Chapter 11

"Here we are."Kyle glided the car to a stop against the curb. He quickly turned off the headlights and made sure the dome light wouldn't kick on.

Holly spotted Selene's through the windshield. Kyle had parked on a side street across from it so they could see the front and side of the club. "I thought you said you didn't want to go back in there."

"I don't. We're just going to watch the place," Kyle explained. "We're going to document everyone going in and out of there. Some of them very well may be the same people who were there when we were, and they might even be the same guys I followed. They're the ones I'm really after, but I'll take whatever data I can get."

Holly's chest tightened as she spotted Max at the front door. She didn't doubt Pierce's other pack members, like Rex and Lori, were in there. He'd introduced her to several others throughout the night, though they were a blur since she'd been so focused on him. "But you don't know if any of these other people are shifters," she reasoned.

"They're still associating with them. I can't explain it, but I've got a feeling this place is a big hangout for them. I've got a buddy in the tech industry. I'm going to send all the information to him to see if he can run it through a recognition system or see if any of them have features in common. We have to figure out how we're going to spot these guys."

Damn. He was starting to sound like he actually had a plan, even if it was complete lunacy. "It doesn't seem right to just sit here and spy on people."

"There's a lot of that in my line of work," Kyle insisted. "Investigative reporting is all about patience and observation. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have a handsome face. It gets people to open up a little more easily."

Oh, great. He'd gone back to arrogance again. Holly didn't want to feed his ego since it was already stuffed full, but she had to be careful. She'd already made too many sarcastic or critical remarks, and it wasn't like she could stop this investigation by telling Kyle it was silly. She had to find a way to convince him, but for the moment, he had to believe she was on his side. "I'm sure that's true."

His eyes had been focused on the rock club, but he quickly turned to look at her with a smirk. "So you've finally noticed?"

"I mean, um—" She floundered for a good reply that wouldn't completely shoot him down nor encourage him too much. "You did get that one woman to open up earlier today. The one outside the pizza shop."

"Yes, she certainly had a good story to tell. I have a feeling her entire life will change once we get the truth out there."

Holly wasn't convinced. The woman had been sitting on the corner with a cardboard sign, begging for money and food. Holly had given her a bit of both without asking for anything in return, but Kyle had decided to interview her about strange activity in the neighborhood. He'd made the mistake of feeding her information about exactly what he'd wanted, and the woman had instantly agreed with him. "Oh, yes! I've seen them! I see them all the time! They're everywhere!"

"You know, your entire life is about to change, too," Kyle continued. "You've been right here with me for every step of this work so far, and I know your writing is going to really bring this thing to life once we have all the evidence." He leaned over the console, his eyes shining in the streetlight. "What do you say we share more than just a byline?"

Holly blinked. Kyle had always hit on her at previous meetings, and he'd never really seemed to take the hint that she wasn't interested. In fact, it wasn't until this whole idea of exposing shifters came about that he'd started behaving more like a normal person. Apparently, he'd just been biding his time. "What?"

He tipped his chin down, trying to give her a smoldering look. "Come on, Holly. We're both mature adults, and I think it's time we were honest with each other. We've been spending an awful lot of time together, and the tension between us just keeps building."

The only tension she'd been feeling was just how awkward it was to go around town with him while he interrogated random strangers. "Uh, I don't know about that."

"I admit that I brought us on this little stakeout because it would help our project, but there were some other motivations behind it." He reached out and put his hand on her knee.

She picked it up and set it back near the gear shifter. "Kyle…"

"Yes. Say my name, Holly. I like hearing it come from your lips like that. We both know we can only resist this attraction between us for so long." He put his hand back on her knee, sliding it up a little.

"Hey!" He'd always just been a creep from a short distance before, but he'd never gone so far as to touch her. She picked up his hand and once again put it back on the console. "I'm here with you because we're working together," she reminded him.

Kyle let out a scoffing laugh. "If you're concerned about workplace ethics, don't be. I've spoken at length with Lorelei in HR, and we don't have anything to worry about since we don't work in the same office."

"I bet you have," Holly retorted. "You're not listening to me, Kyle."

"That's because your body and your mouth always have two very different things to say, Holly. I think it's time we shut one of those up for good, don't you?" He leaned further toward her, bringing his lips in toward hers.

Holly's hand shot out, grabbing his throat as she shoved him back onto his side of the car. "I never wanted anything to do with you, Kyle, and I never will. For someone who prides himself so much on discovering the truth, you sure don't know how to get the hint!"

Kyle floundered against the car window, gagging and choking from the force of her rebuttal. "You didn't have to do that!" he gasped.

"Obviously, I did." Holly's bear had made her, but she didn't regret it for a second. "I've tried being nice, and I've tried being direct. If you think we've been spending all this time together for any reason other than the story, you're a complete imbecile."

"Fine." He rubbed his throat, scrunching his face at the pain. "I get it, okay? We'll just focus on the story from now on."

That was exactly why she'd stayed in Eugene in the first place, but she knew she couldn't be in close proximity to this man any longer. "Hell, no. I've wasted far too much time on you and your story already, especially since there is no story!"

He had the nerve to look offended. "Are you saying you don't believe me?"

"Are you fucking kidding me? No one will believe you!" She knew the truth, the very truth that he was after, but that didn't matter anymore. "Despite what you think you've seen, and whatever proof you think you've got, this story won't be accepted anywhere. You sound like a raving lunatic, following random people around and insisting that they can turn into animals. No decent media source or even any other journalist will support you in this, and I refuse to have my name associated with yours in any capacity!"

His jaw dropped. Kyle gaped at her for a long moment, his eyes ping-ponging back and forth as he studied her face. He slowly started to nod. "I think I see what's going on here. It's that Pierce guy."

Panic and rage moved through her body, boiling under her skin. She couldn't let him think he was onto something, not when the shifters Kyle had seen could very well have been some of Pierce's packmates. Her bear was furious at the idea of Kyle saying anything against her mate. Guilt immediately swallowed her, knowing that she'd lied to him. "The more you talk, the less sense you make."

"No, I understand now. That Pierce guy must be one of them. That's why he brought you to Selene's. He knows the place because that's where they all hang out. He's got you brainwashed, or maybe even worse. Holly, there's no telling what he's going to do to you. Come on, I'm going to get you out of here."

"The fuck you are!" Holly snagged her bag and shoved open her car door before Kyle could get the ignition going. "Go home, Kyle. There's nothing here for you." She slammed the door and charged down the sidewalk.

His headlights followed her. True fear rose inside her now, wondering if and when he'd become suspicious of her as well. That bouncer Max was probably just across the street in the shadow of the doorway of Selene's. He would probably help her, but getting him involved would put him at risk. She couldn't do it. She was alone.

Finally, at the intersection, Kyle turned off. She breathed a sigh of relief and opened the rideshare app on her phone.

"Hey, are you okay?" the young man behind the wheel asked when she opened the backdoor.

Holly sensed the animal inside him and relaxed her shoulders a little. His identity didn't make him safe, but it still made her feel better. "Yeah. I'm just having a bad night."

"There are snacks in the seat pocket and a cooler of bottled waters back there if you need anything. Help yourself."

"Thank you." Holly hesitated, but when she reached into the seat pocket and found a little bag of dried cherries covered in chocolate, she tore straight into them. They wouldn't make the whole world better, but they helped. She was going to leave a generous tip for this guy.

"Um, ma'am?" he said when he pulled up. "I just want you to know there's a man on the porch."

"What?" Her heart skipped a beat, then skipped another when she looked. "I know him, but thanks for the heads up."

Yeah, he was definitely getting a good tip. It was easy to just get a ride back to her rented house, but now she had to figure out how to deal with the problem that was waiting for her. "Pierce? What are you doing here?"

"I came to ask you the same thing," he replied. His voice was gruff but not harsh as he stood and came down the stairs. "I thought you left."

"I planned to." How could she explain it all to him now? "I had something come up."

"Work?"

She couldn't quite see his face with the porch light behind him, but she heard the hurt and the hope in his voice. "Sort of. Come inside and I'll tell you."

He followed her in and she shut the door. Holly locked the deadbolt, then peeked through the front curtain, just in case. When that driver had told her a man was on her porch, she'd thought for sure Kyle had gotten to her place first. The relief she'd felt at knowing it wasn't him was short-lived. She could've found a way to deal with Kyle. This was harder.

"Is someone following you?" Pierce asked.

"Probably not." The chocolate-covered cherries had whetted her appetite, and she went to the fridge. There wasn't much food there, and she hadn't had much cause to cook since Kyle had insisted on going to so many restaurants during their investigation. She found a container of lunch meat and another of sliced cheese and put them out on the counter. Her bear rumbled with satisfaction, wanting all the proteins and fats. "Are you hungry?"

"No." He slid onto the stool at the breakfast bar, facing her as she dug into her snack.

He was waiting for an explanation, and she had to give it to him. He deserved that much. She should've told him in the first place. It was too late for that now, and all she could do was move forward. "Do you remember that guy Kyle I introduced you to?"

The tendons in his neck visibly tightened. "Yes."

Jealousy looked good on him, something she couldn't help but notice even when she was emotionally exhausted and a bit embarrassed. "He's an investigative reporter. He specializes in digging up dirt that others are trying hard to hide. From my experience as a writer, I know I can't just turn off the process, and neither can he. He caught snippets of conversation that night at Selene's, which made him suspicious. He decided to follow some guys as they left, and he saw." Holly plucked another slice of cheese from the bag, knowing she didn't have to tell him exactly what Kyle had seen.

He swiped a hand over his forehead. "What happened?"

"Nothing in that moment. I think it scared the shit out of him and he ran away, but then he decided he was going to find the truth behind it. He wants to dig into this and expose all shifters. He's envisioning a nationwide headline with his name beneath it. And mine." She swallowed a bit of nausea that rode up with her words.

Pierce stared at her in disbelief. "You're doing this?"

"No." How could he think that? Then again, she'd already lied to him. What evidence did he even have that she was a decent person? "When he asked me to work with him, I knew I had to say yes. It was the only way to know for certain what he was up to and how close he was getting to the truth. Although I hate to admit it, I know he's good at his job, and I couldn't risk leaving him to it. So I stayed, and I've basically been following along with him to keep track of what he's doing."

"You could've told me," he replied thickly. "You've been in town, hanging out with him, and all this time, I thought you were gone."

Holly knew she didn't have to justify who she did or didn't spend time with. She understood why he was upset, but he had to understand this from her side, too. "That was part of the risk. I was trying to keep everyone who shared this identity as far away from him as possible."

"What about you?" Pierce challenged.

"I guess he had too much hubris to think he'd actually associate with one of us. I don't have a good answer for that, but I know I'm right about everything else." She relayed how Kyle had theorized about Pierce's role in this whole scheme. "I think it was only because I finally made him realize I'm not interested in him. His ego was hurt, and he wanted someone else to blame besides himself."

Pierce's knuckles turned white where they gripped the countertop. "So he made a pass at you?"

"He's been doing it for years, but I put him in his place." She was confident in that. Kyle might have plenty of crazy things coming out of his mouth, but she'd bet her life savings he'd never hit on her again after she'd slammed him in the throat. "Anyway, that's not really the point. The real problem at hand is that Kyle isn't going to stop until he knows the truth. I thought he'd get bored and move on to something else, but he's completely obsessed. He's absolutely convinced there are shifters, and he knows they congregate at Selene's. I don't know how I can stop him now, but I've got to figure something out."

Pierce's lips twitched as he ran his tongue over his teeth. He straightened, staring at the kitchen wall. "I'll take care of it."

"What? No. Pierce, you can't do that. Like I said a minute ago, he already thinks you're a part of this. If you get involved, it'll only confirm that for him." Alarm bells clanged in her mind at the thought of Pierce putting himself directly in the line of fire, so to speak.

"I won't do it alone. You didn't have to either, Holly. You know as well as I do that we have to rely on our connections to each other to keep guys like Kyle from taking us down. I'll contact my pack, and we'll come up with something. Rex is good at this sort of thing, and that's exactly why he's Alpha."

She opened her mouth, wanting to protest, but closed it again. He was absolutely right. If she'd been back home and had this sort of a problem, she would've gone to her Alpha, her cousin Dylan, and the rest of the Brigham clan. It was what she should've done in the first place, but at the time, it'd made more sense to ensure some distance between Kyle and his mark. "What can I do?"

"Just tell me what you know about Kyle's plans." He'd released his death grip from the counter and let out a deep breath.

Fate was cruel. It'd tied the two of them together, bonding them with a connection no one could break. Shifters waited for the right one to come along, and at forty-three, she'd certainly waited her fair share of time. In fact, she'd started to think she might never meet him. There he was, standing right in front of her, but the awkwardness and tension between them were so wrong. It shouldn't feel this way. Holly recounted everything she knew about Kyle's plans. "It seemed like he was really focused on Selene's, and he'd also mentioned going back to Skinner Butte Park. That was where he saw the wolves before."

"All right. I'll take care of this." Pierce turned toward the door.

"Pierce." She followed him, not wanting him to go, yet knowing he should. "For what it's worth, I'm really sorry this worked out the way it did."

He hesitated with his hand on the knob. "Yeah, me too. Is there anything else I need to know?"

It felt like a jab, an unfair question that reminded her of her lie, but she couldn't blame him. The trouble was, Holly thought there just might be something else she needed to say. She had to be completely sure before she did, though. "No. I don't think so."

"I'll let you know what happens." He opened the door and then looked back over his shoulder. "Lock this behind me."

"I will." She pushed the door in place and then flicked the deadbolt over with a heavy thunk, feeling like she was locking her mate out of her life instead of just protecting herself.

She'd wanted to keep him safe, and she hadn't been able to. This whole trip had been terrible, and Holly knew things would never be the same again.