7. Mai

Chapter seven

Mai

R yan and Derek arrived just as we were sitting down to eat. A ripple of excitement passed through me at the sight of Ryan, his tousled hair and deep, blue eyes stirring something primal inside me. Our bond hummed contentedly. He strode toward me, his gaze locked with mine, the intensity in his eyes melting away any remnants of the day's frustrations.

"Hey, baby," he leaned down, his lips brushing against my mouth in a gesture that gave me the warm fuzzies inside.

"Dinner's ready!" Wally called out. "Time for kisses later, children!"

"You can count on it," Ryan murmured against my ear.

We walked to the table as Wally, still decked out in his frilly pink apron, paraded in with a massive tray of lasagne. "A feast for your eyes and bellies, folks! This here's one of my many culinary masterpieces!"

Thomas followed, a grin on his face, carrying two baskets of garlic bread. "Don't let it get to his head, but he's not wrong."

We sat around the table, the tantalizing aroma of tomato sauce and melted cheese filling the air .

Derek waited until Sofia sat down, then grabbed the chair next to her. "How did the Bar hold up without their star manager? Did they beg you to come back after your disappearing act?"

Sofia and Jase had to lie low at Wally and Thomas's house when Brock took over. Brock knew Sofia was my best friend, and we'd been trying to keep Sofia and Jase safe. Not that it worked out that way.

Sofia, pausing as she served lasagne onto her plate, eyed him warily. "They were just fine. I know you think it's different on planet Derek, but down here not everything falls apart when you disappear on them. People cope. They move on. No big deal."

Mmm, I wasn't sure she was still talking about the Bar. I knew for a fact the owners did not cope well. They lived out of town and had given Sofia free rein. They loved her and would do anything to make sure she stayed on.

"Planet Derek?"

"Yeah," Sofia started to wave the serving spoon, still full of lasagne, around as she spoke, "Planet Derek, where everything is all about Derek and what he wants, when he wants it. He wants to go on a date, he goes on a date. He wants to ghost someone, he ghosts them. He wants to crook his finger and then expects that person to fall over themselves running back to him. Planet Derek."

Wally's eyes widened as he tracked the spoon's movements.

Derek leaned back in the chair and smiled smugly at Sofia. "I thought it was no big deal."

Sofia flushed. "It wasn't a big deal. I learned my lesson and have no intention of ever repeating it."

"You'll change your mind. "

I honestly thought Sofia's head was going to explode. She whirled to face Derek, holding the spoon threateningly in his face. "I will never, Derek Shaw, never ever change my mind. I would rather be trapped in a cage with a hundred face-eating rats than go on another date with you."

Sofia had had a phobia of rats since I'd known her. As teenagers, I'd pointed out she was a fuck-off werewolf, who could kill a rat with one bite, but she was having none of it, insisting they were evil rodents with whiskers that would tickle your face just as they ate it.

Derek grinned at her. "You seem to have given another date with me a lot of thought."

Everyone in the room could see what was coming next. I'd never seen Wally move so fast. He jumped up and grabbed the spoon from Sofia.

"I love you, Sof, but I've just scrubbed these walls and floors of blood. I do not intend to be on my hands and knees again for such an unfun reason anytime soon!"

Jase leaned forward and rubbed his jaw. "Derek, I hope you realize that Wally just saved you. Sofia has a mean right hand with cooking utensils."

Sofia looked appalled. "That was one time! And it was an accident. I wouldn't have hit you with the potato masher if you hadn't been trying to sneak up on me."

"Sneak up on you? You're a werewolf. You smelled me and the fact that I'd just eaten the last piece of your favorite chocolate before I'd even set foot in the room!"

"The fact that you pinched my chocolate is completely unrelated. "

Wally leaned down and whispered loudly in Sofia's ear, "Oh, honey, no-one, and I mean absolutely no-one, believes that!"

Ryan raised his glass in a toast. "To chocolate and misbehaving brothers." He glanced meaningfully at Derek, but he only had eyes for Sofia. Not that she noticed. She was pointedly ignoring him.

"To chocolate and misbehaving brothers," echoed the group, glasses clinking together in a semblance of harmony.

Ryan pushed a stray strand of my hair behind my ear. "Next time, we leave the kids at home, and go for a date night, just you and me."

I grinned at him. "Deal."

It wasn't until Wally had cleared up dessert that Ryan asked for updates. "Derek, any news on the Ronnie situation?"

Derek wiped his mouth on his napkin before answering. "Ronnie runs a highly lucrative operation out of Haxton. His gang runs a tight ship, and I gotta say, he has links to all the major players in the region. He deals mainly in information and he's good at it, but he has his fingers in lots of pies. Not drugs, though. Not until six months ago. After that, there's a paper trail linking him to drug shipments coming into the northeast. Two weeks ago, a large shipment of ripple was found in a storage locker in the territory of the Westwoods Pack. The locker was registered to one of Ronnie's companies."

"You think Ronnie really is being framed? Or that he's in this up to his neck and is looking at us to give him an escape? "

"Ronnie is clever, but above all, he's careful. Shrewd. It doesn't fit his MO to register the locker in a company that could so easily be traced back to him."

"Then the question is back to who is framing Ronnie and why?" I asked.

Derek shrugged. "Could be revenge for something Ronnie has done, or information he has passed on. Could be another player wanting Ronnie out of the way so they can muscle in on his operations. Or someone in his gang looking to move up. He's the type of man who has made a lot of enemies."

"Keep digging. Don't rule out anything yet. I want to know if Ronnie is playing us," said Ryan.

Derek nodded. "I've got Waylen on this. If there is anything to be found, he'll get it."

"Waylen Jones?" I asked. I went to school with a human called Waylen. It wasn't a common name around here.

"Yeah, you know him?"

"Sure. He was in my year at school. Sat behind me in math. Skinny guy, always fidgeting. Good with computers."

Ryan snorted. "That's an understatement. We tracked him down two years ago after he hacked into the Pack's mainframe and downloaded the blueprints for the entire Three Rivers. Said he wanted to know if it was true that there was an underground tunnel from the Pack compound to Bridgetown. Turned out he had a secret girlfriend in Bridgetown and wanted to sneak over there without his brother finding out. He was paranoid that his brother, who's six foot three and played quarterback in high school, would follow him on his trips over there, realize the girlfriend was hot and steal her off Waylen. "

I glanced from Derek to Ryan. "Is there a tunnel?"

"No," Ryan smiled at me. "As we told Waylen when we picked him up. He didn't believe us. Still doesn't. Even though he's been working for Sam and Mason at their PI firm for the last two years and has been all over the compound top to bottom trying to find it."

"He hacked into the Pack's mainframe, and you gave him a job?" Wally asked.

"Hell, yes. Rather he was working for us than against us."

Just then, Ryan's phone rang.

"Apologies," he said to Thomas and Wally as he pulled his phone out and hit the accept button. I could hear Sam's voice through the phone. "We've got something. A potential lead."

Mason chimed in, his tone urgent. "We've got into Brock's financial records. Six months ago, he bought a property just outside our territory. It's isolated, off the grid. Perfect for hiding someone."

My breath caught as the room fell silent, every pair of eyes fixed on the phone. This could be where Jem was being held.

"We need to check it out," I said, my voice steady despite the racing of my heart.

Ryan nodded. "Keep digging. See if you can get plans or images of the property. We need to know what we'll be walking in to."

"Will do," replied Mason.

"Once we have those, I'll go and scout round the property," Sam said.

"Scouting only, Sam. Do not engage. We'll put a team together and go in first thing tomorrow."

"Copy that. "

Ryan hung up as a spark of hope ignited in my chest. If Jem was alive and he was there, he could be home by lunchtime tomorrow.

Ryan must have seen it on my face. "We haven't had proof of life yet, Mai. This might be a storage barn for Brock's action figure collection for all we know."

"I know. It's hard not to hope, though."

"If he's alive, we'll find him, Mai," Ryan whispered, his hand finding mine, squeezing gently.

If he was alive. Or was Brock just fucking with us? That was the question.