"Gabriel!" she called, spotting him a few seconds after he exited the building.
The other person with her followed her look and voice, noting very quickly who was striding rapidly toward him.
"Really James?" Gabriel said with annoyed disgust.
"I was just leaving, I promise."
James was a Sapphire, and one of the worst of the lot in Gabriel's opinion. Both of them knew he was lying through his teeth, but Gabriel didn't want to risk Gwen getting hurt. She was too exposed if he tried to get violent with James.
"The next time I see you doing something like this, you're going to severely regret it," he promised, his voice deadly serious as he stared the other shifter down.
"I don't know what you're talking about," James rushed out as he edged around Gabriel. "She was just lost and asking for directions."
"Get out of here," Gabriel said, taking a step toward James now that he was between the Sapphire and Gwen.
"Going," James said and practically ran for the building.
"Thank you," Gwen said.
He inclined his head. Gabriel was just glad he had recognized what was going on. Gwen had been at the Tongue & Flame the other day when the Opal crew had gone insane and tore the place down in their fight with the Emeralds. She was friends with Emma, who was also the person that Gabriel was about to go and meet.
After talking with Gwen, he realized she was headed to the same place, so he offered to drive her there. They didn't talk much during the drive, and after they entered, he said his goodbyes and sought out Emma, joining her at her table.
"Hi," he said, sitting down gently in the wire-backed chairs. They had an annoying tendency to break when a shifter sat in them, and he was determined not to have that happen to him today.
"Hey, thanks for meeting me somewhere peaceful this time," Emma joked, waving over at her friend who was seated alone, talking to the waitress.
"Indeed. This is much better. Although I do enjoy a good fight, that was just ridiculous," he agreed. The reason Gabriel had been at the Tongue & Flame had actually been to meet with Emma the first time. Unfortunately, they had never really had a chance in the aftermath of everything. So now they were finally having a meeting several days later.
"So, what did you want to see me about?" he asked, getting straight down to business. He didn't want to be any longer than he had to before he called Caia to find out what had happened.
Emma nodded. "Evan."
"What now?"
Evan was a member of the Ridgebacks. He was also one of the survivors of the first anomaly that had occurred within Genesis Valley. Originally Evan had been the Alpha of the Onyx crew. It was his first punch that had started the brawl between his crew and the Amethyst crew that had resulted in the deaths of so many bears and a few humans. The remains of those crews, against Gabriel's recommendations, had been combined to form the Ridgebacks, and placed under command of a new Alpha.
Evan had not taken the stripping of his status very well. Gabriel knew that at first he had even kidnapped Emma when she was with Garrett, the new Ridgeback Alpha. Only Emma's leniency had saved him from an immediate ending there.
Since then, it had been one thing after another with him. After he had messed up with Emma, he hadn't done anything worthy of being ended, but he was a major thorn in the side of Garrett and the Ridgebacks.
"That's just it," Emma said. "He isn't doing anything as far as we can see. But he's been acting weird. He goes off on his own all the time, doing who knows what, and always seems to be skulking around."
"Okay. That's not much to go on," Gabriel said.
"I know. But then last week, Trestin," she motioned at the waitress talking to Gwen, "saw Evan come in and meet with Ben Groll."
That got his attention.
"Really?"
"Yes. He apparently came in, spoke with Ben for a minute or two, then got up and left, and very shortly thereafter, Ben and the other Sapphire he was with left as well."
"Unfortunately, that still doesn't give us much to go on." Gabriel was disappointed. He had hoped for more information to help him try and identify what was going on. It wasn't Emma's fault, however. There was only so much she could do, and even just letting him know that Evan was on speaking terms with the Sapphires went a long way. Now he and Caia could follow Evan and see if they could pick up on something. It was at least a new angle, which is more than they had turned up at the Sapphire apartments.
Even as he thought of Caia offhandedly, his mind focused on her, bringing her to the fore.
"Listen, Emma, if there's nothing more?" he said, raising an eyebrow in question.
"No, that's all I had. Does it help you at all?"
"I think so. I'll let you know though." He rose from the table and left, hurriedly pulling his phone from his pocket.
He needed to hear her voice.
Chapter Four
Caia
"Gabriel?"
"Hi."
"It's about time you called! Where have you been?"
"In a meeting, like I told you. Is everything okay?"
She could hear the fierce note of protection in his voice and tried to deny the answering surge of delight that came from deep within her. She was not falling for him. She couldn't, even if perhaps a sliver of her wanted to. It was out of the question. So she had to stop feeling giddy whenever he was around or talking to her.
"I'm fine. I just didn't expect you to take that long, is all. I've been sitting back at the mansion for twenty minutes now."
"I'm sorry. I really didn't think I was that long. Did anyone follow you?"
"I think so."
"What do you mean by that?" He didn't sound angry, but he wanted clarification.
"A green truck followed us out of the city, but took a left as soon as we left the outskirts. So I'm not sure if it actually was following us, or just happened to be going the same way."
"It probably was. There's nothing else up that road, so they must have known where you were going. Interesting."
"What do you mean?"
"I thought you were the one who could interpret actions?" he teased. She was glad he wasn't there to see her blush. He could make her do that so easily it would have annoyed her if she thought about it more.
"Body language. Now, I tried reading what the truck was trying to tell me, but it was rather hard."
He laughed, conceding the point. "Okay, okay. It was them though, I wouldn't doubt that."
"How can you be so sure?"
"They turned off because there's nothing else up that road except the mansion. They would have had to come all the way up to it if they didn't turn."
"Oh. Well, I don't know that," she said somewhat tartly. "I've only been in town a few weeks."
"That's true," he admitted.
"So, when do I get to see you again?" Caia closed her eyes and cursed under her breath. "When do we meet up to go over our next steps, I mean?"
"I actually have a lead. Different approach, but I have a hunch it may all be related."
Caia nodded, waiting for him to continue until she realized she was on the phone and he couldn't see her.
Idiot. Too busy daydreaming about his bulging arms and broad chest, aren't you?
She couldn't fault herself, he was a gorgeous specimen of the male species.
"Okay, what is it?"
"Evan Mosier has apparently been acting really weird, and has been seen with the Sapphires. I think we should look into it, maybe tail him, and see what he's up to."
Caia racked her brain, but couldn't put a name to the face. "The name sounds familiar. Why does it sound familiar?"
"He was the primary shifter involved in the first incident, between the Amethyst and Onyx crews, the-"
Caia interrupted him as she remembered who he was. "The Alpha of the Onyx crew at the time. Now he's a member of the Jade Crew, right?"
"Exactly. He's their second, to be exact, though I'm not sure how that happened."
"If I had to hazard a guess, it's because of what you guys did."
"What do you mean?" Gabriel asked, sounding somewhat defensive.
"Well, let's see. You took the remnants of two crews who hated each other and stuck them together as a brand new crew. You also stripped an Alpha of his status, and forced him to serve under someone else. A new Alpha. One who had no memories of who he was and no experience as an Alpha either."
Gabriel didn't say anything so she continued, outlining her logic. "So, here he is, in a place he doesn't know, trying to do a job he has never done before, and there's a bitter ex-Alpha right there. Of course he's not going to stop him from asserting himself as second of the crew. He probably needed his help at the start."
"That's some pretty sound logic. I'm not sure if that's how it actually went down, but it would certainly make sense. Either way though, it's not working out any longer now that Garrett has established himself as the Ridgeback Alpha. And a good one at that."