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“McKenzie wants to expand into Okanogan?” Titus asked, considering it. “Asshole. But you’re right, he couldn’t win a challenge fight with Tom. If he sends an assassin, he’d better be good — better be a squad. But that’s beyond McKenzie’s reach. Especially if Tom’s in Asia as you say.”
Benny’s eyes narrowed. Titus was hiding something. That last line.Washis father in Asia? He started to probe, when Ryder straightened up. “We’ve got trouble,” Ryder said, looking up the knoll where his men were on lookout. One of them was headed toward them at a good run.
“How do you want to handle this?” Ryder asked Benny. “It’s your show.”
Benny looked around, and for the first time he realized Jessie had been standing nearby, listening in. Didn’t matter, but the girl was good, if even he didn’t notice. He really was going to recruit her if Abby needed an intelligencer service. And she was going to, sooner or later.
“We form a loose circle to greet them,” Benny said rapidly. “Then, it depends on who comes. But essentially, it’s a challenge circle. I’ll talk, if you don’t mind. Ask some questions. We’ll go from there.”
The guard came into the camp. “Can’t tell who it is,” he said. “An SUV and a pickup. So more than four, or they wouldn’t need two.”
Benny nodded. Probably so, although if they thought they’d have prisoners going back, they might bring an extra rig.
The second guard was running fast when he hit the camp not far behind the first one. “They made the turn up the hill,” he said. “Pickup driver has his window down. Scenting for shifters, I’d guess.”
Which also made sense.
“OK, listen up,” Benny said, shifting personas. He widened his stance, dropped his filters. One of these days he was just going to leave them down —get rid of the easygoing playboy persona forever. Which would suck — he liked that Benny Garrison.
“Loose circle —like for a challenge fight,” Benny repeated. “Circle opens to where he’s going to get out of that pickup. That’s going to be the leader. I ask questions. He makes demands. I put him down, you grab his men. Get the bungie cords from your packs.”
The men nodded and got them. Benny ignored what else they might have gotten from those packs. He had strapped on a knife sheath himself this morning. He had been surprised the pack had waited this long to come after them.
“They’re coming for you, Titus,” Benny said. “But I’m going to claim status as a representative from the Northwest Council — it’s true,” he added when Titus started to say something. “Abby Stafford became chairman of the Council a month ago. So you are under my care.”
“I can fight my own battles,” the old man objected.
“On a normal day,” Benny agreed. “But you’re hardly up to fighting speed. Besides, this is between packs, and that makes it Council business.”
Titus nodded reluctantly at that.
“Ryder?” Benny asked. “You OK with that?”
He nodded, too. Reassured that he had his team in order, at least for now, Benny watched the tracks that led up from the road.
The two rigs crested the hill, reaching the camp spot and parked. Two men got out of the white pickup and waited for the three who got out of the tan SUV, before walking toward them. Benny sized them up. The man in front was the leader. Not the pack Alpha, he was too young. Had they really just sent a squad out here?
“I want to ask him questions,” Jessie said next to him. “I’ve been searching for him, and now that I’ve found him, I have the right to ask him why.”
Benny glanced at her and then back to the men who had stopped and splayed out behind their leader. Bjorn Hansen? Was that who this was? That made more sense than just a squad leader, he conceded. They’d sent the pack Second after Titus.
Benny studied him. Bjorn Hansen was a city slicker. It showed in his moves, in his clothes, in the slackness of his body. Oh, he was fit enough. Muscled, young, shifter —of course he was. But out here, men developed a toughness that he didn’t have. Part of it was his youth, Benny conceded. He was Jessie’s age — early 20s. His skin was soft, not burnt by working out in the sun. He held himself a bit stiffly, as if he wasn’t used to being on uneven ground. For all that he was dressed in jeans, and a sweatshirt like the others, he had polished boots, and that blond hair had been cut in a salon.
Well, so had his own, Benny conceded, but then, he freely admitted to being city. They might be the only two men here who had hair like that.
“You have my prisoner,” Bjorn said, his voice pitched to carry. “I’ve come for him.”
It was a good baritone. Confident, up-and-coming leader. And Chen had tossed him away? That didn’t compute.
Bjorn looked around and saw Jessie. He smiled. Benny flinched. This was going to get ugly. Jessie didn’t even blink. “And it looks like you have my woman. I’ll take her, too.”
Benny started to reply but Jessie beat him to it. She took two steps into the circle to confront her fiancé — former fiancé? Benny wasn’t sure what she considered Bjorn to be at the moment. Ryder started after her, but Benny shook his head slightly. Ryder stopped.
“Your woman?” Jessie said, and there was a growl to her voice that raised the hair on the back of Benny’s neck. “Iwasyour fiancé. And then you let that corrupt bastard take me. Your mom said you were banished, but you weren’t banished from the pack —you just left the city, didn’t you?”
“Banished from the pack?” Bjorn snorted. “Hell, no. Alpha Chen asked me to take on this job —to come out here and be a better conduit for him and the army he was building. He thought I could do it, and he wanted to make amends for losing you. My parents threw a fit —you’d think Penticton was outer Mongolia the way Mom carried on. It was supposed to be temporary, and then that bitch killed Chen, and I’m stuck out here. But there are advantages —being pack Second suits me. For now.”
The men he was with looked at him sideways at the last. Benny thought that had been stupid. Bjorn was an arrogant man. How had someone described him? One of those men who thought their shit don’t stink? Oh yeah, one of the women at the bar last night. It amused him.
