He was so excited, I hated to break the bad news. But maybe it wasn’t all bad for Dean. If Dev and I somehow made it work to see one another whenever, we’d have to meet here at the motel.
“I need you.” But he pushed past me, heading for the parking lot. I grabbed his sleeve. “Dean, focus. The car isn’t here, but if you help me and we locate it, I’ll make sure you get to drive it.”
Yikes, I’d made a promise I couldn’t keep, but I couldn’t focus on my fib right now.
“The car.” Dean’s expression didn’t change. How could that be? The car was all we’d been talking about. “Your baby.” His face lit up. “We need to find her and then I’ll find Dev.”
He narrowed his eyes. “What did the guy do? Give you a fake phone number? That asshat.”
“Could you and your buddies find the car?” Hopefully, if Dev and I connected, I could fulfil my promise about driving the car.
Dean rubbed his hands together and grinned. “Oh, we so can. But we don’t need them. I can do it.”
We trooped into the office but a guest interrupted us, wanting more towels. I tapped my fingers on the desk, as someone else complained their TV wasn’t working.
When Dean sat in front of the computer, his fingers danced over the keyboard. “You didn’t see me do this.”
“Okay.” It all sounded very super secret squirrel.
Dean opened page after page of documents until he leaned back in his chair, grinning. “I’ve found him. He’s not Dev though.”
“Spill.”
“His name is Roy Hayes.”
“What?” The guy I assumed I was supposed to marry owned Dev’s car? But Dev wasn’t Roy. I’d seen his pic. What the fuck, Dev or whatever he called himself, was a car thief.
Chapter 14
Stolen what?
Devyn
I was walking on cloud nine and also wallowing in the mud. It was an odd sensation. Being with Hess had been everything I ever hoped for, and more. Who didn’t find their mate the epitome of perfection? But then there was the part where we couldn’t actually be together. I’d met the one person on this planet for me and the freaking universe gave me the big old middle finger and told me to pound salt.
I was a hot mess of I-almost-wished-I-never-met-him blended with I-can-die-happy-now-that-I’ve-reached-true-bliss. I wasn’t sure how to handle it, and my wolf was absolutely no help at all. He saw the solution as a simple matter of marking him and then living out our lives as mates.
If only it were that simple… or even semi-close to that simple. It wasn’t, though. I hated how things were going to go down. Absolutely hated it.
I considered breaking my agreement and trusting in fate and all that. But it wasn’t only me who was a spoke in this wheel. My mate was engaged. And he was human. He didn’t understand what he was feeling. Sure, he figured out the need to get naked,but that wasn’t the same thing. It was lust and attraction to him. Nothing more.
Or maybe it was something more. The look on his face when he told me he was engaged nearly broke me. Maybe he did grasp what was going on better than I thought. But fuck it all, neither of us was available. Gods, fate was cruel.
My phone rang and my first thought was that it was my mate, which only showed how much my brain didn’t work when he was on my mind. He didn’t have my phone number. And even if he did, he knew… we both knew that what happened between us was all there could be. He was freaking committed to another. And that was that.
Looking at the phone, I let out a long ass sigh. It was Roy, of all fucking people. I knew we were kin and all of that, but the guy was a grade A asshole. And really, him being related to me and treating me the way he did actually made him worse of a person. You’re supposed to treat your family better than you treat anyone, and he did the exact opposite. At least I hoped his attitude toward me wasn’t the best he had to offer this world. I liked to think that somewhere, deep down, he wasn’t a shit person.
I contemplated sending the call to voicemail, but after three rings, I opted to answer it instead. The last thing I needed was to have to call him back hanging over my head all day. It was best to just get it over with.
“What’s up brother?” I meant it in a nice way. He took it as an insult because, of course, he did.
“Don’t call me that,” he seethed. “And don’t think I don’t know what you’re trying to do.”
Now I was really confused. He called me, not the other way around.
“Please, tell me what I’m doing.” Because I sure as shit didn’t know.
“You’re trying to deflect me from why I was calling.” His wolf was close to the surface, the word “calling” sounding more feral than English. Whatever he had up his ass, it was wedged up there good. Lucky me, I was the one who had to deal with it.
