I rode back to the headquarters with Dominic. It was a fairly silent drive, but not entirely. He huffed a lot and clicked his tongue. It was as if he wanted to talk, but when he tried, he couldn’t find the words. It was weird. Crazy weird. Dominic always had something to say and he never held back. He looked defeated I thought, and it made my skin crawl with a bizarre mix of dread and anticipation. “You want to tell me what this pedicure stuff is all about?” I asked.
Dominic chuckled softly, and cut me a quick sideways look. “You don’t know that girl at all, do you?”
“Sure I do,” I said quickly, except it didn’t sound believable. “She’s mine. Of course I know her.”
From the quick look Dominic gave me, I knew he hadn’t expected to hear anything else and after a few long beats, he muttered, “Pedicure is code for I’m freaking out and need girl time.”
“Girl time,” I repeated and blinked. “You’re kidding me.”
“I’m dead serious, Aidan,” Dominic said. “Hard conversations take place during girl time. They won’t answer phones or let anyone in that house until everything that needs to be said is said.”
Dominic made a left. Up ahead I spotted the truck carrying the werecougers as it turned into the headquarters’ parking lot. I figured I could lock them up for a bit, but it was only a temporary fix, and I wasn’t even sure if keeping them here was a good idea. We had two dead from last night at the building. And now another two alive. I was pretty sure they’d pick up the scent of the dead fairly quickly. Maybe they’d go ballistic when they did and the pack would solve the what to do with them problem quickly?
I scrubbed at my face roughly. Yep, I seriously needed some boring when this was over.
“She’s going to tell Pam everything.” It wasn’t a question. I’d seen the determination in her eyes before she left. I’d thought she’d been determined to get her mother away from the enemy. But this … My lips tugged up at the corners. This was better. “Jade’s done protecting her father.”
Dominic grunted, “Yep.”
More huff-filled silence as he pulled into the parking lot and found a spot. I knew he had something else to say and for the life of me I didn’t have a clue why he was holding it back. He never had before and when the next long huff puffed out of him, I snapped, “Just spit it out, Dom.”
“Just thinking that this crap with the team needs to end,” he said, turning off the car. “You need them. Jade needs them. Hell, the pack might hate them most of the time, but they need those guys, too.” I cut him a look and his hands quickly shot up. He continued with caution. “I’m not saying that we should just forget what they did, but you can’t blame them for wanting to help their brother. Not unless you’re going to start blaming Jade for stalling with her dad. If you stop and really think about it, they were doing the same thing she’s been doing. And don’t tell me you haven’t let her stall things, because we all know you have.”
He was not wrong. He knew it. I knew it. I was sure the whole damn pack knew it, too. I knew I didn’t look happy when I asked, “What am I supposed to do? I can’t just let what they did go. She could have gotten hurt. I could have lost her.”
I didn’t expect an answer, and I was sure Dominic knew that, but he decided to give me one anyway and his answer sucked. “Don’t really know what you’re supposed to do. But you didn’t lose her, Aidan. She’s fine. And those guys let their brother die to keep her and our pack safe.”
I nodded, because I really didn’t know what to say, and we got out of the car. Groups of pack members huddled around the entrance, watching the team pull our guests out of the truck, and it was at that moment, as I scanned the clusters of people, that I realized Tommy and Chris hadn’t shown up yet.
“You seen Tommy and Chris today?” I asked, as I shut my door.
Dominic glanced over the car with his typical cool mask tightly back in place. “Yeah, sorry. I forgot to tell you. Your dad called them. They’re going to be tied up for a few hours.”
~ JADE ~
It was only 9:17 in the morning and my day had already turned to crap.
Marcy was standing at the table, noisily sorting through a bag of nail polish that thankfully Dominic had told her to bring. She’d been waiting on the front deck with Trevor when Mom and I drove up. I hadn’t had to explain what I was about to do. The look she’d given me told me she already knew. I wasn’t sure exactly how, but I thought that was probably Dominic’s doing as well.
Mom sat in a chair at the kitchen table, her feet submerged in the foot bath. She was in a state. She looked dazed and vulnerable and sad. She muttered a lot. Mostly about how sorry she was for pushing me toward the pack — toward Aidan.
“Mom, Aidan would never hit me.” It was just a whisper from me, but it was full of sincerity. “And if he tried, he’d be dead. You know the team wouldn’t allow it.”
I wasn’t sure if that was entirely true, but it sounded good. The team loved me, I knew they did, but Aidan was their alpha male and I was his mate. In the eyes of the pack, Aidan could do pretty much whatever he wanted with me. I was basically his property. But it worked both ways. He was also mine. They probably wouldn’t stop me from beating the crap out of him either if I wanted to, which, of course, I didn’t.
She didn’t believe me. I could see it, feel it, God, I could even smell it. “Ray …”
“Aidan. Is. Not. Ray.” I said it with clear precision, biting each word clean off, with sharp edges and all.
Mom screamed, a short burst of sound that made both Marcy and me jump. It was pure rage and frustration, boiling out of her. Her body shuddered. Her fists clenched. I’d never seen her like this. Never. “Why would your father tell me this if he didn’t watch it happen, Jade?”
Mark burst into the kitchen, his breath panting, and his eyes focused, searching for a threat. He opened his mouth, most likely to demand what was going on, and I gestured to him, an indication for him not to speak. He frowned, confused, but shut his mouth, and propped himself against the doorframe.
My heart was aching and I pulled in a quick, shaky breath. “I think the better question is why would Dad let me leave with Aidan if he saw that happening to me?”
Mom’s eyes widened, and she made a strangled whimpering sound, but she didn’t answer my question.
“You know what Mr. Shaw is, Mom,” Marcy said. She sounded calm and gentle, and she moved to kneel beside my mom, looking up at her with big, sad eyes. “Don’t you?”
Mom nodded. She didn’t make a sound. Her gaze was locked on Marcy, waiting breathlessly for some kind of explanation — a link — to make what she thought she knew make sense. And I had that link.
The video.
“Then you know that he could have stepped in easily,” Marcy continued, delicately. “If Aidan had really punched her in the face like you were told, Mr. Shaw could have stopped it.”
I felt myself smile. I had no idea why, because well, this wasn’t really a smiling moment, and by no means did I feel happy. But then, maybe the smile was coming from relief. I was going to tell Mom everything. Right now. I wasn’t going to have to lie to her anymore.
“Mark,” I said. My voice was a little shaky, but I still managed to hold onto that smile. “Can you go upstairs and grab Aidan’s laptop? It should be on the dresser in our bedroom.”
He nodded to me, just a little, and his smile was one of approval and encouragement, as he turned and headed for the stairs.
When I looked back at Mom her face had changed. It went from grief-stricken and enraged to something so twisted with uncertainty that it made my heartbeat quicken painfully fast. I pulled out a chair and took a seat beside her, clasping her hand in my own. “Mom, there’s something I need you to see.”
CHAPTER 11
~ AIDAN ~
“We should be doing something,” Landon said, pacing the floor. We were back in my office with Craig, Beck, and Dominic, trying to figure out what the best move was, except we weren’t getting far. “We sh
ould be getting those kids or killing those bastards. We should not be giving them a comfy room and wasting our resources guarding them.”
Landon had a point, but unfortunately, the cougars hadn’t put up any kind of a fight. The two men were completely and totally compliant as they were led through the headquarters. They kept their mouths shut and their gazes dropped. I thought they probably knew there was no point in fighting. We outnumbered them too greatly for them to even consider that they might have had a chance at getting away.
Now they were locked up in one of the old bedrooms at the back of the building with four pack members guarding the door. It was a complete waste of man-power, but right then, I really didn’t know what else to do with them and there was just something so … wrong about killing two men who were showing their submission, even if they did deserve death for the things they’d done with their pack.
“We can’t just rush out there,” Beck said. He was sitting on the couch, one arm strewn over the back and legs stretch out in front of him. “That’s how people get hurt. We need a plan and yelling about how we should be doing something is not helping.”
“We should kill them now!” Craig shouted, from his spot beside Beck, causing Beck to groan and roll his eyes. He wasn’t alone with the eye roll.
Craig was twitchy and his neck had a splash of color that was slowly creeping up to his face. He was looking at Beck as if he were ready to pummel him for attempting to be reasonable. His fists, clenched and white knuckled. His jaw, flexed so tight the muscles looked as if they were beating under his skin.
“They could be useful,” I said from where I leaned against the wall, arms folded across my chest. “We need to consider that before getting rid of them.”
Craig moved, jumping up from the couch and crossing the room with speed, and before I could say anything more, he was standing in front of me. The color had reached his cheeks, a bright red. His eyes flared and he shouted, “They were after your mate, our alpha female. They would have taken her if we hadn’t been there.”
My eyes narrowed at the thought, and ignoring Craig’s outburst, I pushed off the wall, stepped around him, and joined in on Landon’s useless pacing. It was true. They had been after her and if Jade had been alone they probably would have taken her, although, not without one hell of a fight, I was sure.
“But you guys were there, and they didn’t take her,” Dominic pointed out, drawing all of our gazes. He was sitting on top of my desk, his hands on his thighs, leaning forward slightly. “No point in fighting over what could have happened.”
Dominic fixed me with a look that I tried really hard to ignore as a round of grunted agreement filtered through the guys.
And then there was silence. It was thoughtful and a little tense, and it stretched on longer than any silence really should.
Craig went back to the couch, taking a hard seat. Landon started to pace again, six steps across the room, six steps back. Beck scrubbed at his face, the frown lines deepening.
It struck me then, as I watched them, that these guys were probably more dedicated to the pack than any other member we had. Even now, not knowing whether or not they would still be enforcers tomorrow, they were here, ready to fight. Giving me guidance. And I couldn’t ignore that they’d had my back in the diner even after I’d made it clear that I didn’t trust them and didn’t want them on the team.
Maybe Dominic was on to something. There really wasn’t any point in arguing about the could haves. When I actually thought about it, most of my anger toward the guys was all based on the could haves. I could have lost Jade. Jared could have taken the pack from me. The team could have stood by and not said anything about the cougars’ location. They could have given Jared more time. They could have taken over his quest for revenge.
But they didn’t. None of that happened. I still had Jade and the pack. Jared was gone and the team was still here, backing me.
The truth? I was starting to think that I’d let my emotions where Jade was concerned run my decisions when it came to these guys, and damn, it made me feel guilty.
“Jade was right,” I said, breaking the silence. I went back to my post, leaning against the wall. “I was harsh this morning.”
“Don’t worry,” Beck said, brushing it off with a shrug. “We get it. Emotions are running high all around.” He gave me a meaningful look, one that was full of understanding and didn’t hold any trace of malice, and for reasons I really didn’t want to explore, I found myself looking away. “Aidan, you’ve got to stop blaming yourself, because no one else does.”
“He’s right,” Craig said, still angry. “You made the right call with our dad and you made it again with Jared.” He pulled in a breath, and let it out. “But I’m telling you, taking this team apart is not the right call.”
“I know.” It was all I could say. Tension that I didn’t even realize was there, eased from my shoulders. Deep down, I thought I’d known that all along.
“Awesome.” Landon’s voice oozed sarcasm. “Now that we have the obvious out of the way, can someone tell me why Jeff would kick Jade out if he was going to drag her back anyway?” He looked utterly confused. “What was the point?”
What was the point of any of this? If there was one, I couldn’t see it. It just didn’t make sense. Jeff didn’t strike me as a stupid man. Hell, he’d had the pack fooled for years. If it wasn’t for that video of him making a deal with Tiffany, we probably still wouldn’t have known what this pack was doing. So why now? What was he hoping to gain from having Jade tucked back in his house?
“Aidan?” Dominic called.
I raised a hand. “Hold on.” My thoughts started to race. I took a breath and held it, as I tried to understand what I was even thinking. Everything was so jumbled. Flashes of the last couple of months. Partial conversation. They all swarmed in and mashed together, until everything collided with sharp clarity. I blinked, looked at Dominic, and said, “He needed us mated.”
“Why?” Landon asked with barely any patience.
“Because now that we’re mated, she carries my scent,” I said. “She doesn’t need me to control the entire pack. If he can convince her to work with him, she can force everyone to accept it. Through her, he could run our pack.”
“We need to get rid of him, Aidan,” Dominic said. There was anger in the statement, but also there was resolution and maybe a little fear. “He needs to be taken out.”
“No,” I said sharply. “As far as we know, he’s the only real authority those bastards have. If we take that, there’s no one to keep them in line, no one for them to follow.” But as I said it, I had only one clear, crisp thought: We’re going to take him and his pack down.
~ JADE ~
“She took that better than I thought she would,” Marcy whispered from beside me, as we watched my mom dig through the fridge. The pedicures had been completely forgotten. She’d decided I had to be hungry since she’d interrupted my breakfast and was determined to make a meal.
“I think she’s trying not to process it,” I whispered back, as Mom put a carton of eggs on the counter and kept rummaging through the fridge.
“Jade,” Mom called. Her voice was chipper, almost sing-song. “Can you run to the store? We don’t have enough eggs for pancakes. Oh, and maybe some more bacon.”
“I think we should call Aidan,” I said. “Get the guys back here.” Not that they would be able to help with this, but honestly, Mom was freaking me out a little. Her scent kept spiking with hot fear and each time it did, she became a little more frantic, riffling through the fridge.
“Jade?” Mom pulled her head out and looked over her shoulder at me. Her smile was bright and brittle and her eyes, utterly blank. “Why are you just standing there? Run to the store. Hurry up. We have a lot to do before Jared’s service this evening.” And with that, she stuck her head back into the fridge and said, “We need orange juice, too.”
I heaved a sigh, watching as she pretty much emptied every piece of food that was so
mewhat breakfast related onto the counter. Maybe I shouldn’t have dumped everything on her all at once, but the thing was, once I’d started talking, I hadn’t been able to stop. There was just something so lightening in getting it all out.
After I had let her watch the video, I’d launched in, telling her all about the cougars. I explained how they only seemed to change males and how they locked up women in barbed wire cages. I told her about the kids they had, about the accident, which had left the cougars womanless, and I explained that Dad was their pack leader.
I went on to tell her all about Jared. About how he’d known where the cougars were and hidden it from us. I explained that once his brothers found out, they had turned him in, and then he’d challenged for alpha. Though, I might have left out the little part about my helping Aidan kill him. I couldn’t say why exactly, but I thought it might have had something to do with the overwhelming guilt I was feeling over the whole situation. I couldn’t help but think that if I hadn’t been so consumed with hurting Aidan, I would have seen what Jared had been up to before it was too late.
And then I told her about last night and about the two dead cougars we now had at the headquarters. And finally, I explained that Aidan had only picked me up and tossed me into the car yesterday because I’d basically told Dad that I didn’t trust him at all and accused him of protecting those monsters.
Marcy leaned into me and pressed her lips to my ear. “Maybe she’s in denial.”
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, but I wasn’t really sure if that was what this was. Actually, going by her scent, I thought she was pretty close to freaking out. This wasn’t denial. It was Mom trying to be strong and cope.
A pot clattered to the floor and Mom bent down to pick it up. She glanced back at us, the pot clutched tightly in her hands. “Go on, honey,” she said. She smiled again, another breakable smile. “You’re wasting time.”
I tried to smile back, but whatever my lips did, it wasn’t a smile, and because I really didn’t know what else to say, I muttered, “Sure, Mom,” as I snagged Marcy’s hand, and tugged her from the room.