“I know, but… She’s my mate, Kemp. I have to be involved.”
“…” A deep sigh crackled through the line. When his friend spoke next, there was an audible note of exasperation in his tone, and Chase knew he’d gotten his way. “Fine, but you’re going to owe me. I’ll mess the paperwork to make it seem like your girlfriend was the one to hire me, then you should be able to get away with making the arrest, provided she’s telling the truth. Which she might not be, by the way.”
A flash of white-hot anger burned through him; his own or his animal’s, he couldn’t tell. Either way, he buried it. This wasn’t the time for animal instinct. Kemp was his friend, and he was only trying to look out for him, no matter how misguided the attempt. The thought of Hailey making up something like that was beyond ridiculous. He’d seen fear before, and he saw it when she spoke about her ex.
“She’s telling the truth,” Chase replied with conviction. “I can tell.”
Kemp grumbled underneath his breath. “You’re lucky I enjoy going after his type.”
“Sure,” Chase agreed easily. “Who doesn’t like getting paid for doing what they love?”
He heard some tapping on the keyboard. “It’s going to take me some time to get you what you need. Was there anything else?”
“You fix cars as well, don’t you?” Chase asked. He already knew the answer—he’d been handy with a wrench even when they’d still been in school, and he always had a project car in his garage for when he wasn’t on a case.
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, Hailey and I met when she got a flat tire right outside Santa’s Village…”
Kemp snorted. “Of course she did.”
“And burst a brake pipe.”
“Naturally.”
Chase rolled his eyes. “So, when do you think you’ll be able to make the repair?”
“Hmm, not sure. A couple of days, maybe, unless you want it sorted before I chase my connections?”
“No,” Chase shook his head. “The information is more important. I can tow her car over here in the morning.”
“She’ll be safer with you than on the road, at any rate. Does the ex know she’s with you?”
“He knows she’s not alone, but I doubt he knows who I am. Someone tried tailing me as I left Santa’s Village. At the time, I’d assumed it must have been a member of the Corbyn family, but now…”
Kemp grunted. “Make sure you’re careful picking the car up. Either one of them tailing you is bad news.”
Chase rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to tell me that, I know what I’m doing. I doubt it’ll come to that, though. Men who hit women are cowards at heart. I bet he’s the type to get his goons to do all his dirty work.”
“Yes, but that also means it’ll be one of his goons that’ll be guarding the car…”
“That’s a cheerful thought.”
“I aim to please. By the way, how’s your investigation going? If your mate crashed her car in front of Santa’s Village, that means you were working late again, right? And you ride me about working too hard.” He heard the amused snort carry down the line. “Are you going to try and do more undercover work while you’re there?”
“No,” Chase shook his head. “I don’t think there would be much point.”
“Is that what your reindeer is telling you?”
It was a good question. Chase’s reindeer, while not having the senses of an apex predator, did have the intuition that came from being prey. It was surprisingly useful in his line of work to have a built-in danger sense. He could sense trouble coming a mile away and intuitively understood what the enemy was planning.
“Yes. My reindeer senses that there’s not going to be another kidnapping. Not this year, at least.”
“Oh, is that so? Why does he think that is?”
Chase closed his eyes, thinking. This was why he and Kemp made such a good team. They understood each other so well; he was the perfect person to bounce ideas off.
“He thinks…their pattern is changing. It’s like they’ve been distracted by something…or maybe they switched targets. At any rate, their focus is on something else, something new.”
