Can we step outside in jeans with no shirt or shoes? Yes. Did I do it to impress my mate? Maybe. Mostly I just didn’t want to wear a shirt in the house because I enjoy the feel of my mate pressed directly against my skin. We’d only been outside long enough for me to do a demonstration shift. Clothing wasn’t needed.
I’ve put on a Henley and work boots this afternoon. The chill in the air doesn’t bother me, but I do need to remember to bundle my mate up anytime I take her outside. She’d be cold wearing as little as I’m wearing.
Ronan’s truck pulls up while Orion is still chuckling at me. This is why I wanted my mate to take a nap—besides the fact that she needs more sleep. Lord knows when she last slept well. I suspect it’s been a long time.
I wanted to unload the things Ronan and Quinn picked up for me in town and talk to them about what they found out about Mitchel without my mate present.
Quinn looks grim when he hops down from the truck. His brows are furrowed, and his jaw is set.
Ronan has the same expression as he rounds to our side.
“I take it you found Mitchel,” I say, planting my hands on my hips. They’re far too serious for a grocery and supply delivery.
Ronan growls. “Oh, we did. What a fucking piece of work.”
I cringe. “Talk to me.”
Quinn picks up, “Guy owns a storage facility, though I suspect half his units are not rented to legitimate people for thesafekeeping of legal items. We snooped around a bit before we went into the office. He’s a sleazeball. There was a woman in the office, too. She had a black eye and looked scared out of her mind.”
Ronan grunts. “It was tough to walk away without strangling him on the spot. We considered it.”
My blood is boiling, but I knew it would be. “Did you find out where he lives?”
Quinn takes over again. “Yes. That was easy. Rundown house on the outskirts of town. It has a basement, like you said. I easily broke into one of the basement windows and jumped down inside. Your mate’s scent lingered. The conditions he was holding her in were deplorable. I considered going back to the storage facility to shoot the fucker between the eyes.”
“I’m glad you showed restraint,” I grumble, mostly because I’d like to personally kill the guy.
Ronan nods. “It’s been a long time since any of us faced this kind of problem. We should have a pride meeting to discuss what we’re going to do. We need to rid the world of his type of scum, but we need to do so in a way that we are not implicated or even suspected.”
I inhale so deeply my nostrils flare. “I agree. As far as we know, no one has a single clue yet that we found a woman in the woods, especially not Mitchel, right?”
Quinn nods. “That seems to be the case. No one in town mentioned a missing girl. And we made sure no one saw us breaking into his house. If they did, they don’t recall it. Granted, I’m sure there will be rumors spreading now that we’ve purchased women’s clothing in town, but as long as no one makes the connection between Brea and Mitchel before he’s been eliminated, we should be fine.”
“I agree,” Ronan says. “I doubt anyone knows Mitchel was holding a woman in his basement. That’s incredibly unlikely,which means no one in town knows she exists. We can spread whatever rumor we want about how you two met, but we’ll do so after Mitchel is out of the picture.”
My brothers are thinking far more clearly than I am this afternoon. It’s hard for me to see anything but rage.
“How is she?” Quinn asks in a kinder voice.
I smile. “She’s doing amazing. I even took the stitches out. The wound healed better than I remember ever seeing on a human before. It’s been a damn long time since any of us have witnessed the healing properties we bring to a mate.”
Ronan nods. “That’s good to know. Pryce said the cut was long and deep. She’d lost a lot of blood.”
“She had.” I glance past my brothers and look around the clearing. Most of our pride are still out at one of the logging sites. “How soon do you think we can gather everyone?”
Ronan looks over his shoulder. “A few hours? I’ll head to the jobsite and let everyone know to come straight to the clearing when they return for the day. I have an idea in mind. I’ll explain it better at the meeting, but in the meantime, we need something from you.”
I cock my head to the side, narrowing my gaze. What could he possibly need?
Ronan’s expression is tense. “We picked up everything you needed from town. I’ll help you carry it inside and explain. Then we’ll meet out here in a few hours.”
Ten minutes later, I’m left to go through the bags of supplies. Some items are things I already have but will need more of in the near future, like extra food, drinks she might like, clothes, and undergarments.
We don’t buy bottles, diapers, or pacifiers from town. Our lifestyle practices are private. No one in town needs to know how we live behind closed doors, so we order those kinds of supplies from wholesale locations and have them shipped directly hereto the mountain. It’s not cheap to have things delivered, but it’s worth it.
The purchase of clothes is what’s going to give away the fact that we have a woman with us, so we need to act fast on Mitchel. It will be tidier if he’s eliminated without anyone knowing he ever had a connection with Brea.
I’m marginally nervous about the plan Ronan has put into motion. But he’s a sharp man with a good head for solving problems.
