Part Two

Adrian quickly put a smile on his face and displayed his badge. “Good afternoon, Sir.”

“Yes?” Jeff was almost rude as he looked at Adrian. He was a big man but Adrian still felt sure that he could subdue him with the gun if he could only manage to gain entry into the house.

“I’m going house to house to ask if any of the residents have noticed any suspicious activity in the area…” Adrian began to talk but Jeff interrupted him.

“Like you, Officer? You’ve been sitting in your car for a week now, watching my house. I think I should call Chief McKenzie, who I play poker with once a month and inform him of the suspicious acts of one of his officers.” Jeff’s gaze bored into Adrian.

“I apologize, Sir, my intention wasn’t to ruffle any feathers. I’m working overtime and watching certain areas every week on my days off.” Adrian tried to save the situation. He could feel that he was losing this argument with Jeff Smith.

“Stop watching my house or I will report you!” Jeff said and slammed the door in Adrian’s face.

The one thing that Adrian had yet to master was his temper when things didn’t go his way. He stomped back to his car and spun away.

Jeff watched Adrian get into his car and drive away. He picked up the phone and it was answered on the second ring.

“Malachi, he was just here. You were right, he just made his move. We need to move the women and children at least. Not everyone will be able to just up and leave their jobs,” Jeff said.

“Thank you, Jeff. The pack made their position clear at the last meeting. As soon as Adrian makes a move, we move everybody. We can worry about jobs later. If you’re dead, you’re dead. I’ll speak to Robert again, as well,” Malachi replied and they ended the conversation.

Jeff peered through the curtain again to make sure that Adrian had indeed left and hadn’t circled back.

“Damnit!” Adrian shouted and banged his hand on the steering wheel. It landed on the hooter and a few drivers hooted back at him. He tried to slow his breathing and calm down. This had not gone as he had planned at all! He was furious! How had he not noticed that Jeff was watching him? Adrian knew that he wouldn’t be able to go after Jeff now, he would have to change his tactics.

He wouldn’t be able to go after Travis either. They were friends and Adrian was sure that Jeff would be on the phone to Travis at this very moment, telling him about his encounter with the police officer. Shit! He wouldn’t be able to go after anybody right now. He wasn’t really sure how this whole wolf pack thing worked, but he was very sure that by the end of the day, they would all know.

He was so furious with himself that he didn’t see the light change from yellow to red as he drove straight on through it, nor did he see the truck speeding over that same intersection and crash into him. Adrian’s car spun three times and finally rolled over as it hit the curb and rolled twice more.

It was an eerie sound to listen to as the metal scraped over the tar road after the loud crash of the truck and car connecting with each other. Someone had later reported that the occupant of the car hadn’t made any noises or even yelled out as the truck hit the car.

Adrian hadn’t been wearing his seatbelt and the impact of the truck had thrown him into the back seat and twisted his body. The truck came to a screeching halt and the driver jumped out, shouting as he ran towards Adrian’s car. “Call an ambulance!” Ten minutes later the ambulance and fire truck arrived on the scene and the firefighters had to fight their way through a crowd of people around the car.

They had to cut Adrian out of his car using the jaws of life; he was unconscious and bleeding, but alive. The paramedics worked on him in the back of the ambulance as they drove to the hospital. One paramedic picked up his wallet that had fallen from his jacket pocket. He looked at it and then opened his mouth. “He’s one of us, he’s a cop.” The ambulance sped up and weaved through traffic towards the hospital.

Stephanie Thomas got the call from the ambulance that a police officer had been in a massive car crash and was inbound to the emergency room. She waited by the doors for the ambulance to arrive and she didn’t recognize him as his face was swollen, bruised and bleeding. They pushed him straight through to an operating room and began saving his life.

Nine hours later, Stephanie Thomas phoned Malachi Sinclair to inform him that Adrian Peters lay critical in the Intensive Care Unit and that sadly, he would make it.

The next afternoon Adrian Peters opened his eyes and saw Chief McKenzie and a doctor talking just outside his room. As the doctor turned sideways he instantly recognized her as Stephanie Thomas.

He looked around the room and saw that his partner, Robert Jones, was sitting in a chair watching them talk. Robert turned towards him and saw that he was awake. He smiled at Adrian and got out of the chair.

“Doctor Thomas, he’s awake!” The Chief and the doctor turned to look at Adrian and then walked back into the room.

“You’re a very lucky man, Mr. Peters.” Doctor Thomas flashed a light into his eyes and told him to follow the movement of her finger as she examined him.

‘Doesn’t feel like it,’ Adrian thought to himself.

“We operated on your leg and chest. You have a tibia-fibula break and one of your ribs punctured your lung. We managed to repair both. You’ll be in a cast for six to eight weeks depending on how it heals. Your chest will hurt slightly more. How are you feeling?”

“Sore.” Adrian’s voice rasped as he spoke his first word in more than twenty-four hours. He was frustrated, angry and in pain. He had lost concentration and now look at him. He chastised himself for his moment of weakness. He would be out of action for six weeks at least! He closed his eyes again and wondered if he could sleep and wake up and all of this would’ve been just some horrible dream.

After nine days in the hospital, Robert took him home. He limped through the front door with the aid of a crutch and hated appearing so weak. The truth was, he was weak and he hated to admit it even if it was just to himself. Robert put his medicine on the coffee table and went to put the kettle on.

“My mom made you some frozen meals. I put them in the freezer for you, there’s a pasta dish in the fridge that you can just heat up for tonight.” Robert’s voice came from the kitchen. Adrian Peters completely creeped him out but the man had nobody else, no friends and no family. Edna had told Robert that it was the right thing to do as his partner. Adrian might suspect something if Robert didn’t act like a partner would under such circumstances.

“Thanks man, tell your mom thanks too. She really didn’t have to do all this for me.” Adrian was genuinely pleased that Robert hadn’t run for the hills after their last conversation and that he cared. Adrian now knew that Robert’s loyalties had remained intact.

“I drove past the church a while ago and saw you at that Sinclair woman’s funeral,” Adrian said casually as he sat down on the couch. Robert had his back to him and he didn’t turn around.

“Oh yeah, my mom knew her from school. She wanted to go and asked me to take her,” Robert answered.

Adrian only nodded and felt certain that he hadn’t lost Robert to the wolves. He would have to be very careful in future, you couldn’t just trust anybody. Trust was a somewhat foreign concept to Adrian; he didn’t really fully understand how you could trust somebody so much that you would reveal everything to that person, yet he had done so with Robert. He even dared to imagine Robert as his partner, helping him get rid of the wolves.

Adrian faithfully went to his physical therapy classes and religiously did his exercises at home. He wanted to be completely ready when the next phase of his plan started. He could feel himself growing stronger each week. He had completely changed his daily routine, which now included exercises and a lot of research. Adrian Peters would sit at home for the next three and a half months while his leg healed. He used that time to plan his next move and to do more research.