Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,155

the impression that he talked big but he was afraid of whoever was giving the orders. I think that’s why he was rough with me; he needed to prove he was a scary son of a bitch because he was afraid.”

He had reason to be afraid, Jana thought. Whoever caught up to him isn’t just a scary son of a bitch; whoever is out there enjoys inflicting pain as much as he enjoys killing.

“Did Charlie mention any names?” Jana asked.

Candice shook her head. “He was always careful about that, even when he was bragging.” She frowned. “A couple of times early on he said things about the people he was working with. Called one the Gambler and called another one the Knife. Then one night he came over and he was really scared. That was the first time he hit me. But he never used even those code names after that night.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Candice had barely closed the outer door when Virgil walked out of his office.

“This Charlie Webb ran with a pack,” Virgil said.

“Sounds like it.”

“You think he ran from the pack enforcer called the Knife?”

According to Abby, the Blackstone Clan was a family of gamblers and swindlers. Dalton Blackstone, Abby’s brother, had been at the Dixon ranch when another man attacked Melanie Dixon. Charlie Webb had been recovering from a gunshot wound before someone had found him and killed him. Odds were good he had been shot while driving away from the ranch, and that connected him with Dalton Blackstone.

She’d have to ask Abby if her father was known as the Gambler. If he was, then someone else in that group was called the Knife—and was nearby.

“Before you came to Bennett, you were the dominant enforcer for your pack, right?” Jana asked.

She looked into his eyes and wondered if Wolves suffered from survivor guilt.

“Yes,” Virgil replied, a warning growl beneath the word.

“If the actions of a member of the pack had put the rest of the pack in danger, what would you have done? I don’t mean making a mistake, but a deliberate act.”

“The enforcers would drive that Wolf out of the pack. But if that Wolf continued to be a threat, I would hunt it down and tear out its throat.”

Not so different from the Knife, then. Once you were accepted, you didn’t betray the pack. And since most packs were usually made up of family members …

Gods! What if they realized Abby was here and had been the one who identified Dalton Blackstone?

“We need to tell Tolya about this.”

Virgil nodded. “He’s expecting us.”

Of course he was. She kept thinking that Virgil was as new to police work as she was, but that wasn’t true. The human elements of the job were new to him, but he’d had plenty of experience protecting a pack.

She looked at him, stunned she hadn’t seen it until now.

He was experienced. And that’s why he’d realized this morning that a human enforcer for the outlaw clan was now encroaching on his territory.

CHAPTER 29

Moonsday, Messis 27

Tolya listened to the four businessmen spew nonsense about saloons being places where men could “cut loose” after a hard day’s work, and how they were the ones who would be able to bring such entertainment to Bennett and do it up right. Whatever that meant.

He wasn’t a stranger to business deals that involved humans—he’d handled agreements between the terra indigene and humans when he had lived in the Toland Courtyard. But Bennett was a different kind of place with particular needs and very strict rules, and if these strangers really had been “savvy” businessmen, they would have known that. Which meant there was something off about these men and their talk of business opportunities in the Midwest. The only opportunities these men could provide in most of the Midwest towns were easy meals for the terra indigene who were occupying those places.

Still, he listened because it gave him time to study the other predator in the room: Parlan Blackstone. The man had said nothing after the introductions were made, and gave the appearance of being an associate, an employee, of the other four men. He wasn’t. Tolya wasn’t sure yet how or why he was connected to the businessmen, but he was sure Blackstone wasn’t the one taking orders. Not from those men.

Tolya waited until the men finally stopped talking, having said the same things a couple of times, proving they had no understanding of how Bennett worked or whom they would be dealing with.

The four men looked