22. Chapter Twenty-Two

Landon and Dirk showed up like bats out of hell, screaming into the parking lot and jumping from the truck as if they were ready for war. Heath and I greeted them with simple waves, forcing them to slow down.

"I figured we would be dealing with more…hysterics," Landon said, his nostrils flaring as he looked at me, then the door.

"Yesterday, someone tried to kill me, so…" I shrugged innocently, realizing I had never told Dirk or Landon what had happened.

Heath chuckled as both of them paled. Obviously, Heath hadn't reached out to his son, either.

"You were away, and I knew you two were safe. There was no reason to bother you," Heath said, still chuckling. "As you can see, she's fine. Carey and I are fine. This is just a new development in the new situation. Go about your business. Jacky and I are going to take Carey out for a bit of fun today because she's furious with us."

"I need more explanation than that," Landon growled.

I chuckled this time and explained how the attack went down. Dirk's eyes went wider, but Landon nodded wisely.

"You handled that right. Good job."

"I'm so glad I have your approval," I said, smiling. "You can tell Dirk all about how I did the right thing as a lesson. We're going to go. Get the fingerprints, then scrub that off before the opening shift gets here."

"We got it," Dirk promised. "Just, uh, don't get killed. Are you sure this is safe if you were attacked yesterday?"

"My father wouldn't go anywhere with Carey if he didn't think it was safe," Landon said stiffly. "He's not a fool, right?" He looked at his father.

"I think they were tracking Jacky, but if they fuck with me or Carey, they've got every werewolf in the United States after them. I think we're the best shield she has right now."

"And not dying? That is number one on the priorities list," I told him, patting Dirk's arm. "I talked to Niko last night. Nothing important, nothing about you. He didn't even ask, but I bet he wanted to. Just felt like I should tell you."

"I'll give him a call to tell him I'm okay," Dirk replied, sighing. "He's probably expecting it."

"Probably."

"We'll keep in touch," Heath promised. "Stick together?"

"We will," Landon agreed, already heading for my door with a bag in his hands.

Heath and I got into his truck together.

"I need to buy a new car," I pointed out. "Can we get that done before we pick up Carey? Shouldn't take too long."

He started to laugh and didn't stop until we were nearly at Carey's school. He was still chuckling softly as he parked.

"The joke must have gone over my head," I muttered.

That made him laugh harder, but he didn't get out of the truck yet. When the laughter finally subsided, he turned to me with a grin I could only describe as absolutely devious.

"You need to buy a new car, and you think it won't take too long?" he asked. "With me there with you? I might not try to be your Alpha, but let's be honest about something." He leaned over the center seat of his truck, inching closer. "If I go with you to buy a new vehicle of any kind, I'm going to do my damnedest to make sure you get the safest, most advanced thing I can find on the lot. Then I'm going to drive it and your happy ass to my guy in Dallas to have a roll cage added and a bit of his fae magic. I won't be able to help myself, Jacky."

"So…I'm buying a new car without you." Decision made, then. "Good to know."

"If you value your sanity, absolutely go without me." He smiled. "But please try to get something safe."

"I'll consider it." I had no intention of telling him what sort of car I was going to get. I was going to buy it without his Alpha ways influencing my decision.

He huffed, rolled his eyes, then got out of the truck. I waited for him. Carey would have only been at school a couple of hours, maybe not even that, so it was a pretty strange morning. When they walked out, Carey was frowning at the truck, but she didn't see me yet. As they got closer, I saw her expression change to downright brewing anger. I knew the look. Her father got it when he was pissed off. She threw her bag into the back as Heath opened the door and held it for her.

"What are you doing here? I want to go back to class." She didn't get in, glaring at her father and me. The question was for me, but the demand to go back into the school was definitely for Heath. He didn't say anything, a stone wall to her anger.

"We're taking you out for the day," I said. "Just the three of us, to talk this out. I don't want to put you on the back burner, Carey. I want to make sure you know we didn't mean to hurt you. Things happened, and hurting you was an accident. Give us a chance to talk to you. Plus, you get to skip school."

She got in the truck and sat in the middle, pulling on her seat belt in silence. Heath got in last, and we left the school with the cranky teenager.

"Someone tried to kill me yesterday—" I reminded her.

"And you're fine," she fired back. This was the dramatic antics of a betrayed young teenager. Her priorities were all messed up, but I didn't hold it against her. I continued with what I was saying.

"Which makes it all the more important I make sure you know you can still trust me with anything. That I trust you and respect you."

"Really?" she snapped. "Trust? You've been lying to me!" She put her feet up on the dashboard. I knew that wasn't going to play out well. Heath didn't take his eyes off the road, just reached out without even glancing in her direction, grabbed one ankle, pulled the foot off the dash, and pushed it down back to where it was supposed to be. He didn't have to do the second; she put that one down on her own.

"Can we please be civil?" Heath asked desperately. "Be mad but be civil. I can take the anger, but that doesn't mean you get to act out and break the rules." At her huff, he growled, low and soft. "We're not trying to invalidate your feelings. We're trying to apologize."

Carey looked down. We spent the drive in complete silence. I was frustrated and hurt, but I knew she was justified to feel the way she did. Heath was right. We didn't want to invalidate her feelings. We wanted to apologize and get to the root of them. Heath said this was pretty extreme, and he was right. It was one thing to be upset, but this was fury, something neither of us expected. Even when we had talked about telling her, we hadn't expected this level of anger at us.

Heath drove us not to something active but to the movies.

"We can catch something early, and no one will have to talk to anyone. I'll get the tickets," he declared, parking. He got out, ignoring both of us, his frustration clearer than the sun. Carey grabbed my arm, a clear sign for me to stay where I was.

"We can do something else. I just wanted to spend some time with you before work and—"

"My entire life, there were women from the pack who wanted to be my friend to get to my dad," she whispered. "They would help me with my homework and offer to babysit me. They would tell my brothers to go off and have fun, that they would watch me. They would be really nice to start, but then it always happened the same way. My dad wouldn't give them the time of day, wouldn't let them stay for dinner, told them no when they offered to join us on family trips, and there were a couple he threw out of the house. Finally, he asked me to tell him when any of the women were being too nice to me. He didn't want to see me used by them to get to him. I didn't think you would be one of them."

"Carey…" Oh, shit. "I'm not like that. I know you probably don't believe me, but what I have with your dad doesn't change what I have with you. It wasn't even supposed to happen this way. I didn't think your dad and I would get close, much less become friends."

She sighed, heavy and beyond her years. It was easy to forget Carey wasn't a normal thirteen-year-old about to turn fourteen. This was the daughter of a werewolf Alpha who had lived for a couple hundred years, who had complicated brothers and a family that needed her to help protect it. This was the girl who ran away from home to get away from the pack coup, found her way to my bar like her dad had planned, and knew what to say, even though she was tired and terrified. Even though she didn't know who I was.

"I don't think you are, either," she admitted softly. "I think my dad used me to get to you or something. I think…" She threw her hands up. "I don't even know who to be mad at. You both lied to me. You've been using me to be together. I want my dad happy, and I want you happy, but I'm mad. I'm mad because you didn't tell me. It reminds me of those women who never told me they were nice to me because they wanted to get my dad. Because he's the Alpha, he's important, because they thought he would buy them nice things and give them something special or whatever."

"We didn't use you. Feel free to be angry with us for lying to you, but neither of us intentionally used you to get to each other. We did a lot of traveling together. We nearly died a couple of times, and when everything got bad, he was the one person I knew could handle me leaning on him. But using you never crossed my mind or his."

"Really? I mean…I guess you did go to Russia together, and he helped save you from those bad werecats…and you helped him save me….and the vampires…" She trailed off and nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Maybe you should tell your dad all of this, too, so he understands."

"He's not easy to talk to, sometimes," she mumbled. "And like, I knew something had to be going on. He's seemed happier. And he goes to you for advice about me, which I don't like, but it's whatever. He's a guy, and I'm a girl. I hear other girls get embarrassed by their dads, too. Apparently, that's a normal thing. I was really happy you took me to the store and not him, and neither of you gave me ‘the talk' about you know what." She shrugged. "Maybe I just don't like how you lied. Were you going to tell me before you got married, or was that going to be a surprise, too?"

"We were going to tell you…eventually," I said, unable to really answer. "I can tell you that your dad and I have never talked about marriage. Right now, we're just trying to find a way to be together without getting in trouble." I took off my seatbelt and sighed. "Ready to follow him? He probably has the tickets now."

"Yeah…" She undid her seatbelt next.

I opened the door and stepped out, stretching my arms over my head, feeling much better about everything.

I got out of the truck and felt the gunshot before I heard it. It sent me back into the door, and I purposefully threw myself back to fall into the truck. Carey started screaming as she grabbed my shirt. I knew I was bleeding, but I did my best to stay down and push her away.

"Pretend I'm dead," I fought to say through the pain. "Pretend I'm dead." I looked down, knowing the windows were too dark for anyone to see inside. They hit me in the side. I tried to breathe and thanked my lucky stars that nothing sounded like it was in my lungs. It hit my abdomen in the side, which hopefully meant my lung was safe.

Heath appeared at my feet, his face sheet white. In the background, tires squealing got his attention for a second.

"Gone?" I asked softly. There was so much I needed to say. "Don't tell my family. Get Carey home. Keep Dirk safe."

"They're gone. Let's get you to the hospital—"

"I can help," someone said, running up. I saw Collins come into view next to him. "I've been doing a stakeout on you but didn't notice anyone else watching you until it was too late." He was looking down at me, at the injury, but his words were clear and precise. He didn't let the injury shock him.

"That sounds incredibly suspicious, Daniel," Heath snarled.

"I got the license plate of the truck that just drove off, Heath," Collins snapped back. "And I can get her airlifted."

Heath looked at me, and I nodded.

"S-Silver," I groaned, clutching my side. The burn was beginning to set in. A bad gut shot was fatal upward to twenty minutes if the bleeding wasn't too bad. That meant the silver had time to settle into my bloodstream and cause problems.

"Shit." Heath pointed to the back of his truck. "There's a first aid kit in the back. Get it, Daniel. Jacky, we don't have time to send you to Mygi. I'm going to ask for them to take you to Dallas, okay? If you can make it, I want you at Dallas."

I tried to nod. Carey was crying over me.

I've been here before. She's seen me die before. I can't…I can't do this to her again.

"Keep your eyes on me, okay?" Heath asked.

I tried. I tried so hard. Collins was gone from my sight, and all I had to do was stare at Heath and his blue-grey eyes. That was all I had to do.

I failed.