“Of course.” The young man hurried over to a line of taxis waiting for work.
My phone buzzed with a text from Nate. In a few moments, a taxi pulled up to the curb. I shoved a ten into the valet’s hand and hopped inside, closing the door behind me.
“Where to, miss?” the driver asked.
Glancing at my phone screen, I read the name to him. “UFG Boxing and Fighting Club? Do you know that place?”
“Sure do. With traffic, we’ll be there in twenty, maybe thirty minutes. Sound good to you?”
“Yeah. There’s an extra ten percent tip in it if you can beat that time.”
“I’ll do my best.”
As the car pulled away from the hotel, I spared one glance back and caught a glimpse of Rick. He was standing out on the front steps, looking back and forth, scanning the surrounding area for me.
A second later, the taxi turned onto a side street, and he was gone.
16
Nate
Breath hissed out of my mouth with each strike. Left jab, right hook, left jab. Keeping my hands up to cover my face, I bobbed back and forth before attacking again. Left uppercut, right cross, body shot.
My gloved hands slammed into the training dummy with dull thuds after each punch. Sweat beaded on my body, running down to soak my shirt. Muscles flexed and bunched as I played out my mock fight, and all I could do was think about Cameron.
Even as I exhausted myself, my mind drifted back to everything I’d learned over the last twenty-four hours. I’d come to the gym to blow off steam after seeing the crime scene. After the horror and fear I’d felt when I thought the dead woman wasactuallyCameron, I’d needed to get my mind right before calling her with the test results. From what they said, an extra couple of hours wasn’t going to change anything.
Driving forward, I threw a body punch that nearly shattered the four-by-four the dummy was attached to, and I backed away. I tucked my glove under my left arm, pulled my hand free, thenstripped off the other glove. Still full of nervous energy, I sat down in the middle of the ring and began to do crunches and sit-ups.
Possibly the biggest revelation was when Cameron’s boyfriend had shown up. I’d scented him the moment the door opened. A shifter. The odds were insane. Shifters weren’t rare, but we were definitely a minority compared toanymetric on earth. Shifters did take humans as mates sometimes, but that was even rarer.
I’d noticed the scent of a shifter on her that first day in the hallways of her apartment, but had assumed it was from the guy who’d attacked her. Neither Ollie nor I had thought she might have been dating one of us. This Rick guy was more than just a boyfriend, though. The pheromones had oozed off him. He’d bonded to Cameron, or he was trying to, anyway. That explained his anger when he saw me. He’d marked her ashis. An integral part of his territory.
Though, he hadn’t fully claimed her yet. The scent on Cameron was more subtle, less aggressive than I’d have anticipated; otherwise, I would have noticed it the moment we met. I’d caught the scent of a shifter on her in her bathroom the other night, and I’d had my suspicions about what her boyfriend was even then. Once that Rick guy had shown up, it was confirmed.
As soon as I left her apartment, I’d called Ollie. That conversation echoed through my head as I flipped over and started a set of one hundred pushups.
“This is Ollie. What’s up?”
“We’ve got an issue,” I’d said.
“Another one? Jesus, what now?”
“I’m leaving Cameron’s apartment. Her boyfriend just showed up.”
Ollie sighed through the phone. “Look, Nate, I’m sorry you got cockblocked, but I don’t see?—”
“He’s a shifter, Ollie. A shifter, and he’s bonded to Cameron.”
A long pause from his end, then, “No shit? I haven’t looked into her personal life yet. Didn’t seem important. You got a name?”
“First name only,” I’d said, pushing through the doors. I spotted the high-end luxury sedan sitting out front. “His name is Rick, but I’m going to take a picture of his license plate. Can you run it and get me a full ID?”
“Sure. I can run it in five or ten minutes.”
I’d sent the picture to Ollie, then pulled a fresh shirt from the saddlebag on my bike. Once I was fully dressed, I found a spot out of sight to watch and wait. From my spot in the shadows, I watched Cameron and Rick leave the apartment ten minutes later, their car pulling out just as Ollie had called me back.
“Got it. Holy shit, Nate.Thisis the guy she’s with?”
