Chapter Twenty-Two
Lachlan
Two days later, I woke before Chloe yet again. As I had the past couple of mornings, I put a great deal of effort into rousing her. It wasn’t until I saw her smirk that I realized she was faking sleep.
I smacked her ass sharply in retaliation, which led to a wrestling match that we both won.
As we had for the past two days, we ate breakfast after working up an appetite. Though I wanted pancakes again, Chloe nixed the idea, insisting that our exercise should come in the form of a run and sparring rather than breaking in the kitchen table.
After breakfast, Chloe dressed in another pair of leggings and a tank top.
“Let’s go to the clearing,” she suggested. “We’ve barely left the house in days and you need to get back into top shape.”
For the next hour, we sparred. She won, again.
“You should practice your tracking skills,” she suggested.
I grabbed the towel I’d brought from the house and wiped the sweat from my face and chest. “You mean you want to practice your evasion skills.”
She grinned. “That too.”
A few moments later, she disappeared into the woods. I waited for a while before I followed. Immediately, I picked up her trail, both in scent and sight. My she-wolf could kick ass in a fight, but she sucked at covering her tracks.
Shaking my head, I followed the trail, stopping every so often to listen for telltale sounds that would give her away. When I ascertained her location, I crept around behind her, careful to stay downwind, and pounced before she even knew I was there.
“Dammit, I didn’t even hear you this time,” she complained. “And it took you less than ten minutes to find me.”
“That’s because you don’t cover your tracks,” I explained.
“But if you can follow my scent, why should I bother?”
I stared at her. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you how to throw false trails? Sure, your scent will give you away, but if you do it right, it will take a good tracker a lot longer to figure out which way you went. By that time, you could be long gone or set up a defense. A mediocre tracker might never be able to figure out where you went.”
Chloe tilted her head to the side. “Show me.”
For the rest of the morning, I instructed her and, with her razor sharp mind, she picked it up quickly. The final time I found her, it took me thirty minutes and my stomach was growling loudly by the time I realized she’d climbed a tree.
Standing at the base with my hands on my hips, I looked up at her grinning face. “Good call with the tree.”
When my stomach rumbled again, she leapt down, landing lightly on her feet. “Hungry?”
“Starving. You need to feed me.”
She scoffed. “Me? You’re a big boy, feed yourself.”
Slinging my arm around her shoulders as we walked back to the clearing, I said, “I made you breakfast. It’s your turn to make me lunch.”
She laughed as we gathered our things and strolled through the woods toward the cabin, my arm still holding her close to my side.
Just before we emerged from the tree line, I stopped her. “Someone’s at the cabin,” I whispered. We were upwind of the little house, which was why I hadn’t smelled them earlier, but I saw a vehicle parked in the driveway.
“It’s Darrell’s SUV,” she explained.
Something about the situation struck me the wrong way, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Before we could discuss it further, the screen door to the cabin flung open and Darrell came outside, his head turned toward the trees where we were hidden.
“Are you two coming in or what?” he hollered. “I brought lunch and the food is getting cold.”
“Shit,” Chloe mumbled. “I don’t like this.”
“Just stay alert and don’t hesitate if things go wrong.”
“You too,” she directed.
We stepped out of the cover of the trees, my eyes moving quickly around the perimeter as I looked for any men who might be with Darrell. He appeared to be alone, which surprised me.
Since the note was left in the truck, Chloe and I had checked the area surrounding the cabin twice a day for any visitors who might be watching, but there was nothing.
It made the skin between my shoulder blades itch. If Darrell really knew why we were here, the fact that he hadn’t sent someone to keep an eye on us seemed suspicious.
Darrell grinned when he took in our rumpled state as we skirted his car in the drive. “Been out for a run?” he asked.
Chloe nodded. “I’m glad you brought lunch. We’re both starving.”
Internally, I applauded her intelligence. Her words sounded friendly but didn’t require her to lie, an action Darrell might smell. Lies had a distinct perfume and it had been my experience that the dishonest were the most adept at picking it up.
“I also brought visitors,” Darrell explained, looking chagrined. “I know I should have called first, but they insisted it should be surprise.”
As we followed him up the steps, I caught a scent that made my back snap straight. They couldn’t have come at a worse time.
Inside the cabin, I saw Brian and Brayden Kirkpatrick sitting on the couch. Brian looked relaxed and pleasant, just as he had in Dallas. Brayden, however, scowled fiercely, his eyes trained on the bed.
When Darrell opened the screen door, allowing Chloe and I to enter first, Brayden’s gaze snapped toward us. When his eyes met mine, I saw the barely restrained rage burning in them and the white-hot hatred. I half expected him to lunge at me then, but he clenched his fists tightly in his lap and held back.
I forced myself to focus on the words coming from Darrell’s mouth.
“I’m working on an alliance agreement with Brian and when I mentioned my niece, Chloe, was visiting, he realized it was you and wanted to say hello.”
Darrell and Brian both grinned at Chloe and I marveled at how easily the two of them lied. A tendril of foreboding curled inside me. Though I smelled no duplicity on either of them, everything about this situation seemed wrong.
I did pick up the dark, stinging scent of Brayden’s rage and hatred. It filled the small cabin.
Once again, Chloe handled the situation perfectly. “How unexpected to see you, Brian,” she said, stepping forward to shake his hand. “How are you doing?” Her gaze shifted to Brayden. “Hello, Brayden.”
Her words were the truth, since neither of us expected to see the Kirkpatrick’s, but she said them in such a friendly tone that they seemed warm rather than offensive.
“I’m fine, Chloe,” Brian answered. “Though I have to say I was surprised to hear you mated.” His eyes drifted down to her shoulder and his brows lifted at the absence of my bite mark on her skin.
She laughed. “Lachlan has a lot of work to do before I’ll take him as a mate, Brian.”
I realized that was my cue to speak. Taking a page from Chloe’s playbook, I decided to keep my words as close to the truth as possible. “I didn’t want to take another mate,” I explained. “Then Chloe left and I realized how much she means to me.”
Brian nodded, his expression grave. “That’s understandable, son. It’s a horrible thing to lose a mate.” Then he smiled a little. “But there are few who are so lucky as to be granted another by Fate. I’m glad you didn’t throw away your chance.”
“That’s good advice,” I replied, earning a wider smile from the older wolf.
Brayden shifted on the couch, as though he were having trouble restraining himself. Calder and I had been right to worry about the wolf. It was becoming clearer that he was unstable.
I also didn’t like the way he was looking at Chloe. It was a combination of lust, fury, and jealousy. The wolf inside me took note of it and his hackles raised. No one coveted what belonged to us.
When Darrell’s phone rang, he apologized and went outside, lifting it to his ear as he opened the door.
Somehow, Chloe managed to make small talk with Brian, leaving me able to listen to Darrell’s conversation. Unfortunately, he was speaking too softly for me to hear everything, but I heard enough.
A few moments later, Darrell returned. “Brian, Brayden, I’m very sorry, but we’re going to have to cut our visit short. There’s a problem back in town and they need me.” He looked at Chloe. “Darlin’, you and Lach enjoy the food we brought and we’ll all have lunch together some other time.”
“Of course, Uncle Darrell,” she agreed.
I wanted to lunge forward and rip his arms off when Darrell gave her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek, but I managed to suppress the urge. Brian and Brayden were smarter. They merely nodded at her, though I did see Brayden’s fingers twitch and lift as though he wanted to reach for Chloe.
The most difficult part was enduring handshakes with Darrell, Brian, and Brayden. Darrell and Brian kept their clasp firm but brief. However, Brayden gripped my hand and squeezed as if he intended to grind my bones to dust.
Biting back a growl, I stared into his eyes, openly challenging him, as I bore down hard. I felt the bones in his hand move, giving under the pressure, and felt the snap as one of them cracked.
He made a noise between a snarl and a whimper, jerking his hand from mine. Brayden glared at me, his body vibrating as he dropped his hands to his sides. He wanted to tear my throat out. It was in every line of his body and leaked from his pores.
Brian broke through when he placed his hand on Brayden’s shoulder. “Come on, son. Darrell needs to get back to town.”
Suddenly, the barely leashed animal that had been staring at me became docile, lowering his head and following his father outside.
It wasn’t until they climbed into the SUV and drove away that I realized Brayden hadn’t spoken a single word the entire time they were in the cabin.
The inherent wrongness of the visit crashed over me again. My eyes traveled over the interior of the cabin and what I saw made my instincts twang.
When Chloe turned to me, her mouth open as though she were about to speak, I shook my head and talked over her. “It’s a beautiful day. Why don’t we eat our lunch outside? Have a picnic?” I kept my voice light and as normal as I could manage.
Immediately, she understood that I didn’t want to discuss what just happened inside the house.
“That sounds great,” she agreed, moving to the table to pick up the bags of food that Darrell brought. She also took two bottles of water from the fridge.
Neither of us spoke as we left the cabin. Chloe followed my lead as I walked several hundred feet from the structure, making sure to remain downwind so the sound of our voices wouldn’t carry.
When I stopped, Chloe said, “They bugged the house, didn’t they?”
“I’m almost certain. There were some small things out of place and I know I left the bathroom door open this morning before we left. When we returned it was shut.”
A closed door didn’t necessarily mean anything. Any one of them could have taken a piss and shut the door behind them, but combined with the fact that there were so many other things moved inside the house, it seemed likely.
“They bugged the bathroom?” she asked, a look of disgust on her face.
“Probably,” I answered with a shrug. “I know I would.”
“Ew.”
Though the situation was serious, her adorable reaction made me chuckle.
“I don’t find it very funny, Lach. Every time I use the toilet, I’ll be wondering if they’re listening.” She shuddered. “Or watching.”
“You’re right, it isn’t funny,” I replied, the smile fading from my face at her declaration. It reminded me of something Carter said. Darrell liked to take videos and pictures. It was his fetish. He wanted mementos.
“What?” Chloe asked.
“They probably did place cameras,” I explained. “Remember what Carter said about his father’s tendency to take photos and videos.”
The disgust on her face morphed into rage. “I’m going to enjoy killing that sick motherfucker,” she growled. “I may even keep a memento of my own.”
“You’ll get your chance,” I stated. “If I don’t get to him first.”
She blinked, the anger draining away. “What about Brayden?” she asked. “When you told me he seemed off in Dallas, I thought he was being his usual creepy self, but if he was like he was today, I can understand why you and Calder freaked out. I’ve never smelled anything like it before. It was as if he were angry, jealous, and horny all at the same time.” She paused. “But when he looked at you, all I could smell was hate.”
“I don’t think what he feels for you is a harmless crush, Chloe. It’s almost as if he’s obsessed.”
Chloe rubbed her arms and I saw goose bumps break out on her skin. “And did you see how quickly he shut down when his dad touched him?” she asked.
I nodded.
Chloe stared off into the trees, her eyes unfocused as she thought. “I feel like there’s something bigger happening here, but I can’t figure out what it is. My instincts are telling me it’s all connected; the death of my parents, Darrell’s sick hobbies, and the Kirkpatricks, but I just can’t see how.”
“I agree. Something big is brewing. When we see Carter again, we’ll ask him what he knows about the Kirkpatricks.”
She glanced over her shoulder at the cabin. “I hate the idea of him watching us.”
“I do too. We may not be able to remove the cameras without tipping him off, but we should be able to figure out a way to impede the view of one or two once we know where they are.”
“But he’ll still be able to hear us,” she said, pacing and rubbing her arms. “Fuck, I hate this. I hate waiting. I hate not knowing if Carter is going to double cross us or not. And I hate the fucking idea that Darrell is going to watch us and listen to us, probably while he’s jerking off, the sick bastard.”
I stepped in front of her and put my hands on her shoulders, my thumbs stroking the sides of her neck. “Just a few more days, maybe a week, and we should have the evidence to take to the Tribunal. I know that they’ll rule to take Darrell and his officers into custody and try them for their crimes. Once that happens, this will be over and we can go back to Dallas.”
She stared at me for a moment, biting her bottom lip. “You’re right. I’m just so angry I want to beat the shit out of something.” She kicked the bag of food she’d dropped on the ground, knocking it over. “And I’m hungry as hell but I refuse to eat the shit Darrell brought.”
“Well, at least there’s something I can do about that,” I said, wrapping my arms around her. I told myself the hug was meant to comfort her, but, in truth, it was for me.