Page 87

COLE

I waved as Avery and Zayde both drove away, a faint smile on my face. As soon as she was out of sight, the smile slipped from my lips. My wolf gave a low, menacing growl. Turning, I caught Trent’s eye.

“Are you ready for this?” he asked. “You don’t have to do this. Langston and I can get the info.”

“Thanks for your concern, but I’ll be fine. You guys have seen shit like this before, and I haven’t, but this isn’t a random mission. This is about my son and my mate. If my hands need to get bloody for that, then so be it.”

Trent licked his lips, eyeing me warily, but nodded all the same. “All right, then. Let’s do this.”

Farrah moved past me down the porch steps. “Good luck.” She shuddered. “I thought I could handle this, but it looks like I’m more in line with Avery. There are some things I don’t want to see.”

“I’ll let you know what we find out,” I said.

She nodded, threw a worried look at my house, then strolled to her car. Porter sidled up next to me, lowering his voice.

“Hey, yo, is your sister single by chance?”

Snapping my head around, I found Porter looking over his shoulder as Farrah got into her car.

“First off, I’m her brother, so maybe I’m not the best guy to ask. Second, she is, but you, my friend, couldn’t handle her.”

Porter heaved a heavy sigh and nodded, giving me a friendly punch in the arm. “Yeah. I figured that. Just had to ask, though.”

Returning my attention to the house, my vision tunneled until all I could see was the front door and Trent’s back.

Every thought in my mind was focused on what was about to come.

Inside, I picked up the scent of the man downstairs.

Sour fear, salty with sweat, and a hint of earthy musk that reminded me of Kyle.

This man had been near my enemy not long ago. That was a good sign.

As we descended the stairs, I struggled to keep my wolf in check.

He was threatening to push forward and take over.

The beast within me smelled prey. He wanted to tear flesh from bone, to coax a scream of agony from an adversary.

There was more subtlety needed, though. I couldn’t allow barbarity to take hold.

I was no monster like Kyle. Not unless I had to be.

The prisoner raised his head and watched us with wide, fearful eyes.

The smell of fear was even stronger here.

The guy didn’t look very intimidating or dangerous now that he was tied to a chair.

Trent and Langston had tied him in such a way that even if he had shifted, he’d still be bound.

Ropes crisscrossed his chest and legs, looped around each arm and leg, as well as his wrists and ankles, and one final loop tight around his neck ran up to a beam above him.

As harmless as the man looked, the situation itself was dangerous. We’d have to navigate this minefield carefully. He was young—twenty or twenty-one, maybe?—but here, he looked even younger. Like a child caught in a trap.

“Hello, friend.” Langston smiled and stepped closer. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“You guys are in a load of shit, you know that?” the man snarled. “Kyle’s gonna make rugs out of you fuckers. Peel the fur off you while you’re still alive.”

“Yes, yes, very scary,” Trent said. “Anyway, you know why we’re here. What’s your damn name?”

“My name’s Scotty, but that doesn’t matter. You don’t get it, do you?” Scotty glared at us. “You’re gonna pay. He’s not someone you fuck with.”

“And I’m not someone you fuck with, either, Scotty,” I snarled, letting my alpha aura flood out of me.

Trent and Porter winced away, and even Langston blinked in surprise. The captive immediately lowered his head, submitting to a more powerful shifter.

“Do you hear me? Look at me ,” I commanded.

Reluctantly, he lifted his eyes to meet mine.

“I’m pretty sure that since you managed to get yourself caught, Kyle would rather you were dead than give up the information.

Maybe we’ll even let it slip to your boss that you gave us some nice, juicy shit.

Then, we’ll set you loose. I wonder how long it would take Kyle to find you.

You know the old saying? What do snitches get? ”

“I think that’s stitches,” Trent said from behind me. “Though, I doubt there will be much left of you to sew up.”

The belligerent look on Scotty’s face vanished, and his face paled. “Wait, no, you can’t do that.”

“Oh, we can,” I said. “If you cooperate, then maybe we’ll be a bit more pleasant.”

“You should really think about your options, buddy,” Langston said, picking up a hammer from the workbench. “Things could go very badly for you. You have multiple options here, none of them good.”

“Yeah?” Scotty said, swallowing hard.

“Yeah,” Langston agreed. “One? You refuse to help us and are a dick about it, so we—” he slammed the hammer down on the table, the sound reverberating through the room like a gunshot, and Scotty flinched “— persuade you.”

Like the caged animal he was, Scotty began to sweat, eyeing the hammer in Langston’s hand.

“Second? You don’t give us what we need, but you are a bit more pleasant to deal with.

In that case, we do as Mr. Garrett here says.

We turn you loose and make sure Kyle knows you helped us.

Third? We simply let you go and do nothing.

” Langston shrugged nonchalantly. “Problem with that one is, Kyle will never believe we let you go without getting some information out of you. He’ll assume you spilled your guts, and you’ll end up equally as dead as you would if you did lie about your assistance. That leaves option number four.”

“And what’s that?” Scotty asked warily.

“You help us. Give us the information we want and need. When we’re satisfied that it is both helpful and accurate, we let you go, and ensure that Kyle won’t find you.” Langston gazed at Scotty hard. “So? What do you choose?”

Scotty licked his lips and blinked rapidly as he worked over his options in his mind.

Finally, he nodded toward me. “How can you help me? Everyone knows you’re broke as fuck. Helping me escape would cost some pretty good cheddar, and you ain’t got it. Kyle brags about how he fucked you over financially all the time.”

Gritting my teeth, I suppressed the flash of rage.

I didn’t like my money woes being spilled for everyone to hear.

It was silly to worry about it at that moment, but it was still a sore spot.

I opened my mouth to tell him to worry more about himself than my wallet, but Langston spoke before I could.

“I’ve got money,” he said. “Money and contacts. I’m the son of the richest alpha in my state. Trust me when I say I have the ability to help someone disappear. Even from people like Kyle.”

I was grateful for Langston’s offer, but also ashamed. Ashamed because I had to rely on someone else to fix this mess. Also, I hadn’t realized just how well-off Langston was. I could tell from his clothes and demeanor that he came from money, but the richest in the state? That was saying a lot.

Tamping down my jealousy of his financial situation, I turned my attention back to our prisoner. He looked intrigued.

Scotty chewed the inside of his cheek. “I want it on paper.”

“My guy,” Porter said with a laugh. “We’re in a basement threatening you with a hammer, and you want fucking legal documents?”

“I want proof that you’ll do what you say, that’s all,” he said. “Put it in writing, and I’ll tell you everything I know.” He met my gaze. His bravado was gone now, and all that remained was fear. “You gotta get me away from him. Please . You do that, and I’ll give you what you want.”

The terror coming off the kid was almost palpable.

We all knew what Kyle was capable of, and it looked like his men did as well.

As dumb as it was, I couldn’t help but hope that this same fear was what drove Dallas to help Kyle.

Maybe, if I was very lucky, my brother was only doing these awful things because he was afraid of what Kyle would do to him otherwise.

“We don’t need lawyers,” Langston said. “Cole and I are both alphas. Our official written word is as legally binding as anything. Porter, grab us some paper and a pen.”

“You got it.” Porter jogged up the stairs, returning a minute later with the items.

Langston put the paper on the workbench and began to write. “If—and only if—the information you give us pans out will we work on extracting you. Understand?”

Scotty nodded so vigorously, I thought his head might pop off. “Yeah, yeah, good, all good.”

“If I even think for a moment that you’re lying,” I added, “the deal’s off. It behooves you to be as honest as possible from moment one. Cool?”

He nodded again, looking like a man on death row who’d been granted a reprieve.

Langston signed the bottom of the paper, and I scrawled my signature next to his. He held the paper up so Scotty could scan the document. When he was finished, his shoulders sagged in relief.

“Okay,” Scotty said. “What do you all want to know?”

I dragged a stool out of the corner and sat in front of him, eye-to-eye. “Start with this crazy fucking drug that turns humans into wolves.”

If the moment hadn’t been so tense, I would have laughed at the look on his face. Eyes widening, jaw falling open, gaping at us in shock.

“You know about that?”

“We do,” I said. “I know why your boss hired his little tech lady. You guys were pretty bad at erasing important stuff. We saw it in action. Now what the fuck is it?”

Recovering, he said, “Well, that’s a long story.”

“Summarize it,” Trent snapped.

He winced. “Okay, okay. Kyle gets it from this creepy-ass scientist guy. Some doctor who’s got all these fucked-up ideas about shifter superiority.

The doc’s a shifter, too, obviously, and he thinks we’re the top of the food chain and are, like, destined to be the inheritors of the earth or some shit, I don’t know. ”

“A scientist?” Langston probed. “What kind?”