by Lola Gabriel
“Rocco, this isn’t a good time,” she said curtly. “Actually, it’s never a good time.”
“I think you should hear me out, Kennedy.” There was a slight urgency in his voice, which alarmed her.
“What is it, Rocco?” Kennedy held no warmth in her voice, and she shot Owen a quick glance. His face had turned stony.
“Are you alone?”
“No, and I’m on the Sunside—” She stopped speaking, not wanting to give him too much information. It was none of his damned business, anyway.
“You’re with Owen Parker, aren’t you?”
Kennedy’s blood ran hot and cold simultaneously. A spot of dizziness overcame her, and she caught her breath before she could swoon. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know you’ve been seeing him, Kennedy.”
How? she wondered. How does he know? Has he seen us? Has he been following me? A thousand questions sprang to her mind, but she forced them all back before she sold herself out. For all she knew, Rocco was simply grasping at straws or basing his guess on rumors. We haven’t been careful enough. We’ve already been discovered.
“What is it?” Owen asked softly from her side, but she held up a hand to silence him, casting him a warning look.
“Rocco, you don’t handle rejection well. I get that. But calling me with wild accusations is not really the way to a woman’s heart, you know?” She tried to keep her tone light, although she was certain her heart was going to explode any second.
“I’m not going to rat you out, Kennedy,” Rocco sighed. “That’s not why I called. I called to warn you about him.” Kennedy tensed and waited, her jaw locking in anticipation. “Kennedy, I don’t know what he’s said to you to make you believe he cares about you—”
“Rocco, like I said, I’m really busy,” she interrupted him. “Consider your words heard. No need to call me again, all right?”
“No!” Rocco hissed back into her ear. “This is not all right! You are betraying your own kind and I’m trying to help you, even if you don’t deserve it!”
“Gee, thanks, but I’ve taken care of myself for centuries, way before you came along, buddy. I’m hanging up now.”
“Kennedy, wait! You don’t understand! Owen is using you for his family’s benefit. He’s only with you because you’re the Alpha’s daughter, and he’s looking for pack secrets.”
Unexpectedly, Kennedy felt a chill slide through her, and she looked at Owen again. Of course, that wasn’t true. Owen loved her. She had no doubt. They hadn’t even once discussed pack matters. If anything, he was the least political of all his brothers.
But in the back of her mind, she wondered why he’d had such a sudden change of heart about approaching her father in the first place, even before she had decided she didn’t want to, either.
Did he seek me out in the store purposely? She despised herself for having any second-guesses about the man at her side, and she snorted contemptuously. You’re really going to let Rocco get in your head? What’s next, your pants?
“Bye, Rocco.”
“You’re making a big mistake—!” Kennedy heard Rocco yell before she managed to end the call. Immediately, she turned off her phone and shoved it into the depth of her purse. She didn’t want another interruption.
“What was that about?” Owen asked.
“Nothing,” she lied, unsure if she should tell him what Rocco knew, what he had said. Kennedy was sure that Owen would confront him, and that was not something she wanted… or at least, she wasn’t certain it was.
“It was something,” Owen insisted, stepping closer to her to stare into her eyes with his penetrating gaze. “Is that guy still bothering you?”
“No! I haven’t heard from him in weeks. He… he was just asking me about pack stuff.”
“Pack stuff?” The disbelief in Owen’s tone was clear. “What kind of pack stuff?” Kennedy’s back tensed, and she threw her head back defiantly.
“Pack stuff that doesn’t involve you,” she retorted with more force than she intended. “Why the sudden interest in the pack?”
Surprise colored Owen’s amber-green eyes, and he stepped back as if she had stung him. “Why are you taking that tone with me?”
“Why are you asking questions that have nothing to do with you?”
They stared at each other in a silent battle of wills, but it seemed to Kennedy that neither knew what the other was fighting about. Even though Owen dropped his gaze first, she didn’t miss the look of disappointment on his face.
“It’s probably time to get back,” he muttered, releasing her hand, and panic seized Kennedy.
“No, wait!” she cried, reaching for him. She exhaled her breath in a rush. “I’m sorry. Rocco always unnerves me when he calls. I-I shouldn’t have snapped at you.” Owen eyed her and slowly turned back to face her.
“Maybe I should have a little chat with him.”
“No!” It was the last thing she needed. Kennedy had no way of knowing if Rocco had any solid proof about hers and Owen’s relationship, but if he went to her father…
“No, I don’t want to think about Rocco, and I don’t want to go back to the Hollows. Not right now, okay?”
Owen nodded slowly, but she could easily read the concern on his face. She didn’t fault him for being confused about what had just happened. She wasn’t sure she understood it, either.
“Come on,” she insisted brightly, yearning to strike the past minutes from their memories. “Let’s figure out a place to buy.”
He grinned at her slowly. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I think Europe seems perfect. It’s flipside from the palace and my pack, so any other immortals we encounter here will be less likely to know about us.”
“Well, know about you,” Owen teased. “Everyone knows about me.”
Kennedy scowled mockingly but laughed, swatting him. “I know. You’re worlds-renowned.”
“I really am.”
They linked arms and continued their tour of the sweet Austrian town, leaving behind the small spat… even if Rocco’s words still lingered in Kennedy’s mind like candy floss to a stick.
9
Owen signed the paperwork in Keppler’s offices a week later. His brother eyed him with slight envy as he reluctantly shifted the deed to the Athens house toward him.
“I really love that place,” he sighed. “You better baby her.”
“If you love it so much, why did you agree to sell it to me?” Owen asked sincerely. He almost felt shame taking the deed, even though Keppler had insisted he did.
“Because you need it more than I do,” Keppler replied, laughing. “You are minutes away from sparking a civil war in the Hollows. If this keeps you out of trouble for a few years, I’m all for it.”
“What does that mean?” Owen demanded, his face flushing. “I’m not sparking anything!”
“I don’t know if you guys think you’re being discreet, but if you do, you’re failing miserably,” Keppler offered cheerfully. “I’m surprised you’re still seeing Kennedy, honestly.”
“Did Wilder tell you about us?” Owen demanded, but even as he asked, he had a suspicion that his brother was claiming just the opposite.
“Wilder? No, brother, everyone has been buzzing about your taboo romance. My question is, how did you manage to get old man Solstice to agree to this?”
Owen lowered his eyes and bit on his lower lip. He wondered if Kennedy knew that their affair was common knowledge. If she did, she’d made no mention of it to him. If she does know, what else is she hiding from me?
It wasn’t a fair question, not really. Owen didn’t know that Kennedy was hiding anything from him at all, but ever since the day she’d taken the call from Rocco in Vienna, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she had been more secretive.
“Cameron Solstice isn’t supposed to know about us,” Owen muttered. Keppler snorted.
“He’d have to be living with the trolls not to know, Owen! Seriously, how have you n
ot heard?”
“We’ve been trying to stay out of the Hollows as much as possible.”
“That was probably the first clue to everyone that something was wonky. You never leave the Hollows, and now you’re never there. Same with Kennedy, I’m guessing. Anyway, the gig’s up. Everyone knows. I suggest you guys go to Europe and lay low for a while.”
“It’s not that simple,” Owen sighed.
“It never is,” Keppler agreed, flashing him a white smile. He sat back in his chair and studied Owen’s face. “You’re bothered about this,” he commented. “Why? There’s really nothing Cameron can do to keep you apart.”
“I know that!” Owen snapped. He was getting tired of his brothers feeding him the obvious. But Keppler wasn’t Wilder. He wasn’t taking any perverse pleasure in tormenting him with the secret—well, former secret. “It’s not about me. It’s about the strain it will put on Kennedy and her pack, on her father! Who knows what he’ll do when he finds out?”
“What’s the worst he can do? Banishment? That would be a bonus for you, right?”
“No!” Owen cried. “She loves her father, Keppler. I wouldn’t want to be the one to get between them.” His cell phone began to ring in his pocket, and Owen reached for it. It was Colin. “Gimme a second,” he told Keppler before answering the call. “Hello?”
“Owen, you better get back to the palace!” Colin barked. “Shit is hitting the fan!”
Dread pricked at his heart. “What happened? Where is she?” he choked, jumping to his feet.
“Where’s—? Who?” Colin asked.
“What’s going on?” Owen demanded, equally perplexed. If it wasn’t about Kennedy… but then again, why would Colin be calling about Kennedy? The company. Something was happening with work.
“Are you in the Hollows?”
“Sunside. San Francisco.”
Colin inhaled sharply. “Well, you may as well start there. Three of your biggest clients just had their buildings set on fire.”
“What? Who?”
“Global Cor, Enderson, and Phillip-Evans. And that’s just San Francisco.”
Owen’s mind was spinning. “There’s more?”
“There are a dozen fires on the west coast, twenty-six break-in and thefts in the Midwest, acts of vandalism on the east coast…”
Owen’s stomach lurched. “What the hell is it? The apocalypse?”
“No idea, but our claims are going through the roof. This is going to be— hang on, I just got word on another explosion in Virginia.”
Owen closed his eyes, mentally calculating the damage he had yet to assess. How could this possibly be happening all at once?
“Keep me updated via email,” Owen told his manager. “I’m en route to LA from here.”
“Will do,” Colin agreed. “You let me know if you figure out what the hell is happening.”
Owen ended the call and stared at his brother blankly, his mind still running the numbers.
“What’s going on?” Keppler asked, but Owen could only shake his head in disbelief.
“I have no idea,” he replied grimly. “But I’m going to find out.”
By the end of the day, there were over a thousand major claims flooding into the offices, and Owen was no closer to finding out the cause of the catastrophe than he had been hours earlier. All he knew for certain was that one person could not have been responsible for such mass destruction and that every level of law enforcement was involved.
It was in a police station in Memphis, Tennessee where Owen found himself at the end of the harrowing day, hoping there was another common denominator unrelated to his company. Neither he nor his informants could find any such link.
It’s like someone is trying to bankrupt me in one fell swoop.
It was ridiculous to imagine such sabotage on such a large scale, but as the hours crept by, Owen could find no other explanation.
He had just spoken to what felt like the hundredth police officer that day and given yet another card to follow up, and with a knot of bile in his stomach, Owen knew he’d met a dead end. Reaching into his pocket to touch base with Colin again, it rang in his hand before he could make the call. It was Kennedy.
“Hey, babe, are we meeting tonight?” she asked when he answered. “I’m at the access portal in Miami Beach.”
“Oh, Kennedy,” Owen sighed. In the confusion of the day, he had completely forgotten to message her. “I can’t tonight. Something—” He abruptly stopped talking, and a flood of realizations struck him in the face simultaneously. If everyone knew about them, why hadn’t they been confronted? There could only be one reason: Cameron Solstice had been planning something to get his revenge all along.
“Owen? Are you still there?”
And if Cameron is on a rampage, hellbent on destroying my company, Owen thought, Kennedy will be in the middle of it. She never was in danger, and she knew that. I was the only one who stood to lose everything. Why didn’t she warn me about him and what he was capable of doing?
“OWEN!” Kennedy exclaimed.
“I’m here,” he said. “I’m tied up at work, Kennedy. I’ll call you tomorrow.” But when he hung up the phone and left the police station, a sick lump of disappointment filled his gut. The entire time, he thought he had been protecting Kennedy from her father’s wrath, but the truth was that he was the one at risk.
He was too tired, both emotionally and physically, to deal with the toll of the day. There was a confusion brewing in his mind surrounding Kennedy, and he didn’t want to encourage any more negative thoughts until he got to the bottom of whatever was happening.
The phone rang again, and even though he knew it was Kennedy calling back, he ignored it. He dismissed the call and dialed out to Colin.
“Wanna meet me for a drink?” he asked.
“Hell yes. Why don’t you come by the house? Amelia has a book club meeting or something. I’ve got Bernadette tonight.”
“Sounds good. Give me an hour.” Owen shifted, springing forward on tight claws, and soared upward into the night, cloaking his massive dragon form in the clouds above. He made it back to the Hollows in less than thirty minutes, defying every rule of the Hollows to do it. If he had been stopped by Hollows Authority, he would have been in trouble, no matter who owned it.
Even Reef would have a hard time explaining these infractions away, he thought wryly. Shifting on the Sunside was prohibited, as was using magic unless in peril. Also, flying at the speed he was in the Hollows was a big no-no, but Owen didn’t care. If there was ever a day for breaking the rules, today was it.
“Uncle Owen!” Bernie shrieked when she saw him. “Look!” She thrust her wrist in his face and dangled her bracelet wildly. “I haven’t taken it off once!”
An unexpected pang pierced Owen’s gut, and he instantly pictured Kennedy helping him pick out the piece in the store.
“I’m glad you like it so much,” he earnestly told the little girl, accepting her happy hug.
“It’s better than any of my friends’,” she confided. “I told them that my uncle is a prince and that he bought it for me. I told them that I was the most special girl in his life.”
More unhappiness lurched in Owen’s gut with her words, but he maintained a tight smile and ruffled her mop of hair.
“You are,” he conceded.
“It’s bedtime, Bernie,” Colin called out to her. “Go brush your teeth, and I’ll be right in to tuck you in.”
“Aw, but Uncle Owen just got here!” Bernadette protested.
“I’ll come back and visit you again soon,” Owen promised. “But your daddy and I have boring business stuff to discuss, okay, kiddo?” She pouted slightly but instantly brightened.
“All right, but will you bring me a new charm next time?” she asked hopefully. “Maybe a Valkyrie sigil?”
“Bernadette!” Colin chided her. “It’s rude to ask for presents!”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Owen interrupted her father, and Colin shook his head
, grunting.
“It’s gonna be your fault when she’s entitled!”
“So you keep saying,” Owen remarked. “But I don’t think there’s anything wrong in asking for what you want.”
“See, daddy?”
“Funny, I wanted you to go get ready for bed, but I didn’t get any praise for asking for that.”
“I’m going,” Bernadette chirped. “Good night, Uncle Owen!”
“Good night, Bernie.” The little girl disappeared and left the men alone in the backyard again, staring up at the blackness above. It was much quieter that night than it had been the last time Owen had visited, on Vlad’s Day, but he could still make out the faint voices of other beings chattering in neighboring yards as the evening wound down.
Most immortals were nocturnal but adhered to mortal schedules, so despite the eternal darkness of the Hollows, their patterns followed that of their counterparts on the Sunside. It was almost nine o’clock.
“I’ll grab you a beer,” Colin said.
“I’m going to need something harder than that,” Owen replied, only half-joking. Colin seemed to sense that and returned from the house with a bottle of unlabelled liquid that Owen didn’t trust on sight. “Grandpa’s moonshine. Made from ground earth meal.”
Owen shuddered and then nodded. With any luck, it would strike the memory of the day from his mind forever, along with all his doubts.
“Pour it,” he said begrudgingly. “And don’t be stingy.”
Colin chuckled and obliged, sloshing a fair amount of the foul-smelling liquid into a drinking glass. Owen reached for it eagerly and took a swig. It burned ruthlessly down his throat.
“Did you know about me and Kennedy Solstice?” Owen asked, point blank. Colin blinked and sat down slowly, shaking his head.
“Kennedy Solstice… why do I know that name?”
“She’s the daughter of the Alpha Lycan, Cameron Solstice. They have a store in the commercial section.”
“Oh, yeah, I know her. Pretty girl. Good for you.” Colin beamed at him with the happiest smile he could muster under the circumstances. “Amelia will be happy to know you’ve hooked up with someone. You won’t have to listen to her prattle on about her troll friends any longer.”