Hollywood Dragon: BBW Dragon Shifter Paranormal Romance Read Online Free PDF Page B

its autonomy. But Jennifer Kim, my contact in Sacramento, effectively squashed it.”
    “I love having a weasel on our side,” Dennis joked, then quickly, “I know, I know, Jennifer’s a ferret. You know what I mean. So far it sounds like paper pushers dicking around. That doesn’t spell action to me.”
    “I’m not done. A couple weeks ago, Jennifer reported that someone with enough clout to get results had been requesting all the old records of Santa Lucia.”
    “Why?” Dennis asked. “My dad told me there aren’t any written records, other than a couple of letters between the old hacienda owners, and the one bill of sale to your family, JP.”
    JP turned to Dennis. “Because of the vans. They first started appearing about the same time as the requests for the old maps. Once or twice a month. Here and there, always far afield.”
    “Setting fires? Doing damage?” Dennis gave a tigerish growl.
    “No. People casually mentioned them, so casually they were driving under the radar until Alma Jimenez happened to notice two different vans out at the old smelting site in separate months while she was on regular patrol. She ran the license plate of the second one. It was legit, but a rental from some LA company. She told Chief Albert, who drove out himself, but by the time he got there, it was gone.”
    “Why would anyone be at the old smelting site once, much less twice? That building came down after World War I, right?” Mick asked. “That’s city land, too. It’s not being sold?”
    “Funny you should ask that,” JP said. “Less than a week after Alma pinged that license plate, the city council was approached by a high priced lawyer with a glossy brochure about building a huge trade complex here ‘at the hub of the agricultural world.’”
    The other two laughed.
    “Promised all kinds of economic boost, jobs, yadda, but the city council told him the land is zoned for a public park.”
    “Who did he represent?” Dennis asked.
    “I checked out the brochure myself. Shell company, main headquarters overseas. Dead end.”
    “Except that lawyers, brochures, overseas accounts, that suggests major bucks,” Mick commented.
    “Yes,” JP said. “So I took the opportunity to launch my own, let’s go ahead and call it a counter-attack, through a connection at the IRS, who sounded very interested in this mysterious company.”
    Mick and Dennis laughed, Mick high fiving Dennis. “That’s our Jeep,” Dennis said.
    “Meanwhile, more vans, seen here and there around town. It’s been escalating, which is why I called you, Dennis. After I called you, it began escalating fast. And that brings me to today, and you guys. There were two vans out at either end of the old Gutierrez ranch site this morning.”
    “That ranch burned down a hundred years ago,” Mick exclaimed. “Nothing’s been on it since then. It’s still LaFleur property, right?”
    “Yes. Chief Albert’s oldest kid Jason had overheard the talk about the vans. You probably don’t remember him, as both of you have been gone a lot, but he wants to become a detective. Anyway, he was out running today. Saw them, went back and changed to human. Rode back on his bike to confront them. Said he saw a couple of guys working over the ground down in one of the ditches. It looked like a big, supercharged metal detector. But when he asked them who they were and what they were doing, he said, a huge guy came around the side of the van and beat the crap out of him.”
    Mick growled low in his big chest, and Dennis shifted from his bad leg to his good, as if he wanted to shift to his tiger and go on the hunt right then.
    “When he woke up, they were gone. He called home, and Chief Albert called me. I was just pulling up to your house, Mick, when I got the call.”
    “Hell,” Mick exclaimed. “I think I saw those vans on the taxi ride in from the airport. I didn’t see the kid, though.”
    “They’d tossed him down into the ditch, and his bike on top of