Page 27 of Vampires & Bikers

He stepped back quickly into the shadows before I could ask any more questions. “Watch your back,” he said and disappeared. His words threw me and I didn’t quite know what to make of them. Was he warning me or was this some kind of subtle threat?

He seemed to suggest that Vlas was no longer in charge of the decision-making. It was true that he had seemed vague and a bit preoccupied when I’d seen him the last couple of times, but it was his temperament too. He was never a man of action, more of a thoughtful, considered leader.

I had spent so much time away, solving disputes and serving as an acting commissioner for the many issues in our world. I had not seen him much of late, and our conversations had been brief.

I recalled accusing Matteo of being paranoid. He’d told me about concerns he’d had. I always shut down these conversations. Perhaps he was aware of some nefarious business regarding the king.

I wondered what Dano had been suggesting. I didn’t like the sound of it. Plots against the king were not unusual, even in his own family. I wondered if Dano was thinking of taking over, arguing that the king was weak and unable to fight a war.

Matteo could have found out something about this, perhaps he needed to be eliminated. Of course, the best time to stage a coup was when all of us were engaged in war, our focus elsewhere.

This would allow the enemy within to pounce.

I looked around the corridor where the temperature had suddenly dropped. I felt the rush of air from an open window and walked over to close it. There were dark clouds coming over the mountains and I felt certain that behind the bad weather, more evil was lurking. This war was bringing darkness to our shores and I didn’t like it.

Chapter 13

Ruby

I wouldn’t let myself think of anything else until I received confirmation that my mother’s hospital transfer was secure. I had them change her name on the form, pretending that it was a mistake. Lottie Winton may have been admitted three years ago, but Charlotte Lucas was being taken to the medical center in the Capital. It took almost all of my savings to pay for the ambulance and put down money for the new hospital.

Then I said goodbye to her.

“I’ll come see you as soon as I can,” I promised.

I hadn’t told her that I was going to see my father but she’d guessed somehow.

“Please don’t go,” she begged me.

“I’ll be careful,” I promised her.

“Someone will see you,” she said, tears in her eyes.

“I’ll wear this!” I said, putting on a blonde wig I’d found in town. I thought it suited me. My mother thought I was being silly. “They know your smell, come on, you know this!”

“I’ll wear perfume,” I insisted. “I have to let him know we’re leaving!”

“He will figure it out,” my mother said. “He knows more of what’s going on than you think!”

I knew she worried about me but I had to see my father.

Our relationship had never been simple.

As a little girl, I had adored him. It was once I became older and understood what his role was in Tomás’s enterprise and in the MC gang, I began to stand up to him. We started clashing regularly. He told me that I needed to know my place in the pack and when I refused to agree, he threatened to throw me out. I was living with a friend when he was arrested and sent to prison. I didn’t go to see him and refused to talk to him on the phone.

He’d probably mellowed a bit over the years. I knew my father did what he had to do to survive, the decisions he’d made had been for us. They may have been bad decisions according to me, but what did I know of his life back then?

It had been four days since I left town and when I drove back now, I could sense the tension all over. The houses had their curtains drawn and there were no kids playing in the street or riding their bikes. The place was quiet and tense, waiting for something bad to happen.

I parked the car in Mrs. Anderson’s driveway.

I walked to her back door and noticed it had been forced open.

I walked in, calling her name out softly. There was a noise in the kitchen and this is where I found her, on the floor, with her throat slit. There was an awful amount of blood. She was not dead, though, not yet.

“Go,” she whispered to me. “They know you’re coming. They’re waiting for you. Take the car. Go now. Take the money…in the tin.” She was pointing to a tin of flour on the kitchen counter. I opened it and found a plastic bag with money inside. Lots of money.

I didn’t want to leave her but perhaps she had been hanging on to life long enough for me to come here because she gave her last breath not long after talking to me.

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