Chapter 5

Ryan managed to catch Gabe before he got too far from Cynful Tattoos. He needed to catch the sheriff before he climbed into his patrol car. “Hey, I wanted to talk to you.”

Gabe stopped at the door of his car and eyed him for a moment before sighing. “You want to help in the hunt.”

Ryan nodded. “Wouldn’t you, if it was your mate’s sister who was missing?”

“Fuck yeah.” Gabe jerked his head toward Frank’s Diner. “Let’s grab some coffee and chat.”

“Thanks, Gabe.” Ryan would have tried to go it alone, but he had Glory to think about now. He couldn’t allow her to think that he’d left even for a second, not until she got it through her head that Ryan would rather cut off important body parts than leave her.

The two men entered the diner, and Ryan grimaced. The new waitress was a perky brunette with a big smile and bigger tits, but he much preferred the one who’d been forced by circumstances beyond her control to quit. His baby sister, Chloe, had loved working here and at the veterinarian’s clinic where she hoped to someday become a vet. Those dreams, like this job, were gone now, lost to a brutal beating that had nearly killed her and left her with problem hands and a speech impediment. Chloe had only survived thanks to the intervention of Bunny and Julian, something Ryan would never forget.

The waitress seated them far enough away from the rest of the diners that Gabe and Ryan could enjoy a private discussion. Gabe must use this place often for quiet chats. It was the place he’d first questioned Bunny when they’d arrived in Halle, and was one of the most popular eateries in the town.

They ordered coffee, and waited until the waitress was out of earshot. “All right.” Gabe folded his hands on the table. “Talk to me.”

“I want to be involved in the hunt for Hope.” “You think Glory is in danger?”

“If we poke the hornet’s nest, something might come out to sting her.” Ryan wasn’t going to let his mate hurt.

“Agreed, but—”

Ryan held up his hand. “You’re in charge. I’m not stupid. I’m not a law enforcement officer or a Hunter, so I’m leaving it up to you.”

“But you could be.”

Ryan’s brows rose. “I’m no Hunter.”

“Your instincts are good. You could be in law enforcement.” Ryan started to laugh. “I’m an accountant.”

“Yet you managed to track that rogue Alpha all on your own.”

Ryan’s laughter cut off, his eyes shifting to his Bear’s. Whenever he thought about what that son of a bitch ex-Alpha had done to his mate he wanted to rip him to shreds all over again. “I wasn’t tracking him because he was Tabby’s stalker.”

“I know.” Gabe’s voice hardened. “That doesn’t mean you won’t be an asset on this case.”

Ryan’s eyes returned to their normal human blue, his Bear backing down instantly. Ryan’s Bear was calmed by the anger in Gabe’s voice. Gabe had been just as outraged over the pain Glory suffered as Ryan had been, and the knowledge that a Hunter agreed with him soothed his beast.

Hunters were a group of men and women sanctioned by the shifter Senate to hunt rogue shifters down. Rogues threatened the fabric of shifter society, either by almost outing their existence to the humans around them or by going after other shifters. The man who’d hurt his mate had been rogue, hurting the people around Tabby in order to hurt her. More often than not, a Hunter would be forced to kill the rogue in question. If the ex-Alpha hadn’t been rogue, Ryan would have been labeled a rogue himself for killing him. Instead, the Hunter had approved the kill, and had made sure the Senate had no room for complaint.

“Glory’s also been getting presents left on her doorstep.” Gabe’s brows rose. “Oh, really?”

“I didn’t scent anything around, but we know some shifters are good at masking their scents.”

“A Fox?”

“Or another shifter who’s learned how to hunt.” Gabe snarled. “A rogue Hunter.”

This time it was Ryan who was shocked. “Your Hunter instincts are going off.”

Gabe nodded. “Which is one of the reasons why I’m not fighting you on this. Something isn’t right. There have been too many attacks on the girls, and the whole Gary thing still isn’t completely resolved.”

“Still?” Tabby’s stalker had almost raped her in the woods. Twice. He was lucky to still be alive. Hell, if it had been Ryan, he wouldn’t be. But the Alpha had ordered Bunny to stand down, to allow the shifter Senate to dispense justice to Gary. “He still hasn’t told you who his Alpha is?”

“No. He’s kept his mouth shut and his head down. He’ll do time for what he tried to do to Tabby, but that’s it.”

“Shit.”

“Add in Hope’s disappearance and the presents on Glory’s doorstep and I’m worried.”

Ryan’s skin crawled. “You think Hope was attacked by a shifter?” “Yes.”

Ryan took a deep, calming breath. His Grizzly was pacing under his skin, restless to confront the danger to his mate and eliminate it. “Talk to me, Gabe. Tell me what you’re thinking.”

Gabe waited until the waitress finished pouring their coffee, ordering one of the breakfast specials when she was done. Ryan, not one to pass up a meal, also ordered. “I don’t have any concrete evidence, but my Hunter senses are tingling. Gary still hasn’t told us who he was working for, and his friends aren’t talking either. Then there was the attack on Cyn, where Tabby scented an unknown cat who wasn’t a Puma. I’ve also heard rumors that there’s a group of shifters that are attacking cross-breeds like your sister.”

“How does this tie in to Hope’s disappearance? The Walsh family knew nothing of shifters before Tabby appeared on the scene.” And how was Chloe involved in all of this? She’d been jumped back before Bunny claimed Tabby and almost died from her wounds.

“I know. So I have to wonder. Does this tie in to Tabby or Glory?”

Ryan didn’t understand. “Tabby was kicked out of her Pack when she was fifteen.”

“And Hope disappeared when she was sixteen.”

“You think Tabby’s old Alpha was somehow involved? Could her attacker have been a member of his Pack?”

“I…” Gabe growled. “I just don’t know. I don’t have enough to go on. Something just isn’t right about all of this, and I can’t figure it out, damn it.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m thinking of calling in back-up.”

“Who?” Hunters didn’t work a territory alone. There had to be at least two other Hunters in the area, but Ryan had no clue who they might be.

“James Barnwell, aka Barney. The man who trained me. He’s a pain in the ass and nearly lost me my mate, but he’s the best Hunter I know. Maybe he can help me figure this shit out.”

“Anything that helps keep my mate safe is fine by me.”

“I’d rather we did this on our own. If I call in Barney he’ll try and take over. He won’t think twice about separating you from Glory if he thinks it will protect her.”

“That will never happen. Glory has issues with abandonment. If I walk away, even for her own good, I’ll lose her forever. I won’t let that happen.”

Gabe grinned. “Good. Fight him on that. I should have, and I’ll regret that I didn’t for the rest of my life.”

Their breakfasts arrived, and both men were quiet as they dug into their meal. After a few moments of nothing but shoveling food into their faces, Ryan broke the silence. “What do you need me to do?”

“For now, do what you’ve been doing. Stay as close as you can to Glory and, if possible, claim her as quickly as you can. Being a Grizzly, she’ll be better able to protect herself if my instincts are right and this is a rogue shifter.”

Pfft. Like Ryan needed to be told to stick close to his mate. “I planned on doing that anyway.”

“I’m going to dig into the case a bit more. The notes the cop took on the case are sketchy at best. I need to have a long talk with him, see if he noticed anything odd when he was questioning Pastor Walsh.”

“We should try and find Pastor Walsh as well. Maybe get a hold of Glory’s siblings, Temp and Faith. Maybe they know something.”

“Good idea. I’ll also need the presents that were left for Glory. Maybe there will be a scent or a clue we can follow up on.”

“I’ll talk to her, have her send them to you.”

“The fewer people who touch them the better. Maybe I can have Sarah take a look at them as well, see if she can sense anything. If the presents are innocent, like Alex believes, then that will be one worry off our shoulders.”

Ryan relaxed. Sarah’s powers were scary-strong. If there was any evil intention behind the presents, the Halle Puma Omega would sense it. “Thanks, Gabe. You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”

“Anything to keep our mates safe.”

“Agreed.” And the two men finished their breakfast in perfect accord.

The day after her meeting with Gabe, Glory opened her front door to find another gift lying on her doorstep. But this one was different from the others.

This one scared her to death.

Glory bent down and picked up the single dead rose, careful of the vicious thorns still on the stem. The note tied around it was written on yellowed paper. Only one word was written on the note.

Whore.

Glory shuddered, glancing around involuntarily. What if he was watching her right now? Whoever he was, he must have seen her going on her date with Ryan. Why else would he have written that kind of note?

Glory carried the rose inside and put it in a box with the rest of the gifts. She was heading to the police station to see Gabe. Maybe the sheriff could find something useful on the—

Glory jumped as the doorbell rang. Her heart pounding, she tiptoed to the front door and peeked out the peephole.

Ryan. Oh, thank God.

She opened the front door and threw herself into his arms. “Ryan.”

He hugged her tightly, the feel of him easing her fears. She wasn’t alone, and that knowledge filled her with the strength to pull away from him.

Worry was clearly etched on his face. “What happened?” “I got another present.”

Worry turned to fury. “Let me see.” He nudged her into the apartment and shut the door, still holding her tightly against him. Together, they walked to where she’d gathered the gifts together.

“There.” She showed him the note and the dead rose, but he didn’t touch them.

Brown seeped into the midnight blue of his eyes. “Let’s go see Gabe.”

She wasn’t fooled by his calm tone. Ryan was pissed. He still hadn’t let go of her, and if she was honest with herself, having him so close made her

feel much safer. “Good idea.”

Ryan picked up the box and, his arm still around her, led her out to his motorcycle. She carefully placed the box in the motorcycle’s tail box and pulled on the helmet Ryan handed her. He’d bought it especially for her. The custom black helmet was decorated with a yin-yang symbol done in dark and powder blue, the exact color of Ryan and Glory’s eyes. Ryan’s helmet was plain black, but both helmets had built-in communicators that allowed them to speak to one another even while roaring down the highway.

Ryan didn’t waste any time in getting them to the police station. Glory’s legs were shaking by the time he parked, her nerves over the gifts and Ryan’s admittedly justified anger making her want to puke. She gathered the box out of the tail box with trembling hands.

Before she could start toward the station Ryan’s arm was around her waist, steadying her. “It’s all right,” he cooed in her ear. “I’m here.”

She blew out a deep breath, trying to control her jitters. She had nothing to fear here, not while Ryan watched over her. Especially not with Gabe right in the building. “Okay.”

Ryan guided her into the building, careful not to touch the box she cradled close to her chest. He led her over to the front desk, calmly asked for Sheriff Anderson, and the two of them were led right back to Gabe’s office.

Gabe greeted them both with a smile and some coffee. He closed his office door and gestured toward two seats in front of his utilitarian metal desk. “Those the gifts Ryan told me about?”

Glory nodded and placed the box on Gabe’s desk. “I got another one this morning.” She held up the dead rose and the note.

“Shit.” Gabe leaned close, closing his eyes and sniffing deeply. “I can smell…something, but it’s so faint I can’t tell what it is. It’s not you or Ryan.” He picked through the rest of the box, sniffing each note, each gift. “That scent is on all of them.”

“So you have it.” Ryan’s hands were clenched. “You can hunt that scent.” “If I smell it, I’ll know it’s our stalker.” Gabe held up the note with the

word Whore on it. “And this alone tells me that’s what we’re dealing with.” “Any idea whether or not it really is a shifter?”

Gabe took another deep whiff. “I think so, but it’s so faint that I can’t tell what kind.” His gaze was somber. “I don’t want to scare you, but something

about this is making my Spidey senses tingle. I want Ryan to stay with you until this is over.”

The satisfaction that radiated off of Ryan was off the charts. “I can live with that.”

Glory wasn’t so sure, but she understood the safety concerns. “Ryan still has to work.”

“And so do you. Talk to Cyn. Tell her you need to work when Ryan is, and that you need to be off when he is, at least until we catch this guy. I’m pretty sure she’ll understand.”

Of course Cyn would understand, but the scared rabbit that lived in Glory’s heart didn’t. If she lived with Ryan, she was that much closer to getting that bunny ripped out and eaten. “Any news on Hope?”

Gabe pushed a file folder across his desk. “I’ve talked to the officer who took your father’s statement. While he filed a missing person’s report, because Hope was sixteen he’d felt she’d left voluntarily. He did examine the route your sister tended to take and found no signs of a struggle, no witnesses who said she was kidnapped. So for better or worse, he marked her as a runaway.”

“My sister hated our life but she wouldn’t have left us behind.” They’d had plans, damn it. “We were going to go to college together, maybe try and get Faith out from under my dad’s thumb before he hurt her too badly.”

“Did anyone else know of your plans?”

“Only Temp. If we didn’t get out, he was going to take Faith and run. But with Hope’s disappearance our father clamped down on us. We couldn’t breathe without him knowing.” Still, she prayed once they left that Temp had found the means to get Faith away from their father. Faith deserved so much more than Hope and Glory had found. She’d been sweet and innocent the last time Glory saw her, and she prayed that hadn’t changed.

“Any scents would be long gone. We have no witnesses, no physical evidence, just a missing girl and, years later, a stalker.” Gabe’s eyes widened. “Were you and Hope identical twins?”

“Yes, why?” Glory jerked. “You think he’s after me because of Hope.

But that makes no sense. Hope disappeared years ago.” “It’s possible he stalked her first.”

“Hope never said anything about feeling uneasy or someone following her.” The shakes were back, hardcore. Some sick asshole who might have hurt her sister might now be after her.

Ryan took hold of her hand. “If it was a shifter stalking her she never would have noticed him.”

“Or her. God knows we’ve had our share of crazy females in this town.” Gabe tapped his pen against the file folder, his expression pensive. “I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that if it’s the person who took Hope, he’s only targeted you now because he’s lost her somehow.”

Chills ran down Glory’s spine. “You’re saying she may have been alive and held by a maniac all this time?”

The look on Gabe’s face said it all. “And if he’s come after you…” “Hope is dead.” Glory scowled and hoped that for once someone would

believe her. No one else except Cyn ever had. Most had told her that, at best, it was wishful thinking, and, at worst, she was trying to hurt her parents. “See, that was always something that bothered me. You know twins have a bond, right?” Gabe nodded and Ryan squeezed her hand. “I’ve always believed Hope was alive. It was one of the reasons my father beat me so hard.” Ryan’s snarl interrupted her, and this time she was the one to squeeze his hand, comforting him. “I never once sensed she was dead.”

“And now? Do you sense anything at all?”

Glory shook her head, relieved. She should have known Gabe would believe her, considering his mate’s special abilities. “I still don’t think she’s dead. It’s…strange. At one time I would have said she was alive and well. Now, the bond is weak but it’s still there. Maybe she’s in a hospital or in a coma or something?”

“If she is, we’ll find her.” Ryan kissed her cheek. “Do you have a picture of her when she was younger? If we send it to local hospitals we might find something.”

Glory smiled at Ryan, her heart pounding. She hadn’t been this happy since Tabby met Bunny. “You believe me?”

“Of course.” He sounded almost insulted.

Glory kissed his cheek, the faint hint of whiskers tickling her lips. “Thank you, Ryan.”

He lifted her hand and kissed it. “Nothing to thank me for. You’re my mate.”

She was slowly starting to understand what that meant. For the first time in a very long time, Glory felt like someone had her back.

The fact that her someone was a Grizzly who’d proven he was willing to kill for her only made her feel safer.

Glory blew out a breath. “My father kicked me out with the clothes on my back and the money in my wallet. I had nothing when I moved in with Cyn and her mother, not even a photo of my family.” She bit her lip. “But I can find a wig in my natural hair color. If I do that, we can take a picture of me and put it out there. I haven’t changed that much.”

“Why not Photoshop your hair blonde?”

Glory rolled her eyes at him. “Do you have the program? It’s expensive, and unless you know what you’re doing with it you wind up with something crappy.”

“Our police artist still sketches on paper so we haven’t bothered to invest in it. But doing a picture is a good idea. It should show how Hope has aged, unless…” Gabe grimaced.

“Unless something horrific happened and disfigured her.” Ryan tugged Glory close. “I want to find this fucker and end him before he hurts Glory.” “He’s a shifter. You’d be within shifter law to kill him if he threatens

your mate. But let me try to find him first. This might not be the first time he’s done this.” Gabe leaned back in his chair, the squeak startling her. “I’ve put in a call to Barney. He should be joining us within the week.”

Next to her Ryan relaxed. Even the brown left his eyes. “You trust him?”

Gabe nodded. “He’s an asshole, but he’s an effective one. With his help we’ll have this wrapped up in no time.” Gabe grinned. “I should warn you, though. Barney is…unusual.”

“How so?”

“I’ll let you figure it out when you meet him.” Gabe stood and held out his hand. “If you two think of anything else, give me a call. And Glory, once you have that photo, email it to me. I’ll get it out as quickly as I can.”

“Thanks, Gabe.” Instead of shaking his hand she moved around his desk to give him a hug. Surprisingly, her aggressive Bear didn’t growl. “Tell Sarah I said hi.”

“I will.” Gabe hugged her back. “She says she’s thinking of getting a tattoo.”

“I can have Heather draw her up something. That girl has mad skills.” “I think she’d like that.”

Gabe let her go, and Ryan nudged her aside so he could do his own bro- hug with Gabe. “Thanks, man.”

“You’re welcome.” Gabe pointed toward the door. “Now, go get me that picture while I prepare for Barney’s arrival.”

Ryan put his arm around her waist. “I’ll take her to work and talk to Cyn and the others. Hell, I’ll call in the whole fucking clan for this. Glory will never be alone if we can help it.”

“And your crazy family might just keep her stalker from winning.”

Glory groaned. It looked like the Bunsun-Williams clan would be converging on her en masse.

And secretly, part of her loved the thought. Ryan’s family was a blast. An annoying, poking-in-your-life, loud-and-proud blast. And some of the few people who didn’t make Glory feel like a freak of nature.

But instead of letting Ryan know that she actually adored his family, she sniffed. “I guess if we have to.”

Ryan hugged her tighter to his side. “We have to.” Glory sighed. It was going to be a fun couple of weeks.