Free Protected Mate (Catamount Lion Shifters #1) by J.H. Croix Page A

it up to in the cloud and on two separate hard drives to be on the safe side.”
    Dane tried to absorb what Jake was saying, but he was stunned. He and Callen hadn’t been particularly close, but he’d trusted him. To think Callen was slinking around, trying to find ways to make money off of their shifter clan, blew his mind. And broke his heart. If Shana found out about this, she’d be devastated on a new level. It would shake the foundation of the love she had for Callen. Then there was the issue of how much risk Callen brought down on them. The existence of shifters was protected knowledge. That’s how they survived. For Callen to expose them to the seedy and dangerous world of drug smuggling, well, it was damning and terrifying.
    Dane looked up and met Jake’s eyes, deep blue and dead serious. “You’re pretty confident about this then?”
    Jake nodded slowly. “As confident as I can be without catching him red-handed in the middle of sending these emails. The digital fingerprints are damning. The only other consideration would be someone else at the same ISP address. But I already did my homework on that. It meant I had to rule Shana out, so I crosschecked her work schedule against the times the emails were sent. Every single email was sent during one of her work shifts. If there’s one good thing about working at the hospital, it’s that they keep employee logs online. Everything is tracked, even when people call out sick. She was verified on duty whenever Callen was busy online. I even checked client records to confirm she was seeing patients during those times. Much as it turns my stomach with Callen, I can see it. He was always looking for ways to capitalize on shifter powers. Remember that bullshit he used to spew about it in high school? He toned it down after we got through college, but I’m thinking it’s more that he realized if he didn’t shut up about it, we might look a little too hard.”
    Dane shook his head sharply. “Damn. I just…don’t know what the hell to think. I’d have been pissed if you told me you had to rule Shana out, but I’m glad you did. This way, we don’t even have to ask her about it.”
    Dane paused and stared across the desk at Jake. Jake’s eyes stared steadily back, bleary, sad and angry.
    “This sucks,” Dane said quietly.
    “Tell me about it. We’ve got a town full of people mourning Callen’s death when they have no idea what he was doing behind our backs.”
    “So any idea where Callen went? Did he actually go to Montana? Or was that a cover too?”
    “Oh, he was there. The digital trail goes dark as far as who he met with and what he did. All I have are locations of where he was meeting people, but that doesn’t help much. I know he was supposed to deliver a ‘package’ to someone. He offered to demonstrate the utility of our travel capabilities. I mean, who the hell would think a mountain lion was smuggling drugs? The route was supposed to be across the border into Canada. It’s obvious something went wrong because he got tagged and headed east only to get hit by a car in Connecticut. Though for all we know, he was supposed to be in Connecticut. There’s definitely a market for drugs there, but it’s damn busy for travel. Not to mention that mountain lions haven’t been seen in the East for almost a century if you’re not counting the myths about us. If he hadn’t been hit by a car, the presence of a mountain lion anywhere near Connecticut would have drawn tons of attention, which is exactly what happened.”
    Dane was still struggling to wrap his brain around what Jake told him, but enough of it was sinking in to permeate into a cold fury inside. He met Jake’s tired gaze. “Back to your earlier point, I forgot how much Callen used to make noise about how we didn’t even know how to use the powers we had. I chalked it up to him being young and arrogant. His dad was on the obnoxious side too, so I didn’t think much of it.” He paused and