The Tracker's Mate: Sunderverse (Mate Tracker Book 1) by Ingrid Seymour (book recommendations website TXT) 📕

One is coming later this afternoon at 3:30. He’s not as high profile, but we need customers. Jim Morris referred him.”

Jim Morris was the neighborhood bachelor I’d set up soon after we opened the agency.

“That’s great.” I gave her a one-hundred-percent genuine smile.

She walked back to the desk and grabbed her purse. “I guess I’ll run to the mall.”

I let her go without telling her about my impending lunch with Jake. For some reason, the thought of sitting with him, just the two of us, made me nervous. So far, we’d mostly talked about Stephen and his kidnapping. Would other things, personal ones, come up while we ate? I was torn between running there or calling to tell him something had come up.

In the end, my urge to be close to him won, and I locked the office and walked across the street.

Jake sat in a booth at the corner. From the looks of it, he’d already ordered our drinks and an appetizer. I approached hesitantly. He was staring at his clasped hands, which rested on top of the table. I knew the intense expression well. His deep concentration told me he might be trying to figure something out.

He glanced up when I slid into the booth.

“I ordered you an orange soda and garlic knots,” he said.

A lump rose in my throat. He still remembered my favorites. Few people knew so many things about me. Jake’s leaving had taught me not to open up to people, and I’d forgotten how good it felt to have someone who cared about the little things that made me happy.

“Thank you.” I took a sip of the soda. It was cold, tangy, and sparkly, just the way I liked it. The garlic knots were crunchy and buttery on the outside and gooey on the inside. Yum.

I ordered lasagna because pizza reminded me of Bernadetta, and Jake got a meat lovers pie. We sat in awkward silence after the waiter left, looking at everything, except each other.

“So... what did you want to tell me?” His voice sounded both hopeful and scared at the same time, which made me wonder what he was expecting to hear. Something of a personal nature, perhaps?

Oh, get a grip, Toni! He only cares about Stephen.

He’d made it very clear last night that he had no intention of talking about us at all.

“I don’t know if this will help,” I started, “but as I thought about how things felt while I tracked Stephen, it occurred to me that maybe they’re not keeping him at a fixed location. I got the impression that maybe they’re constantly moving him.”

“You mean they aren’t keeping him in one place for long?”

I shook my head. “No, I mean it feels like he’s constantly on the move. I think maybe they’re keeping him in a moving vehicle.”

“Shit,” Jake said under his breath. “No wonder no one can find him.” He ran his fingers through his already messy hair, managing to flatten a lock that had been standing at an odd angle. “I have been all over the city, trying to catch Stephen’s scent at locations that belong to Ulfen’s worst enemies. I’ve spent hours researching real estate records and driving all over town, it was all a waste of time.”

He clenched his teeth and a muscle jumped in his jaw. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, making a monumental effort to control his frustration and anger.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” I said. “You’re doing your best. There’s no way you could have known.”

Jake shook himself, forcing away all emotion. “Did you tell Ulfen?”

“I did.”

“Hopefully, this will give him some ideas. I’m afraid I’m fresh out of them.”

I hesitated, wondering if I should tell him about the Dark Donna. She was a dangerous creature, and I didn’t want Jake to get in trouble with her and her people, but I reminded myself that it wasn’t my job to take care of him. He was a big boy and had already been prying in all the wrong places. Giving him accurate information might do some good.

“There’s something else,” I said.

He straightened. “What?”

“I’m pretty sure Bernadetta Fiore is involved. I mean... she’s the prime suspect already, but I think I have proof. Sort of.”

“Go on,” he said.

“I... had a very unpleasant meeting with her today.”

Jake did a slow blink and spoke with forced calm. “Please explain.”

“She pretty much mini kidnapped me into her bigass limousine.”

“What?!”

Jake’s body trembled on the spot, and I feared he might shift right on top of his garlic knots. I stared wide-eyed, my heartbeat kicking up a notch. Clearly, he was on edge, literally teetering at the brink of going postal. He seriously needed a nap. He regained his control by taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a few seconds.

“Are you all right? Did she hurt you?” he asked, opening his eyes.

“No, she didn’t hurt me. In fact,” I frowned, “she was mostly polite. She tried to deny having anything to do with Stephen’s disappearance, but she was lying.”

“What makes you say that?”

I shrugged. “My skill.”

Anytime Jake asked these types of questions, I gave him the same answer. I never offered any specifics about how I knew things after tracking someone. He had no idea it involved my senses, so I couldn’t tell him about the scent in Bernadetta’s limousine.

He made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat.

When we’d worked together, I hadn’t felt comfortable with my skills and its consequences—not enough to trust anyone with the truth, especially those closest to me. The first time I tracked someone, the side effects scared the crap out of me, which made me cagey, defensive, and afraid my family and Jake would forbid me to use them. I had begged Nonna not to tell anyone and assured her I wouldn’t track anyone without help. Since she lived in New York City, it had been easy to lie.

Now, it was different. I never came out of a trance or