Chapter 26
Bear
C arl’s house turned up a big fat zilch. KC and I were thorough. We planted a couple of miniature cameras and motion detectors. I checked the hidden stash point behind his toilet that Rose mentioned. Empty . The computer he used to spy on the neighbors? Gone . No vehicles, nothing.
In an act of sheer spite, I ran my muddy boot across his rug.
The mark I left was simple. It was a zig-zagged lightning bolt.
In runic symbolism, it said, “see you on the dark side.” That was an invitation to escalate.
He’d know who made it. And since the mud came from his own backyard, no nosy cop could prove it was me.
KC stopped by the back door. He ran a finger down the scratched surface. “ That’s odd.”
“ What ?”
He stopped with an index finger touching the bottom row of marks. There were twenty in total. “ I could have sworn there were only three rows of five and that odd first row. Now there’s four more. Carl’s so weird.” He shrugged and led the way out.
The neighbor hadn’t replaced their dog yet. Which meant Carl had to have been spotted recently. I stomped over to their backyard and hammered on the door. A kid answered and promptly shut it. Like that could keep me out if I wanted it. “ Is a parent or adult home?”
“ Not talking to you.”
Fuck . Smart kid. “ Listen , I just want to know if you’ve seen your neighbor recently?”
Silence .
“ Dude , you scared the shit out of him.”
“ Did not.” But I probably did. “ You try.”
KC knocked like a normal person. “ You don’t have to open the door, just say yes or no. Have you seen that weird guy next door in the last two days?”
“ No !”
“ In the last week?”
“ Maybe ?”
KC shot me a look. He was getting farther than I was, so I gave him the lead.
“ Okay . What about in the last two weeks?”
“ Yeah .”
“ Thanks kid. That’s all I needed.”
I bugged my eyes out at him. He was letting him off too easy. That little bastard knew things. I could feel it.
KC crowded me down the steps. I caught myself on the railing and stomped on the plywood someone laid at the bottom. “ Don’t fucking push me, I’ll? —”
The door cracked open slightly. Through the screen, the kid eyeballed me, then KC . “ Did you find any bodies inside the house?” he asked with a tentative finger toward Carl’s house.
That took KC by surprise. But I’d searched the basement for that very thing. It was too fucking clean if you ask me. “ Nope . Bet he bleached the place before we got there.”
The kid’s eyes went wide. “ I think he did. He kills people, you know?”
KC sent me a warning with a finger raised behind his back. “ People ?” he asked more nicely than I ever could.
“ Yeah . He had a girl there. She’s gone. And he killed our dog.”
Figured as much . “ The girl’s fine. She’s with me.”
He breathed a visible sigh of relief. His little shoulders slumped with it. “ Good . She was nice to me. I thought for sure he was going to slit her throat or something.”
That wasn’t Carl’s style.
“ Who else did he kill?”
KC shushed me, but the kid answered anyway. “ The mail lady. She used to bring mom’s checks to the door. But one day she talked to Carl and he got angry. Then the next day? Gone .” He ran a finger across his throat.
“ She could have retired or something,” KC said.
“ No man, you don’t know. He makes people disappear.” The kid looked around nervously, then slammed the door shut. The click of a deadbolt sounded first, then the snick of the handle lock.
“ That was enlightening.” Not .
KC wasn’t as convinced. “ Maybe we should go back in?” He did not want to. The hesitant way his eyes scanned the top windows of the house was a sure sign of fear.
A part of me had to admit there was a reason to be afraid.
We’d scanned the neighborhood. Most of the houses had meager Halloween decorations planted randomly.
Like a Jack -o-lantern on a front step, paper decorations taped inside of windows, some fake spiderwebs, but Carl’s house was pristine.
It stood apart. Almost as if just the house itself was spooky enough to creep anyone out so it didn’t need decorating.
“ I don’t like this,” he muttered.
Neither did I . He’d broken into my house, so I broke into his. Just for payback. An eye for an eye, break in for break in. Even though we’d met no resistance, my spine was crawling with warnings.
I put on a brave front and motioned at KC . “ We did what we came to do. Let’s go.”
Once we got back to the clubhouse, Hammer caught me at the bar. “ Fin’s looking for you.”
“ He’s here?”
The prospect nodded. “ Out back. He’s shooting the shit with Jackson .”
The man hated being trapped indoors. Strange as hell, but since he’d done his years, we put up with the quirks. I slipped out the back door by the kitchen.
Jackson’s wicked laughter flitted from the shadows. I followed it to find them sharing a joint. I wiggled my fingers for a hit. Once I had it between my fingertips, I inhaled deeply.
“ Save some for the rest of us.” I lifted my middle finger to tell them to wait their turn.
I sucked in a bite of air before handing it back.
My lungs protested, but I stifled the coughing fit until I caught that first rush of tingling at the tip of my nose which meant the weed was working.
I let go of the breath, blowing a light trail of smoke into the sky.
“ There you go, Odin .” I coughed. “ Is that dirt weed?” It was harsher than our shit.
Fin shrugged. “ It came from Snake’s old patch.”
Jackson coughed his hit out. “ I thought you burned that shit down.”
“ I did. It grew back. Kid saw it and started messing with the tops. That got his woman all pissy, and she took over. It ain’t all bad now.”
“ I like her chili better than this.” I passed the joint to Fin without hitting it.
Despite the taste, the high slammed into me hard.
It was one of those fuzzy kinds of buzzes that made you feel like you stood sideways.
I almost wussed out and sat on the nearest junked car but stayed standing, barely. “ What brought you north?”
Fin held up a finger to let me know he’d tell me as soon as he was done holding his breath. He let a little smoke leak out as he squeaked out, “ Brought your woman’s knife.” He coughed and a cloud of smoke came with it.
He offered the nub to Jackson .
“ Pass .”
Fin snubbed it out between his fingers. Then got down to business. “ I brought the truck. Betty Jo insisted I bring another box of clothes up with it. Damn woman.”
Jackson tipped his head at the club. “ You know, you’re always welcome to?—”
“ Fuck off. My wife might be a bitch, but she’s my bitch and I wouldn’t have it any other way. You know that.” He punched Jackson in the chest and said Kate’s name as he did.
Luckily , he pulled it.
Jackson laughed. “ Fuck . I know the feeling.”
“ Everything okay?” They’d just gotten married. I’d hate to think he was getting the itch already.
The smirk on Jackson’s face wasn’t comforting. “ Ain’t had time or opportunity to bust a decent nut is all. Maybe … Can Zoe sleep at your house for a night or two?”
“ Jesus , man, I ain’t a fucking hotel or a babysitter.”
“ I hear you were. Your woman had her hands full with four kids the other night, and you pitched right in. D’you and her have a secret you’re not telling us?” Fin’s bushy eyebrow went up with speculation.
“ How in the fuck did you hear about that?”
Jackson chuckled.
Right . That asshole told him. Probably thought it was hilarious. “ They ain’t hers. They’re her best friend’s.”
“ Crotch goblins.” Fin shuddered.
“ Could you imagine kids with Betty Jo ?” Jackson asked the air, but probably didn’t mean to include Fin .
“ They’d have murdered someone before they turned twelve,” I said.
Fin laughed. “ Damn straight they would have. And I’d’ve hid the bodies.” A rare smile crossed his face. But it fell. “ Speaking of bodies, Demons ?”
Ah , yes. He kept abreast of the goings on, especially if it involved clubs inside our territory. “ Thirty of ’em sniffing around. They also got that bitch-ass club of punks from West Chester riding with them.”
“ Fifty -eight then.” He turned to Jackson , “ How’s ‘ Burgh . Still giving you shit?”
“ Bandit rode with me on the trip last month. It’s all good.” Jackson sounded convincing.
However , Fin stared at him for too long. “ You know it ain’t.”
“ That’s my problem, old man.”
“ Just saying.” Fin brushed at his dirty jeans. He may look like he was giving up on the topic, but he had a serious hard-on about protecting territory, and we all knew it.
Jackson couldn’t let it go. “ No , ya weren’t. You were meddling.”
“ I’m too old to meddle,” Fin shot back.
“ Bullshit .” Jackson beat me to it, but mine echoed on its heels.
That’s when Jackson finally let it go. “ Let’s see that knife. I’m curious what a one-thousand-dollar blade looks like.”
“ How in the hell do you know how much I —” Oh , right. Kate . Or Zoe . “ Your women, I swear.”
“ Better watch yourself. Yours seems like a ringleader.” He nudged Fin . “ Sierra’s got competition.” Then he winked.
Fin laughed. “ Ain’t no competition. Betty Jo already declared a winner.” He strode toward his truck as we joked around. But he couldn’t just leave it hanging there, could he?
Jackson and I traded glances. Who was going to ask first? I doubted either of us wanted to know the truth.
Fin pulled out a plastic bin filled to the brim with black fabric and shiny shit. “ I didn’t buy that.”
He glanced up. “ Not yet.”
Fuck my life.
Fin popped the lid. On top was a Ziplock bag filled with jewelry. Most of it was silver. There were stones of all colors and sizes embedded in rings, necklaces, and even a fragile-looking crown. He shifted that to the side and dug out a long package wrapped in a hide. “ Here it is.”
He unrolled the bundle, and the jeweled scabbard winked in the moonlight.
Jackson whistled. “ Damn .”
Fin tipped his head, accepting the appreciation. “ Wait ’til you see the blade.”