“Okay, you can kill the light back here,” he told Cody who was driving. “Good job, Drake.”
“It’s not enough to keep them from refiling charges, is it?” he grumbled from the front passenger seat of the truck.
“No, but that’s the point of this little trip, isn’t it?” In the mood the three of them were in, Farnsworth would be lucky to slip into bed tonight unscathed.
“I can’t wait to get my claws into that bastard.”
“This isn’t Afghanistan, Drake. Remember that,” Gavin warned.
“No, but it is war. Us against the enemy of one of our own.”
Cody flicked his gaze to the rearview mirror, looking at Gavin in the back as he asked, “How is your girl taking to your wolf?”
There was no denying the thread of hope in Cody’s voice and Gavin wondered, not for the first time, if his middle brother had met and lost his mate. Aislyn’s acceptance of their heritage was a boon for all of them, if only he was sure the elder McCulloughs would see it that way. “Better than I expected, or even hoped. But that could be because the threat of going to prison is looming over her head and she’s not giving it her full attention.” He prayed that wasn’t it, that she continued to embrace him and his lineage with an open mind. Only time would tell though.
They reached the outskirts of Boise in three and a half hours, lucky enough to avoid a ticket as they pushed the speed limit. “This is it.” Drake pointed to a turnoff that led into an upscale housing development five miles from Boise’s city limits. The five-acre lots separating the large houses worked in their favor.
Cody parked around the corner from the gated community, leaving the truck next to a cluster of trees out of sight of the main road. The three of them got out to survey the layout and locate the back of Farnsworth’s house.
“That’s easy enough.” Cody waved a hand toward the back of a house a few blocks down.
“You two shift and I’ll make my way inside. You’re sure this jammer will work?” Gavin asked Drake, holding up the homemade device, his own wolf vibrating in anticipation of confronting their mate’s enemy.
“It worked well enough on our system; I had to reprogram everything.” Drake flashed a quick grin, proof he’d enjoyed the extra task caused from testing his homemade device.
Gavin nodded. “Let’s hope that will be the least of this bastard’s problems after tonight.”
It had been a long time since he’d snuck around at night, in his human form anyway, and Gavin crept his way toward their victim’s house with a surge of adrenaline he usually only experienced when his wolf went hunting. As soon as he reached the back yard he got a whiff of the secluded garden of marijuana plants growing behind a cluster of lilac bushes. Peeking through the hedge, he took in the size of the garden bed. Without a doubt, Farnsworth could be charged with trafficking considering the number of plants he was growing. His curiosity was drawn to the shed a few feet away. The padlock on the windowless structure made him suspect a meth lab, given Farnsworth’s drug history Drake’s sleuthing had unearthed. Good to know he’s dumb enough to have more ammunition to use against him if needed.
Keeping low, Gavin crossed the yard to the back door. True to his word, Drake’s jammer worked like a charm as soon as he slipped inside and held it up to the blinking lights on the alarm box on the wall. The lights went out and the house remained silent. They already knew Farnsworth was still at his weekly poker game. Now, as he opened the door for his brothers to trot inside, all they had to do was lie in wait.
****
Heath pulled into his garage just after eleven feeling damn good after his winnings tonight and the meth buzz he treated himself to on the way home. He chuckled as he went inside and straight to the small bar in his office, thinking what gullible fools he played poker with every week. He was careful to keep the cheating at a minimum, resorting to those sleight of hand moves only when he was losing big. The moonlight splashing through the window enabled him to pour a whiskey without turning on the light until he settled behind his desk. His pleasant buzz shriveled to a cold chill as a low, menacing growl froze his hand on the desktop lamp, a shiver of uneasiness slithering down his spine along with a roll of sweat.
“What the hell?” he muttered, taking a breath and turning on the light. It didn’t shed a lot of illumination but enough to make out the large furry shapes crouched on either side of the door and the feral glow of the wolves’ eyes. He pushed to his feet in panic, glanced at the window in the hopes he could escape the way they must have come in, but instead saw another scary apparition in the form of a man seated in the corner.
“Who...what the fuck are you doing in my house?” Heath reached over and turned the lamp up another notch, shedding enough light to reveal the stranger’s size as he sat with negligent ease in the tipped back chair, a rifle cradled like a lover in his arms, a Stetson as dark as the rest of him hiding most of his face.
“Sit down, Heath. We’re going to have a chat.”
That guttural tone held a hint of malice that turned his knees to jelly. “What about? Do I know you?” The man’s stillness was as unnerving as the wolves.
“Tsk, tsk, Heath. Let’s say we’re more than a little miffed at the way you set up Aislyn to take the fall for you with the auditors last week.”
Heath remained standing, poised
