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She followed his request and he squatted between her legs. Once more, he took a minute to reassure himself she was okay. He touched her everywhere, checking for broken bones. Then, he glanced at Kurt. “I’m convinced now more than ever before. Our suspicions are accurate.” He cupped Pageant’s round face and dragged his thumb across her swollen bottom lip. “Listen to me and don’t interrupt me until I’m done.”
Pageant thinned her lips. After an obvious internal debate, she nodded.
He was beginning to believe that asking Pageant to be quiet was akin to asking a toddler to sit still. He was wasting his breath.
“McKinney was right. Alabama wasn’t the first time the extortionist struck. Several years ago in Oklahoma, one of the Bold and Free riders stumbled upon a small town during a rage killing, one that was thought to have started as a domestic dispute gone terribly wrong.
“Drugs were involved so it was quickly dismissed as just that. The extortionist’s first attack, at least the first one we discovered, went down as a closed case with four star athletes committing suicide by a heroin overdose.”
“Let me guess. There weren’t any track marks?”
“No, and not only was it a bizarre claiming, but the coroner’s office backed up their claims in statements to the press. It’s the only attack we can find documented and the only reason it is public record is because it’s entirely false.”
“Why would someone try to cover up the extortionist’s activity?” she asked.
“I’m getting there,” Randon said, taking a seat on the short dresser. “The Bold and Free rider found out the locals hadn’t called in the Feds, so he did that. He even waited at the state line for the field agents. When they arrived, the Feds couldn’t cross the county line. Marcus Lanks, our Bold and Free brother who witnessed it all, said it was like a heavy purplish-blue glaze fell in front of their vehicles. Those who tried to walk across the state lines were enveloped by independent funnels, thought to be filled with poisonous gases.”
“Were those suspicions confirmed?” she asked.
“No,” Randon replied. “Several MC chapters were nearby and when Marcus called for his brothers’ help, they were able to cross lines without any probl
ems. Over the course of two days, one hundred and four bikers rolled over the county lines but not one Federal Agent.”
“That isn’t a coincidence.”
“No,” Kurt said, standing. “And it’s why the Bold and Free members became involved with the ongoing investigation. For one reason or another, the extortionist wanted to deal only with us.”
“Because you’re criminals?” she suggested.
Kurt’s lips twitched. “A lot has changed since our founding fathers got together and raised a little hell. Death has a way of changing a person’s perspective and since death seemed to follow us around for a while, we started paying closer attention to the clues left behind.”
“Like?”
Randon hesitated. “I wasn’t entirely upfront when we met.”
“Neither was I,” she said, shooting him a grin that would melt an average man’s heart.
His, however, quickly hardened. He couldn’t have his mate keeping things from him. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“You first,” she said in that agitated silken voice he’d come to quickly recognize as pure stubbornness.
“Based on findings to support the evidence we have, we believe the extortionist takes personality traits and various characteristics from his victims, but he wants something more from the person he believes belongs to him.”
“You keep saying ‘he’ as if you’re certain we’re dealing with a person.”
“The extortionist here in Pleasant is a male. We’re certain because”—Kurt paused, searched Randon’s face, and continued—“he’s still here.”
“It’s more than that. When you were in the parking lot the night Bart was attacked, I followed the extortionist into the woods. Once there, it became obvious he was leading me deeper into the forest. I won’t go into all the particulars, but something occurred to me then.
“We may be dealing with an entity that has inside knowledge of pack laws and how the Bold and Free, in particular, operates. The extortionist may be one of us. Either that or he has inside connections we haven’t found yet.”
“When we first met, you weren’t sure there was more than one,” she said.
“We’re sure there’s more than one,” Randon said, retrieving his phone and scanning his messages. Finding a text message he received before he burst into Pageant’s meeting, he handed her his cell. “Another one struck late yesterday in East Tennessee. Two at one time confirms our suspicions are accurate.”
“You keep saying he believes I belong to him. The only thing you have to go on is that he’s still in Pleasant and…?”
“Our investigation shows none of these incidences have occurred in the same town unless they occur in the same location, generally a man or woman’s house—a man or woman who is later killed and left for dead. Days later, generally after these people are buried, they’re often spotted roaming their towns. Some of them have even returned to sleep in their former beds.”
