Chapter 168 Pastries

Chapter 168 Pastries

Emerald’s POV-

Jet, Spinel, Andrew and I got kicked out of the diner because I kept helping Paige close. Paige made us leave until she sent her employees home for the night. Paige’s place is only open until 2:00pm on the weekends.

The four of us went to the waiting SUV and settled in, Paige said she’d call my phone as soon as everyone left. While we were waiting in the SUV for Paige’s call, a car pulled up. The front doors opened and out stepped Alpha Seth and one of his cronies from that night when he was sneaking around the short-term rental.

“What’s he doing here?” Andrew asked.

“When I worked here, once a week one of Alpha Seth’s men would come by the diner and pick up the eggshells, coffee used coffee grounds, bread ends, old pastries and veggie scraps. Once a month Alpha Seth would show up and pay Paige for it.”

“What do they use them for?” Spinel asked, screwing his face up at the thought of transporting garbage.

“The eggshells and coffee grounds they mix in with their dirt for farming, the bread ends, day old pastries, and veggie scraps they feed to their pigs.”

“They’re a self-sufficient pack? They’re off grid?” Andrew asked.

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t know anything about them. The first time I met Alpha Seth was the day that so-called influencer came into the diner. I’m assuming they’re off grid because I know you guys couldn’t find anything on them when you did a search for me after you found that video.”

“What’s his story, this Alpha Seth guy? Andrew asked.

“My understanding is he is the Alpha because his brother died in some type of accident. I’ve heard a couple different versions of the accident, I don’t know the details. I don’t know if Paige does either. Alpha Seth’s brother was Paige’s mate. When the Alpha died, Paige left the pack and took over her parents diner.”

“And we’re here because we’re planting Sphene here to protect him from whoever hired him to kill you, and to get information about Alpha Seth? Do I have that right? Andrew asked, peppering us with questions.

“Yes.” I affirmed.

Andrew reached over and placed a hand on my leg above my knee, “Are we telling Paige we have suspicions about this Alpha Seth?”

I shook my head.

“Ok. Now, that I’ve got the basics of the plan, I can play the right part.”

Seth and his friend came back to the car with a few boxes and bags of stuff from the diner, they loaded up the car they arrived in and drove off.

Paige called me as soon as Seth and his friend left the parking lot.

“I’m going to go make sure those bastards actually left the vicinity. I don’t trust him, he could double back once we’re inside with Paige and then I think our plan to insert Sphene will be blown.” Spinel said.

Jet nodded his head, “I agree. Go quickly.”

Jet, Andrew and I went to the back door of the diner, Paige let us in, she brewed a fresh pot coffee, set it down on a table with five cups and a few pastries. A few minutes later Spinel walked through the back door, closing it behind him and locking it.

“Thank you for meeting with us, Paige. I know you’ve had a long day, so I’ll make this quick. I need a favor. I know I told you the story about when I got shot, I need to hide the shooter from the High Tower and the Gold Table.”

“Why do you need to hide the person that shot you?”

“Good question, because he didn’t shoot me to kill me, he shot me to save me. We’ve interrogated him and what he said checks out, we also had another set of circumstances that directly confirmed his story. Right now, he’s been moved to the Palace dungeons, he’s being hidden because members of the councils are looking for him, we can’t release him. If we release him…”

“They’ll know he talked.” Paige finished my sentence.

“Exactly. We want to bring him here because nobody would suspect him of coming here. Nobody here would know he is with us since he didn’t come into town with the calvary last time everyone was in Nebraska City. I know you know about werewolves, so you have some working knowledge of how things go. He’s a military vet, trained sniper, hard worker, and he says he’ll do whatever you need him to do. He just needs a job, he’ll work the same deal with you as I did, and we’ll pay his motel fees.”

“I do need some kitchen help, and if he has military training, he can fix stuff. I haven’t had a good maintenance guy in a while. Do you know if he’ll be here for a long time? I’m not really looking for a rental type of situation. It hurt when you left. I’m not trying to guilt-trip you or anything, but you became a real part of my team here and it took us a few weeks to get used to not having you around. I haven’t been able to find anyone to replace you.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know how long he’ll be here. I’m sorry about that. It was hard for me to leave. I’ve missed you, I’ve missed this place, I’ve missed the people.” I reached out and patted Paige’s hand.

Andrew refilled everyone’s coffee cups and shoved another pastry in his mouth.

Paige and I exchanged looks, then started laughing.

“Next question, is he single?”

My eyebrows raised, “Look at you, Paigey-Poo trying to get back in werewolf game?”

“Shuttup Emey. I’m asking if there will be a she-wolf or pups accompanying him, I can hide a single guy in plain sight. I can’t hide a whole family, that takes actual hiding.”

I nodded my head, “Makes perfect sense. He’s single.”

“Do any of you three talk or just her?”

Jet cleared his throat and spoke up, “Mostly her. Thank you, Paige. His name is Sphene, Emerald already gave you his background and why we need him here. He’ll be arriving in town on Sunday. When would you like him to make contact with you?”

“Have him here at the diner at 1:00pm, have him come in dressed like he’s looking for a job and with a resume. I can do the rest from there. When are you four leaving?”

“Tomorrow.” Spinel answered. “We don’t want to be here in town when Sphene shows up. We know the one day turn around could be viewed as suspicious, but the motel Emey lived at while she was here has kept some of her belongings, so were using that as a cover story.”

All of us stood up, pushed in our chairs, and said goodbye for the night.

“See you in the morning for breakfast, Paige. Thank you for the visit, coffee and pastries.” I said loudly, holding up three boxes of desserts, as we walked out the front door of the diner.