Page 28 of Bearnapped at the Altar

“Hacking.”

“It’s not his only skill.” Some of the things he did were on the gray side of legal. But Tegan didn’t need to know that. I was the lawful one who balanced things out. “He’ll also work on accessing the Wild Associates sites. If he can’t get in there, we might have to pay the offices a visit and get that evidence that you saw, the good stuff that has Gideon shitting his pants over you, in hand.”

Chapter

Thirteen

Tegan

“You want to break into the offices?” He’d mentioned it before, but I never thought we’d actually do it. I should’ve known by now this bear would stop at nothing to get the job done.

Barrett shrugged. He looked so sexy lying on the bed, shirtless, with his hands behind his head. “Think of it as hacking.”

“There’s no way we can pull this off. There are people there all the time. Security. I found out the hard way. There’s no telling what they’ll do if they catch us.” My heart was pounding. Barret’s suggestion was risky, best case scenario. Worst case, deadly.

But we had to do something. Gideon would keep wiping digital evidence clean. And there was no guarantee that they weren’t watching us.

I trusted Barrett. I’d hired him out of pure desperation, but this man that made me feel safe. Like he actually cared.

“If we pull it off, it doesn’t matter what we do. We’ll have the evidence we need to shut down his operation and make sure no more packs lose their land. Which is exactly what you told me your goal was.”

I nodded while I mulled the scenario over in my head. “It’s dangerous. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Barrett rolled onto his side and propped his head up with his hand. His hair was mussed from almost sex, and that was when I noticed the scar on his chest. It looked like a claw mark that started on his pec, so close to his heart, and moved in the direction of his belly button. “Getting you away from that wedding was dangerous. Cameras everywhere. Gideon’s whole crew in attendance.”

“How did you come up with that plan?”

“Instinct,” he said without hesitation. “I was hoping I’d be able to get you alone before the ceremony, but I was too late. And when I saw you…”

“What happened when you saw me?” He’d come into the tent, like he was lost, all dressed up and adorable, but he’d disappeared quickly when Larrie and some of the crew had entered.

“I knew right away you weren’t going to be any other client.”

Which was exactly why I was worried about this new mission. He’d risked his life to save me once, and I didn’t doubt his ability to do his job. I’d like to say I wouldn’t have called him if I did, but he was my only way out, and at the time, he’d only been a name on a business card. He was so much more than that to me now. “Gideon will be expecting you this time.”

“Then we’ll have to do something he doesn’t expect.”

“Like what?”

Barrett crawled to the head of the bead. He was rumbling, like he seemed to any time he got close to me. I wondered what he looked like in his bear form. He was stronger than a human man, and his sexual prowess? Off the charts. Not that we had a chance to finish, but my first time with a shifter was more than I imagined.

His face was so close to mine. “Don’t you ever trust your instincts?”

“Is that how you run your company? Purely on instinct?”

Darkness flashed in his eyes, and before I had a chance to apologize for yet another faux pas, he said, “No, but plans fail, no matter how well-crafted they are. The job still needs to get done. That’s when I listen to my bear. He knows things I don’t. He’s thinking two steps ahead. Reading the situation in a way I wouldn’t be able to if I was just human. He hasn’t failed me yet.”

Our lips met in a kiss. “I don’t want to be the one to break his streak.”

Barrett drew away from me, and the rumble stopped. “Is there anything you haven’t told me about Gideon? Because if we do this, I need to know absolutely everything.”

I swallowed hard. “There was a pack we worked with a lot. In Washington state. Gideon made an offer for the land. The alpha refused. It wasn’t the first time, and usually, that meant we packed up and worked with another group. It was easy enough to get new customers—we posted online at travel sites, and tourists weren’t looking for much info past what worked for their vacation. But this time, we stayed.”

Barrett raised a brow. “Did he make another offer?”

“Not right away. He started pulling his shenanigans, as we called it in the office. He’d have actors go in and start fights with the local pack during the tour to make things more exciting. But this alpha had never signed off on that, and he wanted us gone. We kept coming, and the fights were real. The last time, Gideon shifted and took on that alpha. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you who won.”

“He was a strong alpha. It was a shock when he passed,” Barrett said, shaking his head.

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