Page 35 of Raging Heat

He glances past me and I realise he’s using the glass of the cabinet behind me to keep an eye on Vera and Mathew on the other side of the room.Then he looks at me.

“I mostly dealt with people who escaped from the Diamonds, but I know that this area is under the control of the Hearts.So I asked Derrick to show me everything they’ve got on them.That way I can memorise the faces of the bastards here.Makes things easier when we’re out and about,ifMathew ever lets us leave this place.”His lips are curled in a smirk, but his eyes are stone cold.

“What did you find?”My heart tightens.Caleb is trying not to let Mathew, Vera and Timothy in on something, but it’s clear that something is going on.

His face falls as he slides three pages to where I can see them better.“These three men.Derrick told me that they’re part of one of the organisations under the Hearts?Are you sure?”

I glance at the pages, remembering looking into them about half a year ago.“Yeah.I checked them out.I followed the money, it’s all Hearts money.”

He thinks for a moment, shaking his head slowly as his face twists in disgust.“This makes me extra glad that I took Vera that day.”

His angry pheromones slip out before he manages to reign them in.“They’re part of the pack Vera was supposed to marry into.These are guys she went to school with, who she’s known most of her life.These are the guys who pushed the pack leader to keep coming after us, questioning his leadership if he ever let up.”

What?!

It takes a few moments to piece together the picture, and when I do, it feels like someone has poured a bucket of ice over me.

Oh, fuck, no.

Not only are these guys connected to the Hearts, but they were egging their pack leader on to the point where he got himself killed?

I know that some packs can be ruthless, especially packs that are constructed and not made up of scent matches.But this feels a bit much, even for a constructed pack.

“Do you think they knew about Mathew’s connection to the Hearts before their pack leader hired him?”I keep my voice as quiet as possible, my pheromones in control.This is bad.

Caleb eyes the pages.“I don’t know.But they were the ones right under him in the leadership, always looking for an opportunity to rise in the ranks.”

Derrick frowns.“For people that high up, it’s strange that they weren’t here when their leader negotiated the original deal with Mathew.”

There could be an innocent explanation.“They could have fallen out of favour?Maybe he didn’t agree with what they were doing?”

Caleb lets out a dissatisfied sigh.“They would have had to fall out of favour within the last few weeks.As far as I know, they’ve always been at negotiations.”

Since it’s not really that important, I’m not going to ask how he knows that.

If Caleb and Vera managed to stay ahead of their pursuers for years and apparently barely blinked when Mathew killed the pack leader, they probably have their ways to get information out of people.

Derrick’s angry clove pheromones slip out.“Which means they stayed away on purpose because they knew Mathew doesn’t deal with Hearts and they probably guessed we would recognise them.”

He lets out a low growl, putting the hairs on the back of my head on end.“And we made it extra easy because we told him he had to come here on his own the second time.Fuck.”He stands up, his eyes hard.“We have to check the security footage again, especially from the perimeter cameras.”

Timothy is on his feet immediately.“What’s going on?”

Derrick eyes his mate and then Mathew and Vera.“We’ve got a problem.I need all the security footage from the time that Mr Russell came here to hire us and when he came here the second time.Also, anything we have from his other communications.”

Mathew stands up, frowning.“Why?What did you find out?”

Caleb turns to them too, keeping his whole body controlled though the fury in him is clear.“It likely wasn’t a coincidence that Russell hired you.I think the Hearts are behind it.They probably thought they could take a shortcut, two birds with one stone.Gain the loyalty of a whole pack by helping them bring home a runaway Omega?—”

“And check out my security and my team.”Mathew curses.“And by killing Russell, I played right into their hands.Now they don’t even have to bother coming after me themselves, they can just let the pack do the job for them.”

I nod to Derrick and Timothy.“Go check the footage.Comb over every last pixel.Find them.”

The two leave the library without another word, leaving the four of us behind on our own.

Vera glances between us, looking lost.“Who are the Hearts?”

Mathew’s voice is quiet, though tense.“The people I escaped from.They’re part of the Suits Syndicate, a collection of organisations split into four groups based on the four suits in a deck of cards.They’re the Hearts, the Clubs, the Diamonds and the Spades.”

---