Satisfaction glinted in the Alpha male’s eyes. “Good.” He turned as the three females re-entered the room. “Well?”
“According to our old boss, Wayland lives in Minnesota now.” Havana pocketed her phone. “He’s still a lone shifter.”
“The group keeps track of their ex-members?” asked Luke.
“Not in all cases,” replied Havana. “But they were worried about Wayland after all he went through, so they kept an eye on him for a while.”
Luke poked his tongue into the side of his cheek as he looked at Camden. “Assuming it is Wayland, why would he suddenly start pissing all over your life? His mate died a long time ago. It would have made sense for him to avenge her death back then. Why now?”
“That I don’t know,” said Camden. “I’m not convinced it is him.”
“Me neither, so I’d rather not go knocking on his door,” said Havana. “Seeing us will bring back awful memories for him.”
Camden looked from Tate to Luke. “Get me his address. I’ll scope the place out.”
“We’ll scope it out,” Aspen corrected.
“Yes, we will,” said Bailey. “Vana’s in, right?”
Havana nodded. “Of course.”
Tate looked about to protest, but then he sighed. “And you’re all sure you can get close without him sensing you? You’ve got crazy skills, I know. But so does he. He’s had the same training as you.”
“He won’t sense us,” Havana stated, confident.
“Is there anyone else we should look into?” asked Luke. “Anyone else in the group who’d have been cut up by LaToya’s death, for instance?”
The Alpha female shook her head. “She wasn’t close to anyone except Wayland.”
Tate looked at Camden. “And there’s no one else from the group who might have a grudge against you?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” replied Camden. He simply didn’t bother enough with others to make a real impact on their lives.
Tate rolled back his shoulders. “All right. We’ll do our best to locate Julius and we’ll follow this lead with Wayland and see where it takes us. As of now, Camden is a temporary enforcer and will be sticking close to you three,” he told the females.
Bailey grinned. “Yay, it’s like the gang’s back together.”
“I’m assuming Corbin will agree for you to change your work schedule to match their hours, Camden,” said Tate.
Camden nodded. “He’ll agree.”
Luke folded his arms across his chest. “What else can you tell us about Wayland?”
Havana puffed out a breath. “He’s a polar bear shifter. He’s been a loner since he was a juvenile. He didn’t talk much about his past, but he made it clear that he has no wish to return to his clan.”
“He was very evasive,” added Aspen. “Solitary. Distant. Seemed to have no interest in getting to know others. He wanted to be left alone. Only LaToya ever managed to get close to him. He held her at arms’ length for a while.”
“He’s a big guy,” said Bailey, widening her eyes. “Like Arnie. All muscle and super prominent cheekbones. But impressively stealthy for someone his size. And he can kill without blinking.”
“There was a few in the group who got a kick out of killing,” said Havana. “He wasn’t one of them. But he could do it without giving it a second thought. Ending someone’s life was literally nothing to him. It didn’t affect him one way or the other.”
“Did you talk to him much?” Tate asked Camden, scratching the scruff on his jaw.
Camden shook his head. “No.”
Tate pursed his lips. “Did you tell him what pride you came from?”
“No.”
“So if he’d wanted info on your past, he’d have had to dig for it?”
Camden shrugged. “It wouldn’t have been hard for him to unearth the info.”
“I’m surprised he’d bother to pay your old pride a visit. You have a new one now. And you obviously weren’t happy at your previous one, or you’d have returned there. He must have just figured that vandalizing your parents’ graves would wound you.”
“If it was him, then maybe,” said Camden. But if that was the case, Wayland hadn’t dug very far when he fished for info. Otherwise, he’d have known that Camden wouldn’t give two fucks. “How long will it take you to find the location of Julius and Wayland?”
It was Luke who replied, “Hopefully not long. It depends on if they’re lying low.”
Havana rubbed her face and groaned. “I feel so awful.”
“Awful?” echoed Tate. “Why would you feel awful?”
“Because I should have known what would happen this morning,” said Havana. “The universe practically spelled it out for me. Ellie Goulding’s Explosions was playing yesterday at the grocery store. I also walked past some guy in the same store who had a tattoo of a car with flames on the wheels. Then last night, one of our pride was prattling on to me about some movie they watched called ‘Bang.’ All the signs were there.”
Aspen was not surprised when the Alpha male stared at his mate in silence. Unlike Havana, he didn’t believe in “signs,” despite how many times it appeared that the universe was in fact giving her a heads-up.