Chapter Twenty-Four
Derick
Derick inhaled and exhaled slowly as he swiped at the screen of the encrypted phone that Oakland had given him for occasions such as this.
“Update,” he demanded. There was no need for pleasantries. Oakland was the only one outside of Lane who knew the lengths he’d gone to—would go to—protecting his family. The measures he’d put in place to keep his boys safe from threats—or so he’d thought.
He’d failed once before and now he had again, and it was a bitter pill to swallow.
Oakland was shouldering the blame for believing the scumbag, who they’d found hocking pictures of Laken for fifty bucks a pop on the dark web all those years ago, when he said he’d handed them all over.
How Oakland had found the scumbag, Derick hadn’t asked.
Oakland’s background searches unearthed things that continued to amaze Derick, even after the twenty years of working together.
The team of men Oakland had amassed over those years weren’t all combat fighters.
Some had come through other channels, murky channels that Derick didn’t question.
Nor did he question the cost of those specialist services when it got the results he wanted.
Any price was worth paying to protect what he loved.
“We have the situation contained.”
Derick pinched the bridge of his burning nose in relief.
“I need to come. Assess.” He kept his replies as cryptic as Oakland.
“Expected. I have Brooklyn on his way to you now. He will be with you within the hour.”
The call ended with a suddenness that Derick was used to.
“Have they found them?” Lane slipped his arms around his waist from behind and laid his cheek against his rigid back muscles. It amazed him that Lane could, and often did, get past his innate defences and creep up on him.
But that wasn’t what was on his mind when Lane’s fear came through in the tenseness of his body and the quiver in his voice. It ate at Derick’s heart that he could do nothing to prevent it. It had always been the same from the first moment they’d met.
“Yes.” He placed his hands over Lane’s and held them tightly. “Brooklyn is on his way to collect me.”
He felt the second Lane stiffened and was prepared for the argument.
Lane slipped free and spun Derick around—he was much stronger than anyone ever gave him credit for—fear and temper sparking in his beautiful eyes.
“No, I don’t want you getting mixed up in this. You said Oakland was the best person to deal with this. So let him.”
Derick shook his head sadly, reaching to cup his husband's neck, holding his gaze. “You know that’s not how it works. I need to see for myself that the threat is neutralized properly this time.” He kissed Lane’s trembling lips, resting their foreheads together.
“I swear, I won’t do anything that puts me in harm's way.”
He was careful not to say that he wouldn’t harm anyone. That was something he wouldn’t promise. Whoever had threatened Laken had taken their pound of flesh in worry, so he would exact the same from them. His wolf expected nothing less.
Lane pressed in closer, arms slipping back around his middle to cling tightly. “You promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”
His chuckle was dark and dangerous. “I’m never stupid, my love, unless it comes to you. Then I’m stupidly in love.”
Lane released a sigh that could reveal just how much power those words had on his husband’s resolve to fight Derick on this subject.
“Be careful.” Lane came up and pressed the softest kiss to his lips. It was brief, but it held so much love, it stole his breath. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Same, my love.” He held him close and inhaled his scent, one that had captured his attention and held it for over forty years. Derick never let himself think about what would happen if Lane died before him. It was a concept he couldn’t fathom when life wasn’t infinite.
Lane left him when, through the monitor, he heard Emmy crying.
It was late and everyone was in bed. Derick used the diversion to change clothes and pack an additional outfit like the one he wore, adding a spare pair of identical boots to the small hold-all.
He had no intention of bringing anything bloodied back into the house and didn’t need Lane noticing the change of clothing.
His husband missed nothing, which was something he’d learned the hard way.
He was waiting at the door when he heard a car approaching.
He left the house under the cover of darkness, quickening his step to avoid anyone deciding they wanted to join him.
Jupiter, when they’d picked him up alone, was in a mood that left Derick with a growing sense of worry that his son was suffering in ways he couldn’t fix.
For now, Derick made a mental note to speak to Oakland and get him to do a check on those who remained from Jupiter’s pack.
He did not believe what put the haunted look back in his son's eyes was the past, more the present and what was happening with his brothers. But with the misstep in the past and currently with Laken, Derick wasn’t taking any chances.
In the car before it had fully come to a stop, Brooklyn took off while Derick clicked in the seatbelt. “Where are we headed?”
Brooklyn, a dark, brooding man who tended not to make small talk, was dressed the same as Derick, except for the leather gun holster he wore across his chest holding two chrome Desert Eagles. Derick knew the man could handle those monsters with an expertise that rivaled any crack shot marksman.
“A cabin ‘bout halfway up in the mountains at Rowan Grove, on the other side of Hazardville.”
The SUV sped along quiet streets. The lateness of the hour left the streets quiet enough that they hit the highway that would lead them out of town in record time.
Silence filled the car for the first few miles as Derick considered his plan of attack. He never went into any situation without one.
“How did you find them so quickly?” The drop-off had been six hours earlier.
“It was relatively simple. With inferred cameras watching the drop site and Billy intercepting traffic cams, we identified the perps before they’d left their car to collect the bag.
Amateurs for sure. When they were out of their car, we placed cameras and a listening device inside, along with a tracker underneath the hood.
” There was a dark chuckle that chilled Derick’s skin.
“We didn’t need the tracker, the fucking fools were gibbering like girls on their first date about where they were going to check out their payoff.
Told their respective partners they were going hunting for a few days. ”
“They didn’t open the bag in the car?” Derick recalled exactly what was in the bag and laughed, thinking about their surprised faces at finding filthy diapers caught on camera.
“Nah. There was some muttering about how bad the bag smelled, which they thought was because of the trash can. They stuck it in the trunk.” White teeth flashed at him in the dimness of the car.
“Got the look on their faces when they opened it in the cabin, though. Thought you might wanna see. Priceless, that shit.”
Derick matched Brooklyn’s grin. He’d make sure Oakland sent him the video to share with Lane.
“Oakland has all the remaining photos. He clarified in his own unique way there are no more.” Brooklyn’s eyes would freeze warm water as they flashed at Derick, his panther lurking in their depths.
Derick didn’t need to imagine Oakland's unique talents. He’d seen them up close and personal on more than one occasion. Lethal force wasn’t always required when Oakland had a bag of tricks to make the body hurt that barely left a visible mark.
“They had them hidden in the cabin. As I said, total fucking amateurs.”
They lapsed into silence as the SUV ate up the miles, Brooklyn easily navigating even when they rumbled up a road that was no more than a dirt track. The car rocked hard, shaking Derick hard enough his teeth rattled together until they came to a stop outside a wooden cabin.
Small, one storey, and well tended from what he could see. It sat in a tiny clearing. The three cars parked outside filled the ground in front of the place. Two dark SUVs, which belonged to Oakland’s team, meant the older model Wrangler jeep belonged to whomever was in the cabin.
Derick got out into the chilly night air. The bite was more noticeable with the surrounding trees blocking much of the sky. The door opened in front of him as he approached, boots crunching in the dirt.
“They’re all yours.” Oakland said, nodding. He stepped aside to let Derick pass as he came up the wooden steps, onto the porch.
Schooling his features when he stepped inside, he saw three men tied to chairs in the center of the room. The stench of Emmy’s diapers fought with the reek of fear coming from the sweat drenched men. Derick walked in front of them wearing a look of disgust.
The one in the middle held Derick’s attention. The man looked like his son but with none of Laken’s integrity. It sickened Derick that these fuckers were accountable for what happened to Laken in the past, and were now taking advantage of what they’d discarded so casually.
“How could you?” He held back none of his fury. The words lashed the air like a whip.
The men on either side of the asshole in the middle cowered back in their seats, eyes wheeling all over the place, seeking an escape. They’d find none.
There was defiance pouring off the man in the middle—Laken’s biological father.
“Why not?” The man didn’t pretend to act dumb, so Derick gave him credit for that, just not for anything else.
“He owes me for casting him out. Made him a rich man, didn't it? Even if it couldn’t change the fact he's divergent scum.” He shrugged powerful shoulders.
“Those pictures proved what a cock sucker I always knew he was,” he spat hatefully.
Derick’s wolf wanted blood.
Oakland and his team wouldn’t stop him, though they were alert around the room, waiting.
“He was raped and drugged, you fucker.” His temper cut loose from the chains that usually held it confined, his voice strained and raw with pain. Pain at the things he couldn’t change for Laken. He didn’t want to feed off it like these motherfuckers. And they’d pay for that.
Except he needed answers first. Needed to know how these assholes had obtained the pictures to use against Laken before blood was drawn.
“When were you approached with the pictures?” Derick's gut said they were too cowardly to be involved in the sex ring Oakland had broken apart, person by person, all those years ago. But he couldn’t be sure, and there had been one misstep already. He wouldn’t allow a second.
“Those assholes thought I’d pay them to stop broadcasting that thing is a whore. They sent pictures, and I told them to do whatever they wanted. He was dead to us, officially. I registered his death the second his ass hit the sidewalk,” he sneered.
Pride at what he’d done poured out the hateful fucker and made it impossible for Derick to let him continue to breathe.
“So you kept them to have secret jerk off sessions, I bet,” he taunted. Seeing the man's eyes bug out of his head was small consolation.
“How dare you!” Spit flew from his frothing mouth. His animal lurked there, but like its human, the thing was a coward.
“I fucking dare because that beautiful man is my son, and you thought you could get a nice pay out now that Laken has made something of himself? Isn’t that right?”
Laken’s brothers were an unhealthy shade of gray, eyes continuing to skitter around at the men leaning against walls, arms crossed, guns on display.
Yeah, not so fucking brave now, are we!
The man spat on the floor. “He didn’t make anything of himself. Once a whore, always a whore. Probably sold his ass to you, you divergent cock sucker.”
To disrespect his pure of heart husband, the man signed his own death warrant.
Derick let the pure white hot, fury burning through him seep into the dark place that were reserved for the demon that lurked inside him.
He could no more have stopped his shift than stop the changing moon cycle.
His wolf was a crazed beast, incensed at anyone talking about their mate in such a way.
Their child, who it loved as deeply as Derick.
Sounds of clothes ripping and shoes shredding filled the air before the huge graying, wolf snarled, fangs dripping as it circled the three men. Screams and cries for help from Oakland’s team went unheeded.
The wolf didn’t take its terrifying gaze away from the figure in the middle. It made a guttural noise, pawing the ground.
Oakland came forward and cut the ropes from the center man. “You wanted to hunt. Here’s your chance.” He came lower and got right in the guy's face. “Only you’re the prey. Now run, motherfucker!”