With a brutal slam, the two cops pushed Kaiden face down on the hard, damp asphalt. The solid, cold barrel of one of their handguns pressed to the back of his head. Bullets didn’t need to be silver to kill a werewolf. There just needed to be more of them. He was no fool, with at least six cops here, that made for a lot of firepower.
“You should have stopped when we said freeze!” the officer jabbing him with the gun snarled. His chubbier partner cuffed Kaiden’s wrist behind his back.
Kaiden had tried to run as soon as he spied what the officers had uncovered in the van. It’d been a stupid thing to do, but he understood what would happen if they caught him. This would be his third strike, which meant twenty years in the federal pen.
His first two crimes had been nothing like this. A fistfight that got out of control, and the second, he punched an off-duty cop in the mouth for getting lippy with his mother. No one talked to his mama like that behind her back—or to her face, for that matter.
Kaiden was dragged to his feet and he glared at the officers. He stood a good six inches taller than both the burly men. He growled low and deep as one of them shoved him into the backseat of the cruiser.
“Can you believe this one,” the officer with the busted lip said. He wiped the blood away with his free hand.
“How much do you think this is worth?” the second one asked. He tossed the duffle bag on the hood as he glanced at Kaiden. A little hostile glint was reflected in his eyes.
“Christ, there has to be at least five kilos of cocaine in there. That’s a lot of money!” He whistled sharply. Several other officers carried more planted evidence from Kaiden’s small van.
There was no way in hell he’d be able to talk his way out of this one. He owned the van, it was his duffle bags, and he’d been behind the wheel when they’d pulled him over. As they drove away, Kaiden caught sight of Trites. He stood in the small crowd with a smirk on his face as he kept an eye on the events from the sidelines. The last words he said yesterday evening at the bar drifted through Kaiden’s thoughts.
“You should take this deal. She’s worth more money than you’ll ever see.” Trites had snarled after Kaiden had refused the job.
“I told you I’m a soldier for hire, not a kidnapper. Now fly the fuck out of my mother’s bar!” he ordered just before he tossed the pompous ass out. Apparently, he’d given Trites the wrong answer.
Seven days later.
The man fidgeted and scanned the place over with a slight glint of fear reflecting on his face. People in Mr. Henderson’s social standing didn’t come into this area of New York City known as the Barrens. Not unless they were up to something illegal. The folks there consisted of bikers, ex-cons, hardened criminals, and mercenaries just like him and most of them were Denizens. They were the creatures of fairytales and monster movies. They all existed, just not out in the open, and the Barrens seemed to have more than its fair share of them.
Mr. Henderson stood out in this crowd with his finely-tailor suit, smooth clean-shaven face, and proper English. He trembled as he stood clutching a big yellow envelope. Caleb held his chuckle in check. If he wasn’t there to do business with him this crew would have done a number on Henderson.
The older man slid the package across the table. He uneasily glanced around at the other patrons in The Broken Cue bar. Caleb picked up the large packet and nodded for Mr. Henderson to follow him into the back office. He didn’t want everyone in there knowing what they were up to. Even though half the patrons were supernatural, he was damn sure Henderson was one of the clueless mundanes.
Caleb leafed through the contents. His attention was immediately drawn to the pretty girl in the photos. This wasn’t his usual kind of job.
“Who is she?” he asked, glancing at the short, frail man.
“The biggest payout you’ll ever see,” Henderson explained. “Miss Callaghan is the richest lady in the States.”
“How big a payout are we looking at?” he asked with faked keen interest.
“Right now, she’s worth just over Eighty billion dollars, but we’re only going after three hundred million. Split three ways, of course.” The man scrutinized his face carefully, and Caleb tried not to let shock show on his own at the astronomical amount.
That kind of cash amounted to more than he thought of ever having. But both Trites and Henderson would make sure to cut him and his brother out. No doubt setting things up so Kaiden and himself would take the fall for the whole fiasco. Then they could just disappear with the money.
“You’re sure there’ll be easy access to that kinda dough?” he asked pointedly. He assumed most wealthy folks would keep their investments tied up in stocks and bonds.
“Oh yes. The funds have already been liquidated into an account set up for transfer. I made sure the money is accessible via a clause in her trust fund.”
“Okay, you got a deal. Tell your boss this job goes down my way or the arrangement is off.” He growled. Caleb had no other choice but to take the proposal they were offering.
“You’re sure you can do this?”
“Of course, I can. Here, this is for you. You’re going to need to wear it.” He tossed the big brown paper bag to Henderson. With shaky hands, he opened it and took a nervous glance back up to Caleb before he peered inside. His face blanched, then he stared at Caleb with an expression of disgust on his face.
“Can’t you find someone else?” he asked with a croak.
“The fewer people involved, the less likely we are to be caught red-handed,” Caleb smiled cruelly. He wished his brother could be here to witness this.
His twin, Kaiden, sat in the Big House. Securely locked away from all the nice civil people in the world. Henderson and Trites had made sure there would be no way Caleb could refuse this job. His brother’s freedom depended on it.
After Henderson left, Caleb sat in the office and thumbed through the pictures. He carefully studied each and every one of them. These were personal photos. Taken by someone the heiress knew, as she always stared directly at the camera. How the hell did Henderson manage to get his hands on them, he thought. She was extremely pretty, young, and most of the images caught her with a smile. It didn’t seem to reach her eyes though. They were sad, empty almost. They reminded him so much of his own. He had to wonder how anyone with so much money could appear so hopeless.
As he read the information his unwanted partner had left him, Caleb smirked to himself. Surprisingly, she’d be an easy target. There would be no bodyguard to deal with and by all accounts, she didn’t carry a gun. The takedown spot he’d chosen would be in an isolated stretch of road leading up into the Catskills Mountains. He had full intention of releasing the girl after the money had been dropped off via her uncle to Henderson. His partner said he had no problems with that either, which made this job simpler.
If by some fluke of luck they managed to pull this off and Caleb and Kaiden did receive that kind of money, they and their mother would be set. The two had never had much in their adult life other than this bar. Thrown a bone now and again by his uncle’s pack, but otherwise, they were outcasts left to fend for themselves. That’s what happened when a Lycan female bred with a human. They were exiled. And that fate befell their mother. She’d been forced to raise her pups outside the protection of the pack.
Males had the right to breed with human women. As only they had the glands connected to their fangs to turn someone into a werewolf. Even then, the chance of the change killing the person bitten was so great, that his kind only used it in desperate measures. Therefore, they tended to only find mates within their own kind, which wasn’t easy.
Females weren’t as frequently born. So when his mother had chosen a human male, it’d sent a shock wave through the Lycan pack. His Uncle Tim had hated throwing his sister to the curb, but their rules were very clear about these things. And even he’d had to obey the laws. Tim at least made sure the bar stayed protected by the pack and had made it their favorite watering hole.
Their daily visits helped keep the place running.
