The Society Series Box Set 2

by Mason Sabre

  Raven reached out and took Louise’s hand. “It’ll be fine, Lou. I promise you. We got this.”

  Louise nodded. She sure as hell hoped so.

  Chapter 10

  Cade hadn't taken long to arrive at Raven’s; he was there within the half-hour, but to Louise, it might as well have been a whole day. She kept staring out of the window, down to the carpark. She could see the trail from there, the one that led to her home. But it wasn’t her home any more, and that wasn’t her trail. It was ruined.

  Maybe she would get out of this thing with Marcus. Maybe Gemma would be okay, but now, something for Louise was tainted—broken. She stared at that path … the downtrodden trail that led into the woods—into her solace, and rather than view it with the usual comfort, it grated inside her. He’d broken it.

  Cade was sitting on one of the chairs in Raven’s lounge. He had his hands together as if in prayer. His thumbs were hooked under his chin and his fingers pressed against his mouth. Louise had just told him it all. With each word she had spoken, she could swear that the colour in Cade’s eyes had darkened until they were almost black with it. She’d seen the tips of his canines as he spoke. There was more than just anger there.

  He was shaking his head like he was having an internal debate with himself. Raven was sitting on the corner of his sofa, perched on the arm, and oddly, Louise wondered how it was that someone as big as Raven, wouldn’t make the side of the sofa buckle.

  “Cade?” Raven said, leaning closer, his eyes filled with concern. Louise kept herself back, even from where she stood by the window, she knew that he was about one second from the lid on his very pressured pot, blowing off.

  “You met with this Marcus? Yesterday?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yet you didn’t come to me.”

  “This isn’t her fault,” Raven held his hand out like he was pushing back the heat from Cade.

  “There was a body in your bed and you did not call DSA?”

  “I didn’t know what to do … I …”

  Cade rose, and rather than looking like a man with a purpose, Louise thought he looked lost. He strode over to the other window, his fists clenched and his jaw so tight that his temple seemed to throb with it. “By not coming to me yesterday, you put Gemma in danger.”

  Louise pressed her lips together, backing up from him. “I came to you today.”

  “No, Raven came to me. If Raven hadn't suggested me, then I would be none the wiser.”

  “But he did come to you.”

  She wasn’t expecting Cade to charge at her. He came out of nowhere like a sudden storm that slammed her back against the wall, her head bouncing off the plaster. “Are you in on this with him? You’re low Society. Maybe you want this.”

  “No.”

  “There is a reason you didn’t report this. A reason you fed the evidence to your …”

  “Grimalkins. It was an accident.” She held her hands up, to try to offer peace, calm him.

  “You put Gemma in danger. You put the Society in danger.” His eyes were wild, big, blue and fierce. “You should have reported this yesterday morning.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said, pressing her hand against his very solid chest to hold him back. “I just. I didn’t know what to do. I’m not trying to hurt Gemma.”

  His nostrils flared as he stared at her, thoughts clearly swirling in his head. “This isn’t good enough. You should have come to me right away. You should have told me so that we could protect her. Fucking Marcus. I … What if they got her? What if they raped her? What would you do then? Tell me sorry? Tell her sorry?”

  “I didn’t …”

  “No. You didn’t. You didn’t fucking come to me, or DSA.” He narrowed his eyes at her, his stare so cold that it made her regret telling him anything. “What’s in this for you? Marcus offer you a seat as one of his little bitches if he took the head seat?”

  “No.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “No. I’m not. He did this to me too, you know? I’m as much a victim as Gemma. More maybe. He didn’t touch her yet.”

  “Yet,” Cade ground out. “Exactly, but he could have.” He poked a finger painfully against her chest. “He could have, though.”

  “You need to back away,” she said. She didn’t like being trapt like this. She didn’t like that someone, anyone, thought that they could tell her what she should or shouldn’t do. “I was trying to help. I was afraid.”

  “Back off. It isn’t her fault and you know it.” Raven grabbed Cade’s arm, trying to pull him away, but Cade was too far in his head. He snatched his arm free, but Raven took the opportunity to pull Louise out of the way, standing her by him.

  “I had to protect myself,” Louise said.

  “Lou …” Raven warned.

  She glanced at him and shook her head. “No. This isn’t fair to pin this on me.” She walked toward Cade, pushing him back this time. “I did what I had to do. You’re Society and DSA, if I’d have called you yesterday, you’d have thrown my ass in jail and not given two shits what happened to me.”

  “You should have reported it.”

  “I couldn’t.”

  The corner of Cade’s nose twitched as he exhaled heavily. He moved again, and Louise stepped out of his way, but he wasn’t heading to her. He headed to the boxing bag Raven had hanging from his ceiling in the corner. The loud thwack echoed through the room as he struck it the first time. Raven gripped Louise’s arm, keeping her next to him as Cade hit the bag over and over until he no longer resembled the neat and pressed man in a suit who had come in not so long ago. His shirt had come untucked from his waist, his face was red, and his knuckles were bleeding. He held the bag still, leaning into it and resting his forehead against the leather.

  Raven and Louise both stayed where they were, surrounded by the sudden silence in the room where the only thing she could hear was the deep panting coming from Cade.

  “We’re going to have to go through with it,” Cade said after a painful silent few minutes. “There is no way around this.” He met Louise’s eyes.

  “Go through with it?”

  Even Raven cocked his head to one side in question to Cade’s sudden madness.

  “Yes. I could take Gemma away from here. I could go and see this Marcus myself.” He said. “I don’t know you Louise, but I know Gemma. If I were to pick her life over yours, she would never forgive me. If Gemma were here right now, she would be saying the same thing.” He rubbed his hands over his face, sighing as he did it. His body was trembling with fury. Louise didn’t blame him.

  “You can’t just hand Gemma over,” Raven said, moving closer to Cade. “Giving a stray a shot at the throne? Are you mad?”

  “He won’t get that far, believe me. He’ll not fucking see me coming. We set him up. We lure him to the tree with Gemma.”

  “And then?” Louise asked, folding her arms over her chest. “Then what do we do?”

  “I will deal with that,” said Cade. Louise wasn’t sure she liked what Cade’s tone implied.

  “You’ll kill him?” she sided up to Raven. “You can’t—“

  “You said I wouldn’t give two shits about you, right? I can't protect you if he goes to the Human authorities, and I can’t protect Gemma. This is how it has to be done.”

  “But I can't see a man dead. I can't do it.”

  “Why?” asked Raven addressing Louise, now. “He would. He’d kill you in a heartbeat if he needed to.”

  “Maybe, but that isn’t me.” There was already enough blood on her hands with the blond and she hadn't killed him, but she sure as hell would be haunted by that sight forever and what she had done with his body.

  Cade walked over to them, and Louise didn’t back up this time. He stood in front of Raven. He was almost as tall, but not quite as stocky. He looked more like the man one would see on the cover of a fitness magazine—Raven was more wrestling expo. “If we pretend Gemma is under your spell. Let Marcus see that you have her as he wante
d. Lead her to the tree. Make it seem that you hand her over. I can do the rest.”

  “It’s murder.”

  He fixed Louise with a stare. “Would it be murder if Marcus tried to rape her and she defended herself?”

  “It would be if we led him there.”

  “We are only doing as he asked. He did this knowing the risks.”

  Louise looked from both Raven and Cade. She didn’t know Cade, but she did know Raven and he wasn’t arguing with these plans. If anything, he seemed to be in agreement. “I need a drink.” She went over to his bar and grabbed her glass and the JD. She poured herself a drink and then knocked it back. “What about a warning?” Louise asked, suddenly. “We could get hold of him and warn him.”

  “This man deserves no warning. The only warning he will get now, is the one that he is about to die.” Cade came closer to her, leaning his hands on the bar. “What do you think will happen if all we did was let him off with a warning?”

  “Maybe he would listen. Maybe that would be the end of it and he wouldn’t come back.” Even as Louise said those words, she knew it was crap. Marcus wasn’t the kind of man to back down, but she wasn’t the kind of woman to just take lives.

  “Not for a while, but he will. Don’t you think otherwise. You don’t go for a shot at the heir and give up. He’ll come back and he won’t be alone. And, what do you think he would do to you then?”

  Louise froze. It had all been so black and white in her head … that Marcus would leave her alone … She shook her head at herself, her heart sinking, knowing Cade was right. Even if Marcus got what he wanted, why would he give Louise the negatives? He could still hand her over. “Kill me,” she said with absolute certainty.

  Raven nodded and rested a warm, calming hand on her arm. “This is also a warning,” he said, adding to what Cade had said. “To other strays. I know you didn’t know Stephen, but we never had to worry about him like this.”

  “Because he was male?” Louise asked.

  “Yes, but also because Stephen would have just wiped the floor with them. Strays knew, you mess with the pack, the Council, the Society and any of his family, they’d be facing Stephen.”

  “Okay,” Louise sighed. She understood, but it didn’t mean she had to like it—any of it. It was all too … barbaric, perhaps. “How do we get Gemma in on this, then? I can't just go and sit and have coffee with her and talk plans. They’ll be watching.”

  “I’m sure they are. Leave Gemma to me. I will talk to her.”

  “And then what?”

  “You’re open tomorrow night, right?” he asked Raven. “No bands?”

  “No. There is a band on. Louise wasn’t working it, though.”

  Cade was quiet for a moment as he thought. “That might work actually.” He turned to Louise. “If I get Gemma to come here tomorrow night, pretend she is here for the music? You could pretend to work your shit on her. Lead her out the back?”

  “Wouldn’t it be unusual for Gemma to come here? Of her own accord, I mean?” Louise asked them both. Gemma hadn't seemed like the kind of woman who would be found in rock venues.

  “She comes here sometimes,” Raven said. “Not often, but she does.”

  “Gemma will be able to defend herself?” She asked Cade this time. She had seen her. She wasn’t as big as Marcus. She was female … weaker perhaps.

  “Don’t underestimate Gemma.”

  “He’s bigger than her.”

  “Yep. But trust me. She’ll be okay.”

  Louise so wanted to. She wanted to trust them all … trust herself and trust Gemma, but there was so much riding on this. It just needed one thing to go wrong.

  Chapter 11

  Louise’s stomach twisted painfully, almost making her throw up, again, for the third time in the last hour. She pressed her phone to her ear and listened as it rang out on the other end. “Come on. If you want this, you’d at least ans—“

  “Louise,” Marcus said right away. Clearly, the asshole had her number programmed into his phone. “Do you have news that I will find pleasing?”

  She could almost picture his sick, victorious smile. “I am working at Raven’s tonight. I believe Gemma will be there. There is a band called Blue Blood playing; she likes them.”

  “Oh, that is wonderful news.”

  She wanted to tell him that it wasn’t. She wanted to put the damn phone down on him. “I will text you when we leave the bar,” she said instead. “It’s a twenty-minute walk to my tree.”

  “You made a good decision here, Louise. The world of strays will thank you.”

  She scoffed, shaking her head. “I don’t want thanks. I just want my pictures.”

  “Your pictures will be given to you when the deed is done.”

  “I'm not standing around while you …”

  He laughed. “They will be delivered to you. You have my word.”

  “No offence, mate,” she said, spitting out the last word. “But I don’t trust your word.”

  There was silence for a moment, like he was moving. “Well, you don’t really have much of a choice now, do you? I will see you this evening, Louise. Thank you again.” With that he hung up on her, leaving her to stand in the middle of her lounge, feeling bereft.

  She locked her phone for a few minutes before she called Cade. She just needed to let her mind gather itself. Her heartbeat had already hitched itself up to pounding levels. She was surprised she had managed to keep the shake from her voice.

  It’s done. She texted to the number Cade had given to her earlier.

  Okay. Was the reply she got.

  She stared at her words and his one word reply; her skin almost itched with frustration and anger. She was going to fuck this up. She could feel it. Not because she was incompetent or that she wouldn’t be able to follow through, but because she was damn tired. She hadn't slept since the morning of the body. Well, she had, an hour here or there, but it didn’t count for shit. She’d have laid on her sofa and tried to sleep now if she had thought it would do any good.

  At the back of her house, she kept a small shed. It was where she kept things for the grimalkins and a row of large cages for rare occasions when she needed them locked up. They’d be damn pissed at being confined, but she had no choice. They’d attack Gemma and Marcus and blow this whole thing out of the water. She had to put them away.

  Grimalkins were easy to catch; if one knew how to do it, of course, and if one had the same kind of power Louise had. She could get the big one—the alpha, as it were. Once he was captured, the others would be easy. The biggest problem was finding them.

  Going into her kitchen, she grabbed the tray filled with meats and chunks of bone. She had taken it out of the freezer and let it defrost, and then she had injected it with a tranquiliser. “At least you lot will be happy, for a moment.” She had thought about shooting herself with the tranquilizer, but then she got mad, not at herself, but at Marcus, for making her feel like this. No one had that right. No one.

  She loaded the meat into her car, taking the time to put the seats down and make the boot bigger. She loaded up the carrier cages, too. The cats could fit together in these. It would be less than five minutes.

  The tree area was clear, but even as Louise got out of her car, she could feel eyes on her. She wasn’t so sure they were her cat’s either. Grimalkins watched. They hid in the bushes and almost seemed to fade into the scenery, but this wasn’t like that. This was a darker feeling. Just your nerves. She told herself. It was a reasonable explanation.

  Making sure the area was clear, Louise pulled the tray of meat out and set it down close enough that she could grab them, but far enough that the cats felt safe. The tranquiliser would knock them out for a couple of hours. It was risky to do this to them. Put them out for too long and the alpha would see it as a weakness, and then they would fight between them … fight to their deaths.

  The first set of eyes appeared just like when she had brought the blond here. It wasn’t the big cat again, no, as
always, he’d sent one of his loyal tribe members to test the waters—or the food in this case. Luckily, they would not be testing for what was in the meat, but more of what was around the meat … they would be testing Louise’s intentions, and if she were to pounce on them. She would wait … wait until all nine of them flopped down on the ground and slept. “It’s a gift,” she said, nodding.

  Louise stepped back as the cat neared the meat, licked it and then sat, waiting. He might have been the bait, but he knew his place … knew that he wasn’t to eat until their leader had.

  The fat cat came out. His fur shining and seeming bluer today. Maybe that was just the sunlight shining through. It was bright, and a little warm. Sunshine, opposite to the gloom that was weighing Louise down. She leaned back against her car, sliding her way down until she was sitting on the ground. No harm in resting a moment while they ate.

  ***

  “Fuck.” Louise jolted up. She was sitting, leaning against her car. She vaguely remembered doing that, but she didn’t remember dozing off. She blinked several times, trying to bring her eyes and mind back into focus. The grimalkins were all scattered around her, lying on their sides, sleeping. “God. How long have I been out?”

  It can’t have been long if the cats were still out of it. She needed to get them caged, like now. She scrambled to sleepy feet and winced when pins and needles shot through her legs, protesting the position she had been sitting in. She’d have to get the cats in the cage at home and then try to sleep. She was no good like this. She was no good to anyone.

  ***

  She had managed to sleep. She was damn glad about it too. After putting the grimalkins in the shed, locking them up and making sure they had food and water when they woke, she took herself back into the house and collapsed on the sofa. She’d passed out almost immediately. Not even giving herself time to shove off her boots. She’d managed to set her alarm, though, and when she had woken, it was dark and almost time.