“They’re keeping him from me on purpose.” Sapphire’s voice was bitter. “They’re brainwashing him against me. We’re not good enough for the fancy McCoy clan.”
“You’re too good for him,” Clover said firmly. “You’re gorgeous and fun and…” She tried to think of something else. Smart, reliable, trustworthy, a great friend…none of that was actually true, and Clover made it a point to be truthful to a fault, to set a good example for her family. “Anyway, we’ll fix this, I swear. I don’t believe he’s going to want to turn his back on his own cub. I think he’ll come around.”
“Where are you right now?”
“I’m on the McCoy property.” She had tried to call her sister the night before to tell her about the job, but her sister hadn’t answered. Typical Sapphire. Sapphire tended to up and run off every time she faced any kind of obstacle, which worried Clover. She’d really, really been hoping that having a cub would force Sapphire to settle down.
“So you’re going to see him today?” Sapphire asked excitedly.
“No. I, uh… Well, I’m working here. Sam McCoy hired me to do social media for their company.”
Dead silence for a minute. She could hear Sapphire’s angry breathing. “He what? You’re working for that asshole?”
“They offered me a great job,” she said defensively. “Health insurance, even. I need to support the kids. Social services stopped by the boarding house yesterday, by the way. I can’t be unemployed. They’re already looking at me funny.”
“Why were they there?”
“Because our family has the not entirely undeserved reputation of being petty criminals and trailer trash. I need this job. I barely have any money, I have student loans to pay back, and I’m supporting four kids.”
“Stupid holier-than-thou douchebags. Anyway, I’m pretty sure I landed a cocktail waitressing job,” Sapphire said. “I can help out when I make some money.”
“You shouldn’t be working,” Clover said, worried. “Especially running around all night long in a place where there will be cigarette smoke…”
Sapphire snorted. “You’re right. Tell Jeffrey that.”
“Where are you, exactly?”
“Call me when you find Jeffrey,” Sapphire said, and hung up.
Great. When Sapphire refused to say where she was, that meant that she was hanging out with a bad crowd. Clover buried her face in her hands and heaved a sigh. Her family was going to be the death of her yet.
Then she turned her computer back on and went to work.
* * *
Sam sat in his office, trying not to think about how badly his body was screaming to claim the luscious bear who was working right next door. He wanted to give her a day or two to settle in before he made his next move.
Instead, to distract himself, he searched the web for information on her. As head of security, he had access to numerous databases that weren’t open to the general public, and he wanted to find out everything he could about her.
From looking through the databases and her social media accounts, he was starting to get a picture of the family dynamic. The Jones had moved to Blue Moon Junction to crash with a group of their relatives when Clover was eight, and stayed until she was twelve. Clover had been the responsible one, dutifully letting the family drag her around the country but always maintaining stellar grades. That explained why she’d gotten into an excellent college; she’d gotten in on a full scholarship.
Her parents’ real names were Andrea and Calvin, but they called themselves Karma and Cosmic Traveler now. Good Lord, how had Clover grown up so normal?
From some social media postings, he gathered that Clover had worried about her family all the time while she was in college. She’d been in New York, they’d been moving from state to state.
The younger siblings went through long periods where they weren’t in school at all – the parents were members of a homeschool group.
Sapphire he already knew about; a party girl, a scam artist, a user.
She’d most recently been working as a night club hostess in Miami. She’d abruptly left her job and breezed into town two months ago, hoping to crash with her cousins. What she hadn’t known was that Sam had finally run her cousins out of town for good a few months earlier – they’d been suspects in a car theft and chop shop operation. As soon as she found that out, she planned on leaving town for who knew where. But then, unfortunately, she’d met his brother, dollar signs had appeared in her eyes like a slot machine, and she’d latched her claws into him.
Tried to latch her claws into him. There was no way he was letting that harpy ruin his brother’s life.
Too bad Clover was obviously so loyal to her parents and younger sister. They didn’t deserve her loyalty, but it was typical for a bear shifter. Sam would lay down his life for his family – but then, his family were good people, not a bunch of low-level thieves.
He still was determined to win her over, and the fact that she’d asked Jemma what type of woman he liked seemed extremely promising. He’d only had to pay Jemma a hundred dollars for that information – the little scam artist. Jemma had also passed along that she liked Clover and if he used Jemma’s intel for evil, she’d shave him in his sleep.
There was a sharp rapping on the door, and Flint stuck his head through.
“Can you come down to my office? The Enforcers want a conference call with you, me, and the sheriff, just to keep us up to date on the Somniatus situation. There’s been another incident.”
“Damn it. What happened?” Sam stood up quickly.
Flint shook his head. “We’re very, very lucky. It was a bear shifter attacking other bear shifters at a rave, not humans, and we actually managed to keep it out of the papers. The local bear clan played it off as a drunken bar fight, but tests showed that the bear had Somniatus in his system. If that shifter had killed a human, it would be bad news for bears everywhere.”
