4. Chapter Four

Idropped Carey off at school on Monday, watching her go inside as I thought about what she had said the day before. She was being teased, and there wasn't much any of us could do about it. I could only hope she took my advice to heart and was strong. The alternatives weren't that great, and I had explained those to her as well.

Boarding school was a bad idea to her, while homeschooling had made her a little excited, which meant I'd lightly drop the idea on Heath. If he had time for it or the money to afford it, a solid private education was possibly a perfect solution for her.

Or she would lose all possibilities of having human friends, and we'd further entrench her into the supernatural world we didn't want her to be a part of. It could go either way.

When I arrived at the Everson household, Landon was pulling up in his truck. I waited for him to go into the driveway first to claim his spot, then pulled in behind him.

"How was the fishing trip?" I asked loudly, as he grabbed a large pack from the back of his truck.

"Fine. Caught a couple of fish for dinner and breakfast. Nothing special," he answered, eyeing me as I walked closer. "What are you doing here this early?"

I held up the Walmart bag in my hands. "Fixing a problem for you and your father."

He snorted in derision as if there was no way I could ever fix something for them. I kept the bag where he could see it, and he finally gave in to look inside. His eyes went wide as understanding dawned.

"Ah…" It was probably the best thing he could have said.

"Mm-hm." I smiled sweetly. "In return for handling this, I'm going to extort you now." His narrowed-eyed stare was intense, but I held firm. I was getting very good at playing the werewolves into my favor.

"Why me?" he demanded. "Extort him. He's the one you're sleeping with."

"Because you hang out with my brother's adopted son, and I'm concerned about him."

Landon sighed as defeat hit him. "That's right. Dirk was pretty annoyed you found out about the trip before he could leave. He's fine. I'm not going to betray his trust beyond that."

"If there was anything concerning—"

"There's not," Landon growled softly. "But…if there was, I would certainly tell someone." Landon threw the large bag over his shoulder as if it weighed nothing. "He just wants to live his own life, Jacky. That's all. Let him."

"All I ask is he tells me when he's leaving my territory. How hard is that?"

"That's for you and him to work out." He shrugged. "Get the cooler. It's empty."

I helped him, chuckling as he started sorting through everything with an exasperated look on his face.

"You okay?" I finally asked, watching him dump everything.

"I used to go fishing with Richard, and he was always here to help me put this shit away," he answered. "Just annoyed."

"You could have forced Dirk to help you."

He only shook his head, then waved me away. Landon wasn't trying to be bossy. He just didn't always have the patience or energy to remember words. Heading inside their home from the garage, I put the bag on the kitchen counter for them to handle later. I wandered the house until I found Heath's office and saw him glaring at his computer screen. I could tell the moment he caught my scent, and a very wolfy grin came over his face.

"How was your night with Carey?" he asked as if I was going to tell him it was terrible, and he could laugh at me.

"It had a rocky start, but we figured it out. What you need is on the kitchen counter. I'm heading home."

He growled softly, but I was already moving out of his office, closing the door in his face. He caught me before I made it to the front door, pinned me to the wall, and leaned in for a kiss.

I could have gotten away, but there was something thrilling about how Heath worked. He put very little effort into being anything but a werewolf, while I worked so hard to pretend I was human.

"Take it somewhere else," Landon growled from the next room.

"Move out," Heath growled back. "My house. My rules."

Landon's grumbled response was lost to me. I raised an eyebrow at Heath.

"We haven't lived together for this long in decades. We've remembered why he and Richard got their own homes," he explained, leaning back in to put his forehead on mine.

"Is he going to move out?"

"He's looking around at houses."

"How are you and Carey going to do without him?"

He shrugged. "He'll probably be over here all the time, but it's the principle of the matter. He's an adult man, and I think we're all recovered from the Dallas coup and relocating. Time for him to reclaim his own space." He slid a hand down my back and brushed over my ass. "Now, why are you running away? We don't get much time during the week, and I promise, there's no one watching my house. We could steal a few hours."

I went through what I had to do for the day. The only reason I wanted to get home was to get some sleep before I dealt with bar work in the evening. Kick Shot was closed on Mondays, but it was a good day for Oliver and me to break down what would happen during the week.

"Sleep," I finally answered. "Something you won't let me have if I stay here."

"You're right." He chuckled and released me. "I wouldn't. Drive safe."

We kissed one more time, and I headed out.

When I made it back to Kick Shot, I noticed someone parked in the driveway who hadn't been there when I left. It wasn't uncommon for people to stop their cars in my parking lot to check maps, but I had them towed if they stayed too long. It was such a rare occurrence, I could remember every time it was needed.

I went to the car, frowning, seeing no one was inside. I took a picture of the license plate for future reference. The windows were dark, but I could see it was kept clean, and there was nothing out of place to me. It belonged to humans or was used by humans because there was no scent of magic or any sort of supernatural on it.

It's too normal.

I didn't like that I couldn't see anyone around. I sniffed, catching the scent of two people, and started to follow, wondering where these two people had gone after dumping their car in my parking lot. I didn't like where I was going as I headed around the bar toward the trail to my house. The Private Property sign was still standing as I walked past it. I followed the scent into the trees off my trail, wary what these humans were doing. I didn't have a gun on me, something I wished for now. While I didn't particularly need one, it was useful when I needed to keep up appearances as a human.

I didn't move quickly, keeping my eyes open for anything. Nothing seemed out of place except their scents. I never caught them. They kept moving, leading around in a semi-circle back to the bar. When I made it back to my parking lot, the car was gone.

At least I got the plate. I'll give it to Davor and see what he finds out.

The entire event left me bewildered and paranoid. I went into Kick Shot, knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep now. I locked my office door, an unnecessary security feature but a comforting one. I emailed Davor the license plate with an explanation from my office computer, which was a keyboard and mouse on the desk and the monitor attached to the wall to my left, out of the way. The tower was carefully hidden away in the bookcase built around the monitor, so no one could do something crazy like ripping the hard drive out. It was somewhat paranoid but also very nice and high-end. Heath and I had spared no expense making this office, with his years of advice about security involved in its planning.

It didn't take long for Davor to get back to me, only five minutes, which told me the man was bored with whatever else he was doing.

Davor:Probably some idiots considering buying the land from you. We've dealt with it before.

Jacky:Can you look into it anyway?

Davor:Obviously. It's you, so the probability it's something dangerous is more likely. Even then, with how many dangerous incidents you've had over the last two and a half years, the likelihood of another is very slim.

Jacky: Let's play like the odds aren't in my favor, okay?

Davor:Are they ever?

I cracked a small smile. Davor was an asshole, with little capacity for normal emotion, in my opinion. A genius of ridiculous levels, he spent his days coding, building new systems, and managing the electronic security for most of the family. Not me, though. He let me use what he developed, but he didn't offer his free time to help me. I either had to ask and make a good case or go without. I was pretty good at going without since I wasn't willing to get into stupid fights or involve Hasan. It helped that I went without for several years for my own reasons. It was good training for Davor's continuous coldness. The good thing was, I had learned something important about him. He liked numbers. When he was talking numbers, he was in a good mood.

Not twenty minutes later, my phone rang, and I answered without looking.

"Jacqueline, Davor said you had trespassers on your property." Hasan's immediate concern was touching but made me want to roll my eyes. I was hit with the sudden realization Dirk was right.

Hovering was shitty.

"It's fine. It's going to be fine. It was two humans and a car. I sent everything about the car to Davor. He didn't need to tell you about it."

"He didn't. I'm sitting next to him," Hasan said. "Davor can't help but mumble to himself as he types."

Shit. I forgot Davor was spending time with Hasan right now. It's the anniversary of Liza's death, isn't it? They warned me like a month ago, and I completely lost track of the date.

"Tell him he can work on it later. I don't want to impose on your time with him," I said, rubbing my temples. "I wasn't thinking when I sent it over."

"He can do it now," Hasan said with a chiding tone. "It's your safety, something I'm very much invested in, and I know if we don't do it now, you'll find some way to get into trouble before we can stop it. Like last time."

I winced. "Yeah."

Last time. The time when I flew across the country and got involved in a situation I had no business being in, without telling any of them until it was too late to get out of it—that time. The time my twin sister murdered a man for a self-righteous reason, and I vowed to get her out of trouble for a similar self-righteous reason. The time my human family was kidnapped, and I convinced my family we needed to fight the werewolves instead of making a trade.

Thattime.

"What are you doing right now, other than trying to find intruders on your property?" he asked.

I considered what to tell him. My life was fairly stable now.

"Well, I'm not normally up this time of day. I took Carey to school this morning because I let her stay at my place last night. I was going to head back to sleep, but…" I let him fill that in for a moment. "Now I'm going to try to get ahead of work before Oliver arrives."

"Stay safe." There was no missing the order in those words. "Davor will get back to you, probably this time tomorrow."

"Thanks." I hung up first, then leaned over and put my head on my desk. I didn't like things out of the ordinary. I considered texting Heath about what happened but decided against it for now. There was no reason to worry him so early.

I didn't want to come off as paranoid either. Deep in my bones, I felt a creeping sensation of something bad coming. Maybe I had finally gotten into enough trouble to have developed a survival instinct.

What can I do? Dirk left me a write-up…

I searched my desk and found it on top of some reports I'd had the two young men working as my managers write. They were personnel reports, write-ups on their feelings about the rest of our staff. I had no intention of bringing any more humans into my secret. I didn't want a large staff, but it was good to be prepared, to know my employees, so I could work with them if anything came up.

I looked at them for a moment, wondering if something bad came what I would do with them—even more people relying on me, now for work to pay their bills and support their families.

Well, first, I have to know if there is anything wrong.

I started reading the handwritten information from Dirk, trying to put my troubles at ease. Two people, one man and one woman, each wearing casual clothing. Dirk's description of their fashion choices was spot on. He was observant, but I had a feeling that was something Niko taught him. He memorized details with apparent ease and had told me about them so casually as if he barely even thought about the two humans looking for me. It was good, certainly better than I could do. I was still working on that, trying to take in details, part of the natural safety precautions of being immortal. Hasan told me a decade ago, memorizing the little details was important—a mole, the density of someone's freckles, or a small pockmark—anything and everything. As an immortal, you could never really know when someone was going to pop up into your life again or what their motive was.

I was terrible at it. I knew faces but couldn't remember all those details. Dirk, while frustrating for me, once again was proving himself too useful to ever get rid of.

Shit, and Niko needs a timeline for when he's getting his adopted son back. I'll ask Dirk about that today after I tell them about the visitors on my property.

I waited in my office for hours until I heard the familiar sound of footsteps coming up the back staircase. They were quiet, and a yawn made me smirk. I heard Oliver unlock his office, then come to unlock mine. He opened it, looking bright and fresh, his eyes clear with shock as he saw me. Dirk was behind him, with dark stains under his eyes. It was clear who didn't get enough sleep.

"Why…" Oliver looked down at the doorknob, then back at me, obviously confused by me locking myself in the office.

"Earlier today, two humans decided to go on a walk through my woods," I explained, leaning back in my chair. "I didn't see them because I didn't want to take too much of a risk. I tracked their walk, which went precariously close to my home, then led me back to my parking lot, where I had found their car. I didn't recognize the scents but sent Davor a picture of their license plate to run."

They both watched me in a still silence as they thought over what I told them. Dirk gently nudged Oliver farther into the office, closed the door, and relocked it.

"Is there anything we can do?" he asked, looking at me.

"Keep your eyes open like you have been. Davor thinks it might have been some real estate people. It's a…decent idea, but it could have been anything. I didn't find anything hidden on the little walk they took other than their footprints."

"Niko…once had a couple of teenagers trespass his property because everyone knew someone strange lived there. Most people avoided it completely, so it got to be a bit of a legend," Dirk said thoughtfully as he sat down across from me. Oliver fell into his seat silently, looking between us.

"You think I might have had a couple of dumb idiots, thinking they could get a peek at my house? Have a laugh?"

"Or a make-out session?" Dirk shrugged. "Could you tell how old they were?"

"Adults. Teens normally have messy cars," I said, sighing. "But…there's always been questions from the people who come to Kick Shot whether or not I'm human. I could see someone finally deciding to look a little closer…" Which didn't bode well for me.

"This is why Niko doesn't go to his businesses regularly," Dirk pointed out. "You might need to cut down on visits to Kick Shot and let people forget about you for a little while."

"But…" Oliver frowned. "Everyone knows about werewolves. Why not let them think you're like Alpha Everson? A wolf outside the pack."

"Because it's…" I didn't continue, knowing Oliver was right. "Are you saying I should stop fighting the rumors?"

"Yeah. The more you fight them, the more people will want the truth if they think you have a secret. They know you're…off." Oliver looked at Dirk for confirmation.

"He has a point," Dirk agreed.

"Then it's settled," I said decidedly. "I can do that. If anyone asks either of you if I'm a werewolf, don't deny it. Just say I'm a private individual who enjoys owning a bar, and I hope to run Kick Shot for a very long time."

"That's a good line," Oliver said appreciatively. "If they ask about anything else, we'll categorically deny it. You're not a witch or fae, which would be the next two most likely questions. Humans don't really know about the rest of the supernaturals."

"Shit, I barely know about the rest of the supernatural species," I commented with a snort. Heath was trying to teach me, though. While my ignorance worked when I lived alone, it didn't anymore. Four sparse years of education from Hasan was slipping away, thanks to disuse and my personal experience with a handful of species, but there was so much to know. Dozens of types of supernaturals lived around the world. The big five were always mentioned in conversation, thanks to their positions on the Tribunal, but it was the smaller groups that were the most interesting. Like the newly discovered cambions. An entire supernatural species had been discovered and joined the Tribunal. Heath mentioned it over dinner one Saturday evening, laughing when he realized I had no idea it had happened, even though Hasan was one of the people who knew the most about them and worked closely with their leader.

Well, Hasan did say he likes to keep his work separate from his family…very separate.

"Sometimes, I wonder how you made it this long," Dirk teased.

"Thanks," I replied dryly, narrowing my eyes at him. "We're all on the same page, right? Let them believe I'm a werewolf and hope interest dies down?"

They both nodded, then Dirk got up to leave. Oliver and I dove into the start-of-the-week papers, and I tried to ignore the nagging feeling.

Something is coming.