Patience Read online

  “I can send you contact information,” Calator Riley offered. “You can call them and see what they might know. However, they don’t usually spend a lot of time doing research for you. They would welcome you there, though, and show you where to look for yourselves.”

  Chad raised his eyebrows at Jamie, who shrugged. There was only one reasonable way to the other side of the world. They’d have to talk about it later.

  “Thank you very much, Calator,” Noah said. “We’d appreciate that.”

  “No problem, Alpha Noah. I’ll e-mail it in a few. Good luck.”

  The clicking of the phone disconnecting filled the room for several long moments.

  “That’s a really long way to go,” Finley murmured into the silence.

  “It’s worth it if it’ll help me not hurt him,” Jaime said, softly.

  Chad took his hand and kissed it. “We don’t even know if they’ll know or not.”

  “They’ll know,” Noah said, nodding. “I’m sure of it. But can you wait until you get over there and back?” He smirked.

  Jamie sighed. “We’ll have to. I’m not going to risk hurting him.”

  “It’ll take some planning,” Tanner mused.

  Chad thought that through, going over his money situation in his head. “We can do it, though. Alpha, if you could get us the information when you receive it, we’ll let you know when we go.”

  Noah nodded. “I will. But don’t buy your tickets just yet.”

  Chad raised his eyebrows, but it was Tanner who explained. “We have a wolf friend who works for one of the airlines. He might be able to help.”

  “That… would be really nice,” Jamie murmured.

  Chad realized they were going to have to have a money discussion before long. Jamie needed to know they weren’t hurting for it. Of course, finishing the job he’d started would help even more with that. “I can take care of us,” Chad said, hoping to forestall any more worry on Jamie’s part.

  “If we can get you over there cheaply, let us. There will be plenty to pay for in Europe,” Tanner pointed out.

  “True.”

  “Besides, this benefits the pack as a whole,” Noah said. “If we understand this now, we’ll be better off if someone else has a human mate. So it’s something the pack should help with.”

  “In fact, what you find could help the entire nation of wolves. If we don’t know about human mates, how many of our wolves missed their mate because they didn’t think it could be human?” Miles asked.

  That depressing thought silenced them for a long time.

  “Even better reason to go. All right, then. We have a plan,” Noah said, standing. He smiled at Chad and held out his hand. As Chad took it, Noah clapped him on the shoulder. “And welcome to the pack, son.”

  Chapter 10

  CHAD DROPPED onto the end of the bed and sighed. The pile of boxes and bags against the wall would just have to wait. He was too damned dog-tired to do more that night.

  By the time they’d gotten to Tanner and Finley’s place and loaded up his mate’s stuff, the sun had been well on its way down. When they finally got home—Chad liked thinking of it as their home—it was full dark. Still, they’d unloaded both the Challenger and Jamie’s car. Chad was too excited to let it wait. Thankfully, Jamie was quite a bit stronger than Chad had expected and could carry a lot in one go.

  Half the dresser drawers were empty for the basic clothes Jamie had picked to unpack that night. Chad figured Jamie had done that for his benefit and to make him feel good, more than for any real necessity. Chad still had work to do on his closet and a few other places to make room—they were going to need more bookshelves—but Jamie’s stuff was there. That went a long way toward settling the anxiety Chad had been fighting.

  Anxiety he knew his mate was sensing from him.

  He wondered briefly if he should worry more about his acceptance of all the shifting and mating stuff, but something in him knew it was right. It felt right, all the way down to his marrow. His mother had taught him to follow and trust in his instincts. It’d served him well professionally—both before leaving the force and after—and he saw no reason not to follow it now, as well.

  Jamie came in, wearing nothing but a towel, his hair wet and drops of water still clinging to his skin.

  Chad’s cock started to fill at the sight. “Fuck me, you’re hot,” he whispered.

  That earned him a wide smile. “Glad my mate thinks so.” He crossed the room, dropped the towel, and straddled Chad’s hips. “Hmm… are you too tired to show me what you think of me?”

  “Oh hell no,” Chad answered immediately. He threaded his fingers through Jamie’s hair and tugged until their lips crashed together. One of them moaned—Chad didn’t know, or care, who—and Jamie opened to him, their tongues dancing and teasing. Chad turned them around, tossing Jamie onto the bed, then yanked his own shirt up over his head. Jamie scrambled back onto the bed farther, and by the time Chad had his jeans and underwear off, Jamie had the bottle of lube out and was busy stretching himself.

  Chad crawled onto the bed, taking the bottle Jamie handed him, then coating himself quickly. He pulled on Jamie’s legs, propping them on his shoulders. Seconds later, he’d buried himself in his mate and did his best to keep his promise to show Jamie how he felt.

  Based on the sounds Jamie made, he was pretty sure he succeeded.

  CHAD SAT on the side of the bed, grinning down at the tuft of blond hair sticking up from under the sheet. He set the cup of coffee he held on the side table and leaned forward, tugging the sheet down as he did. He kissed one shoulder, over Jamie’s back, then up to the shoulder again.

  Jamie mumbled something and tried to burrow into the bed.

  Chad chuckled. He didn’t mind that Jamie wasn’t a morning person. Most of the time, he wasn’t either. He could handle getting up first and starting the coffee, though, and he had a feeling he’d be doing that for much of their life together.

  He rather liked that thought.

  He shook Jamie’s shoulder a little, then brushed a few strands of unruly blond hair back. “Baby, wake up.”

  Another mumble, a bit more burrowing, then: “Do I gotta?”

  Chad’s grin widened. “Yup. Rise and shine, handsome. I have the elixir of Bacchus here for you.”

  Jamie surfaced, looking hopeful. “You have coffee for me?”

  Chad laughed and nodded. “Yes,” he said, picking up the cup.

  Jamie dragged himself to a sitting position and took the mug, immediately trying to bury his face in it. A muffled “Oh gods, I love you” came from inside the cup.

  That made Chad’s smile get even bigger, if it was possible. He chuckled, leaning in, then kissed Jamie on the top of the head. “I love you too,” he murmured, inhaling deeply. He might not have Jamie’s sense of smell, but he loved what he did smell of his mate. There was a hint of spice and, under it, something sweet. He forced himself to sit up. “When you’ve sufficiently honored Bacchus, I could use some help.”

  Jamie pulled his face out of the coffee mug. “Help?”

  Chad nodded. “Yeah. I need fresh eyes on this info. Something’s not adding up for me.”

  “And you want my help?”

  Chad blinked. “Sure, why not?”

  “I haven’t finished school. Or gone to the academy. Or done… well, much of anything.”

  Chad shrugged a shoulder. “A huge chunk of this kind of work is instinct. That and research and learning about all manner of things I never would have imagined learning. And I’m sure you’ve studied enough. I don’t believe for one minute senior year is going to give you that many more classes.”

  Jamie shook his head. “No, that’s true. In fact, all I’ve got left is gen eds. I put them off until the last minute.” He grinned when Chad chuckled. “Right.” He took a long drink from his coffee. “I’ll be in, in just a minute,” he said, and Chad loved the smile on his face.

  With a kiss to Jamie’s forehead, Chad stood. “Don’t
be too long or the bacon will get cold, and you are not getting away with stealing any in this form.”

  Jamie laughed. “Got it.”

  Chad went back out to his desk and studied his setup. Jamie was going to need a desk too, and Chad wasn’t sure where to put one. He shook his head. They’d have to figure that part out later. He sat and pulled up the stuff Panther had sent him, then looked back down at the papers Reid had passed on. He didn’t doubt for one minute that Jamie had told him the truth about Reid lying. But that didn’t help him figure out what to do about the information. How much of it was wrong? Or was it just incomplete?

  Except the stuff he got from Panther was completely contradictory to Reid’s information. One—or both—had made it up. Which one? And why?

  Worse still, there was some truth mixed in. Just enough to make it difficult to figure out which parts would be false. The basic data—address, age, education, and so on—was all accurate, as far as Chad had found. He shook his head and went to the coffeemaker.

  Jamie wandered in then, wearing gym shorts and nothing else.

  Chad let himself drool for a moment before handing the plate of eggs and bacon over.

  “Thank you,” Jamie said, kissing Chad, then taking a seat at the table.

  Chad refilled Jamie’s mug, adding cream, then topped his own off before joining his mate. “I think we need to go to his apartment, talk to the neighbors. I’d been hoping to follow the money first, because I doubt anyone saw anything, but I think we need to dig further and see if we can get more on who Quincy really is.”

  Jamie nodded. “I should go in wolf form for that.”

  Chad pursed his lips. “I was only half serious about that.”

  Jamie flashed him a smile before taking another bite of bacon. “I was totally serious. I can pick up stuff in wolf form easier than in human form. Besides, they might be more willing to talk to a guy and his dog—who could just be a concerned friend—than two guys showing up together.”

  “Good point. I don’t usually think of that—not anymore. I used to talk for my partner and me most of the time. He tended to fade into the background and keep quiet. Since then, it’s just been me.”

  “Well, I could do that too—fade into the background. But I think we’d get more if I look like your dog.”

  “You’re brilliant, you know that?” Chad asked.

  Jamie blushed. “Thanks,” he mumbled, then took a bite of egg.

  “It’s true. I’m going to shower while you finish eating. Info’s on the screen, and Reid’s is on the desk.”

  Jamie nodded. “Okay. Enjoy,” he said, smirking.

  Chad laughed, kissing him again, then headed in. Yeah, enjoy. His cock was actually sore. His sex life up until now had been sparse, at best. The last two nights had pretty much outdone most of his entire sexual experiences up until Jamie. And he’d probably repeat it exactly as they’d done it, if given a chance to do it over, except maybe to have Jamie top. They still hadn’t gotten around to that. They’d done just about everything else. He’d have to fix that soon.

  When he came back out to the kitchen in shorts and nothing else, it was to see Jamie scowling down at the papers Reid had given them. “Do you see something?”

  “I’m not sure,” Jamie murmured. He looked up at the computer screen, then down again at the paperwork. “Okay, maybe I’m crazy and this is nothing, but….”

  “Doubtful,” Chad said, pulling a chair over and sitting next to Jamie. “What is it?”

  Jamie frowned as he looked up. “It’s too perfect.”

  “Hmm?”

  “Okay, look. I went ahead and ran his credit and a few other things, right?”

  “Okay.” Chad leaned forward to look at the printouts Jamie had spread across the desk.

  “Here is the stuff Reid gave you,” he said, pointing. “The stuff from Panther here.” This time, he pointed at the middle sheet. “His credit report here, and academic records here.”

  Chad raised an eyebrow, smirking. “You followed perfectly legal channels to get this?”

  Jamie snorted. “What you got from Reid wasn’t legal. Anyway,” he said, waving that off. “Look. Not a single address, phone number—nothing is different across all these records. When you pull your credit, how many addresses show up that aren’t yours?”

  Chad snorted. “Half a dozen.”

  “Right. I’ve lived three places in my life and I’ve got wrong things on my credit report. Why is this guy’s perfect?”

  Chad leaned forward, eyes darting from one report to the next. “They’re fixed.”

  “Yeah. Quincy Archer doesn’t want his information known. It’s too clean, and too basic. He has no credit to speak of. He had nearly perfect grades in school. And he’s lived in two places, ever. I get that, that’s possible, but it’s all a little too….”

  “Clean, yeah.” Chad nodded. He grinned at Jamie. “See? Brilliant,” he said, making Jamie blush. “So, obviously, the electronic trail—at least the surface one—isn’t going to get us what we need.”

  Jamie shook his head. “No, it isn’t. We’re going to have to dig deeper.”

  “Yeah, we are. Let’s start with people before we get into the really illegal stuff. And… do you know how to do that?”

  Jamie blushed even more. “Uh, yeah. Tanner does some of it—he went to school for computers—and taught some to me. I learned other stuff in my cybercrime class. And, uh….” He coughed. “Well, wolves have to be able to fix things. We, uh, live a long time.”

  Chad’s eyebrows shot up. “How long?”

  “Well, our alpha magnus just celebrated his three-hundredth birthday last year.”

  “Three hundred! Holy shit!” He blinked at Jamie. “Are you going to live that long?”

  Jamie shrugged. “I guess. If I don’t get killed first.”

  Chad frowned at that. “Okay, uh…. First, what does kill you?”

  “Pretty much anything that would kill you. We don’t need silver or anything like that. We’ll heal fast, so it’s got to be fatal. But, like, if you don’t get a bullet out of us, it can cause the same problems it would for you.”

  “Huh, that’s good to know. So… um… second, what happens when I die?”

  Jamie blinked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “If you live three hundred years… and I live, like, a hundred at the outside….”

  Jamie paled, and Chad winced at the panic Jamie broadcasted.

  He pulled Jamie into his arms. “Hey, hey. There has to be something that happens to human mates, right? I don’t see the gods doing that, you know?”

  Jamie took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Right. Diana wouldn’t do that to us,” he murmured, swallowing.

  “No, she wouldn’t. I don’t see the goddess who gave you mates giving you one that would only live a third of your life span. There’s more to it than that. We’ll find out when we go to Rome, okay?”

  Jamie nodded. “Right. Sorry.”

  “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

  “It’s okay. I didn’t even think of it, you know?” He shook his head, then took a deep breath, and Chad admired the way he pulled himself together. “Okay, uh, so, yes. I can get to the records. Having to fix electronic records for us is fairly new. Like, the last thirty years or so. Before that….”

  “Right. But you can?”

  Jamie nodded. “I can get to some of it. Tanner could probably get the other stuff. Or show me how.”

  “Maybe we should have him show you how anyway. Be a good skill to have in our work.”

  Jamie looked at him for a long time.

  Chad raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  “You keep saying ‘we’ and ‘us’ and ‘our work.’”

  “Yeah? Uh… why? Shouldn’t I?”

  “No, I mean… yeah. I just… I didn’t know you really would want me to work with you.” Jamie shrugged a shoulder.

  “Hey, I don’t see why not. I’m certainly not agai
nst being partners. You’ve got some serious education and—if this is any indication—good instincts. What you don’t know or haven’t learned, I can certainly teach you. Never mind the fact that our bond could only help us.”

  “I didn’t think of it like that.” Jamie smiled.

  “See? There you go.” Chad glanced at the clock. “Let’s see what you can find—keep it fairly legal for now—then we’ll head over to his loft this afternoon and take a look around. We should stop at the store too. Going to need food again soon.”

  “Uh, sorry about that,” Jamie mumbled.

  “Hey, don’t apologize for eating,” Chad said, chuckling. “I just got used to shopping for one. No big deal. Also… we need to find space for a desk for you.” He glanced around the study area. “Maybe in the living room or….”

  “Actually, I use a laptop. A pretty basic desk there—” He pointed to the space next to Chad’s desk, currently filled with bookshelves. “—is probably enough. We could put those in the living room. Anything I need to store could be put in your drawers, right? In the meantime, I can use the kitchen table.”

  Chad grinned at him. “I like that you want to be close. I think we could work that out. Maybe we should look at IKEA, see if they’ve got something modular that would work. Anyway, we’ll do that soon. Let’s get this taken care of and maybe figure out that trip to Rome first.”

  “You know, um, when I lived out with Tanner and Finley in the summers and on breaks, I worked in the pack’s leatherworking business. I could go—”

  “Hey, no need.” Chad sat back down, realizing they still hadn’t had this discussion, and apparently it was needed now. “Listen, as long as we keep working—and we shouldn’t have a problem with that—we’re not going to have to worry about money. I’m not rich or anything, but I make good money doing what I do. We’ll make good money doing what we do. I’m not your basic private investigator, baby. I get the good jobs—finding people, security consulting, among other things—thanks to Panther and a few other people. I’m not chasing cheating husbands and stuff, okay?”

  Jamie frowned. “But….”