“Those men are the ones protecting Chantal where you failed.” My words were laced with venom as I spoke. “You said she was meant for Raven? Says who? Why? I have so many fucking questions and you’re going to come with us until we can get them answered.”
“You know we’re not letting you go until we verify the information, but even if we do, you aren’t taking her with you.” Knox was no-nonsense as he spoke and gave the signal for everyone to start wrapping up what we were doing. It was possible this guy had already signaled whoever he worked for, and since we still didn’t know the truth of the matter, we had to get back to our own territory as quickly as possible.
“Might want to put in a call to the rest of the Michigan Chapters,” I told Knox as we moved to leave. “Might need the backup depending on how this goes down.”
“Already working on it,” he assured me.
Chapter Three Hundred Eighty-Two
The clubhouse was buzzing with members when we got back. For once, they weren’t just partying or prepping to party. They were getting ready to go to war, just in case it was necessary.
“Why don’t you go sit on your hoard, and keep your shiny shit warm?” Brace called out to Bomber. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on between the two of them, but it was clear there was some sort of tension the rest of us were missing.
“Are they having a lover’s quarrel?” Chantal asked me quietly, for all the good her lowered voice did. They still heard her. Bomber sputtered out the sip of beer he’d just taken while Brace turned, red-faced toward Chantal with a slack-jawed look of disbelief.
“We have work to do,” Bomber muttered before turning away from everyone and walking off.
“Sorry,” Chantal whispered. I was beginning to think she was on to something though. Now that it had been pointed out, I wondered.
“Stay in your own lane,” Brace told me as he shoved me out of his way. He turned back to grin at Chantal though, giving her a wink as he did. “You’re still my new bestie, sweetness!”
“Oh!” she called out in mock surprise. “I can die fulfilled now!”
Everyone laughed at her response, and it was just the thing to break the rest of the tension in the room. “Gray!” Knox’s voice boomed across the room. “Let’s go!”
I hurriedly pulled Chantal toward Bomber. “Stick by Bomber, Wooly, Mammoth, or Brace. Everyone else will be too busy, and I want someone to keep an eye on you while I’m handling business.”
“I got it,” she assured me, then moved closer to Bomber. “Is there something I can help with?”
“Can you cook?”
“I can,” she told him with a smile as the two moved off toward the kitchen area. Knowing she would be busy and safely tucked away with someone I trusted was the only reason I managed to make it so quickly to the room where we were currently keeping the rogue panther we had caught lurking around Chantal’s place.
“Listen up, asshole, because I’m only going to ask once. I want to know exactly who you are, who you work for, and what orders you were given in regards to Chantal Piper.” Knox rattled his demand off to the panther who just sat in the corner looking defeated as hell.
“What I want to know is what sort of dumb fuck sends a lacky to collect a woman he supposedly planned on claiming for himself?” I added. That got the asshole’s attention. Apparently, he had a lot of love for his boss.
“You don’t want to be disrespecting the council members like that,” he offered along with an ineffectual sneer.
“Answer my fucking questions before I lose my patience with you.” Knox wasn’t fucking around with this guy any longer.
“Name’s Jake Hawthorn,” he informed us. We had the room wired, so no doubt, Aces was already on it. He was our in-house information technology specialist. “I work for Raven Blackwell,” he started to say.
“Raven Blackwell? His parents were kind of redundant, weren’t they? ‘I work for mister Black Black’,” Brace said in the most condescending voice he could as he closed the door behind himself. He handed a piece of paper to Knox. No doubt it was confirmation about what we had already been told so far at Chantal’s place, and would just confirm what the asshole was telling us again now.
Jake Hawthorn rolled his eyes at Brace’s antics and continued on. “Raven is one of the Council of Cats. He was promised Chantal Piper, just as the two other councilmen were promised her sisters. Only one has managed to get close.”
“How are you keeping in contact with Raven?” I asked.
“My cell,” he admitted openly. I didn’t trust the fact that he was being so open with the information he was giving us. At the same time, my gift led me to believe he wasn’t being deceptive. “I’m not trying to pull one over on you. It serves no purpose to lie to you at this point. There will be hell to pay for my failure to secure the woman for Raven. He will want retribution. Some of that will be my price to pay, the rest, he’ll want off the backs of the men who tried to harm Miss Piper.”
“And what of our club who intervened on her behalf?” Knox asked.
“He can’t really hold you responsible for something done in her defense, now can he?”
“He also can’t take her away since she’s my mate,” I countered.
He lowered his head in defeat once more. “That fact will sting, but I can’t say as to how he will react or behave when he finds out.”
“We’ll see real soon.
