by Lori Drake
“Ready for a visitor yet?” Joey asked.
Lucy glanced her way and smiled weakly, but Ben didn’t look up. He rummaged through his medical bag for something. Hopefully for that ibuprofen he’d mentioned earlier. Jenny looked miserable.
Eric detached himself and approached, motioning for Joey to step outside. She arched a brow, but withdrew into the hall. He followed her out and pulled the door closed behind him.
“How’s she doing?”
“She’s in a lot of pain.” His eyes lifted, looking past her.
Joey turned and followed the direction of his gaze down the hallway. Chris approached, with Jessica—now clothed—bringing up the rear. That icepick stabbed Joey’s heart again, but she did her best to keep her expression neutral as she turned back to Eric. He eyed the newcomers.
“Was she able to answer any questions?” Joey asked, doing her best to focus on the matter at hand.
“Not yet,” Eric said. “Ben said he’d give her something for the pain, that maybe she’d have a better shot at coherent sentences once that took effect.”
Joey nodded and stepped forward with every intent of slipping past Eric and going back into the room, but he shifted to block her path. She frowned up at him. “What?”
“You can wait in the living room.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Get out of the way.” She tried to push past him again, but he didn’t budge.
“Pack only,” he said, and motioned over his shoulder with his head. Jessica prowled forward and slipped past Eric into the room.
Joey growled softly in frustration and started forward again, but Chris stepped up behind her and caught her arm. She glared over her shoulder at him, but stopped.
“We’ll wait in the living room,” Chris said.
Eric nodded, followed Jessica into the bedroom, and shut the door again.
Joey yanked her arm free and whirled to face Chris. Anger bubbled inside her, blotting out the hurt that threatened to surface just from looking at him. She wanted to talk to Jenny. Needed to talk to Jenny. The girl had been so close to opening up to her before all this happened, but if Eric got to her first… Joey just didn’t trust him.
“You have no idea what you’re doing,” she said to Chris, voice low.
“I know he’s territorial as hell, and starting a fight isn’t going to get us anywhere.”
Mention of Eric’s territorial nature made Joey’s neck heat. She could still feel the mark he’d left there barely an hour ago, faded but present. Her fingers itched to cover it, but she didn’t want to draw attention to it.
“I can handle him.”
Chris smirked, glancing down and back up. “Yeah, I can see that.”
The mark hadn’t escaped his notice after all. Joey’s face heated, but the embarrassment was just more fuel for the fire. She was about to give him a piece of her mind when the door opened again behind her. Ben stumbled out with an annoyed look on his face, clutching his medical bag. He cast an unkind look over his shoulder as the door shut behind him.
“What the… They threw you out?” Joey said. “Did they at least let you give Jenny something for the pain?”
“Yes and yes. Well, sort of. Eric said he’d give it to her.”
Joey frowned. “Do you think he will?”
“Yes,” Chris said, though he hadn’t been the one she asked. “Jess says he takes care of his people. He doesn’t want Jenny to suffer any more than we do.”
Joey rolled her eyes and turned, pushing past Chris to stalk down the hallway. “Oh, well I guess if Jess says so…” She clenched her jaw shut rather than finish the thought.
Ben and Chris followed her to the living room, where they dropped onto opposite ends of the sofa and watched her pace on the other side of the coffee table. Back and forth she went, letting the movement calm her mind. Dancing would have been better, but it was neither the time nor the place.
“What’s the problem?” Chris asked, after a minute or so had passed.
Joey shook her head and kept pacing. She couldn’t talk about her suspicions about Eric any more than she could earlier. Not out in the open. “No problem,” she said. “Just eager to get to the bottom of this.”
“Maybe we could step outside for a moment?” Ben suggested. “I wouldn’t mind stretching my legs.”
“Isn’t there a guy with a gun out there somewhere?” Chris countered.
“Oh, right.”
Joey halted, eyes locking on the front door. “Did you hear that?” she whispered.
In the silence that followed, she heard it again: the creaking of the old wooden porch. A shadow fell on the door, visible through the narrow translucent panel that ran down its side. Her heart skipped a beat. There was someone on the porch.
The front door handle rattled. Ben and Chris leapt to their feet. All three stood watching while the handle moved left and right, but the door failed to open. Joey had made damn sure every door and window in the house was locked.
On silent feet, she crossed to the fireplace and grabbed the poker, then started toward the door.
“Joey, no!”
She ignored Chris’s urgent whisper and crept to the door. The handle had gone still and the shadow moved on, boards creaking underfoot as the prowler approached one of the front windows. Joey quietly unlatched the deadbolt and pulled open the door, assaulted by a gust of frigid night air as she stepped out onto the porch with the poker raised. The figure hunched over the window turned, and the front porch light illuminated his face.
“Itsuo?” Joey relaxed a hair and lowered the poker, pretty sure she wasn’t going to have to use it. Hell, if what Ben and Chris had said about his altercation with Eric were even half true, the damn thing probably wouldn’t help her anyway. “Did you forget your keys or something?”
He shrugged. “I do not usually need them.”
Joey felt more than heard Chris step up behind her. She knew it was him by the way he touched her back to let her know he was there. It was a familiar gesture for them, their partnership. Ben would have been more likely to step up beside her, but Chris… Chris always had her back.
“Come inside,” he said, wariness in his voice.
“Is something wrong?” Itsuo asked, dark brows drawing together.
Joey nodded. “Yes. Please, come inside and we’ll explain everything. At least, as much as we can.”
Itsuo nodded, and together they went inside. Joey closed the door and locked it again, then walked over to put the fireplace poker back with the other tools. Her teeth were practically chattering from the cold outside. The house was better, but still chilly. Eric kept the thermostat pretty low. She rubbed her arms and considered a fire, but more important matters soon resurfaced.
Itsuo stood quietly with his hands tucked up the sleeves of his coat, not bothering to remove it right away. He looked between the three of them expectantly, and something in his quiet manner compelled Joey to speak.
“Jenny was attacked at the party, and—”
Itsuo didn’t wait for the rest. He spun on his heel and marched for the hallway. Joey exchanged glances with Chris and Ben, then they all headed off after him.
“She’s okay. I mean, she’s not okay, but she should be okay. Ben stitched her up and she’s awake now,” Joey said while she trailed along after the quiet shadow of a man. He stopped at Jenny’s door and pushed it open, but stopped dead in the doorway. The room was exactly as they’d left it, bloody message and all.
Itsuo did an about face, rounding on Joey. “Where is she?” he asked, but when she opened her mouth to answer, he held up a silencing hand and tilted his head as if listening. Then he turned and walked a few feet down the hall, stopping in front of Kate’s door.
“She’s in there,” Joey offered helpfully, though she suspected he already knew. She too could hear the faint sounds of weeping and moaning coming from the other side. Poor Jenny.
Itsuo tried the door and found it locked. His expression was grim as he stepped back, then calmly k
icked the door in. The doorframe splintered with a loud crack and the door swung inward, impacting noisily with the wall behind it.
Wide-eyed, Joey gaped for a moment before glancing over her shoulder to find Chris and Ben wearing equally surprised expressions.
Itsuo was already through the door.
“What the hell?” Eric exclaimed, his voice ringing loud and clear through the open doorway.
Joey moved into the doorway for a look, with Chris and Ben crowding in behind her. She had no idea what was about to happen, but had a feeling it would be awesome.
Itsuo ignored his Alpha and strode purposefully to the bedside, but Eric stepped in the way.
“Get out of my way,” Itsuo said, a hint of steel underlying his normally soft voice.
“You have no right to barge in here like that,” Eric said, getting in the other man’s face. He had to lean down to do it, such was the height difference between them.
“Get. Out. Of. My. Way.”
Jenny moaned from the bed, and it must have distracted Itsuo, because he clearly didn’t see Eric’s fist coming. His head snapped back as it slammed into his face, but he turned the movement into a spin and dropped low, sweeping Eric’s legs out from under him with a low kick. Eric went sprawling to hit the floor with a noisy thud. Itsuo dropped to one knee and gripped Eric’s neck with one hand. It was hard to imagine him holding Eric down with one hand but Eric twisted and writhed, unable to escape. His face turned red and he clawed at the fingers holding his neck to no avail.
“Stop.” The voice from the bed was weak, but clear. “Please.” Jenny had pulled herself to the edge of the bed to look down.
“Fuck, she’s going to pop a stitch,” Ben whispered, but didn’t move. None of them did.
Joey mentally crossed her fingers and watched as Itsuo lifted his head to look up at Jenny, then looked back down at Eric, muttered something in Japanese, and released him.
Eric scrambled to his feet while Itsuo knee-walked to the bedside and caught Jenny’s small hand in both of his. He bowed over it, touching her hand to his forehead. Jessica moved around from the other side of the bed to reach Eric, but he shrugged off the hand she put on his shoulder and turned to face the Grants in the doorway. His expression was stormy as he regarded them, as if they were clearly to blame for his semi-public embarrassment.
Joey smirked and folded her arms. “Don’t look at me, I didn’t poke the bear. That was aaall you.”
Eric made a sound that was part growl, part snarl, and strode toward her with a menacing stride.
Joey held her ground, unimpressed. Now that Itsuo had established dominance, Eric was eager to assert his own. He stopped in front of her, chest heaving as he glared down at her.
“You’ll pay for that,” he said through gritted teeth.
Joey snorted. “I don’t know how many of us it’d take to kick your ass, but I know how many of us are going to do it if you lay a hand on me.”
“Now you threaten me in my own house?” Eric’s eyes remained locked with hers.
“Technically, it’s my house,” Chris said.
Joey grinned and slid past Eric into the room. Ben and Chris followed suit. Eric stood there with impotent fists clenched at his sides for a long moment before exiting the room. Jessica watched him go but lingered behind. When Chris closed the door and leaned against it for good measure, she leaned against the wall beside him. Seeing them in proximity left a bitter taste on Joey’s tongue. She turned away before her high spirits fled entirely.
“That could come back to bite us in the ass,” Ben muttered, then detached himself from Joey’s side to head for Jenny. Those stitches wouldn’t check themselves.
Joey followed him, but hung back at the foot of the bed where Lucy still sat. She’d witnessed everything, silent as a statue. Joey had all but forgotten she was there. Now, she gazed at Joey with wide, worried eyes. Joey gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze and offered her a smile.
“Alphas will be alphas. Don’t sweat it,” Joey said, and winked.
Lucy’s eyes slid toward the door, then back to Joey. She seemed to relax some, but kept her own counsel.
A groan from the bed drew Joey’s gaze to Jenny again as Ben eased her onto her back once more. Itsuo lifted his head, but still held fast to her hand. Joey felt like she was looking at an assembled puzzle with a few key pieces missing. She hadn’t known Jenny and Itsuo to be particularly close, but he’d clearly taken the news of her injury hard. Now he hovered by her bedside like a worried lover. Was there something between them?
While Ben peeled back the bandage to check Jenny’s stitches, Joey watched the older wolf’s face. She didn’t know how much older, but she suspected he was at least a century old. His hair was still thick and predominantly dark, but there were a few gray hairs peppered in.
Itsuo’s expression darkened as he took in the extent of the damage. “Jennifer-chan… what happened?” His quiet words held a tone of shock.
Jenny lifted her head from the pillow and looked down at the wound, then at Itsuo. “He came back,” she whispered, almost too quietly for Joey to hear.
“What? Who?” Itsuo asked, his gaze focused. “Who did this to you? Tell me so I may kill him.”
Jenny tightened her grip on Itsuo’s hand, the muscles in her arm standing out as she pulled herself up off the bed a few inches. Ben objected, loudly, and rushed to support her shoulders.
“He… came back!” Jenny pushed the words past gritted teeth, and then her eyes rolled back in her head and she went limp. Ben carefully lowered her back down.
Joey glanced between the pair, but Jenny’s words didn’t seem to make any more sense to Itsuo than they had to her. She cast a wider net, and her eyes fell on Lucy. The color had drained from her face; she was practically as white as the bed linens.
“You know who it was,” Joey said.
Lucy’s eyes darted to Joey, but she didn’t quite meet her gaze. She said nothing, just gave her head a small shake and lowered her eyes again.
“It’s okay. You can tell us. We just want to help. Jess, tell her.” Joey looked over at Jessica, but got no help from that corner. Jessica just stood there, staring at the wall, giving no indication that she’d heard anything. It was an all-too-familiar stance when this pack and their business were concerned. Joey had been trying to crack this nut for the better part of two months, and was starting to feel it’d take a sledgehammer to do it. Her eyes slid past Jessica to Chris, finding him studying Jessica with a faint frown.
“You,” Itsuo said, calling Joey’s attention away again. His eyes were fastened on Ben. “You did this to her?” He motioned at the bandage Ben was gently taping back down.
Ben paused, eyeing Itsuo uncertainly. “Yes. I mean, I didn’t do the cutting. I just sewed her back up.”
Itsuo gently laid Jenny’s hand on the bed and stood to bow formally. “I owe you a great debt, Benjamin-san. One I may never be able to repay. A life for a life.”
The curiosity was killing Joey. “I didn’t realize you and Jenny were close, Itsuo.”
“We are not,” Itsuo admitted, lowering his eyes to the bed once more, but there was no mistaking the tenderness in his expression. He was quiet for a long moment, then said, “She is my granddaughter.”
Lucy gasped.
“Your granddaughter?” Joey said, blinking.
Itsuo turned toward Joey and nodded. “Yes. My daughter’s daughter. She—Lillian—asked me to watch over Jennifer when she moved here for school.”
Several pieces of the puzzle locked into place all at once. Itsuo’s reaction to Jenny’s assault was only one of them. Joey also reached a new understanding of Itsuo’s interactions with Eric, his unwillingness to take Eric’s shit but his lack of interest in formally challenging him for pack leadership.
“She doesn’t know, does she?” Joey asked.
Itsuo shook his head. “No one did, until now.”
“Why?” Lucy asked, but Joey was curious about that too.
&
nbsp; “That is a long story, perhaps for another time,” Itsuo replied. “For now, it might be best if we withdraw and let her rest.”
Everyone seemed to be in agreement on that point except for Lucy, who rather reluctantly climbed down from the bed. Itsuo ushered her ahead of him and they all began filing out of the room. However, at the last moment, Lucy turned to face him.
“I want to stay with her.”
In the hallway, Joey could see the corners of Itsuo’s mouth twitch slightly upward. He bowed his head and moved around Lucy, laying a hand on her shoulder in passing. He said something quietly in Japanese that made Lucy smile. She murmured something in reply and slipped back into the room, closing the door behind her.
“What’d you tell her?” Joey asked, curiosity getting the better of her. The others had already moved off down the hall.
“That I was proud of her for speaking up for herself,” Itsuo said.
“I didn’t even know she could speak Japanese.” Joey turned to walk down the hall with him.
He nodded quietly, but said no more. He really was a man of few words. She wondered how many more surprises were in store for her before the night was over.
11
Chris caught Jessica’s hand and pulled her into the first open doorway along the hall. It turned out to be a bathroom. Jessica turned toward him with an impish smile.
“It’s a little late for a shower, but I’m game if you are.”
Chris flicked on the light and shut the door. “I just want to talk. What’s going on?”
“You’re the one that’s cornered me in a bathroom. You tell me.”
“Quit playing games. You know what I mean.”
She leaned against the sink and folded her arms. “You’re going to have to be more specific. I’m not a mind reader.”
Chris’s patience shredded like tissue paper in the wind. He prowled closer, eyes locked with hers. “Who attacked Jenny?”
“I don’t know.”
He leaned down until his face was inches from hers. “Bullshit.”
Jessica’s pupils shrank and she ran the tip of her tongue over her lips. Given her predilection for domineering assholes, it shouldn’t have surprised him that any effort to intimidate her would just turn her on.