“So, what else do we need to go over?” Riley grinned at them, laying back with her arms under her head. They both looked back down at her.
“Nothing, really. We were somehow able to make it through enough of the lesson that the morning wasn’t completely wasted.” Brenton was shaking his head now, and looked over at his desk. She could see the grin still plastered across his face.
“Don’t you need to get to the diner in like three hours?” Zachary was still looking down at her, grinning evilly.
“More like four,” she laughed.
That was all they needed to hear to start another round. And it was a very good round.
Her legs were still jelly when she entered the front of the diner, and Andrew gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
“How was your morning?” he whispered softly to her. They tried not to be a ‘couple’ at work but they also didn’t hide their relationship completely. The staff took a little while to get used to it, but after a couple of months, everything was running smoothly again. They, thankfully, didn’t know she owned half the diner now or that she was with all the other guys as well.
“Fantastic,” she blew him a kiss and saw the light in his eyes, telling her that he knew exactly how her morning went. She wondered which guy texted him to say she would be fifteen minutes late.
“Good,” he grinned.
“Yup.” She laughed and clocked in. She got a salary now, but she kept track of her hours, just in case people wanted to say she wasn’t pulling her weight for her paycheck.
The pride actually put more money into the diner than they got out of it. They had bought it for Andrew and to give the previous owner, Ruth, a chance at retirement with a few million dollars. Andrew had normally been stuck around the house, since he never wanted to work the hard life of a five-star chef (which he was). So, when they moved back into Wild Junction, Brenton got him the diner to give him something to do. And they had never expected to make money from it. It was almost like they enjoyed owning and taking care of a little, treasured piece of Wild Junction’s history and culture and.
She loved it. She had worked at the diner the entire time she’d lived in Wild Junction, and it was like a second home to her. It would be three years come December. Three years of her own life and freedom from a shit past.
Well, not complete freedom, since her mother’s past came barreling back into her life in March. Since then, though, everything was great.
Or it was until she was closing the diner that night. She had wanted to be nice and send everyone home early. There really wasn’t much left to do since it was a slow night, and they had started cleaning an hour earlier than normal.
The two hunters had been cocky and foolhardy. They thought they could just walk up into her fucking diner and take her out?
She kicked the corpse that laid on the floor by the counter and hissed down at it. Idiots.
She wasn’t the same girl as last year. Now she had a family, and nothing was taking her from them. Not even the SHS, the Shifter Hunting Society, could take her down now.
ZACHARY
“Fuck!” Zachary snarled at the phone. All the guys were looking at him, wide-eyed, with the exception of Brenton, who just looked furious.
“Outed?” He hissed. “What did she send?”
Zachary pulled the picture up and the phone dinged. He growled at the second picture. Two hunters, she’d said. And she took them both out, good.
He threw his phone at Brenton and stood up.
“We need to get to the diner and deal with cops. This is bad. It was in a public place.”
“Call Sheriff Johnson,” Brenton snapped to Andrew, who’s phone was already out and typing the number. “The bear. He’ll help us out. Gabe, get these pictures off the phones. She knows better than to send them through the phones like that.”
Zachary had seen the patch on the hunter’s back. The SHS, the Shifter Hunting Society, was a bunch of pricks who wanted to hunt the most dangerous game they could find. What about animals with human intelligence? Yeah, they didn’t give a fuck if shifters had human forms and human lives. If it turned into an animal, it was an animal in their mind.
It wasn’t a big organization, but it was a rowdy one. If they had been outed to the SHS, then the hunters would probably never stop coming, hoping to nail a big prize. They normally found shifters living on the fringes of society, but a pride? That was gold in their minds, if they were brave enough to take on the challenge. That was without taking into consideration the press of a famous pride being murdered or kidnapped.
“He’ll meet us there. Said there’s been no reports of gunshots from anyone in the area.”
They moved out silently. Troy and Gabe were both on laptops and cellphones looking to see what they could find. Sometimes a shifter was exposed online, and they could pull down the listing information before anyone got hurt. It would take a couple months, but eventually the hunters would forget about that shifter and find other game.
“I’ve got nothing,” Gabe hissed. “Let’s go get her.”
It took all of five minutes for them to leave the mansion. It took only ten for them to pull up to the diner where Sheriff Johnson waited patiently in the parking lot with his personal pick up. He didn’t bring anyone with him since all his deputies were human and couldn’t be trusted with this.
“Sheriff,” Brenton shook his hand and Johnson grinned at him.
Zachary knew a bit about Sheriff. He had lived in this town since before they were all born. He didn’t care about the felines that lived around here, and the felines had realized he was a good asset in situations like this. His name made Zachary laugh, always had. He was Sheriff Johnson, the sheriff of Wild Junction. So, he was Sheriff Sheriff Johnson. Ah, he must have loved his name so much he got the job.
Bears were fairly solitary, other than family units that included mates and young children. Once the kids grew up, they were expected to move out and find their own place in the world, away from their parents. Sheriff had a human wife and that was it, all his kids were off doing their own thing in the world.
“She won’t let me in, not that I blame her.” Sheriff grinned. Zachary sighed and walked directly for the diner’s front door. She was standing behind the counter, Glock pointed at the door. When she realized it was him, she put it on the counter and ran to open the door, throwing her arms around him. He held her tight.
“How are you?” He growled softly down to her as the others passed them and went inside.
“Been better but also have been worse,” she smiled up to him. “Plus, this was just-- they were fucking arrogant about it. I never had the chance to get scared.”
They walked inside, and he felt a wave of pride at her words. He didn’t like that she’d been targeted, but she handled it with ease.
“Two bullet holes in the wall?” Sheriff looked over to her.
“He got two off as I was ducking behind the counter. Those were the only two shots either of them had the chance to make,” she sighed. “This one came in through the front door. I figured he was one of those people who was too tired to realize we were closed and I was only a minute away from locking it. He made it clear he was here for me, so I grabbed my purse and stayed behind the counter until he came to me. I put two in his chest. They were dumb enough to not wear Kevlar.”
“Good, and the second one?” Sheriff stepped over the body and looked through the door to the kitchen. “I don’t see him.”
“He came in from the back, which I had stupidly forgotten to lock up,” Riley waved to them, so they would follow her. Zachary stepped over the corpse and avoided the blood pooling on the floor.
He saw where Riley stopped and looked down at the second body, standing in a tight group of all of them. Sheriff knelt and frowned.
“Did you move this one?” He seemed concerned.
“A little, I took their wallets.” Riley shrugged. “I had to make sure they were SHS and not just guys breaking in to fuck with me.”
<
br /> “Alright,” Sheriff sighed. “Can’t be helped now. This never happened. I’ll stop anyone from pressing charges and bury any evidence. If their families come looking, these guys are missing in the woods and this never happened. You have never seen these two men.”
“That easy, Sheriff?” Riley looked to him and Zachary groaned internally.
Riley and Sheriff had a strange relationship. She had known him for two years before they came back to town and he’d never told her that she was a half-breed shifter. Or that he was a Kodiak bear. She had been mad at him when she finally realized what he was, and the guys did their best to keep them apart after that.
Sheriff was overprotective of her (and every other young woman in Wild Junction) and mad about Isabella being her mother and not knowing. He claimed to be able to protect her as well, since he was technically the peace-keeper in town. They had been close, but it had been strained for a little while.
“That easy, Riley. I’ll bury them on my property. You all will help, of course.” Sheriff looked at Brenton, who nodded. “Now, kitten, let’s go look at their wallets.”
“Don’t call me that!” Riley’s exasperated voice echoed in the kitchen. Zachary held back a snort. Sheriff was teasing her, and she hated it. “I told you to stop months ago!”
“You have always been a kitten and will always be a kitten,” Sheriff just turned and walked back towards the front.
“Oh?” Zachary finally snorted in laughter. Zachary already knew about the nickname, but he wanted to know why she didn’t like it anymore.
“He called me that every time he saw me, before I found out. It was cute then.” Riley stomped off to follow Sheriff and Zachary looked to the guys. “It’s not now.”
“He still calls her a fucking kitten,” Troy howled with laughter. “Oh, no wonder she’s mad at him!”
Gabe was trying his best to hold it back, but Zachary knew that wouldn’t last. Brenton and Andrew were the only ones on track.
“Can we clean up my diner please?” Andrew sighed.
“Yes. We need to wrap the bodies and get them loaded into Sheriff’s pickup. But, you are going to be closed for at least a couple of days while we figure out if this is a single attack or if we have a Chapter gunning for us.” Brenton toed the body on the floor as he spoke.
Zachary hadn’t thought about that. Sometimes a Chapter of the SHS all focused their sights on a single target. Normally it was a shifter who had escaped them too often when they tried to hunt or screwed with them because they were hunters.
Having a Chapter come after them would make this into a bloodbath. If they won, the entire SHS would be looking at them as enemies, and a war would break out all over the country. If they lost… well, they would all be dead. They could run, create new identities, and hide, but then the pride would lose everything, and they couldn’t have that. It also wouldn’t work, since they were who they were.
“Let’s hope this was an isolated incident, “Zachary snarled.
“Sheriff! Give it back!” Riley’s voice called out. Zachary groaned and followed Brenton back to the front. Andrew, Troy, and Gabe got to work with the bodies, using trash bags to cover the one in the back.
A table cloth had been thrown over the one in the front, and Zachary chuckled at the scene in front of him.
Sheriff, who was nearly seven feet tall, was holding her little handgun over her head, and she was trying her best to reach it.
“Do you have the proper documentation for this, kitten?” Sheriff was smiling, and Zachary saw a glint in the older man’s eyes.
“Yes! It’s in my purse!” Riley hissed “And the safety is on, since I wasn’t actively using it! It wasn’t going to fire off a round at random while sitting on the counter.”
“When did you decide to start carrying a weapon, kitten?” Sheriff wagged a finger at her and then looked to Brenton and Zachary. “Something you all need to tell me? None of you have ever carried weapons.”
“We’ll talk on the way to your place, Sheriff.” Brenton was trying to avoid this talk. They never told Sheriff about the kidnapping, the attempt on Riley’s life, or Cameron’s dead body on their property. Sheriff didn’t like to meddle in feline-only affairs. He did want to know when bodies started dropping, though, and they didn’t want that conversation.
“No…” Sheriff growled. A bear growling is much different than a cat, and Sheriff was big enough to take on even Brenton and Zachary. Zachary was suddenly wary of Riley being right next to the over-protective bear. “I think it should happen right now, boys.”
They all looked at each other as Troy and Gabe carried the body from the back and out the front door. The brothers looked a bit worried and kept their mouths shut. Andrew was in the back, still, and the smell of bleach was filling all their noses. Andrew wouldn’t let blood stain his precious diner.
“Cameron Slater tried to kill Riley about six months ago,” Brenton hissed.
“And I fucking owned his dumb ass with a kitchen knife,” Riley growled, “but I decided that if people were going to try and shoot me, I needed to be able to shoot back.”
Sheriff growled louder.
“You nearly got killed and nobody told me!” He ended that in a roar. “There was a dead body in my town and you didn’t inform me?”
“It was in our kitchen,” Riley mumbled, looking a bit terrified. Zachary took a few steps to her and pulled her to him. “Which is, technically, outside the city limits.”
“She has a point, Sheriff,” Brenton’s hands were out, trying to be nonthreatening.
“I don’t care!” Sheriff was glaring at them. “You at least inform me you had a problem. People in this town could get hurt from the messes you fucking cats make. I am not telling you to bring me into your problems, but you let me know.”
“We know, we just were a bit… taken off guard by it. We handled it. The corpse is buried deep in the property and no one will ever find it.” Brenton held one hand out. “Can I have Riley’s gun? She gets a bit anxious without it.”
Sheriff was quiet for a long time before he handed the handgun over. Brenton immediately passed it over to Riley, who stuffed it into her purse.
“Get a proper holster,” Sheriff muttered. “If you get separated from your purse, you’ll still have your weapon on you. I can’t fucking believe this.”
Riley nodded and lowered her head in defeat. Zachary rubbed her back as she was chastised by the old bear.
Troy and Gabe came back in, silently wrapping the second body in trash bags.
“Gabe, wipe all the security tapes and make a physical copy that we’ll keep in the Riley safe.” Brenton looked over to the leopard, who nodded and left to the back office where he could get that done. Troy groaned as Brenton started helping him with the corpse.
Zachary rolled his eyes. The ‘Riley’ safe. Since there was so much going on with her, they had an entire safe in the basement dedicated to keeping her secrets. She knew about it, but only Brenton could open it. None of the rest of them knew the code for it, and there was a reason for that.
Sheriff raised an eyebrow.
“You have a safe dedicated to you?” He looked at Riley, who blushed as she nodded.
“Yeah, it seems having a sociopathic mother and needing to kill a crazy guy in our kitchen has gotten me my own safe.” She tried to smile it off. Brenton and Troy lifted the body and walked out with it. Zachary stayed glued to Riley’s side. He had promised her a long time ago that he would keep her safe, and he was going to do that.
“How wonderful,” Sheriff sighed. “Of all the things I had hoped for you living here in Wild Junction, this was not one of them.” He ran a hand through his coppery brown hair. “Do you at least have a nice boyfriend outside of this? Someone I need to meet and give a talking to? Something normal I can handle?”
Oh shit. Zachary looked away from Sheriff. They definitely never told him about that. And they had zero plans to. The bear would lose his shit. He had been happy to see Riley in the
pride with her own kind, but he wasn’t going to be okay with them all sleeping with her.
“Oh, no. No one you need to talk to,” Riley smiled. Zachary snorted. He couldn’t stop himself. It wasn’t technically a lie that Sheriff would be able to smell. And it evaded the line of questioning.
Sheriff looked between them and glowered.
“I hear rumors,” he pointed a finger at her. “Like you and Andrew,” who picked that moment to walk in the room, “being a little thing.” Andrew jerked to a stop and looked at the bear.”
“Sheriff,” Brenton called from the door, “leave her be. She’s twenty-four and we will keep her safe from any… bad guys. Pride problems, you know?”
Zachary snorted again. Yeah, they would keep her safe, since she wasn’t going outside the pride for any of those types of affections. She had everything she needed, and they all knew it. Andrew and Riley were just the most public, since they were always at the diner. Thank God, the other rumors were completely unsubstantiated, and no one listened to them. Those rumors were dirty and truer than anyone would have realized. They weren’t going to respond to those rumors because they couldn’t just come out and say, ‘Why yes, we are all in a relationship with Riley Stern. The sex is fantastic.’
“Fine! But the rumors…” Sheriff watched Andrew clean the floor. Andrew’s ears turned red. Riley smacked Sheriff on the arm.
“Are stupid rumors! You know better, Sheriff!” She gave him a pretty little glare and growl. Zachary left the diner before he got hard at the sight.
He took a deep breath of fresh air and patted Troy on the shoulder.
“How’s it going?”
“Fuck, Zachary, we can’t do this every six months.” Troy put his head on Sheriff’s pick up.
“I know, but it looks like we’ve got work to do. And we’ll make it work. This isn’t Riley’s fault.”
Wild Fire (The Kingson Pride Book 2) Page 3
