Deadly Pack (Deadly Trilogy Book 3) (5 page)

Luken hesitated for a second before continuing with what sounded like a whole lot of caution, as if he weren’t sure that he was free to speak his mind.  “
Then he’s making a play.  This could be our in.  And by the way, your girl’s having some issues when it comes to taking him out.”

That was true.  Jade was having some serious issues when it came to her father.  But confirming that to a pack member that was not her number one fan most likely wouldn’t go over well.  So instead, I asked, “You know what the deal is?”

“Nope, he wants you to call him,” he said.  “All he said was that there’s something big in play, something that you and Jade would want in on and that if you work with him, he won’t tell anyone else about what he saw you do to her.”

Okay, that was good.  It was probably better that no one knew whatever it was that Jeff had to offer until I figured out what the hell he was up to.  “Did Jade say anything?” I asked.

Luken didn’t answer right away.  He sighed, and let out a frustrated growl, then sighed again.  When he spoke, his voice was strained.  “She said a hell of a lot, but she doesn’t know what he wants or what he’s accusing you of.  She didn’t talk to him.  I told her I’d run it by you and let you decide if she needed to know.  She agreed to it, Aidan.  Without hesitation.  No argument.  Nothing.”

That wasn’t so good.  Jade being fully agreeable with Luken should have been good, but because it was Jade we were talking about and he was, well, Luken, it really wasn’t good.  My jaw clenched and through my teeth I asked, “What’s she doing now?”

“I sent her inside to see Marcy,” he said with a huff.  “She’s freaked out and she’s pissed off.  Not a good combination.”  He didn’t quite manage to hide the bitterness from his tone.

Dominic’s gaze was hard and unwavering, stuck on my face, and I inhaled slowly, attempting to work through the sudden irritation Luken’s call had brought on and keep it out of my tone.  The breath didn’t help.

“Don’t remember asking for your opinion,” I bit out on a growl.  I paused, and took another breath.  “Set up her phone to have her calls forwarded to me before you give it back to her.”  And with that, I dropped the call, not waiting for a confirmation.

“That was harsh,” Dominic said evenly, and his lips twitched up at the corners.

I shoved my phone back in my pocket.  “Your point?” I snapped, not seeing the humor in the situation.  My eyes sparked.  I felt the tingle, followed by a quick pulse of adrenaline.

“No point, just an observation,” Dominic said in a low, calm voice, raising his hands.  He waited a beat and when I didn’t offer up anything, he asked, “You going to fill me in?”

I heaved a sigh, thought about telling him to screw off, but instead said, “Yeah.”  I pushed off the car, rolled my shoulders, and then quickly filled him in. 

When I finished, Dominic didn’t speak immediately.  He was staring across the parking lot.  I didn’t need to wonder what he was thinking about.  The torn, stricken expression gave him away.  I was sure he was thinking the same things I was.  How far would Jade go to end this?  How much could we ask of her before she broke?  And he was probably trying to decide if we should even tell her about the call.

He pulled in a shaky breath, blinked, and focused on me, his gaze resolved.  “Call him.  Set up a meeting.”

“No,” I said firmly.  There was no way I was going to hand Jade back over to him.  She was finally mine.  All mine.  There wasn’t a chance in hell I’d give her up now and honestly, we didn’t need to.  Jeff was scrambling.  Trying to find some hold on us.  I was sure of it.

He groaned long and loud, rubbing a hand roughly across his forehead.  “Aidan, think about it.  When the team hears about this they’ll freak.”

I shook my head.  “
I’ll handle the team,” I said.  “And I’m not negotiating with him.  Not yet.  We don’t have any need to.  We know where they are.  My guess is he clued in that something was off when Jade lost it on him and he’s scrambling to get his foot back in with us.”

“I don’t think I agree with you,” he said, but he was smiling.  That smiled faded as he said, “You going to tell her?”

“Yeah, I’ll talk to her tonight.”  I dug my keys out of my pocket and rounded the car.  I pulled the door open and paused.  “Wrap things up here and meet me back at the headquarters.  I want you and Mac to take her home.  She needs some friend time.”

“Will do,” he said with a nod, as I slid into the car.  He watched me for a moment as I started it up, giving me a look that I didn’t even try to understand, before dropping his gaze and stalking off toward Erika.

~ JADE ~

The rain sounded more like hail beating against the window.  The downpour had started about twenty minutes ago and it didn’t look like it would be letting up anytime soon.  It was a soothing sound, so soothing it almost washed away all the nervous turmoil that was shifting through my belly.  Almost.

I was sitting on the couch with a cozy light blue fleece tucked around me, wondering if the guys had made it back before the storm hit and waiting (a little impatiently) for Aidan to come home.  It had been a couple of hours since he’d shown back up at the headquarters to find me passed out on the couch in his office.  He’d woken me with a sweet press of his lips on my neck, which had led to an even sweeter press of his lips on mine, which then led to a kiss that was not sweet, but it was delicious.

Once he’d finished kissing me awake, he’d sent me home with Marcy and Dominic claiming I needed some
friend time
.  He didn’t say a word about the phone conversation Luken had had with my father and I hadn’t asked.  I also hadn’t protested, not even a little, about needing
friend time
.

Now, though, I was kind of wishing I had.

“I’m telling you, you need to get a new beta,” Dominic growled, not for the first time since we’d walk through the doors.  He was getting annoyed at me, but then that wasn’t really anything new.  Dominic was usually annoyed at me for one thing or another.

I pulled in a deep breath through my nose and let it out slowly.  “And I’m telling you I’m not ready to pick one.”  And it was true.  I wasn’t.  It wasn’t as if the first one I’d pick had turned out all that well, and with everything going on, well, I didn’t think it was smart to rush into a decision like that.

Dominic groaned.  It was his frustrated groan, short and abrupt, and he cut me a look that matched his groan.  He was sitting in the big leather chair in the corner, knees spread, and leaning forward, his elbows resting on his jean-clad thighs.  His bleach-blond hair was, as always, spiked and gelled, and his blue eyes bore into me as he clenched and unclenched his jaw.

“Don’t start with the groan fest, Dom,” Marcy snapped.  She was testy, too.  She’d been testy since he’d picked us up at the headquarters and brought us back to Aidan’s.  “If she doesn’t want a beta, then she doesn’t have to pick one.”  She was curled up beside me, her feet pulled up underneath her, hugging her arms around her waist.  Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, out of her face, and she had a soft gray fleece tucked around her.

“Stay out of this, Mac,” Dominic growled and shot her a dirty look.  “There’s a lot at stake here.”

“You think we don’t know that?” she shrieked.  She tossed her hands toward me in a dramatic gesture and the fleece fell, pooling on her lap.  “You think she doesn’t get what’s at stake?”

“I thought this was supposed to be
friend time
,” I muttered, pulling my blanket up and tucking it under my chin.  When Aidan had first suggested
friend time
, I’d pictured the three of us vegging out on the couch, watching a movie, eating junk food, and avoiding talking about anything that could lead to tears or arguments.  What I did not picture was us fighting about whether or not I needed to pick a new beta.

Dominic looked at me, and whatever he saw made his eyes warm and soften, and when he spoke, his tone matched his eyes.  “Honey, you’ve got to understand that when we move on them everyone’s going to be watching you.  They can’t be worried about having your back, they need to be focused.  You having a beta will relieve some of that worry.”

“Dom, please drop it,” I said softly, dropping my burning eyes to my lap.  “I know you’re worried, and I’m sure you’re right, but I just can’t deal with this today.”  And I really couldn’t.  My brain, my body, every part of me was exhausted.  “I’m not going to risk the pack and I won’t do anything to jeopardize my mate.  I get what’s at stake here probably better than anyone.  My pack, my mate, my family.  I’m going to lose something no matter what happens.”  I paused, swallowed down the burn that was creeping up my throat, and then huffed.  “We can assign someone to stick close to me and let everyone know.”

“Are you having second thoughts?” Marcy asked delicately, inching closer to me on the couch and pressing her shoulder to mine.

“No,” I said with a certainty that I didn’t even come close to feeling.  “My father needs to be stopped.  I’m just worried about Mom.”

“The pack will look after her,” Dominic said.  “We’ll take care of her.”

I offered him a smile that really didn’t feel anything like a smile.  The burn in my throat started again, along with my eyes.  I knew they would look after her.  But knowing that didn’t change anything.  She was going to be devastated, and I found myself wondering if I should call her.  I thought that if I were in her shoes, I’d want to know what was happening.  I’d want some kind of warning.  I’d want to know everything.  If it were Aidan, I’d want to know that he was a monster.

Silence fell.  It wasn’t a comfortable silence, but I had to admit, it was a needed one.  It was a breath of air, even if that air was thick and heavy and stale.

It was Marcy who broke it with a small laugh.  She nudged my shoulder and asked, “You remember when we were eight and your dad caught the three of us hiding in the crawlspace under your house?”  She shook her head and smiled.  “You swore you saw a cat crawl in there.”

Dominic chuckled.  “And I wanted to rescue it.”

“You were going to grow up to be a superhero,” I said, smiling a little.  “God, your superhero phase lasted two years.  You were trying to rescue everything, whether it needed rescuing or not.”

Marcy giggled.  “We used to stage trouble just so you could save us.”

“I remember that day,” Dominic said.  He shook his head and grinned.  “Your dad lost his mind when we crawled out with that damn skunk.  I’ll never forget the look on his face when it sprayed him.”  I laughed, and Dominic flashed me a big wide smile.  “Still don’t have a clue how we managed to pull it out without getting skunked ourselves.”

~ AIDAN ~

Looking at them sitting on the couch in my office, I wondered how I never realized that the four of them were brothers.  They might not look alike, but they had the same mannerisms.  The way they sat, the way they held themselves, their facial expressions; it was all a lot of the same.

Tommy and Chris were propped against the wall by the door.  They looked exhausted.  Hell, we all were.  It had been a long day, already closing in on 8:00.

After sending Jade home, my office had been a revolving door.  I was pretty sure I’d had face time with every pack member, although after the fifth one had stormed in, everything had sort of blurred together.  They’d all said something similar, confirming (heatedly) in one way or another that they were behind Jade and me, ready to fight for the pack and our territory.

I drummed my fingers on my desk, waiting for one of the guys to speak up, but they kept watching the door, waiting.  Waiting for Jade to show up.  The storm had blown in just before they got back,
and the rain was coming down in sheets now.  There was no way I was going to drag her out in it just to see the pain return to her eyes when she saw them again.

“She’s at home with Mac and Dom,” I muttered, after another long beat of silence.  “I’m not calling her to come in either.  What did you guys find?”

Six sets of concerned eyes landed on me, all of them asking the same question, a question that I wasn’t ready to hear the answer to.  I rolled my hand impatiently, prompting them to start talking, and then resumed drumming my fingers.  I was restless, so was my inner-wolf, and all I could think about was going home.  I needed — we all needed — this day to end.

“I counted twenty.”  Beck spoke up.  For a split second he looked disgusted, before his face hardened.  “Plus three kids.  One girl, two boys.  But we couldn’t get close enough.  There could be more.”

Shit.
  I stilled my fidgety hand, only to drag it across my face and through my hair.  Kids. 
Shit!
  Of course there’d be kids.  The women were there to be used, to breed males for them.

“The girl ...” I started and then paused, swallowing down a rush of bile that gathered in my throat.  My inner-wolf pressed against my chest and I bit the inside of my lip, tamping down the urge to let him out.  “Was she ...?”

“She looked young,” Mark said, but he didn’t sound sure.  “Too young.  Maybe fourteen.”

“They were smiling and laughing with her,” Landon added.  He sounded stunned, as if he weren’t sure he could believe what he’d seen.  “They were playing with her.  I don’t think ...”
He shook his head, letting his words fall short, and his frown deepened.