by K. N. Banet
“Do I look hurt?” Dirk asked, scoffing. “Jacky will get to it.”
“I’m trying to reason out why you’re here since you don’t want to be involved with the family, but you’re here for an emergency call. Growing up, you never wanted to be on calls with me, and bartenders don’t get the privilege of these calls, either.”
“He’s not my bartender anymore. He’s…” I looked at Dirk.
“Head of security?” he offered, shrugging.
“Sure,” I mumbled. “Davor?”
“I’m on it,” he growled softly. “Anything I’m looking for specifically?”
“Not…not really. I was given a USB to plug into my computer and want to make sure it didn’t leave anything it wasn’t supposed to.”
“Okay…” Davor’s confused expression persisted as I saw my mouse pointer moving around my screen. He had complete remote control over my computer. “I’m not finding anything. Tell me if anything starts acting weird, and I’ll come back into it.”
“Can you please tell us why you needed us?” Mischa huffed. “This is an emergency, right?”
I felt sick. “Dirk, go get the USB and let’s plug it in for Davor to clear.”
Everyone waited in silence, the look of confusion spreading. Dirk came back in quickly and plugged it into the USB slot in my keyboard I had used.
I watched Davor pale.
“What the fuck am I looking at right now?” he asked softly.
“The emergency, but I want you to clear it of any sort of malware—”
“There’s nothing. You can copy those files and send them to everyone,” he growled softly. “Fuck.”
“Davor? Jacky?” Hasan was sitting up at attention, leaning forward. “I don’t like secrets, and neither of you has ever been the type to beat around the bush, as the humans say.”
Davor did it for me. I watched the files copy on my screen, then dropped into an email that was sent out to everyone in the family.
“Take a look,” I whispered. “Davor, can I eject the USB? We haven’t broken it open for bugs and—”
“Destroy it,” Davor snarled.
I nodded to Dirk, who ripped it out of the slot and left the room again.
“Oh no,” Mischa gasped.
“While you look at the email Davor just sent out, I’ll explain,” I said, clapping my hands together. “Today, two special agents from the BSA came to Kick Shot to talk to me. They specialize in what they call ‘first contact.’”
“They have pictures,” Hisao growled.
“And a video,” Jabari snarled. “The pictures we could avoid, but they have her Changing!” He started a long string of what I guessed were profanities, but I didn’t know or understand the language. He picked up and threw his mouse, then stormed off the video feed.
“Jacqueline, how did this happen?” Hasan asked, not reacting in any overt way compared to my siblings.
I opened and closed my mouth. Not even a year ago, I sat on a call with Hasan, Davor, and Zuri. After Davor left, Zuri had tried to talk sense into me. She tried to warn me staying secret probably meant I had to distance myself from the werewolves. I hadn’t taken her advice. Instead, I went to Russia and got into a whole different league of trouble.
Now, a world power knew about werecats, not just from fuzzy photos. They had a name and face because I played too closely with the werewolves.
Just like Zuri had tried to warn me about.
She probably didn’t see this coming, but she knew the risks I was taking before any of my siblings and tried to head it off before it became too much of an issue.
“Jacqueline,” Hasan repeated. Jabari fell back into his seat, glaring at his camera.
I swallowed. “They first heard of a woman helping Alpha Everson in Dallas…” I started, repeating what had been told to me, all the way to the BSA check-in for Carey and my conflict with one of the agents, which the family had already known about. All the way to Russia, where hundreds of werewolves had seen werecats help free a human family taken hostage, with Heath Everson standing tall against their new Alpha trying to take over.
“I don’t know who slipped my name to them,” I finally said, refusing to look up at my camera or at my monitor. “They didn’t tell me. Someone slipped something about Jacky and Heath in their presence or something…” I spread my hands and chuckled darkly. “They put it together on their own. Heath’s new friend in Jacksonville, the woman who watches his daughter and helps out with her growing up.”
“And again, it comes back to the werewolves,” Mischa said with a soft growl. “Always with the werewolves.”
“We need to know who gave Jacky’s name to the BSA,” Hasan said softly. “Someone, look into that. I need to know if it was accidental, as though they were being watched and didn’t know, or if they purposefully exposed her. Hisao, be ready. If someone purposely exposed Jacky, you’re going to get a call. I’m going to need you ready to get on a plane.”
“Yes, sir,” Hisao whispered.
Chills went down my spine. I hadn’t even considered that. Being purposefully exposed was so against the Law, it was considered the bedrock of supernatural society. We could kill each other all we wanted, but we didn’t get the human authorities and government involved. We did everything we could to keep them out of it.
“We need Zuri back,” Niko said. “She would know exactly what to say to get Jacky out of this problem.”
“There’s no getting out of this problem,” Davor snarled. “They have her on video, Niko. They know about werecats now and not just some measly fucking rumors we can avoid and slip past. We’re either going to have to make Jacky disappear or leave her out to hang. I vote the latter. It doesn’t change the fact they know us now. We’re step one into going public to humans. I know we’ve toyed with the idea, but this? This is out of our hands, and it’s because she couldn’t fucking stay out of trouble. Jacky has to stick her nose into everything and go ten steps too far every time she’s given the opportunity. Now it’s come back to not only bite her in the ass but everyone here.”
That stabbed me through the damn heart, and I didn’t even like Davor.
“Zuri would know how to make this work for us,” Niko snapped, lowering his head as if he didn’t feel like dealing with Davor’s aggressive meanness, either. “She would spin this and say we’re accelerating our plans for something, or we could use this to help us in the future. We’re a family, and we work together to fix these problems.”
“What, like werewolves?” Davor snarled. “Like they work together? Is that what you mean, Niko? Like how Jacky works together with the werewolves, which is what got her found out? Or maybe like the werewolves who worked together to kill Liza. IS THAT WHAT YOU MEAN?” He was roaring at the end, making things shake in my office. I quickly silenced the call, hoping no one outside the office heard the outburst.
The deafening silence that followed was almost worse than the screaming. Davor went pale and pulled away from his computer. I looked for Hasan and realized he was gone, so silently disappearing from his spot that none of us had noticed.
A moment later, his large hand reached out and grabbed Davor by the back of his shirt, yanking him off the screen. I didn’t turn the sound back on. I didn’t want to, seeing the expressions of my other siblings. Dirk walked back in at that moment and sat down slowly. I glanced at him, wondering what he decided to do with the USB. He must have read my mind.
“I put it through the industrial garbage disposal. It’s in a thousand pieces now.”
“Thank you,” I said softly. “We’re muted, and they’re silenced. Davor just said something he shouldn’t have to Niko.”
“Was it about Liza and werewolves?” Dirk asked, leaning onto the other side of my desk.
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“It happens. Niko gets on to me about not being closer to the…family,”—he waved a hand at the monitor as he said it—“but he’s always been an outsider. I noticed it when I was a kid. He thinks li
ke a werewolf when you compare him to everyone else in the family.”
“This might be surprising, but you know all of them better than I do,” I said, leaning toward him. “They didn’t want a sister. They were still getting over Liza. Hasan met me and Changed me as an adult. I wasn’t, in any way, raised with the family the way all of them were.”
“I remember hearing about it,” Dirk admitted. “Niko didn’t know how to approach the situation. He admitted to me, he pretty much shut down when he met you.”
I huffed. “Yeah, he didn’t talk to me for years, not that most of them did, but his silence was always one of the more noticeable ones.”
Someone was waving on the screen, so I turned on the sound again and unmuted my side.
“Yes?” I asked softly. “I’m in a public place and didn’t want anyone to hear any of that.”
“Davor won’t be back,” Hasan said softly. “Not until he can control himself.”
“Okay.” I looked at Niko. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he said softly, looking down at something and never looking back up. “He’s grieving still. He’ll always grieve. She was the love of his life.”
That doesn’t excuse him being a mean asshole, but if that helps everyone in the family sleep at night…
“Niko is right, we need Zuri, Father,” Jabari said, quickly getting the family back on course.
“Well, Zuri is unavailable,” Hasan retorted. “And unless you want to upset her and your mother, you will help us here instead of chasing her down.”
“She would be a better public face for the werecats,” Jabari countered.
Better than me, sure, but…I think I’m better suited.
The idea came to me quickly. I didn’t have to put anyone at risk, not even Zuri. I didn’t want to. This was my fuck up. My actions brought this on everyone here. I needed to protect them, and I had an idea how.
“Look, I’m not even…close to Zuri, but I can get through this with everyone’s help,” I said. “There’s no reason to expose anyone else in this family. Hasan is a member of the Tribunal. Jabari, you and Zuri are in charge of the largest werecat population in the world. There are not many of us here in the Americas, but I’m American and modern. Yeah, Zuri is the politician, the one who used to be a queen, but…I’m one of them. The BSA…they might be able to relate to me the best. I was born and raised here. If this goes public, I’m the one who doesn’t seem like an ancient powerhouse no one can understand or relate to, but someone people can…know. I’m a business owner and an American who just so happens to be…not human. Right?”
I second-guessed there at the end, looking between the faces of my family.
“That’s what I was thinking,” Hasan agreed softly. “I’m sorry we have to put you in this position, but I don’t see a way around it.”
“They can pull up my school records and see I was a normal kid…a normal human American kid. They can’t do that with any of you.”
“This will go worldwide,” Mischa countered.
“Then we pick who works the best in each area, even if it’s someone not in the family. We hire someone to be the face.”
“And lose power?” Hisao asked, raising an eyebrow.
I bit my lip and looked at Hasan.
“Not lose power, solidify it by giving people power we can take away,” he said, nodding slowly. “After what happened last year, maybe it’s time we show werecats we can trust those who are the most loyal to us.”
“Zuri is going to hate this,” Jabari snapped. “She’s worked damn hard to keep us in power, Father, and part of that is refusing to bend…on anything.”
“Zuri will understand the need, and there’s a chance she will be back before this goes international. Until then, we need to address the problem in front of us. The United States of America knows werecats are real, and they know Jacky is one. What do they want?” Hasan was cool and calculating. At the end of the day, he was the one in charge.
“They were a little vague about that. They want to know more about our kind, for sure, but the purpose is…elusive. They did try to sway me with the idea I could live openly as a supernatural, never have to move around again.”
“When do you see them again?”
“They’re giving me forty-eight hours to think about things. They asked me not to run.”
“Press them for more about their side of the bargain. Ask them to keep werecats out of the public eye. If they have to, they can just call us moon cursed, and I’ll talk to Callahan and Corissa to see if we can hide in the shadow of the werewolves. Hopefully, we haven’t upset them too badly after last summer.” He rubbed his jaw. “I knew Changing you would be something, but Jacqueline, I was really hoping we were beyond this very troublesome part of your life.”
“I think we’re only getting started,” I whispered, “but I was really hoping we were past it too.” I’m in a romantic relationship with a werewolf, so it was bound to come back eventually, but I was really hoping I had more time before something came for me. I certainly wasn’t expecting this.
I knew I was walking a very fine line. My dealings with werewolves were the reason I was caught, but I had no intention of losing Heath in this process unless lives depended on it and only if lives depended on it.
Maybe not even then.
“I’m going to go,” I said finally. “I need…some time to really let this sink in, and there are still cameras on my property. I’ll let you all know how the next meeting goes.”
“Jacqueline…if you make this worse, I’m bringing you home,” Hasan warned softly. “Other than that, just stay alive.”
He hung up, and I quickly followed, knowing his warning wasn’t a joke or a game. I had been in too much trouble, and the stakes were always so damn high. Now I was playing a role that should go to my sister. Zuri was perfect for this. She knew how to talk to people and play the field. I was a child, playing in my older sister’s shoes, although I had some experience. I was obviously pretty good at talking to werewolves and navigating those issues, or so I wanted to believe. I used to be pretty popular among humans, as Gwen tried to remind me repeatedly.
“I’m going to print those pictures to use as reference to find the cameras,” Dirk said after a few moments of silence. “Tomorrow. It’ll be too hard to find them in the dark.”
“Yeah…” I agreed. “I’m going to sleep in here.”
“Are you sure, boss?”
“Positive. You can do whatever you want, but dawn tomorrow, we’re going in and clearing out those cameras. Make sure you get some sleep.”
I covered my face with my shaking hands as he walked out. I felt sick.
My family hadn’t even asked how I was doing. I held back the tears as I sat there, trying to keep the crushing wave of emotions from destroying me. I wasn’t ready for them yet—not yet.
10
Chapter Ten
I did exactly as I told Dirk I would, sleeping in my office. Oliver checked on me before he left, but I told him I would lock up. I locked up all the doors, then to my office, continuing to hide from the world and my own trees.
At dawn, I went downstairs, holding a folder, and saw Dirk driving up. He drove around and parked at the back. I walked back there, watching him jump out in fresh clothes, something I didn’t share. I didn’t change, not wanting to walk home to do it. I didn’t trust my forest anymore, and that was the first thing I had to fix.
“Are you ready?” I asked as he stepped closer. Holding out the folder, he took it without a word, flipping it open to see what I was giving him.
“I’m ready,” he agreed. “And you can call on me any time to come out and sweep the area if you want me to.”
“That would be…very nice,” I said, sighing. “I’m going to need to give you a raise.”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “Yeah, you are,” he said with that casual “fucking deal with it” tone. It made me crack a smile. We both started laughing, the first time I had honestly laughed since t
he day before.
“Let’s go,” I ordered, wiping my eyes. I led him into the trees and took the trail. I couldn’t forget following the scents of the trespassers. I should have approached them while I had the chance. I’d known it was fucking fishy and played it too safe. Now I was paying for it.
Dirk stopped before I did, tsking.
“Here.” He held up a photo and moved around in a circle. “Yeah, it’s somewhere here. Did they ever go too far off the trail?”
“I…” I couldn’t remember.
Shrugging at my inability to give a response, he put the folder down and kept the one photo in his hands, then walked deeper into the brush and cursed.
“Got it,” he called out. “It’s still on. Hey, motherfuckers, found you.” He waved in front of something. “Nice little high-tech piece of equipment. Don’t try billing us for this.”
“Does it have audio?” I asked, watching him reach into a bush.
“No, but I bet someone can read lips, and they’ll figure out what I said.” He pulled out something I had never seen before. The camera thing was no bigger than a watch face or a quarter and only half an inch deep. “They crammed everything in here. Watch battery, tiny camera, like for a cell phone, and the ability to send information somewhere. It’s not supposed to work for longer than a couple weeks, I bet, then someone comes in and picks it up to dispose of.”
“Have you ever seen anything like it before?”
“No, but humans and supernaturals are always trying to push the boundaries of surveillance tech. I’ve found things just as interesting.”
“So, do we just destroy it? Or…” I had no experience in this.
“Send it to Davor, normally,” he said, flipping it over in his hand. “That’s what Niko usually did, even when they weren’t talking.”
I frowned. “They often don’t talk?”
Dirk put the little camera in his pocket and sighed.
“For about three months every year. The month before the anniversary, the month of the anniversary, and the month after the anniversary.”