CHAPTER NINE
Sofie and Lindsey reach Beaumont at about the same time Lindsey has run out of curse words. She’s been swearing since she’d caught up with Sofie on the mountain track and hadn’t stopped grumbling. It was probably a bonus of being a werewolf, Sofie thinks to herself, they have enough stamina to run full pelt and swear like a sailor, whereas she was just about able to keep one foot in front of the other.
“You know for a pretty girl, you’ve got one filthy mouth!” Sofie shakes her head at her in mock disgust as they reach the outskirts of the town.
“Takes one to know one,” Lindsey fires straight back before they both stop short at the scene laid on in front of them.
“Holy shit,” Sofie breathes out, proving Lindsey’s point about her own language. But she can’t help it, it’s as if the town has been used for a scene from Terminator. Things are even worse than Rudy had described.
“Well, there goes the neighbourhood, I guess.” Lindsey’s black humor is probably the only thing keeping her from breaking down into tears at what she is seeing has happened to her town.
There are posters and graffiti everywhere with Luke’s favorite slogan ‘Humans First’. Sofie wonders if he had a marketing team come up with a snappy catchphrase or if he’d figured one out all on his own. Either way he clearly hadn’t wasted any time spreading the message.
Although it’s the middle of the night the sound of sirens echoes through the air and there are still people roaming around the street and not looking particularly friendly. All of a sudden, Sofie is re-thinking the wisdom of her coming down here to rescue her friends. Who was going to rescue them?
“Keep it together, Sofie. You’ve dragged me all the way down here, you can’t flake out on me now.” Lindsey pulls Sofie into the obscurity of a side alley. “We keep our heads down, don’t look at anyone in the eye and get to the motel as quickly as we damn well can. We don’t talk, we don’t engage with anyone.” Sofie nods hurriedly at Lindsey’s instructions, flipping the collar of her denim jacket up to hide at least part of her face. “You good?” Lindsey confirms as she checks the street before they head out.
“I’m good.” Sofie nods, realizing that she actually isn’t anywhere near as scared as she probably should be. “Let’s do this.”
The walk to the motel isn’t long, but the quickest and most direct route is straight down Main Street, where people seem to be congregating in little groups. Sofie can smell the booze on the group of skinheads as they walk past.
“Hey, baby, you looking for some company tonight?” One of the guys pinches Sofie’s ass and, automatically, she starts to whirl around to call him out. But Lindsey’s hand on her arm stops her and she remembers her instructions.
She bites her lip, hard and picks up the pace, walking away from the group, swallowing the anger that’s rising up into her chest. “What’s the matter? Why you walking away? You know you want it!” His cronies laugh, drowning out whatever it is that he has to say.
“God I hate men like that,” Sofie whispers even though they’re out of earshot, “Men that think they can treat us anyway they choose and get away with it!”
“You mean men like Calambor?” Lindsey raises her eyebrows, reminding Sofie, although she hardly needs reminding, just how much of a jerk her old boss is.
“If I never see him again, it’ll be too soon.” Sofie doesn’t add what she’d like to do to him if they do happen to cross paths again.
Most of the lights in the motel are out when they arrive, and the flashing sign outside proclaims that it is FULL.
“Guess the anti-werewolf business is good for some people.” Lindsey’s voice is a growl as the injustice of it all is driven home to her.
“Let me do the talking here, Linds. We don’t want anyone getting eaten tonight.” Sofie lays a steadying hand on her friend’s shoulder.
“Me? But I’m so tolerant!” Lindsey’s wide-eyed look of innocence would normally be enough to send Sofie into hysterics, but not tonight. All she could think about was what had happened to her friends.
The front door is open and the place is deathly quiet. But maybe that’s not so strange, Sofie reasons to herself, it is the middle of the night after all. There’s no sign of Brett the receptionist taking up his usual post at the welcome desk. Sofie wonders absently what he must think of her now, was he one of the people that had graffitied Ashton’s store and set light to Lindsey’s bar? Or was he still one of the good guys?
“Finn’s room is down there.” Sofie waves for Lindsey to follow her down the narrow corridor, which reminds Sofie even more of ‘The Shining’ now in the dead of night than it did before. She takes a deep breath, when they reach his door, ready to face whatever horrors are behind it. Please let Finn be okay, please let him be okay, she prays to a God that she doesn’t believe in as she raps on the door.
“What you think if he’s been beaten to a bloody pulp he’s going to just answer the door?” Lindsey shakes her head at her friend’s naiveté and looks like she’s getting ready to ram the door with her shoulder when there’s a sound of something on the other side.
A few seconds later the door swings open and a confused looking Finn adjusts his glasses looking confused, half-asleep and decidedly unhurt.
“What the hell are you two doing here?” He looks between Sofie and Lindsey like they’re crazy. “Never mind, get inside before anyone sees you.” He virtually drags them through the door, shutting it as quietly as he can behind them and locking it firmly.
“You’re alright!” Sofie pulls Finn towards her in a hard hug that knocks most of the wind out of him.
“It’s good to see you too, boss. But it would be even better if my lungs weren’t about to explode.” Finn gently removes her vice-like grip from around him.
“What do you mean, what are we doing here?” Lindsey asks the question as she prowls around the room, taking in everything, trying to scent and sense every possible hint of danger that she can.
“Well, it’s kind of dangerous round here at the moment, you know? Especially for people of the four-legged variety.” Finn looks pointedly at Lindsey and doesn’t seem to notice the daggers she shoots him with her eyes.
“Yeah, funnily enough we had thought about that before coming down here to save your scrawny ass!” Lindsey sniffs disdainfully at a half-eaten pizza that lies on his nightstand. “Seriously, who orders anchovies?” She shakes her head in disgust as if it’s a crime.
“People that want to make sure they’re getting enough omega-3, my little furry friend!” Finn closes the pizza box and sits cross-legged on the unmade bed at the same time. “What do you mean saving my ass? Save it from what?” He looks from Sofie to Lindsey and back to Sofie again, his expression showing that he really has no idea what they’re talking about.
“I got your message, the one that you sent me.” Sofie pulls out her cell and shows the words on her screen to Finn.
Finn gulps audibly as he reads it. “I didn’t send that.”
“What do you man you didn’t send it? It’s from your phone number, isn’t it? If it wasn’t you that sent it then who -?” But Lindsey doesn’t get to finish that train of thought; Sofie and Finn are already a couple of steps ahead.
“Luke.” They say the word at the same time, in the same tone that old people lower their voice to whisper ‘cancer’ to each other.
“You guys have to get out of her, like yesterday.” Finn jumps up, moving faster than Sofie has ever seen him. “He must have managed to hack my number, which by the way should be impossible!”
“Finn, we don’t have time now for your ego! If Luke knows we’re here then you’re in danger too, you have to come with us.” Sofie ignores the look that Lindsey throws her, they both know it makes sense.
“Danger? Me? I don’t cope well with danger. I’m more of a computer-generated-danger only kind of a guy.” Finn takes his glasses off and wipes them, trying to hide the shaking in his hands.
“Finn, you’ll be safe wit
h us.” Sofie wishes that she felt as convincing as she sounds. “Get dressed, we need to go now.” She doesn’t wait for him to answer, gently guiding him towards the rumpled clothes that lay by his bed.
Finn goes into autopilot, picking up his pants and then he stops. “Aren’t you going to turn around?”
Lindsey rolls her eyes and looks like she’s about to give him an earful, but Sofie jumps in, swivelling her shoulders around, giving Finn some privacy.
“Just make it snappy, four eyes.” Lindsey looks at her watch, already aware that they’ve been there for too long.
“Four eyes, that’s imaginative!” Finn appears in front of them looking more like himself in his hipster jeans and ironic t-shirt.
“Can you two stop for just a minute while we get out of here?” Sofie looks between the two of them, wondering how she suddenly became the one calling the shots.
Sofie takes a breath and opens the door, peering out into the hall. “We’re clear, let’s go.” She waves her friends on, walking purposefully towards the front door but it opens before they get there and the devil himself walks through it.
“Oh shit.” Finn doesn’t even bother to lower his voice; the jig, as her father would have said, was most certainly up.
“Sofie!” Luke smiles at her in his own oily way. “I’m so glad to see you up and about, you did have us all worried there when we saw you get shot. But then you recovered from that quite miraculously didn’t you?” Luke smoothes down the lapels of his expensive-looking suit.
“What do you want, Luke?” Sofie grits her teeth to stop herself from saying anything else. She’s well aware that he has them at a huge disadvantage, there’s no way to know how many men he has outside or what he plans to do with them.
“Well to see you of course, my little bird.” Luke takes a step towards her and Sofie takes a step back automatically. Lindsey advances a pace towards him, a growl reverberating in her chest. Luke looks at her unperturbed, as if she were no less intimidating than a Yorkshire terrier. “And you, I really should have guessed sooner that you were one of them.” Luke shakes his head, like he’s disappointed in himself. “The odour of wet dog that hung around that rancid bar of yours really should have tipped me off.” He waves at her dismissively.
Lindsey gets ready to launch herself at him, and most likely rip out his throat, but instead of beating a hasty retreat, Luke pulls something out of his pocket; the wolf caller. He lifts it up, waving it in front of Lindsey’s face, reminding her of the pain that had ripped through her when she heard it.
“Let’s not get too cocky.” He looks pointedly at Lindsey who returns his gaze with so much hate that Sofie can almost smell it in the air. “I suggest you tell your guard dog to stand down, Sofie, before I’m forced to discipline her myself.” The smile that he gives her is enough to make her vomit.
“Easy, Linds.” Sofie mutters the words to her friend, hoping that it’s enough to keep her from doing anything stupid. “We got your message. It was a nice touch using Finn’s phone.”
“Yeah, how did you do that? My phone is unhackable!” Finn goes to hold up his phone as evidence, but his pockets are empty.
Luke looks at him in pity. “You’re quite right, Finnbarr. It is unhackable, my techs couldn’t get past your firewalls. That’s why I hired you, because you’re the best!” Finn draws himself up to his full height, pleased that his genius is getting the recognition he believes it deserves. “But even the best tech whizz can be pick-pocketed.” Finn’s mouth drops open at Luke’s last words and, for the first time, he looks like he wants to land a punch squarely on Luke’s jaw.
“So you’re stealing from your employees now? You’ve really sunk to new lows, Luke, even for you!” Sofie knows that she’s baiting him, provoking him with her gall, but she has no intention of letting him think that he frightens her, that she’s afraid of him. She’s already given him too much power over her.
Luke’s expression goes from charming to psychotic and back to charming again in the time it takes to blink. This guy really is crazy, Sofie thinks to herself. How has no one seen it before? “Now, now, Sofie dear, there’s no need to resort to rudeness, I thought you were too much of a lady for that. Such a beautiful woman should really learn to mind her tongue, don’t you think?”
“I don’t think you want to know what I think and, frankly, I don’t care what your agenda was in getting me here.” Sofie dismisses Luke’s thoughts and feelings with a wave of her hand and she gets a slight satisfaction in seeing how red his face gets as she does. “None of that is important. You and I, we’re not important, don’t you see that? You’re in way over your head; you’re trying to massacre an entire species. Keeping the weres safe, preserving the canyon, those are the only things that are important. You have to stop the tirade of anti-Lycan hate that you’re encouraging. They haven’t done anything to you! Now your oil is destroying their home and you’ve single-handedly managed to launch a whole new kind of xenophobe!” Sofie pauses for breath and tries not to let Luke’s smiling face irk her. “What? What is so funny to you about all of this? Is that what it is to you? Just a game! People are going to die, Luke. Don’t you see that?”
“Ah, Sofie, always the worrier, always the one looking out for everyone else’s well-being. You really are a wonderful person, you know that?” Luke’s patronizing tone does nothing to take the edge off of Sofie’s anger. “The Lycans are savages and they’re a danger to decent society. If they had announced their presence to the world rather than creeping around in the shadows like criminals, committing God only knows what heinous acts while the public remained blissfully unaware of their existence, perhaps then they would have been welcome with open arms. But they chose to hide what they are from the world. Why? Because they’re ashamed. Because they know that they are mongrels, half-breeds, not quite human and not quite animal. She and everyone like her,” Luke points to Lindsey for dramatic effect, “are monsters.”
“You want to see a monster? I’ll show you a monster!” Lindsey takes a step towards him but Sofie’s arm flashes out and stops her. Sofie shakes her head, almost imperceptibly and Lindsey clenches and unclenches her fists, but she remains where she is, even though it’s excruciating for her to let his insult go unpunished.
“You see? They’re creatures of violence, they don’t understand anything else. In time, when we’re together, you’ll see that I’m right.” Luke nods in agreement with himself.
“When we’re together? You can’t be serious!” Sofie has to stifle a laugh as she says the words. “You still think that you and I, that we...I can’t even say it it’s so ridiculous!” She laughs out loud, not bothering to hide it before she focuses on how serious she is about what she’s saying. “To be clear, there is no way, in this world or the next that I would ever want to be with you. I can’t even stand to be anywhere near you! You make me sick!”
For once, Luke is speechless and Lindsey takes her opportunity to catch him off guard. “You knew you weren’t just hunting wolves in Beaumont, otherwise you wouldn’t have brought that thing.” She points at the wooden caller that’s still clenched in his hand. “How did you know about werewolves before anyone else?”
Luke looks at her in disgust, like he can’t bear to put himself on her level by answering her question, behaving like she’s a human rather than an animal. But his need to showboat gets the better of him, so he tells the story.
“I was aware of the legend of the Lycan. The legends are older than religion, older than writing was invented. The stories were passed down, told around campfires and the story spread. Most people thought, and still think, the stories were too ludicrous to be believed, that they were just a way of frightening little children into behaving, but a few people did believe. My father was one of those few.” Luke pauses his attention still trained on Sofie and Finn, as if Lindsey didn’t even exist to him.
“If this is going to be a story about how dear old dad used to beat you and that’s why you’re such a prick now, then
can we just skip to the Cliffs Notes version already?” Lindsey leans against the wall yawning extensively.
Luke shoots a look at her. He’s annoyed that she’s belittling his story, that she’s not treating him and this little legend that he’s created around himself with the respect he thinks it deserves. If Sofie hadn’t already thought that Lindsey was the coolest person on the planet, that would have erased all doubt.
“My father was a better man than you will ever meet,” Luke’s tone could cut glass, but Lindsey looks unperturbed. “He used to tell me stories about werewolves when I was a child. But for him, they weren’t the violent, base creatures that we know them to be. My father was a romantic at heart. He spoke of Lycans with reverence, as if they were magical, incredible, wonderful creatures.” Luke rubs a hand over his forehead like he can’t believe how naive his father had been. “He collected artefacts associated with the legend, or junk as I had thought of it in my youth. For years I had thought that my father had lost his mind in his old age. Up until recently that’s all I’d thought the werewolf myth was, just a legend.”
“But that was before you found out about the oil here.” The pieces of the puzzle are slowly starting to fit together for Sofie, she knows what’s coming next. But she lets him tell it anyway, the longer they can keep him talking for is the longer they have to figure a way out of whatever he has in store for them.
“Exactly, Sofie, exactly! You always were the brightest spark in the whole of Shale Corp. It’s down to you really that we’ve managed to come along so far so fast with the drilling in Spring Canyon. You really should spare a moment to think about your career, you’re a damn good oil hound.” Luke smiles that condescending smile of his.
“I’m a geologist, not an oil hound and I’m more interested in being a good person than I am in furthering my career, so save your pitches. Tell us the rest.” She crosses her arms in front of her chest, waiting for Luke to tell the rest of the story, knowing that he’s itching to carry on his performance in front of his captive audience.
Torrent (Alpha Love - a Paranormal Werewolf Shifter Romance Book 4) Page 11
