Chapter 25

Chapte r 25

Rose

Four days later, Ava comes into my room. "All right. What is wrong with you? And I'm not taking your flimsy excuse that you're just tired."

I drop into a chair. We just came from healing a shifter, and I'm exhausted. "I told you I'm not sleeping at night." That part is true; I'm absolutely not.

"Why?" Ava demands.

"I just can't sleep." My excuse sounds lame even to my own ears.

"Nope. I've heard that excuse every day this week. I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on." Her arms are crossed, and I know she absolutely will not leave until I tell her. She is so stubborn at times. I sigh and drop my face into my hands.

"I think Maverick is with another woman."

She pulls my hands from my face. "I couldn't hear you. What?" I stare at her as all the anxiety and stress of this week catches up to me. I feel my eyes start to water, and blink furiously to keep the tears at bay. Her face softens. "What is it, Rose? You can tell me."

"I think Maverick is seeing another woman," I say miserably.

She frowns. "Why would you think that?"

I sigh again. "I've watched him return here almost every single night at three in the morning."

Her frown deepens. "That doesn't necessarily mean anything."

"He has a bag with him each time."

"Oh."

I groan. "Yeah."

"You don't know for sure," she says.

I snort. "How much more do we need to know? I mean what else do you do that late at night that requires sneaking in after everyone's in bed?"

Ava frowns. "I don't think Maverick's the kind of guy to sneak around. I feel like he would just take a woman to bed if he wanted to."

"Thanks for that image," I say dryly.

"I'm serious," she says and stands to her feet. "Why don't you just ask him?"

My eyes widen. "Ask him?"

"Yeah."

I laugh humorlessly. "How do you suppose I go about doing that, huh? Hey, I saw you come in late and was wondering where you were? And while we're at it, how's your sex life?"

Ava rolls her eyes. "That's not how you should do it."

I cover my face with my hands again. "I'm not doing it at all."

"Fine. I'll ask him."

"No!" I say before she's even gotten the words out. "Promise me, Ava. Promise me you will not talk to him about this, not about this."

She rolls her eyes. "Fine. I won't talk to him, but I think you should."

"I can't," I moan.

She's quiet a minute. "What time did you say he gets back?"

"Like three in the morning."

"When does he leave?" she asks. I look at her sheepishly because I know that time too. "Based on that look, I'm not even going to ask you how you found that out. What time?"

"About ten," I tell her.

"Okay. We'll leave at ten."

I blink. "What?"

"We'll leave at ten," she repeats.

"To do what?"

She gives me an exasperated look. "To follow him."

"Why would we do that?"

"Rose, seriously. If you want to know where he's going, who he's with, then we need to follow him."

"We can't do that."

"Why not?"

"They have security."

Ava rolls her eyes. "We're not prisoners here, Rose. We can come and go. We'll just tell the guard on duty that we're going out clubbing."

"Clubbing?" I repeat dumbly.

"Would you rather we tell them the truth? That we're following Maverick?"

"No," I say quickly.

"Okay. We'll leave before ten so we can be waiting for him and then follow him wherever he goes."

"How are we going to follow him without him knowing?"

"You leave that to me," she says, patting my leg.

I give her a wary look. "I take it you've done this before."

She gives me a rare grin. "I used to follow my younger brother to make sure he stayed out of trouble." I don't say anything because that's the first time she's ever given me any information about her past. As if she catches herself, she stands to her feet. "Be ready at nine-thirty."

"What do we wear?" I ask.

She thinks about that for a moment. "I guess black. If we're going to be sneaking into someone's house or onto their property, we're going to need to wear black."

"We're going to sneak into someone's house?" I ask, eyes wide. I'm suddenly rethinking this whole thing. "I don't think this is a good—"

"Do you want to know if Maverick is cheating on you or not?"

"It's not cheating if we're not together," I mutter. She gives me a look. "Okay. Fine. Yes."

"Nine-thirty. Wear all black."

"And a ski mask?" I throw out sarcastically.

She gives me an unimpressed look. "Make sure your phone is charged, and maybe take a nap so you're not..." she motions up and down. "Like that." She leaves, and I wonder just what I've gotten myself into.

____________

At nine-thirty on the dot, Ava knocks on my door. I open it and stare at her. "You look like that crazy girl from that one weird movie."

"Boy, that narrows it down." She walks past me. "Got your phone?"

I nod. She takes in my black leggings, black long-sleeved top, and dark sweatshirt. Her eyes pause on my sneakers. "I know they have white on them, but they're all I have. I don't have cat woman boots like you do," I tell her wryly.

"It's fine. Let's go."

I follow her out the door and down the stairs. I keep a look out for Maverick, but I don't see him anywhere. My chest tightens at the thought of discovering him with another woman tonight. I'm not sure this is the best idea, but I also know I won't sleep until I figure out where he's going at night. We're almost to the front door when it hits me. "Ava, what are we doing about a car?" I've clearly not been thinking with my head. She dangles keys in front of me. "Where did you get those?" I ask.

She smirks. "I have my ways."

I'm immediately suspicious. "Please tell me you didn't flirt with some poor unsuspecting shifter to get those."

"So what if I did?" I bite my tongue. Bringing up the alpha shifter that says she's his mate doesn't seem like a great idea right now. "They're Sara's," she finally admits.

I follow her outside. "I'm surprised she didn't want to come with."

"Oh, she did. They both did. But I told them it was pack business."

I glance over at Ava. I can see her clearly because of the overhead lights. "And she believed you?"

Ava shrugs. "She didn't question it." She pushes the key fob and waits for the lights to turn on. "There we go." After we're both in and buckled, I face her.

"Do you want me to drive?"

"Nope. I've got this."

"Have you driven since..." my voice trails off.

She doesn't look my direction. "Yes." I don't say anything else, and neither does she. When we get to the guards, she rolls down her window. "Hey," she says in a flirty, fun voice I've never heard from her. "I'm Ava, and this is Rose. We're the healers." The shifter bends low and looks in the car. I wave, knowing he can see clearly in the dark. "We're headed out for a little bit to get a break. All that healing, you know?" She takes an exaggerated breath. "Do we need to do anything?" she asks innocently.

"No, Ma'am. You're good to go." He glances in the backseat and then back at us. "I'm sure you're not supposed to leave without a shifter with you for security."

"Oh, we're meeting Maverick, you know Rose's mate. He should be just a few minutes behind us," Ava continues. "But please, between you and me...we're surprising him. Rose has a plan to surprise him tonight and have a special dinner, so if you could not say anything to him or anybody else that would be amazing. We don't want word getting back to him." She smiles at him, and I'm pretty sure he's struck dumb.

"Yeah, okay. Be safe."

"Thank you!" she calls as she drives away. I stare at her, unable to help myself. "What?"

"I've just never seen that side of you. Your parents never had a chance with you, did they?" I know I'm venturing out, but it's worth it when she grins.

"Nope." She pops the p , and I can't help the smile that crosses my face at seeing this side of her.

We drive down the rest of the way until we're close to the main road. Then she turns onto the grass. "What are you doing?" I ask in alarm.

"Relax," she snorts. "I'm just pulling out of the way so we can see where Maverick goes, but he won't see us."

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Yes. He won't be looking for us. He'll drive right past without looking way over here and noticing us. I promise."

I'm skeptical. "I don't know."

"This isn't my first rodeo, you know."

I laugh dryly. "Oh, I know. I very much know after all this."

We're both quiet after that, and I watch the road constantly and only take quick breaks to look at the clock. At two minutes after ten, a car approaches. I feel myself sinking low in my seat. Ava looks over and laughs at me. "He's not going to see you." I'm doubtful and feel myself holding my breath until he passes. "See?" She says triumphantly. I watch as Maverick turns and begins driving away.

"Shouldn't we follow him?" I ask.

"Nope."

"Well then how are we going to know where to go?" I ask.

"From the app." She sticks a phone under my nose. I watch as a little red dot travels along her phone.

"You have a way to track him?" I ask.

"Yep."

"How?" I ask in disbelief.

"Let's just say I made friends with the nerdy tech guy. What's his name again?"

"Stu?"

"Yeah. That's him. He let me borrow a tracking device that I put on Maverick's car earlier today."

I have so many questions. "I can't even. Why in the world did we hide here then if we could have just used the phone to track him?"

"Because this was more fun," she says with a laugh.

I stare at her. "Who are you and what did you do with my friend? How did you do all this without tipping off Maverick or Cade or—"

"You worry too much." She puts the car in drive. "Let's go. You watch that phone and tell me where to go."

"You're crazy," I mumble and orient myself to the map. "Go left." It takes longer than I thought it would. Thirty minutes later, we're still driving.

"That red dot's still moving, right?" Ava asks.

"Yes." We're both feeling the stress. Not only has it been thirty minutes, but it also looks like we're in a really seedy part of town. I glance out my window, wondering for the hundredth time tonight if this was a bad idea. I've had so many horrible ideas about where Maverick could be going that I refuse to think anymore. Finally, the red dot stops. "It's stopped," I say quietly.

"Okay. Let's see where he's at."

It takes us a few more minutes to get close to the red dot. When we do, I'm even more confused. It's a parking lot that's definitely seen better days. Ava pulls in slowly. There's grass growing up through the broken concrete. "Be careful," I tell her. We park on the side where some other cars are parked, because there's no other room. She turns off the car, and we sit in silence for a moment.

"Where do you think we are?" I ask in a hushed voice.

"I don't know, but we won't find out by sitting in the car," she responds. Still, neither of us move.

"Ava, I'm sorry I dragged you into this. We don't have to do this."

"Do you want to go back?" she asks.

I look out the windshield and watch as more cars pull in. "Not really, but I don't want to drag you into this, whatever it is."

"Well, we're already here. Let's do it."

"Are you sure?" I ask one more time.

"Yes."

Then before I can overthink it, I open the door and step out.