Chapter 42 - HUNTING THE HUNTER PART 1

[KYLE POV]

I would have liked to have gone back to sleep after Jacy snuck out of my place, but I couldn't. Her intoxicating scent was lingering in my bed and making my body react as my mind brought up memories of the night before. I was quickly becoming addicted to that woman.

I took a shower and decided to go into the office early. I noticed that Jacy had already left before I had. That was unfortunate, I couldn't stop by for a good morning since she wasn't there. Oh well, I would stop by after work.

Or so I thought.

Jacy hadn't made it home by the time I got back, and I could tell that she had been gone all day without coming back. That scent trail was growing cold and thin. Where was she?

Was she sleeping this day off at her friend from the gay club's house? Did she need time to cool down before she saw me again?

I could respect that. I wasn't going to be overly clingy. Not yet anyway. But I did intend on having her as my mate. I had already marked her after all. Though that marking was accidental, I never intended to do that at all, my beast had taken over and had bitten her out of sheer desire.

Jacy never came home that night. I had been listening for her to come home until after midnight. I wasn't going to go over there when she did get home. I just wanted to know that she was safe and back in her condo.

When I left the next morning I still hadn't smelled her scent. She hadn't come back at all and her truck was still missing. I was starting to worry that something was wrong.

I didn't want to use my skill set to invade her privacy, more than I had already done. (Hey, she had investigated me as well so we were even.) I didn't really want to hack into the GPS on her truck and find out where she was that way but she wasn't giving me much choice here. She had taken something that belonged to the both of us.

When I got to work that morning I decided to do just what it was that I didn't want to do. I hacked into the GPS that was attached to Jacy's truck and found that she had been on the move these last two days. She was already several hundred miles to the south of where she should have been.

"Where the hell is she going?" I growled into my empty office. "It's time that I go and see someone about this."

I pulled up the files that I could on the Horne family. The picture of the youngest member of the family, Ezekiel, looked a lot like the man that I had seen Jacy with recently. If anyone knew where she was it had to be him. And looking at what he had studied when he went to university, he was the one who had accessed my information. Or he had tried to anyway.

I decided to head to the address that was on file, which was just outside the city. He apparently lived at the guest house on his parent's estate. I had to ring the main house to get into the gate. A lovely woman with blue eyes and blonde hair came onto the video that answered the call.

"Hello, can I help you?" She had a breezy, friendly kind of voice and I knew who she was already, Laurell Horne, the woman who had put my mate's life in her name.

"I would like to see Ezekiel please." I kept it polite and to the point.

"Oh my, aren't you handsome." She was grinning at me now. "He is in his house. Just follow the driveway when it splits to the left."

"Thank you ma'am." I nodded at her through the video.

I did as she said after the gate had been opened. I followed the split to the left until it came to a nice yet modest guest house. It looked like any normal house you would see so I didn't suspect anything when I got out and walked toward the door.

It took just a few moments after I rang the bell for Ezekiel to open the door. He was already saying something before he had even looked at who was outside the house.

"Ye-ss?" He faltered for just a second at the end of the word, dragging it out when he saw me.

"I take it that means you know who I am?" I grinned at him.

"Oh my, you are much more handsome in person." Yup, he was the hacker who had tried to get my information.

"Can I speak with you for a moment?"

"Have you decided to abandon my dear pseudo sister and come for me instead. I will just have to take you, I mean take one for the team." He was much more flamboyant than I had expected. Oh well, I needed to speak to him for a little bit.

"Do you mind if we talk inside? I don't know how many people you want to know about what I have to say."

"By all means, Kyle sweetie, come on in." Yup, he definitely knew about me, one way or the other.

I followed Ezekiel inside the house and into a very vibrantly decorated living room. I watched as he sat on a bright loveseat and patted the space next to him, so that was when I decided to take the chair that was only big enough for one person.

"Can't blame me for trying." He giggled and stopped trying to beckon me over to him. "So, what can I do for you Kyle."

"How do you know Jacy so well?" I wanted to know that first and foremost.. "Why is everything to do with her in your mother's name?" There was no fear in the man's eyes as I glared at him right then.