Head held high, shoulders squared, he left the motel and headed for the shops he’d seen, hoping they’d be more willing to take a chance on a stranger than the people with the apartments had been.
Arlo
Taggart’s request to seek out the stranger was the best-case scenario as far as Arlo was concerned.
“We can try the hotel,” Arlo said. “Sounds like the rain has stopped, though there is no guarantee that he’ll still be there. He might have taken the car to get a new tire put on. The only thing in the trunk was a spare. I never understood the point of that. What happens if you have a blowout and no place to get a new tire for more miles than a spare is supposed to last? It’s not like they give you a backup spare. Why not just make a space that will fit a full-size tire?”
“Then there’d be less room in the trunk,” Taggart pointed out, snickering.
Cheeky brat.
“Either way, we’d better get moving,” Arlo declared, swatting Taggart’s rear when he got out of bed to get dressed.
His boy turned and stuck his tongue out before heading to find his clothes. Oh, he was gonna be fun to spend time with. For thefirst time in as long as he could remember, Arlo found himself looking forward to something other than the next fight.
Dressing quickly, they soon headed out the door and got into the SUV for the ride back into town. Still, he could feel the tension in his mate as they headed down the road, and he reached over, settling his hand on Taggart’s knee, giving it a squeeze.
“Remember what I said about fate,” Arlo told him. “They only give mates a third who fit them both. This is not an either-or situation, darlin’ you’re already wearing my mark. I claimed you knowing there was a possibility of a third, because you’re mine and you were right there in my arms. If he’s ours, we will claim him together, if and when he’s ready and willing to be claimed. No matter what, you and I will be returning to your place together tonight. We’ve got a lot of work to get started on, and I want my fill of you first.”
When he flicked his tongue out and licked his lips, Arlo knew he had Taggart’s attention. Slowly, his muscles relaxed beneath Arlo’s fingers, allowing him to return his hand to the wheel again. The song on the radio caught Taggart’s attention, and he turned it up a little and sang along, bobbing his head to the beat of the music.
When Arlo pulled up to the motel, he spotted the car still sitting where he’d watched the man park it, the spare still on the back tire. It was sitting in front of room number twelve. Arlo parked beside it and killed the engine.
“So, how is this going to work?” Taggart asked as Arlo got a dose of all of Taggart’s chaotic thoughts. “Are we just going to walk up to his door and say, hey, we think you’re our mate?”
“Unless you have a better idea, that is exactly what I was going to do,” Arlo admitted as he reached for the door handle, believing the direct approach worked best in most situations.
“Seriously?”
Arlo’s lips twitched at how disbelieving Taggart sounded. “Seriously.”
“Not even gonna ease into it?”
He chuckled at Taggart. “Nope.”
“Damn. Okay, I guess we’re doing this,” Taggart said as they both got out.
In hindsight, he probably could have knocked softer, but it was rare for him to check his strength with anything or anyone except the people he cared about. It reminded of the time he’d knocked to question a man only to have him vault naked over a second-floor balcony and shift mid-fall, hitting the ground on four paws only to catch an uppercut from Bash, who’d knocked the tiger on his ass before they’d taken him in for questioning. While just a brief show of force and a reminder not to mess with a member of their crash or anyone under the crash’s protection would have worked, their tag team efforts had left a lasting impression.
“What are you laughing about?” Taggart asked, studying his face as Arlo raised his fist to knock again, a little softer this time, but it still echoed like a bass drum when he pounded on the door.
“Remind me to tell you later,” he replied, listening out for any sounds inside.
“Oh, I will, and I just might keep my mouth to myself until you answer.” Taggart’s expression suggested he could be serious.
Arlo snorted and took a half step back to appraise him fully. “Oh, really?”
“Really.”
His brows arched, giving Arlo a look and a feeling that got him backtracking. “Well, if you must know, I was thinking about another time I went beating on someone’s door like this, only they were definitely not my mate, nor were they happy to have me show up out of the blue.”
“Do you make it a habit of dropping in on people unannounced?” Taggart’s head tilted to the side.
“From time to time, that’s what enforcers do,” he said, shrugging. “I don’t think he’s here.”
A woman two doors down poked her head out to see what the racket was all about.
“Unless he’s in the shower. Otherwise, no one is sleeping through that,” Taggart muttered, side-eyeing the woman.
