Wolf Untamed (SWAT - Special Wolf Alpha Team #11) - Paige Tyler Page 0,95

IT support-staff guy without the warden’s knowledge.”

Hobbs didn’t say anything, his heart beating fast as he tried to figure out how badly he was screwed. Diego didn’t let him wait long to find out.

“We’re ready to assume you’re sitting on certain facts hoping to break a big story. The alternative is that you’re working with Cowell, helping him rob banks and jewelry stores and pocketing your share.” Diego shrugged. “You get to decide which way this goes from here.”

Ernest looked around the table, regarding each of them. “I’m not involved in any of this, but I’m willing to tell you everything I know. In return, I want exclusive rights to this story when everything hits the fan.”

Diego snorted. Hobbs was definitely living down to the very low opinion he had of the man. The guy would sell his mother for a story. “If we decide you did nothing worthy of putting you in jail—and we get first edit on your article—we don’t have a problem with letting you write the story. But if you lie to us—”

“Deal,” Hobbs said, obviously not needing to hear the rest of the threat. “But I have to tell you up front, there’s a part of what I’m about to tell you that might be difficult to believe. It’s a little out there.”

“Try us,” Hale said. “We do okay with weird.”

Hobbs sat there a moment looking down at the table, like he was trying to collect his thoughts. “I’d heard around the courthouse that a guy convicted of manslaughter with a shitty prison record had walked out of Coffield a free man halfway into his sentence. My gut told me there was a story there, so I did some digging.”

“The security video footage was from the laundry area where Dave’s cellmate died,” Diego interrupted, not interested in the long version of this story. “What was on it?”

“I saw Cowell lead Bremen into an alcove, like he knew the camera wouldn’t be able to get a clear shot of him, then there was a struggle.”

“If you couldn’t see them, how did you know there was a struggle?” Trey prompted from beside Diego.

“I could just make out Bremen’s feet peeking out from the alcove. They were bouncing and jerking like someone was beating on him. Thirty seconds later, Cowell walked out. He had blood running down his chin, and he was chewing on something.”

Diego exchanged looks with his pack mates to see they seemed as confused as he was. He turned back to Hobbs. “What do you think Dave was eating?”

Hobbs made a face. “Isn’t it obvious? Cowell was eating a chunk of his cellmate.”

Diego did a double take. From the corner of his eye, he caught Trey and Hale looking at each other in surprise. One of the correctional officers from Coffield had mentioned something about bite marks on Bremen’s body, but seriously?

“You’re telling us Dave Cowell ate human flesh so he could corner the market on the delirium drug Bremen created?” Diego asked.

Crap, he couldn’t believe he was saying this out loud.

Hobbs stared at him, like Diego had caught him off guard. After a moment, he shrugged. “I told you it was bizarre. It gets even stranger.”

“We’re listening,” Hale said.

Hobbs sat back in his seat. “Delirium isn’t a drug at all.”

Diego’s eyes narrowed. Another of his assumptions kicked to the curb. “What is it then?”

“I don’t know what it is,” Hobbs said. “But after seeing the video, I started following Cowell. I saw him walk up to a guy standing beside his BMW, talking on his phone. Cowell bit his own finger hard enough to make it bleed, then wiped the blood on the guy’s arm. One second, the guy is on his phone, the next he’s handing Cowell his wallet, Rolex, and car keys. He freaking stood there and watched Cowell drive away in his BMW.”

Hale frowned. “Did he call the cops?”

Hobbs shook his head. “Nope. He stood there on the curb for an hour, staring into space.”

Diego would have called BS if his inner werewolf wasn’t so sure Hobbs was telling the absolute truth. Now that he thought about it, this explained why those college kids and the construction workers had acted differently after encountering Dave. It seemed too impossible to be real, but it made some kind of weird sense.

“I watched Cowell do the same thing multiple times over the next few days. He’d wipe his blood on them, then take control of them.” Hobbs shook his head, as if he couldn’t