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“Is there anything wedoknow about them?” If they were shifty at all, they should have cropped up on Apex’s radar by now. “How come we haven’t heard of them in the shipping and transport business before?”
“They don’t seem to base those interests in Carwyn City. They mostly seem to use other nearby cities for anything not linked to their bricks and mortar business. The two things are very separate. I only found the occasional historical use of Gold Moon for shipping. Obviously Gold Moon is very convenient, which is weird that they’d go farther afield. That’s almost a red flag on its own, but like I said, it’s circumstantial. That said, use a different name, or fudge the records somehow, and it’s very easy to send shipments via Gold Moon that are almost untraceable with the right people working things on the inside.” Brody shrugged. “I assume that’s what they’re doing, anyway. Losing key pieces of information or forgetting to record things, so that companies with no visible connection to Gold Moon and shipping are right there in the thick of it. It’d be like they had an invisibility cloak on, or something.”
“That certainly sounds like the kinds of things Jo is chasing down and looking up,” I said. “But it’s still not something we can know for sure yet. It’s just a sound theory. Anything concrete?”
Brody snorted a laugh. “Sure. Bane’s Garden is owned by Owen Vulcan, alpha of the Bane’s Night pack. The brick-and-mortar business is what he calls a nightclub, but it’s little more than…” He curled his lip. “A shifter titty bar.” He lifted his hands in mock defeat. “But that’s all I can tell you, and it’s not enough to arrest him. Even though he is a general asshole, looking at various articles.”
Jackson laughed, too. “Hell, if being an asshole was a criminal offense, Patrick would be serving multiple life sentences.”
I ignored my beta completely — letting him know it, too — as I deliberately looked away. “Okay. Can we get another team on Josephine and her friends? Maybe it isn’t just the Everlys who are targets. Both Charmaine and Wesley work for Gold Moon, and both are very close with Jo. They could also be seen as threats to any criminal operation. I need to ensure protection is extended to both of them, or anyone else who might need it.” I scrubbed a hand over my cheek. “Is there anything else I’m forgetting?”
This was all too important to leave anything to chance, or to leave Jo or any of her friends in harm’s way. If the biggest suspect at play was a company with a pack alpha in charge, the threat had moved to a whole different level. There was an army behind that man. An army I didn’t know enough about.
I paced a little as I thought it all out. Time to tweak the plan. “Currently, Jo and her friends are camping out at Amelia’s house while Amelia is on the trip with my mom. But I want an extra team on them. Girard is our point of contact for that. He’ll run the team.” I glanced at Brody. “Does that work for you?” He was my chief of security, after all, and I wasn’t just treading on his toes when I made decisions like this one; I was stamping on them.
He shrugged. “If it’s what you want, I’ll make it work.”
“Great.” I ignored his lack of enthusiasm. “The team would need to be relieved every eight hours.”
Brody sighed. “So more like three teams?”
“Let’s just call it one team with enough people on it to rotate.” That sounded easier and far less hassle. But I didn’t really care what he wanted to call it. As long as Jo remained safe, he could call it as many or as few teams as he wanted.
A fresh idea struck me. Well, not exactly fresh, but I could make it appear that way. It was something I’d been mulling over for a while, but these guys didn’t need to know that.
I could just bring it up now, really casual. “How about if I convince them to come to Lycan Heights instead? That way, Girard and his team won’t even have to go very far. That will improve the convenience level, and it will make them so much easier to protect. Our entire pack would double as another line of defense.”
Jackson laughed again, and that was really starting to grate on me.
“Will you stop damn well laughing at every single thing I say this morning?” I was losing my patience with him, and I wasn’t afraid to let him know that. “If you’ve got nothing better to do than behave like a fucking hyena every time I talk, you’ve probably got better things you could be doing in your own office.”
He rolled his eyes. “Take a chill pill, dude. If you’d done that already, you wouldn’t be saying such funny things now.”
I clenched my fists as my temper rose, my wolf growing impatient with him, beta or not.
“Are you seriously thinking of uprooting the lives of three people simply to ensure that the woman you love moves in with you?” Unusual earnestness played on his face as he stepped back. “Is this the plan you think is going to work?”
“What?” My mouth hung open, and I didn’t even care. “It’s to keep themsafe. The safest place in all of Carwyn City is absolutely Lycan Heights. Surely you’re not denying that?”
“Ahhh…denial,” Jackson said, some of his familiar humor playing at his mouth. “More than just a river in Egypt.”
“What the hell? Shut up, Jackson.” I shook my head now. I clearly couldn’t make him see my point — or the fact that he was talking out of his ass as usual.
“But to be clear, you want Jo to live at Lycan Heights…with you?”
What the hell? Even Brody was in on the action now.
“No.” I sounded defensive, even to me. “She won’t be livingwith me. She — and her friends — will be living in the protection of Lycan Heights. Just so they can remain safe.”
Jackson and Brody both laughed, and Jackson jerked his thumb at me while he chatted with Brody. “Can you believe this guy?”
Brody shook his head. “Nope. But I think he honestly believes what he’s saying.”
Seriously? It was like I wasn’t even there. And neither of them was even listening to me properly. Lycan Heights was absolutely the best place because…because…
Shit. I walked to my chair and sat down heavily. Just…shit.
They were right.
