4. Sebastian

4

Sebastian

S ebastian smiled as he walked away from Talia's house. He had thoroughly enjoyed his time with her. The hug had been impromptu and quick, but a surge of warmth had flooded through his body.

He checked his watch and realized that he needed to get going. The Griffins were meeting at their clubhouse in half an hour. He walked in a few minutes late.

Rory said, "I was beginning to wonder. What kept you, Bruh?"

"I installed an alarm system for Talia and then she invited me to stay for dinner. I didn't want to be rude and say ‘no.'"

"I'm sure that was the real reason you stayed. It has nothing to do with the fact that the little girl next door turned into a gorgeous woman," Rory said.

"Absolutely nothing," Sebastian said. "I'm just trying to be a good neighbor."

"Yeah, uh-huh. I'm sure you are," he said.

The rest of the stragglers from their sister club, The Horsemen, managed to drag themselves into the Griffins' clubhouse.

Rory put two fingers in his mouth and let out a shrill whistle.

"Alright, folks, settle down. We have our annual charity ride coming up. The entry fee this year is either fifty dollars or the equivalent in new toys. If you choose to donate the money, we will have Savvy, Rory's wife, purchase the toys, with his children's help. They will make sure and get a variety of things while trying to make them universal, so that they can be distributed to the homeless kids for Christmas," Sebastian said.

"Sebastian and I have worked with five businesses along the ride where we can pick up food and drinks for a discount," Rory said. "Drinking and riding will not be tolerated. You can drink when you get to Albuquerque if you intend to stay the night, or you can wait until you get back here."

There were some grumbles, but it wasn't anything that they hadn't heard before. Even though they were motorcycle clubs, certain behaviors were expected, which included no drinking and riding and absolutely no drug use.

Sebastian and Rory fielded a few questions and then the partying began.

"Don't look now, but your girl is coming," Rory said to Sebastian as he handed him a beer.

"Lord, have mercy," Sebastian said.

Sallie Cruthers was the younger sister of the Horsemen's leader. She had had a thing for Sebastian since the moment they met. Sallie made it very obvious every time they met. Sallie was a bear shifter and extremely intelligent and pretty. She could also be crass. Sebastian always thought that she was trying too hard to fit in with the guys.

She sauntered toward him in tight, black leather pants and a midriff-baring top that left very little to the imagination. Sallie sidled up next to Sebastian. If she had been any closer, she would have been in his lap.

He did his best to keep his expression neutral as she pressed up against his arm. "Well, if it isn't my favorite Griffin," she said in an attempt at a sexy voice.

"Sallie," he said, taking a swig of his drink.

"You're looking as good as ever," she said. "When are you going to stop teasing me and take me for a ride?" Sallie winked at him exaggeratingly.

Sebastian moved his arm and said, "You know I'm not interested."

She ran her hand down his arm and purred, "Don't be like that. You know that I can show you a hell of a good time."

A few of the other Griffins had noticed the exchange and were chuckling. Sebastian could feel the embarrassment creeping up his neck. He stood up abruptly and walked away from her.

"That's enough. It's not going to happen," Sebastian growled as he pushed past her and headed outside.

Rory followed him out. "You're going to let her chase you off?"

"Yep. She won't stop, and I don't want to hurt her feelings. Besides, I have a busy day tomorrow," Sebastian said, mounting his bike.

"Actually, I do, too," Rory said as he mounted his Harley. "I promised the kids I would take them for a run in the morning before I head to the office."

"And you have a pretty woman waiting for you."

Rory grinned. "Damned straight, I do."

Sebastian actually was pretty tired and went to bed after he got home. He couldn't help but compare Talia and Sallie to each other. They were like night and day. He grinned and thought, Talia would look sexy on a motorcycle, though.

The next morning, he was still thinking about Talia, so he decided to do some research. He started with her schooling and discovered that she had earned a four point GPA for both degrees while working a full time job. He was impressed by that.

Then he looked at her social media and discovered that she recently broke up with her boyfriend. Sebastian dug up some interesting information about him.

"Darius Evans, you are not a nice man, are you?" he muttered to himself. "You have a whole host of previous charges -- Breaking and entering and indecent exposure starting when you were fourteen. Then, you decided to graduate to assaulting women."

Anger flared inside of Sebastian as he continued to dig into Darius's background. He was a rich, entitled man whose family had used their influence and money to bury the charges. "It looks like they used some of that money to buy off judges, because the charges were either dismissed or he was charged with a lesser charge and no penalty."

Sebastian believed in the saying that if one does the crime, one should be willing to do the time.

"I wonder if he is the reason why she wanted a security system? I can't blame her if it is," Sebastian muttered to himself. "I just wonder if he is the kind to actually come down here and start trouble or if he will just find himself some new victim to make miserable."

Sebastian decided that he would be keeping an eye out for his neighbor. His thoughts were interrupted by a phone call from Rory.

"I just got a new client, and I want to hire you to do some background and see what kind of information you can get for me. Can you come in so I can give you the details?"

"Sure. Give me twenty minutes."

As soon as he walked into his brother's office, he wished that he had told Rory that he had to come to Sebastian's office. Mary Ann, Rory's secretary had a major crush on him. Although she wasn't as crass as Sallie, she certainly didn't hide the fact that she was enamored with him. Mary Ann was a human who had no idea the shifter world existed. She simply saw Sebastian as a physically powerful man and was attracted to him.

"Good morning, Sebastian," Mary Ann said, batting her eyelashes at him. "Can I get you some coffee?"

"No, thank you," he said, walking straight toward Rory's office.

"Did she attack?" Rory asked as Sebastian closed the door behind him.

"Nope. I didn't give her the chance, unlike last time when she walked backward between me and your office."

"She was probably hoping you'd trip and fall into her arms," Rory teased. "What is it with you and these aggressive women?"

"I wish I knew. I'd change it. From now on, you're going to have to come to my office."

"I'll have to bill my clients for that time," Rory said.

"You don't bill half of your clients, anyway, so it won't hurt them," Sebastian said. "What's up? You didn't call me down here to talk about my prowess with the fairer sex."

"You're right." Rory slid a file to Sebastian. "Tommy McCarty is a small-time drug dealer who was busted with a variety of drugs, including tranq, which is called the zombie drug. Dealers are mixing the horse tranquilizer, xylazine with fentanyl. When people do a shot of it, they just drop where they are. If, and when, they finally wake up, they are paralyzed."

"I've read about this. It's called the zombie drug because it creates nasty sores that never go away and causes the skin to rot. Some users have had to have limbs amputated because of it. Others have died," Sebastian said. "This is some pretty nasty stuff."

"I agree and so does the district attorney, Sonia. Tommy says that he has physical dirt on the man who is higher up on the food chain. Sonia agreed to get him into the witness protection program and give him immunity if the information pans out."

"You want me to check it out." Sebastian stated it as a fact, not a question.

"Yeah. Tommy says that he started selling weed because his friend told him it would be a good way to get out of debt. Then, he was forced to sell harder stuff. He said that there was only one way out of it – death."

"Do you believe him?"

Rory sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "My gut says that he is telling the truth."

"I'll go with your gut then, and check out his information." Sebastian closed the file and stood up.

"Thanks, Brother."

"You can thank me by occupying Mary Ann with the copier or something in the back room so I can get out of here with my clothes intact."

As soon as he got back to his office, Sebastian started working on Tommy's background information. He wanted to know more about the source of information first. He had to be credible for his information to be any good in court.

Sebastian had gathered quite a lot of information by the time he was ready to go home. Tommy seemed legit. He prepared a report for Rory and emailed it to him.

Talia was in a lounge chair in her front yard working on her computer. She looked up at him and smiled when he pulled into his driveway.

"Hello," she said, a little shyly.

"Howdy, neighbor. Working hard I see."

"Lesson plans -- that and grading papers are going to be my life for the next nine months," she said.

"Hopefully, you'll have time for some fun."

She grinned. "I'm sure I'll squeeze some in once in a while."

"Do you ride motorcycles?"

Talia laughed. "No. I have no balance. It was all I could do to ride a bicycle. It's one thing to fall over and have a thirty-pound bike land on me. It's quite another to have a five-hundred-pound motorcycle land on me and ride me down the highway. Being flayed alive is in the top five ways I don't want to die."

"That's too bad. The Griffins and our sister club, the Horsemen, are doing a charity run to gather toys for the homeless kiddoes in Albuquerque. You would have fun."

"It's definitely a cause I can believe in. I'd be glad to donate either toys or money. Just let me know when the run is."

"Will do," he said. He paused for a second and then, without even thinking, he asked, "Do you feel like heading up to the mountain, shifting, and going for a run?"

"Actually, that sounds awesome. I haven't had a lot of time to get exercise in Albuquerque, and I could use the mental break. Let me put my computer up."

They talked easily as he drove them to the mountain. They hiked up the trail to where they would shift. She looked around in wonder.

"It's been so long. I can't believe it's been six years since I last came here. It almost feels as though the place is welcoming me home. It's in my blood."

"That's because it is," he said. "You belong here."

They looked around to make sure there weren't any humans in the area and quickly undressed, folded their clothes, put them in plastic bags, and hid them in tree branches.

Sebastian looked over at Talia's naked body and the sight took his breath away. She was so incredibly sexy. He was instantly aroused. Sebastian turned and shifted as quickly as he could, hoping that she didn't notice his reaction to her.