The Struggle: Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Book 2 Read online

  “The other car was totaled in an ‘accident,’ remember?” he grumbled at me.

  I didn’t stop staring at him as he helped Kannon into the SUV. “So, we got this from where?”

  Gray nudged me to get inside beside Kannon as Wyatt took the front passenger seat. “The other one had a bullet hole and they decided to use it to get rid of our friend.”

  I got in the car but chewed on my lip nervously. “So they just gave us a thirty thousand dollar vehicle, no strings attached?”

  Grayson shook his head. “Dr. Green was so pleased with the ‘opportunity’ we had given him that he signed off on it without even blinking.”

  “So I should get shot more often?” Kannon teased.

  “NO!” we all shouted at the same time.

  “I don’t care what they give us, Kannon. I never want to see you like that again.” Tears came to my eyes and Kannon wrapped an arm around me before murmuring an apology.

  “Too soon, dude,” Wyatt said with a straight face. “Give it at least a month before cracking jokes about your near-death experience.”

  “Has anyone else noticed how fucked up they are?” I asked with a frown. “I think that killing someone actually made them like us more.”

  “Yeah,” Wyatt agreed. “I had a least five guys come up and fist bump me because they saw the pictures of what was left after…” he looked at me cautiously but I didn’t comment. I had insisted on seeing the pictures as well. I had wanted to see the body for myself, just so that I could put the nightmares behind me, but it was long gone by the time Kannon had stabilized enough for me to think about anything but him.

  “How’s Corey doing?” I asked quietly. He and I hadn’t had any alone time and I knew he wouldn’t speak about his emotions in a group, but maybe one of the other guys had gotten through to him.

  “Not as angry,” Wyatt admitted. “The new Corey is more contemplative than I’ve ever seen him before.”

  I heard the whine of fire truck sirens once we crossed into the town. Grayson pulled the SUV over to allow them to pass before getting back on the road. “That’s not good,” I murmured. “Those were trucks from the town next to us. If Hollow Crest had to call someone else in, it must be bad.”

  Grayson followed the trucks at a distance and the closer we got to home, the more worried I was. Corey was home alone. What if Gus had broken in? What if it had been a group of townspeople that came after him? We had left him alone and undefended. Nausea churned in my stomach at the visuals that flashed through my mind.

  I hated to admit it, but when we finally saw that the large pillar of smoke was coming from several blocks away from the old firehouse I breathed a sigh of relief. Grayson avoided going down the main road, but as we passed I saw a crowd surrounding the firetrucks with their flashing lights. As soon as Grayson parked in front of our home I jumped out of the car, shouting for Corey.

  He met me in the kitchen and didn’t complain when I jumped on him and wrapped my arms and legs around him. He helped support my weight as I buried my face in his neck, comforting myself with his scent. “Hey,” he said softly. “Not that I’m not happy to see you, but this is more of a greeting than I usually get.”

  “I was worried the fire was here,” I murmured. “I thought…”

  “Nah,” Corey assured me. “It’s at Gus’s place. It looks like we’re the only mechanics in town now.”

  I picked up my head and looked at him in horror. “What?” Corey let me slide to the ground and set me back on my feet as the other guys joined us in the kitchen.

  “It must have happened after Wyatt and I left,” Grayson said with a frown. “We passed by there no more than a couple hours ago and everything was fine. I would have noticed if there was smoke.”

  Corey shrugged. “I walked to the corner store to get more popcorn in case Kannon wanted to watch movies and saw the first fire truck get there. I didn’t stick around in case Gus was still in the mood to attack us.”

  “I wonder what happened?” I asked thoughtfully.

  “Maybe he fell asleep and dropped his cigarette?” Corey proposed.

  I sighed. “Well, I just hope that no one was hurt.” I eyed Corey suspiciously. I thought the rest of the guys had left Corey here to guard the place? Why would he leave for popcorn, of all things? And why go to Petey’s shop when the grocery store was closer? It just seemed odd.

  Wyatt rubbed a hand over his face. “Are we bigger assholes if we stay in here and pretend that we don’t know what’s going on, or if we head over there and watch his place burn?”

  “We stay here,” Grayson ordered. “Most of the town is probably out there more to gawk than to help and we don’t want anyone accusing us of anything because we were at the scene of the crime.”

  “Oh, yeah,” I said with a frown. “You know we’re kind of on the short list of Gus’s enemies? There’s no way that the sheriff isn’t going to question us for this.”

  Wyatt groaned. “Gus has already tried to frame us once by hiding his tools here, what are the chances that he set the fire himself?”

  “And lose his shop?” I asked doubtfully. “That’s the only thing he has going for him.”

  “It wouldn’t surprise me if he had taken out an insurance policy with inflated value on that hovel,” Corey sneered. “It would work out for him if he got a huge paycheck and blamed everything on us. He gets a brand new shop and gets rid of his competitors in one shot.”

  “I don’t think anyone would go that far,” I said hesitantly. “What if the insurance policy wouldn’t pay? Or what if he got caught setting the fire himself? He could lose everything.”

  “People like Gus don’t think rationally,” Grayson told me gently. “They act on their emotions and do things in the heat of the moment that anyone else would regret. After all is said and done, he’ll find a way to rationalize his actions to himself and blame everyone around him for what he did to himself.”

  “If he ever admitted to it, he would probably say we forced him into it,” Corey said bitterly.

  The entire group of us sat there silently until a growl from Kannon’s stomach broke the somber mood. He started to get up but Grayson put a hand on his shoulder. “Nope, you heard the doctor’s orders. Sit and let the rest of us take care of you.”

  Wyatt stood up and started rummaging through the fridge. “Things have been crazy this week, and shopping hasn’t been on the top of our list of things to do.” He sat a package of sliced roast beef in front of Kannon. “That’s the only ingredient we have for a sandwich in the house right now.”

  I giggled at the looks on everyone’s faces. Kannon ripped into the package of meat and started happily munching away, but the other guys looked a little embarrassed. “I’ll put in an order at the diner,” Grayson offered. “It’s on the opposite side of town from Gus’s so it will probably be empty with all the gawkers hovering over the fire.”

  “Two double bacon burgers,” Kannon requested. “And fries.” I shook my head at the thought of how much food we were going to need. Our grocery bill was already taking up a huge portion of our income. With Kannon eating enough for three on his own we were going to have to buy out half the grocery store.

  “After the fire dies down I can go to the store,” I volunteered. “There will probably be a lot of gossiping and rumors floating around.” I glanced down at the table. “If someone wants to drive me?”

  There was pounding on the door before anyone could answer. My stomach dropped when I realized who it must be. Gus certainly hadn’t wasted any time in pointing the finger at us.

  Grayson gave Corey a hard look. “I’ll handle this, don’t say a word.”

  Corey scowled but didn’t answer as Grayson swung the door open. The sheriff, his deputy, and two state police officers stood there with hard looks on their faces. “We’re here for Winston McCormick,” the sheriff stated.

  Grayson took half a step forward and all of the law enforcement officers immediately reached for their weapons. He put bot
h hands up to show he was harmless, but they all left their hands resting on their guns. This was not going well.

  “What’s this about?” Grayson asked calmly.

  The sheriff raised his eyebrows. “I think you know exactly why we’re here right now. “Your friend there,” he gestured towards Corey. “Is on video setting fire to Gus’s shop.”

  Wyatt grabbed ahold of Corey quickly and I could see Corey struggling to keep his cool. “You’re lying.”

  One of the state police officers spoke up. “We’re bringing you in for questioning. Are you going to come willingly?”

  “Is he under arrest?” Wyatt asked.

  “No,” the sheriff spat out.

  I relaxed. If there had really been a video of Corey setting the place on fire, they would be arresting him, not pulling him in for questioning. The sheriff was fishing and trying to get Corey to slip up and admit something that would incriminate himself.

  “Don’t say a word,” Wyatt advised his brother. “We’re going to get a lawyer before anything else happens.”

  Corey nodded and kept his mouth shut. His eyes met mine and I was surprised to see regret instead of anger. All of my worries flooded back up. If Corey had done something, he would have told us, right? I went back through the conversation about the fire. Corey hadn’t seemed sorry at all to hear about Gus’s misfortune, he had seemed more satisfied with it. And he had admitted to being in the area around the time that the fire started. I looked at Wyatt and saw doubt there - he wasn’t sure if his brother was guilty or innocent either. That just made me worry even more.

  Wyatt agreed to go with Corey to the police station while Grayson got on the phone. There was no way we could afford the type of lawyer that Corey would need, and we couldn’t go for a bargain lawyer when it was Corey’s life on the line. There was only one phone call Grayson could make.

  And I didn’t like it at all. We needed to get the lamia out of our lives, not keep drawing them back in. Once again I cursed this stupid town.

  My anger only grew as I watched Corey and Wyatt be escorted into a police vehicle as if they were criminals. There were a couple of townspeople who had gathered to watch the drama but I zeroed in on just one of them. Mr. Reaven stood on the edge of the parking lot with a triumphant smile on his face. Hate burned through me. He might have gotten away with what he tried to do to me, but mess with my pack? No way I was going to walk away from this.

  This was war.

  I narrowed my eyes at Mr. Reaven and he looked up as if he could feel my gaze. Our eyes met and he gave me a small wave. We had just eliminated one of our enemies and had almost lost Kannon because we waited too long to attack first. I wouldn’t make the same mistake this time. I was going after Mr. Reaven and putting an end to whatever he was doing to Taylor and any other girls out there.

  I tilted my chin up and looked at Kannon. “First we get Corey out. Then we destroy Reaven.”

  Kannon looked at me with worry in his eyes, but I could see the gleam of approval from where Grayson was watching me as he spoke on the phone. The guys had wanted to do something about Mr. Reaven before, but I had made them stand down. This time, I was the one who was going to be leading the pack in a hunt. I was the one who was going to strike the blow that would take him down. Then we would find a way out of this fucking town.

  I was done with all of it.

  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

  Everyone has dark moments in their life that we sometimes wish we could erase or forget. But sometimes it’s the pain and struggle that we have gone through that gave us our inner strength.

  For me, writing started as a way to confront some of the demons of my past so that I could put them behind me forever. Most of my characters have a dark or troubled past and my books follow their progress as they emerge from the darkness that has held them down for so long.

  As the darkness fades, hope for a better future starts to emerge like the sun after a storm. A piece of my soul goes into each one of my books, and my hope and faith in a brighter tomorrow is reflected in each one of my characters.

  Books have always been a source of escape and enjoyment for me, so I hope that my work can help others in the same way

  -C.C. Masters

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  C.C. Masters lives near Virginia Beach with her two furbabies, the inspirations for Tigger and Eeyore. She enjoys long walks on the beach and loves to run through the forest under the light of the full moon

  SeasideWolfPack.com

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  Books by C.C. Masters

  Seaside Wolf Pack Series

  Book 1: Finding Somewhere to Belong

  Book 1.5: Finding Anna

  Book 2: Finding the Fire Within

  Book 3: Finding the Power Within

  Book 4: Finding Truth Beneath the Lies

  Book 5: Finding My Breaking Point (Coming Soon)

  Hollow Crest Wolf Pack Trilogy

  Book 1: New Beginnings

  Book 2: The Struggle

  Book 3: A Place to Call Home (Coming Soon)