Chapter 2 #2
I floor it, engine roaring as we close the distance.
The BMW driver sees us coming in his rearview, tries to speed up, but I’m already swinging around, cutting him off at the next intersection so he can’t follow Cindy.
He has two choices: stop or ram my truck.
Given that my truck would destroy his BMW, he stops.
“You know what to do,” I tell Arrow.
He’s already hanging out the window, megaphone in hand. “Good evening, Gentlemen! Seems you’re lost. This road? It doesn’t go where you think it does.”
The BMW’s window rolls down. I can’t see clearly, but I hear the voice, some entitled prick who sounds like he was born with a silver spoon surgically attached.
“We’re just driving?—”
“Wrong answer!” Arrow cheerfully interrupts through the megaphone, the sound echoing off the houses. “See, you were following that Honda. We were following you following that Honda. It’s like a really boring parade where everyone’s invited except you.”
Luke laughs from the back seat. “Arrow’s having too much fun with that thing.”
“Here’s what’s gonna happen,” Arrow continues, still using the megaphone even though we’re maybe ten feet away. “You’re gonna follow us. We’re gonna show you the scenic route out of town. The one that ends with you nowhere near here.”
The passenger door of the BMW opens. A guy built like a refrigerator starts to get out.
I’m out of my truck before he’s fully standing, and the look on his face when I tower over him is almost worth the entire night.
“Get back in the car,” I say quietly.
“You can’t just?—”
“I can. I am. I will continue to. Get. Back. In. The car.”
Luke is out now too, casually tossing his keys in the air and catching them, each toss making the heavy keychain, weighted with a brass knuckle attachment, glint in the streetlight. “Man, I love it when they think about fighting. Makes the whole thing more fun when they realize they can’t win.”
Arrow is still hanging out the window with the megaphone. “Folks, we’re experiencing technical difficulties with our guests’ ability to follow simple directions. Please stand by.”
“Do we really need the megaphone?” Luke asks.
“Oh, we definitely do,” Arrow answers, grinning as he raises it again. “IT REALLY ADDS TO THE AMBIENCE.”
Refrigerator Guy glances between us, clearly doing the math, and when he gets back into the car, it’s obvious he doesn’t like the outcome.
“Smart man!” Arrow calls out through the megaphone. “Now follow us. Don’t think about turning off. Don’t think about running. Just follow like good little ducklings.”
We climb into the truck, and I lead them through town at exactly the speed limit.
We pass the elementary school, which is covered in paper bats, the library with a massive spider on the roof, and the fire station, where one of the trucks has its ladder raised like a dragon’s neck, with a painted dragon head at the top.
Arrow provides commentary the entire way. “Take a left here. Oh, look, you’re following! Good boys. Now a right. Still with us? Excellent.”
“You’re enjoying this too much,” Luke adds.
“Fuck yeah, I am,” Arrow corrects, lowering the megaphone from his mouth. “We haven’t had fun like this in months. Remember that dealer who tried to set up shop behind our restaurant? This is way better than that.”
“That ended with him in the hospital,” I point out.
“Yeah, but he walked again. Eventually. I think,” Luke says.
The backstreets of Whispering Grove are our territory. Every shortcut, every dead end, every road that looks like it goes somewhere but doesn’t, we know them all. The BMW follows because what else can they do? They’re strangers in our town, and we’ve made it clear that leaving is their only option.
Finally, we reach the river port. It’s not much, a boat launch that’s seen better days, a parking area covered in gravel, and the river itself, dark and swift and about forty feet wide. Someone has even put up Halloween decorations here of a skeleton sitting on the dock with a fishing pole.
I stop the truck. The BMW pauses behind us.
“This is the best part,” Luke says, practically bouncing.
We all climb out. The BMW guys do too, and now I can see them clearly. Refrigerator and Van, who’s trying to look tough but failing.
Arrow raises the megaphone one more time. “Welcome to the Whispering Grove Port Authority. Population: You’re leaving.”
“This is fucking kidnapping,” Van protests.
“Nope, these are directions,” I correct. “You wanted to know where our friend lives. Well, she lives in a town where you’re not welcome. This river? It goes all the way to Wild Falls. You can follow it, find your way back to wherever you crawled out from.”
“I wasn’t paid for this bullshit,” Refrigerator mutters, eyes flicking between Van and us.
Van’s face is glowing red, jaw tight enough to crack bone. “Shut the fuck up,” he snaps, lifting his chin toward me like I’m something he already owns. “She belongs to me. My family paid— invested —for her. The arrangements, the contracts?—”
“I don’t give a fuck about your blood money,” Arrow cuts in, his voice low now, lethal. He finally lowers the megaphone and takes a step closer. “She belongs to herself. And if you’ve got a problem with that, say the word. Let’s settle it right here.”
He cracks his neck like he hopes Van says yes.
Van opens his mouth, but Refrigerator holds out an arm, trying to contain the explosion. “You don’t know who you’re messing with. The Stone family has connections?—”
“So do we,” I say, stepping forward. My voice is calm, too calm. Because for a moment, I let them all see the man I used to be.
The one who bled for the Savage Reapers that I ran.
The one who made monsters flinch.
The one Van has no idea how to handle.
“We built our connections with fists and blood and fear,” I say. “You want to know what happened to the last guy who threatened someone under our protection?”
Silence.
“Exactly,” Luke chimes in with a cheerful smile. “Because no one ever found him. Funny how that works.”
The Savage Reapers might be behind us, but the instincts never left. We walked away from the violence.
But for Cindy? An Omega in trouble.
For our scent match?
We’ll drag hell up by its throat if we have to.
Van’s lip curls. “You think this ends here?”
“I think you should start moving before it does,” Arrow adds.
For a beat, no one moves. Just the rush of the river behind them and the heavy breathing of too many men itching to draw blood.
Then Van finally steps back, slow and reluctant, eyes burning into me like he’s carving a promise into my skin. “You can’t be serious about swimming out of here?”
“Oh, I’m dead serious.” Luke grins. “Hope you stretched first. The current’s a bitch this time of night.”
Refrigerator takes a step forward. “You can’t make us?—”
Arrow moves fast, not violently, but with purpose. He doesn’t touch Refrigerator, just steps into his space, crowding him. Something in Arrow’s eyes remains calm, calculating, deadly and has the bigger man stumbling backward.
“We used to do this professionally,” Arrow explains, voice almost friendly. “Hurt people, I mean. Got real good at it. Bones, nerves, pressure points. All that fun anatomy stuff.”
He smiles like they’re swapping recipes, not threats.
“Been trying to retire. Live quiet lives. But you? You’re making us nostalgic for the old days when problems got solved once… permanently.”
Refrigerator swallows hard, his face paling as he flicks a nervous glance at Van, who has Luke staring him down.
“So what’s it gonna be?” I ask, stepping up beside Arrow. “You take the river voluntarily, or we send you back in pieces with a message carved into your back for the Stone family.”
Van’s nostrils flare, fury simmering just beneath the surface. He doesn’t move, but the way his jaw clenches says everything.
“This is insane,” Refrigerator mutters, staring at the river. “It’s October. That water’s freezing.”
“Better cold than dead,” Arrow says, cracking his knuckles.
“You wouldn’t actually—” Refrigerator starts.
I take three slow steps forward, Luke following suit, driving Van closer to his buddy, closer to the pier’s edge. That’s all. Three steps, and both men start backing up like the ground has shifted beneath them.
“You touch me,” Van growls, “and I swear to God?—”
“You’ll what ?” Luke cuts in, stepping out of the shadows with a grin that doesn’t reach his eyes. “Call your daddy? Cry about it to your contract lawyer?”
Refrigerator shifts uncomfortably. “Van… we’re outnumbered.”
Van’s glare burns into each of us, jaw clenched, body coiled like he’s one second away from snapping. “Fuck you,” he spits, voice low and venomous. “All of you. This isn’t over.”
“We’re counting on that,” Arrow says coolly.
Refrigerator exhales through his nose, clearly not thrilled with the situation. “Seriously?” he mutters to Van, barely audible. “We’re swimming ?”
Van growls, then jerks his head toward the river. “Move.”
Refrigerator mutters something under his breath but follows. They both stomp into the water, splashing and cursing as the cold hits them.
“Shit! This is freezing!” Refrigerator barks. “My balls are gonna sue.”
“Ten bucks says Van drowns just to spite us,” Luke says, filming with one hand, grinning like it’s a nature documentary.
“I give them five minutes before the river decides to do us a favor,” Arrow adds.
We stand at the edge, watching as the current takes them.
Van doesn’t look back.
Refrigerator slips once, swears loudly, and keeps going.
They vanish around the bend, two dark shapes pulled into the black water, swallowed by the current and the night.
They’re gone.
Cold. Humiliated. Furious.
Van won’t forget.
But neither will we.
We stand there, silence stretching as the river swallows the last of Van and his hired muscle.
Then I laugh.
It catches me off guard, a sharp, unfiltered, and real chuckle. It bubbles up from somewhere buried, the kind of laugh I haven’t had in years.
Luke glances over. “What?”
I shake my head, still grinning. “We just ran two guys out of town like something out of an old Western. For a girl we met less than an hour ago .”
“A girl who most likely is our scent match,” Arrow corrects, his voice quieter now. More certain. “That’s worth a little river enforcement.”
“A little?” I raise a brow. “We just made them swim to another jurisdiction.”
“Yeah, well.” Luke shrugs. “Wait until Van shows up again. That’s when things will get really interesting.”
“He’ll definitely come back,” I add, the weight of that settling into my chest. “Guys like him always do.”
Arrow doesn’t flinch. “Good. Been too long since we had a real problem to solve,” Arrow mutters like he’s looking forward to it.
“No killing,” I say, half joking, half praying.
Luke chuckles, finally lowering his phone. “You know we can’t help it. You put wolves in the wild, they act wild.”
Arrow glances behind us. “What do we do about the car?”
I follow his gaze to the sleek BMW Van rolled up in. Expensive. Flashy. Loud in every way a predator shouldn’t be.
“Shove it into the river,” I say.
Arrow doesn’t hesitate. “On it.”
Luke grins.
They move like they’ve done this before, because we have.
Arrow yanks the driver’s door open, leans in just far enough to throw it into neutral, and then plants a shoulder against the side to push, while Luke lines up at the rear bumper and does the same.
Their muscles strain as tires crunch over gravel and roots.
I just stand there and watch, arms crossed, the wind tugging at my shirt, the river still churning from its last offering.
The front wheels hit the slope, and the car picks up speed. Gravity takes over. The river doesn’t resist but welcomes the offering with a hungry splash as the car plunges in nose-first, water rushing in like blood to an open wound.
It rocks once. Twice. Then starts to drift, the headlights flickering beneath the surface like dying stars before they give out, and the whole thing starts to sink.
The car vanishes beneath the surface. No splash. No drama. Just… gone.
Like it never existed.
Like we didn’t just start a war.
Luke claps his hands. “Well, I’m starving. We just committed at least three misdemeanors and a probable felony. That calls for snacks.”
Arrow snorts. “What’s that make us? Grand Theft Auto and Chill?”
“Illegal dumping,” Luke corrects and chuckles. “Very romantic.”
I ignore them as my eyes sweep the dock one last time.
No cameras. No dockmaster. No late-night fishermen. Just a sagging boathouse, peeling signs, and weeds cracking through the asphalt.
Nothing but shadows and silence.
I glance behind us again. Empty. Not even a stray cat.
Perfect.
“So what now?” Arrow asks. “We find her?”
“I already got her friend’s license plate,” I say. “Old sedan, cracked taillight. Won’t be hard.”
Luke raises a brow. “You memorized that in the middle of everything?”
“I was busy,” I mutter. “But not blind.”
I step away from the water, the cold finally starting to sink into my bones.
“We find her. Keep watch. Quietly. She doesn’t need more fear in her life right now. And she sure as hell doesn’t need us barreling in like monsters.”
“And when Van comes back?” Luke asks, voice darkening.
Arrow nods. “Then we meet him. And this time, we don’t ask nicely.”
The wind shifts. The current pulls. The river hides our crimes like it was made for us.
“She doesn’t know what’s coming,” Luke says after a moment.
I look toward the road ahead. Toward the town where the girl who walked into our lives like a warning is.
“No,” I say quietly. “But we’ll make damn sure she survives it.”