“He won’t hurt you,” King says. “What are you doing out here?”
“There was a shooting. Didn’t you hear it?” he says as he looks back at me and then at King again. “I was relieving myself just behind a tree when I heard the shots. There was no way I was going back there. I saw people being shot. Fuck, I think they’re dead.” I look over at King and see him incline his head, which tells me that he also thinks we have the wrong guy. Fuck, stepping around him, I head back into the woods before I try to listen to any nuances again. I know these woods like the back of my hand, every rock and every tree. If this guy is still here, I will find the motherfucker.
I run through the woods until I find the area where he was hiding. I can hear police sirens nearing. Someone must have called the police. I will continue looking until I find a lead. Only then will I return. I take in his scent and then slowly start following his scent. To my surprise, instead of moving away from the house, it is moving towards the house. Did this sick motherfucker go back to the house after the shootings? When I am a few feet to the clearing that leads to the house, I see Hawk walking towards me. Instead of his wolf form, he is in his human form, which tells me that he must have found something.
Changing back to my human form, I stand here naked before him; I left my clothes just a few metres away; therefore, if needed, I will get dressed before joining the others. “Did you find anything?”
“I followed the scent here like you just did, but the fucking cops are questioning everyone. If we come out of the woods, they are going to suspect us.”
“There are witnesses who saw me there when the shooting happened. We can say that we went looking for the shooter,” I say.
“Yeah, and how long are you going to be there while they find these witnesses, and in the meantime, the asshole who shot at us will be getting away.” Hawk has a point; we have no time to spare, because if the shooter leaves in a vehicle, it will be harder to track. I can feel Dakota’s distress, and it’s getting worse as time passes. Soon, I will have to go back even if just to appease her.
“Who the hell was he trying to shoot at, or was he meaning to be random?” Hawk asks with a raised brow.
“Don’t know, but I think I’m going to go check around the house but stay within the treeline so no one sees me,” I say, readying myself to change again.
“I’ve already done that; he didn’t come back into the woods, which means that he’s among everyone.” Well then, if he’s among the others, we need to be there to catch him, and I’m not going to leave my woman there with a fucking killer when I’m not around. Heading towards where I left my clothes, I stretch up and pull them down from where I hid them in the tree. Throughout the woods, we have had areas in trees where we have made places to keep clothes. Sometimes it is necessary to dress in a hurry. In this case, it’s my own clothes that I placed here. When I am fully dressed, I walk back to where Hawk is standing, looking at what is going on by the house.
“I’m going in,” I say when he looks over at me.
“Are you sure?” he asks with a raised brow.
“Don’t you think it’s easier for us to catch him now that we have his scent than stand here looking in, and also, there is no way I’m leaving Dakota there with a fucking killer.”
Hawk scratches his jaw before he nods. “Okay, I’m coming with you.” We both make our way towards the group of people standing outside with the police standing around them, their weapons at the ready.
“We really don’t need this shit on our doorstep. This is the last thing we need,” I mutter. Cops snooping around our woods is not a good idea. If they know what they are looking for, they will find evidence of wolves, and then they will find the hollows in the trees, and they will want to know what they are there for. We know that they will never suspect what we are, but wolves so close to town might be a problem for them.
“Just chill. The sooner they clear us, the sooner we can find this asshole,” Hawk says just as one of the cops sees us. He raises his weapon and starts running towards us. Idiot. Doesn’t he know that’s the fastest way of getting himself killed?
“Hands in the air,” he yells as he approaches. Hawk and I raise our hands and stop as not to excite him any more than he already seems to be.
“What were you doing in the woods?” he asks as he stops a few feet ahead of us, another two cops right behind him. Sure, because if I was the killer, I would definitely be telling him.
“We are from the Wolverine MC; this party was ours, so after the shooting, we went into the woods to try to find who was shooting at us.” One of them is now frisking me. Asshole. As if I was the shooter, I would bring the weapon here with me.
“Who else is with you?” the one asks as he looks behind us at the woods.
“No one,” Hawk replies.
“How do we know you two aren’t the shooters?” the one patting us down asks.
“You can ask the people at the party. Lots of them saw us before and just after the shooting,” I state. Where is Dakota? Is she still in our room? I can still feel her fear, but I can’t see her among the group. I see Fang on the far side, talking to a police officer, but Dakota isn’t with him.
“Don’t you worry, we will definitely follow up on your alibi,” one says as he steps back and then inclines his head behind him. “Now go join the others.”
I notice that the Hades MC guys who were here earlier are nowhere to be seen. I wonder if them being here was a distraction. We are making our way towards where Fang is standing when one of the police officers tells us to stand where we are.
“I can’t see Dakota,” I mutter.
“Where was she last?” Hawk asks as he also looks around. I see his nostrils flare, which tells me that he’s trying to scent her.
“I think she went to our room. Fang was to take her there. I told her to stay there until it was safe to come out.”
“Well, she’s more than likely still there. The police most probably haven’t been inside yet, or they would be asking us more questions than they just did.” Looking around, I can just imagine the questions that are going to be asked when they see our comms room. Only a select few in the police force know about our undercover work in this area. If they go snooping where they shouldn’t be snooping, our cover will be blown.
Just then, another car pulls up and the captain steps out. “We should get cleared faster now,” Hawk mutters. Looking at the captain, I see him looking around. His eyes fall on Fang, and then he approaches him. The captain is one of those who knows that we are undercover. He doesn’t know the full extent of our secrets, but he knows that we help him sometimes solve cases.