“Um, okay, I don’t think I want to hear anymore. Not that I’m not happy for you both. I am. I can’t tell you how much, but no detai
ls, okay?”
“Huh? Since when? When we were back home you liked a play by play. ”
“Yeah, well, we’re definitely not in Florida anymore. Have you agreed to mate with him?”
“No. Yes. Hell, I don’t know anymore. When I’m with him I know he’s exactly what I want, even though I never knew I wanted it. I’ve never been much for the D/s stuff, you know that. I’m still not, except…when I’m with Richard, he makes me want it. I want to please him and make him proud. I want to fulfill his needs, and I know that only I can do that. No one else knows him or cares about him like I do. No one else will put his pleasure first, even above their own. But I can’t walk away from my whole life, Tucker. What about my job? My parents? I don’t understand how you did it, though the thought of leaving Richard—never seeing him again makes me physically ill. I don’t think I can do it. ” He ran his hands through his hair. “Listen to me. I’m talking as if I’m actually considering this thing. The longer I’m here the more my brains are turning into mush!”
“Oh, come off it, Bryson. Is your life really so great in Florida? You’re not seeing anyone, and your parents have moved away. You work with a bunch of assholes. It’s not like you love your job so much anymore. Would it be so unthinkable to move here and start a new life with Richard?”
“Doing what? Sitting around and being his little pet? His fucking little sex toy?”
“Is that what you think I am?” Tucker frowned at him, bristling. “What you two do together behind closed doors is your business, but no one is asking you to be a toy. Plenty of us here have full lives and even careers now. I was even thinking about starting up my own private detective agency in town. I may have already done it by now if I hadn’t been hurt. You could do it with me, if you wanted to. It won’t be the same, of course. I’ll probably be doing a lot of pre-divorce work, like following cheating spouses around. Boring stuff, but maybe some missing person work, too. Who knows? Whatever I decide, it’s a choice I made, and I’ll live with it. There are no perfect lives, Bryson. We all make compromises for the people we love. ”
“There are so many unanswered questions. I have to know what all of this is about, Tucker. Are you finally ready to tell me what happened in Panama City? Were any of these people the killers? I have to know. Did Richard have anything to do with those murders?”
Kevin sat across from Tucker in his room, watching Tucker’s mouth drop open at the question. “No, I’ve told you. Why would you think Richard or any of the pack had anything to do with the murders?”
“A lot of reasons. Gavin was seen lurking around at least two of the crime scenes, and the whole holding you in his hotel room thing down in Florida when you first met. That’s what you told me then anyway. I don’t really know, and it’s driving me crazy. ” Kevin slumped down into his chair. “You used to be able to tell me anything,” he said quietly, waiting Tucker out. He was playing on Tucker’s emotions, trying to guilt him into telling him more about what the hell was going on. He knew from his time as Tucker’s partner that Tucker had to think things through in his own time. Rushing him or pumping him with questions never worked well, so he waited for him to get ready to talk. Finally, he looked up into Tucker’s eyes, and took a deep breath. “Won’t you tell me, Tucker? The killer we were looking for in Panama City? Did Richard or Gavin or any of the others have anything to do with killing those guys?”
Tucker leaned forward. “No. I swear to you they didn’t. I’ll try to explain, but you won’t believe me. ”
“Try me. ”
“Okay, here goes…you see, there was this group called the Hunters. They hated our pack and want to destroy us completely. They’d been kidnapping certain members of the family, the more vulnerable, weaker members, and shooting them up with a potentially lethal cocktail of drugs. Really crazy stuff. A mixture of methamphetamines, growth hormone, and God knows what all. It works with our body chemistry to make us…not ourselves. It makes us wild and puts us in a rage. Basically, it turns us into killers. That’s what was killing those people in Florida, Kevin, and Gavin and his men were there to try to stop it. ”
“Why didn’t they come to the police then, and tell us what they knew? You can’t just withhold information in a murder investigation, Tucker. You know better than that. ”
“I know, but at the time they didn’t know what was causing it. I mean, they’d seen the end results, of course, but they didn’t know who was behind it. They thought the Hunters had been eradicated. They had no idea that a new leader had taken over, one even crazier and more deadly than the first leader. Look, it’s complicated, but the bastard kidnapped me right after my ceremony with Gavin. Me and the mate of another alpha leader in a neighboring pack. Between us we managed to get away, but he almost got me, Kevin. I barely survived. ”
Kevin stared at him, unable to believe most of what he was hearing. “You know how this sounds, don’t you, Tuck? Alphas and hunters…. you sound as crazy as the rest of the people around here. They really have converted you, haven’t they?”
“Oh shut up, Kevin!” Tucker jumped to his feet and leaned across the table. “This refrain of yours is beginning to get old to me too. You asked and I told you. I also warned you that you wouldn’t believe me. I’m tired of having to defend our way of life and who we are. You came to us, remember. If you can’t even believe me when I’m telling you the truth—”
“Okay, okay, settle down. Maybe if somebody told me what the hell was going on sometimes…but you have to admit this shit is hard to believe. ” Kevin put up both hands in defense. “Sorry. I’m listening. If you say this happened, then I’ll believe you, no matter how crazy it sounds. So let me get this straight. These guys, these hunters, hate your family and want to destroy them. They thought that by kidnapping some of the family members and using drugs to turn them into killers, then…what? You lost me on that part. ”
“We’re not sure,” Tucker shook his head. “It could have been to discredit us in the area. That’s what Gavin thinks. We have a huge family, spread out over Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. Not to mention our extended family and families of the um…people who are kind of adopted into our family. Like you will be. ”
Kevin pressed his lips together and nodded shortly. “Me? That remains to be seen, but go ahead. ”
“Well, that makes a huge network. We hear things that could be a threat to us from the people in that network. That’s how we knew you were in town, for example. So if the Hunters could spread fear and mistrust of those of us who live in the compound and even those who live in town, think of how that would undermine us. People would be less willing to protect us and tell us things. They could even go to the authorities and then…”
“Then people like me would be getting assimilated all over the place. Or the villagers would come here in a mob with torches to burn you out, like in the Frankenstein movies?”
Tucker smiled. “Something like that. Anyway, that’s one of the theories we’re working with. The other is that the guy running the group is just bat-shit crazy. He says he’s the illegitimate son of the old leader, and he’s brilliant but fucked up, you know? So far he’s responsible for the confirmed deaths of at least two members of the pack, with more missing. Not to mention the people in Florida whose deaths he caused. ”
Kevin nodded somberly. “So where is this guy?”
“We don’t know. He got away at the hospital the day we were rescued in all the confusion. We think he left the area, at least for a while, but no one is sure. That’s one reason why everyone is jumpy and Gavin has those body guards. Our pack has been doing that for a while now, since before I came, protecting our alpha, and the other packs are doing it now too since we know the Hunters might still be out there. ”
“This place is like Fort Knox, with all the fences and alarms, steel mesh on the windows. I said that the first time I saw it. Why are you still so afraid?”
“We have over four hundred acres here and the North Carolina pack has even more. We can’t possibly defend the woods as well as we’d like, though we do have frequent patrols. Besides, there’s something going on here, Kevin, that I can’t quite put my finger on. I can feel it. ”
Kevin nodded. He had a healthy respect for Tucker’s instincts. That weird sixth sense of his had saved both their butts on several occasions in the past.
“I’ve expressed my concerns to Gavin and to Richard, but they don’t take it seriously. There’s something about Gavin’s private guard…”