Page 25 of Cold Foot Revenge (Wreck’s Mountains #7)

The click of his weapon being cocked was so damn satisfying.

Dylan jammed the barrel of his Glack harder against the guy’s temple. “Shifter?” he guessed.

“What gave it away?” the tall man ground out, holding up his hands. “If you could take your finger off that trigger, I would appreciate it.”

“Mmm, why don’t you tell me why you’re sneaking into my room at the ass crack of dawn. Better yet, tell me where Roxy is.”

“I’m guessing Roxy is that little piece Grave has been losing his mind over?”

“Watch how you talk about her,” Dylan warned. “How do you know Grave?”

“Ahh,” he said, moving into the room, his hands still up as Dylan followed with his Glock.

The man took a seat on the edge of the bed.

“We used to be close. It feels like a hundred years ago. I don’t recognize him much these days.

” He narrowed his glowing orange eyes. “There is something about you, isn’t there? ”

He didn’t understand. “I’m nobody. Where is Roxy? Did you take her?”

“Last I saw her, she was in the passenger’s seat of Grave’s truck. What is she? A wolf?”

Dylan holstered his weapon and grabbed his keys off the table. This guy wasn’t here as a threat. He wasn’t asking the right questions to be a threat. How long ago had Grave come for Roxy? Already, there were the gray streaks of dawn in the sky.

He left, but the shifter followed him. “Are you going back into Grit-Bron territory? I would advise against it.”

Dylan shook his head and picked his pace up to a jog toward his truck. What if they were hurting her?

“He has given me his word he won’t kill her,” the shifter called from behind him.

“And what is that word to me?” Dylan barked out. “I don’t know you.”

“Grave has to abide by an agreement with me.”

Dylan hesitated, his hand on the handle of his truck. “Why?”

The man’s smile was completely empty, and there was a hardness to his eyes as he said, “Call it brotherly consideration.”

Dylan frowned. “Grave is your brother?”

“He was.”

“Was,” Dylan repeated, confused.

“There were four of us. Grave, Leech, myself, and my youngest brother, Bron. My name is Grit.”

Whoa. “Why is their Crew called the Grit-Bron Crew?” Dylan asked.

“Because once upon a time, I created that Crew. I was Alpha, and my youngest brother, Bron, was my Second.”

“Why are you telling me this.”

He inhaled deeply and cocked his head, studying Dylan. “Are you Dylan Hoffman, brother of Garret Hoffman?”

“Look, I have to go.” Dylan opened the door.

“Bron tried to stop it.”

Those words froze Dylan, and he dragged his gaze back to Grit.

“He died for it. Grave and Leech killed him. He was trying to stop all of the Turns back then. Bron was the good one out of the four.” His eyes had softened, and the orange had muted to a light brown.

“Are you in the Grit-Bron Crew?” Dylan asked, sensing an ally.

“I run my own Crew now. Grave and Leech did a coup and nearly killed me when I tried to save Bron.” The empty smile was back.

“We have a shaky alliance that involves a very hard line in the sand called a territory line. This is the first time I’ve let Grave cross it for any reason.

He negotiated that you will have until noon to leave on your own accord, or I’m to bring you to him.

You should leave, human. He won’t kill her. He’s too obsessed with her.”

“Why are you warning me?” he asked.

“It’s not a warning. It’s being open with the negotiation.

” He leaned against a black truck parked a couple of empty parking spaces away from Dylan’s truck.

“I think you’re a man who will ignore a warning, but I can sleep at night knowing I tried.

I learned lessons long ago about the lengths Karma will go through to reset a wrong. ”

“Are you going to stop me if I go after your brothers?” Dylan asked.

Grit’s nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply and considered the question. “What are your reasons for going after them?”

“For my brother, and for Roxy.”

“For revenge,” he said.

“Yes. For revenge.”

“Then no. I will not stop you. You’ll get revenge for misused brothers, or I will.”

“Why haven’t you killed them before now?” Dylan asked.

“I wanted to see if they were salvageable. I was loyal.”

Oooh Dylan knew all brotherly loyalty. He had been lucky that Garret was good.

“Grave and Leech aren’t salvageable,” Dylan assured him, eyes on a pair of trucks that pulled into the parking lot and parked on the other side of Grit’s truck. His Crew?

“I know they aren’t salvageable. Killing them would make me just like them though, wouldn’t it?

Just another brother- killer out there? I have the good memories too.

The ones from where we were kids and it was the four of us against the world.

I don’t know if I could sleep in peace again if I Challenged my own brothers. ”

“You’re the reason they’re building up their Crew numbers, aren’t you?”

Grit narrowed his eyes. “They feel the threat, yes. We’ve been on the verge of a war for years. I doubt Grave and Leech admit what they’ve done to their Crew. They are just Turning people and manipulating them into serving them.”

“Very un-Alpha. Look, your family drama is riveting, but I have to figure out a way to take as many of those motherfuckers down as I can. Gotta go.”

“You’ll leave her unprotected,” Grit said.

And Dylan knew he was right. He would. He wouldn’t come back from going against the Grit-Bron Crew.

Even if there were only a few of them at the Rabbit Hole, he would have to depend on his weapon being faster than any Change they could pull off.

Changed, he wouldn’t stand a chance. He still remembered the way Garret was when his grizzly had wanted to kill him.

What would Roxy do? Where would she go? Would she be roped into staying in that dead-end Crew by the ones who survived him?

Would him going in guns-blazing do her or Garret any good at all?

He’d made mistakes keeping the Cold Foot Crew out of this and going rogue.

This was bigger than he’d thought. It wasn’t just Garret’s Maker he was going to fight one-on-one for his revenge.

It had been growing since the day he’d walked into the Rabbit Hole and begun to slowly realize what that place was.

He was going to have to figure it out. “I can’t just leave her in Grave’s hands. ”

Dylan yanked open the door and moved to climb into the truck, but Grit asked him something that changed everything. “Would you like back-up?”

Three large shifters with too-bright eyes filtered around Grit’s truck.

“You really hate them, don’t you?” Dylan asked.

“They’re a cancer in that town. They ruin lives. They probably ruined your lady’s life, didn’t they? Grave was never built to be an Alpha, and Leech was never meant for Second, but do I hate them? I wish. It would be easier that way.”

And Dylan understood. He’d learned enough being around Wreck’s Crew, and seeing the dynamics there that a good Alpha could bring a Crew into prosperity and improve the town around him.

He could protect it. But a bad Alpha? One who hurt and maimed and Turned people against their wills.

The killers who dragged down the value of a territory and made the streets less safe.

The bullies, the tormentors, the true monsters of the night…

Grit was right…they were a cancer to not only their territory, but to the entire shifter culture.

He thought of how he would do this, how fast he would be snuffed out against an entire Crew of bear shifters with no moral compass, and he considered Grit’s offer.

Wreck wouldn’t be here for hours, but he couldn’t just sit around while Roxy was abducted by the one who, in her own words, would never stop hunting her.

The one who had stolen from her and hurt her face.

The one who was ‘too obsessed with her.’

What choice did he have than to trust this shifter and his Crew?

An enemy of his enemy was his friend, and all.

“Yeah, man,” Dylan said. “If your Crew is up for it, I could use some back-up.”