“That’s absurd. Don’t I get a choice in all this?”
His face troubled, he turned away. “Yeah, you could still choose to be with Malcolm.”
Shay gasped, outraged. “No!”
“It might be the only way to help Jason.”
Panic twisted her insides, squeezing. “That’s crazy! No wonder my dad wanted to leave this place.”
Kate made a strangled sound from the doorway, her hand fluttering to her lips.
Shame and embarrassment washed over Shay, flaming her cheeks. “I’m so sorry,” she said, hurrying toward her. “I didn’t mean that.”
“No.” Her grandmother stepped into the room, her voice and face resigned. “Don’t be sorry. I understand your anger and confusion. There are a lot of reasons for the rules we have here. They may, at times, seem restrictive, especially to someone born and raised on the outside, but give us a chance. We have a lot of wonderful things here, too.”
“There must be something we can do for Jason?” Shay said, turning back to her grandfather. “Should we call a lawyer?”
“I’m going to see the council,” Robert said. “I still have a lot of influence around here.”
“Your grandfather was the pack leader before passing it on to your dad,” Kate said. “We’ve always been a family of leaders, it’s why Malcolm wants you.”
Shay nodded, understanding more and more. “I’d like to go with you. Jason and I were going to talk to them this morning about applying for a marriage permit. Maybe it would help him if this council knew that.”
Her grandparents didn’t say anything. They just stared at her with a strange frozen deer-in-the-headlights look upon their faces.
“Married? I hadn’t realized things had gotten that serious between you,” Kate said.
“I, uh, think that would be a good thing,” her grandfather said, before Shay could respond.
“Are you sure, Robert?” Kate asked, her brown eyes filled with worry, reminding Shay of her suspicion that they were keeping something from her. Something about Jason.
“Yes,” Robert said to his wife. “Shay’s right. We need to help Jason. Maggie would want us to. Not only for Jason, but also for our granddaughter. I won’t have her married to that brute Malcolm. I’m going over to see Scott. Get dressed. I’ll be back in an hour to pick you up, then we’ll go visit the council.”
Shay nodded, but as she watched him walk out the door, she couldn’t help wondering what he meant. She turned back to her grandmother. “Who is Maggie? And why would she want you to help Jason?”
Kate hesitated a moment, watching her husband leave.
“Kate?” Shay pressed.
“Maggie was our daughter. And Jason’s wife.”
Chapter 14
Jason stood in Malcolm’s large living room before the great stone fireplace, watching the logs burn, wondering how this was going to go. With Malcolm, one never really knew.
He didn’t have to wait long. Malcolm strode into the great room. “Coffee?” he asked, gesturing toward the coffee service on the sideboard.
Without a word, Jason helped himself to a cup.
“I appreciate your coming to see me.” Malcolm filled a cup for himself and lifted it to his lips.
“You didn’t leave me much choice.” Jason let his annoyance seep into his tone. “I don’t appreciate you sending your goons to pick me up. You could have called. It would have been nice to have had a shower and get some clothes that fit me first.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” Malcolm grinned, showing the charm that had gotten him where he was. But his charm didn’t work on Jason. Not since that day in the seventh grade when he’d seen Malcolm charm Mrs. Huffington into an A on a paper that should have been a C.
“My men get a little carried away sometimes,” Malcolm said with lazy arrogance.
Jason’s grasp tightened on his cup as he tried to keep from exploding on him. Coming unglued and beating the crap out of Malcolm might make Jason feel better, but it wouldn’t help the situation. And besides, they weren’t fourteen years old anymore. “Mitch and Louis got a lot more than carried away up at the caves. They shot at us.”
Malcolm’s eyes widened. “I had nothing to do with that. I can’t imagine why they would do that.”
“I can imagine it easily. Mitch called you and told you he’d seen Shay and I together. You exploded, said a few choice words and hotheaded Mitch ran with it. Admit it, Malcolm. I’ve warned you about him before. He’s a loaded gun with a hair trigger and one of these days, someone is going to get hurt.”
Malcolm perched himself on the edge of a bar stool. “You’re right. He’s gone too far this time and I’ll deal with him. This Scott thing has him on edge. Hell, it has us all on edge, but I had nothing to do with it. You are like a brother to me—you must know that. I would never order anyone to shoot at you.”
Jason wasn’t sure if he believed him or not. But one thing he’d said was true—he and Malcolm went way back. “What about the gates? When we got there, Johnny was gone and three of your thugs were waiting for us.”
“Yeah, well, I wanted to make sure you got here safely. I was hoping you’d stay here with me. We have a lot to talk about and I wanted to meet Dean’s daughter.”
“If that’s true then you won’t mind when I report the shooting to the council and make a formal complaint against Mitch and Louis.”
“No. I won’t stop you. In fact, I’ll go with you.”
Jason watched his old friend over the rim of his cup, trying to decipher what Malcolm’s game was, if he had an agenda or if he was shooting straight this time.
Malcolm held his gaze steady. “I’d just appreciate it if you’d hold off a day or two. Give me a chance to talk to them. To try and find out what happened.”
“Why?” Suspicion swirled with the coffee in Jason’s gut.
“Because I want to know what really happened out there. What about Dean’s daughter? Is she all right?”
“What happened is we were being hunted down from the moment I found her. Her scent was much stronger than a newborn’s usually is. We were attacked relentlessly from all sides, even from the Gauliacho.”
Malcolm whistled high and low. “Are you serious? Why?”
“I have no idea, but trust me when I tell you she had to transform. She was badly injured by the Abatu and we weren’t making it off that mountain otherwise. We had no choice. I tried to explain that to Mitch, but obviously he didn’t listen. We almost didn’t make it as it was, and having your men shooting at us didn’t help matters.”
Malcolm stood perfectly still, his light green eyes boring into Jason’s. After a long moment, he said, “I believe you, Jason.”
“Well, that’s good to hear,” Jason responded, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice but not succeeding.
“Listen, Jason, I know better than anyone how much you’ve sacrificed for the safety of this pack, and now this little pup, Scott, is about to start our troubles all over again.”
“I’ll try talking to him,” Jason said. “But he’s hell-bent on his path.”
“This has moved far beyond talking and you know it.”
Jason sighed and emptied his cup. “Yes, I suppose I do.”
“To make matters more complicated, two nights ago our warehouse was broken into. Everything was stolen.”
“Who?”
“Scott is the only one that makes sense. It had to be an inside job. There were only forty-five minutes between the time the shipment was dropped off and when we arrived to pick it up. A forty-five-minute window and everything was gone. Do you know what this will do to our economy? The setback we’re going to face? A lot of money was tied up with that shipment and now it’s gone.”
“But Scott? That’s a little extreme, even for him.”<
br />
“I’ve heard from an inside source that he’s going before the council today to claim I’m mismanaging pack funds.”
“I’m sure you can counter those claims. All our money couldn’t have been tied up in TVs?”
“TVs, computers, washers and dryers, game systems, all the amenities people have been working hard to get. Now they’re all gone. People paid in advance, Jason.”
“But it could have been anyone.”
“Could anyone have burned down his house?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The day before the shipment disappeared Scott’s house burned to the ground with his daughter still inside. He’s trying to blame it on me.”
Jason took a deep breath while he tried to process the news. “Is Natalie okay? I saw Scott last night and he didn’t mention it.”
“Trust me. He’s saying a lot. To a lot of people.”
“What makes you think he did it? Burning his own house down, hurting his own child... I can’t believe he’d do that. Scott loves that girl.”
“I think he was more surprised than anyone that she was there. He thought she was staying the night at a friend’s house, but she hadn’t felt well and came home. Now the bastard is more determined than ever to pin it on me, so Natalie doesn’t find out her own dad almost burned her to death.”
“That’s extreme.”
“Tell me about it. I think he found out you were going after Dean’s girl and became desperate. Stealing the shipment just added to his ammunition against me. I shouldn’t have risked so much of the pack’s money. I know that. But sales have been going really well. I just thought if I could get more products in advance, we could make even more money. When you buy in bigger quantities, the cost goes down significantly.”
Jason rubbed a hand across his face. “So let me guess, this is why you want me to hold off telling the council about Mitch and Louis.”
“It will just add fuel to Scott’s claims. He’ll say I put them up to it. If we can wait until we find that shipment, it will diffuse the situation. Mitch and Louis are out there tracking it now.”
“On top of a mountain?”
“What better place than those caves to hide the town’s goods?”
Jason had to agree with him there, though it wouldn’t be easy getting them up there. Those old logging roads hadn’t been used in a long time and were very overgrown.
“I just need to stall Scott and the council’s inquiries a little longer to give Mitch a chance to find the shipment.”
“What about the sheriff?”
“He’s been down to the warehouse. He looked around but there was nothing to find. Right now he’s busy doing everything he can to find out how that fire at Scott’s house got started.”
Jason closed his eyes. “How the hell did everything get so messed up? I was only gone for a few days.”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Malcolm said, shaking his head. “All this couldn’t have just happened. Someone orchestrated the whole thing, and they’ve done a damned good job screwing me up. Those TVs have got to be somewhere. I’ve sent Mitch and your security team out there to find them. We will get to the bottom of this mess.”
“You sent my men out there?” Jason thought of the Gauliacho still out beyond the gates and cringed.
“I had no choice. I tried to call you, but you weren’t answering your phone.”
“We lost it on the mountain. We had our hands full.”
Malcolm took a deep drink of his cup. “I get that. I’m sorry, man. Sorry about Mitch and Louis and everything else.”
Jason nodded, then walked over to the sideboard and refilled his coffee. “We’ll deal with them later. Right now, you’re right. Our first priority should be finding that missing shipment. And you need to make damned sure there is nothing connecting you to that fire.”
“I was here that night, trust me. Begging Celia not to leave me.”
Jason paused. “I heard.” Celia was the best thing that had ever happened to Malcolm. She grounded him in a way no one had ever done. “What happened?”
“She found out I asked you to go get Shay. She was furious.”
“I would have gone after Shay anyway. I promised Dean.”
“I know that. But she got wind that I asked the council for a marriage permit and freaked. It was stupid, and not one of my better moments.”
“Yep. I’ll agree with you on that one. Though in theory it was a good plan. We just didn’t think it through real well.”
Malcolm smiled. “That’s an understatement.”
“So where’s she gone?”
“Who knows, but she’ll come back. She has to. She is my only alibi.”
Jason ran a hand across his face. “That sucks.”
“In so many ways.”
Jason had to agree. Without Celia here to hold him back, who knew what Malcolm might do. “But worse than that, as a pack we can’t be dependent on only one Keeper. We need Celia here. What about Jaya? How’s she taking this?”
“She’s ready to string me up by the family jewels.”
“I can imagine,” Jason said dryly. “Celia is her only child.”
“You know it. That old woman scares the shit out of me.”
“Well, let’s hope Celia doesn’t stay gone for long.”
“I hope not, though she was scary mad. That girl spits fire when she’s angry.”
Jason had to agree with him there.
“So, tell me,” Malcolm said, looking at him over the rim of his cup. “How attached are you to Dean’s girl?”
Suspicion prickled the hair on Jason’s nape. “Very. Why?”
“I need something else for the town to focus on for just a little while and I think a wedding is just the trick.”
Jason straightened. “No way.”
“I know what you’re thinking, but all we need is a little distraction.”
“Shay is mine. I turned her. I...I want her. I’ve asked her to marry me.”
Malcolm stared at him for a long moment before his lips widened into a large grin. “That good, eh?”
“Hands off.”
“Hell, man, I don’t have to actually marry her, though it would look damn good for me to be affiliated with Dean’s daughter.”
“Forget it.”
Malcolm laughed. “I’m just pulling your leg. No, I meant you. I want you to marry her, just ask me to stand up for you. Show the town that we’re together on this. I need her to be in my corner publicly until we find that shipment and settle this thing with Scott’s house. Do you think she’ll do it?”
“I don’t know.” Jason took a long swig of his coffee. “She was pretty shook up by all this. Dean died when she was real young. When she started going through the change, she had no idea what was happening to her. Why all these strange people were suddenly attacking her. She was out there alone and clueless.
Malcolm stilled. “How is she doing now? Did the transformation go well?”
“It wasn’t easy. She was real spooked, as you can imagine.”
“Tough break. What about the old man and Kate? How are they taking all this?”
“It was awkward at first, but I think they’re okay with it. One thing is certain, they’d rather have her with me than with you.”
Malcolm grinned. “I really don’t know why they don’t like me.”
“Yeah, right.”
“You and Dean were just as responsible for the toilet papering and egging as I was.”
“Yep.” Jason couldn’t help the grin creeping onto his face.
“And you asked me to take over the pack.”
“That’s true, I did.”
“And even when you came back...”
“Yeah, I know. I wa
s in no position to take over, not after losing Maggie.”
“You insisted I stay on as leader.”
“I did, and up until now, I’ve never had reason to doubt you weren’t right for the job.”
“There’s no reason to doubt it now.”
“So, you’re sure you’re okay with me and Shay?”
“Trust me, Jason, in the past few days, I’ve had a lot more on my mind than Dean’s girl or your love life. Especially with Celia gone.”
They both were silent for a moment.
“She’ll come back. She has to,” Malcolm said.
“That’s what I thought about Maggie.” The words were out before Jason could stop them. Something dark fell over Malcolm’s face. “I’m sorry,” Jason said, backpedaling. “I guess I still haven’t gotten over my own guilt for not going after her right away when she left here to go looking for Dean. She didn’t stand a chance. But Celia’s different. She’s a Keeper. She can protect herself. But more than that, she is loyal to the pack. She will come back, and when she does, I suggest you marry that girl before you lose her for good.”
“You know it,” Malcolm agreed. He set his cup down. “Listen, I know now is not the best time, but I have one more favor I need to ask of you.”
Jason steeled himself. When Malcolm asked for a favor, it was usually not something Jason wanted to do. “What?”
“I know you just got back and you have Shay to get settled, but you are the best tracker we have. I need you to go back out there and help your men find that shipment.”
“Malcolm, I haven’t even made it home yet.”
“I know. And normally I wouldn’t ask, but will you do it?”
Jason thought of Shay and how much he wanted to take her back to his house and spend the day getting to know her better. How could he just leave her alone? He hadn’t even had the chance to explain to her about Maggie, and he couldn’t imagine she was going to take that well. But he also knew if he didn’t help Malcolm find that shipment, Scott would have all the ammunition he needed to unleash a full-scale war against Malcolm and anyone who stood with him. It would be ugly. For all of them.
“Talk to Shay,” Malcolm said. “Explain to her what’s going on. She can even stay here with me if she wants. In fact, that might help the situation. We just need a little time to get the hotheads to calm down. By showing the two of you are strong in my camp, it will strengthen us against Scott and his minions. I can protect her here while you’re gone. I swear I won’t let anything happen to her.”
Harlequin Nocturne March 2014 Bundle: ShadowmasterRunning with Wolves Page 43