To her relief, he didn't try to detain her, merely leaning back to prop his shoulders on the wall of the diner and folding his arms over his chest. He watched her, though, and she wondered a little wildly if she should head directly back to her cabin or not. Would they follow her?
Trying to convince herself they wouldn't, she climbed into her truck, waved at the other bikers who had followed him out, and backed out of the parking lot. She should follow through with her original plan, she decided. That way she wouldn't need to come back to town for at least a week and they'd probably be gone. Besides, even though she hadn't seen a sign of either of the cops the town boasted, she knew they had to be around somewhere. It would be safer to give them time to settle somewhere before she drove out of town.
* * * *
Jared sniffed the air. “Well, we certainly managed to scare the hell out of her,” he murmured dryly. “You think she'll hit for home?"
"Somehow I doubt it,” Balin drawled, “unless by home you mean where ever she's staying here."
"Where do you think she's staying?” Con asked, joining them.
"We passed a sign on the way in that said something about a fishing camp. My guess is that's where she's staying. I didn't notice a hotel since we got into town."
"I guess that's where we'll be staying, too,” Xavier observed in disgust. “I'm going to be sick of roughing it before we're done here."
Jared sent him an amused look. “Getting soft, old man? What did you expect to find, a five star hotel in this dump of a town?"
Xavier shot him a bird. “Bite me."
"What did you think about the locals?” Dakota asked after Danika's truck had vanished from sight.
"Fucking
weres
, every last one of them,” Balin muttered, lifting his head to survey the street through narrowed eyes. “My guess is this whole town's infected by now—most of it, anyway. There's going to be hell to pay when they hit their first transition. Chances are that'll take care of a lot of the problem, the majority of the women certainly. Either they won't survive the transition or the males will tear them apart fighting over them—or with them. We've got about a week to figure out if there's anybody still around that hasn't been infected, besides Dani, and decide how we're going to keep them that way.” Moving away from the building, he threw one leg over his hog, paused with his foot over the starter and turned to survey the others. “Who wants to baby-sit our little scientist until she decides its safe to head out of town?"
Con eyed him speculatively. “You mean you aren't volunteering? Seemed to me you were particularly interested in that choice little morsel."
Balin sent him a look. “She's human,” he reminded the other man.
Con shrugged and then grinned. “So? You don't dip your wick in females of the human variety? Smelled good enough to eat from where I was sitting. I wouldn't mind fucking her."
Balin's lips tightened in annoyance. He flicked a speculative glance at the other men. “The council sent us here to take care of the problem ... not add to it. I'll go make arrangements for a place to stay where we can keep an eye on her. I'm more interested in a bath and bed at this point."
"I may have to get waders if he's going to be spouting that kind of shit,” Con muttered as he drove off, staring at Balin's back through narrowed eyes.
Dakota slid a speculative glance at him. “He outranks us—all of us—even if we are all pack leaders in our own territories. And, from what I hear, he can be damned prickly. I'd watch that mouth of yours unless you just want to see if he can kick your ass—and I'd be betting on him. He's a blueblood, you know, descended from one of the purest lines of wolfen, from what I heard ... some say
the
purest line, which means he's not only more powerful than the typical wolfen, but he has powers most of have never even dreamed of. Why else do you think they sent
him
in? If he says he's not interested in the woman, he's not."
Con snorted. “I heard about his lines—who hasn't? I still say it's bullshit. He couldn't keep his eyes, or his hands, off of her. It wasn't
that
tight a fit in the booth. And what was that move about—shoving her money into her pocket—if it wasn't to check her out?"
Jared's eyes gleamed with suppressed laughter. “You're just pissed because he was the only one close enough, besides Dakota, to get a feely."
Con flicked a glance at Dakota. “So why didn't you?"
"Because I didn't fucking feel like challenging Balin, just because I was in a mood to get my ass kicked,” Dakota growled. “He's right, you know. The council expects results. We're not here to establish a local pack. If they'd wanted that, they wouldn't have sent the five of us. I'm going to follow Balin. I'm dead on my fucking feet."
Xavier moved to his bike.
"You goin', too?"
Xavier grinned, waggling his brows. “I'm going to baby-sit."
Jared glanced from Con to Xavier. “Maybe I should go to baby-sit you two and make sure you don't find yourself on the wrong side of the council?"
"Yeah?” Con drawled lazily. “And who's gonna watch you with our little lamb?"
Jared laughed. “You can watch. I don't care who watches my bobbing white ass while I'm stroking."
"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather watch her ass,” Xavier retorted.
"That's gonna be hard when I've got her on her back howling at the moon,” Con said, grinning.
* * * *
Although ordinarily grocery shopping was at the very top of Danika's list of things she hated, and she generally made quick work of it, she rolled her buggy back and forth along the aisles of the small grocery store a half a dozen times before she was finally satisfied and headed to the front to check out. It wouldn't have taken nearly as long if she'd remembered the damned list, she thought irritably. Without it, she had to trust her memory, and that was tricky at best, particularly when she was distracted—which she was most of the time.
She was more distracted than usual, listening with half an ear for the sound of motorcycles while she cudgeled her mind for her needs, and then she'd heard them, and that had only made matters worse.
She couldn't decide if Balin had been serious about hanging around or if he'd only said it because he could see how unnerved she was by them. She certainly couldn't think of any reason why they'd want to hang around. Maynard was so far off the beaten track, and so tiny, it barely made it on to the maps. Aside from the fishing at the lake, which supposedly was great and usually attracted a lot of fishermen, the town had absolutely nothing to offer, and the attacks seemed to have dampened the enthusiasm of even the fishermen. Aside from the cabin she'd taken, all of the others were empty and she'd checked, it
was
a time of the year for game fishing.
She couldn't see any of the biker gang members as fishing enthusiasts, though.
She just hoped Balin had been teasing her and didn't really mean to hang around because there wasn't another place to stay in town except a bed and breakfast and she didn't imagine the woman who ran it would be keen on having a gang of bikers as guests.
Actually, they'd seemed fairly well behaved, now that she thought about it. She hadn't approved of their brand of humor, but, aside from a few off color remarks she'd provoked herself by her comments about wolf mating behavior and a little colorful language, they'd behaved better than she would've expected. They hadn't made any crude propositions—to her or anyone else. They'd been courteous to the waitress. They hadn't even tried to pick a fight with anyone.
Maybe she'd misjudged them? Maybe they weren't as bad as their appearance seemed to suggest?
She shrugged the thought off. Maybe she'd misjudged them and maybe not. Their appearance suggested they were probably very dangerous men. It might be bigotry to judge them on that alone, but it was better than erring on the other side and finding herself in serious trouble—only because, in spite of everything, her hormones had kicked in and she'd found them attractive.
Handsome men did terrible things the same as ugly ones. In fact, she'd be willing to bet they did more because their appearance allowed them more. Look at Ted Bundy! Not that she'd thought he was all that handsome, but he wasn't bad looking either, and he'd obviously had charm working on his side.
It was disconcerting, to say the very least, to discover when she pulled up at her cabin that she had new neighbors.
Xavier, Jared, and Balin, now clean shaven, bathed of road dust, and minus their leathers—minus everything except jeans, were lounging comfortably on the front porch of the cabin directly beside her own.
"Oh shit!” Danika muttered under breath, searching her mind a little wildly for what to do.
She couldn't ignore them.
Could she?
Or would they take that badly?
Maybe she could compromise by smiling and nodding politely and then running inside and locking the door?
There was the groceries to consider, though. She'd actually bought more than she needed, more than she'd intended, because she'd made so many circuits of the store trying to remember what she needed.
Should she try to grab all of the bags at once and make a dash for it? Or maybe she could just grab the bag of cold stuff? Leave the rest for later and then sneak out and carry them in when her neighbors weren't watching?
Balin, Jared, and Xavier sauntered over while she sat frozen in her truck, trying to decide the best way to handle the situation.
She stared at Balin through the window.
"Need help?"
She managed a wavering smile. “No! Actually, I can handle it!"
His gaze flickered to the bags filling the back of the truck. “Looks like you stocked up. We'll help you get them in."
Fuck! She didn't want them inside her cabin—with her! She got out of the truck. “No, really! I wouldn't want to put you guys out. It's just a few things."
They ignored her polite protests. Jared bounded into the bed of the truck and began shifting the bags from just behind the cab toward the rear of the truck bed. Balin dropped the tailgate and the three gathered bags, looking at her expectantly. Chewing her lip, she dug the key out of her bag reluctantly and led the way.
"Just put them anywhere. Thanks so much. It's was awfully sweet of you guys to offer. Anywhere. You can just put them on the table there ... in the kitchen area. That's good, too!"
Having settled the bags on the counter top of the tiny kitchenette, they began emptying the bags, looking everything over with interest. Thank god they'd already eaten! She didn't have to offer to feed them for helping out. “Oh! Don't bother with that. There probably isn't even enough room to put it all up. I don't know what I was thinking. I didn't have my list, you see...."
"This list?” Balin asked, picking it up off the table where she'd left it.
Amusement gleamed in his eyes when he'd surveyed the list and looked up at her. “I think you forgot something."
Danika blinked at him. “I did?” she asked in dismay, surging toward him to look at the list.