“I’m not going to be the sap who gets treated like I’m not important when it comes to my kid. That’s what I’m not going to be. I’m also not going to allow the mother of my child to put herself at risk when there’s a better choice. She needs to live here, on the island, where she has the full power of the pack to keep her safe.”
“You say that like someone’s out to get her. What happened last night wasn’t about her. That was simple retaliation and blind hatred. And those damned hunters are getting stupid sloppy about it.”
“Which is exactly why we need to take care of it. Send a bigger message.”
Diego shook his head. “They are going to get a message and its one they won’t forget, but like I said, we have to play this smart not half-cocked.”
Creed’s body went tight. Enough was enough and it didn’t look good on him controlling the anger festering inside him. “What then? A love note?”
Diego growled, a clear warning if ever. “We need Sawyer’s genius back at work to figure this out. If he can access the security footage from last night we might know more.”
Creed looked around the decimated wreckage that included the security office. “I don’t think the computers made it.”
Diego rolled his eyes. “Smart ass. Glad to see that’s still intact.” He then pulled out his cellphone and typed in his password. “Luckily, Sawyer is the smart one of the group and set up a network that auto backs up all of our computers into encrypted files. We just need him to access it.”
“Am I interrupting something important?”
Creed whirled at Allison’s voice behind him, probably glaring daggers at her intrusion.
“Yes,” he seethed.
“No,” Diego said sharply. “We’re done.”
Allison held up the small hand held radio she carried. “Stix radioed from the other side of the bridge. Fire marshall is on his way in. Thought you’d like to know.”
Diego jerked his head, meeting Creed’s gaze. He didn’t speak because he didn’t have to. Creed knew exactly what that look meant.
Something was wrong. Very very wrong.
“Allison,” he muttered low. “The fire marshall has been here for an hour already. He’s right over the—”
All heads turned in the direction Diego pointed, searching the broken and burned up building for the man he referred to. Where only moments ago they had been surrounded by humans digging through the wreckage, they now stood alone.
“That’s impossible,” Diego growled. “They were just here.”
“They?” Allison asked.
“Yeah, the fire marshall and his crew. They got here early and started right away searching through the debris for evidence. Said they needed to determine the origin and gather information for their report.”
Right then a white four door sedan with the nearby town of Gig Harbor logo plastered across the front door, pulled into the parking lot and came to a stop several yards in front of them.
“Then who was here?” The question no sooner left Creed’s mouth when his insides froze with the possibility.
“Hunters,” both men said in unison.
Allison’s face paled as Creed racked his brain through the memory of the last fifteen minutes. They’d talked about Dani and the baby…
“Do you think they overhead us?”
Diego’s mouth formed a grim line. “We have to assume they did. Allison call down to Stix and see if anyone’s left the island in the last fifteen minutes. I don’t think it’s been that long though.”
Allison moved a few steps away for privacy and followed her mate’s instructions.
“Come to think of it, I didn’t see any cars in the parking lot when I arrived. How the hell did they get here?” They both turned and looked out over the water, seeing no signs of boats leaving from this side of the island.
“They could be anywhere. If this was an excuse to infiltrate the island there are a whole host of destinations they could choose from. Fuck!”
Creed mulled over the possibilities while whipping out his cell phone. He tapped out a quick message and sent it to every person who worked security either full or part time on the island. They needed all eyes on deck to find these assholes.
He also punched in the phone number for Drake who currently sat outside of Dani’s hospital room. He needed to keep an eye out.
Holding the phone to his ear, he listened to the ring hoping upon hope there wasn’t a problem. After about ten rings it flipped over to voicemail. “Drake, get your ass into Dani’s room and keep an eye on her. Then call me and tell me you got this. I’m on my way in. We might have a problem.”