Page 29 of Spock’s Snare

As I look across the unfinished community, I realize that by the time this place is complete, the best view in Inferno Ridge won't be the mountains after all. It'll be exactly what Puma planned to see from the very beginning. He was right. He’s going to have the exact view that he wanted.

A noise behind me draws my attention. Turning, I see Alisa climbing the stairs. She’s in jeans and wearing a hard hat. She smiles at me as she joins me.

“You can see it, huh? What Puma is building here?” she asks.

“I do. I hadn’t realized the full extent until I saw this view. You’re both going to spend many nights watching your family.”

Alisa chuckles. “Ten bucks says we don’t use this balcony until we’re both old and grey.”

I frown as I turn to her. “You don’t think you’ll sit up here? Why?”

She nods at the playground below. “Because Puma will be down there playing with the kids. He won’t be up here watching. He thinks he will be, but I know him. He’s like a kid himself. He won’t be able to resist the siren call of children laughing and having fun. No, he’ll be down there in the thick of things.”

I chuckle when I realize she’s right. Whenever I’ve seen Puma, he’s always had at least two children hanging on him. Literally. Usually, it’s Alisa’s daughter, Elina, and Puma’s son, Mal.

“He really loves kids, doesn’t he?”

Alisa nods. “You would think kids would find him terrifying. He’s like a walking mountain. But they love him. Kids are a great judge of character, and they know Puma would never hurt them. I think Elina fell in love with him before I did.”

“Where is Elina’s dad?” I ask without thinking. I cringe when I realize how inappropriate it was to ask. “I’m sorry, that’s none of my business.”

Alisa chuckles. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. Her father died overseas. He was a Marine and was killed in the Middle East. He and his closest friend were on a mission. A sniper was supposed to cover them, but he’d been sent to the wrong location. Matteo, my husband, and his friend, Scar, were ambushed. Scar barely made it out alive. My husband didn’t. We discovered later that someone set my husband up to die.”

“Oh my god, why?”

Alisa shrugs. “He wanted me. Juan Guttierez.” Alisa spits out the name like it left a bad taste in her mouth. “Juan set up my husband to die and then later kidnapped my father to try and force me to marry him. Puma stepped in and protected me. He saved my life. He gave Elina and me a safe place to live, but he did so much more than that.”

Alisa pauses as she stares out over the grounds. She seems to be collecting her thoughts, so I don’t interrupt her.

“I didn’t realize how quiet and withdrawn Elina had become until she met Puma. I think she sensed the fear that I carried. She’s always been a sweet little girl, but Puma has helped her to become a powerhouse. Elina has no fear now. She’s loud, opinionated, and confident. For her, the world holds no fear, nor can it contain her.” Alisa chuckles. “You would think that living in a motorcycle club, she’d feel oppressed by the patriarchy, but she’s not. I guess it's because Puma never believed that men are better than women. Look at Chill and Viper. Puma respects people, not genders. He’s instilled in Elina the belief that she can be anything she wants to be. Right now, she sees herself as his heir. She plans to take over the Demon Dawgs one day.”

“She’ll do a magnificent job,” Puma booms from behind us. For a big man, he moves silently. I didn’t even hear him coming up the stairs.

He crosses over to us, pulling Alisa into his arms and wrapping his beefy arms around her waist. He places one of his massive paws on her stomach, reminding me that Alisa is pregnant with his child. He studies the view for several long moments before speaking again.

“This place is going to be something, huh?”

CHAPTER ELEVEN: SPOCK

The ride back to the clubhouse gives me time to consider what we’ve discovered and what's next. Just because Red Rock Construction doesn’t operate the same way other construction companies do, it doesn’t mean they aren’t legit. But I’d be lying if I said that the setup we just left felt more like a front. But a front for what?

Rush stays beside me, the growl of our Harleys filling the silence between us, but my mind keeps circling everything we found inside Red Rock Construction. A polished office sitting behind a bargain-bin reception area. It’s clear they don’t expect clients to visit the location, so why have it? I’m curious about the journal. Whoever locked it in a drawer considered it important enough to conceal but not important enough to take with them. Why?

We park outside the clubhouse and head straight inside to Spark’s office. If anyone can find answers, it’s him.

I knock sharply and wait for his response before opening the door. Inside, three oversized monitors emit a soft glow. His fingers don’t stop dancing across the keyboard as he glances up at us.

“How did it go?”

"It wasn’t what I expected. It’s a storefront in an empty strip mall. No one answered when we knocked, but I heard someone moving around inside. She’s the one I had you run the plates for. When she left for lunch, we broke in,” I explain.

“What did you find?”

“Not what we expected,” I say. “The office we broke into looked like the office of a high-priced lawyer. However, the reception area was bare-bones. It had a rickety old desk with an ancient computer and a phone.”

“Did you find anything of worth?”

“I printed these off the computer,” I tell him, sliding the pages over. He picks them up and scans them.