AllFreeNovel
Share Us
NATALIE
I carry around the lingering feeling of not being quite satisfied all day.
After coming with Chase’s annoying face filling my dreams, I’m unsettled, sleep deprived, and off-form.
When I stop off for my morning coffee in the bakery, Chase has the nerve to be there waiting for me, handing me my regular order with a smug smile. Maybe he’s been paying even more attention to me than I realised. Or he’s proving a point: that he can find out anything he wants about me. I nearly laugh out loud.
If he thinks knowing my coffee order is impressive, he’s in for a real shock when he finds out what I’m actually hiding. Which he will, eventually, because even if the council doesn't approve of telling him, his wolf is so close to the surface, it’s going to come out sooner than later.
Looking at his smile as he drinks me in, he may as well have fur already. There isn’t a shifter that meets him that can’t feel something.
“Late night?” he asks with a knowing smile and it takes every ounce of my willpower not to pour the hot drink over his handsome head. I realised when I woke up this morning how easily he could have heard me, or even seen me - my cheeks heat, and I want to sink into the ground with embarrassment.
Letting me off the hook, his mood changes as he switches into detective mode, eyeing my outfit closely.
No workout gear this morning. He’s wondering what I’m up to.
It’s good to keep him on his toes.
“Busy day planned?” He’s unbearably gorgeous, one dark eyebrow raised as he leans against the counter. My core quivers at the deep timbre of his voice. Maybe I haven’t recovered from last night at all.
“What do you want, Chase? If you’re here to tell me I’m shit at my job, again, get on with it. I’m not in the mood for games.”
It’s easier to be bitchy than to contemplate liking the guy who’s tormenting me, or how much I like it.
Straightening, he comes closer, impossibly slowly. My feet are rooted to the spot as he reaches out to fix the crooked lid on my coffee cup, touching my stuff and overly familiar. How is Chase covering my morning fix in his germs so intimate? It makes no sense, but somehow it is. I’d arrest someone else for doing the same thing.
Without meeting my eye, he speaks quietly in that serious tone of his. “Quite the opposite. You’re too good not to have made some progress.” My idiot bear is thrilled with his praise, but it’s hollow, designed to support whatever point he’s trying to make. He has no way of knowing whether I am or not. “What I don’t understand is why you’re covering for the person who almost killed your brother? You work in law enforcement. Why wouldn’t you take him down if you can?”
I’d love to set him straight, but he doesn’t know what he is, and why sometimes, shifter crimes can’t be dealt with through traditional channels. He doesn’t know yet.
When he’s been read-in by Blake or the council, then I can give him a piece of my mind and remind him how wrong he has been. Maybe not exactly wrong about what happened, but about me, and why I can’t do anything about it.
Gritting my teeth, I spin and stomp outside, clutching my drink as I try to escape this man. Except he’s smeared his scent all over the lid. But, of course, because he’s Chase, he follows me.
“You’re not even going to deny it? I didn’t take you for a coward, Deputy Lennox.”
When I turn around, Chase is standing in the doorway, his usual stern expression on his face but his steely grey eyes twinkle, loving the battle of wills between us. The fucker is enjoying this, knowing his taunting will eventually make me snap.
“I’m not going to dignify your nonsense with an answer. There’s a subtle but important difference.”
I tilt my head to the side and let my gaze run over his spectacular body. Why does he have to be so gorgeous? I want to punch him in the face and lick his neck all at the same time. It’s very confusing. Since I can’t do either, and I’m stuck with fighting him at every turn, I’ll have to find other ways to amuse myself.
“Don’t follow me,” I demand, knowing it will ensure he does exactly that.
“See you later, Natalie.” He doesn’t follow me immediately as I turn and leave, but I can feel the weight of his gaze as I make my way back to my car.
By the time I’ve driven out of Grey Ridge, I have a plan. My next stop is not somewhere Chase Walker should go. Yet somehow, I know he will. And it’s going to be so much fun.
CHAPTER 15
CHASE
Pulling out my phone, I bring up the tracking app and smile to myself.
She’s up to no good.
The little red dot that represents Natalie’s car pulls further and further away from Grey Ridge, travelling smack bang into the middle of Black River: Lennox territory.
