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He’d sent Stew, his second-best spy, to follow Ashley. When she’d shown up yesterday, looking harried and having zero good reasons for why she didn’t have an actionable plan to take out Midas and the tigers, he’d immediately been suspicious of her. Then she’d gone off the grid and hadn’t responded to his calls and texts. There was a lot he didn’t like, but he loathed not having his calls answered.
He'd tasked Stew with following her after she’d left their headquarters and he’d suspected her loyalty had somehow been tainted.
“First, she was stopped by tigers when she hit Whisper Creek. She begged them to ask a guy named Romeo about her, but they wouldn’t listen. I stayed out of sight and kept an eye on things.”
“What did they do with her?”
Buck started the truck. Brent climbed into the passenger seat and shut the door, angling the heater vent to blow directly on him. He fucking hated winter, and Cleveland had the worst winters as far as he was concerned.
“They put her in some kind of cellar under the king’s house. I was going to call you and ask if I should try to get her out, but then this big guy showed up and took her out. He was really pissed and yelled at the guys who’d put her down there. I think it was some kind of holding cell.”
That was interesting. The tigers had a jail under the leader’s house. He filed that information away for later.
“So what happened after the guy let her out? Do you think it was Romeo?”
He pulled the phone away and put it on speaker, then flipped through the images in his photo album of the tiger dossier.
Romeo Dawson was the second-in-command and lived on the same street as Midas. He also worked for the construction company and spent his days downtown in the vampire bank remodel.
“Yeah, she said his name. Then he walked with her to his house, and they went inside. I snuck up to the house and looked in a window. They were kissing.”
“You’re still in town?”
“Nah, I ducked out as soon as I confirmed she’s not on our side anymore.”
For a moment, Brent thought she could still be on his side, still be spying and working the man to get information on the tigers to take them down, but he decided against it. When she’d spied on the wolf pack for him, she’d kept in touch frequently, and even when she’d been seducing the alpha, she hadn’t given him even a question that her loyalty was to him alone.
The way she was acting now with the tigers? It was vastly different and way out of protocol for how she should be treating them. Yes, she could and should seduce a tiger for information, but she should have also kept in touch with him and let him know what was going on.
“I knew she was lying when she came to see me yesterday,” Brent said.
“I’m sorry,” Stew said. “I just left Whisper Creek. What do you want me to do?”
“Go to headquarters and start packing up.”
Buck made a curious sound and Brent glanced at him. “We have to leave. If she’s compromised, it’s just a matter of time before she tells the tigers where we are and what we’ve been up to.”
Buck grunted. “Fucking bitch traitor.”
Brent nodded. “She’ll get hers, don’t worry.”
“I’m on my way. Anything else?” Stew asked.
He thought for a moment and then said, “Yes, as a matter of fact. Get me a new demolition expert. We’ve got some traps to set.”
* * *
Ashley studied Romeo.He was definitely the sexiest guy she’d ever seen in her life. Blue eyes, that were simmering with edges of gold, which she suspected had something to do with his tiger. Full lips that she just happened to know were very talented. Stubble that had deliciously scraped her thighs and made him look even more delectable if that were possible.
He looked so serious now, though. Not lost to passion as he’d been, but as if the world was resting on his shoulders and the burden was very heavy.
She’d thought he would mark her in the throes of passion, but he hadn’t. She was disappointed because she knew that males marked their mates, but then she figured he didn’t trust her and didn’t want to tie himself to someone who was lying. As much as she wanted to say hecouldtrust her, she knew she wouldn’t say that because she wasn’t telling the whole truth.
“I don’t want you to hate me,” she said, her stomach rolling and fear niggling at the back of her mind.
He kissed her sweetly. “I promise I won’t. Whatever it is, we’ll get through it together. I have something to tell you, too, but you can go first if you want.”
She did want to go first because she wanted to get it out of the way. If she didn’t spill her guts, she thought she might burst, even if she was terrified of what it meant to tell him the truth. The real and unadulterated truth.
