Jesus, that was something I didn’t fucking need. Especially with the Albanians breathing down my neck already. What a mess.
“Catalog everything you can and make sure Richie knows about this. See what he can sniff out himself.”
John nodded.
“I’m assuming they emptied them?” I asked, knowing he would understand what I meant. Haven PD wasn’t the only one on the scene, and none of the state police were ours.
“Everything’s gone,” he confirmed. “Whoever pulled off this hit knew where they’d be.”
“They couldn’t have known the run,” I growled. “That shit was locked up tighter than a virgin’s ass. Also, this stretch of highway can be seen for miles in either direction. They would have known if someone was following them.”
“So how’d they do it?” John wondered, his gaze sweeping out over the valley.
“That’s what I’m going to fucking find out.”
“Church,” I called as I strode through the doors of the compound, my boots heavy on the ground. My men scrambled up from their positions. Most of them shoved the club girls to the side before tucking themselves back into their pants. It wasn’t an uncommon scene. Most of my men were unmated, and the club girls, known as foxes, were there to entertain and take the stress off their shoulders. When I called Church, however, they knew better than to let their dicks take priority.
Hunter was on my heels, his scent reeking of one of the foxes, Teila. She was a bombshell of a woman with perky tits and platinum blond hair. We’d shared her a few times, and she was a good fuck, but the woman was on a whole new level when it came to clinginess. Most of the foxes knew they were just there for sex. We’d never make them our old ladies, but Teila was deluded, believing that was exactly what one of us would make her.
“I thought we agreed to drop her,” I mumbled as we stepped into the large room designated for business. We called it Church, a holy place where our greatest decisions were made. Only patched members were allowed within those sacred doors, and what business went on behind them stayed behind them.
“Didn’t fuck her,” he sneered. “Damn woman cornered me.”
That would explain why he reeked of desperation but not sex.
“She’s getting too ballsy,” I snarled. “Have Riah give her a talking-to. She keeps this up, and she’s out.” Mariah was our longest-standing fox. She was a sweet girl. When we’d taken on more members and more club girls, Hunter and I had given her the title of den mother. Someone needed to keep the foxes in line, and she was just the one to do it.
Hunter nodded as he sat on my right-hand side. We’d started this chapter together from scratch, slowly building our reputation and power in the small town of Haven, Washington. It was nestled near the Olympic Peninsula. A place steeped inlore and tradition. Most of the world was blind to the existence of shifters, but there were those who knew. Some allies. Others enemies.
We’d established Haven as just that. A haven for persecuted shifters. Specifically, ones like Hunter. A half-breed. Half shifter and half human. There were sectors of shifters in the world full of purebred bigots. Assholes who looked down their noses at wolves like Hunter. Then there were the shifters who used wolves like Hunter as assassins. Trained them to hunt and kill. My friend had been born to do just that.
He rarely spoke about his past, but I knew it was dark and full of torment. His first action as a trained assassin had been to kill his parents. Only then was he put up for bid. I was infiltrating the slave ring for my father when he’d first been put up for bid. His eyes had held something I recognized. A penchant for darkness but also pain and sadness so deep that it was nearly drowning him.
They might have thought they had broken him, but the only thing they had done was light a fire in him. Vengeance had been swift for those who had enslaved him. We hadn’t gotten them all. The men who’d taken him and his family from their home were still out there, but no one knew where. Hunter remembered very little about where he was born, just that it held a darkness no one should ever know.
It was only a matter of time before we found them.
“Church is in session.” I banged the gavel once, signaling the start. The room quieted as my men looked to me, waiting for news. “Four of the Pharaohs were gunned down on their way to deliver our arms.”
“Shit,” Tank, our enforcer, snarled. “How the fuck did that happen? Those plans were secure.”
The men at the table voiced their agreement. It shouldn’t have happened; they were right. What’s worse is that we had a rat. We just had to figure out whose club had a snitch.
“I take it from the look on your face that they didn’t make it.” He scowled.
“Not one,” I told them. “They were gunned down and then shot with silver bullets straight to the head.” There was no coming back from that.
“Dammit,” Hunter growled. “I’ll call Rooster when we’re done here. Let him know about his boys.” I nodded.
“There’s something else off about it, too,” I continued to relay the information I’d gotten from the scene. Or lack thereof.
“There is no way normal shifters did that shit.” Gunner shook his head. “That shit stinks of fucking voodoo to me. Maybe some kind of concealment charm.”
He would be the expert. Gunner came from a long line of voodoo shamans.
“I can talk to my aunt and see if she knows of anything that could conceal a wolf’s scent like that.”
“Do that,” I agreed. “Until we know what we’re dealing with, we’ll do air drops.” I turned to face Pilot. “Make sure the plane is fueled and ready at all times. I’ll send a few extra men to the hangar just in case.”