“Great! Okay, great. That’s really great.” I gritted my teeth. Yeah, really great. Although I didn’t want it to bother me, it really rubbed me the wrong way that Easton wasn’t affected as much as me. Maybe he didn’t care at all, no matter what Tuck said. “Hey, well, I should probably get back to work, but I just wanted to check in. I’ll touch base with you this weekend about taking Amy out for an afternoon.”
“Yeah, sure thing. Talk soon,” Tuck said.
I could have sworn he was about to say something else about Easton, but after a second, he ended the call. I sat back in my plush leather office chair and blew out a breath. Right, so Easton hadn’t asked about me. Well, now I knew he couldn’t care less, it would be easier to get him out of my head.
With that settled, I got back to work and managed to get quite a lot done over the next few hours.
Just as I was wrapping things up for the evening, there was a knock on my door, and my father walked in without waiting for an invitation. I’d thought he’d left the office earlier. Apparently not.
Even though we both worked for the family law firm, our interactions were pretty limited. I’d spent my entire life trying to live up to his expectations and gain his approval. Still, most people didn’t even realize we were related unless they knew us personally because he barely acknowledged me. One more thing I tried to ignore. Though I’d managed to make a name for myself in the legal world on my own, my father still seemed to think I was just riding his coattails.
“Follow me,” my father said. No greeting. No asking how my day was. Typical. I should be used to his apathy, but maybe finding out about Easton’s indifference was making me overly sensitive to my father’s brusque attitude.
He was out the door without waiting for a response, and I sighed and followed after him. He stopped just outside the conference room door and looked at me with a stern expression.
“I have a case I want you to take over.” His eyes narrowed as he assessed me. “Don’t fuck it up.”
Of course. Even after all this time, he still doubted me. But I didn’t comment, just followed him into the conference room.
I immediately recognized Senator Bates, the Montana state senator, sitting in one of the chairs, a stack of files in front of him. His expression was what caught my attention, though. The man was always a picture of composure, but right then, he looked utterly distressed.
My father made introductions, taking a seat at the head of the table, and then he immediately got to the point.
“Senator Bates’s son has gone missing. There’s suspicion of foul play.”
I glanced between the two men, surprised. That was the first I’d heard of it. It had to be a pretty high-profile case, but somehow the media hadn’t gotten wind of it. I was instantly on alert.
“There have been accusations that the Senator is involved in the disappearance of his son,” my father said.
Careful to keep my expression neutral, I accepted the file my father handed to me—but he didn’t release it right away. I met his gaze, and his hazel eyes that were so much like mine bored into me. A challenge. And a reminder of his warning: Don’t fuck this up.
“I’m putting you in charge of keeping Senator Bates out of prison.”
I clenched my jaw and pulled the file from him, opening it without replying and then quickly scanning the contents while my father briefed me on what was going on. There was an investigation that had been opened against the senator, and from the looks of it, they had some pretty solid evidence against him already.
But my father was entrusting me to handle this. It could end up being a really high-profile case. I set my jaw, determined that I would come through. Maybe for once, my father would see that I was good enough. More than good enough, really. I was the best damn attorney in the region. Even more than him, though he’d never admit that.
Still, the fact that he was giving me this case said something. Maybe he recognized on some level that if anyone could handle a situation like this, it was me.
I focused on the contents of the file as my father quietly gave the senator platitudes and assurances that he would never see the inside of a prison. It was going to be tough. But I could do it.
Finally, I got to the end of the file, to the information that had been gathered so far against Senator Bates. A private investigation agency had been used, which must be why it had stayed out of the media so far. I scanned the details, but when I got to the bottom of the page, I froze.
No way. No fucking way. My heart hammered, and blood roared in my ears.
Because the name of the PI investigating Bates was none other than Easton Moore.
4
Easton
I dragged my hands over my face and stifled a yawn. Coffee. I needed more coffee. I’d been up late last night working on my latest case and had been back at it early this morning. Actually, I’d been working like a dog for the past two weeks, and it was starting to wear on me. At least it was Friday, and I had the weekend to look forward to. Some much-needed downtime was all I had on my agenda.
But right then… I needed to get my head in the game and make some progress on this assignment. It was pretty complicated, more so than many of the others I’d taken on since I opened my private investigation company. And it had the potential to be extremely high-profile, especially if what I was starting to suspect was true.
I stood from my desk and went over to brew a fresh pot of coffee, mulling over things as they currently stood.
It had all started the day Milo Tanner’s mother showed up in my office two weeks ago, eyes red-rimmed and hands shaking, looking like she hadn’t slept in days. She had been so distraught when telling me that her son had been missing for days. And the worst part was that the cops weren’t doing a damn thing about it. That really pissed me off because serving the community and upholding justice were as ingrained in the Moore family as much as being shifters defined our lives.
Apparently, her husband, Senator Bates, who had a questionable reputation at best, wanted to keep everything out of the media since he was up for re-election in the coming year.
As I scooped coffee grounds into the machine, I recalled the way she’d looked almost afraid as she’d whispered those details to me. Then she’d quickly asked me about my confidentiality policy. It made me angry all over again just thinking about it. She was obviously afraid of her husband. That had been enough for me to take on the case.
But I hadn’t expected to find what I had. Because the more I investigated, the more it appeared that Bates had something to do with the disappearance of his stepson.
Milo Tanner was a young shifter who had just turned twenty-one. He belonged to the Blackwater Pack like me, though I’d never met him personally. According to Mrs. Bates, her husband was trying to play it off like Milo had run away. But she also said that Milo would never do that. He was a happy guy. He and his stepfather may have clashed over things in the past, but not to the point that Milo would leave home over it.
Still, Senator Bates was insisting that was the situation. The fact that he wanted to keep it out of the media, that he wasn’t doing everything in his power to find his missing stepson proved something was off here. And I was determined to get to the bottom of it. I had a hunch the senator was at the center of everything, and my hunches hadn’t been wrong yet.