2. Sebastian

2

Sebastian

" D amn it," Sebastian muttered to himself as he cut himself on a sharp piece of metal under the hood of his truck. It had been running a little strange, so he wanted to make sure everything was in order.

However, he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. A beautiful blond bombshell had moved in next door. He noticed her the night before but hadn't paid close attention. Now, however, she had his full attention.

Sebastian knew that his old neighbors were moving to the shifter world. He figured that they would give their house to their daughter who had been in Albuquerque for the last six years. He hadn't noticed if she ever visited. She was an unattractive girl with stringy hair and no body. She had always been extremely shy around him. Sebastian doubted that she had ever said two words to him.

I can't for the life of me remember her name – Tally, Tonya, something like that, I think. I would like to know the name of that beautiful woman next door.

He was pretty sure she was eyeballing him while he was checking out his truck. Sebastian noticed that she was unloading the trunk of her car and decided that it would be the neighborly thing to do if he offered to help. He quickly wiped his hands off and sauntered over.

"Hi. I'm Sebastian," he said. "Looks like we're going to be neighbors."

The woman grinned widely, and Sebastian had the feeling that she was laughing at him. "I know who you are. I'm Talia."

When she saw that the name didn't register with him, she giggled and said, "Heidi's and Theo's daughter?"

His eyes opened wide and his jaw dropped. There was no way that this gorgeous woman was the same teenage beanpole who had lived in the house with Heidi and Theo.

"Careful, you're going to catch flies if you stand there with your mouth hanging open."

Sebastian felt foolish and for the first time since he was a teenager and had an accidental erection in the middle of PE, he blushed.

"I know I've changed. I'm not surprised that you didn't recognize me," Talia said.

He managed to get himself together and said, "Welcome home. Let me help you carry your boxes in."

She nodded and started for the house with a box in her hands.

"I don't think you came home very often, did you?"

"No. I had almost a full-time job in Albuquerque because I didn't want to take out a whole lot of student loans. Mom and Dad came a couple times a month, though."

"I knew they went out of town a lot. What did you get your degree in?"

"Degrees. I earned my Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education and my Master of Science degree in Administrative Leadership."

"You're going to be a teacher?"

"Yes." She grinned.

Sebastian had the feeling that she was laughing at him again for stating the obvious.

"I am going to be the new science teacher at Angel's Creek High School," she said.

If I had more teachers that looked like her in class, I might have paid more attention, he thought.

"What have you been up to?" she asked.

"I have an investigative and security company," he said. "We provide cyber security, bodyguards, alarm systems, and those types of services." He didn't tell her that they also did the occasional black ops, rescue missions, or reconnaissance missions.

"Sounds interesting," she said.

They carried the last box into the house and he said, "I have to go into the office for a while. You know where to find me if you need anything."

"Thank you," she said.

Her smile made his heart skip a beat and he told himself, Knock it off.

He changed into a clean pair of jeans and pulled on a polo shirt, which was his nod to business attire. As soon as Sebastian sat down at his desk, his front desk man, who was also a dragon shifter and one of his best field agents, announced "Jude Henderson is here to see you."

"Thanks, Julian. Send him in."

Sebastian rose to shake the man's hand and motioned for him to sit in the chair in front of his desk.

"Good to see you again, Sebastian. What did you find out?"

The company had been hired to do a cybersecurity scan for Jude to see if there were any dangers of someone hacking into his system and stealing trade secrets. Jude had a pharmaceutical company in Santa Fe.

"We discovered that you have some serious issues," Sebastian said. "Not only do you have several holes in your system overall, but someone has been stealing from you."

"What? There's no way," Jude exclaimed. "Who? How?"

"Let me start with the first part. The person in charge of your IT has not been regularly updating your security system. It is important because every update has codes that will block the latest malware, ransomware, and viruses. Most of the time, when companies report a data breach of their clients' information it is because they aren't doing regular updates. At this point, a second grader with a basic knowledge of coding could break into your systems."

"What do I do?" the man asked, his panicked voice high-pitched.

"Fire your IT person and get someone else who is competent. Right now, until you find that person, I will update your system if you want, part of the price you already paid me," Sebastian said.

"Please do. As soon as possible. We have cancer research and so many other helpful drugs we are researching. We don't want our competition getting ahold of them."

Sebastian passed Jude a form. "This is you giving us permission to do the updates."

Jude read the document carefully and grinned. "No fine print?"

"There is. It's in white ink in two font so you can't see it that promises us fifty-one percent of your profits," Sebastian teased. "I'm kidding. There is nothing. All I'm going to do is hit a button and update your system."

Jude signed it and handed it over. "If it was anyone else, I would believe that tale about tiny white font. Your reputation is so great that you have people in high places from all over the world singing your praise."

"I appreciate that," Sebastian said, hitting a button. "It's updating now. It'll take several hours. I wouldn't waste time getting you a new person to take care of your security."

"I will start looking first thing in the morning," he said, steepling his fingers. "Who is stealing from me and how?"

"Serena Pierce and Mia Burton," Sebastian said, opening a folder sitting on his desk next to his computer.

"My accountants."

"As you can see, they have been taking quite a bit of money from you for a while. They created a program that skimmed the cents off of every deposit and transferred it to an off-shore account. Look at this deposit from one of your clients. It is for twenty thousand, three hundred dollars and eighty-seven cents. The women diverted the eighty-seven cents into their accounts."

"Oh, my heavens," Jude said, shocked. He adjusted his glasses as though he thought they were messing up his vision. Running his fingers through his hair, he stared at the spreadsheet in front of him. "How long have they been doing this?" he asked.

"Almost a year. They've made close to a million dollars by doing this," Sebastian said.

"I guess the change does add up," Jude said, astounded. "What do I do?"

"Report it to the FBI. This involves transferring money out of the country so they will investigate. They'll probably press charges. Unless the women make plea deals and agree to give your money back, it's unlikely it will be returned."

"Oof," he said. "Do I tell the women that I know what they did or do I talk to the FBI first?"

"Talk to the FBI. Otherwise, they'll simply leave town before they can be investigated, they will get away scot-free, and you'll have no chance of seeing one hot red cent of your money."

Jude nodded. "I'll call them as soon as I ask my secretary to start finding me a new IT person. Is there anything else I need to know?"

"Not right now," Sebastian said.

Jude sighed dejectedly. "I was hoping you had good news for me."

"The good news is that it looks like no one has tried to steal your company's secrets, yet," Sebastian said.

"Thank heavens," Jude said, rising, holding out his hand.

Sebastian shook it and walked him to the door. "Let us know if we can be of service in the future."

Jude waved and walked to his car. Julian said, "I bet he's going to go home and have a drink or two, or ten."

"Yep, but the news really could have been worse. The women could have been stealing dollars instead of cents."

Sebastian slapped Julian on the back and went to his office. He had just finished typing up the report for his records when Julian poked his head in again. "Talia Delaney is here to see you."

"Show her in," Sebastian said. He stood, smiled, and said, "So we meet again. What brings you to my domain?"

She smiled back and said, "I've heard that you have the best security systems in the entire state and I need one put in."

"Are you expecting trouble?" he asked.

"No, but I'm a single woman living alone and a person can't be too careful these days," she said.

"That is very true," he said. "We can install an alarm that you set when you leave the house and when you're in for the night. It would alert responders to intruders and fire. We can also add a camera to your doorbell, as well as your front and back porch. The alarms are manned by a separate company whose job it is to stare at computer screens each night and alert if something looks suspicious. They will call you to make sure you're fine and ask whether we need to call the police."

"Sounds good," she said. "How soon can we get this installed?"

"We can put it in tomorrow. What time is good for you?"

"I have meetings at the county office and then at the school afterward, so I can meet the installer around four if that's not too late," Talia said.

"That will be fine," Sebastian replied.

"Thank you," Talia said. She stood awkwardly for a minute and said, "I guess I'll be going. Have a great night."

"Thanks, you, too," he said.

He sat heavily in his chair and stared at the door she disappeared through. A scent of vanilla and something that was her essence lingered in the air that smelled like some type of ambrosia. Sebastian felt himself becoming aroused and knew that he was attracted to her.

Knock it off. She's my next-door neighbor, and I've known her since she could walk, since she's a member of my wolf shifter pack.

Despite his thoughts, he couldn't help how his body reacted to her, especially when he reasoned that she was a grown woman now.

That evening, he had dinner at his brother, Rory's, mansion. Rory was a lawyer and was married to a very powerful witch, named Savvy. They had two kids, Cat and Drake. Cat and Drake were technically Savvy's step-kids, but one would never know it because of the way that she treated them. Amy, his housekeeper, Colby, his groundskeeper, and Rosa, his cook, were bear shifters and considered part of the family. Cassia, a dragonfly, rounded out the group. She was a dragonfly and was Savvy's familiar.

Drake and Cat loved telling their "Uncle Bastian" what they'd been up to.

"We don't need to go to school," Drake, who was about to start kindergarten, said. "Savvy teaches us everything we need to know."

"I'm excited. All my friends are going to be there," Cat said, clapping her hands. She was going to be in the first grade.

"I'm sure you will have a lot of fun," Sebastian said.

Once the kids were talked out, Sebastian said, "Heidi's and Theo's daughter, Talia, moved back home. She's going to be the new science teacher at the high school."

"I think I remember Heidi saying something about that at the last pack meeting. They were waiting for her to come home and take over the house so they could go to the shifter world," Rory said. "Have you reacquainted yourself with her yet?"

"Yes. She's changed a lot," Sebastian said. "A whole lot."

The adults and dragonfly exchanged knowing glances.

"I think we detect a wee bit of interest in her," Rory said.

"Of course not. She's just a kid."

"Mmm-hmm," the entire group said together.

"We don't believe you," Savvy said.

That's okay. I don't believe me either, Sebastian thought.