Chapter 3

Chapter Three

KIARA

If this job didn't pay so well, I'd be annoyed that I hadn't found the criminal yet. He was smart and knew to hide after skipping bail. I'd been tracking him for days before I ended up with this lead. The guy who ran this place was deep in the pockets of the Marino family. Or at least his son was. If anyone could lead me to Jasper Marino, it was this idiot.

I watched him leave, intent on following him, when someone got in my way. I was so focused on the owner's son, I almost ran into the guy. I jerked back on instinct, biting back a growl as my lioness protested someone in our space.

"Hey, can I help you find something?"

"No," I said as politely as I could muster. I wasn't sure if I'd have to come back to this place. It'd be better not to tip the workers off on what I was doing.

"You sure? This place can be kind of a maze and–"

I ducked past him, my quick stride eating up the distance as I tried to catch up to the owner's son. But when I stepped out of the little store, he was nowhere in sight. And I didn't know his scent well enough to be able to follow him.

"Shit."

Irritation boiled under my skin. Both for myself and for the idiot who intercepted me. I never lost focus enough for someone to sneak up on me like that. Unless it was his intention to distract me…

Spinning on my heel, I headed back into the store. My initial casing of the place provided me with minimal insight. One shop worker, lots of regular customers, and the owner. Or the son. There weren't any images of either that I could find online. The one who I was using to track Jasper looked pretty young, but I'd met people before who had baby faces and were a lot older than they looked. I didn't do assumptions. I stuck to cold hard facts.

The guy who had waylaid me was back by the register, his shoulders slumped and a dejected look on his face while his friend cackled at him. His head whipped up when I came back inside and he shoved his friend hard enough to knock him away when I walked up to the register.

"Uh, hey. Change your mind?"

The nametag on his shirt said ‘Cal'. I made a mental note to look into him later. I'd need more information to see if this guy was working for Jasper as well. He didn't look like any of Jasper's cronies, but looks could be deceiving.

"I'm looking for a present for my nephew." It was a simple enough request, but it'd be easy to tell if he was here as a guard or something. This place was full of dorky hobbies like card games and models. You'd need to have worked here for a while or actually enjoy this kind of thing to be able to give any decent information.

The man nodded, his smile eager. "Sure. What does he like?"

I wrinkled my nose. What little I knew about Leo, he didn't have any hobbies outside of reading. Being raised by the pride, he wasn't afforded the luxury of playing or exploring his interests.

"He likes books, I guess."

"Okay, sure. Does he like a certain kind or–"

I shot him an irritated look. Enough with the questions already. I didn't actually care. I just wanted to feel the guy out to see if he was at all involved with the Marino family. My instincts said he wasn't the type, but I wanted evidence to back that up.

His jaw snapped shut and his friend snickered again. After shooting him a quick dirty look, Cal blew out a breath and smiled at me again. "Okay, new tactic. How old is he?"

"Eight."

"I can work with that. This way." He led me through the store, past the models and towards the back. There were some shelves along one side that had books, but I hadn't given them more than a cursory glance when I was pretending to look around before. I wasn't actually interested in what the shop had to offer. It was just a front anyway. I thought at first using a hobby shop in the mall was a stupid idea for laundering money, but they got decent foot traffic. Not a lot of sales, but they could hide that pretty well by tossing products if they wanted to.

"So we've got a lot of fantasy books he might like, or action figures if he's into that. They're more for collecting than playing with, but some kids don't mind that kind of thing. Of course, if I was him, I'd want video games, but that's just me. It was hard to tear me away from my console at that age."

He continued his rambling, pulling out options to show me. The suspicion faded the longer I listened to him. There was no way a dork like him was working for or with Jasper. He was all chaotic energy and very little self awareness. He nearly knocked into a shelf walking backwards, and he smacked a few things down, waving his hands around while he talked. He didn't fit the criminal MO, either.

A few inches shorter than me, he was thin and pale. He had decent muscle tone, or at least his arms did, from what I could tell. The baggy t-shirt and jeans hid a lot. Jet black hair, messy and unstyled, flopped onto his forehead. Big glasses balanced on his nose. He was human all the way, probably of Korean descent, if I had to make a guess. No tattoos, no visible scars. His behavior was energetic, but not shifty, and he seemed eager and open. Not a hint of wariness on him. No way he could be a criminal. Criminals weren't cute.

I blinked a few times. Where the hell did that come from? This guy was not my type. My type was more big and burly, and in no way was I interested in someone so… innocent. My life was rough, and I wasn't about to spend some with someone who couldn't handle that. Besides, I didn't date humans. It was a rule of mine. Shifters were a secret from humans, and I didn't want to have to lie to someone the whole time I was with them. You couldn't just tell anyone and you had to be sure they'd keep the secret no matter what. Only mates were allowed to join the conversation. And I didn't have time to look for a mate.

I dismissed the idea of him being cute. It was probably just his energy. He was bouncy, like a puppy, and eager to please. Every time I dismissed an idea, he came up with another one, not in the least bit deterred by my lack of interest. Since I figured I could use him for information at the very least, I finally settled on a book that he said was one of his favorites. It wouldn't hurt to have something for Leo's birthday. I could mail it to him.

"Sure. Go with that."

He beamed at me, that grin making my stomach tighten a little. I shoved the feeling away immediately. I didn't have time for passing interests. Not with the job on the line.

"Awesome. Can I get you anything else?"

"Not right now. I've got somewhere to be."

"Sure, no problem. I'll ring you up right away," he said, walking backwards again as he led me back towards the front. He tripped over a stack of figures on the way there and would've toppled if I hadn't caught his arm.

"Maybe watch where you're walking."

He gave me a sheepish grin, bouncing back to his feet. "Yeah, I get that a lot. We don't get many–" He cut himself off with a cough. "Uh, new customers. We don't get many new customers. We have a lot of regulars, you know? Think you'll come back? We have gaming sessions a few days out of the week. Or at least, we did… Not sure the new owner will keep that going…" He muttered that last part to himself, his smile fading a little. For some reason, that bothered me, but I ignored it in favor of leading the conversation a little.

"New owner?"

"Ah, yeah. Arjun's son just came back early from college. He doesn't… get the hobby shop. He doesn't have a single hobby outside of heading for the race track. That, and meeting up with his friends. Can't really imagine any of them are the gaming types either. His dad opened the shop, and he was into models, so he got it to an extent at least."

Yeah, there was no way this guy was a criminal. If he was, he was the worst criminal on the planet. There was no way he'd be giving away this much information if he was working for them.

"Cal, I'm gonna check in with Everett. See you later?" his friend called from the entrance to the store.

Cal waved away his friend with a quick, "Sure, see ya," before giving his attention back to me. "You should come back, join a gaming session. You can bring your nephew. Let him look around."

I ignored that, handing him some cash for the book. "Will your new boss be there?"

He made a face at the idea. "No. He's not the type. Pretty sure only one or two of his friends have ever come by the shop and they spend the entire time in his office. That's probably why it looks like a tornado back there."

Well, that was worth following up on. If either of those friends happened to be Jasper, I might have a shot at finally catching this asshole. I'd just need to keep an eye on the shop. Which pleased my lioness for some reason. I'd need to have a very stern conversation with her and remind her that we weren't coming back for the human. No matter how cute he was.