Page 32 of Savagely Mated

“To work as a delivery driver, yes. It was her that stole my burrito. What are the odds of that?”

“That a one-woman crime spree would do crime to us at some point? Fairly high, I’d say,” I sigh.

We only met Darcy a day or so ago, and I know she is our mate, but I don’t think I have ever encountered a woman so entirely troublesome. She is young and unsettled, and I hope with a firm hand and some real structure she might settle down. But then again, people send their wayward sons to the academy all the time in order for them to experience structure and a firm hand. She grew up there, so I don’t know what to make of that.

“What corporation did you say she’s working for?”

“Delivery 2 Go.”

“We need to go and get her. I say we go to the Delivery 2 Go place and we wait for her to show up.”

“Can’t do that,” Kirin says. “There’s so much security around those places. You really can’t lay hands on a courier unless they want you to. Trust me. I found out the hard way.”

“Then we go talk to the man in charge there and buy out her contract.”

“No deal.”

The man in front of me is covered in dust from a bag of corn chips, which his hand remains ensconced in as he conducts a very unsatisfying conversation with us.

This man is not young. He is not in good shape. He could not best a single one of us in a duel. I doubt he could beat us over ahundred-yard brisk walk, and yet he somehow has the nerve to refuse us what we want.

“She’s only been working for you for a few hours. Why not sell her on?” I try to approach the matter reasonably. After all, it is pretty common for people to say no as an immediate reflex. If I can get him to think about the situation, things might work out in our favor.

“Because she’s already done more deliveries than anybody else I’ve hired on their first day. She’s a natural.”

“A natural courier,” Rafe snorts.

“Yeah. They exist,” Clint, the manager says. “Takes grit, bravery, and determination to get this job done. Not a lot of people willing to die for a timely delivery these days.”

“We’d rather she didn’t die.”

He grunts and shrugs. “That’s up to her.”

I feel Rafe and Kirin looking at me. They want me to do something.Iwant me to do something. I just don’t know what. The girl has managed to maneuver herself into a position that’s going to be hard to extract her from. I feel a certain amount of admiration for that tactical choice, but I wish we could just get ahold of her.

We leave the office. Without enacting violence on the guy, there’s not much we can do, and he has the kind of build that suggests to me he’s a damage sponge. We’d have to really hurt him to get what we want, and I’m trying very hard not to be that sort of man anymore.

“Maybe she’s got some friends we can lean on?” Rafe makes the suggestion. It’s a good one.

“How would we find her friends? We can’t find her. We don’t know where she is.”

“Uh. Guys. I hate to say this, but we’re all fucking stupid.” Kirin cuts in with one of his classically diplomatic comments.

“Are we?” Rafe asks the question in the sort of tone that implies someone is going to get hurt.

“I know how we can find her,” Kirin grins. “I don’t know why we didn’t think of this first.”

CHAPTER 9

Darcy

It’s been a long but satisfying day. Turns out I like being a delivery rider. It keeps me moving, and it’s always interesting. Plus, I get to fight for my life every now and then, which means my academy training gets to pay off.

I’ve delivered twelve packages, which is a heap. Clint said the first three hundred deliveries pay off the bike. At this rate, I’ll own it in less than a month. That’s not even that bad. After that, I’ll start getting paid. Might even be able to afford my own place. I can forage for sustenance until then.

I even managed to grab a nap for a bit in the D2G box room. It has those clear plastic panels on the ceiling that let light and warmth in. I slept on top of a flat packet of boxes for what felt like a whole night, though it was only a few hours.

“Darcy?”

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