Broken Loyalty (Jacky Leon Book 3)

by K. N. Banet

  I wished Zuri wasn’t there. Heath wasn’t acting normal. Hadn’t been acting normal with me since he left the truck when we arrived at the safehouse. I wanted to ask him why, but I knew I couldn’t with her hovering.

  “We should go,” she said, breaking me out of my thoughts.

  “Of course,” I agreed, nodding. “Stay safe, Heath.”

  “Good luck,” he whispered, heading back into his home.

  We got back into the car.

  “What was that?” my sister asked, almost a little too wise.

  “None of your business,” I answered. She chuckled.

  “You’re his friend. You can admit it, little sister. You’re allowed to be his friend, no matter what you think. We’re all okay with it, even if it’s unconventional.”

  “Thanks. So…to Lani’s territory.”

  “Yes. She’ll have gone to ground. If she didn’t come after Heath, then burning down everything you cared about was her priority. She probably didn’t even think one of the wolves would come back.”

  We hadn’t started moving, which was a good thing because Heath jogged back outside. I rolled my window down to hear what he had to say.

  “I forgot. Your house? It’s fine. They caught and stopped the fire in time. It’s a lovely place, by the way.”

  “Oh, you saw it?”

  “Yes. I just figured you should know, then you never asked. When you’re done with everything, your home is still standing, waiting for you.”

  “Thanks.”

  He patted the top of the car and backed off. This time, I didn’t let conversation keep me from driving away. I pulled out and started down the dark road.

  “How far to Lani’s territory?”

  “A few hours.”

  She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and fell asleep as if someone had snapped their fingers and cast a spell on her.

  And I drove, staring at the dark road ahead of me.

  I’m coming for you, Lani.

  28

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I stopped only feet from the territory line.

  “Zuri, we’re here,” I said softly. She snapped awake, alert and ready to fight. “Do you think she’ll be here?”

  “I think it’s the highest probability, but no one has been acting normal since this started,” Zuri said with a sigh. I cut the engine and got out with Zuri following me. We both stripped down and tossed our clothing in the backseat. Before Changing, I knew there was a conversation she and I needed to have. I had let her sleep the entire drive, but that meant I hadn’t been able to ask her a few more questions.

  “How does this work?”

  “We’re going into her territory together. If she’s still here, she’ll know why we’ve come. If not, we go to the center and try to find the freshest trail, then begin a proper hunt. I’ll Change back into my human form to declare the execution, and your duty is to keep her from attacking me. Once you and she begin the fight, I’ll Change back in case I’m needed, so don’t worry about me being helpless for long.”

  “If I lose?”

  “I kill her, and don’t worry, I’ll be able to.”

  “If I win?”

  “Depending on your injuries, I’ll drive you home or back to the plane to go back up north to the hospital with the family. That will also be your call when this is over. I’ll prepare a statement about it once Niko is on the mend and no longer so vulnerable. We go back to our lives, Jacky.”

  “Okay. I just wanted to make sure that was somewhere in the plan. Going back to normal.”

  If I even could at this point. So much killing, so much fighting—it was changing me. Everyone had to notice because it was scaring me.

  I started my Change, and Zuri was done at the same time. We walked together, crossing into Lani’s territory, which reeked of fear and anger. I felt the pull to the center of the territory, knowing Zuri felt it as well. It was the best place to find her, and if she wasn’t here, the best place to start the hunt.

  This was my first time in another werecat’s territory since Washington, where Gaia’s rage was strong even after her death. Lani’s feelings weren’t as powerful. They didn’t scare me off, but they were there, reminding me of that trip to the woods of Washington and the monsters that had tried to claim those mountains.

  Thinking about that made me want to visit Hasan’s when this was all said and done, to go to a territory that wasn’t hostile to me but welcoming and warm. He also had beaches, water, and a big house I could hide in.

  Maybe that would ease my soul a little. Maybe that would help wash away the paranoia and pain of the last month.

  We found her ranch, and I stopped at the fence line, sniffing the air. There were no lights on in the home on the hill, surrounded by empty fields. I thought Lani had an active ranch with herds, but there didn’t seem to be any now. The smell was certainly around but no cattle.

  “I wonder where her herds went,” I said to Zuri, who only snorted in return. I wished for a second it was Heath and not her. Heath could talk to me in werecat form.

  We jumped the fence and started walking across the field. As we drew closer to the home, the porch light came on, and Lani walked outside. She stood on her front porch as we stopped only ten feet from her.

  Zuri began to Change back into her human form and stood regally next to me when it was done.

  “Lani, daughter of Arobi, son of Lesna, I have come as a representative of Hasan, ruler of the werecats and member of the Tribunal of Supernatural Law. You have been sentenced to death by combat execution. If you don’t wish to fight, submit now and let us be done with this. If you defeat your executioner, another shall finish the duty. If you run, we will chase. There is no escaping justice.”

  Zuri’s words were impressive and professional. They lacked emotion, purely there to convey a message of death without making it personal. I couldn’t have pulled it off. This was personal, and I would make sure Lani understood that by the end. Her last sight would be me over her. Her last breath would be the one I claimed to remove her from this life.

  This was very, very personal.

  Lani lifted a hand and waved something around.

  “You’ll come inside and talk to me, or I’ll blow up everything within a hundred feet of this house. Me, both of you. Everything.”

  “Well, Zuri, this might be a problem,” I said, taking a deep breath.

  “Why?” Zuri asked Lani, her chin held high with all the regal energy I loved her for.

  “Because I refuse to die to her when I was fighting for what was right.”

  “You were a coward who ran the moment you realized your side was losing,” I snarled.

  Lani’s thumb caressed something.

  “Don’t be so mean, Jacky. Come inside, and we’ll talk this out,” she said. “I’m not dying tonight unless I take one or both of you with me.”

  “Let’s go, sister,” Zuri said softly, running her hand over my head. She started walking toward the house. I only took one step before Lani had something to say.

  “Wait.” Lani held up her free hand. “Jacky, get to your human form. I’m not letting you come into my house like that.”

  I grumbled but complied when Zuri looked back at me. I caught her fear in the wind. My sister was scared of this as well, even though it didn’t show on her face. Lani was smart. She had played us, knowing how the family tried to do everything honorably, by the books, the same for everyone.

  In human form, I didn’t have pack magic. I didn’t know why that was since werecat land magic worked in both forms, but I was going to have to talk now. It ruined any chance of me trying to plan something with Zuri in secret.

  We walked up to the porch, and Lani pulled a gun from the back of her pants, pointing it at me, of course, then pointing it to the door. Zuri went in without a fight, and I followed close behind, trying to hide the shake in my hands.

  This woman had blown up a house on top of our brothers. There was no telling what she would d
o to Zuri and me alone, with no backup, just to escape the justice she deserved.

  “Why can’t you just admit defeat? And why did you set Kick Shot on fire?” I asked softly as the gun touched my back. Lani walked around me, keeping the gun pointed at me, but she also looked at Zuri, making sure my sister wasn’t about to make any sudden moves. We moved into her large living room. I didn’t need to look down when I kicked something.

  I distinctly knew what chains sounded like.

  “Because I’m not losing,” she said simply. “Because I didn’t risk everything to throw it away in some fight we couldn’t guarantee. I loved him, you know. If you’re here, I take it he’s dead. That’s how your family handles everything. I set Kick Shot on fire so you would come after me faster. I wasn’t going to wait forever, and I knew I would have the upper hand here.”

  “You tried to handle it the same way,” I snarled.

  She lifted the barrel and wiggled it a little.

  “No, we didn’t. We captured you and asked Hasan to step down. We asked, and he never replied. He said he would kill us. We needed to escalate because he went straight to killing like he and that entire family you’re a part of always does. You kill everyone who gets in your way, anyone who dares challenge your power. That’s what you do.” She sighed. “I just can’t believe I was so blind for so long about the lot of you.”

  “Lani, we can discuss this,” Zuri said calmly. “I can rescind the execution order. I have that power.”

  “Of course you do,” Lani growled. “Jacky would never let you. Right, Jacky? Even if she rescinded it, you would still come after me.”

  I didn’t say anything because denying it would be a lie, and she would know. Saying she was right made me feel like a murderer.

  “Come on, Jacky. Say something. Tell me how much you’ve changed since you’ve taken on the wolves and Daddy saved you from the Tribunal and his own fucking Laws.”

  “You were my friend,” I said softly. “And you betrayed me.”

  “You betrayed the werecats, so I think we’re even,” she snapped. “Wolves. She took in fucking wolves, the very kind who continuously try to kill us for whatever reason, and none of you thought to deal with it.” She directed the accusation at Zuri. “You’re all hypocrites. Every single one of you. If it had been at the Tribunal, we all know Hasan wouldn’t have stepped in.”

  “You also would have never gotten into that position,” I snapped. “You would have probably been fine with letting Carey Everson, a little human girl, die if it kept you out of any drama or trouble. So stuck in your fucking ways, you can’t even think about what the right thing to do is.”

  “No, I actually agreed with you, Jacky. I just didn’t think it would get past you. I figured you would get executed, and…”

  “And what?” Zuri asked softly.

  “Mikkel was saying if Jacky had died, we could have risen up against the Tribunal and Hasan for not seeing she was a good werecat. We could have done this years ago.”

  “I’m not sure I’m following,” I said, frowning. “Am I a good werecat or a bad werecat?”

  “You were a good one. You were great with performing your Duty and helping the human. It was perfect. Then you made a public showing with that Alpha, letting him live in your territory. Being his friend. His ally. It’s one thing to protect a little girl, it’s a completely different one to cross a line.”

  “We’ve been down this road,” I said tiredly. “Next, you’ll tell Zuri how you tried hard to forgive me after I helped in Washington, but then I was declared Hasan’s representative of the continent. Mikkel convinced you it was nepotism, and that I was weak. I don’t need to hear it all over again.”

  “Then you don’t have to,” she said. “Behind you, there are chains on the ground by the wall. Zuri, you’ll wrap Jacky’s legs and arms together when she sits down.”

  “Of course,” Zuri said softly.

  I sat down next to the chains, breathing hard, remembering what it was like to be chained in that cell while Lani’s real friends beat the hell out of me. Zuri knelt beside me, starting her work. She looped them around my ankles, and I moved so that she could then loop the chains around my wrists.

  “With two more of you dead, I just need to rally the werecats still on the fence, and we can finish off your family,” Lani said.

  “More?” I said. “Everyone is still alive. The plan with the house blowing up didn’t even kill one of us. Lani…all of your friends…they died for nothing.” I pitied her for that. I pitied the idea of fighting so hard for something, and walking away a total failure. I pitied her for picking the side that lost os handily. They shouldn’t have. I fought hard because I wasn’t willing to die, but the likelihood my family only walked away with injuries had to have been small. They were bad injuries, but we still walked away.

  None of her friends did.

  Fury. The room was filled with the scent of her fury.

  But I pressed on.

  “Maybe if you had stayed, you could have defeated me before I went to help Davor,” I said softly. “Maybe you could have turned the tide of the fight.”

  “I should have let him torture you sooner,” she snarled. “I tried to bring you to our side, and I should have let him rip your fingernails out. I should have let him direct Sam to break every bone in your fucking body.” Lani bent over, getting close, the barrel of the gun to my head.

  It put her in the terrible position of being right next to Zuri, who worked very slowly as if she were scared of spooking Lani into blowing up the building. Lani couldn’t see Zuri’s face, but I could. I could see the small smile form even though her head was ducked to stay out of Lani’s way. A very demure way to behave for such a regal woman.

  It was an amazing act.

  Lani was breathing hard in her anger, too focused on threatening me. I ducked right when I saw Zuri’s hand begin to move, going not to the gun, but the explosive trigger.

  The gun went off above my head. I fought with the chains while Zuri fought to take the trigger from Lani, the two females snarling at each other as they struggled. I waited for the building to go up any moment, but another gunshot made me cry out as the bullet went into my shoulder.

  Lani was firing blind.

  Finally, Zuri got the trigger. With the chains on my legs, it was difficult, but I kicked the gun from Lani’s hand.

  Lani stumbled away, realizing she had lost both her bargaining chips. I fought to get the chains off while Zuri went for the gun.

  Neither of us was ready to pursue Lani as she darted out the back door of her house, pulling something out of her pocket.

  “Jacky, we need to go,” Zuri snapped.

  “Why?”

  “JUST MOVE!”

  I stumbled, standing with the chains on. Zuri had done them too tight, and I was struggling. Zuri picked me up, realizing I couldn’t move fast enough and started running with me toward the closest door to the outside, back out the front door onto the porch. She didn’t stop.

  But she’d only made it a couple of steps when everything behind us turned into a thousand tiny little pieces, and a big fireball rose up, sending out a shockwave that blew us off the porch.

  29

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  I struggled to move, reaching out to find Zuri. A hand grabbed mine, and I tried to open my eyes. I didn’t know how much time had passed since the blast, assuming it probably knocked me unconscious there for a moment. It could have been an hour or a second.

  “Were you hit by anything?” I asked, grunting in pain.

  “No,” she moaned. “But I think I’m done with this for a good long while.”

  “Me too,” I said, trying to push myself up. “How?”

  “Her phone, most likely,” Zuri said, moving closer to me. I could hear her shuffling in the grass even though my tender, barely healed eardrums were ruptured again, and my ears rang. “A back-up plan in case we got the trigger. She’s too smart to not have one.”

  “
Fuck…” I finally made it up onto all fours, staring at the ground. “How far do you think she’s going to make it?”

  “She wouldn’t have set it off if she was close enough to feel any damaging effects. We’re in for a chase,” Zuri answered. “Are you up for it?”

  “Me? Zuri, you were magically healed after being spiked on a bit of rebar. Are you?”

  “I’ve been through worse,” my sister said. I saw her outline stand and a hand come out. “How do you think I knew not to move once I realized something was in my lung?”

  “How are you so…regal and put together and deal with shit like this on a regular basis?” I grabbed the hand, and she helped me onto my feet.

  “Experience.” She touched my face, frowning at something by my ears. “Ears drums?”

  “They ruptured last night. Probably were nearly healed, then this…”

  “Of course. Change, and let’s go hunting.”

  I nodded and curled over, letting it take me into my werecat form. The Change healed us a little bit each time we did it. It couldn’t be done excessively, but it sped up the natural process. It was how Hisao had mended the bones in his arm, even though I got pissed at him for doing it.

  I was nearly done when something crashed into me. My right side was clawed up, opening up all the scabbed injuries from the previous night before Zuri yanked whatever was attacking off me. I didn’t put it together, that it was Lani until it was too late.

  Attacking a werecat in the middle of the Change slowed everything down. My body didn’t know which way to go, traumatized by the pain. Screaming, snarling, and growls could be heard.

  It took me a minute longer than normal to finish shifting into my werecat form. I struggled to my feet, knowing I was bleeding badly. I saw Lani get Zuri into the dirt, and I started moving, ramming into her with a roar. I reared up and swiped fast with both of my front paws. On a good day, Zuri and I could have taken her, but we were both rattled and injured. We weren’t fresh in any way. I was still pretty starved, weaker than normal, and not close to recovering from the last week of abuse. Zuri was fighting against injuries sustained from two blasts. Magically healed or not, she wasn’t at her best either.