She nodded. “I know.”
“And Nate?”
Nate. Her man. The shifter whose touch felt like a new brand. The man whose smile or deep words had her heart beating double time. The future father of her children whose look turned her legs to jelly. “I’m going to embrace our relationship. No more hiding.”
“Wonderful!” She turned to grab her bag. “Now let’s go eat. I'm starving.”
Karla clucked her tongue. “I thought I was the pregnant one.”
“Come on!” Jordan groaned, wiping the accumulating sweat off her brow. “Food.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think we should be going anywhere. There’s bad guys looking for you, Jordan. We need to keep you safe.”
Jordan bit her lip in thought. “What if I call us some enforcers to escort us?”
Karla nodded, a little less worried to leave if they had enforcers guarding her friend. “I guess that could work.”
It was another ten minutes before Shaari and three other enforcers showed up.
“Okay, they’re outside. We can go now. The question is, where should we go?” Jordan asked.
“Well, we may as well go over to Barbara’s house. I don’t want anyone to worry about where we could be. Besides, she’s always cooking.”
Jordan nodded as they marched toward the front door. “It’s what happens when you have a bunch of kids.” She patted Karla’s tummy. “That’s gonna be you soon.”
Oh, hell no. She wasn’t a cook. Not that she didn’t like to cook, it just didn’t work out for her. At all. Things burned even when she sat there and watched it. Food was undercooked, overcooked, or plain inedible. There was no way she’d put her kids through that. She’d just have to hire someone to feed her kids. “I can’t even boil water. I’ve burned enough pots to know I shouldn’t try.”
“I guess it’s a good thing Nate can cook. Barbara ensured all her boys could take care of their women.”
“I really like Barbara.”
“I know. I do too!”
Nate’s fear for the women twisted his gut. He sent a quick text to Shaari to head over to Karla’s house with a few of the enforcers and guard the women. He wasn’t leaving anything to chance. The idea of Kass having access to Karla and Jordan fired up his wrath. He turned to his brothers and shut off the phone. Aric had returned from the meeting down south and had planned on surprising his mate at the bridal shower they’d set up for her. They’d been sitting around Aric’s bar talking about the need for Caleb to make a move as soon as possible. If he didn’t do something in the next few weeks, there could be other Alphas ready to move in on his land and possibly try to fight Rocco for the pack. It was the last thing Caleb needed and the one thing they needed to prevent.
“We need to go.” Nate focused on Aric. “The ones hiring humans to go after Jordan are at the Forked Steak House. They’d hired Karla’s sister to lead them both there.”
Aric jumped to his feet. The chair tumbled backward, slamming on the floor with a crack. “Do we know who it is?”
“No, but if we hurry we can end this.”
Aric called Jordan and verified she was fine as they headed out the door. Nate grinned at Aric’s booming order for Jordan to “sit her ass still until it was safe for her to be out.”
They piled into two trucks. Aric and Jake in one and Nate and Mason in another. They stopped far back down the road. It was a possibility that it was a set up. They needed to stalk quietly.
The restaurant was desolate from the outside—which wasn’t new. The place wasn’t due to open for another week after being remodeled. Though it had a sign saying come in, most of the locals knew it was still closed.
Spread into two sets, Mason and Jake marched toward the front entrance while Nate and Aric closed in on the back side. A dusty old Nissan pulled up at that moment. Kass hopped out of the driver’s side and a tall man in pressed sweats from the passenger side. Fury burned at his throat. He’d never been tempted to throw a woman into a jail cell. Or to shred her into tiny pieces with his claws. She slammed the car door and went around the gray car, the other guy following close behind.
“Hurry up, Charlie. These people are going to be pissed,” Kass muttered.
“Of course they are. You had one job, and you couldn’t do it,” Charlie argued.
A moment later, a loud shout sounded from the restaurant. “What the fuck happened?” A male voice yelled from inside.
“They realized she was lying,” Charlie answered.
“It’s not a big deal. I’ll get you information on where she is later on. Why didn’t you tell me she knew when I was lying?” She accused.