Page 28 of Butterfly Assassin
“And that’s an excellent cause to support, even if the means of acquiring funds aren’t something I can endorse.” He gave Aaron a fond look, which Aaron felt all the way to his bones, and then got straight back to business. “What do you know about Smith?”
Not much at all.
“I only met him for the first time last Friday night. I mean, I’ve seen glimpses of him at the fights, but he’s always surrounded by his bodyguards or whatever they are. After that first fight, I’d get a text every Thursday asking if I wanted to fight on Friday, always from a different phone number.”
“How did you know it was from Smith?”
“Because there’s a code word.” It had seemed mildly amusing at the time, all cloak and dagger, but not so much now with Charlie dead.
“It was the same with me,” Harry added. “I’d get a text on Friday afternoon with the location of the next fight. I still had to go with my mate from the café though. Unless I wanted to become a member.”
“Who paid you your winnings?”
Aaron shrugged. “Whoever had ref’d the fight that night. It changed a lot.”
“Okay.” Sam settled back into his seat a bit more. “Ignoring the fact that Smith might be involved with more than just illegal fighting, have you known fighters who’ve stopped and walked away?”
Aaron frowned, not sure what he was getting at. “Yeah, there’s been a few who were there when I first started that I don’t see any more. And Charlie had been given his marching orders the night he—”
Oh.
“I’m not saying the two things are connected, but if you’re making money for Smith on a regular basis, he’s not going to be inclined to let you go easily.”
“How can he stop me?”
Sam glanced at Harry. “Do you two go together now?”
“Yeah, usually. But Harry goes to meet up with his mate. We don’t gointogether. We’re not stupid.”
Ignoring the last bit of that comment, Sam asked, “And Harry owes him money?”
Aaron didn’t like where this was going. “I know Smith’s not exactly a pillar of society, but Harry owes a couple of hundred, not a—” He waved a hand about. “—a kidney or anything like that. He can just pay his debt and it’s done.”
“I hope you’re right. But it’s been my experience that men like Smith didn’t get where they are by playing by the rules. If they want something bad enough, they go after it. And it’s not as though Harry owes a reputable bookie with a betting licence, is it? He owes a man who runs an illegal fighting ring. Who’s to say what rules he follows, if any?”
Fucking hell.
Aaron swallowed down a flare of panic. “What do we do?”
Sam remained calm, for which Aaron was immensely grateful for. “We pay Harry’s debt first, ensure there’s nothing tying him to Smith. Then you tell him you’re quitting.”
“And if he won’t let me go?” Aaron pictured the heavily built, armed bodyguards that accompanied him everywhere. He could easily imagine them doing Smith’s dirty work. “They have weapons.”
In the blink of an eye, Sam’s claws slid out and his teeth extended. Aaron jumped in his seat. “And so do we. Don’t forget that.” Sam grinned around his fangs, the slurred edge to his words making them sound even more menacing. “If he chooses to threaten a member of my pack—whether he’s aware of what you are or not—he’ll regret it.”
Aaron wanted to protest, to say that if they retaliated, then Smith would know that he was a shifter, that he’d lied. But then if they’d reached the point where Smith was threatening him, it would probably be the least of his worries. Would it matter if he knew the truth? It wasn’t as though Aaron wanted to go back there ever, and surely, even Smith wouldn’t be stupid enough to mess with an alpha and his pack. Even if his bodyguardswerearmed.
Shifters were heavily punished for injuring humans in an unprovoked attack, but if Smith’s guys came at them with guns… well, that would be a different story entirely. Not one Aaron wanted to see play out because members of his pack could still get hurt, or worse, but they wouldn’t be in trouble with the SCTF or the alpha council. They were well within their rights to protect themselves.
When they pulled up in front of the pack buildings, Aaron breathed a sigh of relief.
Home.
Hopefully, he and Harry could escape to the safety of their flats now. Aaron had had enough of being interrogated for one day.
They got out of the car and Sam turned to face them while Isaac locked up. “Take the rest of the day off and stay close to the pack building tomorrow if you can.” He glanced at Isaac. “Can you rearrange things at work?”
Isaac nodded. “I’ll have a look who’s supposed to be where when we get inside.”
