He sauntered to his pickup, slid behind the wheel and slammed the door beside him. Behind the wheel, he opened his phone and listened for the subtle clicking sound that would tell him if he was being monitored. Silence had him hitting speed dial for someone who might give him good advice. For someone who could settle him down and tell him to get ahold of himself and forget about Quinn in light of the shit storm that was about to barrel down on the Breck Crew.
The blare of guitar and a steady country song blasted through the phone a split second before Bruiser answered, “Hello?”
“Hey, man.”
“Dade? Hang on.” Bruiser’s voice lowered as he said, “I’ll be right back, D. It’s my brother.”
An involuntary smile took Dade’s face. He’d never heard Bruiser call him family without specifying he was only his half-brother. Damn, he was glad Bruiser was back on speaking terms with the Breck Crew. The music faded in the background, but he winced as a blast of static wind hurt his sensitive ears.
“Sorry, man,” Bruiser muttered. “We’re out at Sammy’s watching Denison and Brighton play a set.”
“Oh, you want me to call you back later?”
“Nah, no reception up at the trailer park. Besides, it’s good to hear your voice. How’s things?”
Dade screwed up his face and traced the steering wheel with his fingertip. “Not awesome. Shayna is back.”
“Shayna?”
“IESA agent. And she’s come back begging a cub. Someone has Changed her, and she’s agreed to be part of some reproductive research project Krueger was going after before…well…you know.” Before Damon Daye ate his stupid ass.
“Shee-yit.”
“Yep.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Cody wants to go public. Take the power from IESA and out the agency along with us. It’s a desperation move.”
“Or it’s time.”
“Maybe. I don’t know. Listen, I have a question I need to ask you. I can’t bring it to Gage, Boone, or Cody because they’ll go straight to Ma with it and—”
“Hey, how do you know I won’t go to Ma with it?”
Dade frowned at the row of streetlights that lined the road in front of the station. “Are you and Ma talking again?”
“Yeah, but your secret is safe with me. Shoot when ready.”
Wait, Bruiser was talking to Ma again? He was the half-dragon, half-bear result of an affair between his dad and Bruiser’s mother. Ma hadn’t found out about Bruiser until he was ten when Dad had died. She’d raised him to adulthood, but she’d struggled with it, and unfortunately, Bruiser had felt the chill of her inability to get over Dad’s betrayal. If they were talking again, hell was probably starting to freeze over. “Damn, okay. Sorry, that just shocked me to my feet. You and Ma?”
Bruiser chuckled and said, “Yeah, my mate won’t let me hold grudges on family. She’s been good for my relationships.”
Dade smiled, feeling better as his bear settled. “Dang, man, that’s great. You don’t even know how happy that makes me. We felt broken when you weren’t talking to us. It just felt like something was missing, you know?”
“I know,” he said quietly. “For me, too.”
“Okay, I have a question about women.”
“Women or a woman?”
“Maybe one woman. You know me, know how I operate. No commitment and all that.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Dade inhaled deeply and switched the phone to his other ear. “Look, I met this girl today when I took the station dog to the vet, and now she’s filling my head, making me feel out of control. I hate it.”
“But you don’t hate her.”
“She’s soft, Bruiser. I mean, submissive, easily wounded. She’s like a damned hummingbird.” Beautiful with her soft auburn locks and wide, gray eyes. Fragile. Too delicate for a man like him to protect.
Bruiser chuckled into the speaker. “Did your bear perk up around her?”
“My bear and my dick. Which doesn’t make a lick of sense because she was crying the whole time I was with her. What kind of man gets a boner around a sobbing woman?”
“She pulled at your heartstrings?”
“Every damned one of them. I can’t stop thinking about her. How do I turn this off?”
“You don’t, brother. You dig your heels in and get ready. Your bear just chose his mate. Good luck trying to forget her.”
Dade’s mouth dropped open, and he clacked his mouth closed again. “That’s it? I’ve chosen and I’m done for?”
“Not done for, Dade. You’re lucky. If your bear chose her, then she’s a good match for you.”