Page 61 of The Runaway Mate

Derek leaned forward. “My source in the Bridgetown Pack says Michael is honorable and can be trusted when hosting meetings, but we don’t know what is going on with their Pack right now. He’s—.”

“Of course she would say he’s honorable and trustworthy!” Sofia chimed in.

Derek swung his head around to look at Sofia. “She? I never said my source was a woman.”

Sofia scoffed. “I know who your source is, and if you think she wasn’t sent here to seduce you and feed you false information, then you are a lot more stupid than I thought you were.”

“Seduce me?”

I swear, if Derek had been a wolf, all his hair would be standing on end.

Sofia folded her arms across her chest and leaned back in her chair, looking away. “Don’t play dumb, Derek. It’s not a good look on you.”

“Sofia, you and I need to have a conversation—”

“I agree,” interrupted Jem, “but now is not the time. No matter what Michael’s intentions are, if there is any chance of him giving us information to clear Carson and shut this down, we need to take it. I’ll bring Derek and Ryan as backup. Who else can we trust?”

Derek kept staring at Sofia for a moment before he shook his head and looked at Jem. “At this point, no one. We don’t know who is involved or how big this thing is. If Brock is involved, he had to have help. We can’t trust our enforcers.”

Jem switched his gaze to Sofia. “What did you find out?”

Sofia cleared her throat, glanced quickly at Derek, then said, “I spoke to a few people who I’ve seen or heard were close to Brock. I figured these were the people Brock would recruit for any plot against the Pack. None of them are fans of Jem’s, and all have been getting more vocal about their dislike of how the Pack is being run.” She shot an apologetic glance at Jem. He waved his hand for her to continue. “There are definitely others involved in this, but most of them clammed up.”

“You were too soft on them,” Derek interjected, earning him a sharp look from Sofia.

“I was getting there, Derek. It’s called subtlety. You might want to look it up. I didn’t want them to alert Brock that I was asking questions. You turned up like the big bad wolf and scared them off.”

“Sofia, I was in military intelligence. I’m the epitome of subtle.”

Sofia scoffed, but Derek ignored it and continued. “You have to read people and know when subtle isn’t gonna work.”

“I got Maria-Anne talking, didn’t I?”

Ryan leaned forward. “Maria-Anne Dubliss? Brock’s on-again, off-again girlfriend?”

Derek nodded. “Definitely off-again.”

“They had a fight two nights ago about Brock seeing her sister, of all people. But,” Sofia said, smiling, “it meant Maria-Anne was suspicious enough to listen in on his conversations, and she overheard that Brock has a meeting today with Tristan Heller.”

Ryan raised his eyebrows. I got the feeling the name meant something to everyone here.

“The same Tristan who the three werewolves I saw yesterday were reporting back to? Who is he?”

Jem put his fork down. “He’s Michael and Camile’s Beta.”

Okay. That was big.

“Did she say where and when the meeting will be?”

Sofia nodded. “Reynold’s Sushi and Meat Bar. Two o’clock.”

“We have to be there,” I said.

Jem nodded. “We have to be there.”

Chapter thirty-nine

Ryan

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