The Call

by Amber Lynn

  “Really? You think he’d do this? He moved to this city to protect you. I’m sure he’s never told you that, but as soon as he could, he left the pack to make sure you were safe.”

  His statement was hilarious. If Jack had wanted to protect me, he would’ve made an attempt to get to know my family. Instead, the only time he’d contacted anyone was when he’d tried to drive a wedge between me and Paul.

  If he wanted to call Jack, I wasn’t going to stop him. I had to get to Paul’s computer so I could figure out which guards I needed to track down. I tended to pay little attention to the guards, because I never thought we needed them with me around.

  Admittedly I thought highly of my own abilities. It was hard not to when I hadn’t met a wolf who could compete with me, and humans, even the strongest ones, weren’t capable of lasting two minutes in a fight with a wolf.

  “I feel the same as far as protection goes, but I like to know who’s around you, so I have a decent idea of who should’ve been here.”

  I did too, but I didn’t know where they lived. Technically, I didn’t know their names, only the nicknames I’d come up with for the ones who spent the most time in the house. I couldn’t say the nicknames were extremely flattering.

  In Paul’s office, I fired up his laptop while the person following me around put his phone up to his ear. I couldn’t believe he thought Jack would be useful.

  The office was something in the house that had gone through a total makeover since we’d moved in. Paul was particular about having hardwood floors that matched the desk and bookshelves. Knowing that the room once had blue carpet and bright red curtains pairing with the stark white walls to look like Betsy Ross had a hand in the decorating, I appreciated his changes.

  “Hey, I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything, but we have a situation.”

  “She didn’t hurt herself trying to kill you, did she? I warned you she was stubborn.”

  My brother’s voice sounded different when he wasn’t trying to convince me to give up my human life. He almost sounded like a normal human being.

  “I need to keep him alive long enough to make sure he isn’t holding your brother-in-law and nieces hostage somewhere.”

  I thought it best to let Jack know I was listening in. I didn’t want him to say anything he’d regret me hearing.

  “Why would he have them hostage? I thought the plan was to settle in until you could leave the area without causing suspicion, and then turn into farmers upstate somewhere.”

  “Glad to hear he’s spreading that rumor around. It doesn’t change the fact that my husband and girls are missing and I have no idea who’s behind it.”

  “But you think it could be one of us?” Jack didn’t sound surprised.

  “She does. She’s currently looking up information on the guards who were on duty tonight. We were having a conversation and I lost my usual communication with everyone else in the house.”

  “I know neither of you are comedians, so I assume this isn’t a prank call. What is today, Tuesday? That means it was Gillian, Barnes, Rymer, Lumon, Davis and Wilson on. I’ll check out Barnes and Davis on my way to meet up with you. They’re closer to me.”

  Jack hung up before anyone could respond to him. I’d gotten to the point where I had the names of the guards in front of me, and he didn’t miss a single one of them.

  “I heard he put them through their paces before they were allowed to watch you guys. Nothing too crazy, but he wanted to make sure you were taken care of as well as humans could.”

  “More likely he wanted to make sure the guards could subdue me if I lost my mind and started killing my in-laws,” I said under my breath.

  Not speaking to someone who knew everything you were thinking was a little tedious, and the shock of Jack knowing who the guards were for the day had surprised me enough to feel a little bit better with him out looking for Paul and the girls.

  I probably should’ve thought it was suspicious. I planned on visiting everyone on the list, even if Jack claimed he’d grilled the ones he decided to visit on his own.

  “Well, I suppose that could be part of his reasoning, but I like to think he was acting like a good brother.”

  I jotted down the addresses for the guards on a sticky note on the desk. Paul hadn’t spent much time in the room, and it showed by how clean the desk was. When he regularly worked and had meetings, I often found the papers a foot high on his desk.

  “I assume you know where I’m headed and have already made plans to follow. Since we don’t want to cause any traffic accidents, you should probably put some clothes on.”

  “I figured things were going to get a little bloody and didn’t want to dirty my clothes.”

  I looked up to where he’d taken a stance in the middle of the room. I couldn’t deny he looked capable of wringing a few necks, I just didn’t think he had the same motivation I did.

  “I have no doubt that when I find whoever is behind this, they won’t have a drop of blood left in them, but you don’t see me worried about getting the blood stains out in the laundry.”

  “I assume it’s your fur that will need a good scrubbing. Not that you couldn’t do damage in the form you’re in now, but your eyes are telling me you’re barely keeping yourself humanoid.”

  “Oh good, you’re learning. You wandered in earlier without a bag. Does that mean you need to run home to find something appropriate to wear?”

  I closed the laptop and grabbed my list. Jack had been right that Barnes and Davis were closer to his neck of the woods. Only one person on the list was within a mile of the mansion.

  “For the time being, this is my home, so I don’t think I need to run anywhere. I put the things I’ll need in a room that didn’t look occupied on my way to see you this morning.”

  For a second I thought he was going to tell me that he’d moved his stuff into a bedroom already. I’d tracked his every move in the house that day, so if he had planted his stuff, it would’ve been sometime earlier in the week.

  “I can cover up my movements and I’m pretty good about not leaving a trail, but you would’ve figured out something was up if I put my bags in the room next to the girls, so I decided to wait. I’ll head up and change. If you can refrain from running off on your own, I’ll be right back.”

  I was up and ready to go, meaning he was asking a lot. I didn’t know what was going on, and that was dangerous to anyone around me.

  “I assume it won’t take more than a second to throw a shirt on, so as long as you’re in the car by the time I put it in gear, I won’t leave without you.”

  “Fair enough,” he replied before disappearing from sight.

  With him out of the way, I took off for a run to our SUV. It was the only chance I had at getting out of the house by myself, which was preferred. I didn’t know why he’d have his daughter kidnapped with Paul and Sierra, but he could’ve been trying to force me into something.

  My hand was nowhere near turning the knob on the front door when I heard his feet pattering behind me. I was fairly certain he did it on purpose, and could’ve chosen to be absolutely silent.

  “I don’t know what I have to do to prove to you that the three people who were taken from here are my family too, and I have the same plans you do to murder anyone who was involved with taking them.”

  “Surely you’ve realized that words mean very little to me.”

  He made his way in front of me and opened the door. There was usually a guard around who at least attempted to do the same thing. I often moved quickly enough that their move was thwarted, but I didn’t bother with him.

  He’d been able to find not only a shirt, but also a pair of pants. The chances of me moving faster than him were slim.

  I’d paused to pick up the car keys on my run for the door, so I tried to tell myself I’d had just as much of a delay. The thought had me laughing as I climbed into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

  Chapter Fifteen

  When I pulled in fr
ont of the modest ranch style home twelve blocks into our drive, I was fairly certain Paul and the girls weren’t being kept somewhere within the navy blue building. The woman tending to a flower garden in front of the house didn’t immediately run, instead she looked up and smiled.

  Humans didn’t tend to be good actors around me, and I could tell she wasn’t worried about her impending death. If she had anything to do with the kidnapping, I would’ve known. Of course I didn’t think someone could break into my house and take one person, let alone three.

  I didn’t know exactly how out of touch I’d been during the time I spaced out, but it had to have been less than twenty minutes based on the time we started looking around the house. As far as someone had to walk from the girls’ bedroom, I didn’t think it was possible to get them all out during that time.

  “She’s Rymer’s wife, and you’re right, she doesn’t know anything.”

  I didn’t need a mind reader to tell me that. I’d seen her once or twice around the mansion with a guy, who I assumed was Rymer since I was at his house and she seemed to be a resident.

  “He’s not here, but I still have a few questions to ask.”

  I’d already put the vehicle in park. I didn’t usually win any awards for my joyous disposition, which meant I was going to have to be a good actor to get through the next few minutes. I didn’t believe she’d respond too well to my normal strong arming.

  Before I could open my door, my phone rang. Actually it vibrated in my back pocket. I could hear it vibrate anywhere in the house, so I’d never been big about figuring out a ringtone.

  I fished it out of my pocket, hoping it was Paul telling me there’d been a mistake. I was a tad too pessimistic to let that thought roll around in my mind too long. Seeing Jack’s name on the screen confirmed that I shouldn’t have let the thought even manifest.

  “Did you find them?”

  There wasn’t time for fanfare or niceties. He could appreciate that.

  “No, but I have a lead. How far are you away from the east side, Ninth and Hilltop to be exact?”

  “I can be there in five minutes. I’m guessing I’ll see your car at the location?”

  I’d memorized the addresses on the list, and there weren’t any around that intersection. Knowing the city as well as I did, it was ten blocks from the closest house on the list.

  “You’ll see me. I’d appreciate it if you’d hurry up. The situation is a little sticky and will be drawing media attention soon, if it hasn’t already.”

  I wanted to ask more questions, but Jack had lived around me long enough that he acted more like me than I wanted to admit. I ended the call and threw the phone into a cup holder. My mind immediately went racing to what he could’ve found.

  He’d claimed that he hadn’t found them, and I hoped that meant alive or dead. I knew we didn’t get a long, but I hoped he would’ve given me a little warning if I was getting ready to arrive at the murder scene of someone I loved.

  “If it was something like that, he would’ve called me. I told you before that he loves you, and that means he wouldn’t let you see the scene you have playing out in your mind. Plus, whether I can feel them or not, I have to believe I’d know if any of them died. You would too,”

  “Is Selina really strong enough that she has the ability to keep you out like this? I don’t understand the extra powers you two have, but I thought you were stronger. She’s got to be the reason they made it out of the house as fast as they did, right? Or do you really think we missed five or more people tromping through the house?”

  Knowing more about their powers would only clue me in to all the ways Selina could’ve played tricks on me over the years. I had a feeling she was using them even before I gave birth to her. I’d always wondered how she’d been born the same size as Sierra and healthy as an ox. The two months in between their conceptions should’ve made for some awkward questions in the hospital room.

  “It’s going to be years before you understand everything, or at least as long as it takes you to start believing you are who I say you are. Because of who and what we are, she is the product of two of the strongest forces in the world, which means she could very well bend everyone to believe anything she wanted. I don’t know why, but yes, I think she was willing to get kidnapped and that’s the only reason she was.”

  That thought sent shivers down my back. It was one of the reasons I didn’t want to believe a single word when he started talking about king, queen and chosen wolf. If Selina was really the chosen wolf, I wasn’t ready for that reality.

  She was the best person I knew for the job, god help the world if it would’ve been me. It was a lot of weight to put on her shoulders, at least from the little I knew about it, and something I really didn’t want to ponder as I drove to find out whatever it was my brother had to share.

  “Now isn’t the time to continue our conversation, but we’re going to have it out between us before the end of the week. You need to accept things, so we can move forward. Now that you’ve connected, the disgust you’ve felt for me is going to be hard to keep up. She’s going to try to drive us together.”

  It was a good thing she was too busy trying to figure out exactly how she was going to kill whoever took her pups. It made it easy to ignore the fact she wanted to reach over and touch him.

  There was only one time a month when she didn’t back down. As soon as the moon disappeared from the sky, she got her way. I was thankful she hadn’t known he was as close as he was during those times. It would’ve been hard to stop her, which made me wonder how he stopped his.

  “For as long as you claim to have been around, you have to know I never blamed you for what happened, nor would I say you ever disgusted me. I was terrified more than anything else.”

  There was no reason not to be honest. If the person in the conversation with you could read your mind, they’d know anyway.

  “No, you blamed what we are for the new wrinkle in your life. You can’t claim you aren’t disgusted about being a werewolf, which I happen to be, so therefore I disgust you.”

  “No, you don’t. You piss me off with your cockiness, which I’m hoping you picked up from being around Jack too much.”

  “Exactly, to the part about me not disgusting you, even though I’m what you’ve always hated about yourself. I’ve lived here in the human world for you, but you’ve already heard that I haven’t been able to keep my instincts at bay. The wolf always hides within us.”

  “Are you trying to convince me I shouldn’t hate being a monster? If we don’t have time to continue our little talk about what you claim we are, I don’t think we have time for a philosophical lesson.”

  If I thought humans were weird and hard to understand, I’d met their match. Most werewolves were easy to figure out. It wasn’t hard when they did everything based on instincts.

  “I said now wasn’t the time for that discussion. Trying to get you to accept the life you were given at birth, is a conversation to be had as much as possible until it takes hold.”

  “You obviously don’t know how much deep-seated hatred I have for being born this way.”

  Erasing the anger that had started as a little girl was something I didn’t think would be possible. Not in this lifetime, and more than likely not in four or five to come.

  Even I didn’t understand where all the anger came from. It was almost like I was born angry, and finding out what it meant to be a wolf only spurned it on. Being an alpha’s daughter, ensured I got my lessons early enough to fuel my need to lash out at everything that had to deal with werewolf society.

  We were four blocks away from the intersection we were supposed to meet Jack, and my insides twisted. I didn’t often get terrified, but a part of me still worried what I was going to see.

  “How far away does your listening work? Have you picked up what we’re doing here?”

  “I knew while you were on the phone with him, which is why I had no problem saying that it didn’t have anything to do w
ith Paul and the girls, at least not directly.”

  I stepped on the brakes and quickly slid us into a spot by the curb. We were close enough we could walk, since I already saw crime tape blocking off the street ahead.

  “Why didn’t you fill me in? Isn’t that the first step of a relationship? You try to diffuse any situations where the other person worries unnecessarily.”

  I unbuckled and climbed out, trying to make sense of all the various voices talking. At least one person was dead. I didn’t need to hear what was being said to know that. The smell wasn’t strong enough to indicate the deceased person had been that way for a while, but death hung in the air.

  “One of the guys who should’ve been watching the house?”

  Jack wouldn’t have told us to come if that wasn’t the case. I wondered briefly if he’d been responsible for the death. I didn’t doubt he had it in him to get a little over-aggressive with a suspect. As much as he’d watched the newspaper for headlines about my divorce, I watched to see if his temper had gotten the better of him.

  Either he saved his real aggressiveness for me, or the department was good at hiding his incidents. I wasn’t sure which option I rooted for.

  “It wasn’t his doing. He’s better than I am when it comes to that. Of course the times I’ve lost my head were all justified, much like they’ll be when we figure out what’s going on.”

  “I don’t get why Selina won’t let us just find her. Are you sure it isn’t someone else somehow blocking it? I haven’t ever run into a bona fide witch, but I’ve heard they exist. Maybe every evil force in the world has banded against me.”

  With my luck there’d probably been some road rage incident I’d forgotten about and someone was holding a grudge. I easily overlooked interactions that others deemed important.

  “If I were to guess, she doesn’t feel she’s really in danger and hopes we get to know each other better as we work to find them.”

  He’d been next to me as we walked closer to the crime tape, and continued to walk a few steps as I stopped in my tracks. He had the ability to make my brain stop functioning by merely speaking.