Beautiful Moves (Shifting Steel Book 3)(55)

“Hello sir. Welcome to the Palazzo.”

“Thank you. I am meeting my girlfriend here, but I think her cell phone died. Can you let me know what room Bella Roulant is in?” Wolf gave the woman behind the desk his best smile, the one that usually got him whatever he wanted.

The woman smiled back as she typed on her keyboard. She then frowned.

“I’m sorry sir. It appears she checked out three days ago.”

Shit. Wolf’s worry instantly spiked.

“Is it possible for me to check the room she was in? She hasn’t contacted me to tell me if she went to another hotel. And there’s been no other charges on our account. I’m concerned something has happened to her.” Wolf attempted to get the woman to sympathize with him.

“I’m sorry, sir. There are other guests in that room now, and we have no record of her leaving any belongings behind,” the woman said with a frown.

“Thank you.”

Wolf headed to the casino, since that’s where he assumed Ella went last. From the corner of his eye he noticed the jackal guard approach and converse with the desk attendant. On his way to the casino he scented several more of the breed.

“This place is lousy with the bastards,” he growled under his breath.

Wolf toured the casino. He could tell Ella had been in the casino, but her scent was old. Wolf spun around when the scent of jackal doubled.

“Sir, we suggest that you find another establishment. Perhaps the reservation casino would be more to your taste,” the jackal on the right suggested.

“Look, we both know who we are. I’m not here to cause trouble. I’m looking for my girlfriend, who went missing.”

“The desk informed us, but she is no longer here. We suggest you leave,” the male repeated.

Several more jackals arrived, making it six against one. Wolf wasn’t looking to start a fight, but he wasn’t about to just leave with no answers. Before Wolf could reply he was tackled from behind.

“Is this fucking necessary,” Wolf snarled, as his arms were wrenched behind his back and he was marched to a rear exit.

He would’ve fought back, but he couldn’t hunt for Ella if he was locked in jail for the night. Wolf expected to be tossed out, not thrown in a van, and knocked out.



Bastian

Bastian took a giant swig from his tumbler of scotch, blinked a few times, then picked up his cards and stared at them again. His hand started as a flush. Now the ink on the ten of spades looked like it had been smeared. H-E-L-P was scrawled across it, in wavering letters. Bastian placed his cards back down on the table, and finished off his scotch. He grabbed the bottle and refilled his glass.

“So, what have you got?” Coso asked.

Bastian took another large swallow. He stared at Coso, Drake, and Ella, then hesitantly grabbed his cards and flipped them over. Bastian’s eyes widened when he saw the ten of spades was back to normal.

“A flush. Nice hand,” Coso commented.

Drake pushed the pile of cash toward Bastian. He sighed and shoved the cards to the middle of the table.

I’m losing it.

“Excuse me,” Drake said when his phone rang. The jackal stepped away and answered his cell.

“It may be time to call it an evening,” Bastian said with a shake of his head.

Maybe someone had laced his scotch with something. He reached toward his glass of water, and there it was again, H-E-L-P. This time the word was scrawled in the condensation on the glass.

Miss Roulant coughed, and he glanced up at her. Her face was passive, but she looked pointedly from him to his glass. She instantly looked away when Drake approached the table again.

What the fuck?

“I have a situation to attend to. Gentleman,” Drake bid them goodnight with a nod.

The jackal gripped the little brunette beneath her arm and escorted her from the table. Miss Roulant cast Bastian a quick glance as she was led from the garden. He couldn’t wrap his head around the conclusion he was coming to, regarding the odd plea for help, and where it came from.

Something fucking insane is going on. He picked up his cell and sent a text to his enforcer, AJ. Follow Drake.

Bastian didn’t know if he should mention this to Coso. The three heads of the local Shifter breeds had a tentative alliance. Bastian was sure that he and Coso were on solid ground, but Drake was a different matter. Bastian and Drake didn’t quite see eye to eye. Drake did things that brought them perilously close to being discovered, not to mention being an all-around prick.

What Bastian didn’t know, was if Coso felt the same about the jackal. Coso, the Nevada wolf pack alpha, was also a Paiute elder. His people treated the jackals like the misbehaving little brothers, their creation story portrayed them to be.