Chapter 12

Chapter 12

One Week Later…

What the hell was he doing here? Kale wondered as he closed the door behind him and took in the small studio apartment and…

Found himself once again trying to get the image of Ashley’s face when his words hit home out of his head. He’d never seen anyone that fucking broken before. While anyone else would have screamed, cried, or demanded that he take it back, she’d simply nodded to herself as she looked right at him while he’d told her exactly what would happen to her if she tried to leave.

When he was done, she’d nodded one last time before she crawled back into bed, curled up on her side and stared at the wall while he’d finished making sure that the tracker was online. Once he was done, he hadn’t been able to get out of there fast enough. He’d made sure that he’d left plenty of blood in the refrigerator and told Jacob to make sure that she ate and to shoot her if there were any problems.

Jacob had glared at him the entire time, but he didn’t argue, which is why Kale hired him in the first place. He was young by shifter standards, barely a hundred and fifty years old, but he was good, really fucking good, and he had a reputation for getting the job done. Unlike Kale, he didn’t give a damn what a job was as long as it paid well. He also didn’t fuck around when it came to a contract and knew how to keep his mouth shut, which made him perfect for this job.

As long as the shifter was willing to keep an eye on Kale’s unwanted mate, Kale could focus on what needed to be done, which really didn’t explain what he was doing here in this dump. Sighing heavily, Kale took in the small studio apartment that his mate had called home for the past ten years and found himself wondering why he was wasting his time with this shit.

She was just a complication that he didn’t have time for right now, but no matter how many times he’d told himself that over the past week, he couldn’t stop wondering about her. He should be tracking the little bastard down to claim that fifteen million, but instead, he was here trying to figure out what kind of woman fate had fucked him over with.

Wondering why he was really here, Kale took in the small room, noting the large stacks of books that lined every available space, the large stack of books by the small bed that had been used as a makeshift nightstand, the stacks of books on her small bureau, the stacks of books on top of the kitchen cabinets, on top of the refrigerator, and the ones beneath the small table in the corner. Seemed that his mate liked to read romance novels by the looks of it, but there were also books on cooking, drawing, gardening, and a dozen other hobbies that he doubted that she’d actually had a chance to do.

Shifting his focus, Kale checked her refrigerator and cabinets, noting that she only had a few boxes of generic pasta in her cupboards, a half-stick of generic margarine in the fridge, one set of silverware, a single dish, and an old cup before shifting his focus to her closet and bureau. Her entire life consisted of a bunch of shit that even the Salvation Army wouldn’t touch.

A quick search left him with more questions as he dropped down on her bed and-

“Fuck!”

-quickly shifted to the side when a rusted bedspring stabbed his thigh. Glaring down at the offending spring, Kale shifted a few inches over and took in the depressing apartment and added that to what he knew about her finances and couldn’t help but wonder why she’d stayed. She would have been better off anywhere else, doing pretty much anything else, but for some reason, Ashley decided to stay in one of the most expensive cities in the world, working a shitty job that barely kept her from living on the street, which made him wonder who’d told her to stay.

The stench from humans, garbage, and the pollution surrounding the city had covered her scent and protected her, but it was other things that had caught his attention. She’d lived off the grid. She didn’t have any bank accounts, credit cards, loans, or anything that would leave a financial trail. She also didn’t have a cellphone or any social media accounts. She was like a ghost and that made him even more curious about her.

He knew that she’d worked at the library for the past year and before that, she’d worked a string of shitty jobs, each one worse than the last and all of them allowing her to hide in the background. She lived in one of the worst parts of the city, in a dump, hiding in plain sight.

The question was, what was she hiding from?

He had a lot of questions about his unwanted mate, none of them more important than this job though, Kale reminded himself even as he glanced around the room, noting the single chair at the small table, the old black-and-white television that had been destroyed during the break-in, the books, and found himself reaching back and squeezing his hand between the bed and the wall. After a quick search, he found what he was looking for, the only things she’d cared enough about to hide, a small journal and a thick yellow envelope. He tossed the journal on the bed next to him and focused on the envelope only to sigh because this was just fucking pathetic.

It held a small stack of old birthday cards, a fake birth certificate, what he was guessing was a fake social security card, a couple of old school pictures where she stared at the camera, unsmiling, and a silver necklace with a small Celtic charm. For a moment, he debated throwing the necklace away, but…

It was the only thing that she had that seemed to be worth anything. He folded the envelope in half and slid it into his coat pocket before shifting his attention to that journal. As he opened the book, he noted the date on the front page and flipped through the book as he did the math. She’d been keeping this journal since she was twelve, which meant that it might have some of the answers that he was looking for.

Kale slid the journal in his pocket and after one last glance around her apartment, he headed for the door, deciding that he’d wasted enough time on this. He didn’t bother locking the door once he left, knowing that it was for the best if humans covered everything in their scent as they tore through her shit, looking for something to steal. Not that anyone would be able to track Ashley, but he liked to play it safe.

With that in mind, Kale headed down the hallway only to sigh when his phone rang. He pulled his phone out of his back pocket as he shoved the stairwell door open and-

“She’s not eating,” came the greeting that had him biting back a curse.

“Force her,” Kale said, wondering why the shifter was bothering him with this shit.

“I tried, but she ended up getting sick.”

“Try again,” Kale bit out as he made his way down three flights of stairs.

“She’s depressed. She won’t leave her room. She’s not eating, doesn’t want to talk, and she’s fucking crying, Kale,”Jacob rushed to explain as Kale shoved the heavy metal door open and joined the late afternoon crowd taking over the sidewalks.

“Don’t fucking care what she’s doing as long as she’s not causing problems,” Kale said as he took a right down a side street and headed for the high-rise that he’d been staking out for the past week waiting for Vane’s men to fuck up.

“If she goes into bloodlust, I would call that a pretty big fucking problem,”Jacob snapped before adding, “especially this close to the mansion.”

“Just take care of it,” Kale said absently, watching as Vane’s personal bodyguards did another sweep around the perimeter of the building.

“Are you fucking crazy? Do you really think that I’ll be able to stop a Pyte in bloodlust?”

“Yes,” Kale said, wondering why they were even having this conversation.

“How the hell am I supposed to do that?”

“Tear her throat out,” Kale drawled as his attention shifted to the front entrance, noting that there was only one guard standing between him and finishing this job.

“God, you’re a cold bastard.”