Page 36 of Targeted By Love
“And I’ll hack into that too.” He somersaulted over the back of the couch, the hand with the computer held high. Even with his shifter abilities I’d admired how he did that and didn’t break the device.
“Rhodes has been kidnapped.”
“What? Again? Does he make a habit of that?” Lake was in the kitchen scouring the pantry.
“What happened to you?” Riggs bent over Thiago. “Did you sleep with those triplets again?”
“Triplets?” Lake pulled his head out of the pantry. “Dude, I need to hear everything.”
“Baby brother, concentrate on the food and not what your older brother has been doing with his cock.” Riggs pushed Thiago’s feet aside and sat beside him.
“Shut up, everyone. Did you not hear what I said? My mate has been taken prisoner.”
“Wasn’t us this time.” Lake stuffed his face with a handful of chips.
“The bears, or specifically one bear, instructed his underlings.”
“Which den? Not Germaine’s?” Ezra was tapping at the computer, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
“Yeah.” I went over what I’d observed in the meeting.
“But why would the bear den want to kill a human and his brother?” Thiago had his eyes open and propped his head on a pillow.
“Don’t pretend you haven’t heard the rumors.” Thiago enjoyed smoking weed, even though the effect on shifters wasn’t as intense as humans.
“Doesn’t mean there’s anything to back it up,” he huffed.
Germaine’s den dealt weed.
They grew it on their land, acres and acres of it. I didn’t touch the stuff, but the gossip was that they’d branched out into harder stuff. The local police left the mafia gangs alone and they were well compensated, so no one searched the den land in the middle of the forest that had been cleared to grow weed but now had a factory plonked down, surrounded by trees.
Word on the street was that humans had been hired to sell the hard drugs so the shifters could distance themselves from the business. My guess was Rhodes’s brother had been one of those humans. He’d stolen a few grams, or more than that. Or he owed money because Rhodes mentioned he liked to gamble, but either way, the hit and the bombing were payback.
“What do you know about the den, Thiago?”
“Not much.” He’d never been inside but had followed a dirt road around the perimeter, about five miles from the den entrance. There was a gate and a small cabin where people bought their weed.
“Unlikely they’d keep Rhodes there,” Riggs observed.
I agreed with Riggs, and Ezra showed me an aerial view of the cabin. But though it was hidden amongst trees, if people were buying their weed there, it was too public to hide Rhodes.
The den land stretched for miles over hundreds of acres. My mate could be anywhere.
“I’ve found a house that’s registered not under the den but Germaine’s mother’s name.” Ezra named an area in the middle of the city. “And the bracelet matched their family symbology.”
Bears were very much into their family symbols and crests. It was a pride thing.
“But wouldn’t he stash Rhodes somewhere more isolated?” Lake asked. He was finally paying attention and had put the chip bag on the coffee table.
“Maybe. But that might be what he wanted us to think,” Riggs offered.
Germaine wasn’t stupid; he was a wily guy who’d survived attempts to overthrow him, and he had the scars to prove it.
“I say we scout out that house.” Thiago staggered to his feet.
“Not you.” He’d be no use to us if he wasn’t fully recovered.
He protested, saying he was the knife expert. But I suspected knives were of no use. It was the Glock or nothing.