Shiftr: Swipe Left for Love (Lori) BBW Bear Shifter Romance (Hope Valley BBW Dating App Romance Book 5) (13 page)

Chapter Eleven

At around midnight, Bruno drove his pickup truck downtown and left it in a quiet side street slightly north of the central square. Then he slunk through a maze of backstreets, being careful not to be seen. It wasn’t too difficult, as this part of town was usually deserted late in the evenings. He walked past Lori’s old shop. He wasn’t surprised she’d been shocked to see it. It was in a terrible state. It looked like the kind of place you could buy illegal firearms – another world from the tasteful, quirky boutique she’d described so affectionately. There was a heavy metal mesh over the window, and it was padlocked shut in the middle, and the stainless steel front door was also padlocked shut at five separate points. If those guys were trying to look suspicious, they couldn’t have done a better job. And it helped him out a lot – confirming what he already suspected: they weren’t home. The scent of werewolf was unmistakable, but it wasn’t strong, indicating that there wasn’t one of them within a half-mile. This should make things a lot easier.

He walked past the store, and took the next turning on the right. Another sharp right brought him to a narrow alleyway separating two rows of buildings. He counted five buildings, which brought him to the werewolves’ store. There, he undressed and laid his clothes on a trashcan, and shifted quickly. His bear was raring to go, almost bursting out of him. He relaxed into his animal form, taking a moment for the endorphins that always flooded his body at this moment to pass. Then he leapt over a low wall, clung onto a drainpipe, and scaled it easily, climbing up two stories. He jumped off it and onto a low roof. It looked fragile and in need of repair, so he was careful to walk along the supporting beams. He stepped lightly on the pads of his paws, on the off-chance that he’d been mistaken, and one of the biker crew was still on the premises.

There was a big steel plate near the apex of the roof. It looked like a skylight that had been nailed over. He hooked his powerful claws under it and applied pressure. With a lot of effort, it came away. He balanced it on a chimneystack and looked down through the gap. It was a full moon tonight – which explained why nobody was home. They were probably out trying to seduce as many innocent women as possible and drag them into their mating frenzy. He bared his teeth in disgust. He hated bikers, and werewolf bikers were the worst of all. They gave shifters a bad name. By the light of the moon he was able to see all the way inside the room he’d just uncovered. It looked like a chemistry lab. Everywhere there were gas canisters, buckets and tubes and big glass bowls clamped onto metal structures. And an acrid stench filled the room, obliterating any scent of werewolf. “A crystal meths lab,” he muttered. This was unthinkable in Hope Valley. He roared in fury.
How dare that biker filth infiltrate this clean-living community with that evil drug?
He considered his options. He knew plenty about starting a fire. He could slip down into the room, and create a small, isolated explosion, and leave it to be reported and investigated. But he didn’t like this idea. They were very dangerous criminals and he didn’t want to get local law enforcement involved. They’d have no idea how to deal with them, and some innocent people would inevitably get hurt. With all the chemicals in the room below, there was also a small chance that it would turn into a much bigger explosion than he’d anticipated. He’d seen the aftermath of a crystal meths lab explosion before, and it wasn’t pretty. No, with his professional contacts, he could be a little more subtle than that.

Bruno slipped through the hatch and dropped to the ground. It was a good distance – at least 13 feet – far enough for a man to sprain or even break something, but nothing at all to a bear. He landed almost noiselessly on his pads.
Jesus!
That stink was appalling!
How have they not gassed themselves cooking that shit up?
he thought to himself. He peered through the gloom. There was a door leading to the front of the property. It didn’t have any visible locks on it. It must be bolted on the other side. On the opposite side of the room was a door leading outside. It was heavily bolted and padlocked. He slid the five bolts open. Only the padlock remained. He looked around for a key, but couldn’t find one. Maybe it was in the front, which would make it almost impossible to get hold of from where he was. Instead, he looked for something he could use as a lever. There was a wrench leaning up against the other door. It was the kind used by mechanics to fix cars, and used by criminal gangs to intimidate their victims. He picked it up in his teeth and carried it over to the door, slipping it beneath the lock. He braced one end of the wrench against the steel door panel, took a deep breath, and summoned all of his strength, focusing it into his powerful front legs. At first, nothing happened, but then the padlock burst open. He dropped the wrench and pushed the door. It swung open easily. He picked up the padlock in his teeth and went out of the back door, leaving it swinging in the breeze. He picked his way through the filthy, littered backyard, leapt over the wall and shifted again beside his clothes. Then he sauntered back the way he’d come.

Bruno calculated that there was no real rush; the werewolves would likely be out all night. He waited until he was safely back home, and far from the scene of the incident before he called up the DEA and got put through to Richard Adams, an old associate that he’d met at a previous crystal meths fire, who didn’t sound overjoyed to be woken up in the early hours of the morning. He apologized and explained he’d been answering a complaint from local residents about foul-smelling smoke coming from the premises. He’d just checked it and discovered the back door had been left open, and a manufacturing plant was clearly visible inside. They were both well aware that an open door meant no warrant was necessary.

“On our way!” Richard said, the grumpiness in his voice quickly replaced with glee.

Bruno calculated it’d take them around an hour to get there. They’d go through the back door and lie in wait for the criminals to return. He left his radio turned up high and went to sleep.

He was woken at 7am by discussions between members of the Hope Valley Fire Service preparing to go to the scene. Then he called Kristin.

That afternoon, the story was splashed all over the Hope Valley Echo. Federal agents had completed the biggest ever bust of a manufacturing lab in the state. Four suspects had been apprehended and held for questioning. The DEA praised the work done by the Fire Service in securing the scene. Hope Valley residents expressed their delight that the dangerous criminals were being removed from the premises and the town, and hoped that the store could return to being the lovely place that it had been in the past. Bruno smiled in relief. After the pain he had caused Lori, he was very glad that he’d done something to make her life a little better for her.

But, less than 24 hours later, he’d realize that he’d made a terrible mistake.

Chapter Twelve

The remaining two members of the Rottenheart Wolves biker gang rode through the national forest, gnashing their teeth in rage. Their gang hadn’t stood a chance. They’d come home in the early hours of the morning, and by the time they’d realized that the scent of humans was far stronger than usual, they were surrounded by a whole swarm of US federal agents, pointing automatic weapons at them. They were on the roofs of nearby buildings, and on the ground, covering their meth lab in a wide net. The two of them had only escaped because they’d been lagging behind chatting, and had watched the situation unfold from a distance. And now everything was gone. The lab and all the product they’d cooked up over the past six weeks. They had a glimmer of hope that the cash they’d stashed under the floorboards wouldn’t be discovered, but it was highly unlikely. They’d lost a lot of money, and all the hard work they’d done had gone to waste. It made no sense. They couldn’t figure out how their carefully concealed operations had been discovered, let alone breached. The security system protecting the lab was like Fort Knox. It had metal doors on both sides, heavily locked and bolted. Even the skylight had been sealed over with a thick sheet of metal. All they knew was that someone was going to pay.

They returned to their place hours later, after the cops had all departed with their truckloads of evidence, all bagged and tagged. Dressed plainly in T-shirts and jeans, with all biker insignia removed, they circled the property, looking for clues. There had to be a snitch. They’d driven away all the local businesses a long time ago, to limit the possibility of anyone noticing their comings and goings, but there must have been someone close by who’d seen something and decided to report it. After they’d checked out the property, they’d start knocking on doors, using a little of their trademark persuasive skills to get the truth out of those Hope Valley fools.

Then they picked up a scent that they knew all too well: bear. Or bear shifter, to be exact. Their wolves’ hackles rose and they bared their teeth and released spine-chilling growls. They’d never smelled the funk of bear around their property before, but there it was, at the exact same time that their operations had been ruined.

It was no coincidence; they were sure of it. So here they were, sniffing around bear territory in the national park, trying to pick out a single scent from a whole mélange of bear smells.

“I don’t know, dude. All bears smell the same to me,” Chunks said, as they came to a pause at the junction of a tangle of paths.

“You’d better change that attitude fast, doofus, if you don’t want me to rip your throat out and leave you to be mauled by the bears,” Razor spat.

“Hey, I wasn’t serious, bro. Of course I’d recognize that motherfucker if I picked up his stink again,” Chunks said, his voice tight.

“Good. That’s all I require of you right now. Just one thing. Identify the smell you’ve smelled before. That’s it. Do you think you’re capable of that?”

“Sure thing, boss,” Chunks snarled. “And when I find that bear, I’ll tear him apart.”

“That’s what I like to hear, Chunks. If there’s one thing I can rely on you for it’s to be the brawn of the operation.”

They rode around a bend in the forest track and Razor’s nose twitched.

“Now there’s a smell I recognize,” he said, a nasty grin curling the edges of his lips. His wolf’s ears pricked up.

“Is it the bear?” Chunks asked.

“Nope,” Razor said, as his wolf wagged the tip of its tail. “Even better than that. It’s the smell of pussy.”

“That’s great boss, but aren’t we on a mission right now? We can find us some pussy later tonight at the roadhouse, right?”

“It’s not any old pussy, dickweed. It’s the smell of the bitch who turned up at the lab a little while ago, eyeballing the window.”

“And?”

“
And
, there’s obviously a connection.”

“There is?” Chunks said. Razor sighed and stopped dead in the middle of the track.

“It’s a good job one of us has a brain in his head. The girl came sniffing around our place. Next thing I knew, that dickface real estate agent told us he wanted to sell the property. Of course, I told him straight up that wasn’t going to happen. Then the Feds start crawling all over our place, leaving behind a stink of bear. We come out here, and smell the girl again. She’s obviously shacked up with one of those bears.”

“Gee, Razor, you’re so smart,” Chunks said, his voice full of admiration.

“You can be smart too, Chunks. Tell me, what are we going to do now?”

“We’re going to find that girl.”

“Correct.”

“That sweet, fine honey scent is hers, right?”

“Uh huh.”

“Got it.”

“But are we gonna gun these hogs right up to her and scare seven shades of shit outta her?”

“No, sir. We’ve gonna park them here.”

“Damn straight.” Without another word, they parked their Harleys, stepped off the track and into the woods, and began to race between the trees, hot on the tail of her scent.

It didn’t take them long to catch up with her. She was in the garden of a big, rich-ass cabin. They paused and both drew in a breath at the sight of her. She was one sexy mama. Her glossy, dark hair swung around her shoulders, and she had a juicy, ripe figure. She was putting some laundry on a washing line, bending down to take things out of a basket and then stretching up to the washing line, which had the effect of displaying her figure to their hungry eyes.

“Baby clothes,” Chunks observed. “She have a kid?”

“How the hell do I know?” Chunks lifted his nose in the air and sniffed.

“She smells of milk. I think she’s still feeding it with her tits.”

“And?” Razor snapped.

“I don’t know. Just saying,” Chunks said meekly. He hated it when Razor got mad at him.

“So, where is it?” They took a few steps closer. “Sleeping, in a baby chair.”

“What are we going to do with her?”

“We’re going to take her to Jed’s barn, way up north and keep her there a little while. That bitch has to pay for sticking her damn nose in and ruining everything.”

They crept right over to the garden, and through the garden gate. Heavy set though they were in their human form, their wolves’ senses made them silent on their feet, and Lori didn’t hear them coming until they were right behind her.

Chapter Thirteen

As Lori was stretching up to peg one of Nancy’s all-in-one suits to the washing line, a heavy hand landed on her shoulder. She jumped and spun around at the same time to see who it was. At the sight of a huge, hairy biker, she opened her mouth to scream, but a hand clamped down over it, and an arm coiled around her waist from behind. Panic flooded her veins. The biker looked familiar.
Oh my god. It’s the guy who’s rented out my old store!
A face like that was hard to forget. The yellow eyes, that she’d hoped she’d never see again, bored into hers.

“You’re going to come with me, right now,” he snarled in a harsh, ugly voice. “Do you understand? And don’t you dare try to scream or run away.” She nodded, as far as she was able to. “That your kid, sleeping there?” Her eyes widened and she nodded again. “If you scream, or call out at all, we’ll get one of our friends to come around and take care of it.” She shook her head frantically. He gave her an ugly grin.

“Ok, I think we understand each other,” he said.

The other guy, who she hadn’t seen yet, held her hands behind her back, his fingers biting painfully into her flesh, and propelled her forward. She cast a last, panicked glance at Nancy, sleeping so sweetly in her cradle. She was so scared, she thought she’d pass out. But at least they weren’t taking her baby too. Andrea was upstairs. She’d come out and look for her at some point, and she’d find Nancy. Surely that would happen. But, what if someone or something else got to her first?
No!
She began to hyperventilate. She wanted to ask what they were going to do with her, but she was too scared to speak, in case it made them decide to hurt Nancy. Instead, she bit her lip, and forced herself to stay quiet.

They’d been walking a good distance, through dense forest, her tripping all the time, and twigs lashing her face, without her having her hands to protect her. At last, they burst out of the woods and into a clearing. When she saw the bikes, her stomach dropped. They were going to make her sit on a bike?
No way!
She was terrified of motorbikes.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” the nasty guy from the store said. “Chunks here is going to get onto his bike, and you’re going to climb up behind him. I’ll stand here and wait until he’s left, so don’t get any ideas about jumping off at the last minute. If you try to escape at any point, you’ll never see your baby again.” The guy behind her let go of her wrists and her hands tingled painfully. She rubbed at them to get the circulation going again. As he walked in front of her, she gasped at the sight of him. He was tall and thickset, and he had wiry black hair standing straight up, like a porcupine. He also had one of the ugliest faces she’d ever seen, with none of his features looking like it belonged with the others. He had a wide slash of a mouth, with disconcertingly sensual red lips, a huge, bulbous nose with open pores, which made her think of a potato, and narrow, slanted eyes, the color of swamp water. His cheeks were heavily pockmarked with acne scars, and his ears were small and protruding, like handles on a teacup. In different circumstances, she would’ve felt sorry for him. As it was, he looked absolutely terrifying.

He climbed onto one of the bikes, started the engine and reversed out of the parking spot. The other guy gave her a push in the middle of her back.

“Go on, get on,” he ordered her. On shaky legs, she walked over to the bike and lifted her leg over it. She’d never even sat on a bike before. It lurched forward, and she flung her arms around the guy’s waist. Then she recoiled and let go of him. The other guy laughed nastily.

“I wouldn’t be such a princess about holding onto him if I was you,” he said. “Or you might just find yourself lying headfirst in a ditch.” Gingerly, she put her hands on either side of his waist, clutching his leather jacket rather than his body. The jacket smelled of mold and rot. “Hey, hold on,” the shop guy said. “We don’t want to be stopped cuz Miss Nosy Parker ain’t wearing a helmet. Let me put this on her.” A moment later, a heavy, foul smelling helmet was jammed over her head. It came down to her shoulders, and she could hardly see out of the visor. The bike jolted again, and then roared off along the forest track.

Where the hell are they taking me?
And why?
she asked herself over and over.
It’s because one of them saw me at the store, obviously. He just called me ‘Miss Nosy Parker’. He’s mad at me. But why?
She remembered the eyes of the shop guy and the ruthlessness she saw in them when she first met him. It didn’t make any sense at all. She was petrified, beyond belief. The bike was moving fast, and the wind buffeted them from side to side. Terrified of falling off, she moaned and whimpered, like a small animal. After a while, another bike overtook them. It was the shop guy, and they followed him as he wove in and out of the traffic. She looked out for the road signs. It seemed like they were heading to the far north of the state, a region she’d never been to before.

At one point, they stopped at a gas station and the shop guy went inside and came back with a bag of things. While he was gone, the other guy took his glove off and ran his hand up and down her thigh. It seemed to be a warning to her, not to get off the bike and scream for help, but could also have been something sleazier. She cringed at his touch, almost crying from fear, but held herself absolutely still, desperate not to show him any reaction at all.

They rode off again, and soon they left the highway, and went through some back roads, then onto farming land. Dusk began to fall, and it got harder to see. She felt like they’d been traveling for hours. They turned onto a bumpy dirt track, and the bike juddered all over as it negotiated the ruts left by a tractor. She clung on tight to her captor, having long since got over her aversion to touching him.

Suddenly, they came to a stop in front of a large, low building made out of corrugated metal. It looked like a store for grain or farming equipment.
What the hell are they going to do with me now?
The two guys killed their engines and the shop guy told her to get off the bike. She obeyed, her legs trembling even worse than they’d been before.

“Follow me,” he barked. He led her around to the side of the building, where there was a door. He hauled it open, pushed her through and slammed the door behind her.

It was dark. There were no windows, and no electric lighting. There was just a chink of faint light coming from where the metal walls didn’t quite meet the floor. The air was full of the smell of hay and manure. She strained her ears and thought she could hear animals moving about – big slow ones.
Cows? Were they loose? What if they’re bulls, and they decide to attack me?
Fear pinned her against the door. When the sounds didn’t come any closer, she forced herself to get her breathing under control. She could no longer hear anything. Maybe she’d imagined that there were animals there. She crouched down and felt the ground. It was dirt mixed with hay. She sat down on it.
Why have they kidnapped me? What are they planning? Is Nancy safe? Has someone found her yet?
Her thoughts spun around in her head. She didn’t care what happened to her, if she could only know that her baby was safe.

It was fully dark now and she couldn’t see a thing. Just pure, unfathomable blackness. She shivered. The day had been warm, but the barn felt dank. She was only wearing loose Capri pants and a button-down blouse with short sleeves. Would she have to sleep here? Lie down in the dirt without even a pillow or a blanket. Were there rats here? The thought of rats running all over her body while she lay vulnerable on the filthy ground made her flesh creep. She whimpered.
I mustn’t cry. I can’t give in to my fear
, she told herself. But it was no use. She broke into loud, wracking sobs.

Suddenly, she fell backward and smacked her head on the ground.
Ow.
Her pain was accompanied by the sound of dumb teenage laughter. She opened her eyes and found she was looking up at the face of the extra-ugly guy. He was cackling in glee. He’d just opened the door, making her lose her balance, she realized. The other guy stepped up and joined him. They both gazed down on her happily.

“Get up,” the shop guy said, when he’d taken enough pleasure in her misery. Dazed, she scrambled to her feet and stared at him defiantly.

“What do you want from me?” she demanded.

“Right now? Right now, we want you to prepare some food for us,” the shop guy said with a nasty smile, and the ugly guy laughed,
hurr hurr hurr.
She wanted to smash his face in with something big and heavy. Like a frying pan, perhaps. “Follow me.”

She followed them around the corner of a barn. There was a dilapidated farmhouse behind it made from warped wooden panels, with a broken screen door and tiles missing from the roof. They led her inside to a filthy, broken-down kitchen. The shop guy turned the stove on and the gas flame lit. He gestured to some groceries piled on a small, chipped formica table.

“Do the best you can do with these. And you better make sure it’s tasty,” he demanded. She glanced at the food, hardly seeing it, and nodded. The two of them walked out of the kitchen and left her there.

Wearily, she picked up the plastic packets of food. She hadn’t eaten for hours, but her stomach was in knots. Eating, when she didn’t know if she was going to be alive in a few hours’ time, seemed beside the point. There was beef jerky, powdered tomato soup, chili sauce and noodles.
Gross.
She guessed she’d make some kind of casserole. She opened the various cupboards around the kitchen and looked inside. There were some pans. They were battered and stained, but clean enough. She put some water into a saucepan and added the tomato soup. Then she looked for a knife to cut up the jerky. There was one with a serrated blade in a drawer. She ran her thumb along the blade, thinking.
I could use it as a weapon!
She could wait until they came back, and stab them with it. It would be self-defense. She sighed.
Like I’ve ever stabbed anyone before. I’d probably miss. And what if I managed to the stab one guy anyway? The other one would probably kill me. And what if I had amazing skills and stabbed both of them. I’m in the middle of nowhere, and I have no idea how to ride a Harley.
Her captors were her only ticket out of there – a deeply sickening thought.

She cut the jerky up into tiny pieces and dumped it into the tomato soup, then she added the noodles and stirred it all up. She wished there was some poison she could put into the food –
a stray bottle of arsenic, perhaps
, she thought with a slightly manic laugh. She went through all the cupboards, but there was nothing. She was completely, utterly helpless here, cooking dinner for two thugs who had just abducted her and were probably planning to kill her. And Nancy would be an orphan. Tears sprung to her eyes again. Protecting her baby was her number one responsibility, and she’d failed to do that. Thoughts of Nancy flooded her mind. A million moments – her as a tiny baby, all red and angry when she’d just been born, her first smile, her tiny little fist gripping Lori’s finger. Her first word – momma. The first time she sat up, crawled, stood up, walked. Lori cried harder and harder, her tears falling into the nasty stew she was making.

And then she saw Bruno’s face. His image popped up in her mind as clearly as if he’d been standing there. His intense blue eyes and those strong, tender lips that had kissed her so passionately seemed to be right in front of her. He seemed to be speaking. It wasn’t like his lips were moving; more that his voice was directly in her head. He told her that she had to keep it together and be strong; that help wasn’t far away. She shook her head. She was going crazy. Or hallucinating, as she hadn’t eaten for about ten hours. But still, the thought of him calmed her. She wondered what he’d do in this situation. He’d kick the crap out of those two morons, for a start. But failing that, he’d probably act as calm as possible, wait for an opportunity for escape to present itself and make sure he complied with their orders, so as not to excite them. And he’d probably look after his body, so he’d have plenty of energy when the time came. With that thought, she took a glass out of the cupboard, filled it with water and drank it straight down. Then she grabbed a bowl and ladled a portion of the stew out. She poured a little cold water into it to cool it down, and ate it as fast as she could, standing over the sink.

The door smashed back against the wall and the two bikers came back in.

“Food ready yet, woman?” the shop guy grunted.

“Yes,” she said sweetly. “Just about ready to dish up.” They made sounds of approval, like hungry dogs, and sat down at the table, their legs wide apart. From time to time, they scratched their crotches and grunted. She ladled up two portions of stew and put them down in front of them. They started gobbling up the food like the hungry dogs they were. Suddenly, the shop guy dropped his fork on his plate.

“What the fuck?” he roared. Lori’s heart leapt into her throat. She stared at him, transfixed.
He hates the food. He’s going to kill me now
. “You forgot the fucking chili sauce!”

“Oh! I’m so sorry!” Lori jumped to her feet and retrieved it from the counter. He opened it and poured an unfeasibly huge amount into the stew and stirred it in. He began to eat again, groaning in appreciation.

Moments later, he put his fork down again, ran his fingers around the now empty plate and sucked them clean.