Chapter nine

Cooper

"Sometimes I hate that we're the good guys," Martin murmurs to me as I fiddle with the door handle, doing my best to listen as I concentrate on weaving my lock pick into the correct notches. "I'd love to beat the shit out of this Stewart guy. Who blackmails a person in mourning? That's so fucked up."

"I know, but he'll get what's coming to him without you using your fists," I say back, smiling as the click of the lock fills my ears. Bingo.

Martin groans. "What's the point of having all these muscles if I can't use them?"

I look over at him, my brows furrowing behind my glasses. "I get to look at them," I tell him seriously, "and they've helped you in hunts. Plus, I really, really want to see if you can fuck me standing up someday."

Martin's eyes dart away, his lips curling ever so slightly into a smirk. "Fine. I guess I'll use them for that."

I take his hand in mind as we walk into the backdoor of Stewart's house. Everything is incredibly underwhelming if I'm honest. I'm not sure what I was expecting but everything is so ordinary. There's a coat hanging up next to the backdoor, shoes left below that.

Martin touches his ear piece. "He's still out?"

Carlos' voice comes back. "Yep. I still got eyes on him. You're all good."

"Let me know the moment you've found something and the police will be there shortly," Ronny's voice comes through the earpiece. My chest flutters, knowing our team is behind us on this.

Martin and I look at each other before spreading out, covering more ground as we search through Stewart's things.

The two of us have worked so many cases together at this point, but this one feels different. It's not just that we're doing this for our mate, making this case more personal than the others. It's more than that. We're in sync in a way we weren't before, like an invisible wall has vanished, letting us really see each other like never before.

I step into Stewart's bedroom, a shiver going down my spine. Being in his room makes bile rise up in my throat. Stewart is so fucking cruel for the shit he's been pulling and I can't help but wonder if Dorian is just the tip of the iceberg. Has he pulled this before?

I look through his dresser, through his bedside drawers, through his closet and come out empty. Other than wanting to take a shower from being around his things.

"Found something," Martin calls from somewhere in the house. I follow the sound of his voice, finding him in the living room. The couch has been moved and a floorboard moved.

"How did you think to look there?"

Martin shrugs. "There was a squeaky floorboard. I decided to follow my gut."

"See," I whisper with a soft smile. "So much more than just the muscles of the group." I get on my knees beside him, kissing his cheek before looking down.

There's a safe under the floorboard, its door pointing up in the air. I might be good at getting through door locks but safe locks are another thing entirely. Gods, I wish I had magic like my parents. It would make being a hunter so much easier at times like these.

I hum as I try to think of a way to break into this thing. I touch my ear piece. "You there, Ronny?"

"Yep, what's up?"

"I'm looking at a safe right now and need your help. Can you look online and see if there's an easy way to break in? Maybe a maintenance code or something?"

"Give me the model," Ronny says and I can already hear his fingers flying over his keyboard. I tell him the make and describe it for him so it's easier for him to find exactly what we need.

"This asshole isn't just a dick but he's bought the cheapest safe he could. The reviews on this thing are horrendous," Ronny murmurs as we work.

"I have an idea," Martin says, standing up and stepping out of the room. I follow Ronny's instructions, turning the dial this way and that, trying to get this thing to fucking yield to my will. No luck.

"What?" I barely get out as Martin enters the room, swinging a fucking sledgehammer. One solid hit to the safe has the door broken but open. I stare up at him with wide eyes. "Martin!"

Martin puts the sledgehammer on his shoulder, looking far too smug. "It would have been a shame not to use these muscles, Cooper."

My mouth opens and closes a few times before I finally blurt out, "holy shit that was hot."

"Guys! We can hear you! Please don't fuck on the job," Carlos says, his voice laced with humor.

My cheeks turn bright red and Martin's aren't much better. I clear my throat. "Sorry about that."

Martin walks off, no doubt to put the fucking sledgehammer away so I busy myself with getting the contents of the safe out. There's a few manila envelopes along with three urns. My stomach drops as I quickly realize what these are.

"You were right," I murmur when Martin comes back into the room. "He has more than just Dee."

"Fucking asshole," Martin hisses out, squatting down and taking one of the urns from me. "How do we know which of these are Dee's?"

I hold up the envelope, carefully opening it and reading over the words. They're official orders for cremation and it's not hard to find the one that Dorian signed. "She's in the black one."

"So we leave the others here for the cops to find?" I nod, trying my best to ignore the sadness that pulses through me, knowing there were others like Dorian, blackmailed into doing this asshole's bidding while he kept their loved one's remains hostage. I can't wait to see this guy get what's coming to him.

I'm not normally a violent person despite what I've decided to do with my life, but fuck, even I wanna punch this guy square in the fucking mouth.

I touch my ear piece. "We got what we need, Ronny. Put in the call."

"You got it, chief. Get out of there now."

"I've still got eyes on him," Carlos tells us, "he doesn't suspect a thing."

I lay the papers and the urns on the table, making it easy for them to find along with one of Martin's old pistols and a handwritten letter from Dorian, begging Stewart to stop blackmailing him. It'll be the nail in Stewart's coffin.

Now, putting away supernatural creatures would normally be difficult seeing as we need to keep the supernatural away from the human world. Thankfully, Ronny has a list of cops who are also supernatural. They are careful, making sure to have jails and cells that can contain supernatural creatures. It's a whole department that I had no idea about until about a year ago when we ran into a pack down south running a network of supernatural law. It's nice knowing we're not the only ones trying our best to keep humans safe.

"We're on our way out," I tell the guys before grabbing Martin's hand and leading him outside. As we step through the door, I feel my shoulders relax. We did it. We have Dee, we've saved our mate, and Stewart is no doubt going to spend a very, very long time locked away. We fucking did it.

"Holy shit," Martin breathes. He tucks the urn into his inside jacket pocket of his leather jacket, wrapping his arms around his middle, holding it safe and tight. His eyes dart to me, a small smile spreading across his lips. "Holy shit. He's free."

The giddiness so clear on his face spreads through me and I can't help but let out a broken laugh. "We did it!"

Martin steals a kiss and it's messy from the fact that we can't stop smiling. My chest feels like it might literally burst as we begin making our way back to the campgrounds, a pep in both of our steps. We've done it and now it's time to give Dee back to Dorian. I can't wait to see the look on his face when we get back and proved that weird feeling from this morning was from nothing.

"Okay, so before you freak out, Dorian is fine," Ronny says as he steps out of his camper, holding his hands up in surrender. My eyes dart around the camp, finding Zander outside with both of their kids. He looks sheepish as he nods.

"What does that even mean?" Martin asks, holding the urn just a little bit tighter.

"He kept saying he was feeling restless. Zander realized what was going on before anyone else. I just wanna reiterate that he's fine, but I did book you guys a hotel room with a very large tub."

I look at Zander, tilting my head. "What did you figure out?"

"Oh, umm, just that he was going into heat."

"What?" Martin and I say in perfect unison. My heart speeds up and my cheeks flush. I take a steadying breath before adjusting my glasses on my nose. "Right. Okay. That's. That's something that we should probably go help him with?"

Zander chuckles, shaking his head in amusement. "Go. He mentioned that he wanted you both to go find him when you got back. Go help your mate."

No one has to tell us twice. Hand in hand, Martin and I make our way to the hotel Ronny booked for us. Nerves nip at my belly the closer we get. What will helping someone with their heat be like? I might have been raised by a couple of sparks but they didn't have anything like heats and ruts. I have no idea what to expect other than what I've read about.

But I trust Lady Fate. She wouldn't have destined the three of us together if we couldn't help Dorian with this. We already helped him with his life's biggest hurdle and now it's time to deal with this as well.

I squeeze Martin's hand and he gives me a soft smile back. We can do this because we'll be doing it all together.