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“Just the usual information?” Brody asked.
“Yep. We need to know who and where the call came from.”
“Time of call?”
I checked my watch. “Twenty or thirty minutes ago.”
Keys clacked quietly in the background. “Okay. Leave it with me. I might pull up any numbers from the last hour and we can disregard the unimportant ones.”
That made me a little uneasy, because it was maybe stepping over the line into Jo’s privacy, but it was also for her own good. Could there be forgiveness when the ends justified the means?
I nodded as I terminated the call without another word. Brody had my complete trust to handle this aspect of Jo’s protection.
My team was small, but I trusted each of them. I could delegate a task to any of them and know it would be completed to my satisfaction. We shared the same standards.
That kind of trust was rare in the business world, from what I could see from our interactions with human-run businesses, and even some other shifters. But I was glad of it today. Certainly we saw enough shit at Apex to know there were lots of other company teams out there without our bond.
The drive back to headquarters seemed longer than usual. Every stop light shone red and pedestrians behaved erratically, slowing me down. I wanted to get back and check in with Brody and make appropriate arrangements, but the world was conspiring against me.
I squealed into my parking spot and jumped out, only pausing to take in the brand-new doors to my building — the ones replacing the breakage I’d caused earlier. Someone else was on top of their job as usual.
As I entered the lobby, Jackson was talking to the two pack members who generally handled the upkeep of our buildings, but something in his stance telegraphed his irritability and I didn’t stop. We’d have the wrong kind of chemical reaction if I did. Instead, I nodded to the mated pair he was chatting with as I headed towards the elevator.
I was probably being rude. Hell, I was definitely being rude for barging right by, but they’d understand. All my pack members understood if I was busy on their behalf.
The “on their behalf” part was a slight exaggeration today, when my head was full of Jo, but no one else needed to know that.
I was impatient pressing the elevator button, but hopefully hitting it faster made everything move that bit quicker. If it didn’t, I’d have someone fix that, too.
When the doors finally slid open, I breathed a sigh of relief and stepped into the brushed steel interior before selecting the floor with the Apex offices. But my relief was short-lived.
Just as the doors had nearly finished closing, a hand appeared, forcing them apart again, before Jackson joined me inside the small metal box.
“Patrick.” He said only my name, and I nodded a greeting. He sighed, the sound one of frustration. “What’s going on, dude?”
I gritted my teeth. The next part would be a lie. “Nothing.”
“You broke a fucking reinforced glass door.” He shook his head. “That’s not nothing. And you took off without telling any of us where you were going. Or why. That’s not exactly nothing, either.”
When I didn’t speak, he continued.
“I mean, I can guess where you went, and ten to one, it’s not the titty bar out in Farland.”
I closed my eyes as I fought against seeing an image of Jo’s breasts in response to his crude reference.
“Patrick,” he said again, and I shook my head, my skin suddenly clammy.
“Dude, are you okay?” His hand on my arm suggested he didn’t think I was.
I nodded, but heat drained from my face. The last thing I needed right now was his understanding or his sympathy. It made it so much harder to keep my emotions contained.
“Are you sick?”
I shook my head but I wasn’t sure. I certainlyfeltsick, but not in any normal way.
“Then what’s going on?”
I cleared my throat. “I…” My voice cracked and I tried again, even as panic threatened to steal my words. “I…my wolf has chosen a mate. I need to stop it. I need to stop this thing from happening.”
