Page 34 of Bearnapped at the Altar

“Let’s do a sweep before we move on. Check for anything that looks unusual,” Barrett suggested.

I slid into the chair behind the desk and went for the first drawer. Locked.

Barrett put one of his big hands on the desk, and with the other, he pulled the drawer free. He looked at me with fire in those dark eyes before he repeated the motion. He nodded to me and then joined Bellamy, who was turning over every trinket, trophy, and award in the place.

Bellamy was thorough, and I had to respect that. Maybe the grouchy bear wasn’t so bad after all.

There were some files in the drawer, but not many. Not like many things were kept on paper anymore. I flipped through, but most of these things were just permits, contracts…which might come in handy. I grabbed that group of folders. But they weren’t the plans that I’d seen on the desk, the ones that had made Gideon nervous enough to fire me.

Nothing else of interest in the files.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. It was only a matter of seconds before security came and hauled my ass out of there for a second time.

My two-man wrecking crew didn’t seem to be having any better luck. They’d hardly slowed down to take a second look at anything.

Think, Tegan. Where would he put the blueprint for the resort that you’d seen? The step-by-step instructions to destroy a pack? Think like Gideon, with his weird alliances and even more sinister ambitions.

That was when I spotted the photo on his desk. Was that…

Sweet mother of the moon, there was a framed picture of him and me. I almost didn’t recognize myself—not only because I had purple hair at the time, but because I looked so happy. It was the two of us on one of our very first tours, with a pack of shifted mountain lions.

Just before Gideon’s recklessness got one of them seriously injured.

Why would he have kept this picture, much less framed it and put it on his desk? It had been years since I’d seen this photo. With trembling hands, I pulled the back off the frame.

A thick wad of papers with drawn plans fell out.

“Guys. I found it.” I slipped the folded papers into my sports bra. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

Barrett’s face lit up, and his smile warmed my body. “I knew you could do it.”

He believed in me when no one else had. Hell, I didn’t even think we could pull this off. And we did it. We fucking did it.

“Not so fast.” Gideon Silverclaw stood in the doorway of his office, in one of his impeccable, overpriced, faux safari outfits, with his arms crossed over his chest. His hair was slicked back like he’d just come out of the hair and makeup trailer. His boys, Larrie from the Moonlight Mates—and of course, Josephine—flanked him. “I believe you owe me a few things, Tegan.”

Chapter

Sixteen

Barrett

Tegan steeled herself, those amber eyes full of fury, like they could ignite and burn this entire operation to the ground. “What could I possibly owe you?”

“Your hand in marriage, for starters.” Gideon stepped toward her, and my bear let loose with a growl that shook the foundation of this building. His gaze snapped to me. “If it isn’t the bear who thinks he can stop that from happening.”

“You should be thanking him for saving you from the public humiliation of me telling you to go fuck yourself in front of the entire world. Your plan was never gonna work, Gideon. It was always going to come to this. I just hoped we could do it in a more civilized fashion.”

Gideon scoffed. “What does a white trash, good for nothing?—”

“Don’t you say another word.” My hand was on his throat, and I had him backed against the wall.

“You’ll pay for this.”

“No.” I tightened my grip, rattling the wall. “It’s about time you start paying back the packs you destroyed. The clans you ripped apart.”

The bastard managed to grin. “Like yours?”

“Did you get that on camera?” Tegan poked the show host. “He finally admitted what he’s done.”

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