Chasing The Night: Big Easy Shifters: Book Three, Knox, Abby [book series to read .TXT] 📗

“Okay, lady. Listen. You can plug in over here in the corner. But as soon as a paying customer comes in and needs that chair, I need you to vamoose. In the meantime, I’ll call him on his cell.”

She nodded. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“Please stop,” he muttered.

Moments later, her phone was beginning to juice up, and she had a mental glimmer of hope. As she waited for it to have enough of a charge to call for a car, she closed her eyes. She was desperate for coffee and food and some nice warm slippers. But when she closed her eyes, something in the back of her mind was giving her a different kind of comfort. A memory from last night.

She hated the way that memories from wild nights sort of fell into place in dribs and drabs throughout the day, either making her laugh or giving her near-panic attacks. This was none of that. When she closed her eyes, there was only warm skin, deep, intense brown eyes, his soft hair threaded through her fingers. Pillowy full lips claiming her mouth, her neck, her nipples, her…oh my. That happened. This time, she got the good kind of gooseflesh rising all along her arms and chest. The rough beard might explain some of the sensations she felt down between her legs. The fact that he might be a wolf? Not what she wanted to hear. But as with most forbidden things, that just made it all the more tempting. Her body lit up with a yearning for more of…whatever it was that happened last night. Judging by the way the muscles of her sex tensed up on their own, she could guess he’d made a meal of her.

She could almost feel Gavin’s breath against her thighs. Social constructs, like felines and canines not being made for each other, fell away. There were no embarrassing, regrettable drunk moments about it. She could tell, in her hazy brain and muscle memory, that he had been kind and gentle with her…but then there was no resolution. Maybe they were so drunk they had both passed out. Or maybe she had shapeshifted in front of him and chased him off…

“Time to go, ma’am.” It was the Mustache Man interrupting her thoughts. She opened her eyes and looked down at her phone. There was about a five percent charge on it. Yay! Just enough juice to call a car and check her text messages.

She looked up. “Did you call him? What did he say?”

“Didn’t answer.”

Before she headed out the door, crestfallen, Mustache Man called, “Listen, if he’s not at home, then you might check the coffee shop or Wolfpack Tavern on the next block. That’s all I can tell you. And hey, be careful. If you don’t understand what he is yet, then it’s not too late for you to walk away. For your safety and his.”

Chapter Six

Gavin, 9:15 a.m.

There was no sign of her at his apartment except her lingering scent from moments ago.

He texted her again at 9:20 a.m.:

Where are you right now? I need to see you.

Gavin put on a fresh shirt and his least beat-up pair of motorcycle boots. He could at least do Ash that much of a favor before he showed up at the fancy brunch at the mansion. He still wasn’t going to shower, as he needed this woman’s scent on him to help find her.

Besides, he liked knowing she was all over him. He’d taken a moment to smell his shirt from last night, after noticing that she’d left it on his doormat for him, folded. She was there too. In the bed, in the blankets, in his lungs and his skin.

As far as he was concerned, his wolf had imprinted on whoever she was. So it was just a matter of time before they found each other, and he would make her his. He couldn’t remember all of it, but his body and soul remembered enough.

His only option now before swallowing his pride and heading to the DuChamp mansion was to check the tattoo shop for clues.

Manny was there just finishing up with a customer. She had not been there this morning, that much Gavin could tell.

“Hey man, did I come in late last night or early this morning? And did you let me get a tattoo on my hip?”

Manny crossed his arms and then rubbed his mustache. “Dude, did you get a fuckin’ tattoo on your stupid ass?”

Gavin swallowed back the desire to punch his number one employee in the face, turned around, and dropped his pants. “No. My hip.”

Manny laughed maniacally. “You sure did, you big dumb ox! Holy shit, it’s a heart, even! Who the fuck is ‘C’? She must be a hot piece of—“

Gavin fastened his jeans again and pointed in Manny’s face. “Manny, you better shut the fuck up and don’t say another word about her. Has she been in here this morning?”

“Naw, man. And I sure as fuck didn’t give you that art. That’s your calligraphy right there, and you know it.”

Gavin sighed. “I know. I gotta go. Listen, if she comes in here, will you please text me and tell her to stay put? Take care of her? She’s probably hungover as shit.”

“Will do, boss.”

And now C’s coffee was getting cold. He decided to hit the Wolfpack Tavern and get some fresh beignets to add to the coffee.

Up the street at Bobby’s bar, there was no sign of his other wolf buddy. No surprise there. They all had to be as hungover as shit. And of course, this would have been the first place Ash had checked. Maybe Bobby was already at the mansion for the brunch. The brunch that Gavin wanted to go to less and less as the morning wore on.

The barmaid, also of the wolf clan, knew Gavin personally and let him go behind the bar to help himself to a pour from the tap. “That shit is stale, it’s from last night