Scoundrel

by Keira Blackwood

  She broke our kiss and looked up at me. “Jett, you really—”

  “I love you, Paige. You and Evelyn are what matters most to me.”

  She frowned, but said nothing, and instead looked down.

  “Hey.” I tilted her chin up with a gentle touch of my finger.

  She met my gaze, and her eyes glossed over. “It’s trouble with that other pack again, isn’t it?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  “I need this to be over, so we can start our life together.”

  “That’s what I want, too.”

  “Good,” she said, and pulled away. “Remember that when you get there. Think of us when you decide what you do next.”

  The door opened just before she reached it, and Evelyn was standing there with a smug grin. “You kissed my dad, Aunt Paige. You love him.”

  Paige’s face turned red and a hint of a smile played on her lips. “Come on, munchkin, let’s go upstairs.”

  With that, the door shut, and I was alone. I drove back to the clubhouse on my bike, Paige’s words echoing through my head. Of course I would think of them. I never stopped thinking about them. Paige and Evelyn were my heart.

  I parked and went in through the back. Shaundra looked up at me from her place behind the bar, and lifted a brow. She pulled the earbud out of one of her ears. “He’s waiting for you in the boardroom. And he’s pissed.”

  “Thanks for the warning.” I headed down the hall to the business side of the building.

  I could hear Brick’s muffled voice through the closed door. “Want me to hunt his ass down and drag him here?”

  I grabbed the handle and stepped inside. “If you’re talking about me, no need.”

  The air was thick and cold, tension running high. Brick was in his chair, feet up on the table, and Hawke was pacing. He froze and met my gaze. “About fucking time.”

  I crossed the room and took my usual seat across from Brick. “I came as quickly as I could.”

  “You picked a hell of a time to get distracted.” Hawke took his seat at the head of the table.

  “We needed you. Or at least this guy thought we did.” Brick nodded toward Hawke. “Me, I told him I could handle this on my own.”

  Hawke’s attention remained on me. I could see the wheels turning in his head, and that set me more on edge than Brick’s sinister grin.

  Since it seemed no one was going to tell me what the hell was going on, I asked. “Why am I here?”

  Brick slid a phone across the table. The screen was cracked. “Is that mine?”

  Brick nodded. “Found it. And my keys.”

  “Good.” I nodded and grabbed my broken phone from the table. The screen would need to be fixed at the very least. Could be the thing was completely busted. But that wasn’t what was important. What the hell had happened when they found the guy whose trunk this was in?

  “We need you to ID the driver,” Hawke said.

  “Do you have pictures?” I asked.

  “Better.” Brick’s face split from ear to ear. “I have him downstairs.”

  Fuck. This was bad. Worse than I’d thought.

  “Fine,” I said. “Show me.”

  I followed Brick, with Hawke a few steps behind me.

  The scent of blood hit me before we reached the basement. Blood and piss.

  Greenville wouldn’t stand for us taking their man, as much as I knew Hawke wouldn’t stand for what was done to me. Not to mention the crimes committed against the roving chapter.

  In the center of the room was a man chained to one of the support beams. By scent, I knew he was a wolf shifter. His body sagged against the floor, but his heart still beat.

  I circled around, keeping my distance from him, until I got a look at his face. It was swollen and bruised, but I still recognized him.

  “This is the man who was driving the car,” Brick said. “He won’t tell me his name...yet. But we’re just getting started.” He took a step forward, and Hawke grabbed his wrist.

  “Tell me, Jett. Is this the man from the Briggs building?”

  “No.” I knew without question he wasn’t. This guy had dirty-blond hair, not black. And he was smaller than smashed-face Tiny, too. This was his accomplice.

  “That’s bullshit.” Brick’s voice boomed, and the chained man curled his body at the sound. “Your scent is all over his fucking shoes.”

  “He wasn’t the one who drugged me,” I said. I didn’t take this admission lightly. I didn’t want any more bloodshed. But I wouldn’t lie to Hawke. “He was there when I woke up. He helped.”

  Brick laughed. “I fucking knew it.”

  This is what the Butchers used to be. It wasn’t who we were supposed to be anymore. As much as I hated this man for what he did to me, he was just a soldier following orders. He didn’t make the call.

  “Don’t kill him.” I clasped Brick’s shoulder.

  “Seriously?” He raised a brow. “I wouldn’t. After what he did, you should have the honor.”

  I looked to Hawke. He seemed lost in thought, staring at the man on the floor. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want any of this. I wanted a peaceful life in the cabin with my family. I wanted to do the right thing, and I knew deep down, Hawke did, too.

  “There’s still a way to walk away from this,” I said.

  “Great,” Hawke said. “I’m open to ideas.”

  I couldn’t peel my eyes off of the broken man on the floor. I’d already tried to talk to Briggs. We’d need to think of something else, but what?

  “Let me think on it,” I said. “And Brick, leave him be.”

  He looked to Hawke, and Hawke nodded. Brick stomped up the stairs, grumbling under his breath.

  Hawke clasped my shoulder. “Think fast, brother.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Paige

  It started as an article about pants. While I still maintained that soft spot in my heart for being comfortable, that was not the story I wanted to tell. The story that spoke to me was the not so graceful tale of falling in love. A story about a girl from the city who found everything she was looking for, and more, in someone she’d expected to hate. But even though I’d found my mate, and I was sure he was the one for me, this didn’t feel like the happily ever after I’d dreamed about. Reality was filled with bumps in the road.

  I stared at my screen, trying not to listen to Evie reading her library book to her stuffed animals.

  Love is attraction and acceptance. It’s splashing in the stream, and it’s the best sex of your life. It’s knowing that forever is within your grasp, and knowing you’ve found the person you want to share that forever with.

  It’s a cabin in the woods, with a dark past and a fresh coat of paint. But what about when the darkness seeps through, when your view of the future is clouded and murky? When it’s so dark that you don’t know whether you’re swimming or drowning?

  Yeah, no. I was running out of time to get this thing done, and if I couldn’t, I guessed it was going to be an article about pants after all. That wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, but what did that mean about me? If I couldn’t tell a story about a happily ever after, did I really get to have one? Maybe reality didn’t just mean bumps in the road, but that there was no ending where everything was peachy sunshine and rainbows. Maybe it was just life, and life was about making decisions. Sometimes ones that worked out, and sometimes not.

  I noticed it was quiet. A little too quiet. I looked over to Evie, who was staring at me from her seat on the floor.

  “Are you going to marry my dad?”

  “Uh...” I hadn’t really thought about it, but given Marla was human, Evie probably didn’t know anything about shifters. It seemed like a parent discussion, like the birds and the bees.

  I guessed as acting female caretaker, that meant it was my job. What the hell was I supposed to say?

  “I have a secret,” I said. It was something, I guessed.

  “I like secrets. Can I guess? You already did marry m
y dad!”

  “Good guess,” I said. “But no.”

  She pushed out her pouty lip.

  “I have a secret that is about me. And it’s also about your dad. And you, too.”

  “Okay.” She ran over to the bed and jumped up beside me.

  I closed my laptop and considered what to say next. “You know in your story where the girl turns into a unicorn, with magic?”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  “It’s kind of like that.”

  “No way. You’re not a unicorn.” She sounded uncertain.

  “Not a unicorn.”

  “Are you trying to trick me?”

  “I swear I’m not.” I offered her my pinky, and we shook on it. “Have you ever heard of shifters?”

  Evie shrugged. “Are they like unicorns?”

  “A little.” I put my arm around her shoulder. “Shifters are people, but they have a secret.”

  “Like you have a secret.”

  “Exactly. It’s something we can’t talk about with anyone who doesn’t share that same secret.”

  “Okay…”

  I seemed to be losing her a little. This was harder than I’d thought it would be. “I’m not going to marry your dad, because that’s not our way.”

  “But I saw you kiss.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “But, shifters don’t get married. Generally. They find a mate, and they spend their lives together, but they don’t do the whole wedding thing.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Hmmm...I don’t turn into a unicorn. I turn into a bear.”

  “No way. That’s just pretend.”

  “It’s real. And your dad, he turns into a wolf.”

  “What?” She gave me a look that said she thought I was full of shit.

  “And one day you’ll be able to turn into a wolf, too.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “It’s true. But it’s also a secret. So you can’t tell anyone about it who isn’t a shifter. It’s rule number one.”

  “What are the other rules?”

  Maybe I should have thought that out. I shrugged. “I don’t know. But that’s a big one.”

  “So I can’t talk to Lacey?”

  “Actually, you can. Because she’s a shifter, too. It’s like a secret club we’re all in together.”

  “That doesn’t sound bad.”

  “It’s not bad at all.” I smiled down at her. Maybe this wasn’t going as terrible as I’d thought.

  “Can I see?”

  “See what?”

  “See you become a bear? How am I supposed to believe you if I don’t see?”

  Fair question. “Next time we go out in the woods, I’ll show you.”

  “If it’s not a trick, why won’t you show me now?”

  “The rest of the people in town, they aren’t all shifters. Especially the ones staying in this building. We don’t want to scare them, right?”

  “I guess not.”

  “Do you think a big bear would scare them?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, okay then. We’ll wait for the woods.” Yes, parenting win. I gave myself a mental high five.

  “Paige?” she said.

  “Yes, Evie?”

  “If you and my dad are mates, does that make you my new mom?”

  My chest swelled and tears filled my eyes. “I’d like that very much.”

  “I think I would, too.”

  She threw her arms around my neck, and I squeezed her back. It felt good to hug her, to hug my friend’s daughter, who was becoming my daughter. I loved Evie. That was easy. Part of me wondered what Marla would think of all of this if she could see us. Would she be happy for me and for Evie? I hoped so.

  “I have an idea,” I said as she let go.

  “What is it?”

  “Let’s see if we can make an appointment to check out your new school, and maybe even see Lacey. I bet she can tell you all kinds of things about the teachers and the other kids.”

  “And about shifters.”

  “That, too.” I nodded.

  “Yay! Can we eat first? I’m hungry.”

  “Yep, we can definitely do that.”

  We grabbed some food downstairs, perfect timing, and I called Shaundra. She offered to meet us at the school, and even called to get us all a walkthrough appointment. Evie didn’t stop bouncing from the time we finished eating to when we arrived at the school.

  The tour was nice, and Evie had a great time with Lacey showing her everything. The woman from the front office gave me a bunch of forms, and we went out to the playground when it was over. I found myself too distracted to take much of any of it in, and I had nothing to compare the experience to except for school when I was a kid. This place had the same smell. Maybe all elementary schools did. I didn’t even know I remembered what my old school smelled like until I’d walked the halls here, but it was true.

  Shaundra and I sat together on a bench while Lacey and Evie ran around the playground.

  “What did you think?” Shaundra asked.

  “It seems nice.”

  “First time with this kind of thing?”

  “Is it that obvious?”

  She smiled. “It can be overwhelming. I remember that with my oldest. All the forms, and the questions about what they know and what they don’t know. But in the end, it’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah, I guess it will.”

  Her eyes flicked to the mark on my neck, then back to my face. “Are you worried about Jett? You two are mated now, right?”

  “Yeah,” I said, kind of answering both questions with just the one word.

  “He’ll keep Hawke straight. And everything’ll be fine.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She searched my face and then cringed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. I just assumed...I’m sure everything will be fine.”

  “What do I need to know?” I asked. “I’m his mate, Shaundra.”

  I was going for strong, but my voice sounded strained, desperate.

  She gave me a small smile and tapped my hand. “Hawke’s a good guy. He relies on Jett, and always has, to be his moral compass.”

  “Shouldn’t he have one of those of his own?”

  She laughed. “He does, I’m sure. But when there’s trouble, Brick wants to act. Jett’s that balancing force for Hawke, the one who tells him to think first.”

  I sighed. I guessed it was good that my man was the one with sense, but I was so tired of this rollercoaster of emotions already. And still, I had no idea what was going on. So I pressed Shaundra. “What kind of trouble?”

  “I, uh...you should ask Jett about that.”

  I folded my hands in my lap and stared down at me feet. “We hardly know each other,” I said. “You’ve known him longer. What kind of man is he?”

  “A good one. He used to be a prick, like the rest of them, but never as much as the rest of them. No matter what happens, I’m sure he’ll be there for you and Evelyn.”

  I hoped she was right. Part of me was entirely certain that at his core, Jett was the man that he showed us when we were working as a family on the cabin, and somehow also the playful commander who’d rocked my world in the woods. But what scared me was the part he didn’t share. What was he doing now? What kind of man was he when he wasn’t with us? I hated that he was trying to deal with whatever the hell kind of trouble Shaundra was talking about without sharing it with me. I hated that I didn’t know what he was trying to shield me from. Was I ever going to get all of him? Or just the pieces he wanted to share?

  “Look at me, Paige!” Evie waved from the top of the slide before riding down.

  “Wow,” I said. “That’s a fast slide.”

  “Let’s go again.” Lacey grabbed her hand and the two girls giggled.

  Shaundra gave me a sad smile and checked her phone. I didn’t need to check mine. I knew Jett wasn’t going to reach out, not while he was busy with his pack, with the part of his life that he kept hidde
n.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Jett

  Fuck the Greenville Pack. Fuck Brick. Fuck this damned war.

  The plastic bag stretched and puckered as I dumped the contents of my drawers inside. One more bag for bedding, and the room was bare. Hell of a life, summed up in two trash bags. The thought left a bitter taste on my tongue.

  The Silent Butchers were my past. Paige and Evelyn were my future.

  The house wasn’t ready, but we’d make do. It was safest if we were together. It was the only way I could protect them. No question, Greenville was coming. It was only a matter of when.

  Before Brick had taken one of theirs, I’d thought the bed and breakfast was far enough from the clubhouse that this shit wouldn’t reach them. But now, I’d be surprised if Briggs didn’t scour the whole fucking town.

  I took my bags out and strapped them to my bike. The plastic bulged unevenly off the back of the seat. It would hold long enough to make it to the cabin, which was all that mattered.

  I heard the door to the clubhouse open behind me. My shoulders tensed as I finished tightening the straps. It had to be Brick, coming out to give me shit about leaving.

  “Jett.”

  My shoulders dropped. It wasn’t Brick. It was Hawke. I turned to face my best friend, my alpha, my brother.

  “You’re leaving?” His face was hard, and his voice was quiet.

  I felt like an ass for hurting him. I wanted to help, but I couldn’t risk being away from my family when the Greenville City Pack attacked.

  “I have to be with my daughter and my mate.”

  Recognition flashed in his eyes. “You found your mate?”

  “Yeah, Paige. She’s a bear shifter.” I couldn’t believe I hadn’t told him. We weren’t exactly chatty, but life-changing shit—I should have told him. I guessed we hadn’t really spent any time together since it happened.

  “Cheers.”

  “Thanks, brother.” Paige and Evelyn changed everything for me. But they changed nothing about the situation here for the MC.

  He nodded. “You’re afraid.”

  “Hell, yeah, I’m afraid. For the first time in my life I have something to lose, and I’m fucking terrified.”