Alpha Me Not

by Jianne Carlo

  Charlene and Grant Weber.

  Arm in arm, the young married couple strolled up to her table.

  “Hi.” Susie faked a smile, so not wanting to do the small-talk thing. “How are you two?”

  “Fantabulous. Guess what. One of our friends has an over-the-garage apartment available for rent. I actually just left you a message with all the details.” Charlene jingled the charm bracelet she wore.

  “Oh, that’s so nice of you. But I don’t need a place anymore. I’m going to stay on with Joe for the rest of the year.”

  Susie enjoyed watching the other woman’s face shrivel like a prune.

  “He’s a convicted child abuser, Susie White. I don’t for one minute understand how you could stay in the same house as that man—”

  Susie sprang out of the chair. “Joe Huroq and I are going out. No one, absolutely no one, messes with any man of mine.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The entire cafeteria had to have heard Susie’s ringing declaration. Joe stood in the doorway grinning like a lovesick fool.

  Charlene Weber appeared ready to blow. Hands fisted, cheeks red, nose quivering, she spat, “You are making a huge mistake.”

  “No. I’m not. What have you got against Joe anyway?” Susie got right in Charlene’s face.

  “He raped a boy.”

  “Now that’s libel. Plain and simple.” Susie’s balled hands jerked as if she yearned to plant one on Charlene’s jaw.

  “Stop it.” Grant grabbed his wife’s arm. “This has gone far enough. Joe and I resolved our issues years ago.”

  “Your father still doesn’t believe he’s innocent.”

  “Weber.” Susie slapped her forehead. “Of course. I should’ve made the connection ages ago. Your father-in-law is Bob Weber. The attorney general who prosecuted Joe. No, that’s wrong. Who persecuted Joe.”

  Joe ambled over to the threesome.

  Susie hadn’t even noticed him enter the cafeteria. He curled an arm around her waist and dropped a kiss on her mouth, a tongue-tangling, toes-curling kiss. She didn’t disappoint but looped her hands around his neck and gave him her all.

  He tore his lips from hers and flicked her nose. “Hi.”

  She pinkened everywhere, even the tips of her delightful ears. “Hi, back. What’re you doing here? Where’s Gray?”

  “At the house with Tate. All finished?”

  “Yes. Charlene. Grant. Later.” If an expression could sneer contempt, the one Susie gave the couple did. She gathered her purse and folders.

  Heads turned as they strolled to the entrance.

  Warrior woman in a temper, no finer sight than his mate’s regal profile—stubborn chin leveled and shoulders squared. He and his dick relished her passion.

  “Slow down. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, is watching our every step.” He set his hand to the small of her back. “So I’m your man, am I?”

  Her color deepened. She shot him a side glare that could have felled several superheroes. “So not the time to go there. And we will not be referring to this again.”

  Joe leaned closer, licked her earlobe, and whispered, “Oh, babe. You are so wrong about that one.”

  She put several inches between them and heaved a huge sigh when the entrance loomed. “Thank God.”

  They walked out of the cafeteria.

  “Is everything okay, Joe?”

  Joe curled his arm around her shoulder and dropped a kiss on her hair. “Keep walking and act normal. Quite a few people followed us outside. I found Ivan. Cut up, but not badly enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room. Fay’s a retired nurse and knows what to do.”

  The scent of fresh-mowed grass swamped the gusting breeze. The morning had blossomed into one of those spring days beloved by all. A hint of a winter’s nip lingered, and the azure sky held not a trace of a cloud. Sunshine, all golden and warm, dappled the lawn shades of emerald and olive and every hue in between.

  “That’s great. You must’ve found him right away.”

  “He always goes to the same general area. Close to where we saw that thing that night. It didn’t take longer than half an hour to get him back home.”

  Fay was so worried about Ivan, about what would happen to her son when she finally passed that she’d asked Joe to wait while she cleaned up Ivan’s wounds and settled him in bed. While he hadn’t had the time to discuss things in detail, Joe couldn’t refuse the woman who’d kept him sane after Gran-gran died and the authorities put him into the welfare system. So he agreed to meet Fay later in the week and work out some form of guardianship for Ivan.

  “Fay seems like a nice lady.”

  “Gran-gran and Fay were friends. Couldn’t be more different in personalities. You saw Fay. She’s apple pie and ice cream. Gran-gran was rocky mountain oysters and moonshine.”

  She stumbled and grabbed his arm to steady herself. “Rocky mountain oysters? Aren’t those made with bull testicles?”

  He laughed aloud at her horrified expression, eyebrows slashed, mouth in a wide grimace. “Actually no. They’re calf testicles.”

  “Calf, shmalf. Why on earth would anyone want to eat a cow’s balls?”

  Waggling his brows, he mugged a lusty leer and said, “Bet you a full-body massage that within a week you’ll be begging to lick some balls.”

  A rosy hue suffused her cheeks, but she shot him a sultry sidelong glance and quipped, “Now why would I want to take a bet I know I can’t win?”

  His dick thickened, and he almost stumbled and had to lean heavily on her for support.

  She laughed with such glee that he couldn’t stop his earlier lovesick grin from reappearing. “You should’ve seen the expression on your face just now. I think I like shocking you.”

  Placing a hand on his chest, he retorted, “My heart can’t take much more.”

  She cuffed him. “When things settle down, I want to know a whole heap more about your grandmother. Do you have pictures of her?”

  Though he didn’t want to stopper Susie’s effusiveness, duty obligated him to hunt down Petey’s killer. “I do. You’re avoiding asking me about Eric.”

  Whirling around, she met his gaze and nodded, eyes wide and wary, lips trembling. “I was. But I shouldn’t. We owe Petey’s memory, and I need to help Eric and that other boy under him. Tell me.”

  How he loved every facet of her, the wild gypsy, the coquette, the woman who bawled for a child she’d never known. Unable to resist, he halted, tilted her head, and kissed her thoroughly. When he broke away, Joe said, “Thank you.”

  “No thanks are owed. Now, tell me.”

  “It took a while for Tate to pick up Eric’s scent. By then I’d finished with Ivan and I rendezvoused with Tate. We found Eric at the bottom of the same ravine you and I ran by, but not near where we were two nights ago. The ravine becomes very steep about a mile away from where we were. Almost like a fissure from an earthquake. It’s about a quarter mile deep and no wider than three feet. He was still alive. I took him to the hospital. Called the cops.”

  “What’s wrong? Your voice has gone all growly.”

  He set his hands on her shoulders, and their gazes connected. “Chances are the authorities will start questioning all of us. First of all, a normal person wouldn’t be able to climb down that ravine. Far less carry someone out of it. Secondly it’s remote and the bottom’s not visible from the top. Add to that the facts that I found Petey just days ago and my past with Ritchie Henderson. They have to focus on us, me in particular, at some point in time.”

  “I never thought of that. Can they do anything to you? I mean you rescued Eric.” She adjusted the collar of his shirt.

  “Right now, Susie, I’m probably their number one suspect.”

  She crushed his lapels and said, her eyes narrowed, mouth tight. “You did nothing wrong. You should’ve let Tate take Eric to the hospital.”

  “Tate called the cops and stayed at the ravine to ensure no one disturbed the crime scene and to sniff out any other evidence
. I was at the scene of a crime, Susie. That’s all the authorities need to place me there. It doesn’t matter who took Eric. You and Gray might be better off staying at a hotel for a while.”

  She walloped him. “Are you nuts? Number one, I’m standing right by you. Number two, I can’t even believe you’d suggest I act so wishy-washy. Number three. Well, there’s no three. Don’t even go there again, Joe Huroq.”

  Adorable couldn’t begin to describe his warrior woman. He molded her to him, relishing the lemon tang wafting from her ponytailed hair and wanting nothing more than to bury his cock in her pussy.

  Looping her arms around his neck, she tiptoed and kissed him. “I meant what I said earlier. No one messes with my man.”

  “Gotcha. We have to hustle, babe. The cops are still at the crime scene and will be for some time. Right now they’re under the impression I’m the only person involved.”

  “Wait a minute. I thought Tate and Gray stayed behind.”

  “They did. But they didn’t have to be near to guard the scene. They’re wolves, remember? We erased all trace of their presence from the ravine. Because of the terrain, Tate and Gray can still do some behind-the-scene scouting.” He twined their fingers together, kissed the underside of her wrist, and set a fast pace to the pickup.

  “Eric, how is he?”

  “The prognosis isn’t optimistic.” Joe guided her toward the truck. “It seems he may have been poisoned. Some kind of paralytic drug, which would explain why he wasn’t moving in your vision.”

  “Poisoned? Petey wasn’t poisoned, was he?”

  “Nope. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “And the other boy? The one whose face I couldn’t see?”

  “Dead.” Worse than dead. The kid looked like he’d been through the wringer, literally. But she didn’t need to know the details.

  “Could they identify him?”

  “No.”

  “I hope they crucify the sicko when you find him.”

  No way would the sicko live to go through a trial, not if Kieran had his vengeance.

  “Me too.”

  He helped her into the truck and then walked around to the driver’s side. Automatically he scanned the football field in the distance. During spring the foundation Coach Tommy Sloan had started for underprivileged youth used the college’s facilities. A bunch of boys had just suited up and were racing across the greens.

  He missed working with the kids. But he and Coach Tommy had agreed after the Ritchie Henderson debacle it was best for him to forego coaching.

  Sliding into the driver’s seat, he glanced at Susie’s somber profile and started the engines. “Did you get everything settled with your committee?”

  “Totally. Dr. Surgue will chair the committee, and Coach Ellison has agreed to be the sports advisor. It’s an important role because we need the kids and adults on the same exercise program. And Dr. Surgue will even recruit the other members, Dr. Randy Berger and Dr. Eileen Vinters.”

  “Charlene’s mother.”

  “What?” Her eyebrows climbed, and her jaw sagged. “This town’s incestuous. I’m not sure that having her on my committee is a good idea. By the way, I got roped into going to a celebratory dinner for Coach Ellison at Chez Pierre’s on Friday night. Would you like to come with me?”

  “It would be my absolute pleasure.” Joe reached for her hand.

  “Charlene and Grant will be there too. What has she got against you?”

  For a second he debated not telling her. “I was pretty scrawny until I came into my wolf. During my second to last year of high school, I shot up a good foot and developed muscles. Grant was the quarterback of the football team. He was all set to be drafted for the same position with the Ruffians. Coach Tommy saw something in me.”

  “He drafted you as quarterback instead. I still don’t get it. She didn’t hook up with Grant until the first year of college.” Susie rolled her eyes. “Believe me I’ve heard the sugary version of their ‘first meeting’ ad infinitum.”

  Joe chuckled. “The broken arm? It’s true. But that happened during the parents’ weekend game, which was in October. The first game of the season was in August. It was an amazing game, and there was a huge street party downtown after. A bunch of players rented a penthouse suite in a hotel. Long story short, I had too much to drink, wound up crashing in one of the bedrooms. Woke up to find a naked Charlene sprawled all over me—”

  “You slept with her?” She rounded on him, dark eyes flashing, mouth pursed into a tight circle.

  He held up a hand. “Whoa. No. I vomited. While I’m upchucking in the bathroom, Chief Vinters, who’d been hunting for his daughter all night, strolls in.”

  “No way. No fricking way. I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection. Charlene is the chief of police’s daughter. No wonder he came after you.”

  Joe raised a brow. “Especially after she started making noises of rape.”

  “Rape?”

  “Before I emptied my stomach, I told her she was the last female I’d ever sleep with.”

  Susie’s lips twitched. “Oh. Poor Joe. Damned on all counts.”

  “Believe me, I found nothing humorous about the situation. Charlene’s not the type to forgive and forget.”

  “Witch. I knew I didn’t like her for a reason.” Susie practically spit the words. “Wait a minute. Aren’t you supposed to be with Kieran?”

  “He’s meeting Tate and Gray up at the ravine to see if they can find anything else. I want to take you there too.”

  “Of course. How’s Barb doing?”

  “According to Kieran, she’s coping. They started grief counseling this morning.” Joe changed gears for the final hill climb. During the thirty-minute ride, the weather had morphed. Like most Florida afternoons, this one arrived with a cast of charcoal clouds. The wind had picked up, and the promise of rain hung heavy in the air. Thunder rumbled. He scanned the darkening skies and suppressed a curse. Tracking in a storm was not his first choice.

  “Joe, will you tell me what happened? With Ritchie Henderson?” They pulled onto Bonaventure, and he braked when a soccer ball flew across the road.

  Zaara halted on the sidewalk and waved when she spotted him.

  Joe rolled down the window. “Go ahead and get the ball, princess.”

  Zaara hopped off the curb. Ran for the ball and skipped over to the truck. “Don’t forget to come and visit Rex. You can come too, Susie. Do you have younger sisters?”

  Susie frowned, peeked at Joe, gave him a what-on-earth shrug, and leaned to the window. “I’d love to come and see Rex. No. I don’t. Why do you ask?”

  Zaara shrugged. “Oh, no reason. When will you come?”

  Joe winked at Zaara. “We’ll come over tomorrow after school.”

  “It’s early release day tomorrow.” Zaara beamed at them. “We’re taking dog training lessons in the backyard. Come for that.”

  “Deal, princess.” Joe waited until Zaara had returned to her game to resume driving. He pulled into the driveway and turned to face Susie. “Let’s take this inside.”

  “Okay.” She patted his cheek. “It’s not that I have any doubts. I just need to know.”

  “I won’t have any secrets between us.” Joe helped her out of the car and into the house.

  She went straight to the kitchen, kicked off her shoes, put the purse and folders on the table, and tugged him down on the bench next to her. Then she turned to half straddle him, and their glances collided.

  “Coach Tommy started a program for underprivileged kids when I was doing my MBA. He asked me to help, and I did.”

  “Ritchie wasn’t underprivileged though. His father was that Henderson Toyota dealer guy.”

  “Yep. Coach Tommy and Gary Henderson were friends. Gary asked Tommy to put Ritchie to work in the program. Ritchie was a pain in the ass. He was sullen, rebellious, spoiled rotten, and lazy.”

  Joe traced the veins on the underside of her wrist. He had been such an arrogant idiot back the
n. Cocky, certain, and stubbornly oblivious to Ritchie’s escalating deviant behavior, and he had paid for his egotism.

  “He started not showing up for his shift. Skipped his duties. Picked fights. You name it, he flaunted it. I was angry with Gary Henderson for foisting the little asshole off on me. Long story short, Ritchie disliked me as much as I did him. Somehow he got wind of the cabin Gran-gran had left me. By then he was running with a gang in the making.”

  “How old was he?”

  “Near fifteen. They started using the cabin. Began experimenting with killing. Cats. Dogs. Cooked up the kidnapping scheme. Everyone knew we couldn’t stand each other. They planted all the evidence. Used my PC to compose the note. Gary Henderson paid the ransom according to the instructions. Didn’t contact the police. Cash in bags. Myriad drop-off points. About half were picked up.”

  “Then they found him at the cabin.” Susie shook her head and stroked his cheek. “What do you think happened?”

  “Whoever Ritchie was running with had decided from the start on the kidnapping and murder. The only mistake the killer made was leaving his and Ritchie’s blood and a couple of pubic hairs on the rag Tate and Kieran found tucked into a knothole in a wooden wall. And they only found that scrap because of their beast skills. Someone else had been in the cabin with Ritchie. And the cops had screwed with the chain-of-evidence timeline, among other things. Bob Weber and Chief Vinters fought us every step of the way.”

  “I’m sorry you had to go through such a horrible experience. And Bob Weber and Chief Vinters better not be thinking about doing a repeat. I won’t have it.”

  Lovely normally, Susie sparkled into true beauty when in a passion, be it anger or desire. He combed her hair and wished they had the time to linger. “We need to get going. Can you do a quick change? It’s going to rain soon.”

  “Five minutes max.” She jumped up, massaged the small of her back, and said, “Can we run there? I need to get rid of all this pent-up energy.”

  “Sure. Wear long sweats, though. The area we’re going to is known for deer ticks.”

  While Susie dressed, he made protein shakes in case they were longer in the preserve than expected. After changing into his running gear, he strapped on a GLOCK 21 .45, picked out three small knives, two daggers, and his favorite KA-BAR blade, and added the weapons to his backpack. He stuffed a water bottle and the protein shakes into the cloth holders on the sides of the knapsack.