by Dannika Dark
“A heist is a robbery. What you’ve got is a kidnapping.”
“Stealing is stealing.”
Niko rapped his knuckles on the table. “Has anyone called or left a note?”
“A note?” Wyatt snorted. “I doubt any messenger can reach the door with all the wolves running around, not to mention the land mines on the property. Did you know that Crush let them sniff your dirty clothes before you arrived?”
“And if I hadn’t let them, they would have torn him apart before he hit the front door,” Crush retorted.
“I doubt that. Ever seen Niko use his swords? A man has a right to privacy. I don’t want anyone sniffing my dirty drawers.”
“I’m all out of fucks to give.”
Wyatt had a tendency to get worked up when he was sleep-deprived and full of caffeine and sugar. Cyrus had to be behind this, and the wolves posed a problem. Cyrus would need a way to reach out to Niko with his demands. If he sent one of his men, the wolves would tear him to pieces.
Cyrus wouldn’t risk it, which meant he was waiting for Niko to make the next move.
Niko stood up and removed his sword belt and laid his sheathed weapons on the desk. “I’m going for a walk. Crush, can you instruct the wolves to stay away from me? Keep them close to the house but no farther out than a hundred feet.”
“I’ll try, but they’ve already marked the territory.”
“Is there an alpha?”
“Yep. Good buddy of mine. Don’t know how long he’ll be able to stay, but he’s assigned his best men. I’ll go talk to him.”
Niko bowed to show his respect. He couldn’t reveal too much information since Crush wasn’t a member of Keystone. Once Raven’s father left the room, Niko lowered his voice. “If Viktor calls, tell him I’m reaching out to the kidnappers. I know who’s behind this.”
“Now that’s a plot twist I didn’t see coming. Who? Never mind. That’s not as important as why they would snatch Gem.”
“They want something from me. Inform Viktor that if anyone calls him looking for me, give that person my number. I don’t think that’s how he’ll make contact, but just in case. Cyrus is a man who prefers dealing with people face-to-face, but he won’t come close if wolves are on the property.”
“Uh, maybe you should take your weapons. He might want you dead.”
“Needn’t worry. My death isn’t what he desires. I’m afraid the only way to get Gem back is to capitulate. Swords will give him the opposite impression, so I must leave them behind. If he thinks he can’t trust me, we may never see her again.”
“Holy Toledo. You think he’d really do something to Gem? She wouldn’t hurt a fly. Well, except for those people she blasted that time in the Bricks.”
Niko turned to the door and froze in his tracks. “Don’t come looking for me, Wyatt.”
“Just don’t get your head lopped off. If you come back as a freshy, I’ll kick your kung fu ass.”
Niko plodded to the first floor, giving Crush enough time to relay the orders to his friends. Switch’s voice reverberated off the walls in the dining room. He must have been eating breakfast with Hunter and Kira. Niko didn’t have time for conversation. He didn’t even have time to formulate a plan.
He only had enough time to save Gem.
Wyatt rubbed his eyes, struggling to stay awake. He’d zoned out a few times while working on Viktor’s route and reviewing traffic reports. Viktor didn’t want to get stuck in a gridlock, so Wyatt had to monitor the situation in case an alternative route was needed. As if he didn’t have enough to do, Gem went missing. And things really went to shit when he had to work out Niko’s travel arrangements on the fly.
Wyatt rolled his chair in front of the vending machine and stared at his reflection. He looked worse than a six-hundred-year-old specter. Without his beanie on, his hair was sticking out in every direction as if he’d stuck his finger in a light socket. Why couldn’t it lie flat like a normal person’s follicles? Nope. He got the crazy-hair gene.
His stomach growled like a dog guarding its food bowl. How long had Niko been gone? Maybe he’d changed his mind and gone down to the training room to do all that weird balancing shit. Wyatt had lost track of time. He liked it that way. A window in his workspace would only make him aware of the time, and he couldn’t afford to nod off when he had a job to do. It was probably morning by now.
Hell, it was probably November.
In the middle of another yawn, Wyatt stood up and peeled off his T-shirt. After a quick whiff of his armpit, he headed down the hall to take a long hot shower. A man can’t work nonstop. It’s not good for the brain cells or the pit smells. So long as he kept his computer and phone alarms on, he could take micro naps on the sofa in his office.
When he turned the corner, he couldn’t help but wince at the thought of running into a freshy. Even though it had been months since they were cleared from the house, he never got over that creepy feeling that someone might have followed him home. Ghosts were like leaves that tracked in the house. The specter that followed Niko home was proof of that, but at least he left Wyatt alone. The upside of Keystone was that it was secluded enough that the dead wouldn’t wander into the house on their own. It was one of the main reasons Wyatt had accepted the job. A Gravewalker would never have peace living in the city; the dead were everywhere.
He started humming the words to “Even the Nights Are Better.” Seventies and eighties soft rock had a special place in his heart. It took him back to another time in his life—a time when he’d finally gotten out of the Gravewalker business after his computer hobby had led to a career change.
Dealing with ghosts had never been a cakewalk. Who could sleep with specters wandering around the bedroom at night, asking for favors? Conversing with the dead and making deals was a way of life for his kind, but it took its toll. Wyatt had met many a Gravewalker who’d lost his marbles. Yet he’d begrudgingly accepted his fate for lack of options.
All that changed when Wyatt discovered computers. He was one of the first to get a personal computer after they hit the market in the late seventies. Arcade games had always intrigued him, and he’d even dabbled in designing a few. Computers came naturally to him, and he excelled ahead of others, enough that he did programming and repair as a side job. He didn’t make much in the early days, but the internet changed everything. It allowed him to communicate with other Breed and do special research assignments. The higher authority, Mageri, and other organizations were late to the party when it came to the importance of data, so Wyatt was on one of the first teams assembled to hack into government systems and search for any files on Breed. He trained recruits hired by the authorities to use computers so they could get jobs at key companies to monitor Breed activity.
Now it was commonplace. Immortals were everywhere. Planted in the military, hotels, hospitals, border crossings, prisons—anywhere you could think of in order to track Breed.
It had all been going great until he got greedy and wanted more money. There was a cap on how much he could earn with the higher authority, and users on the dark web were offering money to locate people. Wyatt didn’t ask questions. He just took the money and passed along the info. Seemed like an easy way to make cash.
Until he found out his contacts were professional killers.
Someone had been monitoring Wyatt’s activities and reported him when they discovered that all the people he’d gathered information on were dead or missing. How the hell was he supposed to know what the client wanted it for?
Wyatt fell out of the song as the memories made him livid all over again. It wasn’t as if he was doing the killing, but that wasn’t how the authorities saw it. After confiscating his money, they made him serve a short sentence in Breed jail. Technically he hadn’t broken any laws, so they had to release him. Freedom didn’t matter. His reputation was ruined. He’d lost his home, his job, his life savings, the respect of his peers, and eventually his girl. He was no better off than the poor schmucks floating around in the af
terlife. At least he could enjoy food and play video games. The dead could only watch.
Wyatt made a fist and looked at the ink on his right hand that spelled out LOST. The tattoos on his fingers were a reminder that nothing lasts forever. That one minute you can be on top of the world, and the next you’re nothing but a ghost. Never get attached to a life, a person, money, love, or happiness. Even Keystone wouldn’t last forever. Eventually he’d screw up.
Like now.
Viktor had left him in charge, and all hell was breaking loose. Gem was missing, wolves were on the property, and he was almost out of chocolate donuts.
What if Niko got himself killed? The thought made him panicky. He should have never let him go, but Wyatt hadn’t had a moment of clarity in twenty-four hours.
When he reached the first floor, he blindly grabbed a jacket from the closet. His thoughts were scrambled as he jogged down the hall on the right.
Just when he reached the painting and turned the corner, he slammed into Switch and pirouetted toward the bright blue windows. “Son of a ghost! Don’t sneak up on a guy like that.”
Switch frowned. “Is there something you need help with?”
Wyatt glanced behind him and quelled his anger. “Yeah, keep a better eye on the kid.”
“Kira’s giving him a bath. He’s fine.” Switch’s lips twitched when he noticed Wyatt’s jacket. “New fashion style?”
Wyatt looked down at the sparkly silver jacket that barely reached his navel. “It’s Gem’s. I wasn’t paying attention.” The sleeves barely went past his elbows, and they were tight. Wyatt tugged at them anyway. “I’m going out to look for Niko.”
“I thought you two had a plan?”
Wyatt headed down the hall toward the side exit. “Yeah. His plan was to get himself kidnapped, but I’m all booked up on crazy. And if any of your wolf buddies decide to make me into a snack, I’m gonna haunt them from the afterlife.”
“They know my scent. They’ll stay back.”
“What scent is that, Shifter? The scent of toxic masculinity?”
Switch glared down at him. “You seem insecure.”
Wyatt liked Switch, but he couldn’t help but bust his chops. A guy like that would steal his thunder if they took him out to the bar. Wyatt had always been the guy in their group that the chicks flocked to, and that was saying something considering Claude’s good looks. But not everyone loved Chitahs or extremely tall men. If this Switch thing turned out to be permanent, that meant Gaston here was going to serve up competition.
After a brief flash of disappointment, Wyatt glanced down at his chest through the open jacket. Nah. There was way too much man here to admire, even if he didn’t have all that extra muscle tone and height.
I need a nap, he thought.
As soon as they stepped outside, a black wolf raised his head from a grove of trees up ahead.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t look that one directly in the eye,” Switch advised. “That’s Tank. He was Raven’s watchdog for quite a few years. She didn’t know it. I heard a rumor that he did barbaric things to some old pervert who was trying to give Raven a ride home one afternoon. Tank’s a badass. Nobody fucks with him.”
Wyatt’s heart thumped in his chest. He didn’t fear death—Gravewalkers rarely did—but it was the dying part that kept him on his toes. There are particular ways a man doesn’t want to die, and in the jaws of a predator is one of them. Sometimes the dead remembered their last moments, and they liked to talk about the agony and horror of it all. Wyatt had heard enough gruesome stories to give him nightmares in the afterlife. Especially from the guy who was pushed into a meat grinder and—
“You got a shitload of land out here,” Switch remarked. “You could build a dozen homes. What do you do with it all?”
“Fly kites.”
“Packs dream about property like this.”
Behind the house were rolling hills. The Shifters who used to live here must have cleared away a good number of trees near the house to provide more visibility, security, and running room. Wyatt and Switch walked a long distance across the wet grass until they reached the far corner of the property. Wyatt knew where the property line ended based on tree markers, but did Niko? He might be lost.
“Niko has a funny way of blending in with his surroundings like some kind of chameleon, so keep your eyes open,” he said to Switch.
“Who needs eyes?”
Switch morphed into a brown wolf, and Wyatt hopped back a step.
“If you put one fang on me, you’re toast.”
Switch’s wolf peeled back his teeth in a grotesque smile before turning his head away and lifting his nose to the air. After a beat, he trotted off and searched the perimeter.
Wyatt grumbled as he trudged through a dense grove of trees. His ass still hurt, and if he didn’t have so much work to do, he’d smoke a little cannabis to deaden the pain. Shepherd had taken all the Neosporin and peroxide for his trip, leaving Wyatt with nothing but bandages and alcohol.
He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Niko?”
Too bad they weren’t situated near a cemetery. Gravewalkers could pick up on the living in a cemetery, but it only seemed to work around a number of dead bodies. Some had heightened abilities to detect a living body no matter where they were, but usually that wasn’t how it worked. It also helped when there were ghosts on-site who could point in the direction of someone who didn’t belong. Even the dead were picky about who they wanted in their neighborhood.
“Niko!” he yelled, his voice swallowed up by the open space. A few birds scattered from the trees, and the next time he yelled, he stretched out all the vowels.
Barking snagged his attention, and he jogged toward the sound. Wyatt weaved around thick trees and hopped over twisted roots, the jacket tightening with every step as if reminding him that Gem was missing.
He tripped over a rock and windmilled his arms before regaining his balance.
Switch’s brown wolf blended in with their surroundings, so it took Wyatt a minute to spot him.
Wyatt strode up and looked at where Switch had pawed through the leaves. He knelt down and studied the deep mark in the mud, which wasn’t a typical footprint. It didn’t look like a struggle but more like the heel of someone’s shoe digging up the earth as they pivoted around.
Wyatt stood up and shouted with urgency, “Niko!”
Switch’s wolf trotted around the area, sniffing everything in sight. When he began barking again, Wyatt hurried over. He lifted a leather hair tie from a small twig poking out of a tree. It was intentionally placed, and it belonged to Niko. Wyatt didn’t recall him wearing his hair up earlier, but Niko often carried one in his pocket.
That hair tie was a message that he’d left of his own free will.
“Blast! You just had to go and do it, didn’t you?” He flicked the tie on the ground. “This is superb. Two people missing, and one of them I let walk right out the door. Niko, if you don’t find Gem and bring her home, I’m dead meat. I might as well reserve my spot under the bridge, because that’s where I’ll be living for the rest of my life. Like a troll.”
Switch shifted to human form and gave his surroundings a cursory glance. He didn’t seem to recall the shift. “What happened?”
“Niko’s gone, that’s what happened. Gone. Poof. Sayonara.”
“How do you know?”
“I found one of his hair ties over yonder,” Wyatt said, pointing at the tree.
Switch gave him a skeptical look and pursed his lips. “You did, huh? All by yourself? That’s amazing. One tiny hair tie in all this forest, and you happened to—”
“Do me a favor and shift back. Nobody wants to see all that,” he said, waving a hand at Switch’s privates.
Switch ignored him and pulled a leaf off a tree as they kept walking. “Are we outside the property line?”
“Yup. And your wolves didn’t rescue him.”
“They were instructed to stay away. Did your friend go willingly?”
Wyatt jumped ahead of Switch. “Why don’t you send a few of your friends to track them down?”
“No can do.”
Wyatt turned and cast him a sharp glare. “And why not?”
“News flash—you have a child in that house and a helpless woman. Whatever Viktor has planned for you is nothing compared to what Shepherd would do if his kid went missing.”
Damn, he had a point.
Switch halted and looked skyward. “You hear that?”
Wyatt cocked his head and turned. The wind carried a faint sound that didn’t belong in these woods. A repeated buzzing.
They both jogged back to where they’d just been.
Wyatt shielded his view of Switch with his hand. “It’s even worse when you run.”
Switch shifted to wolf form and sprinted ahead of Wyatt.
Out of breath and his ass throbbing, Wyatt slowed his pace when he caught Switch nosing around where they’d found the hair tie. “I’m fixin’ to take you to the vet and put you in that cone of shame.”
Switch pawed at the leaves.
Wyatt bent down and spotted Niko’s phone. Niko didn’t use the newer models since they would require him to use voice command, which wasn’t allowed for privacy reasons. His was a simple one with push buttons.
The phone vibrated again, and Wyatt cringed when he saw the number on the display.
He pushed Talk and steadied his breath. “Hi, Viktor. Don’t kill me, but we’ve got another problem.”
Chapter 14
I peered through the broken shutters—nothing but sunshine and rolling hills as far as the eye could see. We’d finally hit a few small towns, the roads bordered by telephone poles and old homes. “I’ve never seen so many trees in my life.”
Claude looked at me from the adjacent sofa, his arm resting on the back and his face turned my way. “You sound disappointed. Miss the smell of garbage bins and pollution already?”