“Is she ok now?” he said. Lauren waved her hand.
“Yeah, she’s fine. She’s written it off as a disappointment, but that’s all. She’s put her name down at all the real estate agents in town to let her know if anything comes up, even as a rental, and in the meantime she’s starting to purchase stock and sell it online. Andrea and Magnus’ spare room looks like a treasure trove!”
Bruno thanked her for the update and promised to visit her soon, and they went on their way.
“Dad, why aren’t you answering my questions?” Tad complained during the drive home.
“Sorry, squirt, I’ve got a couple of things on my mind at the moment,” he said, glancing at his son’s cute freckly face, which was currently screwed up in frustration.
“What were you asking me?”
“Ah, nothing.” Tad stared out of the window, affecting nonchalance.
“Tad!”
“I was just asking if you’d come and watch me at little league on Saturday. It’s the first game of the season.”
“Of course! When have I ever missed one of your games? Except for that one time when the station was short-staffed and I couldn’t have off?”
“Never, I guess,” he said with a dramatic sigh. He didn’t like it when his dad was distracted and lost in his thoughts.
The truth was, Bruno couldn’t stop thinking about Lori and what she’d been through. He’d heard the guys who were occupying her old property were a bunch of werewolf bikers from out of town, involved in some shady business. Which meant that they were dangerous, and likely to be ruthless if their criminal enterprise was threatened, whatever it was. They were ridiculously out of place in a safe, happy little town like Hope Valley, but they’d intimidated everyone out of getting rid of them. He was so furious at the thought that they’d intimidated Lori too, that he began to shift in the car. His claws burst out from his fingers and shredded the material of the steering wheel, and he felt that telltale loosening of his jaw, as it made way for two rows of razor-sharp teeth.
“Dad!” Tad yelled in alarm. Bruno shook himself and his bear retreated again.
“Sorry, Tad. I was just having a moment,” he said. “It’s been a while since I shifted, and my bear needs to go for a run.”
He wanted to find out what the biker gang was up to and see if there was a way of helping Lori get her place back. People said that they were into money laundering, but he wasn’t sure if that was true. It wasn’t a werewolf kind of crime. Slowly, he began to formulate a plan. A plan that would change his life forever.
Chapter Eleven
At around midnight, Bruno drove his pickup truck downtown and left it in a quiet side street slightly north of the central square. Then he slunk through a maze of backstreets, being careful not to be seen. It wasn’t too difficult, as this part of town was usually deserted late in the evenings. He walked past Lori’s old shop. He wasn’t surprised she’d been shocked to see it. It was in a terrible state. It looked like the kind of place you could buy illegal firearms – another world from the tasteful, quirky boutique she’d described so affectionately. There was a heavy metal mesh over the window, and it was padlocked shut in the middle, and the stainless steel front door was also padlocked shut at five separate points. If those guys were trying to look suspicious, they couldn’t have done a better job. And it helped him out a lot – confirming what he already suspected: they weren’t home. The scent of werewolf was unmistakable, but it wasn’t strong, indicating that there wasn’t one of them within a half-mile. This should make things a lot easier.
He walked past the store, and took the next turning on the right. Another sharp right brought him to a narrow alleyway separating two rows of buildings. He counted five buildings, which brought him to the werewolves’ store. There, he undressed and laid his clothes on a trashcan, and shifted quickly. His bear was raring to go, almost bursting out of him. He relaxed into his animal form, taking a moment for the endorphins that always flooded his body at this moment to pass. Then he leapt over a low wall, clung onto a drainpipe, and scaled it easily, climbing up two stories. He jumped off it and onto a low roof. It looked fragile and in need of repair, so he was careful to walk along the supporting beams. He stepped lightly on the pads of his paws, on the off-chance that he’d been mistaken, and one of the biker crew was still on the premises.
There was a big steel plate near the apex of the roof. It looked like a skylight that had been nailed over. He hooked his powerful claws under it and applied pressure. With a lot of effort, it came away. He balanced it on a chimneystack and looked down through the gap. It was a full moon tonight – which explained why nobody was home. They were probably out trying to seduce as many innocent women as possible and drag them into their mating frenzy. He bared his teeth in disgust. He hated bikers, and werewolf bikers were the worst of all. They gave shifters a bad name. By the light of the moon he was able to see all the way inside the room he’d just uncovered. It looked like a chemistry lab. Everywhere there were gas canisters, buckets and tubes and big glass bowls clamped onto metal structures. And an acrid stench filled the room, obliterating any scent of werewolf. “A crystal meths lab,” he muttered. This was unthinkable in Hope Valley. He roared in fury. How dare that biker filth infiltrate this clean-living community with that evil drug? He considered his options. He knew plenty about starting a fire. He could slip down into the room, and create a small, isolated explosion, and leave it to be reported and investigated. But he didn’t like this idea. They were very dangerous criminals and he didn’t want to get local law enforcement involved. They’d have no idea how to deal with them, and some innocent people would inevitably get hurt. With all the chemicals in the room below, there was also a small chance that it would turn into a much bigger explosion than he’d anticipated. He’d seen the aftermath of a crystal meths lab explosion before, and it wasn’t pretty. No, with his professional contacts, he could be a little more subtle than that.
Bruno slipped through the hatch and dropped to the ground. It was a good distance – at least 13 feet – far enough for a man to sprain or even break something, but nothing at all to a bear. He landed almost noiselessly on his pads. Jesus! That stink was appalling! How have they not gassed themselves cooking that shit up? he thought to himself. He peered through the gloom. There was a door leading to the front of the property. It didn’t have any visible locks on it. It must be bolted on the other side. On the opposite side of the room was a door leading outside. It was heavily bolted and padlocked. He slid the five bolts open. Only the padlock remained. He looked around for a key, but couldn’t find one. Maybe it was in the front, which would make it almost impossible to get hold of from where he was. Instead, he looked for something he could use as a lever. There was a wrench leaning up against the other door. It was the kind used by mechanics to fix cars, and used by criminal gangs to intimidate their victims. He picked it up in his teeth and carried it over to the door, slipping it beneath the lock. He braced one end of the wrench against the steel door panel, took a deep breath, and summoned all of his strength, focusing it into his powerful front legs. At first, nothing happened, but then the padlock burst open. He dropped the wrench and pushed the door. It swung open easily. He picked up the padlock in his teeth and went out of the back door, leaving it swinging in the breeze. He picked his way through the filthy, littered backyard, leapt over the wall and shifted again beside his clothes. Then he sauntered back the way he’d come.
Bruno calculated that there was no real rush; the werewolves would likely be out all night. He waited until he was safely back home, and far from the scene of the incident before he called up the DEA and got put through to Richard Adams, an old associate that he’d met at a previous crystal meths fire, who didn’t sound overjoyed to be woken up in the early hours of the morning. He apologized and explained he’d been answering a complaint from local residents about foul-smelling smoke coming from the premises. He’d just checked it and discovered the back door had been left open, and a man
ufacturing plant was clearly visible inside. They were both well aware that an open door meant no warrant was necessary.
“On our way!” Richard said, the grumpiness in his voice quickly replaced with glee.
Bruno calculated it’d take them around an hour to get there. They’d go through the back door and lie in wait for the criminals to return. He left his radio turned up high and went to sleep.
He was woken at 7am by discussions between members of the Hope Valley Fire Service preparing to go to the scene. Then he called Kristin.
That afternoon, the story was splashed all over the Hope Valley Echo. Federal agents had completed the biggest ever bust of a manufacturing lab in the state. Four suspects had been apprehended and held for questioning. The DEA praised the work done by the Fire Service in securing the scene. Hope Valley residents expressed their delight that the dangerous criminals were being removed from the premises and the town, and hoped that the store could return to being the lovely place that it had been in the past. Bruno smiled in relief. After the pain he had caused Lori, he was very glad that he’d done something to make her life a little better for her.
But, less than 24 hours later, he’d realize that he’d made a terrible mistake.
Chapter Twelve
The remaining two members of the Rottenheart Wolves biker gang rode through the national forest, gnashing their teeth in rage. Their gang hadn’t stood a chance. They’d come home in the early hours of the morning, and by the time they’d realized that the scent of humans was far stronger than usual, they were surrounded by a whole swarm of US federal agents, pointing automatic weapons at them. They were on the roofs of nearby buildings, and on the ground, covering their meth lab in a wide net. The two of them had only escaped because they’d been lagging behind chatting, and had watched the situation unfold from a distance. And now everything was gone. The lab and all the product they’d cooked up over the past six weeks. They had a glimmer of hope that the cash they’d stashed under the floorboards wouldn’t be discovered, but it was highly unlikely. They’d lost a lot of money, and all the hard work they’d done had gone to waste. It made no sense. They couldn’t figure out how their carefully concealed operations had been discovered, let alone breached. The security system protecting the lab was like Fort Knox. It had metal doors on both sides, heavily locked and bolted. Even the skylight had been sealed over with a thick sheet of metal. All they knew was that someone was going to pay.
They returned to their place hours later, after the cops had all departed with their truckloads of evidence, all bagged and tagged. Dressed plainly in T-shirts and jeans, with all biker insignia removed, they circled the property, looking for clues. There had to be a snitch. They’d driven away all the local businesses a long time ago, to limit the possibility of anyone noticing their comings and goings, but there must have been someone close by who’d seen something and decided to report it. After they’d checked out the property, they’d start knocking on doors, using a little of their trademark persuasive skills to get the truth out of those Hope Valley fools.
Then they picked up a scent that they knew all too well: bear. Or bear shifter, to be exact. Their wolves’ hackles rose and they bared their teeth and released spine-chilling growls. They’d never smelled the funk of bear around their property before, but there it was, at the exact same time that their operations had been ruined.
It was no coincidence; they were sure of it. So here they were, sniffing around bear territory in the national park, trying to pick out a single scent from a whole mélange of bear smells.
“I don’t know, dude. All bears smell the same to me,” Chunks said, as they came to a pause at the junction of a tangle of paths.
“You’d better change that attitude fast, doofus, if you don’t want me to rip your throat out and leave you to be mauled by the bears,” Razor spat.
“Hey, I wasn’t serious, bro. Of course I’d recognize that motherfucker if I picked up his stink again,” Chunks said, his voice tight.
“Good. That’s all I require of you right now. Just one thing. Identify the smell you’ve smelled before. That’s it. Do you think you’re capable of that?”
“Sure thing, boss,” Chunks snarled. “And when I find that bear, I’ll tear him apart.”
“That’s what I like to hear, Chunks. If there’s one thing I can rely on you for it’s to be the brawn of the operation.”
They rode around a bend in the forest track and Razor’s nose twitched.
“Now there’s a smell I recognize,” he said, a nasty grin curling the edges of his lips. His wolf’s ears pricked up.
“Is it the bear?” Chunks asked.
“Nope,” Razor said, as his wolf wagged the tip of its tail. “Even better than that. It’s the smell of pussy.”
“That’s great boss, but aren’t we on a mission right now? We can find us some pussy later tonight at the roadhouse, right?”
“It’s not any old pussy, dickweed. It’s the smell of the bitch who turned up at the lab a little while ago, eyeballing the window.”
“And?”
“And, there’s obviously a connection.”
“There is?” Chunks said. Razor sighed and stopped dead in the middle of the track.
“It’s a good job one of us has a brain in his head. The girl came sniffing around our place. Next thing I knew, that dickface real estate agent told us he wanted to sell the property. Of course, I told him straight up that wasn’t going to happen. Then the Feds start crawling all over our place, leaving behind a stink of bear. We come out here, and smell the girl again. She’s obviously shacked up with one of those bears.”
“Gee, Razor, you’re so smart,” Chunks said, his voice full of admiration.
“You can be smart too, Chunks. Tell me, what are we going to do now?”
“We’re going to find that girl.”
“Correct.”
“That sweet, fine honey scent is hers, right?”
“Uh huh.”
“Got it.”
“But are we gonna gun these hogs right up to her and scare seven shades of shit outta her?”
“No, sir. We’ve gonna park them here.”
“Damn straight.” Without another word, they parked their Harleys, stepped off the track and into the woods, and began to race between the trees, hot on the tail of her scent.
It didn’t take them long to catch up with her. She was in the garden of a big, rich-ass cabin. They paused and both drew in a breath at the sight of her. She was one sexy mama. Her glossy, dark hair swung around her shoulders, and she had a juicy, ripe figure. She was putting some laundry on a washing line, bending down to take things out of a basket and then stretching up to the washing line, which had the effect of displaying her figure to their hungry eyes.
“Baby clothes,” Chunks observed. “She have a kid?”
“How the hell do I know?” Chunks lifted his nose in the air and sniffed.
“She smells of milk. I think she’s still feeding it with her tits.”
“And?” Razor snapped.
“I don’t know. Just saying,” Chunks said meekly. He hated it when Razor got mad at him.
“So, where is it?” They took a few steps closer. “Sleeping, in a baby chair.”
“What are we going to do with her?”
“We’re going to take her to Jed’s barn, way up north and keep her there a little while. That bitch has to pay for sticking her damn nose in and ruining everything.”
They crept right over to the garden, and through the garden gate. Heavy set though they were in their human form, their wolves’ senses made them silent on their feet, and Lori didn’t hear them coming until they were right behind her.
Chapter Thirteen
As Lori was stretching up to peg one of Nancy’s all-in-one suits to the washing line, a heavy hand landed on her shoulder. She jumped and spun around at the same time to see who it was. At the sight of a huge, hairy biker, she opened her mouth to scream, but a hand clamped down over it
, and an arm coiled around her waist from behind. Panic flooded her veins. The biker looked familiar. Oh my god. It’s the guy who’s rented out my old store! A face like that was hard to forget. The yellow eyes, that she’d hoped she’d never see again, bored into hers.
“You’re going to come with me, right now,” he snarled in a harsh, ugly voice. “Do you understand? And don’t you dare try to scream or run away.” She nodded, as far as she was able to. “That your kid, sleeping there?” Her eyes widened and she nodded again. “If you scream, or call out at all, we’ll get one of our friends to come around and take care of it.” She shook her head frantically. He gave her an ugly grin.
“Ok, I think we understand each other,” he said.
The other guy, who she hadn’t seen yet, held her hands behind her back, his fingers biting painfully into her flesh, and propelled her forward. She cast a last, panicked glance at Nancy, sleeping so sweetly in her cradle. She was so scared, she thought she’d pass out. But at least they weren’t taking her baby too. Andrea was upstairs. She’d come out and look for her at some point, and she’d find Nancy. Surely that would happen. But, what if someone or something else got to her first? No! She began to hyperventilate. She wanted to ask what they were going to do with her, but she was too scared to speak, in case it made them decide to hurt Nancy. Instead, she bit her lip, and forced herself to stay quiet.
They’d been walking a good distance, through dense forest, her tripping all the time, and twigs lashing her face, without her having her hands to protect her. At last, they burst out of the woods and into a clearing. When she saw the bikes, her stomach dropped. They were going to make her sit on a bike? No way! She was terrified of motorbikes.
Shiftr: Swipe Left for Love (Lori) BBW Bear Shifter Romance (Hope Valley BBW Dating App Romance Book 5) Page 11
