Tommy shrugged and made his way into his trailer, that dumb smirk still lingering on his lips.
Nuke didn’t like it.
“He’s weird,” Amos said. He’d appeared out of nowhere and leaned against the corner of his trailer, right next to Nuke’s. “Last night he was asking questions about all of the Crew, but mostly he wanted to know about you.”
“About me?” Nuke asked.
“Yeah. Personal shit. I didn’t answer any but he kept coming back to you, asking more and more.”
“I don’t like this,” Ren murmured. “I have some contacts I can try. Manning has to have something on Trina. Nuke…” She arched her eyebrows high and beseeched him with her eyes. “She could barely look away from you yesterday.” She put her hand to her chest. “I know how that feels. She wouldn’t hurt you unless she was forced.”
“You also believe in the good in everyone, Ren,” Amos murmured. “Sometimes people just ain’t good, no matter how much you want them to be.”
“Screw you guys then,” Ren said. “I’ll figure all this out on my own.”
“How long will it take?” Nuke asked softly.
“A few hours. Don’t worry. I got this.”
Trina was going back to Manning now. She had an hour head start on them. Protect her.
The dragon’s snarl inside of him scared him. Nuke stood in a rush and backed up a few paces. He’d imagined it…right?
“What’s wrong?” Amos asked.
The animal had talked. The monster had talked. He’d spoken his first words. Right? Protect her? What the fuck. What the fuck!
Nuke’s heart was hammering against his sternum. He’d imagined it. The monster didn’t talk. It didn’t have logic. It killed. It burned. That’s all it was built to do. Its sole purpose was destruction.
Protect her.
Fuck.
He should’ve asked her why. Ren was right. He’d been so hurt, so angry, that his mind had clouded. He’d just wanted her gone so he could ache alone.
He ran inside and grabbed his phone, called Trina.
No answer.
No answer.
And then the phone went straight to her voicemail like her phone had died or she’d turned it off. He tried again and again with the same result. Her phone was definitely off.
Shit!
Her threw his phone on the bed and swallowed down a roar of frustration.
He chewed on the side of his lip and stared out the front window. A few hours was too long. Nuke shot up and jogged out of his trailer and down his porch stairs.
“Where are you going?” Amos called after him.
“To find out some answers,” he snarled.
Tommy knew he was coming. The second Nuke opened Tommy’s front door, a gray wolf launched at his face. Nuke was slammed backward out of the door, and Tommy’s razor-sharp teeth sank into Nuke’s face. He tried to rip his head off, but that stupid wolf didn’t know dragon rules. Only fire could kill him.
Nuke landed on all fours and lifted his bleeding face to the woods, where he’d thought Tommy would be retreating.
Amos stood there with the scruff of the wolf’s neck held so tightly in his hand, the skin on his face and throat were stretched taut. The wolf struggled, but Amos shook him within an inch of his life and the wolf stilled.
Nuke hadn’t realized how strong Amos really was until this moment.
Blood poured onto the grass from the gashes on Nuke’s face. He stood and allowed the wolf to watch his skin cinch together and heal within seconds.
Nuke smiled.
“Bring him inside,” he told Amos. “We have some work to do.”
“Krome and Bron are on their way,” Ren called.
“Change back now,” Amos advised as he dragged the enormous wolf into his trailer. “Change back or I’ll let Nuke choose left or right. Which leg do you want sawed off first? Werewolves can heal well, but can you re-grow a fucking leg?” Amos asked.
Nuke dragged a single chair into the center of the room, then made his way to Tommy’s bag and rifled through it quickly. Nothing. He made his way to the mattress and pulled his pocket knife, sank it deep into the mattress and pulled the thick fabric apart. And then he moved to the side to show Amos the wads of cash. “Hundred-dollar bills. Bet this isn’t your savings from…what was his job before?” he called to Ren, who was hopping up into the trailer with them.
“Storage facility security. Night shift crew,” she answered.
Nuke stood and yanked his knife out of the mattress. “Left or right?” He roared to the wolf, who still hadn’t changed back. He rushed him and grabbed one of his scrabbling back legs, pulled it straight and set the blade against his skin. “You working for Manning?”
The wolf struggled for his life.
Nuke made a deep cut, and the wolf howled in pain that turned into a man’s scream as he changed back in a rush. Tommy fell to the floor and yelled, “He has her sister!”
“What?” Amos demanded. “Whose sister?”
“That’s what you want to know, right? You want to know what Manning did to her? He has her fucking sister. Fuck! Let me go. None of this is worth it. None of this is worth it.” He chanted that last part over and over as he curled in on himself and held his bleeding thigh together.
Nuke backed away and dropped the knife onto the counter, ran his hands through his hair and gripped it. Manning had her sister? Tory. She’d talked about Tory. Tory was her person. She was Trina’s anchor and Manning had her.
Fuck. He turned to Ren, but Ren already knew. He could tell by the look on her face. “How far ahead is she?”
“An hour.”
Bron and Krome were in the doorway now, looking at each of them in question.
Ren jammed her finger at Tommy. “Traitor. Been feeding information to Manning, and so has Trina.”
“Where is Trina?” Krome demanded.
Token. She’d mentioned a token. Tokens were important. “Going back to Manning. I…” Nuke shook his head, trying to rattle his thoughts into something coherent. “I found out she was feeding him information and I pushed her out. Manning has her sister.” A snarl ripped through him and he stilled. Nothing moved on him but his heaving chest. “Manning took her sister.”
“I just want to leave. I’m leaving!” Tommy yelled.
Bron hopped up into the trailer and crouched in front of Tommy. “The thing is…you signed your Crew paperwork. In blood. Remember? Packs and Crews are different, but in some ways, they’re the same.” Bron cocked his head. “You don’t turn traitor on your Crew.”
Nuke had known Bron was tough. Broken a little, maybe. The scars on his body told a story Nuke didn’t know yet, but now? With a look over his shoulder at Krome, his King nodded once and told Nuke and the others, “Out of the trailer.”
Okay. They were good. They knew to do whatever needed to be done. This was a lesson Ren would spread to the masses. No one was going to come in and turn traitor without consequences.
All right. This Crew had his attention.
Nuke hopped out of the trailer behind Ren and made his way to his trailer. He grabbed his keys and his phone and then he jogged to his truck. Turning dragon would get him there faster, but he would destroy the entire earth from here to Manning’s territory, and it wouldn’t help Trina.