by Roxie Ray
Her sigh mimicked my own in reply. “I can’t promise that I won’t worry. But I won’t freak out.”
“Deal.”
She giggled.
“Abby.” I had words I wanted to say but didn’t know how. I’d never said them before.
“Yeah?” She sounded sleepy.
“I... Just take care of yourself, okay? I care about you.”
Her warm voice made me feel good about what I’d said. “I care about you, too, Jury. Be safe.”
I hung up and stared at the phone a second before Maddox’s kissy sounds pulled me from my melancholy. I hit him with a pillow, then jumped over him to face the wall and go to sleep. The urge to ask her to move to Black Claw was stronger. I didn’t think I could go very long without seeing her.
Agreed.
17
Abby
Jury managed to check in for three days. We talked on the phone, and he told me a little more about his tracking gifts, what he was able to do, and what he couldn’t. As much as I missed him, it was great to see my preschool kids again.
I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to move to Black Claw. But I had to time it right. Jury and I had avoided the subject, and I didn’t want to tell him I’d have the means to move until he said flat out that he wanted me there, but I wanted to give my boss as much notice as possible, so I told her the day I went back.
She always liked to go into each classroom and check in with her teachers, make sure we were doing okay. When she came in, I asked her to give me a minute.
“I’m going to be moving in the near future,” I said. “I’m not sure exactly when, but my grandmother is giving me my inheritance early so that I can use it to get established in a new town.”
My boss’s face fell. “Oh, Abby, you’re my best teacher. I was planning on offering you a promotion.”
I burst out laughing and dropped my head to my hands, resting on the table. “I’d been dying for that promotion, too, before my visit home to my family.” There was an open position for a floor manager, and I’d wanted it bad. Since returning to Black Claw, it had been the last thing on my mind. I could get a part-time job, go back to school, and change my life, all because of a little nest egg Nana had been sitting on.
I didn’t know how I’d be able to thank her.
We chatted for a few more minutes, and I finished cleaning up and left. I checked my phone the minute I clocked out, but there was nothing from Jury. It had been two full days since his last phone call, and in another half hour, it would be three. I’d promised him I wouldn’t freak out, and I wasn’t, but I was worried to the point of nearly freaking.
Not quite there yet.
As I drove home, I passed the bar I’d gotten drunk in the night Jury had kept me from being violated by that gross man. Smiling, I drove on past it. I still had a lot to deal with, especially surrounding my father’s death, but even after a week with my kiddos, it was Friday afternoon, and all I wanted to do was go home and worry about Jury.
I stopped at the small grocery store on the corner to pick up a rotisserie chicken and a few other things for dinner, then parked in my apartment’s lot. My front door was just visible from my normal parking space. I lived up one flight of stairs, which I reminded myself every time I went up them that they kept me trim.
As soon as I locked the car, then looked up at my apartment door, I saw a strange man standing at it. Simultaneously, I’d flung my car door shut with my foot, bags of groceries in my hands. I couldn’t stop the sound of my car door slamming, which made his head whirl and his gaze land on me. And I’d closed the locked door. Stupid!
Damn it. I fumbled with the keys to unlock the door. Why didn’t my old car have a key fob? This was going to take too long.
He saw my panic and rushed down the stairs. Shit. Worried about what a strange man could possibly want with me, I set my bags on the ground beside my car and got my keys straightened out so I could unlock the car door.
“Abby?” he called as he crossed the parking lot. “Jury sent me.”
I faced him but recognized nothing about him. I was sure I’d never seen him before. I pulled my phone from my pocket to try to call Jury or if nothing else, the police. Somehow, I was sure this man was a dragon. I didn’t know what made me think that, except maybe some sixth sense from being the daughter of one.
He moved a little closer with his hands up. “My name is Cal. Jury wanted me to tell you he’s okay, but he’s unable to contact you. And he wanted me to tell you he loves you. In case you didn’t already realize that, he said.”
I lowered my phone and studied Cal’s features. He didn’t look like a Kingston, but Stefan was a part of their clan and didn’t look like them, either. And there had been two dragons traveling with them that I’d never seen before. Cal could’ve been someone they met up with.
“He said to tell you to be safe and he promises he’ll see you soon.”
Cal smiled but looked uncomfortable. I nodded, and he took it as permission to leave because he turned away and walked to a nondescript gold sedan a few rows away. I typed his tag number in a notes app on my phone, then grabbed my groceries and pretty much sprinted up the stairs to my apartment.
The door didn’t look like it had been tampered with, but I took the time to get my pepper spray out of my purse before going inside.
Why hadn’t I grabbed it when Cal approached? I was ashamed of myself for not thinking of it.
Rolling my eyes, I walked through my small apartment quickly, then pulled the food inside and locked the door. It was only a studio, so the entire apartment was two rooms. A kitchen-living room-bedroom combo and the second was a surprisingly spacious bathroom.
With a sigh of relief, I collapsed on the couch and dialed my sister. We’d been talking on and off all week. They were going to induce her in another couple of days if she didn’t go into labor, so I’d checked on her every chance I got.
“Hey, no baby yet,” she said in a way of greeting.
“Boo,” I said. “Hey, something strange just happened. Can you ask Stefan if he knows a Cal?”
“Sure” When she spoke again, it was with the distant echo of being on speakerphone. “I’m texting him now. Who is Cal?”
She already knew I hadn’t heard from Jury, but I explained what Cal had said and described him.
“I’m texting all that info to Stefan,” she said slowly. “Anything else?”
“I don’t think so. I just thought it was so strange. Why wouldn’t he just text me and let it go through when he was in range? Or call from a payphone? Those do still exist in areas that can’t get cell signals.”
Which, strangely enough, I didn’t know of any area of this part of Texas that didn’t have any service at all.
“He’s replying. He said Axel told him two days ago that they were going to have to go silent.”
Stefan and Jury’s dad were the only two of the Black Claw clan that hadn’t gone on the flight that I’d ended up on.
We talked for a few more minutes about it, then I asked her all the same questions about the baby and how she was feeling, then we disconnected. As I picked at my dinner, I felt uneasy in my apartment. It had been my home, my perfect space before I’d gone to Black Claw last week. This week it had become increasingly lonely rather than cozy and inviting. And Cal, whoever he was, didn’t make me feel more at ease.
I wanted to leave, go straight away to Black Claw and stay with Harley. And Jury—but of course, he wasn’t there.
Harley called me the next morning, but neither of us had any new news. The learning center was closed, my apartment was clean, and I had nothing to distract me from the constant worry about Jury.
And I could only take up so much of Harley’s time.
I distracted myself as best I could for the rest of Saturday and Sunday. Watching TV, reading, and cleaning my already-clean apartment. I probably checked my phone a hundred times.
Still no Jury, still no baby.
Was this how i
t would be for the rest of my life? He’d have to go on some tracking mission, and I’d have to wait and worry? I wasn’t sure I could handle this.
Fated mates or not, this feeling of doom and helplessness was ridiculous. I couldn’t wait for Monday when I could distract myself by being at work.
And if he was in danger, did that mean I was? Or could I be in the future? I had so many questions, and the only person I could ask was Harley, but she didn’t have the answers any more than I did.
I still knew I wanted to move to Black Claw, but how close and how fast Jury and I would move was in question. When I was with him, it was like the sun and moon changed positions and my entire world flipped on its side.
But a week of distance and worry had me second-guessing everything.
Was this really what I wanted out of life?
18
Jury
I’d never felt more pushed to my limit. The last week and a half had taught me more about tracking and endurance than ever before. I felt like we were close to finding Rico, but every time the trail picked up, it went cold again. I spent a lot of time shifted, flying low in the tree line and trying to pick it up.
Again.
We’d gone offline, worried that whoever had Rico could track us with them. Gramps had his phone on, just in case the kidnappers tried to make contact. Maddox had been forced to stay in his skin, to his intense dislike, but he had a wide-range walkie-talkie so that Gramps could contact us.
So far, he hadn’t.
We had to hit a lead soon, or I was going to have to take a break. We’d been sleeping in shifts, but I slept least of all. Something about being on the hunt made me unable to rest properly. I kept moving, kept trying to pick up Rico’s scent, to follow it.
Two days after we went dark, I made Axel radio Gramps and get a message out to a rogue I knew in the state. He could go to Abby and tell her what I wanted. I relayed the message to my grandfather over the radio.
“Are you serious?” he replied.
“Yes. If you want me to keep helping you, you’ll get her that message,” I said in a hard voice.
They didn’t answer for a few seconds. “Fine. Give it to me again and I’ll make sure it gets to her word for word.” I repeated my message and shifted back to let Nyx continue our hunt. It was too bad I couldn’t rest while he had control and vice versa, but it didn’t work that way.
As soon as I found Rico and made my way back to Abby, I was going to sleep for a week.
I finally picked Rico’s scent up two days later, a total of four or five since I’d last spoken to Abby. I wasn’t sure what day it was to be sure of the timing.
After shifting and getting boxers out of the bag on Maddox’s back, I took the walkie from him. “Gramps,” I said and rubbed my tired eyes. “I’ve picked him up again.”
“Hang on, son.” I’d been about to put the walkie away and shift to get on the trail as fast as possible. The walkie crackled and his voice came through again. “I’m on the phone. Don’t go yet.” Axel, Maverick, and Perry shifted back to their human forms and took clothes out of the bag, then we removed the bag from Madd’s dragon’s back so he could shift too.
“Did he say with who?” Maverick asked. I shook my head.
It took another minute for him to reply, and the urge to shift and follow my lead was strong and hard to ignore.
“Okay, that was the kidnappers. They finally made contact.” The walkie crackled. “Rico made some bad dealings and owes money to some rogues. They get the money, we get Rico.” More static, and garbled words. “...we don’t, Rico will be killed for double-crossing them.”
“Gramps, that seems wrong,” I said. “Over.”
“How do you mean, son? Over.”
The whole thing felt messed up. “If they just wanted money, why didn’t they come to you to begin with? Everyone knows you’re a dragon of honor. You would’ve made Rico pay the money back.” I let go of the button, then belatedly pressed it again. “Over.”
We frequently forgot to use the word, then spoke over each other and had to start over. “You may be right. It’s fishy, I agree. Over.”
“Did you get proof of life? Over.”
Maddox stiffened beside me. I didn’t know what had made me ask that question, but it was valid. They could’ve already killed him.
“Yes. Over.”
I sighed in relief. “Do we wait for their orders or keep tracking? Over.”
His reply was immediate. “Keep tracking. We have no reason to think they know where you are or what you are. They probably don’t realize you’re still on their trail. Be careful. Over.”
As soon as we set out again, I picked up a stronger trail this time. Nyx told the others, and we set out to follow it.
The trail took us into the air and back down, but eventually we came out in a clearing and landed on a dirt road. We shifted and dressed.
“I can smell it now,” Maverick said. “He’s close or at least was very recently.”
It was pitch black outside, and the trees surrounding us blocked out most of the moonlight. No human would’ve been able to see their hand in front of their face. Dragons would’ve seen, smelled, and heard us coming.
And then our luck changed. The wind picked up. It had been warm, muggy, and relatively wind-free for days. With the first gust of warm Texas air, Rico’s scent washed over me like a bucket of water poured over my head.
Thinking about water made me long for a bath. I hadn’t had one in over a week, unless I counted a quick dip in a mountain stream.
Why didn’t the dirt disappear when we shifted? It totally wasn’t fair. Our dragons never seemed to need a bath.
But it was almost over, and then I could go find Abby and tell her with my own mouth that I loved her and wanted her to move to Black Claw. I’d pay for it, move her stuff for her, pay for her college, anything it took to convince her to come home with me. I wanted to take care of her.
More than that. I wanted her to take care of me the same way. A real partner, like Ava and Maverick. My mom and dad. Charlotte and Axel.
I motioned for everyone to follow me. We crept forward with the wind blowing our scents in the opposite direction. Thank heaven for small favors. Through a break in the trees, I made out the outline of a couple of tents. It was so dark even our eyesight was inhibited.
A shout made us lurch forward toward the tents as three guys burst from one of them. Once in the tiny clearing, the clouds parted, and we were bathed in moonlight. At least we could see to kick their asses.
It was a short, relatively easy fight, especially since one of them gave up and took off running. I went after him while the other guys finished subduing the two who had stayed to fight.
He made it out to the small roadway and around a bend before I caught up to him and realized where he was headed. There was a small car in the bushes a mere few feet up the road. He’d been trying to make a break for it.
I tackled him, then quickly punched his neck before pushing off. He didn’t get up. Shit. Had I killed him?
Stepping forward, I jumped when he rolled over, moaning. He was getting his breath, so I brought my fist down on his nose with a strong crunch.
That stunned him long enough for me to drag him to the side of the road and yank a piece of rope out of my backpack so I could tie him to a tree.
I returned to the campsite. The moon was hidden again, but I followed the sight of flashlights bobbing through the woods. They’d found Rico in one of the tents and tied up the other two guys.
When we got Rico away from the campsite, we knew he was in no condition to fly. I wasn’t sure he was in any condition to ride one of us, either. We could’ve carried him, but he was so badly injured, he’d probably have fallen out of our arms. And it was a damn long walk.
“Anybody know how to hotwire a car?” I asked.
“I do,” Rico mumbled through his swollen lips. Looking down at him, I couldn’t help but think again that this had to be about more than money. Wh
y would they have gone to all this trouble for money when Gramps would’ve paid it if they’d only asked? They wanted something from Rico that he wouldn’t give them.
“Well, you can’t help us right now,” Maddox said and pressed his fingertips to his own fat lip. “But I can.” He pulled his other hand out of his pocket and shook a set of keys from us. “I grabbed these off of the table by the door.”
Laughing, I helped Rico hobble over to the only car in the driveway. The key worked, and I half dropped Rico in the back seat, then collapsed in the passenger seat. “I don’t care who drives. Get us out of here.”
By the time they decided Maddox would drive while the rest flew near the road through the woods, I was nearly unconscious. When the car moved, I slipped into sleep for the first time in nearly two weeks. When we met up with Gramps and the van, I climbed into the back seat with Rico and went back to sleep, my thoughts alternating between Abby and how tired I was until blackness took me.
When we got to the hotel Gramps had been waiting for us at, Cal was there. “Did you deliver the message?” I asked.
“Yep. She was freaked, man. Thought I was gonna hurt her or something.” He shook his head.
We settled Rico on the bed, and Cal gave him a long look. “Damn. I’m getting out of here before these guys realize I’ve been helping you.”
Rico lifted his head and opened the one eye that wasn’t swollen shut. “Jury,” he whispered. But his neck gave out, and he collapsed back on the pillow and was out cold again.
He shook his head and walked toward the door.
“Thanks, Cal,” Gramps called.
“Hey, one sec, Cal, please,” I said. “Gramps, do you need me now?”
He shook his head. “Nope, I’ve got our doc on the way. You’re free to go.” He eyed Mav and Axel. “Though I’d like you two to stay in case they try to come at us again before we get out of here.”