“Sure thing.” She pushed a beer toward him.
She found herself wondering about the man she’d seen earlier in the day. The handsome moody one. She scanned the room looking for him but he was decidedly absent.
Zuri chastened herself for even thinking about it.
“Big Joe, what can I get you?” Zuri leaned over close to Big Joe. He already reeked of beer and Zuri assumed he’d spilled half of his drinks on himself during the night.
Joe was called “Big Joe” for a good reason. He was a burly, hulk of a man. Like all of the Magus members he was a bear shifter and had the dark eyes and strength to prove it. She’d seen him turn over a heavy oak table with an accidental hand gesture. Despite his strength he was a soft-spoken and almost shy.
“Same.” He smiled at Zuri.
There was a huge commotion at the front of the bar and without thinking Zuri ran around the counter. The key to bar fights, which weren’t unfamiliar territory at the Smoke Stack, was to cut them off early, before anyone shifted. Once a bear unleashed in the same space, it was impossible to do anything but watch or run for cover.
She pushed her way through a group of four men to see a man she’d never seen before. He was blond, tall, with icy blue gray eyes. Zuri couldn’t tell exactly what was going on, only that the man was standing face-to-face and eye-to-eye with one of the more hot headed members of Magus.
“Why don’t you say that again?” The new guy moved forward and pushed the other man.
The other man pushed back.
“Hey,” Zuri yelled and moved between the two men. “What the hell is going on?” She pushed her hands between them, one hand in front of each heaving chest.
“This asshole was just leaving.” The Magus member practically spat the words.
“I’m not going anywhere,” the outsider said. He moved closer to Zuri and she had a fleeting moment of panic. If either man shifted she was a goner.
“Cut it out,” Zuri shouted. She looked around and saw Big Joe and Greg moving behind her. She felt the pressure in her chest start to release as Big Joe stepped in. Zuri moved out of the way. She pushed her way through the crowd of people to the bar. She leaned over the bar top, grabbed a beer, and snapped off the cap.
“Here.” She shoved the beer into the stranger’s hand. “Now you can leave.”
The man looked at Zuri for the first time. His eyes were blazing with a fire she’d seen before. He stared at her face for a long tense moment then looked at the men around him. His eyes rested on Greg for a quick beat.
“Show’s over,” Greg yelled, trying to release the palpable tension that ran through the room. “Come on,” Greg said to the new guy, “not tonight, huh? Come back another time when things aren’t so tense. This is a family establishment.”
Zuri tilted her head at Greg. He was being a little too nice to someone who had almost started a wolf and bear fight in his bar. She also felt an odd impulse to laugh. The situation was far from funny but Greg calling the Smoke Stack a “family establishment” was hilarious.
She cleared her throat instead and walked back to the bar. She felt the moment of adrenaline still rolling through her body and she tried her best to shake it off.
Even after the stranger was gone the tone of the room remained heightened.
“On the house.” Zuri pushed Big Joe’s wings and a new glass of beer across the bar top. “As a thank you for stepping in back there.” Zuri motioned her head to where the encounter had gone down.
Big Joe practically blushed. He waved a hand in front of his face as if waving away the idea that he’d done anything extraordinary.
“Really, I was getting panicked there for half a second,” Zuri pushed the compliment. She really was thankful for him and Greg. It was a dangerous business to get in-between two men who could literally rip you to pieces in a matter of moments.
“Hey, Zuri,” Greg called to her from the other side of the bar. She smiled once more at Big Joe.
She walked over to where Greg was pouring drinks. “Sandy just called in for tomorrow, can you cover?”
Zuri felt a wheezing release of air float out of her chest. She’d been thinking about spending a full night wrapped in a warm blanked, curled up on her sofa, reading a good book with a glass of wine, and a candle. And another night of the same heightened emotions and possible brawls didn’t sound too appealing.
“If you absolutely need me,” she sighed.
Greg nodded his head, “I absolutely need you.”
Chapter Two
Chaz left his motorcycle a block from the diner and walked over. It was dark but the stars and moon were bright. He walked in the shadows, softly, interested only in seeing, not being seen.
He stood in amongst the building facades on the opposite side of the road as the diner. He looked over the large glass windows. He noticed a few people he recognized. Then he saw the blond head.
He leaned back onto the brick wall behind him. He watched as the man drank something. The man talked on the phone and Chaz could practically hear the thick Ukrainian accent he’d come to expect from these men.
Chaz looked down the street, noticed the cars parked, the motorcycles, he took in the people, analyzing and processing as he observed. Half of his job was just this, being observant. That’s what it meant to be a true hunter. It wasn’t about quick reactions, or going in without knowing and understanding what it was, he was going in to. It was about the wait, the approach, the understanding.
It was also about action but not without some anticipation. Perhaps that’s why he liked it, why he was so good at it. He liked to anticipate. Liked the game of it all. His real job was as the enforcer of Magus Motorcycle Club. He worked amongst his brothers and he, more than anyone else, kept them safe. Some people thought him ruthless, heartless, but they didn’t understand that the hunt didn’t allow for soft emotions. Empathy and forgiveness were not his talent.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and Chaz checked the number before answering.
“Anthony,” Chaz spoke into the phone.
“You there?” Anthony was the boss of the club.
Anthony was the analytic one, he made decisions to protect the club and neighborhood, he thought of all the possibilities before he delegated the action out, usually to Chaz. It was almost ironic. The entire club was comprised of bear shifters. Each one of them had the ability and most of them practiced it regularly. No sane person would ever enter the nearby forests without talking to Magus first. But Chaz, arguably the most violent when necessary, rarely shifted anymore. He preferred to take care of business with his own two hands. The days of his carelessly shifting were in his past. Now, the hot blood that ran through his veins stayed human.
“Yeah, I’m here.” Chaz looked at the man sitting alone in the diner. There was a brief sound of footsteps and Chaz looked across the road. “The other just showed up, I’ll call you back in five.”
Chaz disconnect and watched the other blonde man approach. Chaz had been able to identify the telltale signs of the mobsters immediately. Probably all of Magus had. There was something silver in them. An icy blue to their eyes, silver shining in the blonde hair. He knew they were wolf shifters. He could smell it from where he stood. Their sharp-featured faces held the same ruthless intentions. Those intentions were what brought Chaz out tonight.
The man walked quickly into the diner, he looked and found the other man who had been sipping a drink by himself. The two sat down and began talking.
Chaz watched intently. They leaned in close to one another, occasionally looking around themselves. The second man gestured over his shoulder in his animated talking. Chaz moved further back into the shadows. Where had the man parked? He hadn’t noticed a car coming in.
He pushed a hand across his jaw, felt the stubbly hairs that grew far too quickly. Chaz walked along shadows. He looked at the cars parked along the street. At the end of the block sat an old navy blue van that Chaz hadn’t seen before. He moved closer and crouched looki
ng at the plate.
They were definitely fake. Chaz stood up and moved around the van. He turned on a small flashlight and looked into the windows. Clean enough.
Chaz listened to make sure there were no oncoming footsteps. He moved around the back of the van. Locked. There was a faint smell of something he couldn’t quite place. When he made his way back around to the driver side door, he put a small wedge into the door. He slid a small wire poker in to unlock the door. The door opened and leaned inside. There was barely a sign of anyone having been in the van. The wolf smell of the driver’s seat covered the smell he’d sensed at the rear.
He opened the console, empty. He unlocked the rest of the doors then looked in the pockets and under the seats. Under the passenger seat was a small slip of paper with an address and a question mark. The address was familiar, it was part of the territory that Chaz normally kept an eye out for. No immediate answer for the address came to him so he slipped it into his jacket pocket and kept looking.
When he opened the back door the smell came out to him. It was sugary and sweet, like a girl’s perfume, there was something vaguely adolescent about the smell. The back was open and empty. His light crept along the interior then landed on something pink.
Chaz leaned forward and picked it up. He looked at the loop for a long time before sliding it into his pocket next to the piece of paper. He relocked and closed the van and walked back into the shadows.
He hadn’t found drugs, he hadn’t found a dead body, but he wasn’t sure that, what he had found wasn’t worse.
Chaz pulled the little loop out of his pocket and looked at it again. Two call girls walked toward him. One was drooping with age but the other was young, too young to be in her line of work.
“You want some company,” the older one said as Chaz walked toward them.
“No,” Chaz shook his head. He held up the loop to the younger girl. “You know what this is?”
“We don’t do freebies, buddies.” The older one pulled on the girl’s arm.
Chaz reached for his wallet and pulled out two twenties, he lifted them to show the older woman. The older woman reached her hand out but Chaz pulled the bills away and gave them to the girl instead.
“I just need to know what this is,” he handed the girl the loop. The girl looked to the older woman then down to the pink glittery loop.
“…but it’s just a jelly bracelet.” The girl looked up with questioning eyes, obviously expecting Chaz to take the money back. The older woman pulled the bills out of the girl’s hand and tucked them into her bra.
“And who would wear something like this?” Chaz didn’t shift his focus from the girl.
“Any girl, high school, middle school probably…” Her wide young eyes looked from Chaz to the older woman.
“Ok,” Chaz nodded. He was about to walk away but turned back to the girl. “How old are you?”
“Interested?” The older woman seemed ready to push the girl into Chaz’s arms now that she knew he had cash.
He didn’t respond to the older woman but looked at the girl.
“I’m eighteen,” the girl said, obviously lying, and standing up taller.
“You shouldn’t be doing this, you should be in school…” Chaz felt a wave of heat and resentment toward the older woman who obviously cared nothing about the girl.
The woman grabbed the girl by the arm and pulled her away.
“Just, be careful,” Chaz said loudly to their retreating figures. “Stay away from the new men in town.” He felt his face burn hot with anger.
“We play to whoever pays,” the older woman shouted back at him. She laughed.
Chaz pulled out his phone as he walked back toward the diner and the direction of his motorcycle. He dialed in Anthony’s number.
“Hey.” Chaz looked at the bracelet in his hand. “We’ve got a problem.”
Chapter Three
Saturday was even busier than the night before. Zuri was amazed to find her lightweight shirt clinging to her body with sweat.
“Is it just going to be like this from now on?” Zuri asked Greg as she counted out her cash tips.
“I wouldn’t complain if it was,” Greg said with a sigh. He might be glad for the business but Zuri could see that he was just as tired as she was. There hadn’t been a moment of downtime all night. She’d been hustling around the bar trying to get to every empty glass filled.
“Well, I am headed home.” Zuri grabbed her bag and put on her jacket. “I will sleep quite well tonight, I think.” She looked at Greg with tired eyes and didn’t even bother smiling. She walked out of the bar, rolling her head around and cracking her knuckles.
Zuri stepped into the chilly night air and kicked herself for not thinking to bring another dry shirt or at least an extra layer. She had no idea that she would come out of the Smoke Stack looking like she’d just come out of the Pacific.
“You want me to walk you home?” Big Joe was standing outside under a street light smoking a cigarette.
“Did you wait out here for me?” Zuri asked, surprised. It was two hours since the bar had stopped serving and no one had ever waited to walk her home before.
“With those guys hanging around, it’s not as safe as usual.” He threw the cigarette butt on the ground and put it out with his large shoe.
Zuri gave a little puff of laughter. “It’s never safe here.” She thought of all the reasons that she kept mace, bear spray, and a panic alarm in her bag. “I’m fine, thank you though.”
She didn’t look back at Big Joe, always aware that she didn’t want to give any of the men at the bar the wrong impression.
She looked at her phone. It was going on five in the morning. She would begin to see the early risers coming out at any moment. Zuri wondered about what Big Joe had said.
Turning the next block she was about to get out her keys when she heard something in the street. Zuri stopped in her tracks.
What was in front of her didn’t make sense.
A blue van was parked in front of her building, the back doors were open and she saw shadowy movement. At first she thought someone was moving out of her building, or maybe breaking in. Then she noticed the nature of the movements and soon after a muffled scream swam through the air.
“Ava?” Zuri called the girls name as she began to move into a sprint. She reached in her bag fumbling. Zuri could barely think about what she was doing. She was reaching for her mace but her hand clutched on the panic alarm. Zuri pulled it out, pulled the pin, and without thinking she threw it at the man who was beginning to take shape in front of her. The alarm sounded loud and clear but as it hit the ground it shattered and went silent.
She saw a new movement and Zack came running out of the building.
“Hey,” Zack yelled at the man. Zuri noticed a second man.
“Get off of her,” Zuri screamed at the man who was now putting a struggling Ava into the back of the van.
Ava kicked out and hit the man in the arm just as Zuri launched herself at him. She jumped at his arm but with one sharp movement he threw her off.
Zuri hit the ground hard.
“Get off of my sister,” Zack yelled. He was trying to fight with the other man, who had stepped between him and the struggling Ava, but it wasn’t a fair fight. The first man pushed the rest of Ava into the back of the van and slammed the door. He turned to Zuri who was pulling herself to her feet.
Recognition rolled through Zuri, it was the man from the bar, the one with the blue gray eyes.
Zuri pulled her bag around, thinking again of her mace, just as the man transformed.
In a flash a wolf was pinning her to the ground. The smell of his breath overwhelmed her, the weight of his paws on her arms and body heavy upon her. Zuri screamed, ready to meet her death but the wolf paused staring at her.
The wolf shifted again and Zuri saw the man, his eyes twinkling, smiling at her.
“Two for the price of one.” He leered at Zuri.
Zuri felt herself b
eing lifted and pulled toward the van. Zuri reached her boot out for the man’s groin. Her foot hit but the man didn’t stop. Zuri dug her fingernails into the hand that now held her. She felt the man’s rubbery skin break under the pressure but still he didn’t stop.
The man opened the back of the van and Zuri felt herself propelled into the back. Zuri screamed. Half of her body was over the van and the other half was still hanging out of the back of the van.
There was a sudden thud and a violent shaking. Zuri turned to see a new man, the member of the Magus Club who she’d seen the night before on the street. He had grabbed the other man and the two were in blows.
“Come on,” Zuri cried out as she grabbed Ava, pulling her out of the van. But Zuri didn’t see the man come up behind her. His hands were on Ava before Zuri knew what was happening. He pulled Ava’s small body away and threw her back in the van. The man pulled at Zuri and she pounded on the man’s arms and shoulders but her blows did nothing to stop him.
Before he could get Zuri into the van, the Magus member grabbed the man by the back of the shirt pulling him away from the van. But, before Zuri could reach in and grab for Ava the van began to move.
Zuri ran behind the vehicle. Ava’s face appeared at the back, her eyes looking down at the moving ground beneath her.
“Jump,” Zuri shouted. Ava looked at Zuri. The hopeless fear in her eyes made Zuri move faster, but not fast enough.
The van pulled ahead and shifted, throwing Ava sideways against the van. Zuri pounded to a stop just in time to see the blue van, with Ava still inside, rounding a corner.
Her chest heaved, she could barely suck in enough air. She turned around and saw the end of the fight. Zack was watching the two men from his place on the ground. Zuri dropped to her knees, she felt the world twisting around her head.
The Magus member punched the Ukrainian mobster in the face. The man, now released from the Magus member’s hands, turned and ran down the street in the direction of the van. He stopped ten feet from Zuri, his cold blue eyes peering straight at her.
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