Page 124 of Their Knotty Pack
"And we always show up for family," Titus grunts.
Noah shrugs. "I'm being paid to be here." Then he glances at Bethany, who still has tears in her eyes. "Nice to see you, Bethany."
She nods once, sniffling as she burrows into my side and hides her face.
My poor girl.
"Benson," Noah nods to me, then gets straight to business. "Where are your security cameras?"
"Oh. Um, I haven't quite figured out how to work them, the system is really old…"
Noah rolls his eyes at me. "Just point me in the direction of your server room."
"Down the hall, last door on left. Here's the key."
I hand over the master key, and Noah disappears, Hunter looking after him with raised brows. Then, he shakes his head, turning his attention back to Bethany and me. "Have you touched anything?"
"I did check the filing cabinets in my office to make sure they didn't get in," I admit. "Sorry I was so focused on making sure the bastards didn't get their hands on any sensitive information that I didn't even think about contaminating the crime scene."
"It's fine," Hunter sighs, his gaze lingering on Bethany, "they've caused enough destruction that I'm sure if there were any prints on the cabinet, it wouldn't be the only place."
Ifthere were any prints. Because if this was Pack Hansen, and it probably was, they know what they're doing. They wouldn't leave prints anywhere.
"My guys are going to start taking statements, but…" His sentence trails off, but his eyes are still glued to Bethany, who is still buried in my side. He senses my staring, and I raise my brows and motion my head as if it say, "Well? What are you waiting for?"
He clears his throat, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallows. "Ah…bluebell?" Her face peeks out just enough to see his arms start to raise—
And she's out of my arms in less than two seconds, crawling up the detective like she's a koala and he's a tree, her legs wrapping around his waist and her face burying in his neck. His face blanks for a moment, like he wasn't expecting that strong of a reaction from her, but then he's wrapping his arms around her middle, holding her close as he presses a kiss to her temple.
He relaxes into her, and she starts sniffling again. "This was Pack Hansen."
"I know, bluebell."
"But we won't be able to prove it, will we?"
His shoulders slump in defeat. "Not unless they made a stupid mistake."
A throat clears next to us, and I realize that Matteo and Titus are still here, watching the interaction with mixed reactions.
Matteo looks like he might sigh at any second and ask,"Isn't love beautiful?", while Titus looks about two seconds from threatening bodily harm should he ever hurt her.
I'm guessing the only thing stopping him is the fact you aren't really supposed to threaten police officers.
"Do you have anywhere to move your operations to?" Matteo asks me suddenly, and I feel the blood drain from my face. I didn't even think about it.
"I—no, we don't. Shit—"
"That settles it then." Matteo nods once, pulling out his phone.
"Settles what?" Bethany turns her head, still resting on Hunter's shoulder, to look at him.
"NeoTek Tower currently has an empty floor. You can conduct business until we purchase you another building."
That's a great offer, but…
"I can't take you up on that." I shake my head, feeling my stomach sinking.
"Why-ever not?" He asks, the phone halfway to his ear.
