minute?” Jake asked.

“Just finishing up at work. Do you want me to stop by?”

“That’d be good. I’ll be in my office for another half hour. Can you make it before then?”

Dane clicked off his computer and stood. “On my way.”

Minutes later, he rested a hip against Jake’s desk. Jake’s office was a few blocks away from his. Jake had multiple computer screens covering his desk. The hum from his computer server was constant. Jake claimed he needed a separate office from home, or he’d never take a break. Dane had seen the lights on at his office at all hours, so he could imagine it would be much worse if Jake didn’t keep some type of divide between home and work.

“So?” Dane asked.

Jake swung around in his chair, his eyes serious. “You’re not going to like this,” he said flatly.

Dane gut coiled. “Just tell me Callen didn’t risk our safety by accidentally revealing who we are to the government.”

“I can’t say he did that, but I can’t say he didn’t. I don’t even know what to do with what I found. I’ll say this much: this needs to stay between you and me until we get a better idea of what was going on.”

The knot of worry in Dane’s gut tightened. If Jake thought they needed to keep this quiet, it could only be bad news. He eyed Jake carefully. “You know I won’t say anything. What the hell did you find?”

Jake took a deep breath and leaned his elbows on the desk. “So I hacked into the email of the Fish and Wildlife guy, Hayden Thorne, and did a lot more digging into Callen’s computer files. Far as I can tell, he’s nothing more than a red herring. I think he might be able to help us, but I don’t think he’s our problem. Callen was working with some guy out in Montana to sell...” Jake paused and shook his head. “Damn if I know how to describe it, but here goes. I think Callen was trying to sell our services for some high end money.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Jake ran a hand through his hair. His eyes were bloodshot, his clothes rumpled, and his hair looked as if he’d run a hand through it too many times to count. “Callen had multiple email accounts under different aliases. The surface one, the one we first looked at, was the only one he used to communicate with Hayden. He seemed to be trying to pump him for information. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Hayden’s a shifter himself. But that’s another issue altogether. Anyway, he used some other accounts to communicate with a guy—no idea who this guy is, never mentions any names—and the deal was Callen offered this guy shifters to use for drug smuggling. For some serious money.”

Dane’s stomach felt like lead. “You can’t be serious. There’s got to be a mistake.”

Jake shook his head slowly. “Trust me, I said the same thing to myself. I’ve been up almost day and night combing through these email accounts. Once I tracked down the alias accounts, I almost lost it. I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure I could trace everything back to Callen. He did a decent job of covering his tracks, but he wasn’t savvy enough to know how to mask his internet service provider address completely, so that’s how I linked everything back to him. I can show you all of it. I’ve saved it on a separate flash drive and backed it up to in the cloud and on two separate hard drives to be on the safe side.”

Dane tried to absorb what Jake was saying, but he was stunned. He and Callen hadn’t been particularly close, but he’d trusted him. To think Callen was slinking around, trying to find ways to make money off of their shifter clan, blew his mind. And broke his heart. If Shana found out about this, she’d be devastated on a new level. It would shake the foundation of the love she had for Callen. Then there was the issue of how much risk Callen brought down on them. The existence of shifters was protected knowledge. That’s how they survived. For Callen to expose them to the seedy and dangerous world of drug smuggling, well, it was damning and terrifying.

Dane looked up and met Jake’s eyes, deep blue and dead serious. “You’re pretty confident about this then?”

Jake nodded slowly. “As confident as I can be without catching him red-handed in the middle of sending these emails. The digital fingerprints are damning. The only other consideration would be someone else at the same ISP address. But I already did my homework on that. It meant I had to rule Shana out, so I crosschecked her work schedule against the times the emails were sent. Every single email was sent during one of her work shifts. If there’s one good thing about working at the hospital, it’s that they keep employee logs online. Everything is tracked, even when people call out sick. She was verified on duty whenever Callen was busy online. I even checked client records to confirm she was seeing patients during those times. Much as it turns my stomach with Callen, I can see it. He was always looking for ways to capitalize on shifter powers. Remember that bullshit he used to spew about it in high school? He toned it down after we got through college, but I’m thinking it’s more that he realized if he didn’t shut up about it, we might look a little too hard.”

Dane shook his head sharply. “Damn. I just…don’t know what the hell to think. I’d have been pissed if you told me you had to rule Shana out, but I’m glad you did. This way, we don’t even have to ask her about it.”

Dane paused and stared across the desk at Jake. Jake’s eyes stared steadily back, bleary, sad and angry.

“This sucks,” Dane said quietly.

“Tell me about it. We’ve got a town full of people mourning Callen’s death when they have no idea what he was doing behind our backs.”

“So any idea where Callen went? Did he actually go to Montana? Or was that a cover too?”

“Oh, he was there. The digital trail goes dark as far as who he met with and what he did. All I have are locations of where he was meeting people, but that doesn’t help much. I know he was supposed to deliver a ‘package’ to someone. He offered to demonstrate the utility of our travel capabilities. I mean, who the hell would think a mountain lion was smuggling drugs? The route was supposed to be across the border into Canada. It’s obvious something went wrong because he got tagged and headed east only to get hit by a car in Connecticut. Though for all we know, he was supposed to be in Connecticut. There’s definitely a market for drugs there, but it’s damn busy for travel. Not to mention that mountain lions haven’t been seen in the East for almost a century if you’re not counting the myths about us. If he hadn’t been hit by a car, the presence of a mountain lion anywhere near Connecticut would have drawn tons of attention, which is exactly what happened.”

Dane was still struggling to wrap his brain around what Jake told him, but enough of it was sinking in to permeate into a cold fury inside. He met Jake’s tired gaze. “Back to your earlier point, I forgot how much Callen used to make noise about how we didn’t even know how to use the powers we had. I chalked it up to him being young and arrogant. His dad was on the obnoxious side too, so I didn’t think much of it.” He paused and sighed. “What the hell are we going to do now?”

Jake shook his head slowly. “Damn if I know. For the moment, let me keep digging and see what else I find. We need to keep this quiet. I’d like to reach out to Hayden Thorne. He seemed to be on the up and up. I got the sense he was concerned about Callen’s questions. For all we know, he’s aware of whoever these people were that wanted to use shifters for their smuggling operations. In the meantime, we can’t say a word, not even to Shana.”

Dane nodded. “You’ll get no argument from me there. Do we know if Callen revealed our location to anyone?”

“Not that I found so far. But all it would take was someone like me on the other side to chase down his digital trail. We can’t sit on this for too long.”

Dane stood. “I know. Let me know what I can do. Let’s talk again tomorrow. In the meantime, I told Chloe I’d meet her for dinner, so I gotta get going.”

Jake’s eyes sharpened. “Have you told her anything yet?”

“Oh right. I haven’t seen you the last few days. Thanks to you telling her to ask me about Shadow Rock, I had to think on my feet, but she handled it. I should seriously thank you. I probably would have kept putting it off because I was afraid she’d run. She still has a lot of questions, but I think it’ll be okay. Now I just have to convince her to stay in Catamount.”

Jake’s eyes widened. “You’re really serious about her?”

Dane nodded firmly. “I told you the first time I saw her, I knew she was the one for me. I’m not playing games here. I wish like hell this mess around Callen wasn’t happening because I think she knows something’s up. I’m trying to figure out how to explain without getting into all the details. And now with this new information, we have a lot more to worry about.”

Jake nodded slowly. “That’s putting it lightly. I’ll call you tomorrow,” he said, swinging his chair back around and immediately clicking onto his computer again.

***

“Who are you talking about?” Dane asked Chloe.

They were at dinner at The Trailhead, and Chloe was telling him about a man she met at Roxanne’s today. Dane felt his hackles rise for what appeared to be no reason. All he knew was his gut pinged loudly when Chloe mentioned the man.

She’d just taken a bite of food and held a finger up while she chewed. After a quick sip of water, she glanced up, her mossy green eyes temporarily distracting him. He could look at her all day every day and never tire of it. She was so damn beautiful and completely unaware of how sensual she was. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I thought he was someone else from Catamount. He said his name was Seth. Honestly, I assumed he was a shifter. Now that I know they’re real, I’ve been paying attention. Like how you, Shana and Jake all have eyes that tip up at the corners. And you move like a cat.”

Dane choked on his water. “I don’t move like a cat when I’m not in lion form.”

Chloe wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “Yes you do. Anyway, back to this guy. He was asking me how I met you and stuff. I figured he knew you. It’s not crazy I’d think that. Half this damn town asks me nosy questions about you. They’re all protective and stuff. As if I’m somehow a risk to you,” she said huffily. “When seriously, I’m not the one that can shift into a mountain lion. I’m just a plain old person with a bum ankle.”

Dane grinned at her comment. Catamount wasn’t too small, not anymore, but locals were protective. He knew those close to him weren’t worried about Chloe the way she meant. They were worried the way all shifters worried about humans finding out about their existence. He didn’t expect the dust to settle on that until he and Chloe were a sure thing. Until then, there would be fears she’d reveal them to outsiders. His mind turned to this man Chloe mentioned. He didn’t know anyone named Seth. It made him seriously uncomfortable to know this guy clearly knew who he was. On the heels of what Jake had discovered about Callen’s dealings, Dane’s instincts were on high alert.

Chloe tilted her head, her eyes assessing. “Why do you look so worried?”

He looked across the table at her—her open eyes, her warmth, everything about her was straightforward. Her default was to trust others. He loved that about her. The only place where she seemed leery was when it came to love. He needed to cue her in however he could. Not just to keep her safe, but he didn’t like hiding anything from her. He was determined to show her she could trust him.

“Because just like there’s good people and bad people, there are good shifters and bad shifters. I don’t know anyone named Seth, so whoever this guy is he was trying to make it seem like he knew me when he doesn’t. That’s usually not a good thing.” He paused and took a breath, watching her carefully. Her eyes were serious, but not frightened.

She circled her fingertip around the top of her wineglass. “Is this about whatever it is that’s got you so worried?”

“How do you know I’m worried?”

Chloe’s shoulder rose and fell in a tiny shrug. “I know we haven’t known each long…” When she paused, her cheeks were pink. “But I feel like I’ve known you a lot longer. You’re not telling me something. If you want me to give us a chance, like you say, it’s not going to help if you hide things from me.”

Dane looked at her carefully. “I don’t want to hide anything from you, so please don’t think it’s that. I’ll try to explain as much as I can. I’m sure you’ve heard how people are pretty upset about Callen’s death.” At Chloe’s nod, he continued. “I don’t even think I had a chance to explain he was a shifter. It’s true he died in a car accident, but he was the mountain lion that got killed on the highway in Connecticut.”

Chloe’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God. That’s awful! What happened? Why was he there?” Her questions tumbled out, the same questions so many others had asked.

Dane’s stomach felt like lead to consider Callen’s death in the context of what he knew now. “I don’t know why he was there. None of us do. So that’s got me and plenty of other people freaked out. Jake’s been helping me look into some of Callen’s computer files. I can’t go into the details now, but I’ll tell you that I’m far more worried than I was to begin with about how and why Callen died and what it might mean for us here. We’re not the only mountain lion shifters in the country. There are others. Callen was trying to find them and make contact. We’re worried he may have made the wrong connections. That’s why this Seth guy approaching you and acting like he knows me has me worried. I wish I could tell you more, but honestly I don’t know much more.”

Chloe swirled her finger around the wineglass again, her expression pensive. “Wow. I didn’t know that’s why everyone was so upset about Callen. I figured he meant a lot to people and they were grieving. Knowing there’s something else behind it is scary. Does everyone know about this?”

Dane shook his head. “Everyone knows he was looking to make contact with other shifters and is pretty scared about how he died and how he got tagged. Jake and I are working on this and need some more time. I haven’t even given you all the details because I can’t yet. I wanted to tell you what I could. I don’t want to put you in danger.”