Rick

 

The door to Rick’s office slowly opened. He had been at the casino for several hours, and word of his bad mood had apparently spread. Everyone was now approaching him with extreme caution. He didn’t blame them. Stella taking off on him and then shutting down their mate bond had his stomach in knots. He didn’t like her out there fighting evil without him.

Jasper’s head poked through the door.

“Can we come in?” Jasper asked.

“Looks like you already are,” Rick snapped.

Jasper, Austin, and Justin stepped into Rick’s office. The men all took seats and waited for Rick to speak. He figured they thought that Stella had been an obedient mate, and had told Rick the name of the man last night. Now he had to tell them that not only had she refused to give up the name, she was now gone.

“Stella took off this morning. I’m not sure where she is, nor did she tell me the name of the man,” Rick finally blurted out.

Austin was the first one to start laughing. Jasper and Justin soon joined in. Rick looked at them wide-eyed, and a bit annoyed.

“I’m glad you assholes find it funny,” he said, trying to keep the smile from touching his lips.

“It sounds like something my mate would do,” Jasper said.

“She comes by it honestly, then, I see,” Justin added.

That caused them all to laugh harder. Rick finally joined in their laughter. It had been a while since he had fully laughed, and he had forgotten how good it felt.

“The situation isn’t funny. Your mate acting like a typical mate is. I don’t know what gets into these women, but we’ve all been there.”

“For whatever reason, she feels it’s safer for us to not know what’s going on.”

“She’s our healer. We have to trust that she knows what she’s doing,” Austin said.

“What if she’s in trouble?” Rick said, throwing his hands up in frustration.

“Then trust that she will tell you. Stella didn’t fight like hell to bring you back just to go off and get herself killed,” Justin said.

“Dark magic isn’t something to mess around with. I know she’s our healer now, but she hasn’t been for long. Dark magic is strong, let alone someone practicing old dark magic,” Rick said.

“Have faith, Rick. Also, why don’t you come have a drink?” Austin said.

“It’s been a while since we’ve all been to The Kamp,” Justin said, making his way to the door.

Rick looked around at the work he still had laid out on his desk. After a quick internal battle, he decided it could all wait.

As they filed into the bar, Greg greeted them with a wave.

“Hey, there’s the whole crew. Where ya been, Rick?” Greg asked, handing Rick his usual drink.

“Here and there. How ya been, Greg?”

“Doing good, Rick.”

Greg handed the rest of the guys their drinks and they all went back to their usual table. They made small talk for a while. Rick listened and tried to respond genuinely, but his mind kept going to Stella. He could feel her alive and safe through their mate bond, but she still had their communication shut down. Then he tried to think of what Rachel had said. She had been sent to seduce Rick. The story Stella had told him was that because she had been with Rick she had met the man who dabbled with black magic, and then the man fell in love with her. It seemed to be a contradiction.

The age-old question about the chicken or the egg came to mind. It seemed important to figure out whether Rachel really had been sent to him, or had ended up in her situation because of him. Rick’s mind wandered back to the night they had first met.

She had been beautiful. When she looked over her shoulder, blonde hair blowing in the wind, he was hooked. His eyes roamed her body, and then met back up with her knowing eyes. She knew she was beautiful as well.

“Come with me, shifter,” she said, her voice low and sultry.

“Wherever you want me to go, I’ll gladly follow,” he said, taking her hand.

She led him down Bourbon Street and then up a back alley. He noticed briefly that his usually tense bear was subdued. Obviously, Rick hadn’t felt the mate bond before, but maybe this woman was his mate. The woman to finally subdue his beast. He followed as she led him down another block and into an older French-style Louisiana home nestled in the heart of New Orleans.

His alpha would argue he should have let someone know where he was. Rick had yet to encounter anyone, shifter or human, that could best his bear. The need to participate in the buddy system seemed ridiculous. His alpha’s reasoning was directed more towards the younger men just coming of age to mate. It made them hotter-headed. Rick would agree with that. He was definitely hot-headed, but now in the presence of this woman his bear had yet to rumble to life at all.

Austin hadn’t been his alpha back then. A man named George had been his alpha. Soon after Rick’s encounter with Rachel, he had left the pack, and been alone for several years. When he stumbled into a bar in old Metairie one night, Rick had met Austin. Austin had been alone as well. Rick couldn’t even remember when they had grown into the pack they were now. It all seemed to happen overnight, even though he knew it had taken time.

He drifted back to the night with Rachel.

“Welcome to my home, shifter,” she said, turning and sweeping her arms out around her in the middle of her living room.

Her scent swirled around him, and he hummed with pleasure.

Now, he tried to remember anything about her apartment. Where had they been? They had walked from Bourbon street, but what street had he gone down? Had there been a house number on the front door? What was it about her that made him think she was his mate?

Nothing came to mind at first. He turned his focus back on the first time he had seen her. She had been at the bar ordering a drink.

As he approached her she looked back at him over her shoulder. Had she been expecting him? She looked pleased with herself that he had approached her. He hadn’t noticed that before. He bought her a drink, and they danced afterwards. Then she had led him out of the bar and to her house.

Rick needed to figure out where she had taken him. He strained his mind.

“Rick, you okay?” Austin asked, pulling Rick from his thoughts.

“I was just trying to think back to the night I met Rachel,” he admitted.

“How did I not realize when I hired her that she had been touched by dark magic? It makes me sick that she’s sat right outside my office all these years,” Jasper said, slamming his fist down on the table.

“She’s a chameleon. You couldn’t have known. I wonder what she hoped to gain from working for you, though.”

The men all thought on it for a while. Justin perked up then.

“When Veronica and I were having trouble, you handpicked the guys to come and work for me. That way we knew they couldn’t have had any dealings with my brothers. My brothers would have loved to have had someone close to me. To any of us, really. I wonder if Rachel isn’t the only one working for one of us that’s linked to whoever our mysterious man is.”

“Shit,” Austin breathed.

They all looked around the bar with untrusting eyes. If Jasper hadn’t realized Rachel’s true identity, the possibility that all of them had a chameleon on their payroll was highly likely. Rick had no idea where to even start to weed them out.

“Let’s ask her,” Jasper said, standing up.

“It’s almost five o’clock. We’ll never catch her at the office in time,” Justin said, glancing at his watch.

“Maybe not, but Emma’s still at the office. She can tail her.”

Jasper yanked his phone out of his pocket and sent Emma a text. His phone immediately pinged back her confirmation.

“Let’s wait and see where she goes. There’s no point in getting out in traffic headed one way, when she could just as easily come back this way.”

The men all waited rather impatiently. Rick was itching with the need to be productive. Wherever Stella was, she was fighting for him. While he was sitting in a bar, drinking beer with his buddies. Jasper’s phone pinged twenty minutes later.

“She’s down in the quarters. Let’s go.”

They all stood and filed outside and into Rick’s truck. He sped down to the quarters, following Jasper’s directions to the exact place Rachel had gone. When they finally found a public parking lot that wasn’t full, Rick pulled his giant truck in and filled two spaces. As they rounded the corner to where Emma was waiting for them, Rick suddenly realized where he was.

“This is it!” he said, walking faster.

“Wait, what is it?” Austin asked, grabbing Rick’s arm to stop him.

“This is the bar where I first met Rachel. We need to follow her when she leaves here, see where she goes.”

“Okay, but it’s going to be awfully hard for five shifters to blend in,” Justin scoffed.

Rick shot him a glare, but he had to agree. He searched the crowds until he found who he had been looking for. A young boy was performing for money just down the street. The panhandlers in New Orleans were infamous. They’d do anything for a buck. Rick walked up to the young man and interrupted his performance.

“Hey, man, bug off. Unless you’ve got money to cover all the heads you’re costing me,” the young boy sneered.

“I’ve got double. Half upfront, and half when you’re done,” Rick said.

The young man eyed him warily. He’d probably been propositioned before without proper payment.

“Here,” Rick said, pulling out his wallet and handing the kid two crisp hundred-dollar bills.

“This is half?” the kid said with wide eyes.

“Yup. Come with me. I’ll show you what I need you to do.”

Rick led the kid back to where the rest of the group was standing. He told the kid what Rachel looked like and told him once he got inside of the bar to text Rick a picture to make sure he had the right woman. Then to just follow her whenever she left, and send Rick the address of where she went. The kid agreed, and then disappeared into the bar.