A Bleacke Wind (Bleacke Shifters Book 3) (24 page)

It couldn’t be a coincidence. There weren’t many Joaquins in their pack, to the best of his knowledge, and only one currently in the area that he was aware of—

Joaquin Carlomarles.

Web had started to go for the phone to call Peyton when one of the Spanish-speaking strangers, apparently the leader, walked up to the counter with a soda and a candy bar in hand. Smiling broadly, he set the items on the counter before he pulled a fat money clip from his pocket, peeled a couple of twenties off of it, and casually tossed them onto the counter.

Web didn’t miss that the guy kept his money clip out and fully visible, a silent bribe.

“A friend of mine was telling me about the fishing in this area.” The man’s thick Spanish accent smoothly rolled off his tongue. “Joaquin Carlomarles. Said he was going to be in the area this week and told me to call him, but he is not answering his cell phone.”

“Don’t get good cell reception up in the mountains around here. Not away from town. They’re talking about putting another tower in, maybe next year. Got a land number for him?” Web hooked a thumb over his shoulder at the phone on the wall. “I’ll let you use the phone if your cell’s not got coverage.”

“No. I was hoping you knew him, or perhaps know where I can find him.”

Web made a show of thinking about it, then slowly shook his head as he rang the guy up and only took one of the twenties, quickly making change and placing it on top of the other twenty.

“I used to know a boy around here named Joaquin, years ago. I think that was his name. That was like fifteen, maybe twenty years ago. Seems like he was in a class with my son in school. Can’t remember what his last name was, though. That might have been it.”

Webster suspected if he completely lied that the guy wouldn’t believe him. He had obviously tracked Joaquin to the area somehow, and strongly suspected he’d find Joaquin here. Lying would possibly trigger a bad reaction. Better to play semi-clueless and let the stranger think he was the one playing Web.

Meanwhile, Web fought the urge to bare his canines at the man and throw him out of his store. He didn’t want to start a fight with mobsters. Not when there were clueless humans, as well as human mates, in close proximity.

But he needed to warn Peyton, and have Dewi and Beck go after their mates to protect them.

And the clock was quickly ticking.

The stranger slowly nodded and finally reached out to take his change, including the second twenty. “Ah. Does Joaquin have family around here? Friends? Someone who might know where we could find him?”

Webster scratched his chin, summoning his best impression of a clueless hick. “Well. Hmm. If it’s the same kid, seems like his parents moved up to Canada, I think it was. Gosh, that was years ago, though. I haven’t heard my son talk about him, oh, since after he graduated high school.”

“Would your son perhaps know?”

Now Webster went for a lie he knew the stranger would buy. “He’s overseas working. Oil company. One of their field engineers. Calling him’s hard. I can try e-mailing him for you, but it might take him a day or so to get back to me. I can call my wife and ask her, if you’d like? If she doesn’t know, she might be able to find out for you.”

The stranger smiled, but it didn’t come anywhere close to touching his eyes. In fact, it looked cold, predatory.

Like a cat preparing to pounce on its prey. “That would be very nice of you. Thank you.”

Web smiled. “Sure, no problem. Hold on for a minute.” He walked over to the phone on the wall, picked it up, and hit the speed-dial direct to Peyton’s cell.

Of course they got cell coverage here. The pack owned the damned tower in town and the main part of the compound. You just had to be on the right network.

The pack-owned network.

Peyton answered on the second ring. “Web?”

“Yeah. Hey, honey? Got a quick question for you.”

“
Honey
?”

He prayed Peyton was fast on the uptake and not too distracted by whatever had happened that morning to upset Beck’s mate to catch on quickly. “Yeah, I got a guy here in the store, looking for a Joaquin Carlomarles. What was the name of that kid who went to school with Mark? Was that his name?”

“Shit. How many of them? Can you say, or is the guy right there?” He heard Peyton pull the phone away from his face and start yelling for someone.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. Well, I’d like to get an answer for him, because he’s standing right here. Didn’t Joaquin’s parents move up to Canada after the kids graduated? Or am I mixing them up with someone else?”

“Less than ten?”

“No, I couldn’t remember either.”

“More than ten?”

“Maybe that’s it. Oh, heck. You know, Dewi and Beck were just in a few minutes ago. I should have asked them. Could you try calling them for me?”

“Dewi and Beck? What are you talking about? They’re right here, they’re not—oh,
fuck
. Did some of them go after Ken and Nami? Beck and Dewi’s mates?”

“That’s right. They pulled out of here, anyway, I think. Didn’t see which way they were headed. And I don’t have their cell numbers to call them. Well, listen, if you’d call around for me real fast and see if anyone else might know where they are, or if Joaquin is in the area right now—hold on, just a minute, hon.”

Web spoke to the guy, making sure Peyton could still hear. “How long you think you’ll be here? A few more minutes, at least?”

The man nodded. Webster didn’t read any suspicion from him.

Yet.

But Web knew the longer he stalled, the more suspicious the guy would get.

“Probably,” the stranger said. “We could wait for a little while, if she wants to make some calls. We are in no hurry.”

“Hey, hon? Yeah, if you could call a couple of people real fast and call me back here, that’d be great. He said they’re not in a hurry and will hang around for a few. I don’t want to keep them waiting too long.”

“I’ve got people on the way,” Peyton said. It sounded like he was running now. “Try to clear any innocent clueless humans out of there, if you can. Put out calls to warn all the wolves in town. Spread the word that if we have to shake the tree, the pack’ll pay all damages.”

“Great, thank you. And love you, too, honey.” He hung up and smiled at the guy, the ache in his jaws as his canines fought to slide out making it difficult to keep up the act. “She said she’ll call me back in about ten minutes or so. You guys see the fishing guide brochures over there?”

The man looked in the direction Web pointed. From the expensive slacks and short-sleeved shirt the guy wore, to the gold chain around his neck, to the Cartier watch on his left wrist, to the expensive loafers on his feet, and his cologne and impeccable haircut, if the guy had ever fished a day in his life, Web would eat the goddamned brochure rack.

And now that Web allowed all his senses to come into play, he sniffed gun oil.

Not the brand he usually used.

Web walked around the counter and waved the guy over to the rack, where he started handing the man brochures in an attempt to keep him occupied and distracted.

“I either personally know, or know the reputations, of all these guides. They’re all good, and honest. I don’t get a kickback from them, either. You guys staying here in town, or do you have rooms yet?”

The man didn’t even pretend to look at the brochures as he took them. “We have not decided yet. We stayed in Spokane last night and drove over this morning.”

“Ah. Well, this is like a whole different country, right here,” Web said. “Much nicer here than Spokane, if I might say so. Not very fond of the city myself after all the years I’ve been here.”

Web played the hick act for all he was worth as he fought against his stubborn, aching canines. Never in his life had he ever wanted to shift and pounce more than he did at that moment.

Well, not counting his mating.

But as an Alpha, even though he was one hundred and seventeen, he only looked like he was in his early forties. And he was still no match for an unarmed human when evenly pitted against one.

He was not, however, bulletproof.

Last time he’d accidentally gotten himself shot by a human had been in the leg, and his wife had chewed him a new one for ruining a perfectly good pair of jeans.

It’d also stung like a motherfucker.

He waited for the guy to look down at the brochures before Web quickly scanned the building with his gaze. One wolf, a woman, over in the dairy section, grabbing a gallon of milk. One of his cousins, in fact, and wicked with a gun, if he needed to ask for her help.

No humans other than the strangers inside the building. His part-timer, Joe, had walked down to the post office to check his PO box five minutes ago. He wouldn’t be back for another twenty minutes, at least.

And Joe, while human, was the husband of a wolf.

And retired military.

Like Web, he was always carrying.

* * * *

“Besides all
those
things,” Nami railed at Ken, “how are we
possibly
going to explain to Da’von and Lu’ana and Reggie about Malyah just up and marrying this guy none of them have ever heard of before?”

Ken had already settled in for a hundred-mile rant fest all the way to Spokane. He only hoped Nami would expend the bulk of her ire before their return trip.

“The same way things were smoothed over with all of them about you marrying Beck. Dewi, Badger, and Peyton are Primes. They’ll simply put the suggestion in their minds that it’s okay.”

“Yeah, and Peyton told me Malyah has her memories
back
. So that’s not foolproof.”

“I don’t know, Nami. I don’t have all the answers.”

“Malyah just
met
him! How do we explain
that
? We fibbed, at least a little, and made it look like me and Beck had been dating for a while in secret.”

“Well, we can do the same thing with them about this. We can tell everyone you knew about it, but because Joaquin was overseas, Malyah wanted it kept quiet until they knew for sure they wanted to be together.”

She slowly shook her head at him. “That’s stupid.”

“It’s all I’ve got. We can worry about that later.”

“We need to worry about it
now
. Malyah’s been dating. What about
that
poor guy? What’s she supposed to tell him when she gets home and she’s married? What about the people she works with?”

Ken hoped Joaquin wouldn’t eviscerate said poor guy before Dewi or Badger was able to tweak the man’s mind and make him think the break-up was his idea because he wanted to explore other options.

“Again, Dewi or Badger can talk to the guy for Malyah. He’ll likely walk away smiling.”

Ken caught a glimpse of a vehicle on the road some distance behind them, but lost it again as he rounded a turn. He thought he recognized it from the gas station, but he wasn’t sure.

“But what about her coworkers and friends? Dewi or Badger gonna glue themselves to Malyah’s hip and charm all of them, too?”

Ken loved Nami, but he wished she’d shut up so he could focus on driving and watching for the car behind them. “If they have to, yes.”

Something tingled at the base of his spine. An ugly, nasty, familiar feeling. Faint, but definitely there.

The same kind of feeling he’d gotten when Dave ambushed him at his apartment, and the same kind of feeling he’d had before Endquist attacked him and Dewi.

“I can see
that
going well,” Nami ranted. “I just don’t underst—”

“Nami. Do you feel like something’s off?”

“Oh, something’s
off
, all right,” she huffed. “That boy
grabbin’
my sister like she’s just some two-bit—”

“
No
, Nami. Seriously. Be quiet for a moment. What’s your gut instinct telling you,
right
now?
Right
this instant.”

He hoped it worked the same way for her, the wolf stuff passing over to her from Beck the way Dewi had passed some to him through their mating. He desperately hoped it wasn’t just a Prime thing. Beck was a powerful Alpha. Surely there’d be…something? Ken also hoped she wasn’t too upset about Malyah and Joaquin to feel it, if she even could.

“Why?” she finally asked, but now she sounded a little wary. “Why are you asking me that? What’s wrong?”

He pressed down on the accelerator to push the car uphill and around the next bend. He’d slowed a little while glancing in the rearview mirror and trying to watch for the other car.

Yes, it was definitely a vehicle from the gas station.

And when there, he’d been too busy listening to—or, rather, trying
not
to listen to—Nami’s rantings about Joaquin to pay much attention to the nearly dozen Hispanic men in the store. Being from Tampa, that honestly hadn’t even blipped on Ken’s radar at the time. With a large Hispanic population to start with, and a high number of migrant workers, it wasn’t something that crossed his mind as being out of place. Plus, they’d all been well-dressed men.

But this was Idaho.

Way out-of-the-way, Idaho.

A deep part of Idaho without a lot of farmland, without a lot of tourists who weren’t there for the fishing or hunting or hiking, and where a wolf on the run from a Mexican drug cartel was hiding out.

And the men in the convenience store had
not
been dressed for fishing or hiking or hunting.

Not hunting in the traditional sense, anyway.

Shit.

Nami looked over her shoulder. “That car behind us?”

“Yeah.” He heard his phone ring. It was Dewi’s ringtone, but between keeping his focus on the road, and now the possible pursuers, he didn’t dare risk answering it.

“There’s only one main road out of this area—the one we’re on,” Nami said. “If they’re heading south to the interstate, they have to take this road.”

From her tone, she didn’t sound convinced of her own argument.

“Yeah, but awfully coincidental, don’t you think?” Ken asked her. “All of them there, and only one of their cars comes after us? Why didn’t they stay together?”

“What?”

“You didn’t pay the slightest bit of attention back there, did you? At the gas station.”