Part 20: Town Secret III
He couldn't believe she chose the manwhore over him; he thought that she hated him she had even told him as much on several occasion. The sight of Sophia Donner draped across Luke Cates was enough to make his stomach turn. It was as if Cates sensed his staring and train of thought as brown eyes flickered his way narrowing when they landed on him.
"I take it Cates has heard the rumor, "Alex his friend from the soccer team chuckled.
"What makes you say that?" Scott asked.
"The glares he and his friends keep giving you and the fact he hasn't let go of Donner since she walked into the cafeteria with Luke's playmate Presley kinda gave it away."
"I'm glad he heard," Scott grumbled meeting Luke's gaze with a defiant one of his own that only seemed to amuse Cates adding fuel to his angry fire.
Alex laughed darkly shaking his head at his friend, "I know you are new and all but even you have to realize it is suicide to keep antagonizing Luke Cates like this. Besides man, Donner doesn't deserve this she is too nice."
Scott glared at his friend, "She seems nice but that is just part of her game. In the end Sophia is just like Luke. Besides I am not afraid of him, there is nothing he can do to me besides start a school yard fight."
Alex snorted glancing around wearily when he realized most of the Hill kids were starting at him and Scott. "He can do more than you realize Scott, he is a Hill kid and people who mess with them don't last long." Alex warned softly not wanting any of the people staring at him to hear. He had a funny feeling that even his whispered warning to his friend was heard by all of him turning his stomach into a ball of knots.
Scott rolled his eyes clearly not believing his friend brushing off his warning as just another one of the ramblings of the superstitious townsfolk. Most of the people who lived in town were afraid of the Hill kids it was as if there was some deep dark secret that the town held and everyone was doing their part to cover it up. The Hill kids were obviously in on the secret and the townies did their best to make sure no one went looking too deep.
"Oh I am so scared because some little rich boy is mad that I told people the truth. You people fear shadows man, they have no power over you. There is no reason to fear a bunch of teenagers." He scoffed.
Alex shifted around nervously when he realized all of the Hill kids were now staring at them clearly amused by the tone of their conversation. "Scott people who mess with them don't just end up beat to a pulp in the school parking lot, they end up missing or are sent off to some unknown place."
Scott frowned at his friend, "People don't just vanish Alex and no one has the power to send another person away."
Alex leaned away from Scott feeling hopeless as he realized there was nothing he could do to steer his friend off his destructive course. "In Wolf Lake they do," Alex whispered.
Across town John Kanin was busy investigating. He watched the town sheriff and deputy with a close eagle eye all morning. He knew they were both in on whatever Tyler Creed was trying to hide he had seen them at the man's house. John was positive they were both in on the secret that haunted the town; it was in the way they moved the cautious words they spoke and the gestures so similar and so practiced as if they were taking care to cover something up.
He had been watching them for hours picking up on small movements that he would have just brushed off before. John noticed that half the time Molly would hand Matt something he would never ask for she would just seemingly know when to give it to him. The two were also hyper aware of what was going on around them with an almost unnatural sense of what was happening. The way they moved around the station, reading reports and never looking up darting around objects that they couldn't see and couldn't possibly know were there. It was all so inhuman.
"Something interesting Kanin?" Matt asked never looking up from his report.
"What?"
Matt looked at him raising an eyebrow, "You keep staring it is a bit unnerving. Is there anything I can help you with?" He asked.
"No…"
"Right." Matt sighed clearly annoyed, "Well hold down the fort with Molly I have to go check in with Vivian about something." Matt mumbled nodding to his deputy before he left in a hurry. John looked to Molly who just rolled her eyes at him.
"What was that about I thought he hated Vivian Cates?"
Molly laughed at him making him feel as if he were missing some inside joke, "He doesn't hate her he just does not agree with her way of running things."
"What is wrong with how she runs the brewery?" John asked.
"Some feel she is a little too tyrannical and is leading the company where it doesn't need to go. Matthew is one of the people the shareholders look to for reassurance since he is the only one who can actually steer her ship away from dangerous waters."
"Why do I get the feeling that statement was loaded?"
Molly smirked at him, "Because it was. A lot of people in this town wanted Matt or Tyler to take over the company not Vivian. We all know she is just bidding her time until Luke can take over but still many feel uncomfortable with her business dealings."
"Luke is just a kid how do they know he will do much better than his mother?" John asked.
"Because his father trained him well. Luke knows the brewery better than most and everyone in this towns knows it is unwise to cross him." John had a sinking feeling that this whole time she was not speaking about the stupid alcohol business but the actual town itself like Vivian and her son were the ones running the show.
"I don't see why anyone would want Tyler Creed running anything he is just a common crook." John grumbled looking down at his paperwork trying not to let her see his raging jealousy.
"Many think that but take it from someone who grew up with Tyler," Molly said forcing him to look up, "There is more to Tyler Creed and his family than meets the eye. He might seem like a thug but did it ever occur to you that he is just using that as an image and that having that image might be useful in other ways?"
"What ways? All I see him using it for are to try and frighten people into doing what he wants."
Molly's smirk grew wider. "Why John that is correct but remember what someone very wise once said. To be a ruler is to be feared, it is better for your people to fear you than love you. The Prince should rule over his people with an iron fist building up his money and his armies first."
"I know Machiavelli; I just can't seem Tyler Creed as a leader of anything other than a mob like gang." John scoffed.
"And that is why you will never understand this town."
Across town Matthew Donner got out of his cruiser and walked up the front walk to the front door of the alpha home a home that should have been his at one point if he hadn't fallen in love with a human. He didn't even bother to knock sensing Tyler, Ruby and Sherman already inside in the office. "Ah Matt." Sherman greeted lounging in a chair off to the side. Ruby and Tyler were in front of the desk discreetly holding hands.
"Sorry I am late, Kanin was being rather hawkish this morning." He grumbled.
"Just the man we are here to discuss." Tyler sighed, "He has been doing a lot of watching lately and I fear he is starting to see things his little human eyes aren't supposed to."
"Such as?" Vivian asked.
"Well he cornered your son and Sophia in his car by the woods; they think he was watching them. He was starting to poke his nose around."
Matt nodded pulling out the file he was holding, "He is looking into more things now and he is getting closer to the truth." Matt gave Vivian the file. She opened it up and saw pages on the Wolf Lake church, their church. "I guess it is a good thing I am so paranoid and had a tracker placed in his computer to monitor the sites he goes on."
Sherman sighed off to the side, "Damn I was hoping my meddling would push him to see the light not to grow stupid."
"What have you done you old fool?" Tyler growled at the pack keeper.
Sherman gave Tyler a sharp glare, "Kanin is smart if no one told him anything he would just dig deeper and deeper so I gave him something to wet his whistle if you will. I did what I usually do when humans are looking too deep into the pack."
Matt nodded at the keeper, "And it usually works but not this time Kanin is too determined. I am afraid we are going to have to resort to some unorthodox methods." He said giving Ruby a sorry glance.
Ruby for her part looked annoyed but also sad. Her blue eyes stared into Tyler's, "We need to do whatever we must to keep the pack safe that is the first order of business it always has been and it always will be." Ruby whispered.
"What does the pup pack think about all this?" Vivian asked sensing that somehow her son and Matthew's daughter were involved in this.
"Sophia is tired of him sniffing around, he is starting to ask all the right questions and she is afraid that Kanin is going to ask the wrong townie the right question and spark a witch hunt. She does have a point." Tyler pointed out and Vivian nodded.
"What do you propose?" Ruby asked the alpha.
"We could just throw him in the loony bin with the others." Tyler grunted.
"Be politically correct Tyler James Creed and call in the psych ward of the Wolf Lake hospital please." Sherman snickered.
"If you don't watch it old man I will lock you in there as well in a straight jacket." Tyler growled.
Vivian sighed at their squabbling, "That will never work he has friends in town."
Matt raised an eyebrow at that, "I don't remember him having an friends."
"Well the people of the town would notice if he suddenly up and disappeared he is a prominent person and tends to make himself stick out."
Sherman suddenly chuckled, "Well we could always go with the good old standby."
"What might that be?" Ruby asked.
"A hunting accident."