Of Wolves and Men (14 page)

Roman ended the call and thought harder. “What was it…what was it?” His head ached. He turned to Suzie. “Can you look up the ATF office number in Reno?”

“They have it online?” She sat in front of the computer again.

“Yes. They have a website with field office numbers.”

Charlie brought a plate to the table. “Hash browns and a western omelet.”

“Smells great.” Roman sat in a chair at the table and began devouring the food.

“There’s a Reno phone number in a field office, a satellite office…” Suzie said.

“The field office number.” Roman stuffed food into his mouth, barely chewing he was so hungry. As Suzie read the numbers, Roman used his thumb to dial. He looked up. Charlie was watching him eat. “Tastes great. Thanks.” Roman put the phone to his ear as it rang.

“ATF, can I help you?”

“Can you connect me with Agent Phil Dean’s extension? I can’t remember it.”

“Agent Phil Dean?”

“Yes.” Roman took another mouthful of food.

“Hold one moment.”

Roman ate the last bite off the plate and used his finger to wipe the rest, licking it off.

Charlie handed him a napkin. “Another helping?”

“I would love one, but no. I’m good for now.” Roman tapped his fingers. “I can’t believe I’m on hold. What the hell? Why didn’t they transfer me to Phil’s voicemail?”

“Who’s Phil?”

Roman glanced up at Charlie’s pout. “Get over here, cowboy.” Roman tugged Charlie to his lap and rubbed his face in his shirt.

“Wow.” Suzie blushed.

“He’s an animal.” Charlie laughed, holding onto Roman with his arm around his shoulder.

“Figuratively and literally.”

“Hello?” Roman said into the phone. “Come on, come on…”

“Who are you trying to call?”

“One of the other agents that was on that incident with me. Phil Dean. He and I were searching—”

“Hello?” the woman on the phone said.

“Yes.” Roman sat up. “I’m holding for Agent Phil Dean.”

“He no longer works out of this office. Can I ask why you are calling and redirect your call?”

“How about the field supervisor, Nick Hoffman?”

“May I ask who’s calling?”

Roman looked into Charlie’s eyes. He cupped the phone. “She’s asking my name. What should I do?”

“The ATF agent is asking me?” Charlie laughed softly.

“Shit.” Roman replied to her, “This is Roman Burk. Special Agent Roman Burk.”

“Did you say, Roman Burk?”

He swallowed hard as his throat went dry. Was it possible that everyone knew he went missing?

“Yes.”

“Hold on while I transfer you.”

Roman wanted to talk to Phil. How would he explain what happened to anyone else? His stress level began to rise and with it came anger and frustration. “Oh fuck no!” Roman began feeling a change coming.

Charlie held him in both arms. “Hang in there, Roman…” Suzie jumped to her feet. “Is it happening again?” “Yeah.” Charlie moved off of Roman’s lap.

“Hello?” a voice said from over the phone line, “Roman? Roman Burk is that you?”

Roman recognized his supervisor’s voice but couldn’t answer him. He dropped the phone and doubled over.

~

Charlie shouted to Suzie, “Get that door open. We don’t want to be cooped up in here with a wolf.” While Suzie opened the door, Charlie asked Roman, “Should I pick up the phone? What should I do?”

Roman dropped to his knees on the floor, curling up into a ball from the pain.

Charlie crouched beside him and picked up the cell phone. He put it to his ear. “Hello?” The line was dead. He looked at the LCD screen and was about to ask if he should redial when he heard a loud squawk. The big black crow was shaking its feathers and flapping its wings on the floor beside him. Charlie sank down next to him and leaned against the leg of the kitchen table.

“How am I going to help you?” Charlie rubbed his face tiredly. “What am I supposed to do?”

Suzie closed the door and knelt beside them. “He’s a crow too?”

Roman bounced around the wood flooring before hopping onto one of Charlie’s legs.

Charlie felt the sharp talons through his blue jeans. The clothing Roman had worn was again just a pile on the floor.

With his eyes burning with tears, Charlie said to Suzie, “I have no idea what to do.”

Suzie scooted closer and held Charlie for comfort.

Charlie stared into Roman’s black eye as he stared back.

Chapter 11

“Charlie?” JP knocked.

Charlie gently nudged Roman off his leg and hurried to the door.

He poked his head out. “What is it, JP?”

“Vernon sent me to get you. He wants to talk to you.”

“All right.”

“Is Suzie in there too? Connie wants to know if she’ll be helping prepare dinner.”

“I’m here, JP.” Suzie stood beside Charlie. “Tell Mom I’m heading back now.”

“Okay.” JP nodded and walked down the path.

Once he closed the door, Charlie looked at Roman who was still perched on the floor tilting his head at them. “Do you want to go outside?” he asked Roman.

Roman shook his head and flapped.

“Is that a no?” Suzie asked.

“I think so. I can’t tell.” Charlie crouched down. “Make one noise for yes, two for no.”

Roman let out a loud caw sound.

“Okay. Stay here. It’ll be warmer if you change back again. And if you do, here’s the phone.”

Charlie placed it on the table. “Suzie will leave her computer for now. Okay?”

Roman let out another loud squawk.

“Right. Here comes the moment of truth.” Charlie put his hat and coat on. “When your dad fires me.”

“He’s not going to fire you.” Suzie slipped on her coat.

“Sure he ain’t.” Charlie glanced back at Roman. “You sure you’ll be okay?”

Roman flapped his wings and made another noise.

Charlie sighed loudly and left, locking the door behind him. He didn’t need anyone coming in and finding Roman in any form.

He and Suzie walked in the cold air up the path to the ranch house, their breath making vapor clouds as they moved. Inside, the fireplace was keeping the living area warm and JP, Goat, and Sherlane were all sipping coffee together. They stopped talking when Charlie and Suzie entered.

Harley raced over and began sniffing Charlie’s leg and boots. Charlie figured he could smell Roman on him.

“All right, dog. Enough smelling.” He nudged him away and Harley trotted to the kitchen where Connie was busy making supper.

Charlie tipped his cap in greeting to Sherlane. “Vernon in his office?”

“Yeah,” Goat said, staring at Charlie as if he had sprouted horns.

Suzie gave his arm a reassuring squeeze, then joined her mother and Sherlane in the kitchen.

Charlie removed his hat and held it by his side. “Ya there, boss?” He tilted his head near the office door.

“Come on in, Charlie.”

After taking a deep breath to face the inevitable, Charlie entered the room.

“Have a seat.”

He tossed his hat on another chair and plopped down heavily.

A moment past and Charlie and Vernon assessed each other in that silence.

“You’re like a son to me.”

“I’m sorry, Vernon…”

Vernon interrupted him. “Let me finish.”

Nodding, Charlie lowered his head.

“I am surprised by what happened with that other man. Roman, someone said his name was.”

Charlie met Vernon’s eyes. “Roman Burk.”

“Fine.” Vernon shifted in his seat. “I think you two playing like that where some of our patrons could see you was wrong.”

“Yes, sir.” Charlie knew finding another job without Vernon as a reference was going to be tough.

“But if you promise me it won’t happen again…”

He perked up. “I promise.”

“When I… Charlie…I thought you and my girls had…” Vernon cleared his throat. “Was I mistaken to think you were attracted to one of them?”

Charlie shifted in his chair. Months ago he was considering making a move on one if he could do it without making the other jealous. Last time they showed up, he was trying to decide which sister to begin dating. He knew he had Vernon and Connie’s blessing. How does one explain that a blowjob from a man that helped him change a flat tire on the freeway swayed his thinking; opened up options, and began a bi-curious interest in him?

“I’m just not real comfortable talking about this yet, boss. This is all so new to me too. And I don’t know what I want.”

“All right, Charlie. But you just know either way, you got Connie and my support.”

“Then I’m not fired?”

“No. No, son. Not as long as you keep that kind of thing private.”

“Yes, sir.” Charlie felt his cheeks blush at the mistake. But with Roman, you either took advantage of the man when he was human, or you lost out.
That
fact he was not going to explain.

“What about Butch?”

“Yes. What about Butch?” Vernon sat up in his chair. “I gave you a pass for bad behavior. I’m going to give him one.”

“Yes, sir.” Charlie knew that was fair.

“But you two boys need to sit face to face and work this out. I don’t want any friction out there on the ranch.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

“Right. That’s enough on the topic. How about we go socialize while the girls cook us dinner?”

Vernon stood from the chair and walked around the desk. He handed Charlie his hat from where it was on a second chair. “Everything taken care of with the horses for the night?”

“I’ll have to ask the boys. I’ve been…well…” Charlie took his hat from Vernon.

“Preoccupied.” Vernon patted his back.

“You have no idea.” Charlie opened the door and they walked down the hall to the living room.

“You can invite your friend, Charlie. We’d all like to get to know him. Is he local?”

“No.” Charlie stopped when he noticed Butch sitting with JP and Goat.

“Use my office, Charlie.” Vernon pointed at Butch. “You go and have a talk with Charlie in private.”

Butch looked pained. He stood and walked closer to Charlie. “May as well get this over with.”

“Yeah. May as well.” Charlie hung his hat on a rack with his coat and returned to Vernon’s office, closing the door behind them. They both stood, arms crossed.

“So? You’re a fag?”

“I don’t know. I’m kind of lost at the moment.”

“How can you suck a guy’s dick?”

Charlie shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it sounded bad a few months ago. It isn’t so bad now.”

“Not so bad?” Butch made a face of revulsion.

“All right, let’s not get into all that. Vernon wants us to just manage to work together. Can we do that?”

“I ain’t the one with the problem.”

Charlie sat on the arm of a chair. “Oh? Cuttin’ out a deer’s heart ain’t a problem?”

“That was just for nothing. It ain’t like I do it all the time.” Butch said, “You’re the one with the new bad habit.”

“I don’t like it when you smirk at me, Butch Crowell. So don’t be doin’ that.”

Butch touched his own zipper flap. “You want to suck my cock?”

“Not particularly. You want my fist in your face again?”

Butch smiled in a self-satisfied way. “I thought you took a shine to me when I first showed up for my interview.”

Charlie felt his cheeks grow warm. No denying he did think that at first. But he hadn’t met Roman yet. And a nineteen year old with bad judgment didn’t compare to an older man with life experience. Even with Roman’s ‘unusual’ problems.

“I thought you were a nice guy. Yes. That’s why we hired you.”

“Nice?” Butch closed the gap between them, leaning on Charlie’s leg where he was propped on the arm of the chair. ~

Roman hopped on the wooden floor over to the computer, left open, on the coffee table. He stared at the screen and pecked at a key. It was useless.

The confinement of the cabin began wearing on his nerves.
How much longer am I going to be
able to stand this?
He flapped his wings and hit the door deliberately, feet first, landing in front of it. He should have left with Charlie and Suzie. The reason he hadn’t was he was tired of waking up naked in the woods, freezing his balls off.

He flapped his wings and clamped both his talons on the doorknob, but there was no way to turn it. Hopping and flapping, Roman made the rounds to see if there was a way out. Because of the cold, all the windows were shut tight. He was trapped for the moment. Waddling across the floor to the computer again, Roman looked at the screen. The website with the ATF phone numbers was still showing. He managed to stand beside the computer on the coffee table, using his beak to try and turn back to previous screens. The one Suzie had checked for Indian shaman’s showed up. Roman jumped across the gap between the sofa and coffee table so he could read the information. No shamans in North America. It wasn’t a Native American medicine person that did this to him, was it? No. Who was it?

Roman tried to recall the graffiti on the walls of that room. The inverted pentagram came to mind, but he knew it had been partially erased by newer tags. Was this satanic? What was the significance of a wolf and a crow? There was nothing in this deed that struck him as demonic. It still had all the signs of a tribal curse. An earth worshipping cult? Witches? Maybe if he included the sacrifice of the animals he had encountered, and the use of strange drugs to put him into a sedated state he could come to that conclusion. Witch craft. The blood painted all over his body…

A stab of pain hit him as he became enraged about the deed.

Roman felt it coming. He backed up against the couch cushions and buried his beak in his wing, preparing for the agony.

~

“Why are you behavin’ like this with me, Butch?” Charlie nudged him away.

“Cuz you an’ me are supposed to be repairing our relationship.”

Both he and Butch jolted at a noise of rapping on the window of Vernon’s office.

“Charlie!”

“Roman!” Charlie pushed Butch aside to get closer to the window. He yanked up the blinds and held back the curtains. “Don’t go with him, Charlie, please!”

“I’m not.” Charlie glanced over his shoulder at Butch, who seemed glad he was causing friction. Leaning closer to the window, Charlie could see Roman in the sweatpants and t-shirt he had lent him. “Hang on. Let me come out there.”