Read Online An Alpha's Thunder (Water Bear Shifters 3) by Sloane Meyers - Free Book Online Page B

maybe this wasn’t the first time he’d been exposed to their crazy beliefs.
    Caroline heard the men gathering up papers, and she realized they were getting ready to leave. She turned in her seat to see what was going on, but she turned too far and too quickly, and she caught the eye of the older man. He narrowed his gaze at her, and she turned around again to face her back to him. But it was too late. He had seen her watching him, and his suspicion was aroused.
    “Something the matter, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice cold and steely.
    Caroline bit her lip. She had to come up with an excuse, and fast. She put on the sultriest smile she could manage, and spun around in the barstool.
    “Nothing’s the matter, except that I can’t keep my eyes off of that gorgeous face of yours,” Caroline said, batting her eyelashes in what she hoped was a sexy manner. Flirting had never been her strong suit.
    The older man’s face relaxed into a grin, and he patted his knee. “Well, well, then. Why didn’t you say so? Come over here and sit with me. You can get a better look at my face.”
    Caroline winced inwardly, but she couldn’t exactly back out on her ruse now. So she batted her eyelashes again and went to sit on the man’s lap like he requested. She caught the bartender looking at her with a raised eyebrow as she sashayed over. He knew it was unlike her to talk to anyone, let alone flirt with them. She could only hope that the bartender would notice her behavior was suspicious and do something to help her if the men tried to hurt her.
    “Mmm, now don’t you smell good,” the older man said, sticking his nose right into Caroline’s neck and breathing deeply. Caroline cringed, doing her best not to stiffen up. She wanted to tell the man that he smelled pretty awful himself. He had beer breath and seemed like he had no clue what a stick of deodorant was. Despite her best efforts to play it cool, the man must have noticed her hesitation.
    “What’s the matter, baby? Don’t like my ‘gorgeous face’ as much up close?”
    He kept his tone light, but Caroline notice that his arm had tightened around her in a solid grip. His friend leaned back in his chair with a smirk on his face. The old man looked up at his friend and chuckled. “Why don’t you go over there and grab this lady’s purse for her. If you can even call that ratty thing a purse.”
    The younger man did as he was told, sauntering over to Caroline’s messenger bag and then throwing it on the table with a thud, covering up the photos of Lance and his crew that were still on the table. Without waiting to be told what to do, the younger man started digging around in Caroline’s purse until he found her phone. He pulled it out and started scrolling through it. Caroline kicked herself for not at least having a security code on the thing. It had always seemed like too much of a bother, but right now it could have bought her valuable time. She was quickly realizing that her little flirtation act hadn’t fooled these guys for a second. She should have known better. They had probably been aware of her obvious eavesdropping for most of the time she’d been here.
    “Oh, what’s this?” the younger man said, squinting his eyes at Caroline’s phone screen. “Your last internet search on here was ‘Lance Bowman, Coast Guard.’ Are you friends with our buddy Lance as well?”
    Caroline didn’t answer. She didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t make things outright worse. There was no sense in trying to deny that she knew who Lance was, since her last several Google searches had been some variation of his name and occupation. The younger man continued to look at her phone screen, still smirking and shaking his head.
    “Oh, look, a search for ‘Lance Bowman phone number.’ Well if you wanted his number, you should have just asked us for it. We know it,” the younger man said, then lowered his voice into a chilling, sinister tone. “We know everything