Chapter Two
Chaz left his motorcycle a block from the diner and walked over. It was dark but the stars and moon were bright. He walked in the shadows, softly, interested only in seeing, not being seen.
He stood in amongst the building facades on the opposite side of the road as the diner. He looked over the large glass windows. He noticed a few people he recognized. Then he saw the blond head.
He leaned back onto the brick wall behind him. He watched as the man drank something. The man talked on the phone and Chaz could practically hear the thick Ukrainian accent he’d come to expect from these men.
Chaz looked down the street, noticed the cars parked, the motorcycles, he took in the people, analyzing and processing as he observed. Half of his job was just this, being observant. That’s what it meant to be a true hunter. It wasn’t about quick reactions, or going in without knowing and understanding what it was, he was going in to. It was about the wait, the approach, the understanding.
It was also about action but not without some anticipation. Perhaps that’s why he liked it, why he was so good at it. He liked to anticipate. Liked the game of it all. His real job was as the enforcer of Magus Motorcycle Club. He worked amongst his brothers and he, more than anyone else, kept them safe. Some people thought him ruthless, heartless, but they didn’t understand that the hunt didn’t allow for soft emotions. Empathy and forgiveness were not his talent.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and Chaz checked the number before answering.
“Anthony,” Chaz spoke into the phone.
“You there?” Anthony was the boss of the club.
Anthony was the analytic one, he made decisions to protect the club and neighborhood, he thought of all the possibilities before he delegated the action out, usually to Chaz. It was almost ironic. The entire club was comprised of bear shifters. Each one of them had the ability and most of them practiced it regularly. No sane person would ever enter the nearby forests without talking to Magus first. But Chaz, arguably the most violent when necessary, rarely shifted anymore. He preferred to take care of business with his own two hands. The days of his carelessly shifting were in his past. Now, the hot blood that ran through his veins stayed human.
“Yeah, I’m here.” Chaz looked at the man sitting alone in the diner. There was a brief sound of footsteps and Chaz looked across the road. “The other just showed up, I’ll call you back in five.”
Chaz disconnect and watched the other blonde man approach. Chaz had been able to identify the telltale signs of the mobsters immediately. Probably all of Magus had. There was something silver in them. An icy blue to their eyes, silver shining in the blonde hair. He knew they were wolf shifters. He could smell it from where he stood. Their sharp-featured faces held the same ruthless intentions. Those intentions were what brought Chaz out tonight.
The man walked quickly into the diner, he looked and found the other man who had been sipping a drink by himself. The two sat down and began talking.
Chaz watched intently. They leaned in close to one another, occasionally looking around themselves. The second man gestured over his shoulder in his animated talking. Chaz moved further back into the shadows. Where had the man parked? He hadn’t noticed a car coming in.
He pushed a hand across his jaw, felt the stubbly hairs that grew far too quickly. Chaz walked along shadows. He looked at the cars parked along the street. At the end of the block sat an old navy blue van that Chaz hadn’t seen before. He moved closer and crouched looking at the plate.
They were definitely fake. Chaz stood up and moved around the van. He turned on a small flashlight and looked into the windows. Clean enough.
Chaz listened to make sure there were no oncoming footsteps. He moved around the back of the van. Locked. There was a faint smell of something he couldn’t quite place. When he made his way back around to the driver side door, he put a small wedge into the door. He slid a small wire poker in to unlock the door. The door opened and leaned inside. There was barely a sign of anyone having been in the van. The wolf smell of the driver’s seat covered the smell he’d sensed at the rear.
He opened the console, empty. He unlocked the rest of the doors then looked in the pockets and under the seats. Under the passenger seat was a small slip of paper with an address and a question mark. The address was familiar, it was part of the territory that Chaz normally kept an eye out for. No immediate answer for the address came to him so he slipped it into his jacket pocket and kept looking.
When he opened the back door the smell came out to him. It was sugary and sweet, like a girl’s perfume, there was something vaguely adolescent about the smell. The back was open and empty. His light crept along the interior then landed on something pink.
Chaz leaned forward and picked it up. He looked at the loop for a long time before sliding it into his pocket next to the piece of paper. He relocked and closed the van and walked back into the shadows.
He hadn’t found drugs, he hadn’t found a dead body, but he wasn’t sure that, what he had found wasn’t worse.
Chaz pulled the little loop out of his pocket and looked at it again. Two call girls walked toward him. One was drooping with age but the other was young, too young to be in her line of work.
“You want some company,” the older one said as Chaz walked toward them.
“No,” Chaz shook his head. He held up the loop to the younger girl. “You know what this is?”
“We don’t do freebies, buddies.” The older one pulled on the girl’s arm.
Chaz reached for his wallet and pulled out two twenties, he lifted them to show the older woman. The older woman reached her hand out but Chaz pulled the bills away and gave them to the girl instead.
“I just need to know what this is,” he handed the girl the loop. The girl looked to the older woman then down to the pink glittery loop.
“…but it’s just a jelly bracelet.” The girl looked up with questioning eyes, obviously expecting Chaz to take the money back. The older woman pulled the bills out of the girl’s hand and tucked them into her bra.
“And who would wear something like this?” Chaz didn’t shift his focus from the girl.
“Any girl, high school, middle school probably…” Her wide young eyes looked from Chaz to the older woman.
“Ok,” Chaz nodded. He was about to walk away but turned back to the girl. “How old are you?”
“Interested?” The older woman seemed ready to push the girl into Chaz’s arms now that she knew he had cash.
He didn’t respond to the older woman but looked at the girl.
“I’m eighteen,” the girl said, obviously lying, and standing up taller.
“You shouldn’t be doing this, you should be in school…” Chaz felt a wave of heat and resentment toward the older woman who obviously cared nothing about the girl.
The woman grabbed the girl by the arm and pulled her away.
“Just, be careful,” Chaz said loudly to their retreating figures. “Stay away from the new men in town.” He felt his face burn hot with anger.
“We play to whoever pays,” the older woman shouted back at him. She laughed.
Chaz pulled out his phone as he walked back toward the diner and the direction of his motorcycle. He dialed in Anthony’s number.
“Hey.” Chaz looked at the bracelet in his hand. “We’ve got a problem.”