CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR

Letting out a little shudder as a cool breeze whispered over her, Bailey stuffed her hands in her jacket pockets as she walked into the cute cul-de-sac where the Alphas lived. Every house was owned by the pride and inhabited by one or more of the members. They also currently boasted fall decorations.

Artificial autumn wreaths hung on doors. Pumpkins and colorful planters lined porches. Leaf garlands formed arches around doorways.

Only 6:30pm, it wasn’t dark yet. Still, due to the time of year, dusk was already beginning to fall. As such, the lampposts were lit, casting light over the sidewalk—making the wet ground look sleek and shimmery. The rain had stopped, and Bailey hoped it didn’t start up again. She wasn’t a fan of being caught in it.

Reaching the Alpha pair’s house, Bailey followed Havana up the creaky porch steps. The devil shifter had pulled out her own fall decorations. Lanterns sat either side of the pumpkin towers that flanked the front door. Baskets of harvest foliage rested on the porch near the two chairs that Havana had covered with orange and red tartan blankets.

Guarding the house, Farrell currently sat on one of the aforementioned chairs, idly rocking forwards and backwards. Also guarding the house, Isaiah watched from a chair on his own porch.

Most single shifters chose to live in one of the apartment buildings, but Isaiah had recently moved next-door. How he was single, Bailey did not know. The dude was hotter than hot, and he had the whole bad-boy thing going on.

Both males tipped their chin in greeting. The girls returned their hellos while Havana unlocked the front door, her hand gently steadying the swaying wreath.

Bailey followed her Alpha female into the house, conscious of Aspen closing the door behind them. Only two people were in the living room—Tate and Deke. Both stood near the fireplace wearing severe expressions.

Bailey’s pulse did an irritating little skip at the sight of Deke. She ignored it, of course.

His eyes latched on hers, dark and brooding and far too piercing. She ignored that, too.

But there was no way to ignore her body’s reaction to the intense eye-contact. A rush of sexual awareness pulsed through her system. Because now she knew how hot and demanding his mouth could be, how talented his hands were, how long and thick the dick in his pants happened to be. And she was far too eager for a repeat—something she’d likely never get, if only because his cat wouldn’t allow her close again.

That his feline had such an issue with Bailey galled her inner mamba. Offended on Bailey’s behalf, the snake wanted to whip his furry head with her tail.

Though Deke appeared pissed about something, he didn’t seem to be as tightly wound today in a physical sense, so the orgasm that Bailey had given him was apparently still helping with the touch-hunger to some extent.

“What’s going on?” asked Havana, looking from one male to the other.

“We need Bailey’s hacking skills.” Tate slid his gaze to Bailey and then gestured at the laptop on the coffee table.

She perched herself on the sofa and then set the laptop on her lap. A tap of the space bar took the computer off its standby mode, and the blank screen was then quickly replaced by a very familiar NetherVille profile. She quickly scanned it and then looked up at Deke, who was still staring at her. “This isn’t you.”

His brow pinched. “How do you know?”

“You don’t have that many friends.”

Tate barked a shocked laugh that cracked his serious expression.

Deke shot him the world’s worst glower.

“And there’s no way you’d post inspirational memes,” Bailey went on. The cranky cat rolled his eyes at that stuff. “Also, there are no posts on your page that are written by pride members.”

Swiping his hand down his face as if to wipe away his amused smile, Tate focused on her. “You’re right, it isn’t him. We need to know who created this profile, and then we need to deal with them.”

Bailey instantly got to work, flicking Deke a brief look as she guessed, “They did more than simply clone your profile, huh?”

He inclined his head, his lips thinning. “Posing as me, they entered into an online relationship with a human female.”

Bailey’s fingers halted. “Say what?”

“You’re not serious,” burst out Havana.

A muscle in his cheek ticked. “Couldn’t be more serious.”

“Fuck me,” Aspen breathed. “Did he also tell her you’re a pallas cat?”

Deke shook his head. “No. She has no clue that I’m a shifter or part of a pride. Also, he didn’t give her my exact address—only the location of my apartment building. But he was otherwise pretty detailed in his descriptions of me and my life.”

Holy hell, what a freaking doozy. No wonder Deke looked ready to snap someone’s neck. She’d totally help him do it.

Havana perched her hands on her hips. “How did you find out?”

“The human tracked me down to ‘surprise’ me, having no clue that she’s been duped for the past three months,” he replied. “I took her to the hole-in-the wall café not far from here away from acute shifter hearing to get the full story from her.”

“And?” prodded Havana.

Deke rolled his shoulders, wishing he could easily shake off the anger that had settled in his gut. The same emotion kept knifing through his cat, awakening its primal need to hunt. “This person contacted her via NetherVille three months ago. They got talking. Exchanged phone numbers. They text and call each other on a daily basis. Have heart-to-hearts. He even wrote her poetry.”

“So he’s a regular Romeo,” said Aspen.

“She showed me some of the messages he sent her. The guy is smooth. Always compliments and builds her up. Always says the right thing at the right time.” So very unlike me, thought Deke. He could never be called verbally smooth.

“I take it they never video-called,” said Havana.

“No, they did,” Deke told her. “But the image of his face was always pixelated, so she never saw him clearly. Fed up of him making excuses as to why he couldn’t meet up with her, she decided to come to him. Me.”

“That’s some wild shit,” commented Bailey without looking away from the laptop, her fingers deftly flying over the keys at such an incredible speed that his cat begrudgingly respected it.

Deke had once asked where she’d learned to hack. Her response? Prison.

It was the same answer she gave him whenever he asked where she’d acquired any of the impressive skills he’d come to realize that she possessed. Havana, Aspen, and Camden were equally skilled in various areas, and all were vague about how that came about.

Returning his attention to the subject at hand, Deke continued, “Maisy gave me the number he’s been using to call and text her. I had River look it up,” he said, referring to a member of their pride who was also part of the human police force. “It’s one of those virtual numbers you can get for free online.”

“Then there’s no way to trace it back to whoever’s using it,” groused Bailey.

“River said as much.” Deke scraped a hand over his jaw. “I think it’s highly possible that I know the person who contacted Maisy. He told her things about me that were more than just basic details. This person could even be part of the pride.” The mere idea that Deke made his stomach twist viciously.

Havana let out a harsh curse. “Did you call him?”

“Almost. I held back because I don’t want him to know I’m aware of what he’s doing.” Not yet, anyway. “If I’d called him, he would have deactivated his profile before Bailey had a chance to hack into it.”

“Maisy might confront him,” Aspen warned. “If she does, he’ll cover his tracks.”

Deke had already anticipated that, which was why … “I asked her not to. She agreed.”

“Where is Maisy now?” asked Havana.

“She left in a hurry after I finished questioning her.” She’d dashed out so fast Deke was surprised she hadn’t left skid marks on the floor. “She was as humiliated as she was shocked.”

Aspen crossed her arms over her chest. “The question on my mind is … why would someone do this?”

Tate twisted his mouth. “It’s hard to say, isn’t it? Identity theft is serious, and this whole thing is messed up for certain. But it could be that our boy didn’t deliberately set out to hurt anyone; he just wanted an escape from being himself, or he struggles with women in the real world so tried forming an online relationship using someone else’s pictures.”

Havana gave a slow nod. “Most people go catfishing for the latter reason. It’s usually nothing personal to whoever they’re posing as, so it could be that—”

“Okay, here we go,” Bailey all but sang. “We’ve got a name, an email address, a physical address, and a phone number. Quick warning, Hammond: It would seem you were right, you do know them.” She twisted the laptop to face him.

Deke ground his teeth as betrayal knifed through his chest. Son of a bitch. His cat unsheathed his claws with a furious hiss. Neither the feline nor Deke were anything close to friends with this male, but it was still their pride mate. That clearly meant nothing to this asshole.

Havana frowned. “AJ?” She looked at Deke. “Didn’t you once beat him up?”

His fingers contracting like claws, Deke gave a curt nod. “It happened years ago, way before you joined the pride.”

“What brought it on?” asked the devil shifter.

“He cheated on my cousin, who was more like a sister to me.”

Aspen let out a soft whistle. “So he has a hard-on for you big time, then?”

“Yes. And not only because I worked him over. I forbade him from going near her again, so he blames me for her now being mated to someone else in another pride. He’s also convinced that the reason he didn’t get an enforcer position is that I requested he be turned down, which isn’t true.” As Bailey twisted the laptop back to face her, Deke asked her, “How long has this profile been live?”

“Just over three months,” replied the mamba, drumming her fingers on the outer side of her thigh—the movements slow, sharp, somehow menacing.

He had the feeling that she was imagining slicing them down AJ’s face. Well, Bailey might not be the most ethical creature, but she would never condone betrayal.

“He wasted no time in finding himself an online girlfriend,” Aspen mused.

“No, he didn’t.” Tate licked his front teeth. “We need to have a chat with AJ.”

Deke couldn’t agree more.

Bailey pointed at the phone number on the screen. “Is this the one he used to contact Maisy?”

Deke dipped his chin.

For a long moment, she merely stared at the laptop. “Huh.”

“Huh, what?” Deke pushed.

She scratched her cheek. “It’s weird. The profile info, I mean.”

Deke felt his brow pinch. “In what way?”

“Well, he used a fake phone number. And the email address features your name, so that’s obviously something he created purely for the profile. AJ has clearly taken those measures to protect his true ID just in case the Maisy thing came to light and his account was hacked. Why would he do that … but then include his real name and physical address? Why not type in your name and address, or some bullshit details? Why point a finger in his own direction? It makes zero sense to me.”

Deke blinked twice, and his cat paused in his pacing.

“You know,” began Havana, folding her arms, “it is weird. He could have as easily used a fake name. Why didn’t he?”

“Maybe he did,” said Bailey.

Deke frowned down at her. “What?”

“Maybe this guy here isn’t really AJ,” Bailey elaborated. “Maybe someone is using him as a scapegoat, counting on you to be so blinded by your dynamic with him that you’ll find it simple to believe he’s at fault.” She shrugged. “It’s just something to consider.”

Deke had to admit—though he wouldn’t aloud—that she made a good point. Why only make a half-assed attempt at hiding your ID?

“We’ll get a better idea of what’s happening after we speak with AJ,” Tate stated. “He’s never been a good liar.” The Alpha male looked at Bailey. “Whoever this is, I doubt he’s virtually wooing other women as well, but I need you to go through his inbox and check his messages to be sure. Also, it would be helpful if you could hack into his email address to check if he’s been communicating with women that way.”

She gave a lazy salute. “Will do.”

“Can you get it done before we’re back?” Deke asked her. “He’ll deactivate the profile and the email address once he realizes we’re onto him.”

She waved his concern away. “I’ll change the passwords before I skim through the content. That way, AJ can’t log into them, so he’ll be unable to deactivate them.”

Tate gave a satisfied nod and then sliced his gaze back to Deke. “Let’s go pay AJ a visit.”

The breath gusted out of AJ’s lungs as Deke slammed the male against the wall, fisting his tee. His eyes wide with fright, AJ lifted his hands, trying to lean away from Deke even though there was nowhere to go. “What the hell, man?”

A growl sawed at the back of Deke’s throat—a sound that came from both him and his cat. “I don’t know where you got the idea that you’d get away with what you did, but you were dead wrong.”

AJ shrank back, his shoulders rising to his ears. “Get away with what? What are you talking about?”

“The game’s up, AJ,” said Tate, sidling up to Deke. “We know.”

“Know what?” AJ practically whined, a quake in his voice.

“Maisy paid me a visit,” Deke told him.

The male’s brow furrowed. “Who the hell is Maisy?”

Deke narrowed his eyes. The guy looked genuinely confused. “You don’t recognize the name? You should. You’ve been in an online relationship with her for the past three months.”

AJ gaped. “I haven’t talked to any women online.”

“That’s not what the evidence would suggest.”

“Evidence?”

“Everything points to you setting up the fake profile.”

AJ spluttered. “What profile?”

Deke moved his face closer to AJ’s, who jerkily flinched. “The one that’s almost a direct copy of mine on NetherVille. You pretended to be me. You picked up a human female—”

“Whoa, whoa, that’s bullshit, man!” the other male cried, his eyes popping open even wider. “No way would I do that!”

“Bailey hacked into the account. All your details were there.”

Blanching, AJ vigorously shook his head. “I swear to Christ, I never set up any social media profiles in anyone’s name but mine.”

Deke exchanged a look with his Alpha. Unless AJ had developed acting skills all of a sudden, he was speaking the truth.

Tate pinned his gaze on AJ. “What’s your email address and phone number?”

Stuttering, the other male rattled both off. Neither matched the email address and phone number that were used when creating the social media profile.

Tate looked at Deke. “I’m going to call the other number. Let’s see if someone answers.” He punched in the number and then put his cell to his ear. No sounds of a phone ringing came from anywhere in the apartment, though he supposed that the cell could be on silent mode.

Deke squinted at AJ. “If you’re telling the truth, it would seem that someone is using you as their scapegoat.”

AJ swallowed. “I’m not lying, I swear.”

Tate sighed when no one answered the phone. He swiped his thumb across the screen and then pocketed it. “For now, we’ll say we believe you. But we’ll be looking deeper into this. If we find out you lied to us here today, what follows will be a far worse punishment than you can imagine. So if you have anything to confess, now is the time to do it.”

“I didn’t create the profile,” AJ swore, his hands trembling, beads of sweat dotting his forehead.

Deke released the guy’s tee and stepped back. “You’d better not be bullshitting us, AJ. I beat your ass once. I’ll happily do it again.” He and Tate exchanged another look and then left, shutting the door behind them.

Striding down the hallway, Deke rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t think it was him.”

“Neither do I,” said Tate. “His shock and confusion were real. Hopefully Bailey finds something to help point us in the direction of who did do it.”

The two males left the complex and returned to the Alpha pair’s house. The moment they entered the living room, Havana looked up from her seat on the sofa and asked, “What did he say?”

“He point-blank denied it,” replied Tate. “I don’t believe he was lying.” He sat beside her and rested his hand on her thigh. “His reactions were genuine.”

Deke crossed to Bailey, ignoring how his gut clenched at the sight of her; ignoring how his cat tensed at the close proximity. “Did you find anything?”

“Not really,” the mamba replied, her gaze on the laptop screen. “He messaged other women on NetherVille, but the conversations never went past light flirting and they stopped a couple of weeks after he and Maisy got cozy. As for his email account … the personal info used to create it was the same used to create the fake profile. I went through his emails. Nothing there but spam and social media notifications.”

“Shit,” Deke muttered.

Bailey met his gaze. “The messages he sent to Maisy contained a lot of info about you. He talked about your family and your childhood with so much emotion it’s honestly like he slipped into your skin. It’s no wonder he fooled the human. I’ll be genuinely shocked if this isn’t a member of the pride, because I don’t see how else they can so accurately pose as you.”

“The question of why he did it remains unanswered,” said Aspen, sitting in the armchair with one leg crossed over the other. “It’s possible that—as Tate earlier pointed out—it could be someone who simply wanted to pose as another guy to score women online.”

“They’re no innocent, though,” Bailey piped up. “If we’re right and AJ’s innocent in this, someone set him up to take the fall. That was a step they didn’t need to take.”

Tate inclined his head. “They could have just made up a name instead.” He turned to Deke. “Let’s assume for a second that this person did it to strike out at you. Who would do that?”

Deke shrugged. “No clue.”

“The profile was created a little over three months ago,” Tate went on. “What was going on in your life back then?”

Deke pursed his lips. “Not much.”

“You had a ding-dong with Gerard at the Tavern,” Bailey recalled.

Havana’s gaze sharpened. “Oh yeah. It was about Dayna, right?”

“Pretty much,” replied Deke. “He overheard Cassandra offering to help me with the touch-hunger, and he made some crack about how only an asshole would hold Dayna to a promise while he’s sleeping with other women. I asked if he cared to repeat himself. But you know Gerard—he tosses out sly remarks and then immediately pulls in on himself and acts as if he said jack.”

Tate nodded. “So you let it slide.”

“Yeah. But then he accidentally-on-purpose knocked over my bottle of beer as he was placing it on the bar. He stuttered and stammered and apologized, but I wasn’t buying his act. I told him I’d rip him a new one if he pulled a stunt like that again, and that was it.”

“Am I right in guessing he’s got a thing for Dayna?” asked Bailey.

“She was with Gerard before moving onto Deke,” Tate told her. “Some think that Gerard never quite got over her, though he swears they’re better off as friends.” He paused. “Anything else happen back then, Deke?”

Scratching at his suddenly itchy nape, Deke replied, “I briefly argued with Sam, but it was just a misunderstanding. Nothing for him to retaliate over.”

“What sort of misunderstanding?” asked Tate.

“You know he has a thing for Cassandra, right? He saw me having lunch with her at the deli one time. He thought it was a date. It wasn’t. I’d headed there alone, and she’d joined me when she’d spotted me there. He turned up at my apartment later that day and confronted me, accusing me of leading her on.” Sam might be a healer, but he was no softie. Even though he wasn’t a dominant shifter, he didn’t hold back if he had something to say—especially in the defense of others.

Bailey frowned. “Leading her on? So, what, she’d totally hop on the Deke train if it wasn’t for Dayna?”

He stared down at her, feeling his brow crease. “The Deke train?”

“It whistles and chugs and everything,” said the mamba.

Tate’s mouth quirked. “I wouldn’t say Cassandra’s into Deke, but she has a soft spot for him. I can see why Sam would have viewed him as a threat.” He sliced his gaze to Deke. “Did he warn you away from her?”

“Not in so many words,” replied Deke. “He said if I had any decency in me and I respected her at all, I wouldn’t play with her feelings. I explained that he’d mistaken what he’d seen. He accused me of lying at first. Hence why it turned into an argument.” And why his cat was growling at the memory—the feline never appreciated having his integrity questioned. “But I eventually got through to him, and then he turned all sheepish and apologetic.”

Tate’s thoughtful hum came out low. “You’re right, that’s not something he’d retaliate over. There’s no need to.”

Havana pulled in a long breath. “Well, at least the whole catfish thing is over. The profile is down. The email account is deactivated. Maisy knows the score. We can keep looking into who might have created the profile—”

“But we might never find out,” Deke finished. Noticing that Bailey was staring off into space, he poked her shoulder. “Are you even listening?”

She blinked at him. “There’s no D in refrigerator. So why the hell is there a D in fridge? It’s not like it would otherwise have been pronounced differently, is it?”

He felt his brows snap together. “That’s what you’re focusing on right now? Silent letters?”

“Well, they’re everywhere. Castle. Ballet. Climb. Knee. Conscience.” Bailey lifted her shoulders. “Why put letters in places they don’t need to be?”

Jesus Christ. “Why do you care?” Deke shot back.

She inched up her chin. “I don’t see how that’s your business.”

“Fine,” he bit out.

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

She cast him a superior look. “You already said that.”

“Felt like saying it again.”

“Uh, okay, parrot.”

It took everything Deke had not to grab a fistful of her hair, bend over, and slam his mouth on hers. To give his frustration the outlet he most wanted. To remind her of what had happened last night, because, with the way she was acting, he could honestly believe she’d forgotten.

Really, he should be keeping a physical distance from her. Her scent and proximity were making him feel even antsier than usual. Plus, the tension between them was more sexually charged than ever. All of that would likely trigger the touch-hunger to flare up again.

But it was galling him big time that she behaved as though last night hadn’t made an impression on her. No, as if he hadn’t made an impression. It was pricking at not only his pride but that of his cat, driving them both to want to get up in her space and provoke some sort of reaction from her; to get under her skin and push her into losing her infamous temper.

Bailey closed the laptop. “We should probably ask the rest of the pride to check if anyone has cloned their profile as well. It might not be that Deke is the only one.”

Havana’s brows inched up. “That’s true.”

“It would be good if there are others,” said Bailey.

Deke felt his face scrunch up. “How could it possibly be good?”

“Our boy was careful with your profile; he left no crumbs to lead us to him,” she replied. “But he could have made a mistake with others; could have gotten cocky or careless. Then we’d have something on him, and then I could dig out my poleaxe and go stab a fucker.”

Deke almost did a double-take. “You have a poleaxe?”

She looked up at him, her brows sliding together. “You don’t?”

“Of course not.”

“Huh. Well, that’s weird.”

“Weird?”

She tipped her head to the side. “You don’t think so?”

“What I think is that you want to drive me batshit.”

“Well, it is on my list.”

Yeah, that had become apparent. “Any particular reason why?”

“Not one that you’d understand.”

“In other words, it isn’t rational.”

Bailey pursed her lips. “Maybe not to you. You like things to make sense.”

“People generally do.”

“I don’t.”

“You’re a special case.”

Hiding a smile—God, he was so fun to mess with—Bailey wrinkled her nose at his prickly tone. “You don’t mean that in a good way, do you?”

“No,” he curtly replied.

Bailey only let out a snort of amusement. His level of surliness never failed to tickle her. “Are you trying to hurt my feelings?”

“I gave up on that a long time ago. You’re impervious to insults.” He looked at Tate. “I’m heading home. Later.”

The Alpha male pushed out of his seat and walked him to the door.

Seeing that both Havana and Aspen were staring at her, Bailey frowned. “What?”

“There’s still some mighty tension between you and Deke,” said Havana, keeping her voice too low to carry to the guys.

Aspen nodded, rising from her seat to move closer. “And it’s even more electric than before. What are you going to do about it? You could say nothing, but then you’d be lying.”

Not much liking the taunting glint in Aspen’s eyes, Bailey didn’t respond. She merely began examining her nails.

“Don’t you have anything to say?” asked Aspen.

“About what?” Bailey asked distractedly.

“You. Deke. The mighty tension.”

“Oh.” Bailey didn’t look up from her nails. “No, nothing.”

Setting her hands on her hips, Aspen began tapping her foot. “You’re not fooling us. We know you’re not as aloof about this as you’d like us to believe.”

Bailey flexed her fingers, still eyeing her nails. “Hmm.”

“We’re not buying it, Bailey.”

“’Kay.”

Aspen’s foot stilled. “I mean it, you ain’t fooling us.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’re not,” the bearcat ground out.

“Hmm.”

Havana sighed and lifted a hand. “Aspen, don’t bother.”

“But I hate when she’s in ‘I can’t hear you mode,’” griped the bearcat, sliding her hands down to her sides and balling them up into fists.

“Which is why she does it,” said Havana. “Leave her be for now.”

“Can I slap her first? Please?”

“No,” the Alpha female firmly stated.

Aspen let out a moan of complaint, her shoulders drooping. “But I really want to.”

“It’s still a no.”

The bearcat turned to Bailey. “You won’t care if I slap you, will you?”

“Huh,” was all Bailey said.

Aspen growled. “Oh my God, stop being a little bitch!”