Treyton: Shifters of Timber Rock Page 2

  “Yeah.” I gnawed on the corner of my mouth. Rogues had attacked an innocent woman. What was wrong with them? Were they that hellbent on revenge that they preyed on the weak?

  Draven ended the call and I got up. I threw some cash on the bar for Laura’s tip.

  “Leaving so soon, honey?” Betty, the bar manager, asked. She began wiping at the counter with a cloth.

  “Yeah, I’ve gotta run.” I sighed and then looked in the direction of where Tatia had disappeared with that shady and illusive Mr. Abrams. “Would you mind doing me a favor?” I grabbed a paper coaster and took a pen from the inside of my jacket pocket.

  “Okay?”

  I scribbled my phone number on it. “The woman that was sitting here earlier. Tatia. You saw her, right?”

  “Young girl. Short. Looked like little riding hood with all that red hair. Yeah, I seen her.”

  “Make sure she gets this.” I handed the coaster to Betty.

  Betty scowled and took it. “Sure. You know these young girls like her run off all the time, right? They don’t stick around. If Abrams gives her a job, I’ll give her three days before she calls it quits. You mark my words.”

  I wasn’t in the mood to discuss why folks seldom stuck around in Arrow Lake, so I simply replied, “Thank you, Betty.”

  I pushed my way out of Donnie’s, gathered up the few members of our pack who were loitering around outside in the parking lot and jumped in my truck.

  Little did I know, the rogues were just beginning to spread out across the town intimidating almost everyone they came across.

  CHAPTER THREE

  TATIA

  Mr. Abrams sat back in the chair. “Okay, young lady, that’s all for now. I could use someone on the night shift. If you want the job, it’s yours.”

  I nodded. “I do, and the night shift will work just fine.”

  Mr. Abrams smiled. “Let me go get some paperwork and I’ll be right back. You just sit tight.” He rose from the chair and headed out of the room.

  When he was gone, I released a big sigh. I was just given another chance to start over. I was going to make it work.

  I spent five minutes in the office alone before I realized something in the atmosphere had changed. The rock music still pulsed through the thin walls, but the voices seemed muted. Maybe it was just that time. They were probably closing up. I glanced down at my wristwatch. It was late and I was tired. I’d definitely need to get used to the scheduled adjustment.

  Bored out of my mind and tired of remaining in such a tight space, I pushed my chair back and got up. I walked over to the door, which was ajar, just like Mr. Abrams left it.

  I opened the door and stuck my head out to look down the hallway. My heart almost leaped from my chest. At the end of the hallway, two big burly men had Mr. Abrams cornered against the wall. They were talking harshly to him, literally yelling in his face.

  “It’s simple, Abrams. The cash or your diner. Which is more valuable to you?” When Abrams didn’t answer, the man continued, “You know why we’re here. You made a deal with us a long time ago. Just because we were sent into exile doesn’t mean we wouldn’t eventually come to collect.” He wrapped his hand around Abrams throat. A vase at the end of the hall crashed to the floor during the struggle.

  I shrank back inside and office and threw myself up to the wall. I wanted to disappear into the wallpaper or something. This wasn’t good at all. There was a another scuffled and then silence.

  “Oh no,” I whispered, reaching for my cell phone in my pocket.

  I was just about to call 911 when I heard Mr. Abrams yell, “It’s in my safe. The money. It’s in my office.”

  I froze and turned swiftly, looking for a place to hide. I ran to the far side of the room and yanked open what I thought was a coat closet. To my misfortune, the small space was stacked with loads of boxes, fixtures, and other odd ends. The closet was so cramped, you couldn’t get anything in it, much less a body. Low and behold, there was a black safe sitting right inside.

  My eyes widened and I slammed the door shut. At the same time, the violent men barged in, dragging Mr. Abrams along with them.

  I shrieked.

  “What’s this, old man?” the biggest one grunted.

  “A new hire. She just got here. She has nothing to do with his,” Mr. Abrams cried.

  Another one grunted and began closing the distance between us.

  “The money is in the closet over there. She has nothing to do with this.” Mr. Abrams cries were cut off as the biggest one backhanded him across the face.

  The violence and brought back bad memories that I wanted to wish away. I squeezed my eyes shut but all I saw was blood. When I opened them again, the short one had leaned in close to me and was sniffing me in a strange primal way. Goose bumps crept up my arms and I bit painfully into my bottom lip. I shrank back but the short one grabbed me by the forearm. I tried to jerk my arm from his grip, but he squeezed tighter.

  “I think the old man is lying. Are you keeping tricks hidden in here for your pleasure, old man?” the short one asked.

  I threw up a little in my mouth and glared at the short one in disgust.

  “No,” Mr. Abrams stated.

  “If you don’t get us the money now, Abrams, you’ll have blood on your hands. Her blood. Can you explain that to the cops?”

  “Please…” Finally, I found my voice.

  The short one laughed. “Ahhh, begging for your life…we can have just a little fun, can’t we?”

  “Back up, Chap,” the biggest one ordered. “Lead us to this safe, Abrams.”

  Mr. Abrams stumbled to the very closet where I spotted the safe and opened the door. He bent down onto the floor on his hands and knees and began turning the dials. “You promised not to hurt any of my people here. I’ll give you everything in here. Please just don’t kill anyone. Please.”

  The biggest one looked at me and snarled. He had a tattoo on his neck. A star inside of a black circle.

  The short one examined me almost like a buyer would appraise a car. “We could use her—”

  “Shut up, Chap!” the biggest one hollered. “Let her go.”

  I wasted no time shrugging out of the short one’s grip. I stumbled toward the door. Before bolting, I took one last look at Abrams fumbling with the safe. He looked at me with morbid fear in his eyes, but then he uttered one word. “Go. Now.”

  I raced out of the office and back down the hall. To my surprise, the place had been cleared out. Not a soul was left. Drinks were unattended to. Plates of food were left on the table. The men that were holding Abrams hostage were bad. Bad enough to have cleared out an entire bar. Even the biker gang had hauled ass.

  As I pushed my way outside, I fumbled with the lock screen on my cell phone. The cops were probably already here by now, but I couldn’t leave this behind without getting help to Mr. Abrams.

  I never got the chance to dial 911. Two men charged me out of the blue. One of the men sported the same circle and star tattoo on his forearm as Abram’s attacker. My scream was cut off by a thick rag clamped over my mouth. I was lifted from the ground and hauled off behind the building. I was thrown into the back of a van like a rag doll. I landed on my ass, but my head landed on something soft. It took me a moment to realize what that something was—a lap.

  I jerked upward and stared into two sets of eyes. Two women. Both of them were startled and just as scared as I was.

  “What is this?” I asked, trying to come to my feet. My head hit the top of the van and then my entire body flew forward as the van took off.

  The older one helped me get my bearings and then began to speak, “We don’t know. We were both thrown in here earlier too. I was on my way home from work and she…” She shook her head. “She won’t talk. I think we’ve been kidnapped.”

  “No,” I whispered. “This can’t be happening.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked around. I was basically in a cage. A moving cage. Taken. Kidnapped.
r />   Not too long ago, I’d witnessed a gruesome crime, but now I was a victim of another crime.

  How was I going to get out of this alive?

  CHAPTER FOUR

  TREYTON

  When I arrived at Jayce’s place the next morning, a tow truck had just pulled out onto the road. Draven was already there waiting in the yard with ex-Sheriff Eddie. I stuffed my keys in the center console and got out of the truck.

  “I haven’t seen you months, Treyton,” Eddie exclaimed as we shook hands.

  “That’s because Draven’s got me working like an ox,” I joked.

  Eddie laughed. “Yep, sounds about right. If you let him, he’ll put you to work.”

  Shaking his head, Draven grinned. He clapped me on the back hard and asked, “Looks like you’ve been out there eating the ox. How much are you bench pressing now…400? 500?”

  “Something like that.”

  When we were kids, Draven, Jayce, and I used to bet on almost anything. Most bench presses. Fastest lap through the forest. Furthest distance up the mountain before giving up. We used to fight, fuss, and wrestle all the time. But throughout many injuries and ups and downs, look where that got us. We were now working together as leaders as one of the strongest shifter packs in our region.

  “I’m getting rusty. I need to come out there and train with you for a week or two,” Jayce replied.

  “Come on. You know I seldom get the chance to beat up on the alpha. Where’s Jayce?”

  I looked at the home. My wolf ears allowed me to hear some moving about in the cabin, but the voices inside were muted. They must have been near the back of the home, but I made out the voice Jayce and the woman I’d met last night. I still couldn’t believe that she had tried to stab me with a kitchen knife.

  “Still inside. He’s worried about her. First time I’ve seen him like this,” Draven said.

  “Yeah. Me too. Have you seen her?” I asked. I left out the part about the woman carrying Jayce’s mark. That was Jayce’s responsibility to reveal, not mine. But the alpha would know soon enough.

  “Not yet. Eddie’s got some information to share with us though as soon as Jayce gets his ass out here,” Draven replied.

  “What’s going on? I heard you’ve been in regional meetings?” I asked, trying to pass the time.

  “Yup, some things have shifted for the packs. Lots of new leaders. New alphas. New territories.”

  “That’s promising right?”

  Draven shrugged. “Depends on how you look at it. We’ll have new rules to govern us, but there are packs among us who still uphold very old customs.”

  I rubbed my chin. “You mean the Black Ridge rogues with these mating hunts and forceful breedings?”

  “Not just this. I didn’t even bring up the subject of the rogues yet. There’s a new shifter prison somewhere out west, it seems. And also talks of a research facility.”

  “Research facility?” I gawked.

  Draven sighed. “Yeah. Then add to that a supposed vigilante group that’s going around picking off shifters out east. These are trying times. Some of the regional issues makes our rogue situation look like a petty occurrence.”

  “Really? And I wouldn’t call kidnappings petty.”

  Draven exhaled loudly. “If you could attend some of these meetings…”

  Eddie was leaned up against his truck, arms crossed. “You wolves 99 problems, don’t you?”

  “It’s a struggle.”

  At that moment, Jayce came running out of the house.

  “It’s about time,” I teased him.

  “Yeah, well, we’ll see how you handle it when the same happens to you,” Jayce replied.

  “Alright, time crunch. Who is she?”

  Eddie thrust a manila folder in Draven’s direction detailing the identity and background of Violent, the woman who was attacked the other night. Her kidnapping was concrete proof that the rogues were back causing issues.

  Arrow Lake residents were on edge and that was bad news for all the shifters even if we remained in what we believed to be protected borders. I wasn’t surprised when Draven issued a verbal order to shut down our territory to any outsiders. The rogues hadn’t crossed in our territory the night of Violet’s attack, but no one could be certain on the level of desperation of this particular pack.

  What were they after really? And what were they trying to prove?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  TREYTON

  Four days had passed since I met Tatia at Donnie’s Bar & Billiards. With all the running around I’d been doing these past few days mountainside, countryside, and valley-side, I’d hardly gotten a chance to sleep most nights. My work as the Timber Rock beta was never-ending, but things would get even more hectic soon.

  But before I left town, I had to see her.

  I figured she had already been recruited onboard at the diner. After all, she seemed well-overqualified for a job at Donnie’s, so I had no doubt in my mind that they had hired her. Which would’ve been a good thing considering that both my wolf and I were anxious to be near her again.

  I wasn’t the type of guy to chase a woman but Tatia was different. When she didn’t call me, I figured she was busy working just like I was. Or maybe she was just waiting for me to stop by like I promised her I would.

  I’d checked security checkpoints around Arrow Lake earlier this morning, and so far, there’d been no sightings of rogues. That only meant that they were being pushed out further and further into the wilderness. Either that or they were clear across the border. Chasing them out of the town wasn’t exactly a good or a bad thing. The Black Ridge rogues still had innocent women, and maybe even children, held as hostage.

  Just as I pulled up into the parking lot of Donnie’s, my cell phone rang. I picked it up off the dashboard where I had chucked it earlier and stared at the Caller ID.

  Jayce.

  Of course.

  The first time I called him, he let the call go straight to voicemail. That was unlike Jayce, but I didn’t blame him one bit.

  Shaking my head, I chuckled and answered the call. “Don’t tell me you’re flaking on us?”

  Jayce laughed. “What are you talking about? I’m still here.”

  “I mean the mated life, man. I thought I could always count on you to answer my calls.”

  “I was kinda busy,” Jayce replied.

  I put my truck in park, took my foot off the gas, and leaned back in the seat. “Hey, I get it. You can’t keep your dick in your pants around your mate.”

  “You’ll learn one day.”

  “Yeah…whatever.” I knew how to keep my dick in my pants.

  “So, what’s up?” he asked.

  I looked out at the front of Donnie’s. The windows were tinted to give the patrons some privacy, so I couldn’t tell who was inside. I just hoped that I hadn’t visited at the wrong time. Guests at Donnie’s weren’t always the nicest, and with two rival biker gangs in town and residents who still had grudges against shifters, I had to be careful.

  “I’m on my way out of Arrow Lake. I thought to stop by before I left, but I knew you’d be busy with Violet and all,” I said.

  “Where are you going?”

  “Taking a little trip. Canada, maybe.”

  “So, you’re one of the nine? You’re going to hunt for the missing women.”

  “I volunteered actually. No one knows the Minnesota-Canada borders like me.” And I was determined to nail the rest of those rogues.

  “You’re right about that,” he exclaimed, and then paused. “Hey, be careful. Come back home, okay?”

  “I will. You know our motto, cousin. Love you, bro. Also, send Violet my regards even though she tried to stab a motherfucker when we first met.”

  “I will. Safe travels.”

  “See y’all when I get back.”

  I killed the engine and removed the key from the ignition. I got out of my truck and headed toward the front door.

  Obviously, there would be no wait. The night
life in Arrow Lake didn’t start up until evening of course, but I was impatient. I’d wait to see Tatia for as long as I could, then I’d have to leave. Three members from each Arrow Lake wolf pack were scheduled to meet near the foot of the mountains, setup a checkpoint, and then spread out to find any clues that could lead us to the rogue’s hideout.

  A gray Mazda had pulled up just as I made it halfway across the lot. The bar manager, Betty, hopped out. She hurried toward me, shifting her tote bag from one shoulder to the other.

  “Hey Treyton. What are you doing here so early, honey?”

  “I was thinking about getting something to eat,” I mumbled, pointing to the restaurant.

  She frowned and looked down at her wristwatch. “Well, they’ve probably just shut the grill down for breakfast. If you can wait and hour, we can take your order for lunch.”

  “Um, yeah, I can wait. Looks like I’ll be first in line.”

  Betty propped one hand on her hip. “Yeah. Folks are still scared. We were closed for a couple days. We just opened back up the other day. Them scoundrels made a mess of this place.”

  My heart jumped in my throat. “Scoundrels?” I looked around cautiously.

  “Yeah, didn’t you hear? Sheriff says those shifters are back in town. A group of them came in here that night you brought Trip to work…remember? They robbed Mr. Abrams. Everyone ran out the back because we thought they had guns. Cops are still investigating, but we haven’t had problems since.” She nodded toward something on the other side of the road. “And look. that cop’s been sitting out there since it happened. I think Mr. Abrams hired him in case someone else decides to rob us again. I warned him about keeping all of his money just laying around in the back.”

  I turned around and looked toward the main road. Sure enough, there was an unmarked cop car sitting near the intersection. I came on my best behavior, so I didn’t have anything to worry about. Hell, food wasn’t even on my mind. It was just an excuse to get inside.

  I leaned forward. “The woman that was here that night on the interview…that happened to her?”