A Mate to Believe In (Dragons of Mount Aterna Book 2) Read online

  “Your Sheriff has my family’s information,” Pace said quietly. “He knows how to bill us.”

  “Of course, he does,” she drawled, the words dripping with acidity and sarcasm.

  Carla watched him walk away. There was more to this than he was letting on; she could tell that easily. The question was, what was he hiding? If she could just prove that he was actually guilty, it could be the bust that she needed to advance her career.

  Sheriff Dunbar would be forced to finally promote her to full Deputy. He wouldn’t have any more sexist excuses not to.

  Carla seethed at the reins, wanting to break free, to do her job. A job that she had been ordered not to do.

  What’s it going to be?

  Chapter Three

  Pace

  Logan was waiting for him as they drove back onto the compound.

  “Thanks for the lift,” he said.

  “Not a problem,” Emma said. “Just don’t make a habit of it.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Pace wanted to laugh.

  Ever since Asher had brought the woman to their mountain home, Pace had felt an affinity to her. Like she was an older sister. He had no siblings, unlike most of the others, and he was grateful for the way their friendship had developed. He cherished her opinion highly, and couldn’t be happier for Asher either. He was already teasing the other dragon, asking when they would have kids so ‘Uncle’ Pace could spoil them rotten.

  Plus, she gave him rides back home when his truck got stolen. So that was a plus too.

  Hopping out, he strode over to Logan, the head of Clan Aterna.

  “So the issue isn’t dead,” the other dragon shifter said without preamble.

  “No,” Pace agreed. “It’s not. Clearly, whoever robbed Asher wasn’t working alone.”

  Logan’s growl filled the courtyard. Behind them, the gate slid closed, cutting off the property from the road beyond.

  “What did they get?” Logan wanted to know, bracing himself for bad news.

  “Nothing,” Pace said, heading inside. “Come on, I need a beer.”

  “Why did you come back with Emma by the way?” Logan asked, looking over his shoulder at Asher’s mate.

  “Because the bastard stole my truck!” Pace snapped at nobody in particular. He was the only one to blame for it, so it was not like he could get mad at anyone else.

  They walked into the kitchen and Pace grabbed two bottles from the beverage fridge and, with a quick flick of his wrist, opened them both.

  Logan held out his hand expectantly, but Pace just downed one quickly and then walked away. He needed two beers. Behind him, he heard Logan snort, but no reprimand came his way.

  “They got nothing?” Logan asked as the two settled into a pair of chairs on the raised patio. The house was set onto the side of the mountain, and each floor successfully stepped down, like a set of stairs, affording all the balconies an unimpeded view of the valley floor and the town of Five Peaks itself, far off in the distance.

  “No.”

  “But how?”

  “Because,” Pace explained. “I changed all the protocols after what happened with Asher. Then I changed them again last week. I’ve been doing weekly checkups, and changing everything. Just in case.”

  “Good job,” Logan rumbled, drinking his own beer. “We owe you for that.”

  Pace shrugged. “It’s my job. I’m the money guy. I have to look after this stuff.”

  “Still, you just saved the entire Clan with your foresight,” Logan pointed out. “The least I can do is say thank you.”

  “I guess. I’d feel better about it if I hadn’t underestimated him. I thought I had the asshole,” he growled, recanting the fight.

  Logan nodded. “So it’s not a human either. We can confirm that?”

  “One hundred percent. Must be a dragon. Nothing else could hit that hard,” Pace said, feeling his skull where the skin was still a little tender. His advanced healing had long since drawn the swelling down, and most of the bruising was gone too, but it would be a few hours more before he was completely back to normal.

  The two drank in silence for a minute or two, letting their respective tempers dissipate a bit. Right now, the situation required dispassionate logic, and neither of them was in the right frame of mind to think that way. So they sat and finished the beers.

  No sooner had they set them down on the table than the door slid open behind them.

  “Just me,” Clarice said. “I heard, figured you could use these.” She sat down four more beers on the table.

  Pace laughed silently.

  “Have I ever told you how perfect you are?” Logan murmured to his mate, pulling her down to kiss her.

  Watching out of the corner of his eye, Pace suppressed his feelings of jealousy. Not for Clarice, of course. She was more like a mother to him than his own mother had been. No, it wasn’t about her in particular, but more about what the two of them had. Their bond.

  “You’ll find yours,” Logan said.

  “How did you know?” Pace asked. He’d thought he was keeping his emotions to himself.

  “You’ll understand one day. Hard to explain. Now,” Logan said, sitting up straight, taking a swig of his fresh beer. “What do we do next?”

  Pace knew where he was going with this. “You need to warn the Clans,” he said. “They all need to know.”

  “Yes. Except I won’t be the one telling them.”

  “What are you talking about?” Pace asked uncomfortably. “Why not? You’re the head of Clan Aterna. That’s your job!”

  “You’re going to have to tell them, Pace. Give them all the details. You know I’m not a tech guy. They need to know the specifics of how they tried to pull this off, and what measures you took to ensure they couldn’t. That’s your area.”

  Pace sighed. “I hate public speaking. You know that.”

  “I know,” Logan agreed, clapping him on the shoulder. “But this is one of those times that you need to do what’s best for all of us. You’ll just have to put that aside. I promise, I’ll handle any trouble that comes from it.”

  “Trouble?” Pace shook his head. “Why would there be trouble? We’re warning them.”

  Logan lifted an eyebrow. “What are we warning them of?”

  “That someone tried to rob us,” Pace said.

  “Right. But who tried to rob us?” Logan pushed, wanting Pace to make the connection on his own.

  “Don’t try to teach me politics. Please. I hate it. Just explain,” Pace said with a groan before upending the last half of his beer. “I’m no good at that stuff. I’d rather give a speech than do what you do.”

  Logan snorted. “It’s not that different. But think, Pace. If we tell the other clans that an unknown dragon shifter tried to rob us…well, where do you think that dragon came from?”

  “Oh. Another one of the clans,” Pace said as understanding clued in. “They’re going to assume we’re accusing them of something.”

  “Exactly,” Logan said. “So you just stick to the facts. Let me handle everything else. It’ll be fine.”

  “Right. When are we doing this?” Pace wanted to know. “The sooner the better.”

  “May as well do it at the Assembly. It’s in two days. Everyone will be there. That way, we can get the word out as far as possible, as fast as possible. So not just the other clans can take more precautions, but individuals too.”

  Pace nodded. Great. Now instead of speaking to four clan heads, he would be talking in front of dozens of dragons.

  Wonderful.

  Chapter Four

  Carla

  The whole thing didn’t sit well with her.

  Carla had been a police officer for eight years now. She knew when something smelled rotten. Was she a real detective? No, but then again, there weren’t any of those in Five Peaks. The town’s police presence was just too small for that, but she’d taken it upon herself to assume that role when the need arose.

  “You don’t just stumble through
this,” she muttered, looking at the front of the destroyed building. Despite orders to the contrary, she’d marked the scene off with police tape the day before in hopes of keeping people out. It seemed to have worked for the time being.

  Tugging on a strand of her brilliant blonde hair that fell out from under her hat, Carla considered what she was looking at.

  “One person doesn’t do this,” she said, repeating what she’d been feeling in her gut the entire time.

  It was just too much damage. Stepping through the tape, she entered the building. It was still under renovation, and she couldn’t tell yet what it was being turned into. But the damage to the walls in several places looked like a body had been thrown against it.

  Had Pace purposefully destroyed the building? Carla pondered that idea for a moment. Could there be some sort of rivalry between his family and the owners? Maybe he wanted to buy the property and figured if the renovations kept being sabotaged, he would get it for cheaper?

  That all seemed plausible, but not likely. She couldn’t shake the calm invincibility in his pale blue eyes as he stared at her. Certain of himself. Not arrogant, not cocky, just…certain. It irked her, because he’d been right, in that nothing had come of it. Her Sheriff had, as usual, bowed to any member of the Five that decided to stick their face in Five Peaks, as if they were royalty.

  Well not me, Mister. Not me. I will find out what you’re up to, I promise you that.

  Carla’s eyes kept coming back to the support beam. It wasn’t dented, but in fact the metal pole, perhaps four, maybe five inches in diameter, was bent almost in half, and had been ripped clear of the ceiling. She eyed the four bolts that should have secured it.

  “How do you manage this?” she muttered to herself. “Maybe it was already damaged?”

  Except the ceiling around it looked like it had been freshly drywalled and painted, like the rest of the place. If something as important as a support beam still needed to be replaced, they wouldn’t be doing that.

  She cursed, wishing she’d gotten there earlier. It had, in fact, been plain old luck that she was nearby to begin with. While driving down the street over, she’d seen a few people come running, and had gone to investigate. But by the time she’d come around the corner, everyone was either running or driving away from the scene. The only one left was Pace, and he obviously wasn’t talking.

  “Hello?”

  Spinning, Carla’s hand dropped to her gun at the voice, though she quickly pulled it away. The two people standing at the entrance were not a threat.

  “Hi.”

  “Are you Deputy Frazer?” the woman asked, eying the inside cautiously, then turning to the other person, whom Carla assumed was her husband. “I’m not going in there, Pete. Just in case, I’d better stay safe.”

  Carla walked over to them, noting the large bulge in her stomach as she turned slightly to the side. A mild jolt of envy ran through her, but she pushed it aside, as she always did.

  Career first.

  “You must be Melissa?” she asked, sticking her hand out through the police tape.

  “Yes, that’s me,” the woman said, taking it and shaking her hand. “This is my husband Pete.”

  The Brookfields were the owners, and the woman was the one Carla had spoken to on the phone once she’d tracked them down.

  “Come on in,” she said to Pete. “You may as well see what happened.”

  She watched him tenderly give his wife a shoulder squeeze and then Pete stepped inside.

  “They certainly did a number on the doors,” he muttered, glass crunching underfoot.

  “Just one person,” Carla said.

  “Have you found them yet?” Pete asked tightly. “Do you know who?”

  Carla hesitated, her hand closing over the piece of paper in her pocket that had Pace’s information on it. She hadn’t told Pete and Melissa much over the phone, other than that there had been some damage to their building. They didn’t know what was going on.

  “Not yet,” she said, pulling her hand out of her pocket. The paper was still within. “I’m still trying to locate footage from video cameras across the street, in case anyone else caught the incident.”

  “What about our system?” Melissa said from the entrance. “Did you check that?”

  “You have a security system?” Carla said slowly, her spine straightening.

  Maybe she could get video evidence of whatever had happened in here. Proof that Pace was covering something up, that he was involved in some sort of crime. She bit down on her lip to keep herself from smiling. That confident jerk wouldn’t be looking so suave and sexy when she arrested him and threw him in jail, that was for sure! She would love to be the one to wipe that look off his face.

  “We do,” Pete said, walking toward the back of the building. “It’s not great, and I can already see one camera has been totaled, so it likely won’t be of help. But the one back there might have picked something up.”

  Carla nodded and followed as he led her into the little security room tucked away in the far rear. There Pete bent over the system and rewound it to the afternoon before. He stepped out of the way as Carla leaned in close, watching it eagle-eyed.

  The feed only showed a portion of the damaged area. This camera mostly watched the back of the store, or whatever it was going to become. There was movement of shadows offscreen, and then suddenly someone came flying through to hit the wall, nearly going right through it. Plaster dust flew up into the air, making the already grainy camera feed even tougher to see.

  She watched as the figure—she couldn’t tell if it was Pace or someone else—got up and brushed the impact off as if it was nothing, and then dropped into a crouch.

  That’s a fighting stance if I ever saw one, she thought, carefully keeping her mouth shut.

  The figure on screen rushed off it. There was a brief delay, then a figure came back. Again, she couldn’t tell if it was Pace or not. They were right on the edge of the screen, and it looked for all the world as if they were fighting someone else. She could maybe catch a glimpse of another arm just off camera, but it was too blurry to tell. All at once, something happened and the figure on camera flew backward like they had been hit.

  Except they were flung clear out of the camera’s field of view. In one blow.

  Carla heard a gasp. It took her a moment to realize it had been her own. That wasn’t possible! Nobody could hit with that much power.

  “I need a copy of this,” she said. The images were distorted and grainy, but it was clear proof that there had been two people present. She couldn’t see them of course, but going by the one figure’s actions, it was obvious that a fight had taken place.

  “Here, just take the master,” Pete said, giving her the CD that in the drive still. “Just return it, is all I ask.”

  “Of course,” she said, taking the slim case and handling it like it was pure gold. “Thank you.”

  “No, Deputy, thank you. If you can find out who this was, then perhaps we can get compensated for the damage. We put our all into this, you know,” Pete said, standing up and heading for the door. “We don’t have any money left for such expensive repairs.”

  Carla felt a moment of guilt, but she knew that, no matter what, they were going to get the money for the repairs. She would see to that, at a minimum. But first she had to find out what crime Pace had been covering up here, so she could bust him for that.

  Then Pete and Melissa could sue him for all the physical damage, plus a whole lot more in mental anguish. They deserved it.

  “What is it you’re building here?” she asked on the way out.

  “It’s going to be a restaurant,” Melissa said. “A pub-style one, catering more to adults than families.”

  Carla nodded. “That will be a welcome addition to town. Maybe not the most welcome addition though,” she said with a knowing smile, her gaze falling to Melissa’s very pregnant stomach.

  “Only two more months now,” the petite brunette said, rubbing her
swollen belly happily. “We can’t wait to meet the little guy.”

  “It’s a boy?” Carla said, trying to keep her voice level, and her emotions in check.

  “Yeah,” she said with that light-as-air voice of happiness, her arm instinctively wrapping around Pete as he came to stand close. “Pete Jr.”

  “Absolutely not,” Pete said with a chuckle. “We are not naming him after me.”

  They both laughed. Pete sobered first. “Thank you again, Deputy.”

  Carla held up the CD and nodded. “I’ll keep you updated,” she said, turning as fast as she dared, wanting to put the adorably cute couple and their soon-to-be addition behind her.

  With what was on the video, Carla was going to need her focus to be entirely on her job, nothing else. She could afford no distractions.

  Now to prove to that idiot Dunbar that something truly was up.

  She went to put the CD in a pocket, her hand crinkling a piece of paper as she did. Pulling it out, Carla looked at the page that had all of Pace’s contact information on it. Including his address.

  “Hmmm.” She mumbled it over and over again, even as she got behind the wheel of her car.

  Hmmmm.

  Chapter Five

  Carla

  She was way beyond her limits.

  “Dunbar is going to killlll you,” she trilled as her car handled the mountain curve with ease.

  There were a lot of other duties that she was ignoring by doing this. Things that demanded her attention back within Five Peaks. There was no good reason for her to take a detour out this far, yet here she was. Following her gut. Again.

  So far, it hadn’t led her wrong. The last second decision to act as if it was a crime scene, aided by her taping it off the day before, had led Carla to the videotape that proved there was more to the story than she had been told.

  I’m pretty sure lying to an officer is a crime. Just another one to tack on when I arrest this jerk.

  The charges were starting to stack up for Pace. He was going to go away for a long time, if she had her way. Especially once she found out what he was really up to. For a long time, Carla had suspected that the Five were not just wealthy families. They were far too rich and far too reclusive to be good upstanding citizens.