Adam lay next to a sleeping Myra and told himself he was not panicking. Not at all. Just because sex with her had been the most amazing experience of his life, just because his heart had felt like it was beating in time with hers and he’d ached to feel her pressed against him, for every part of his body to connect with hers, was no reason to panic. Instead, he needed to focus on what had to happen next. People were in danger and that was the thing to concentrate on right now.
He checked on Myra. She was sleeping peacefully, a satisfied little smile on her face that had his heart doing funny things in his chest. Shaking his head, he looked away. She was exhausted. Probably hadn’t slept much while he’d been sick. Sleep was the last thing on his mind.
He turned his attention to the poisonings, considered what he’d learned on the computer before he’d gotten sick. Like puzzle pieces, the bits of information formed and reformed in his brain until he knew which missing pieces he needed to fill in.
Easing out of bed, he pulled the covers up over Myra and grabbed his sweatpants. He pulled his laptop out of the drawer by the sofa and sat down. Explored. Dug. Hacked. Considered. Once he was on the right trail, it really wasn’t that hard. Well, as long as one had the skills to go places they weren’t supposed to go, delving into bank accounts and email servers that were meant to be safe.
He dug a couple of USB memory sticks out of the drawer, copied several files.
Then he went to the werewolf website, looked for information about the attack and Hillary. He hadn’t seen anything the other day, but Myra had made it seem like it wasn’t being kept secret and word had to be getting out now that Hillary had joined Mountain Pack.
He found a couple of threads, very new, with people expressing shock, even doubt that it was real, wolves from Idaho just beginning to chime in to verify the story. It seemed the pack was trying to quell some of the more outrageous rumors and get the truth out there. Or at least, the truth as Myra related it, he reminded himself. Then he shook his head. He believed her. And it was good to see that they weren’t trying to sweep the incident under the rug.
Leaning back and rolling his neck to ease the strain, he realized he’d been at it for nearly two hours. He glanced over at the bed. Myra had turned, her hand lying on the spot he’d been occupying, as if she’d searched for him. His gut twisted and he got up, quietly made his way to the fridge and opened a beer.
He took a long pull while considering his options. Show the information he’d gathered to Myra, Michael and Linda, work with them to solve the problem. He had no doubt, based on what Myra had told him of Arizona, that if the trouble had been caused by wolves, she would handle it. But when the source was human? Piece-of-shit ranchers who wanted a piece of the public land pie? He wasn’t sure what she would do, let alone how she would react to his methods of gathering evidence.
One more drink nearly drained the bottle. He rolled the cold glass over his forehead. Did he want to make friends or enemies? Or go back to being a hermit, living his life isolated from the dramas that other people invariably provided. He finished the beer, put it on the counter and walked silently to the bed.
His fingers itched to move her hair back from her face, his body pulsed with the need to lay down, wake her up with slow loving, finish her off with hard fucking.
His heart did that stupid twisty thing again and his decision was made. He took one step back, then another, turned and dressed. The door made only the smallest of sounds when he closed it behind him and headed out.
It only took a few hours to accomplish, and most of that was spent driving to where he needed to go. Though it was several ranchers who’d banded together, there were two definite leaders. Unsurprisingly, they were the two biggest assholes, and therefore it hadn’t been difficult to dig up compromising information on both of them. Info they wouldn’t want shared with the world.
Blackmail might be a dirty word to some, but he considered it just when turned against those who’d hatched a plan to poison wolves and get the community angry enough to lift the hunting and land restrictions on the public forest.
When he walked up to the cabin, Myra was sitting on the porch, curled up with a book on the Adirondack chair, the last light of the day bathing her in a warm glow. She gave him a tentative smile as he approached, leaned against the rail next to her.
“I did some digging. Figured out they were dropping poisoned meat into the public land portion of the forest, trying to make the wolves sick enough to attack the humans. They had ranchers and hunters ready to rally the town as soon as they could get a wolf or two to attack. Of course, they don’t know there are werewolves running those woods, stopping the wolves before they could cause real trouble.”
She blinked at him. “I see. How were you able to find out all of this? Do you have proof we can take to the police?”
He handed her a thumb drive. “Everything is on here. No need to go to the police, I’ve handled it. You’ll see some information on there about the top two guys. In case I’m not around, that’s what you can use to keep them in line. Believe me, they’re motivated to get with the program and back off the wolves.”
She stared at the drive. “You found information about them on the computer. Figured out who they were online.”
“Basically.”
She looked back at the cabin. “Is that how you make your living? Hacking and blackmailing?”
He didn’t have to answer. Owed her nothing, as far as he was concerned. But maybe if she knew who he was, the person he needed to be after what was done to him, she’d feel better about walking away, leaving him be.
“Blackmail isn’t the right word. Stealing is probably the right word.”
Her eyes opened wide.
“From drug dealers, mostly. You’d be amazed how many have shitty internet security. But truthfully, I don’t need much.” He gestured at the cabin. “I just want to live here, do my thing, be at peace in my woods. This has been interesting, meeting you all, getting to know what you’re about. I’m glad to know you took care of Arizona, I should have done something about that years ago. It’s on me that I didn’t.”
Her mouth opened and closed a few times as she formulated a response. “I see,” she finally said. “How come you didn’t tell me about what you’d found?”
“You were sleeping.” The lameness of the response was not lost on him, but she merely nodded.
She stood, reached a hand out to him, stopped when he moved to the side.
“Okay. Right.” She sighed. “Adam, you don’t have to join the pack to be a part of our world. There’s even an online community you might like to check out. I want you to understand you have a place, you’re not alone.”
“I like my place. I’m happy here.” That he was angry and defensive irritated him, so he took a deep breath. “If I want to get more touchy-feely with the wolves, I know where to go.”
