The Tracker's Secret: Sunderverse (Mate Tracker Book 2) by Ingrid Seymour (the gingerbread man read aloud .txt) 📗

“Isn’t it, though? If I had known about rhabo, about what that smell meant, I would have never introduced them. I would’ve told Aaron that I hadn’t found anyone for him.”

“Toni, this could happen to anyone. People meet all the time in all kinds of different ways. There are no guarantees that they’ll be healthy or decent or anything at all.”

“It’s different, and you know it.”

She sighed and nodded sadly. No matter how much we tried to rationalize it, we both felt responsible.

“I’ll call him,” I said, feeling dread just at the thought of that conversation. “We’ll give him a refund.”

Rosalina shook her head, her brow furrowed. “I can’t believe there’s a drug that can kill vampires.”

“Eric said it was worse than heroin.”

“That’s wild.”

But something didn’t feel quite right about it. A lot of ideas and questions were bouncing in my head, though one stood out. “Someone must’ve gone through a lot of trouble to come up with it, don’t you think?”

Rosalina considered, then nodded. “It would’ve required someone smart and a lot of trial and error.”

“Yeah. And it wouldn’t have been cheap.”

We exchanged worried glances.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked.

“That someone wants to purposely kill vampires?”

I bit my lower lip. “Is that crazy? Too conspiracy-theory-ish?” I made air quotes.

“The way things have been going lately, I don’t think so.”

“Maybe I should ask Tom about it.”

“Sounds like a good idea.”

I rubbed my forehead. “What about Aaron and Josh?”

“Let’s find out more, and when we have a better handle on the situation, we’ll talk to them.”

With that agreement, we got to work, meeting with a middle-aged woman who’d just had her third divorce and wanted to make the fourth husband stick, and after that, screening a couple of new clients. I was sitting in my office, ready to tackle today’s mail when I heard Jake’s voice in the lobby.

I groaned, burying my face in my hands. I didn’t need anything else to worry about, and Jake seemed to always come with a trunk full of problems. A light knock made me lift my head toward the open door. Jake stood at the threshold, almost filling the entire space with his wide shoulders and 6’2” height.

“Hello,” he said in his deep, rumbling voice.

His intoxicating smell hit me, and I had to force myself not to inhale to avoid getting drunk on him.

“May I come in?” He had a large paper bag with him that also came with its own delicious smell.

“Well, you’ve brought food.” I gestured toward the back. “Anthonino’s burgers, if I’m correct. So yeah, you can come in.” I was that easy to bribe. One big fat bacon cheeseburger and I would agree to anything.

He smiled one of his crooked smiles, and inevitably, my heart went all squishy and weak, and I forgot how angry I was at him for constantly sticking his nose in my business, even if he’d made it very clear that, despite our dumb attraction, I was not what he needed.

He wore a gray shirt, with the top two buttons undone, revealing a triangle of smooth, golden chest. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and the muscles in his strong forearms rippled as he set the bag on the table and proceeded to take the food out. After handing over a wrapped burger and a box of fries, he ripped the paper bag open and laid it over the desk so we could eat on top of it. He went back out and returned with a couple of drinks.

“I left them on Rosalina’s desk,” he said apologetically as he took the chair across from mine. “I brought her a burger, too. I just didn’t know how she liked it, so it had everything in it. I hope that’s fine.”

I nodded and smiled. Jake could be so thoughtful, and yet such an asshole. Why couldn’t I just find the perfect guy? Both Jake and Stephen had great traits but also such big flaws.

I unwrapped my burger and peeked inside.

“No worries,” Jake said. “It doesn’t have any onions, but it does have extra pickles and mustard.”

There he went, remembering exactly how I liked things. A breath shuddered out of me of its own accord. He glanced up from his fries and met my gaze.

After a moment of silence, he whispered, “I wanted to apologize about the other night.”

I said nothing.

“You see,” he went on, “I wanted to let you be as I promised I would, but I... I just can’t. This is why I don’t like promises. They come back to haunt you. When I see that you’re in danger, a protective instinct takes over, and I can’t help myself.”

I huffed.

“Haven’t you ever done exactly the opposite of what you intended to do?” he asked.

I almost burst out laughing. I’d done him. I still wanted to do him, even as my brain screamed that it was the stupidest thing I could possibly do.

“Nope, I wouldn’t know about that.” I stuffed a fry into my mouth and stared at the ceiling.

He chuckled, knowing perfectly well I was lying. “Things are bad out there, Toni. This brewing war between vampires and werewolves is reaching a boiling point. You know Stephen and Ulfen are at the center of it, but you may not realize that Eric Cross and Damien Ward are also involved.”

I froze, poised to take a bite of my burger. Slowly, I set it down and met his gaze. “They are?”

He nodded.

“How?”

“There’s this new drug. It came onto the market no more than a couple of months ago, but it’s already wreaking havoc. It’s at the heart of the conflict in the Skew community.”

I swallowed thickly and spoke almost involuntarily. “Rhabo.”

His eyebrows went up in surprise. “How did you hear about it?”

“Um, Lucia told me. She heard about it in school.”

Jake nodded, satisfied with my lie. High school kids are always in the know, and my sister was one of the “in” kids. She was always up to speed on everything. It