by Sky Winters
“I know. I wasn’t completely out of it when you encountered the wolves on the highway. I saw what you did to them. What all of you did to them. I guess I’m not sure which one was you.”
Moose looked down at his plate. Killing wasn’t something he was proud of. In the life of a wolf, it was just a part of existence, but to the outside world, it was something else. Something much more sinister. That is why they kept their existence a secret from most of the world. Humans feared what they didn’t understand, for the most part. Those who chose to become a part of their world did so knowing what they were and of what they were capable. Those that decided it wasn’t for them were free to do so, but they did so with an understanding that they must respect the privacy of the pack.
Those who didn’t, found themselves in one of two situations. Crossing the wrong pack could result in them disappearing forever. Other packs were just like his. They were content just to let humans do what they did best, deny anything they couldn’t wrap their heads around. Anyone trying to tell them there were wolf shifters in their midst would end up in the psyche ward. Only those who saw it for themselves could believe it and they weren’t too keen on their two options if they decided to reveal it to someone.
“I’m sorry, Moose. I really didn’t mean that like it came out. Are you upset with me?” he heard her asking from across the table.
“What? No. Of course not. I just forget sometimes that I live in a different world than most,” he told her.
“Let’s change the subject. How’s your pasta?”
“Perfect. Yours?”
“It’s fantastic. Do you want to try a bite?”
“No. Thank you. I’m saving room for dessert.”
“Ooh. Dessert. What are we having?”
“I can’t believe you have room for it. You are so tiny. Where are you putting all this food?”
“I don’t know. I have a high metabolism. Just lucky, I guess. So. Tiramisu?”
“Oh, yes. They have the best there is here.”
“Sign me up!” she said cheerfully, working on the last few bites on her plate.
Moose laughed, waving the waiter over to order dessert, along with a couple glasses of wine to finish off their meal. Afterwards, they made their way down the sidewalk toward some of the smaller shops. She paused in front of one of them and looked in the window.
“Do you need to go in there?” he asked.
“I would love to, but I can’t afford it. I’ll have to just make do.”
“I’d be happy to treat you,’ he replied.
“Oh, no. I’m not a charity case, Moose. Well, I guess I kind of am. Anyway, you’ve done enough already. I’m already staying at the clubhouse free of charge and eating your food. I can’t repay you as it is.”
“No one is worried about that, Ali. Don’t you worry about it either.”
She shrugged and continued down the sidewalk toward where they had left the bike. They returned to the clubhouse to find it in chaos.
Chapter Five
“What do you think has happened?” Ali asked.
The two of them stood there, their helmets still on, looking at the dark sedans that seemed to be all over the place. Moose was considering getting back on the bike when two men in ATF jackets made their way quickly toward him, seeming to come out of nowhere.
“Come inside, please,” one of them told the two of them.
“Come inside for what?” Moose demanded.
“We’re interviewing all the residents. You are David Kelly, yes?”
“I am.”
“And the woman? Her name is?”
“None of your damned business. She is my guest and that is all you need to know about her.”
“Listen, there is no need to cause a problem here. Your club’s leaders are cooperating with us. I suggest you do, as well.”
“We’ll see about that. What is this nonsense about?”
“If you will just step inside, we can talk about that.”
“Fine. Fine. Come on, sweetheart,” he told Ali, deliberately not using her name.
The truth was, he still had no idea what sort of trouble she might be in and he wasn’t about to tell them who she was. The temptation to tell them to fuck off and just get back on the bike was still great, but it would only serve to make him look guilty of something, of making the club look guilty of something. Still, he needed to get Ali far away from the feds.
They stepped inside the club to find agents everywhere. They were talking to small groups of people in different areas and sending some of those out with other agents for one on one discussions. None of those people knew anything they could tell. There were less than six people in the club that knew exactly what happened to the Dire Wolves and none of them would be talking, of that, he was sure. All anyone else could say was that they participated in a community event that day.
He spotted Carter across the room and took Ali’s hand, walking toward him quietly, so that it wasn’t too obvious. Once he was beside him, he began asking questions. Ali said nothing about him calling her by a pet name or holding her hand. He was sure she knew it was for a purpose. Instead, she looked at him as if they belonged together. In a different setting, it would have all the effect on him that he could imagine, but right now, there were more important things.
“What’s happening here, Carter?” he asked quietly.
“They just showed up, all over the front porch like cockroaches. Sammy answered the door and they served him a warrant, came barreling in. Aspen didn’t even have time to rally the troops, get them all on the same page. Everyone got separated and dragged off into different directions.”
“Where are Aspen and Grant?”
“In a room somewhere with these guys. They are keeping them away from everyone else.”
“And Amanda and Elizabeth?”
“Them and some of the others managed to slip out during the chaos. They slipped down into the tunnels, away from the madness.”
“You think I can get Ali down there?”
“Yeah, give me a minute to find someone.”
Carter disappeared into the throngs of people behind him, returning a few minutes later with his mate in tow. She was a doe eyed looking red head, street smart in a way, but ditzy in another. Still, he knew she was like an alley rat when she needed to be. She would get Ali out of the way until these guys disappeared.
“Go with her, Ali. I don’t want you involved in this.”
He noted that she didn’t argue. She was afraid and that spoke volumes. He and Carter stood shoulder to shoulder as the women slipped down the hallway behind them.
“They have already searched the rooms, so they shouldn’t be looking for anyone down there. They seem pretty consumed with everyone they’ve gathered up here at the front of the house, right now.”
Moose nodded and waited until someone came to talk to them. He and Carter were split up and taken to separate areas where they would be questioned. Carter was not one of the ones that knew the details of the explosion killing the Dire Wolves. In fact, of the six that knew they were involved, even fewer knew the exact details of how it unfolded.
“What can you tell me about the events that took place the day of the Dire Wolves MC meeting?” a young ATF agent was asking him.
“I can tell you that I was in a potato sack race,” Moose replied.
“Potato sack race?” the agent repeated.
“Yes. Carter was my partner. We were doing a charity thing up in town as part of the 5K charity event.”
“Right. Seems a lot of people from this club were at that event.”
“Pretty sure everyone was.”
“Yeah, it seems that way, doesn’t it?”
“It doesn’t seem that way. It was that way.”
“So, you are saying you know nothing about the explosion that killed off almost every adult male in the Dire Wolves MC?”
“I know it made a really loud noise and that now a bunch of assholes are dead.”
�
��Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to speak ill of the dead?” the agent snarled.
“No. I didn’t have a mother. That’s why I’m such a heartless dick, I guess.”
“It just might be.”
“Do you have any more questions? It’s getting late and already past time for my afternoon nap.”
“No. I can see I’m not going to get anywhere with you. Let me just ask you this one last thing. What did the Silver Wolves have to gain with the Dire Wolves dead?”
“You tell me, man. You seem to think you know something, when you really know jack shit.”
“That will be all. . . for now,” the agent told him dismissively.
“Right,” Moose replied, getting up and walking out of the room.
As interrogations went, it was pretty lame. These guys were amateurs, sent more to ransack the place in search of explosives than to actually learn anything from the members. The dogs would have already sniffed the place up pretty good and they’d have pulled out all the guns to record serial numbers. In all honesty, there weren’t as many guns in this place as one would think. They were wolves. Guns were not their deadliest weapon in a fight. The ones they did find would all be legal ones used for nothing more than target practice.
As for explosives, they would find none here. No one in this place had placed the explosives that had detonated down by the falls where the Dire Wolves had met their untimely end during their annual meeting, which was not a meeting at all, but an excuse to get away from their mates and kids, and party. He had no sympathy for what had happened to them. It was kill or be killed, and in the case of the Silver Wolves, that had meant extinction prior to Amanda’s and Elizabeth’s babies.
When all was said and done, the women came up from the tunnels. Ali was full of wonder about the place, telling him how fascinating it had been. For some reason, she seemed really interested in it and that bothered him a bit. Whether it was natural curiosity or something more, he couldn’t be sure, but he was very careful in his answers to her.
“I got to hold the babies, too! They are so tiny and adorable!” she squealed.
Moose laughed. It seemed so unlike her to be so giddy about something. She came across as a bit of a tough cookie, but now she was like anyone else with her fascination over having been someplace she thought was really cool and getting to squish baby cheeks.
“I really like this place. I think I could stay here.”
“And not go to Florida? I didn’t think you were too keen on living in a biker’s clubhouse.”
“Oh, I don’t mean here, like here in the clubhouse. I mean, this town.”
“Let me get this straight. Since arriving in this town, you’ve been attacked by wolves and sent into hiding from the ATF. And you think it is somewhere you want to stay?”
“Yeah. Crazy, right?”
“That’s one word for it.”
“Alright. If everything is done here, I think I’ll go lie down a while. I feel so tired and sore,” she said.
“I might just do the same myself,” he told her.
“I didn’t know bikers took naps,” she said with a low chuckle.
“It’s a dirty secret. Don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t. Your secrets are safe with me.”
“Moose, office,” he heard Aspen bark from nearby.
“Ah, no rest for the weary,” he said to her. “Enjoy your nap and I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Later then,” she told him.
When Moose returned from his meeting with Aspen a few minutes later, she was already gone, presumably tucked away in her bed for an afternoon snooze. He made his way to his own room and attempted to do the same, though it was hard to drift off with her running through his mind the entire time. After a while, he finally drifted off for an hour. When he woke up, he put his boots back on and headed out to the bike. He realized that her things from town were still packed in the saddle bags and removed them, walking to her room with them. She answered after the first knock, looking more refreshed than he had seen her since her arrival.
“I have to run off for a bit. I wanted to give you the things you bought. We didn’t have time to get them out when we got back earlier.”
“Oh, thanks. In all the mess, I forgot I had bought stuff. Listen, I was thinking. Is there someplace I could get a job in town, get on my feet?”
“Probably. Anything in particular you are looking for?”
“Anything will do, really. Waiting tables. Office work. Whatever.”
“I will keep an eye out for you. Right now, I have some business to attend to, but I’ll be back before supper. Make yourself at home while I’m gone. You don’t have to stay in your room, you know.”
“Thanks. I might. I feel a lot better today. I was even able to dress myself and change my own bandage. I’m amazed at how quickly this wound is healing up.”
“That’s good. A sign that there’s no infection. I’ll see you later, Ali,” he said.
“See you, sweetheart,” she teased.
“Yeah, sorry about that. I just didn’t know if I should mention your name.”
“I gathered. Thanks.”
Moose nodded and walked away. The question of what it was that she was running from remained, but right now, he had to go meet with a woman Aspen had sent him to see. Hopefully, it would shed some light on the rat in their group.
“I don’t know her name, but I can tell you she ain’t coming around here no more,” the woman was saying to him an hour later.
“What do you mean?”
“You and your boys killed my husband a few days ago.”
Moose nodded, not bothering to apologize. They were the ones that had been attacked and they had been forced to defend themselves. It wasn’t the woman’s fault, but she knew what her husband had been. Apparently, not only a killer but also an adulterer. He doubted she had much more remorse about it than he did.
“No clue at all who she was? How did you know about her?”
“Oh. I’ll show you.”
Moose watched as she pulled a tablet from her purse and held it up. They were in a dimly lit corner of a dive out on the edge of town so as not to be seen together and she had the sound muted, but no sound was needed. He watched as a woman climbed onto a bed and straddled the man, her back turned away from the camera. She rode him like a cowboy on a bucking bronco. He suddenly felt sorry for the woman, who sat watching her husband fuck someone else with a sort of blank disinterest.
“I’ve seen enough. Can I get a copy of that?” he asked.
“I thought you might ask that,” she replied, popping out the small micro card from the tablet’s data slot and handing it to him. “I trust you’ll take care of this little tart for me, like you took care of my husband.”
Moose nodded and watched as she stood up and walked away. She was a pretty woman, older, but fit and classy looking. Most wolves mated for life, but there were exceptions. How unfortunate for her to have married one of the latter sorts. He was grateful to her, though. He could have spent a lot more time watching and questioning the female members of their club. Now, he just needed to watch the rest of this shitty video. Hopefully, he would see a face at some point. If not, maybe pick out a scar or something that might lead them to her.
Even though she no longer had an outlet to take information from their club to, she was still a traitor and had to go. They wouldn’t kill her. Silver Wolves lived by a code that did not include hurting women and children unless it was an absolute necessity to protect themselves or other family members. Still, there were other ways to deal with a rat that had put the club in jeopardy.
“What did you learn?” Aspen asked when he returned.
Moose told him what he had, handing him the chip. He’d leave it up to him to look at and decide what to do from there. Aspen popped the chip into a nearby laptop and sat down to watch it.
“Fucking bitch. She knows he is taping it too.”
“What? How do you know?” Moose aske
d.
“She is making a point to hide her face and I’m fairly certain that’s a wig.”
His uncle walked up behind them and stood watching for a moment before he spoke.
“A bit early in the day for porn, isn’t it, boys?” he remarked dryly.
“Not porn. It’s the whore that’s been giving information to the Dire Wolves, but we can’t tell who she is. She’s very well aware she’s on camera, from the looks of it.”
“Right there. Stop it,” his uncle said.
Aspen paused it as Moose looked on, squinting a bit to see what he was talking about. Nothing was popping out at him.
“Click back a few seconds and pause it again,” he said.
Aspen did so and stopped the video again. His uncle walked over to the monitor and put his finger on the slope of her right breast where only a bit of side boob was visible for a few seconds as she swayed with her arms above her head. It was then that he saw it. Just a tiny bit of a tattoo was visible.
“Is that a snake’s head?” Moose asked, peering closer.
“How appropriate,” Aspen grumbled. He hit a few buttons and printed a copy of the screenshot he captured, handing it to Moose. “I can’t very well run around here looking at tits, so go find me a nipple with a snake beneath it.”
“Alright,” Moose replied.
“Rough jobs you get around here, Moose,” Aspen’s uncle cackled.
Moose laughed and rolled up the photo before heading to his room with it. Normally, it might be a bit appealing being sent off to check out tits, but his mind lately had been on only one pair.
Chapter Six
“Carter, you’re single. Have you hooked up with any of the girls here? One that might have some sort of snake tattoo on one breast?”
“No. Looking for a freak, are you? That’s a bit random.”
“No. Just let me know if you hear anyone say anything about it, but don’t mention that I asked.”
“Gotcha,” Carter replied.
“I’ll catch up with you later.”
Moose made his way down the hallway and knocked on Ali’s door. She didn’t answer. Either she was resting again or had taken his advice and gotten out for a bit. He walked down the hallway and looked around the lobby. No sign of her there, either.
