Cold Foot Komodo (Wreck’s Mountains Book 2)

Reed clenched and unclenched his fist. When he spread his fingers out, they were shaking.

It was the anger that kept him on the verge of a Change.

The first gray streaks of dawn were painting the horizon as he stalled on making this call. It had taken him half the damn night to even track down Mayer’s phone number. He’d forgotten it during his years at Cold Foot.

Now, he didn’t keep in touch with his old Bank of Komodo shifters, nor did he want anything to do with any of them. Everything had gotten so messed up at the end, and he’d taken the fall for every toxic habit the Komodos had built up. He’d spent an hour digging into old memories and trying to decide who to contact for information. Mayer was the one who was most likely moved on and out of that Bank, but there was still the risk of him still being roped in. Farrah was really good at that part.

He’d had to pay for a background check service to get this number, and nothing in him wanted to make this call right now.

Reed dragged his gaze to the hospital entrance, where a blue car was pulling up to the emergency room doors. He’d cleared the road for Sasha again. No, she didn’t need it. He knew Sasha didn’t need him doing that, but he couldn’t help it. He would probably always clear the road on bad-weather days if his animal had any say in the way he started his mornings.

Texting her to end things between him and Sasha had gutted him.

She was too good for any of this, and Farrah was a monster. Sasha didn’t need to be in the path of the storm. He already cared about her too much.

Fuck, he’d been happy here for a minute, but now? The Cold Foot Crew was leaking information about him, and that was the part that really pissed him off. He’d been through enough betrayal.

All Banks were the same. Apparently all Crews were the same too.

Reed connected the call to Mayer, but no one picked up. He tried to calculate the time difference, but Mayer was an early riser too. Always had been.

He called again, and this time a familiar voice came on the line. “Hello?” he said gruffly.

“Mayer?”

His old friend went silent.

“It’s Reed,” he gritted out.

“I know who it is. I didn’t get a collect call from a prisoner prompt. Are you out of Cold Foot?”

And that right there told Reed that Mayer was out of their old Bank. If Farrah knew, she would’ve called a meeting and briefed everyone. “Are you out of the Bank?” he asked, wanting to know for sure.

“By the skin of my teeth,” Mayer said. He inhaled deeply. “Why are you calling me? Are you coming after me?”

“I have no interest in all that. No revenge. Karma will do what she needs to do. I never want to see any of you again. I’m calling for information.”

“What kind of information?” Mayer asked somberly.

“Farrah’s kid.”

“Farrah’s kid?” Mayer asked in a confused tone.

“Is it mine?”

“Jesus, how would I know that, man? I haven’t seen anyone from the Bank since about a week after you were arrested. Jack, Drake, and I bolted after everything went down. I’m still in hiding. Farrah will never quit hunting. I’ll be in hiding for the rest of my freaking life, and speaking of, how did you find my number?”

“From a background check. If I can get it, so can she. She found my number too. Far as I can guess, she must be talking to someone in my new Crew.”

“Man, I don’t know what to tell you. I can’t be doing a paternity test on some kid I’ve never seen for you.”

“Mayer, you owe me, and you know it.”

“Dammit, Reed.” Mayer swallowed audibly. “I got a lady now. A normie. I’m doing okay, fucking finally. I can’t go back.”

“I don’t want to either. I met someone too, but if there’s a kid that’s mine?” He let the rest trail off. Mayer would understand well enough.

“Dammit,” Mayer murmured again. “Look, let me reach out to Jack and Drake and see if they’ve heard anything. Don’t get your hopes up though, all right? They’re out of the Bank just the same as you and me. Give me a couple days.”

“I appreciate it.”

“If I do this, we’re even. No more favors. My debt is paid.”

Reed huffed a laugh. “If you think sending a couple texts makes up for what you motherfuckers did to me, you’ve lost your mind. Your debt will be paid because I don’t want to talk to you any more than you want to talk to me. I know what this will do to you, Mayer. You’ll have to go home tonight and face your normie woman with ghosts in your eyes, and hide what you’re really going through because you’ll be remembering what y’all did. You’ll have to face those feelings of locking me away underground in Alaska for years, just so Farrah could get what she wanted. You have to shoulder the guilt of what happened to me, and you have to accept the fact that I never ratted any of you out. I just took it so you all could go on and rebuild your lives. And then…” He shook his head and huffed an empty, single laugh. “And then you have to deal with the guilt that none of you asked what the fuck was happening when Cold Foot didn’t release me, and they just kept me locked away after my release date. So no, we will never be even, traitor. I was your Second, but even more important? I was your friend. I don’t need to come after any of you. Your shame will do it for me.” Reed hung up the phone, and slammed his open palm against the steering wheel a few times to rid himself of some of the rage.

God, he hated this. He hated going back. Hated old memories. Hated everything that had happened.

But most of all, he hated that his old life was haunting his new one. He hated that his past had slammed down a wall between himself and Sasha.

He could feel the old him, and he’d worked so damn hard to become who he was now. The old him didn’t have a place here.

Every single thing that was dragging him back to his old self pissed him off.

He connected a call to Wreck.

“Yep,” Wreck answered.

“I need a meeting.”

There was a pause. “With me?”

“With everyone in the Crew. Not Sasha, and not Beth.” No humans, just in case Reed lost his control and Changed.

“Okay,” Wreck drawled. “Is everything all right?”

“No.” There was no point in trying to lie to the phoenix shifter. He would hear it easily.

“Okay, I’ll call one for tonight. The floor will be yours.”

“Can’t wait,” Reed said dryly, and then hung up.

He would ask the right questions and find the rat by the end of the night.

He’d made the mistake before of allowing Bank members misbehave without being checked, hoping they would correct their path. He’d trusted people he cared about to come back to doing the right thing, and he’d stood by for too long, until it was too late for them to be salvageable anymore.

Not this time.

If someone in this Crew had betrayed him, they would be held accountable.

No second, third, and fourth chances this time around.