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“It’s protected by a ward.”
“Oh, that’s villainous.” Gunner cackled deeply from his seat. He was the only one who hadn’t shifted away from the table. “The only way they’d be able to break the ward was if their names were on the deed and ownership transferred to them. Even then, it’s not foolproof if she has a blood relative to take over the shop.”
“What information?” Wolf demanded.
“I can’t tell you that.” Granny shook her head sadly.
“Dammit, Granny,” Wolf huffed, shoving a hand through his hair. “You can’t keep doing this.”
“Okay.” I stepped between the two before Wolf lost control. The alpha dick energy was starting to suffocate the room. “If you can’t tell us what the information is, can you tell us why Delta would want it?”
She pondered for a moment, her eyes lowering to the ground as she debated what she wanted to tell us.
“Delta Feed is a subsidiary of another…company that I started a very long time ago,” she whispered. Pain crossed her features again. “A company I was unable to keep control of. I inadvertently created a monster. My dream blackened. I was young, much younger than I am now, and I ran. A few of the founders came with me. We tried to fight back against the onslaught of corruption but…” She stopped, her hand seizing her chest.
“Granny!” I grabbed her shoulders, peering down at her pain-stricken face.
“It isn’t that you don’t want to tell us, is it?” Gunner eyed her from across the table. His relaxed demeanor faded as he took in her state. “You can’t. Can you?”
Granny shook her head, her breathing evening out as the pain receded.
“It’s a blood oath,” Gunner stated. “She can’t talk about it with anyone who doesn’t share her blood. They can’t be broken, and they’re fucking painful when someone tries to usurp the rules. It’s also very old magic. I haven’t heard of blood oaths being used in nearly a hundred years.”
Guilt. That was the look I was seeing on her face now. Guilt and shame. Whatever she was hiding, it wasn’t good.
“We’ll drop it,” Wolf grunted. “For now.” Granny nodded repentantly. I’d never seen her shaken up before. Wolf bangedthe gavel. “Church is in session. Why don’t you tell us why we’re all here?”
Taking a deep breath, she took her seat on Wolf’s left side and fired up her tablet. We each had one that could easily share digital information between us.
“Two months ago, when Delta started sniffing around my shop, I did some digging,” she started, airdropping the information to us. “They purchased a plot of land just outside Haven’s borders. The old Miller farm.”
“I hadn’t realized it was up for sale,” Shazam told us.
Granny sneered. “It never hit the market. After the entire farm got sick, humans and cattle alike, the county sold it to Delta for less than fifty percent of the asking price without bothering to put up a sales ad.”
Curses rose up around the table.
“Million bucks says Delta had something to do with that sickness,” Bruiser growled. “Just like my hometown.”
I grimaced at the memory. Bruiser’s entire hometown in Montana had become sick. Shifters went feral, attacking people at random in a rabid haze before their hearts gave out or they were put down like dogs. His wife, who was human, had fallen sick and died of an unknown infection after only a few days.
“But why?” Sideshow pondered, rubbing his goatee. “What do they have to gain from killing off farming communities? It can’t just be the land.”
All eyes turned to Granny, whose face paled.
“I already told you I can’t…”
Wolf shook his head in disappointment.
“Maybe we should have you spill your secrets to your niece, huh, Granny?” I snarked. “Bring her in, and you can let it all out.”
Granny winced.
“She’s not ready for all of that.”
“And you just get to decide that?” Bruiser sneered, his eyes darkening. “I sure as hell wasn’t ready for my wife to die or to have to shoot my fucking father after he tore my mother to shreds. This is a goddamn war, Granny, and that means we must have all the power we can before going up against them.”
Switzerland sighed. “He’s right, Granny,” the biker pushed, breaking his normal silence. Switzerland rarely ever took sides. He’d been a prospect for years, quiet and obedient, and that transferred over into being patched. We’d all thought the twenty-two-year-old Hemsworth look-alike would change, but he never had.
