One Second (Seven Series Book 7) (16 page)

After Wheeler hiked up the stairs, Prince and Lorenzo emerged from the back room with a cleaned-up version of our prisoner. They’d also given him some baggy clothes. He walked between them with a vacant look in his beady eyes.

“It’s done,” Prince confirmed, heading out front.

Austin shut the door behind Lorenzo and put on his coat. “I’ll be back in a bit. Make sure everyone knows about Ben’s wolf on the property. If he wants to guard, then I’m all for that. I trust his wolf more than I do him.”

“What are you going to do with the prisoner?”

“Drop him off at a bar up the road.”

The door swung open, and Lorenzo’s dark eyes were blazing.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

He nodded toward the field by the house where Prince was standing. “The spineless leech of a man shifted. His wolf was confused and took off like a bullet.”

Austin cursed beneath his breath. “In which direction?”

“Toward the creek.”

I followed behind Austin when he went to search for the rogue who’d escaped.
We found his lifeless body lying near the creek.

Ben’s wolf had bravely defended our territory and left us the corpse of our enemy. He’d also fled the scene. Since the pack had just returned from laser tag, it would be impossible to get them out of the house without raising suspicion, so we were left deliberating how to dispose of the corpse.

“Why can’t we just bury him on the property?” I asked.

Austin kicked a stone into the water and scanned the woods nearby. “They’ll pick up his scent. Unless we have an airtight bag, which we don’t, a decomposing body doesn’t go unnoticed by a pack of wolves. We’re not ready to take on seventy rogues without knowing a damn thing about them.”

“Doesn’t Reno have a bazooka?”

Austin chuckled and stepped closer to Prince. “It’s getting dark, and I need to get this wolf off my land. Any ideas?”

Prince tucked his hands in the pockets of his wool coat. His face tightened when a blast of cold wind hit him. “I wouldn’t recommend using one of your cars. If they send a tracker after him, they’ll pick up his scent in the trunk. It’s better if we do this clean so they’ll assume he’s either a deserter or he defected.”

I made an exasperated sound. “I can’t believe this is my life. I’m standing around trying to figure out what to do with a dead Shifter. I don’t remember signing up for this.”

Lorenzo got on his phone and walked out of earshot. I was worrying about the children, the pack, my mother, and my baby.

“Problem solved in ten minutes, Cole,” Lorenzo said with a haughty lift of his chin. His long hair blew forward before settling across his shoulders. “Lakota is on his way.”

My jaw slackened. “You’re having Ivy’s son help out with hiding a body?”

“Aside from my mate, I trust no one more.”

“What about Caleb, your second-in-command?”

Lorenzo nudged the dead wolf with his foot. “He’s motivated by money. He’ll work me over to upgrade his car for helping out. He won’t get a new car, but I have no desire to listen to him braying like a donkey for the next four weeks.”

“Maybe this isn’t the kind of thing a kid should be involved in.”

Lorenzo folded his arms. “Lakota is now a man, and he’s strong enough to be a second-in-command if he finds someone worth serving. These are things he’ll be expected to do in his position; trust and secrecy are a part of that.”

“Why can’t you just call all your men over and we’ll take on these guys?”

Prince positioned himself as if blocking the wind from hitting me. “Because, young wolf, while we might win that battle, we do not know the repercussions of taking down an entire unit. They’re likely in contact with other units and know each other’s locations. That could bring a swarm to your territory. They’ll take you out for spite and make it look like a house fire, returning to their hiding spots until their leader gives them orders to begin the attack. Shifter wars don’t operate by the same rules you see on television. My woman is intrigued by human movies.”

“Sorry. I thought—”

“You’re a strong alpha, and it’s only natural you want to fight to protect your family. Once the war begins, each unit will be busy attacking their assigned targets, so they won’t have the resources to pool together like they do now.”

Pale storm clouds brewed overhead, and Lorenzo’s voice crackled with anger. “When the time comes to go to war, blood will stain our land—seeping into the ground and nourishing the roots of our trees. There will be no hiding bodies and concealing our actions. We’ll rise up and fight to keep what is ours.”

Prince glanced at his watch. “We wouldn’t be feuding with ourselves if Shifters had been given opportunities instead of closed doors. You cannot return a man’s freedom and yet deny him the same liberties that you enjoy. I’ve seen the struggles and know why it’s come to this.”

I shivered and leaned against Austin. “What if the Council were to give them land?”

“Doesn’t work that way, Lexi,” Austin said. “If you give a screaming child a toy, all it teaches them is that misbehaving earns them a reward.”

I laughed. “We’ll see what you think about that when you have your own screaming baby to contend with.”

Austin was right though. We’d discussed the topic before, but the negotiator in me kept looking for an out.

After several minutes of waiting and listening to Austin talk about his car, a rustle in the dry grass drew our attention upward.

A young man crested the hill, wind blowing the shoulder-length hair jutting out from his oversized beanie. He also didn’t have a coat—just a red T-shirt, which showed off his tan complexion. He grinned from ear to ear and spread out his arms. “We should hurry before Caleb notices his car is missing.”

Lorenzo huffed out a quiet laugh. “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Lakota was my son in another life.”

***

While the Packmasters disposed of the rogue, Reno ordered Denver and Trevor to guard the property that afternoon and evening. Meanwhile, my mom and Katharine were arguing with George in the kitchen over who was going to cook dinner. You couldn’t pair two more opposite women, and yet they got along famously.

George’s skills in the kitchen were legendary, and he considered himself the master chef of the Cole clan. I preferred his cooking over Katharine’s simply because he bought his meat at the grocery store and made the best pot roast on the planet. After a brief squabble, he finally capitulated and sulked on the living room sofa, watching
Transformers
with Lennon and Hendrix—his favorite (and only) grandsons.

Sometimes a girl needs to get away from the chaotic world inside a pack, so just after sunset, I decided it was a good time to take care of some business.

April adjusted the car heater and held her fingers in front of the vents. “Are you telling me that you don’t have any problem working with a Vampire?” she asked skeptically.

My pink bunny slipper pressed on the gas pedal. “No, and I think you’ll like him. That’s why I asked you to come along with me tonight, so you can meet him. I thought I’d show him around the shop and give him the grand tour of the kitchen.”

“At night?”

I smirked. “I didn’t want a bunch of customers to be there. And besides, if sunlight bothers his eyes, then I should be a considerate boss and respect his differences. Right?”

She glanced at her blue fingernails. “I suppose.”

I pulled into the parking lot and switched off the headlamps. “If Austin wants two wolves guarding the house all the time, then there’s no way we’ll be able to keep the bakery open every day. There’s too much work to do and not enough of us to do it. At least you have the girls at the candy store. I can’t hire humans in the bakery; you remember what happened when Britt ran the store a few months back.”

When Maizy first introduced her wolf to the pack, we’d celebrated at the house. I’d foolishly thought it wouldn’t hurt to have one of the part-timers fill in at the bakery for just the day, but later that evening, my employee called me in hysterics after witnessing a customer shift into a hawk. Ned was an elderly Shifter who visited the shop infrequently. Sometimes he got overexcited while waiting in line, and he’d shift. Usually we’d put him outside and he’d eventually fly back to gather his clothes and finish placing his order. We’d had to hire a Vampire to scrub Britt’s memory.

“It’s not easy to find part-timers,” I continued. “Not to mention all the baking we have to do. That’s going to change with Atticus around.”

“You don’t think he’ll drive sales away?”

“He can wear sunglasses if he’s uncomfortable, but I’m considering putting a No Jerk sign on the door. I want him to work alongside Izzy for a few days so he can learn how to run the register in case we ever need him. Otherwise, he’ll be the baker.”

“What if he can’t bake?”

I laughed, unbuckling my seat belt. “I have exact recipes, so it’s not rocket science. Whether he
likes
to bake or not will be another thing.”

April shivered and stared at the dark building in front of us. “Has Charlie showed up or called?”

“No. Austin spoke to him, but I don’t know what about. He hasn’t brought him up out of respect for your feelings.”

She tugged at a strand of her hair. “If he’d told me back then in my twenties, I probably would have hated him forever. But… accidents happen. I still think what he did to cover it up was deplorable, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive him for that.” She twisted the strap of her purse between two fingers, clearly disenchanted by the truth.

“Did you tell Maddox? Charlie still owes him money.”

“Heck no. Maddox would hunt him down and skin him alive. This whole thing is so screwed up. Maybe I should be furious at Maddox for covering up the accident… I don’t know.”

I had a feeling April was having a change of heart. Once the emotions settled like dust, she recognized how much Charlie had meant to her. She had always looked up to him like a father in a time when she had personal struggles and no parental figure. Personally, I was nonplussed about the whole situation. But given I was a Shifter, pregnant with an alpha’s baby, hiring a Vampire to knead my dough, preparing to go to war while living with a pack of wolves and wildcats… stranger things have happened.

“There he is,” I said.

April focused on a shadowy corner and then clutched her heart. “That could be anyone.
That
could be a serial killer.”

The man stepped forward in a long trench coat, but I recognized his bright hair when the lamplight hit it. Cold temperatures didn’t faze Vampires, but they dressed appropriately to blend in.

“That’s not a serial killer. That’s my new employee.”

“Might be one and the same,” she murmured with a small laugh.

We hopped out of the car, and I hustled up to the door. “Hi, Mr. Rain.”

“Atticus,” he said, still keeping his distance. “Brisk evening.”

My teeth chattered as I fumbled with the keys and opened the door. “What is it with this cold weather? This is supposed to be Texas.”

We moved inside and I turned on the dimmers.

Atticus shut the door behind us. “There’s an old wives’ tale that when we congregate in the same area in large numbers, it makes the temperatures extreme.”

April unwound a white scarf from her neck. “Pfft. If that were the case, then it would be snowing in Austin all the time. It’s like the Shifter capital of Texas.”

Atticus chuckled and approached the counter, watching her take a seat at one of the wooden tables on the right. “True, we have many Breeds here. But it takes a lot to make a difference. So I’ve heard. If you’ve ever been to Cognito in the Northeast, you just might believe it’s true. Sometimes they get a blanket of snow while surrounding cities are drowning in sunshine. It’s as if they’re living in their own snow globe where winters are fierce and summers are blazing.”

“I like snow globes. Maybe I’ll visit there someday. You’re a good storyteller—anyone ever tell you that?” Her purse tumbled to the floor before she could catch it.

Atticus swiftly picked it up and looped the strap over the back of her chair before stepping back and creating distance. He didn’t make direct eye contact with her, a show of submission among Vampires. “Actually, yes. You must be April. I’m Atticus Rain.”

“I run the Sweet Treats candy store,” she said, giving him a little more information.

“I’ve told him about you,” I said, setting my keys on the counter. “He once asked if I ever planned on making this a chain, and I mentioned your location. I told him I had the best manager known to man running that shop.”