The Alpha's Temptation (Werewolves of Boulder Junction Book 4)

by Martha Woods

  But Sarconi? For as much loyalty that Rick had, as much blood he had spilled in his name, as much as he owed to the man, he couldn't ever deny it.

  Sarconi was a monster, head to toe, from his heart to his mind. Rick would be going to hell, but Sarconi was well in line to taking over.

  So it was with that in mind that Rick walked forward, his heart thumping out of his chest and his teeth on edge. He was to meet with Sarconi, tell him what he had found, and take care of whatever it was he wanted taken care of, in whatever method he wanted used. Thoughts about the black spot on his soul were secondary at the fear that one day he could find himself on the other side of his wrath, and that was enough to kill any hesitation.

  His fist rapped against the door of the motel room that his boss was staying in. The accommodations weren't exactly terrible, but for someone of Sarconi's stature and wealth they must have left something to be desired. When the door opened and he came face to face with the man himself, he still couldn't tell what he really thought.

  "Rick." Sarconi flicked his head over his shoulder. "Come in."

  Years of service, years of being in the inner circle and he still never got a glimpse under the mask. Aside from aloof stoicism and occasional cold cruelty, he was certain that no one other than Grayson saw any other sides to him. If Grayson had actually seen more to him, then he wasn't saying anything about it either.

  He stepped through the door, Sarconi closing it shut behind him and sealing them both in. Until he walked past him and took a seat at the couch, Rick was half certain that he was going to hear the click of a safety being disengaged, followed by the cold feeling of a barrel against his ear. He'd been the one to close the door on many an occasion. Instead, Sarconi simply sat, staring out the window at the forest as if the answers lay within their branches, as if his son was going to come stumbling out apologizing for the misunderstanding. But that never happened, the missing stayed missing, the dead stayed dead, and closure was never to be found by anyone.

  He remained standing by the wall, knowing that when he was allowed to talk, he would be told. Until that moment, he would say nothing, do nothing. He would stand until his legs rotted away if that was what it took, but he would under no circumstance speak out of line. Not if he wanted to keep his tongue firmly within his mouth anyway.

  "Rick." His head shot over to Sarconi, his boss regarding him with detached curiosity. "You can come sit down. I'm not going to kill you today, you know that right?"

  He gulped, nodding and walking over to the chair opposite him. He sat quickly, clumsily, and he wasn't completely certain, but he thought he saw a ghost of a smirk appear on Sarconi's face at his obvious fear.

  "Grayson tells me that he put you and the boys on the cops. Is that correct?"

  Rick nodded quickly. "Y-yes. I was on that pig named Cayden, the other fellas are taking care of the rest."

  He nodded slowly to himself, rolling his next words over his tongue, "Good, good. I'm happy Grayson put someone capable on him."

  "Yes sir. Thank you, sir."

  Sarconi leaned back, overturning his hands on his knees. "So? You were in charge of this man named Cayden. I assume that you found something out that warrants my attention?"

  Rick nodded, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "I made contact with him yesterday sir. I saw him going out to lunch and I thought..."

  "I'm sorry." Sarconi had an eyebrow firmly raised. "Are you telling me that you made direct contact with this member of the police force? I assume you had a better plan in mind than just openly threatening him."

  "I just meant to follow him sir, but he picked up on my tail. I figured I should take advantage while I still had some surprise left." He shook his head. "I'm sorry sir, I know it was stupid of me."

  Sarconi didn't shift, merely watching him with his head cocked to the side. Eventually, he sighed, "I can understand where you were coming from Rick, as stupid as it was. So long as you know how foolish it was, all is forgiven." He tapped his knee. "Alright, tell me how it went."

  "Not particularly well. I asked him if he'd seen your son, what had happened, you know? He said that he came in, caused some trouble then left in disgrace."

  Sarconi leaned forward. "And what do you think about that?"

  He looked up. "Do you want me to be completely honest sir?"

  "Of course, I have a feeling I know what you're going to say anyway."

  "Your son coming and causing nothing but trouble... That's hardly surprising." He grimaced, waiting to see how his boss would take his honesty. To his immense relief he only chuckled.

  "I've made no secret that my son is a gigantic fuck up Rick. Hell, I'm not a hundred percent sure on why I'm even bothering to look for him to be honest."

  "I don't think we'll have to look very far sir." Rick shook his head. "The cop wasn't lying about why he came here, but no way was he telling the truth about him leaving. I can feel it in my gut."

  "Did he say anything else about it?"

  "No, only that he didn't kill him. Guy was good, deflected me till his girlfriend or whatever showed up."

  "This girlfriend, you know anything about her?"

  "Not yet." Rick looked out the window, watching the trees sway calmly in the breeze. "I put Ted on her, we'll probably know something about her sooner or later." He shook his arm out. "One thing I can tell you is that she has one hell of a grip."

  "She touched you?"

  He nodded. "I was about to lay the cop out, she grabbed my arm. Felt like she was going to crush it in her hand for Christ sake."

  "Interesting..." Sarconi trailed off, thoughts racing ahead as he tried to think of who she could possibly be. He shook himself back into the present. "Is there anything else? I feel like you've discovered another player in this game, but other than that this isn't exactly world shattering news that you've given me."

  "That's why I'm here sir. I hung around after they walked off, they went and had lunch or some shit like that, I dunno. But they left in a real hurry not that long afterwards."

  "And where, pray tell, did they go?"

  Rick idly threw a thumb over his shoulder. "You remember Bill? I got him to follow them to where they were going, way out of sight so they didn't get spooked."

  "He find anything interesting?"

  Rick reached down to his side, picking up the small satchel he'd brought with him. He placed it in his lap, pulling out photograph after photograph and placing them on the table between them. He tapped a wide angle shot of the house. "This house belongs to Liam Conway, some big philanthropist guy, got bored with the big city or something like that. Made his big return to this backwoods shit hole not that long ago, been opening doors ever since."

  Sarconi picked up a shot of the open doorway, Liam looking out at Cayden and Farah with an expression of mild irritation. "Looks pretty clean cut, how much is he worth?"

  Rick blew air out through his lips, "More than five generations of this town put together will ever make. He could probably just coast on through with what he's already made but I guess that's not his style." He cautioned a smile. "Not unlike someone else I know to be honest."

  "A dissatisfaction with what we already have is often a marker for success." Sarconi absently flipped through the photos. "Can end in tragedy but sometimes we slip through the cracks. You think maybe my son was trying to pull a con on this Liam?"

  "It's possible, especially considering what else we found sir." He reached into the bag once more, pulling out another handful of photographs. "Bill hung around through the night, wanted to be thorough. While he was there, he snapped a picture of this woman." He tapped his finger over a photo of a very visibly pregnant Skylar. "A quick look through the records shows us that this is his very recently wedded wife, Skylar Moore. Fair enough, people get married all the time, why should she be of any interest?"

  "I would be supremely annoyed if you didn't actually know the answer to that."

  "I took another look through what you gave us on your son, ledgers
, phone numbers, all that." He pulled out a small leather backed notebook, flipping to a bookmarked page. He scanned his finger down the side, until he hit one name in particular. "Andrew Moore. Owed a shit ton of money to your son, skipped out before he could pay it. I think that he came out here, your son followed him, and... well., I'm sure you know the rest."

  He nodded. "I do. And I know what's going to happen next."

  * * *

  Liam rolled over, running a tired hand down his face as he stared up at the ceiling. He looked to his side as he heard the shifting, Skylar stretching her body out even as she remained deep in sleep. He smiled, running a hand lightly up and down her arm, a small whimper coming from deep in her throat as her movements calmed.

  He sat up, swinging his legs out of bed as he tried to will himself to properly function. Everything had been good so far, and disregarding the ever-present worry that he had for his wife, he had been really quite happy. That was until yesterday, when Cayden had come waltzing in saying the name of a man long dead and talking about consequences long overdue. That was certainly enough to spoil his mood.

  A part of him desperately wanted to blame Cayden for delivering the news, but he knew that wasn't fair, Liam himself was more at fault than him. If anything, this just strengthened his resolve in killing Sarconi. If he had of known that this much trouble would come from it, he would have made it last longer.

  He stood, padding his way over to the door and letting himself out quietly. Just because he was being kept up at night because of these thought rampaging through his head didn't mean that Skylar had to suffer as well. Maybe a sprint through the forest was what he needed, it had been so long he'd almost forgotten the feeling of dirt and grass underfoot, the gentle pleasure of the wind rushing past him. Compared to that euphoria, thoughts of a dead man were nothing.

  He got to his front door, and immediately he could tell something was off. The air felt heavier, the smell of the air slightly pungent. Liam clenched his fist, grasping the handle and opening it in the blink of an eye, looking out onto the front of his property. He walked out into the open, looking to the side and seeing for the first time the Chrysler parked out the front of his house. A man with hair slicked back and an easy smirk on his face leaned against it, a small bag of peanuts clutched in his hand as he lazily chewed on a mouthful. The man raised his hand, calling out, "Hi there! This wouldn't happen to be the Conway residence, would it?"

  "This is private property." Liam growled, "Whatever business you have here doesn't matter to me."

  The man pouted mockingly. "Oh come now, that's not very polite is it? I even brought a guest all the way out here to see you, and you act like this?"

  "Fuck you, and fuck your guest." He took a step forward. "I have given you a warning, leave now or you won't be leaving at all."

  "Is that the same offer you gave my son?" Liam stopped in his tracks as the back door of the Chrysler opened, an older man stepping out to face him. As soon as he got a good look at his face, Liam knew there was no mistaking it.

  Rather than let the surprise get the best of him however, Liam stood his ground. "More or less. Do you want to know which option he picked?"

  The man leaning on the car let his jaw drop, hand going down to his belt. Sarconi put his hand on his arm, leaning in slightly. "Grayson, don't. Not right now."

  Grayson nodded. "Sorry sir."

  "Cute, you have it trained so well." Liam sneered at the two of them. "Why are you here? What did you hope to find?"

  "Honestly? I was hoping to find my son."

  He waved his hand dismissively, "Go out into the forest and look around, I'm sure the animals have shit him out by now."

  Sarconi smirked. "You really have no idea just who I am do you?"

  "I have an idea, you're a criminal, a murderer, someone who thinks that just because they swing a big stick around that all the other monkeys will fall in line." He stepped close, so close that their breaths were mingling together and Grayson stepped back out of a sense of self-preservation. "But you know what?"

  "What?"

  "I think that I've killed far more impressive things than you old man. I think that if you're the same as your son then you won't even be a blip on my radar." He smirked viciously, leaning in to Sarconi's ear and staring over at Grayson. "You might like to know that your son didn't taste very good. His blood tasted like shit, just like the rest of him was."

  In spite of his previous commands, Grayson's hand was firmly wrapped around the gun on his belt, a bead of sweat tracing its way down his temple. That sense of fear, that raw look of horror and terror... Liam would be lying if he said there wasn't power to be felt there. When he stepped back and looked at the old man however, even he was surprised by the complete lack of a reaction.

  "My son was pathetic Liam Conway. The only reason I care about his death was because he was my son. Given a few more years, I might have actually killed him myself." His eyes flashed. "But that was not your decision to make, and thus reparations must be made."

  "You want money?" Liam took out his wallet, throwing a five dollar note on the ground. "There, that's what he's worth."

  To his incredible surprise, Sarconi actually chuckled. "You are very creative in your insults Conway, you even managed to frighten my colleague with your talk of eating my son. Very impressive, he doesn't scare easily." His face went neutral again. "But this is not the kind of reparation that I think is appropriate."

  "What is then?"

  "I'm still working on that to be completely honest. Once I figure it out, you will be the first that I let know." He smirked as he stepped back into the car. "Skylar Moore… Now that is a last name that is familiar. I understand that your wife is quite pregnant at the moment. You may want to keep an eye on her."

  Liam clenched his fist as he watched them drive off, knowing that right now was not the time to strike. Not alone, and not before he had a plan. The feeling of crushing that man's throat between his teeth... that would just have to wait.

  Chapter 5

  Skylar turned over, her hand hitting empty space where she was certain her husband was supposed to be. Her eyes opened slowly, her vision blurred as she took in her surroundings. She got up slowly, her feet jumping as they touched down on the cold floor, wrapping the sheet around her body. Looking over at the clock on the wall, she saw that it was eleven in the morning, so Liam being out of bed wasn't necessarily unusual. But for some reason she couldn't shake the feeling that it was because something had happened, otherwise he likely would have laid in bed for hours, hand running through her hair until she finally woke up.

  Maybe she'd been spoiled the last few weeks, he liked to have an eye on what his businesses were doing after all, someone like him could only put that on hold for so long. She walked through the hallway, seeing the plaques lining the walls dedicated to various achievements, the markings of a man who had led a very successful life. The markings of a man who would never be satisfied with coasting off of the past, who would always be seeking out more.

  When she stepped into the study, she knew that this wasn't why he wasn't still in bed. Liam was sat at his desk, staring off into the distance at nothing in particular, hand curled around a small glass of whiskey. His hand hung limply, the amber liquid swishing around haphazardly as he breathed in and out, his chest slowly rising and falling.

  Skylar walked up slowly, her footsteps utterly silent as she tried not to startle him. She called out softly, "Liam?"

  His body jolted from the surprise, hairline cracks shooting through the glass as his fingers squeezed around it. His head shot over his shoulder, eyes boring into hers before softening. He sighed, "Skylar... Sorry I... Didn't mean to react like that."

  She walked over to his side, taking a seat next to him. She grasped his hand in hers, taking the glass away and setting it on the desk. "Liam, what's wrong? Something must be bothering you if you're acting like this." She thought back to what Farah had told her the previous night. "Does this have something t
o do with the mobster who was after my father?"

  He nodded slowly. "It does. That arrogant little asshole's father is in town, making the rounds and trying to find out where he went."

  She leaned in, squeezing lightly down on his hand. "It feels like something else happened to make you like this."

  "It did." He groaned, thinking back on the events of the morning and cursing his impulsiveness. "He showed up here this morning."

  Her eyes widened, in equal parts horror and anger. "Our house? He showed up at our house? Who does he think he is?"

  "I wasn't going to let him come anywhere near you, believe me. I think he knew that as well, he just came here to give a warning."

  "A warning?"

  His expression was grave. "He knows who you are, and he knows who your father is. I'm pretty sure he already knew that I killed his son, but I didn't exactly help by rubbing it in his face."

  "You told him?" Her face was one of pure disbelief, her hands coming up to cover her mouth. "Why on earth would you do that?"

  "I don't know!" He growled to himself, "I wanted him to think twice I guess, think about if he wanted to end up the same way. It was a stupid idea, I just fucked us even more."

  Though she couldn't help the annoyance that she felt towards his actions, she still placed her hand on his shoulder. "How did he take it anyway?"

  "He didn't even care. Not about his son, not about how I killed him, none of it. Even said he would have done it himself if he got the chance."

  "His own son? He would have killed his own son?"

  Liam nodded. "I think... Actually, I know that he's completely, utterly insane. I don't think I've run into his brand of crazy before, I don't like it."

  "What are we going to do?" Skylar hugged her arms around herself. "We can't just sit around and wait for him to come for us."

  "He's not going to do that." Liam's voice was filled with conviction, "I'm not going to let him, and neither are the rest of us. We're going to come up with a plan, all of us, and we are going to take care of this before it can get worse."