Read Online Chance Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire 6) by T. S. Joyce - Free Book Online

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    Chance pushed the speed dial number he’d saved into his phone. Yeah, he’d stolen Emily’s number before he returned her cell phone, but she’d probably done way more reconnaissance on him, so he didn’t feel a single ounce of guilt.
    It rang twice, then, “Hello?”
    “Hey.”
    Silence spanned three breaths. “Chance?”
    “I don’t know what I’m doing. You’re terrifying, and I can’t trust you—”
    “There are bugs.”
    “What?”
    “I put bugs in the big house and in the picture of you and Dalton you keep near your cot. You should take them all out. I heard…” She swallowed audibly.
    “You’ve been spying on us?”
    “Yeah. I just thought you should know.”
    “Where are the other bugs?” he asked angrily as he ripped at the back of the frame of him and Dalton. There it was, a small bug taped to the back of the picture. Mother fucker.
    “There is one in the back of the little cabin, underneath a rafter, directly in the middle.”
    Chance felt around and ripped it off, then dropped it to the floor and crushed it with the toe of his boot.
    “That’s all in your place. Now go to the big cabin.”
    Without a word, he strode to Dalton and Kate’s cabin and removed the bugs one-by-one as Dalton and Kate stared at him in horror.
    “Are there any more? No lies, Em. I can hear it.”
    “No,” she said cool as anything. “There aren’t any more. I burned the receiver, too, in the pile of my dad’s stuff.”
    “What did you hear?”
    “I heard you and Dalton taking care of Kate when she was having morning sickness. It confused me. It made me angry because you weren’t how my family had described you all my life. I felt tricked and hurt, so I went for you at the gas station after you promised Kate to pick her up those pickles. That was as far as I got in my hunt.”
    “Why did you ask me out for a drink?” he gritted out, escaping from Dalton and Kate’s confused stares. “Was it a trap? Were you baiting me? Seducing me?”
    “I was supposed to, but I failed from the first moment I saw you.” Her voice cracked, and she cleared her throat. A few loaded seconds later, she murmured, “I asked you out because I was curious, I was drawn to you, and I told myself it was for the job, but it was because I liked you. And when you were late, I was hurt that you were standing me up, not because my trap wasn’t working, but because I thought you didn’t like me back. And this morning, when I woke up hungover as hell, the receiver was still on and I heard you telling Dalton and Kate how you didn’t trust me, how I wasn’t your mate. Not even close. And it’s okay,” she said thickly. “Really it is. I understand. I don’t even know myself anymore, and I feel like a complete monster who got sucked into this awful plot to hurt people. Actual. People. And I know I don’t deserve a second of your time. I just wanted to say that. I thought I wouldn’t get the chance to, but I wanted you to know, I understand.”
    Chance ran his hand down the day-old scruff on his face. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with this, Em? It was one thing when I found out you were a Hell Hunter, but you bugged my freakin’ den. Dalton’s den.”
    “Chance, I’m sorry. For everything, I’m so sorry.”
    He hung up in a rush and barely resisted the urge to chuck his phone into the woods. Sorry? She was a much better hunter than he’d given her credit for. Who knew what kind of kill skills she’d amassed over her lifetime. He was suffocating. Linking his hands behind his head, he heaved breath, desperate to get enough oxygen into his lungs.
    “Chance?” Kate asked quietly.
    “Not now.”
    “She’s a Hell Hunter?”
    He ghosted a glance over his shoulder at Kate and Dalton, who stood pale and shaken on the porch behind him. “Yeah. I sure know how to pick ’em, don’t I?”
    “Was it her who told you where the bugs were?”
    “Kate, not now. I can’t have you up in my head, too. I have to make the