I furrowed my brow. “Why would you say that?”
“Oh, come on, I’ve seen it. The first time I watched him have sex with you, it was like the two of you went off into some other world, and you were oblivious to everything else. I know what that means.”
The thing between Hudson and me was weird, I had to admit that. But I felt something equally as powerful with Kale. It wasn’t tranquil and peaceful—it was passionate and raging. And I liked both of those things. I needed both of them to be whole, to be completely satisfied. I started to try to explain that to Kale, but he was talking again.
“You guys are meant to be mated. You have a connection—a physical connection. You shouldn’t fight it. If I weren’t an ass, I’d step out of the picture and leave you two to be happy.”
I sat up. “What are you talking about? That’s crazy. I don’t want you to step out of the picture.”
“Maybe not now, but you’d feel differently after you were mated. It creates a really strong bond between the two wolves. You’d forget all about me.”
“Then I never want to be mated.” I’d never even heard of this before. What was this mating all about?
“Look, sometimes nature picks out two wolves that are sort of… meant to be. They’re drawn to each other in this inexplicable, physical way. The minute they meet, they can’t take their eyes off each other, can’t keep their hands off each other, and when they do finally touch, they’re connected in a way that neither of them can explain. It’s rare, but I think it’s obvious between you and Hudson.”
I had to admit that he’d pretty much described our meeting to a T. But I shook my head. “Hudson’s not enough for me. Don’t get me wrong, Kale, I do want him. And he does make me feel… amazing. But without you, it wouldn’t be the same. And the two of you are so interconnected. It’s about the three of us together.”
“Then you have to accept your wolf,” said Kale, kissing me on the forehead.
I pulled away. “No.” I couldn’t do that.
He sighed.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The next day, we arrived at the spot where I thought we might be able to gather intel. It was a biker bar out in the middle of nowhere. There was literally nothing on either side of it but fields for miles and miles. The bar was called The Boondocks Saloon, and it was precisely its remote location that made it attractive for people in my business. Out here, with the cover of drunken bikers and the sounds of heavy metal pumping out of the juke box, it was easy to hide in a corner and talk about things that no one wanted overheard.
The building stood proudly, a sign in front proclaiming that Ladies Drink Free on Mondays and that there were Dollar Rail Nights Wednesdays. There were always a slew of motorcycles parked out front. Our truck kind of stood out.
And Kale seemed stunned that I’d brought him here. He eyed some of the grizzled, bandana-ed bikers who were coming out of the place, and he looked visibly nervous. “What the hell, Piper?”
“Don’t worry,” I said. “Just follow my lead when we get inside, and let me do the talking, okay?”
“Have you even been to this place before?”
“Tons of times,” I said breezily. Okay, never alone, but I had Kale with me this time, so I wasn’t by myself. Of course, I knew that wasn’t really the same either. Maybe I was a little bit nervous too. But I wasn’t going to let that show. I tossed my hair back and walked confidently and casually towards the front door. Kale followed along behind me.
As soon as we walked in, I attracted the attention of one of the bikers, who was standing by the door, nursing a Budweiser. He looked me over appraisingly. “Well, hello there, sweetheart. I don’t believe we’ve met.”
I could feel Kale get annoyed behind me.
I just stared the biker down. I wasn’t interested in bikers. They didn’t know what was up. I sauntered past the guy and headed for the bar.
The biker reached out and caught me by the waist, pulling me up against him. “I was talking to you, sugar.”
Up close, he was enormous, and his breath smelled bad. He had a wispy beard and a receding hairline. I really didn’t like guys like this as a general rule. They thought too highly of themselves, and they didn’t respect women.
I glared at him. “Let me go.”
“Oh, now, that’s no way to be. You don’t have to be rude, sweetheart.”
“You’re the one who put your hands on me without asking,” I said, and now I was starting to feel a little freaked out. The bikers in this bar seemed to have weird ideas about any women who walked in, like there was some unwritten rule that all girls in here belonged to them or something. I didn’t belong to anyone, and I wanted this guy to let me go.
“You’ve got quite a tongue in that head of yours, don’t you?”
And Kale was there, leaning close. He was at least a head taller than the biker, although not quite as broad and burly. But he was still threatening in an unsettling way when he hissed, “She said to let her go.”
The biker seemed to see Kale for the first time. Kale was the antithesis of biker—sleek, sophisticated, clean-shaven.
“Oh,” said the biker. “I didn’t realize she was spoken for.”
“Well, she is,” said Kale, tugging me away. He dragged me further inside.
“Thanks,” I said when we were far enough away not to be heard.
“I thought you said you’d been here tons of times.”
“I have,” I said.
“And is it always like that?”
I didn’t say anything, just made a beeline for the bartender to order us some drinks. From the bar in the middle of the room, I’d be able to scope things out and see if anyone was here who could help us.
It didn’t look promising. Everywhere I looked, I only saw bikers. At the pool table, the dart board, sitting in booths—girls on their laps with roots coming in from their bad bleach jobs. I wrinkled up my nose. If this was a bust—
“What can I get you?” said the bartender, a woman named Bess who was so large that she didn’t so much walk as waddle.
I ordered some beer, and Bess lumbered off to fetch it for us.
When she returned, she set two bottles down in front of us. “You looking for Tiny?”
“Is he here?” I said.
She pointed to the corner of the bar, beyond the pool table. There was a dimly lit booth back there. I couldn’t see that anyone was sitting there. Not enough light.
“Thanks,” I said anyway, paying her.
She shrugged. Bess was used to the division of her clientele. She didn’t mind. We tended to cause less trouble than the bikers.
“Tiny?” said Kale.
“Come on.” I pushed his beer at him and started across the bar. He came along.
As we approached the booth, I began to make out the outline of Tiny Moscato. He wasn’t ironically named or anything. The guy actually was tiny. He was probably about five feet five inches tall, and he was slender to boot. He had big buggy eyes, and he always had a tiny mustache.
He was alone.
I slid into the booth across from him, and Kale followed suit.
“I’m meeting someone,” said Tiny.
“I don’t see anybody,” I said.
He squinted. “That you, Piper?”
“It’s me,” I said.
“Been hearing things about you. Heard you botched your job for Sal and went rogue. That true?”
“Sal screwed me,” I said. “He tried to lowball me for that job. You have no idea how much this necklace he wanted me to steal is actually worth.”
Tiny shrugged. “I’m meeting someone. You’ll have to clear out.” Even his voice sounded a little tiny.
“I just need a couple minutes of your time,” I said.
“Look, I’m not doing you any favors, Piper,” said Tiny. “You made your bed and now you gotta lie in it. It’s none of my business at this point.”
“Not asking for favors, just a little info,” I said.
Tiny took
a sip of his drink, which was sweating away on the table. The ice had nearly all melted. “Just a little info? How would that work out for me, hmm? I sing a little song to you, and then they wonder how you know things. They figure out that I’m the canary, and then they strangle me. No thanks.”
I sighed. This was going worse than I’d imagined.
Kale fidgeted next to me. “I can’t believe we drove all the way here for this.”
Tiny seemed to notice him for the first time. “Oh, well, looky here. Piper’s got herself a bodyguard?”
“He’s a… friend,” I said. It seemed too complicated to explain that he was one of two guys who wanted to be my boyfriend. “Listen, Tiny, if it’s about compensation, once I sell this necklace, I’ll be pretty well off.”
Tiny snorted. “You want me to sing for an I-owe-you?” He eyed Kale. “Is your friend here as stupid as you?”
Kale glowered at him. “Piper, why are we sitting here and listening to this?”
I put a hand on Kale’s upper arm, trying to calm him. This wasn’t so bad, actually. Tiny and I were dancing, playing a little game. It wasn’t over yet. Maybe I’d even get my information. “Look, Tiny, all I want to know is where Sal and his men are keeping a friend of mine. They’re trying to extort me by threatening this person, and I don’t like being treated that way if you know what I mean.”
Tiny took another sip of his drink. “Like I said, Piper, I’m meeting someone. You and your friend are going to have to clear out. This person I’m meeting gets nervous if he sees other people around.”
“For God’s sake, Tiny, either you know where Sal keeps prisoners or you don’t.”
“Could be anywhere,” said Tiny. “It’s not like Sal runs a jail.” He made a shooing motion. “Seriously, Piper. Run along. You’re messing with my business, and that’s not making me happy.”
I smiled tightly. “Oh, really? Well, how about this? I’ll move on and be on my way the minute you tell me where my friend is.”
Tiny looked annoyed. “What makes you think I know that?”
“I know you make it your business to know all kinds of things,” I said.
Tiny yanked out his phone and checked the time. “I could have the bikers here make you clear out of this booth.”
“No, you couldn’t,” I said. “You don’t have any special relationship with the bikers.”
Tiny sighed. He leaned forward. “Listen, you didn’t hear this from me, but I know sometimes they throw people in the warehouse.”
“Warehouse?”
“They move truckloads of stolen goods sometimes,” said Tiny. “They process them through the warehouse.”
“Where’s the warehouse?”
“If you don’t know that, I’m not telling you.”
“Well, then, I’m not moving.”
“This is stupid.” Tiny screwed up his small face. “They probably already whacked your friend, you know that, right? Wouldn’t make any sense to keep him around, would it?”
Kale shot me an alarmed look.
“Where’s the warehouse?” I insisted.
“Come on, Piper.” Tiny was whining now. “I’m meeting someone in exactly two minutes, and you’re cutting this awful close.”
“The warehouse,” I said.
He told me.
* * *
We sped off from the biker bar pretty quick after that. I didn’t know who Tiny was meeting, but I didn’t want to stick around to see if that person wasn’t too pleased with us. Tiny himself wasn’t the least bit happy, of course, but no one took Tiny’s anger all that seriously. It was the reason he could move amongst everyone and find out information so easily. No one considered him a threat.
Kale was pissed. “I can’t believe you went in there like that.”
“We found out the information, didn’t we?” I said.
“You do this all the time?” he asked.
“Well,” I said, “I haven’t actually gone there alone before.”
“You weren’t alone. I was there.”
“Well, with someone else in the business,” I said. “Which you’re not.”
“I didn’t like that at all,” said Kale. “That guy who put his hands all over you when we walked in? What would you have done if I wasn’t there?”
I shrugged. “I would have figured it out. I’m not helpless.”
“Yeah, well, you’re afraid of thunder.”
“Shut up,” I grumbled.
“I’m just saying that you’re not as tough as you think, Piper. You’re lucky I was there.”
“Seriously.” I glared at him. “Stop. I’m fine. I’ve been fine on my own since way before I met you. I don’t need your help. I am tough.”
“Geez. Don’t be like that. You could at least thank me, you know?”
I rolled my eyes. But part of me actually enjoyed how protective he was being. It felt… nice. It had been a while since anyone besides my parents had really cared about my well-being, and I had to admit that I kind of liked his response.
My phone rang.
I answered it. “Hello?”
“Hello, this is Madeleine Parker from the Belmann Museum. I understand that you’re in possession of the Petraclovna necklace.”
Huh. This was interesting. “Well, we are. We’re in a bit of a bind at the moment, however, as I told your associate, David.”
“Oh, let’s not worry over David for now,” she said. “We’ve thought that perhaps he wasn’t the best fit for these negotiations with you. You won’t be hearing from him again.”
Even more interesting. I was beginning to think that the Belmann Museum was a bit more desperate for this necklace than I had even imagined. “I didn’t have a problem with David.”
“He said that you weren’t interested in negotiating.”
“That’s not exactly what I said. I said that I had a situation, and that I wouldn’t be able to negotiate until I got it cleared up.”
“Aren’t we offering you enough money?”
“Well, we actually never got to the money aspect.”
“We’re prepared to come up a bit, if that would help sway you.”
I grinned. This was good. This was very, very good. “I’m wondering if there’s a chance that you and your organization could just be patient. Currently, there’s a situation that’s demanding all of my attention, and until it’s resolved, I simply can’t make any promises. But I’m making progress on it, and hopefully, we’ll get it sorted very soon.”
“I don’t see why this situation should keep you from negotiations.”
“Well,” I said, “we’ll need to bring the necklace to you in order to complete the deal. And right now, this situation is forcing us to travel. We’re too occupied, and I can’t be sure when we’ll be free.”
“I see,” she said. “I suppose that makes sense, then.”
“If we could get back in touch when we’re ready?”
“That is acceptable,” she said.
I grinned.
Madeleine and I exchanged a few more pleasantries, making sure that I had her number in my phone so that I could get in touch with her when I needed to, and then we hung up.
“What was that about?” said Kale.
“We’re back in business,” I said. “They want the necklace, and they’re going to give us even more money. We’ll settle into formal negotiations as soon as we get Hudson back.”
He smiled.
“We are going to get Hudson back,” I told him.
He nodded. But the smile slid away from his face.
* * *
We didn’t reach the warehouse until nightfall, and it loomed up ahead of us. It was an old building, up on a hill, glaring down at the valley around it, almost like a gothic castle in one of those old black and white movies.
It wasn’t until we saw it that we started talking in specifics.
“How are we going to do this?” said Kale.
“I have to admit, I’m not sure,” I said. “We don’t know
where in the warehouse Hudson is being kept.”
“Hell, we aren’t even sure he’s in here.”
“He is,” I said. I didn’t want to think about the alternative.
“We should shift now,” said Kale. “We’ll stand our best chance in wolf form. Anyone we see, we go for the throat.”
I shook my head. “Kale, I don’t know if I want to kill anyone.”
“After everything they’ve done to us, you don’t want revenge against them?”
“It’s not about them,” I said. “It’s about me. I can’t handle doing that. I can’t handle being that monster.”
He sighed heavily.
I looked down at my hands. I couldn’t help but think about the dead bodies in my college dorm room, feel that horror fresh all over again.
“Okay, look,” he said. “Right there. Security guards.”
“So?” I said. The warehouse was controlled by Sal and his guys, but it was a front for illegal activity, so it had the semblance of propriety, at least. That semblance included guys in uniform.
“We jump those guys and get their uniforms,” said Kale. “Then we can walk around the warehouse as we please, right? No killing everyone we see.”
I smiled at him. “Good plan, Kale.”
* * *
But Kale killed the security guards. We sneaked up on them in wolf form and sprang on them from behind. I just knocked my guy down, but Kale ripped out his guy’s throat. And when he saw that I was hesitating, he ripped out my guy’s throat too.
I shifted back to human form, angry. “Why did you do that?” I said in a harsh whisper. “Was that really necessary?”
Kale was still a wolf, and he just gave me a quizzical expression.
I turned my back on him. I felt sick. It was all I could do to keep myself from vomiting. I staggered away, clutching my stomach, tears squeezing out of my eyes. I couldn’t explain why it was so horrible, but there was something about the sight of a lifeless human body—ripped open and bleeding as if it was nothing more than road kill.
I hadn’t known these men, but that didn’t mean that they didn’t have families—mothers, children, and wives—who would be devastated at their loss. I knew what it was like to carry that kind of burden, to know how many lives I had destroyed just with the flick of my wolf claws, the clench of my wolf teeth.
Under a Raging Moon: Part Three Page 7