Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
Warrick whistled as he made his way down to the kitchen, his steps light, as if he were walking on air. He’d made great progress with Milo, his mate, coming to nap with him every day on the deck for the last week.
He’d touched Milo a great deal more too. Casual touches: a hand on his arm, a brush to the back of his neck as Milo walked by, their legs pressing together when they sat on the couch to watch a movie.
He hadn’t felt so lighthearted in… probably most of his life. He generally wasn’t a lighthearted guy. But Milo made him happy, and Milo being able to relax and trust him made him exceptionally happy.
War got to the kitchen, heading straight for the coffee maker to put in a pod so he could have an instant cup of coffee. He had a French press when he wanted a really good cup, but he also had a good pod maker. It was one of those fancy ones where he could recycle the aluminum cup things.
He glanced out the kitchen window as he made coffee, and he froze when he saw someone out there in the clearing just before the trees started. It wasn’t Milo; whoever it was, was way too big.
War called to his brothers with his mental voice. I have a visitor. I have to believe it’s not friendly.
Rye answered immediately. I’m on my way. Where are they?
In my clearing just before the forest starts to get up again on the way to the mountains.
Toward Con’s cabin or away from it?
That would be good to know since I’m going to be coming from my cabin, Con added.
Off to the other side. Connal’s cabin was the farthest one out because he had tons of weird metalworking stuff and he needed extra land for all of his statues and art.
Warrick’s sat cattywampus to Rye’s and Con’s, their cabins actually forming something of a triangle not a straight line, so he had access to the forest almost the same way Con did.
He stood to one side so whoever was out there couldn’t see him and watched them trying to make their way to the cabin in a stealthy manner. Whoever they were, they looked more like a movie actor trying to be a stealthy spy than a real person of any skill.
Stay upstairs, Milo, he called out mentally. We have company, and I don’t want you to get caught in the crossfire.
I have a rifle. I can always shoot him.
War blinked, trying not to get distracted. Where did you get a rifle?
Race gave it to me right after we got here.
Hold your fire unless I say so. Connal and Rye are both on their way.
Heard.
God knew he didn’t want his mate to shoot his brothers. Bad enough everyone was putting themselves in danger to come help him with whatever the situation was.
I can see him from the window.
Keep him in your sight, but don’t let him see you. I’m going to go outside to try to cut him off.
He could feel Milo’s sudden, deep worry. Be safe. Don’t take any chances. He might be waiting to dart you.
War had to admit that was a distinct possibility.
When they had rescued Milo’s brother Nolan a while back, Race had come to see his brother, and he’d ended up getting darted out in the yard of Ryder’s house.
The drug had contained not only a sleeping agent but an anti-shifting one.
He always believed in taking the fight to somebody who thought they were being sneaky.
Never monologue. He’d learned that from watching their wolf friend Quinn play bouncer at his bar. Just act.
So, he slipped out the front door of the house so he could work his way unseen around the back. He had no intention of allowing anyone to harm his mate, his brothers, or their mates.
War it could feel it, though, when Ryder and Conall approached from two different directions, he would know they were there by vibrations alone, but he could also scent them.
Whatever this guy was, War didn’t think he had a whole lot of scent receptors, so if he was a shifter he wasn’t a canine or a bear.
From the looks and the smell of him now that the wind was coming from the man’s direction, Warrick thought he was nearly human. And that meant he was making a huge mistake coming into this bear’s den.
He caught a glimpse of Ryder out on the corner of his left eye and he made a signal to tell Ryder to go around and flank the man. Rye disappeared into the trees and he had a feeling his brother had shifted because he blended very well with his brown and gold fur.
Connal would figure out his own way. He always did, and giving that brother orders only resulted in scenes of unimaginable violence or messes. Con had a bit of an impulse control problem…
They converged on the guy in minutes. Rye was in his bear form. Con had a shotgun. And Warrick was just ready to rip the guy’s head off and shit down his neck.
The man stopped dead in his tracks once they surrounded him, hands in the air. He wore a holster across his chest, with an automatic pistol tucked into it. There was no way he was lost or out here by accident.
“Who the fuck are you, and what do you want?”
“I was looking for the Price brothers.”
Well, that was… surprisingly honest. He had to admit, that caught him flatfooted.
“That answers one half of his questions.” Con pointed the shotgun right at the guy’s nose.
“Hey! Hey, I don’t want to hurt anyone. I have some information, and I didn’t feel safe going to the Hogg. I’m just an ex-cop on my way out of town.”
Okay. The guy knew about Quinn’s bar. And that they were associated with Quinn.
“Why ex-cop?” War snapped.
“Because my partner set me up to take a fall with some very ugly smugglers. I’m not crooked. He is. And I can’t fight shifters. So, I’m going somewhere I can disappear. But I have intel on who runs the ring who took your bear to begin with.”
What’s he saying? Milo sounded… angry rather than scared. Which was good.
That he’s a human police officer who has information about the top of the food chain in the smuggling ring. He’s about to run to stay alive, according to him, so he didn’t want to go to the Hogg.
Then bring him in and let him tell us about it, and if he’s lying we kill him.
Damn. His little black bear was bloodthirsty. Not that Warrick blamed him. He’d been through some shit.
Fair enough. I want you to stay upstairs though. I don’t want him to see you just in case. You can listen in, but don’t let him catch sight of you.
I’ll be waiting in case you need backup.
God, his mate was so brave, and he knew Milo was his mate. There was no doubt about it.
Which made it all the more important for him to protect Milo with everything in him.
I’m not going to let this guy get a hold of anyone, Ryder told him. But if he’s one of the good guys then we need to hear him out.
I hear you. I just have reservations about letting him into the house.
“You guys done having your mental discussion or whatever it is you shifters do?” The guy was still holding up his hands, but he indicated his shoulder holster. “You can take this out and hold on to it the whole time. I don’t have a backup weapon right now.”
“Grab it, bro.” War jerked his chin at Con, not wanting to give anybody any names.
Con lowered the shotgun so the guy couldn’t grab it easily before stepping forward and pulling out the weapon at arm’s length.
“Into the house, but only as far as the front room.”
The guy eased past him and headed for the cabin, lowering his hands only to open the door.
He stepped inside then waited for the rest of them to come around.
Rye stayed in his bear form, which meant he was fast and lethal and huge, and he could take the guy’s head off with a single swipe. Had Warrick mentioned that already?
“There’s also somebody upstairs with an eye on you, waiting to take you down if you do something wrong.”
“Look, I just want to tell you what I know and then skedaddle. Okay? I have no intention of hanging out and trying to make trouble.”
“That’s good to hear. Go sit down.”
With a short jerky nod, the guy went and sat on the couch, hands on his knees, not trying to make any kind of move at anybody.
“So talk.”
“Okay, I’m sure you know, since you work with Quinn at the Hog, that there’s a bunch of cops on the force who are both shifters and who work to help take down this smuggling ring that you guys have been dealing with.”
Warrick didn’t make that a yes or no. He just stared.
A slight smile creased the man’s face as if he realized he was dealing with a cool customer.
“Anyway, my partner turns out to be crooked. He’s been helping the smuggling ring.
He monologued on me one night as he was telling me how he was going to set me up for the fall for this, and he did.
I’ve got a few friends left who got me out of there, but I wanted to come tell you what I know, and here it is.
There’s a businessman. His name is Maximilian Frost.”
Warrick’s eyebrows rose high. He’d heard of the guy.
He was some multi-millionaire who dealt with some kind of murky investment banking tech industry, something that nobody really knew about.
Personally, he thought the guy was just a nepo baby who had inherited millions and who was now riding on the coat tails of people way smarter than him.
One way or the other, he owned dozens of properties across the city metro and all the way out into places like Boulder and Glenwood Springs. He also owned a lot of people, paying bribes like it was going out of style.
“You’re saying he’s the spearhead here?”
“He’s definitely the financing. I think he’s got a lot of people he owes a lot of money to, or a lot of loyalty because they’ve set him up to do other things. He provides them with shifters for various purposes.”
How do we get to him? Milo snapped. How do we get to this millionaire?
He ignored it because he needed to stay focused on the guy in question. “And if we take out that head. What then?”
“Then you open a whole new can of worms. My suggestion is to get the feds involved. Quinn will know how to do that, but you’ll have to meet him someplace not the bar. There are too many guys hanging around in there who look like bikers who aren’t, if you get my drift.”
War studied the man’s body language and scented the air around him, and he decided the cop probably wasn’t lying.
This was going to be a bitch, but it would, if they could figure out how to do it, at least clean out another viper’s nest. If the feds got involved, maybe they could trace it back to the people who were doing the damage on a whole other level.
“So how do we get to this Maximilian guy?”
“It’s not easy. He lives in a high-rise. He has 24/7 security, doesn’t really get out much but he does do one thing every week.”
Con rattled the shotgun, drawing the man’s attention. “Yeah, what is that?”
The smile on the cop’s face turned a little bit evil. “He plays poker with a bunch of guys who don’t want to come to his high-rise, some of the worst of the city’s underbelly. They meet at the Green Dragon taproom in the back room every Thursday.”
“Is there anything else you can give us?”
“Just be careful. Some of the people you think are involved in this in a good way are not. They’re in it for their own reasons. If I were you, I’d pass that word on to Quinn, too.”
“Will do. I hope you don’t mind if Connal escorts you off our property.”
“No, it’ll help me avoid any booby traps you guys might have or any homicidal mates with rifles.”
War really had to fight not to blink at that. Was that a shot in the dark or did this guy know more than he was saying? Was he really human or was he somehow paranormal? Maybe a psychic? Because Milo was certainly waiting in the wings with a rifle just in case.
Connal made a show of waving the shotgun around and sighing. “Let’s get a move on, huh?” He looked at War pointedly. Mentally he added, You get a hold of Quinn as soon as possible.
We will. You get him out of here. I don’t want to see him back on our land.
Con nodded, and off they went, marching along with the shotgun held at the guy’s back.
He didn’t relax until they were out of sight. He trusted Con. As much as his brother was a chaos demon, he was also incredibly good at what he did.
Rye gave him the side eye, shifted to his human form now and as dressed as he could be. “That was illuminating.”
“That was a little shattering. What the fuck are we going to do?”
“First we’re gonna bring in Race and Nolan.” That was Milo, stomping down the stairs, putting his feet down hard. He held a .22 rifle in his hands, which still surprised War all to hell. “They deserve to hear this and to know what’s going on.”
“True enough.” Ryder closed his eyes as if he was sending a long-distance message. He opened them. He was smiling that soft smile that meant he had talked to Nolan. “He’s on his way. He’ll bring Race with him. I told them to be careful, and they said they would come armed.”
“You go out and meet them. Milo and I can hold it down here.”
“Got it.” He grabbed his hoodie off the hook by the door and made his way outside.
“You okay?” He checked Milo over, trying not to be too obvious about it.
“I’m angry. I’m tired of this shit following me around, and I want this over. So, we’re going to find this guy, and we’re going to take his ass down.”
He gave his mate a slow smile. Angry was way better than frightened. “You know it, babe. We’re gonna have a party on his ass.”
He couldn’t wait. War wanted this over too so that he and Milo could start their lives together.