Page 40 of Brandon’s Mate

“So you won’t do it?” He could hear the disappointment in her voice. “What are you fighting them for, then?”

“Justice,” he said simply. “Or revenge. Call it what you want. Somebody in this town—several somebodies—killed my friend Nick. If you help me find out who, I’ll make sure you get your bar back—and that you never have to worry about Caleb or the panthers again. What do you say?”

She was frowning. “It wasn’t Caleb that killed him,” she said. “Or any of the crows.”

That jibed with what Brandon had found out so far. “How do you know?”

“They didn’t know he was dead—not until one of the guys you beat up last week told Caleb what you said to them. They thought he left town.”

“So it was the panthers?”

She looked troubled. “It must have been. I mean, the chance of it being someone unrelated to the crows or the panthers seems kind of unlikely.”

“Yeah,” Brandon said slowly. It seemed like whatever threat Nick had posed to the panthers, they didn’t want the crows to find out about it.

“So it was that lieutenant who ordered the hit, you think?”

She shook her head. “Not on his own. There’s someone else calling the shots.”

“Do you think you can find out who?”

“I want my bar back,” she said flatly. “That place is mine. I’ve got nothing else. So yeah, panther boy. I’ll find out who killed your friend.”

She handed him a slip of paper. “This is a cloud email account. Caleb doesn’t know about it. If you need to send me a message, send it here.”

“I’ll use it to send you secure contact info for me.”

She nodded, then turned and started to walk away. He called after her, “Hey. How come you suddenly decided to go after these guys?”

She stopped, then turned back. “I met your girlfriend today. Caleb tried to mess with her, and she beat him to the ground.”

She shook her head. “He had me so scared, it was like he filled up my entire life and I couldn’t see past him. But all of the sudden, he was just an asshole man with a mean streak as wide as the Mississippi and no conscience—but one that could be beaten. Maybe I can’t beat him her way, but I can beat him my way.”

And she walked out of the pool of light and into the shadows.

He called softly after her, “Be careful, Callie the lynx.”

Chapter 15

Brandon went back to his truck and headed out to meet Kitty. He was getting a bad feeling about her.

The problem was, he didn’t know if it was because she was in trouble, or because he was so fucking wound up about seeing her again.

That kiss had brought everything back—all the things he’d tried so hard not to think about.

All the feelings he’d tried so hard not to feel.

For a few minutes he let himself have the fantasy—Kitty at his side, the McCall twins at his back. Taking down Nick’s killers as a team.

But a team needed a leader, and Brandon as leader was a cluster fuck waiting to happen.

By the time he got to the inn, that bad feeling had knotted up his gut until his panther was snarling softly. And when he saw the flashing lights and the fire truck outside, it just got worse.

He stopped with a squeal of brakes and strode up to the small crowd of people outside the inn. “What’s happening? Is everything okay?”

A guy in a business suit turned around, shaking his head. “False alarm. Some biker gang from over by Farville came in trying to make trouble, and I guess one of them pulled the alarm. Jerks.”

The bottom dropped out of Brandon’s stomach. “Biker gang? The Talons?”