Chapter 32: Exchange

Vic Knightly’s POV

Portland Brotherhood Clubhouse

“WAKE UP, PROSPECT. We leave in twenty.” The banging on my door had woken us up, and I looked over at the clock to see it was seven-thirty in the morning. We’d only had four hours of sleep, as the party had gone on well into the night. Spider Monkey had a lot of fun catching up with her old friends, while I got to work the bar, clean up the vomit, and generally do what a prospect does.

I rolled over and sat up, leaving Spider under the covers alone. “I’m too old for this shit,” I said.

“Look at the bright side,” she said as she buried her head in my pillow. “The year of prospecting will be less than one half of one percent of your life. It’s nothing.”

I smacked her ass and got up, stretching my muscles as I walked to the bathroom. Five minutes later, I had shaved, dressed, and was ready to go. “What are you doing today,” I asked as I sat on the bed by her.

“Data analysis and listening to phone conversations,” I said. “I’ve got notes on each of the Council members; I have suspicions, but nothing like I had on Millner.”

“Yet,” I said as I leaned down and kissed her. “Keep going, and see what you can do to clean Millner’s accounts before they transfer them to others.”

“Alpha Rori did want them treated like the Sons,” she said sleepily. “I’ll see what I do.”

“I love you, Spider. I’ll be back by dinnertime.”

“Do you expect trouble?”

“I hope not. Rori cut us loose to protect her Pack but isn’t actively pursuing us. We gave Carson a warning about an attack; hopefully, that is more important than what the Council says to do.”

“Be careful, Vic.”

“I will. If anything happens, stay with the Club and out of sight of the Council. I love you, babe.” I gave Spider her kiss goodbye and pulled the blanket up over her shoulders. Reaching into my bags, I took out my combat knife and threaded it onto my belt. My Glock 19 was in its locked case, unloaded and with extra magazines. My Minnesota resident carry permit is not accepted by either Oregon or Washington, so I can’t do concealed carry. I’d keep it in the back until we were close to the Pack border.

The guys were gathering around Thor in the parking lot. “This is Vic’s exchange. He and Spider don’t expect hostility with Carson’s people, but there may be people watching and waiting for him. He takes the lead, we stay back and support if needed,” he said.

Turning to me, I showed them where we would be going and what the plan was. “Spider Monkey found out the bad guys have a spy in Carson’s group so we won’t be announcing our arrival until the last minute. None of them will leave their property, and none are hostile unless they fire on us.” Everyone nodded, not wanting a gunfight. I’d asked about people last night, so I knew who the best shooter with a rifle was. “Before and after the exchange point, all we will have is hostiles. They will be after me. We’ll stop here, at the Tipsoo Lake Comfort Station, before heading east. Here’s the turnoff. Rattler, you have overwatch. You and your spotter will go ahead of us, exiting here and taking a sniper position on this peak.”

“Range?”

“Six hundred yards to this point,” I showed them where the gate was across the private entrance to Carson’s land. “I’ll drive the trailer to the gate, alone. The rest of you will be here, close enough to be seen and respond but not enough to threaten them. I drop the stuff off, talk to the guard, and walk back. We pick up the overwatch on the way out.”

“Easy enough,” Thor said. “Load up.” We had two SUV’s plus mine with the trailer; one of the other prospects, a 21-year-old kid named Bobby, was driving with me. I programmed the GPS and pulled out of the Clubhouse lot as the two cars followed.

It was an easy drive until we left the Interstate and started up into the mountains. The rains were nearly constant as we climbed, luckily it was warm enough in the spring we didn’t hit snow. The rivers were high and fast with runoff as we passed over them. We made our final stop, and I sent Bobby back to the other car. Rattler got out at his point, taking a man with him up the hill. They were wearing camouflage ponchos in the rain; he was carrying the equivalent of the Marine M40 rifle, a Remington 700 with a 24” bull barrel, bipod, and scope in .308 Winchester. We couldn’t depend on cell service up here, so we had radios instead. “We’re in place,” he finally said.

“Moving in two minutes,” I replied. I did have cellphone reception for now, and I made a phone call with a burner. It rang a few times before it picked up.

“Carson Nygaard’s office,” a female voice said.

“I’ve got a delivery from Las Vegas for your guest, I’ll be at the west access gate in two minutes,” I said.

“Who is this?”

“A friend of the family.” I hung up, turning the phone off again. “Let’s roll,” I said over the radio. Putting the vehicle in gear, I pulled back onto the road and drove the short distance to the gravel road that led into Pack land. I drove slowly down, looking out for trouble until I reached the gate and stopped. I picked up the radio. “I’m here, Rattler. You have visual?”

“I do. Vehicle approaching, 300 yards out.”

“I’m exiting; I’ll use the trailer for cover.”

“Roger that.”

I turned the engine off and left the keys in place; there was no place to turn around, and I wouldn’t be able to escape while backing up with a covered trailer. Walking back to the trailer, I unlocked it and opened it up. Inside were boxes of Heather’s clothes and gear, along with her Harley. I heard a truck approaching and waited by the side of the trailer.

The Supercab F-150 stopped at the turnout on the other side of the fence. I recognized Alpha Carson as he got out of the passenger seat; he opened the back door, and a big wolf jumped out. It ran around the vehicle gate and straight towards me.

Rattler’s POV

Overwatch Post

I hated the cold rain.

We made our way up through the mud and melting snow to the top of the hill. I had a couple of extra camo tarps with me, so when we found a decent spot under a tree to set up, I could use them. I laid one down over the mud and pine needles while my spotter lashed the other to the branches above us. I didn’t need my optics getting wet. It only took a few minutes to set up our hide.

I set my scope for six hundred yards, not an easy shot, but well within the range of my rifle. I used a ballistics program on my cellphone to calculate the bullet drop since we were about three hundred feet above the target. Once I had my scope set, Vic moved out and parked by the gate.

“I’m here, Rattler. You have visual?”

I could see everything from up here. “I do. Vehicle approaching, 300 yards out.” It was a pickup truck, moving slowly towards him.

“I’m exiting; I’ll use the trailer for cover.”

“Roger that.” I watched as the truck parked on the other side of the gate. A big man got out, and then he opened the back door for someone else. It wasn’t a person; it was a dog. It was the biggest fucking dog I’d ever seen, twice the size of a German Shepherd, brown with white patches. As soon as its feet hit the ground, it was running for the gate.

“It’s heading for Vic,” my spotter said. “Shoot it!”

I tracked it, but the dog was moving too fast for me to shoot at this range. I let out a relieved sigh when the dog didn’t attack Vic. It just wagged its tail and licked his face as he petted and scratched it. “I think they know each other,” I said.

“Safe your weapons, boys,” a voice said from behind me. I froze; I’d never heard a sound. “We don’t want anyone getting hurt here.”

I took my finger off the trigger and looked back. Two men with pistols were standing there. I had zero chance of taking them out while lying prone in the other direction with a bolt-action rifle, and my spotter just had a scope out. “Do what he says,” I said. I pulled the bolt of my rifle back, ejecting the live round and leaving the action open.

One of the men moved forward, taking my rifle and my spotter’s AR-15. “Sit down and watch, we don’t want to hurt you,” the man told us.

He hadn’t taken my pistol; that and the fact that they could have killed us easily if they wanted to said we wouldn’t die here. We watched as the driver of the truck opened the gate, and the big guy walked forward. He embraced Vic, and we all relaxed.

Vic’s POV

I smiled as I saw Carson emerge. “Thank you for coming out,” I said.

“I figured it was you when you said Vegas,” he said. “I started heading this way as soon as you dropped your sniper off.” He opened the back door, and a wolf jumped out. She was running towards me, wagging her tail before she started licking my face as she sat by me.

I took a deep sniff; she smelled like Heather and Carson! “Heather?”

“WOOF!” She started licking my face again. I moved my hands down her flanks, petting her while she had her head on my shoulder, and felt the bumps. “The twins? How?”

Carson was up to us now, carrying a big duffel bag and a small Igloo cooler. “She got bitten in the attack, but we gave her werewolf blood and a mating bite. She pulled through; Doc said the change was slow enough for her healing to save the babies.”

“Amazing,” I said. “Why is she still a wolf?”

“She can’t change back until they are born. If she shifted, she’d lose them.”

It made sense. I stood up and embraced the Alpha, then looked down at the bag and cooler. “What’s this?”

“We’re having a family reunion, and Rori brought this along. She got it from your basement.” I unzipped it; it was our cash. I took out a bundle of twenty-dollar bills and put it in my jacket pocket. “The cooler is from Doc Myers; keep it refrigerated just in case. There’s enough to start the change if it’s needed. His number and Doc Olson’s are in there. Give her the blood and give them a call, but only if there’s no other option, and Spider agrees to the change.”

“You’d let her make the change?”

“We always thought she’d be a good Beta. Once this crap with the Council is over, we’ll find a way to bring you back.” While we talked, Heather had moved around and jumped into the trailer. She barked, and we moved back to see her sniffing her Harley’s saddle and wagging her tail. “She thanks you for bringing her stuff back,” Carson said.

“I should go. I brought some humans along just in case the reception wasn’t good,” I said.

“You’ll always be welcome here, Vic. Fuck the Council and their edicts; you gave us a warning. It wasn’t in time to prevent the attack, but it told us we had a mole.”

I shook his offered hand. “I won’t do it unless we have to. We don’t need to attract trouble.”

“Take care of Spider Monkey. We’re hoping the data she has can tell us how deep the rot has spread in the Council.”

“I will.” I picked up the Igloo and my bag of cash and started walking back to the waiting SUVs. The trailer pulled past the gate, followed by the truck as they returned to the Pack House. I heard Thor recall for the overwatch as I got to the waiting Brothers. “We’re good,” I said as I opened the back.

“Did he bring you lunch,” Thor asked.

“No, just some stuff for Spider Monkey.” We pulled out, heading back to the pickup point for our snipers.

“Jesus Christ, Vic, who are those guys,” Rattler said as he loaded his rifle into the case in the back. “Fuckers were on top of us, and we never heard a sound!”

“They take security seriously,” I said. “They were probably wondering why a guy with a rifle was walking around by their land outside hunting season. Next time, stay hidden.”

“Scared the shit out of me,” he said as he got in the back. “You get what you needed?”

“And more than that,” I said. “Let’s head home. Lunch is on me.”