Promising Peter (Bad Boy Alphas) (Shrew & Company Book 6) by Holley Trent Page B

has a half sister, that she’s a natural witch of some sort, and that she thinks she might be able to lure Gene, if push comes to shove.”
    “You just threw too much information at me at once. Wait—she’s imprinted on Soren ?”
    “Mm-hmm. Just that quickly. All he needed was one glance. Funny the way magic works.”
    Peter shoved his hand through his hair and gave it a tug. “ Shit . A witch? That’s surprising. He’s never gotten along with them. Where is he?”
    “For a while, we had him locked into the walk-in refrigerator at the lodge. We let him out so he could help us track you and Gene—who we believe may not be so far from here, by the way—but Soren was useless. He was too distracted and too distract ing . We locked him inside the shifter bunker and left him with enough food for a couple of days.”
    “No guard?”
    She narrowed her eyes. “The last time we put an Ursu in the bunker with a guard, that Ursu sweet-talked a woman into getting that guard to let him out to…what did you tell Drea?”
    “That I’d gotten locked in accidentally. Would have been more suspicious if Marty hadn’t left the main bolt unturned after bringing me breakfast.” Peter shrugged. “Did what I had to.”
    “As will we,” Bryan said. He grabbed another donut and scanned the counter behind the table. “Got coffee here?”
    “I’ve got a kettle and some instant crystals.”
    “Why don’t you go out and get some real stuff?”
    Peter scoffed and folded his arms over his chest. “And leave you here with my mate, right? Then come back to find you’ve taken her? I’m not that stupid.”
    “Actually, I hadn’t considered that. I just wanted coffee.”
    Tamara grunted and snatched the kettle off the stove. “Instant will do for now, but what I really need is a nap. I haven’t slept in thirty-six hours.”
    “Sounds like a typical Shrew schedule,” Peter said.
    Tamara gave him a long blink that might have in fact been her briefly nodding off. “We’re trying to get better about that. All of us.” She carried the kettle to the sink and filled it. “Our staffing shortage makes establishing any sort of regularity difficult. First, there was Sarah getting pregnant and taking maternity leave, and now Astrid is being restricted for possible pregnancy complications. Three Shrews would have probably been just enough two years ago when we were taking less urgent cases, but we’re stretched too thin now. Dana is looking to add some permanent staff members as soon as the mess with Gene settles down and she’s not having to drive back and forth between Durham and the mountains several times per week. That drive is a huge time suck.”
    “I think you’re busy now, but you’ll be even busier once you bring new folks onboard,” Peter said. “You’re going to have to shadow those new hires. Also, I have it on good authority that certain types of people who need the kind of investigation work you do are waiting for opportunities to get on your client list.”
    Dana, an ex-cop, might have started Shrew & Company as an outlet for her professional skills, but the agency had gone at least six months since they’d worked a mundane private investigation or bodyguard job. Word had gotten out that the ladies had a touch of the supernatural about them and that they always ended up on the right side of a fight. Shapeshifter groups and witch covens needed their kind of discretion on the jobs they couldn’t take to the police, and that didn’t necessarily require a bunch of Peter’s or Soren’s bullets, either.
    “You might, at the very least, be able to keep a more structured schedule,” he added when Tamara sighed.
    “I shouldn’t complain,” she said. “The money’s good. Gotta feather the nest and all that. So.” She opened the cabinets behind her and pulled out several mugs. Looking inside them, she cringed, and plunked them into the sink. She rolled up her sleeves and then squirted some soap into the cups.