Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

S edona

“Rise and shine, pumpkin girl.”

“What?” I stirred from where I’d dumped myself on the bed, now struggling to lift my head. Hearing Mattie’s chipper voice almost made me want to throw my pillow.

Of course the real reason was because I’d seen werewolves jumping from behind every building and tree line on the way home. Imaginary of course, but the thought had terrified me. My mind had worked overtime based on exhaustion, confusion, and yes, fear.

“I let you sleep in, but I need to get to my first appointment not long from now. I’m shocked you came home.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Uh-oh. Mr. Prince Charming a toad instead?” Mattie winked.

Smashing my hands against my pillows only made her laugh. “No, I had a work thing.”

“You work on dead people. Couldn’t that have waited until after your hot date?”

“Apparently not.”

I managed to sit up, groaning the entire time. When I looked at my clock, I winced. Not from the bright light streaming in from the open blinds, but from seeing the time. There was little I hated worse than being late.

Then again, I was the boss. I could do whatever I wanted to do. Plus, the night hadn’t gone quite like I’d thought.

There was also the other thing I had to deal with.

“By the way, you look like shit.”

Glaring at Mattie had become a pastime. “Thank you very much, little Miss Perky One. You’re all happy.”

“Well, I might have a date tonight myself.”

I crawled off the bed, able to hear the television set. “What? You work fast.”

“Texting, girl. I told you to try it. We’ll see if he calls at the allotted time. If not, I’ll blow him off.”

“Don’t you think you’re a little too rigid about the men in your life?” My head was killing me from anxiety.

“Never. You can’t get attached to one man unless you’ve tasted a few dozen. I’m going to grab Britney some cereal for breakfast. I’m leaving after that, so make yourself the perky one, Ms. Grumpy.”

She walked out of my room after blowing me a kiss.

Exhaling, I glanced in the mirror as soon as I entered the bathroom. Yup. I did look like shit. What bothered me was that I couldn’t stop thinking about everything Agent Drummand had told me, including her warning. Why had the FBI gotten me involved without issuing the warning first?

Well, duh. Because anyone with a sound mind, which I obviously did not have, would have told the bastards to take a hike.

After all they’d put me through, I still wasn’t positive they’d gotten anything from the work I’d performed other than affirmation something weird had killed them.

I splashed water in my face and quickly brushed my teeth, trying to figure out a plan from here. That wasn’t easy. My thoughts centered on something that seemed… impossible.

Hey, what could be any more impossible than learning there were werewolves?

Giggling almost hysterically also wasn’t my style, but everything had changed in the last few days. The one thing I knew without a doubt was that I couldn’t put Britney’s life in danger. I had to make arrangements to keep her safe. Me? Well, what was wrong with a few claw marks on my skin?

You need a shower and a lobotomy.

Both were true.

I bounded from the room, literally smashing into the refrigerator door as Mattie opened it.

“Ouch,” she said. “What is up with you? How was Mr. Hunk? You need to tell me juicy details.”

I shifted my gaze toward Britney who hadn’t noticed I’d come into the room. Mattie had allowed her to watch her favorite Disney movie before school.

“I don’t know what to tell you. He was everything fantasies are made of. Will that do?”

She narrowed her eyes as she placed the carton of milk on the counter. “You don’t know, or you refuse to tell me? No fair. That’s like tossing a cookie crumb to an elephant.”

“It’s not that. I just… I don’t know him and I don’t think he’s good for me.”

“Why and in what lifetime? I saw the way he was looking at you. Like you’d be perfect on a silver platter with an apple in your mouth.”

“No, he did not, and it’s just a hunch.” Why did her words have such an effect on me? I had tiny shivers dancing all through my body.

“Honey,” she said gently. “You don’t trust any man right now, but that’s not fair to Mr. McHotness. What does your gut say?”

I hated that my gut said the same as other body parts. “That I want to be with him, but it’s so fast.”

“Well, slow it down then. You’re crazy if you don’t want the man. I’ll take him.”

“What about that date?”

“Oh, who cares. Money is money. I would look good in diamonds and rubies. Can you see me in one of those hot sports cars they drive?”

I laughed because with Mattie, it was easy to do.

She moved to the cabinet, finding Britney’s favorite cereal.

“I need a favor, my bestest friend in the world and I realize it will interfere with your date.”

Her side eye was the best in the business. “What now? Did you get yourself in some kind of trouble?”

I could only imagine telling her the truth. “I need a little time to help with a case out of Chicago. Can you take Britney to spend a couple nights with you? I’m going to be carving out very long days and nights.”

I’d gotten very good at lying. That was beyond troublesome.

“A juicy case? Gory?”

She had no idea. “Just boring old stuff, but they like my work. It’s fairly urgent or I wouldn’t ask.”

“Well, all that expertise you have buried inside of you might keep you here in our little town longer. I can blow the guy off. He’s not that handsome anyway.”

Her taste in men was interesting. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“I’ll swing by and grab her from school later. Pack a little bag for her. Don’t forget the birthday party I planned. You know the one I mean.” While she was whispering, my little girl had keen hearing. So much so that she bounded in seconds later.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I’d forgotten all about it.

“My burfday? I’ll be a big girl,” Britney squealed as she jumped up and down. The little brat could hear better than I could.

“Not yet, little munchkin.” I picked her up, swinging her around in the air. Soon, she’d get too big for her old mama to do that, so I relished these times. “Did you miss your mommy?” As soon as I tickled her tummy, she giggled. I adored the way her eyes lit up.

“Not that much. I had fun with Miss Mattie. You never let me eat candy after dinner.”

I slowly turned my head toward my bestie. “Candy, huh? A movie before breakfast, huh?”

Mattie shrugged. “Oops. You only live once.”

“Well, my little perfect girl, it’s almost time to eat your breakfast. Go wash your hands. No candy.”

“You’re a party pooper, Mama.”

It was all I could do to refrain from bursting into laughter as I eased her down. “You’re a terrible friend.”

“Hey,” Mattie objected. “It was one piece of candy.”

“About the birthday party,” I started, unsure it was such a good idea.

My bestie pointed her finger in my face. “Don’t you dare back out. It’s all planned. Shelly’s little boy is going to be there as well as twelve kids from her kindergarten class. They would be devastated if it was cancelled.”

“Fourteen kids. I’ll pull my hair out.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve recruited both Shelly and Camille to help. Maybe a couple other mothers. It’s going to be so much fun. Live a little more. Enjoy life. You’re like a lab rat.”

“I am not.”

“Are too.” She gave me a pouting look.

I sighed; my chest already ached. I would hate to disappoint my little girl. Last year’s birthday had been a horrible ordeal, including her birthday cake being tossed against the wall. It had been tough to explain why her daddy had ruined her special day. “We’ll have a great time.”

“Yes, we will. Why don’t you think about bringing that hunky man of yours?”

“He’s not my hunky man. Just a guy.”

Who was on the FBI’s most watched radar. Groovy. I’d gone from a pain pill popping drug addict with explosive tendencies to a criminal. My life was heading for the toilet.

“Whatever you say,” Mattie cooed.

I watched as she hummed while preparing the bowl of cereal and wondered if I’d managed to stumble on the beginning of the end of the world.

Great, now I was being dramatic.

That’s what happened when I was utterly and completely petrified.

Jax

The morgue.

I’d been in more than a few facilities in my life, forced to identify the bodies of friends and a cousin from a long time ago. However, it had been a number of years. I’d hoped to find Sedona but had been unsuccessful.

I’d also driven by Sedona’s house first, hoping to see her car. I’d not only wanted to make certain that everything was okay, but also to find out anything I could about what she was hiding.

From this distance, I had no ability to read her mind or decipher where she’d gone or why. However, I could guess.

Her car wasn’t in front of the facility either, but Daphne’s was. Maybe my niece could indulge her favorite uncle and provide me with some idea of what the hell was going on.

As I walked in, I was struck by how clean everything smelled. Fresh antiseptic. It was almost nauseating.

The place wasn’t what I expected, the areas with adequate lighting including natural light coming from somewhere. It was quiet as well, something that would drive me crazy. As I walked down a long corridor, I finally heard music coming from one of the offices.

I knew the metal band from the fact Daphne continuously played Disturbed every time I was over at Riker’s house and she was there. Laughing, I headed toward the robust sound, standing in the doorway for a solid two minutes before she noticed me. She was jamming hard while her fingers flew on a keyboard, shifting every so often to a mouse.

With two huge monitors on her desk, it was tough to see the girl behind them.

When she finally detected a presence, she jerked to her feet as if ready to fight off an intruder.

“Oh, it’s just you,” she said, her eyes twinkling in mischief.

“Just me, huh? I don’t rate in your world any longer?”

“You’re an old guy but harmless.” She adored teasing me that way.

“Careful, little girl.”

She laughed and I noticed she quickly shifted to another screen. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, I wanted to ask you some questions.”

“Me? What did Dad tell you I did now?”

I grabbed the single chair, shifting it around to the side of her desk. “Riker didn’t tell me anything other than you loved your job.”

“I do. Since you refuse to allow me to work for the family business, I found something else that allows my creative ability to fly.”

“With dead bodies.”

She shrugged and grabbed her huge bottle of spring water. “Why not? I get to use my 3-D experience in recreating scenes of murder and mayhem.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“As if you would know. Seriously, why are you here?”

“As I said, I wanted to ask you a couple questions.”

“Shoot.”

I took a deep breath. I had no way of knowing whether she knew I’d been seeing her boss. “Doctor Willis. You’re a friend of hers.”

“Yes, but she’s my boss too. Why?” She always planted her head on her palm, her elbow on the surface of whatever table she was sitting at when she suspected something juicy would slip past my lips.

“Because I know her pretty well and I am aware something has happened in the morgue that has bothered her.”

Daphne squinted at me, blinking a couple of times. “Let me get this straight. You’re going out with my boss?”

“A couple dates. We’re not engaged or anything.”

She sucked in her breath and I was certain she was going to explode. When she clapped, I had to laugh. “That’s fantastic. I keep telling her she needs to get out more. She stays in her house when she’s not here. Don’t get me wrong. I adore dead bodies, but there comes a time you need to enjoy someone very much alive. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Absolutely.” Dead bodies. My niece was a little twisted like her father.

“Why aren’t you asking her what went on?”

“Because I don’t know where she is. She left in a hurry and I’ve tried calling and I went by her place. I don’t like not being able to keep into contact with her.”

“Ooh-la-la, Uncle Jax. You’re on fire. And possessive as always, I might add.”

“I’m not possessive,” I insisted. “How would you know that anyway?”

She shrugged. “Dad told me.”

“You’re getting more like your dad every day. Back to business. Doctor Willis was very concerned and now I’m worried about her.”

“She’s a big girl and I’m certain you call her by her first name. Sedona can take care of herself, but there was a break-in the other night and very late when she was here alone. Some guy came in while she was working. It’s happened before.”

Now my niece was keeping secrets. “A break-in at a morgue? Why in God’s name would anyone do that?”

“You’d be surprised how many druggies think they’re going to get drugs here. She called the police. We had to do some major cleanup because the wacko went nuts, but everything is back to normal.”

“Then where is Sedona right now?”

“I don’t know. She just called and said she had something to do. Now I remember why I don’t prompt her about her personal life. Yuck. I don’t want to learn the details.”

She was definitely holding something back from me. I could sense her loyalty to her boss and friend. “Well, at least I know she’s alright.”

“She is.” Her face clouded. “Should I tell her you were worried?” Her expression was now mischievous.

“Not necessary.” I was more concerned than ever.

“Is there something going on you’re not telling me about, dear uncle of mine?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Like something about our family or…”

She didn’t need to finish her sentence. “Our pack?”

“Yeah. I feel something is out there. You know? Dad said there was a mandatory meeting, but he wouldn’t tell me what it was about. Maybe I’m crazy, but it’s like we’re being watched. Or sized up. Maybe for dinner.” She tried to laugh but she was serious.

She was also fishing.

“The meeting was just about a new pack coming online. As far as business, right now, we’re just concentrating on new contracts. Did something happen you were involved in?”

“No but I was awake when Dad left then returned home last night. He usually tells me where he’s going, but this time he didn’t. And when he returned, he smelled like blood.”

“Do you want to share with me what the hell is going on?” Parker was the only man I allowed to burst into my office without an appointment.

Or without knocking.

I didn’t even allow my brothers to interrupt me that way.

However, I’d expected him since he’d called me twice and left two texts.

“Within the company or something else?” I’d been standing in front of my window for the last half hour trying to determine how to handle asking Sedona what was going on. I also hadn’t pushed Daphne, but might need to if I couldn’t locate the woman I’d become far too interested in.

Being a medical examiner held a list of possibilities for what could detain her; maybe she’d been forced to autopsy a recent murder victim. If so, she’d been utterly terrified. No wonder she mentioned the wolf the night before.

I had a bad feeling that whatever she’d gotten herself in the middle of could place a target on her back as well.

“Don’t fuck with me, buddy. You know what I’m talking about. You’ve yet to say anything about your mother’s huge proclamation yesterday. That isn’t something I can just forget. War? What in the hell does that actually mean?”

“You knew what we were years ago, Parker. I never lied to you.”

“You only told me because I was freaked out one day playing football when your eyes were suddenly like big, alien saucers. You had no other choice but confess. Now we’re talking werewolves? Like man-eating creatures from the movies?”

“Apparently and you took the news well.”

“Do you know I researched that shit for almost a year? I came to the conclusion it’s all one giant story. I like proof. I like rules. I couldn’t find any so I started reading everything I could get my hands on that was fiction. It was like werewolf central.”

He could make me laugh harder than anyone. “Only we’re not werewolves.”

“There’s really a distinction?”

“Werewolves are the things nightmares are made of. Wolfen are creatures of the night hunters don’t like seeing. But we’re also now very human in our needs and wants.”

“But you can still turn into a wolf.”

“Any time I want.”

“Have you?”

“Do you really want to know that answer?”

Parker shook his head. “You’re minimizing this. If your family starts a war, it’s going to affect your stock.”

“Nice try, but we’re a privately owned company.”

“Considering going public. Think of that.”

At least my buddy had his eye on the ball. All I could think about was Sedona at this point. It was driving me crazy. “Look, all I can tell you is that werewolves have been around since the beginning of time like the Wolfen have. At least according to my mother and other Elders in our community, they’ve co-existed since the beginning of time.”

“Fan-fucking-tastic. I’ll sleep better tonight.”

“The difference is they were almost wiped out, becoming extinct in the way of our world. I don’t know why. Maybe disease or human growth with building dense cities. Hell, maybe smog. Now they’re coming back and they’re hungry. Not just for food but also for dominance.”

“Let me guess. They’ll stop at nothing to beat the Wolfen.” Parker flashed his smile, but I sensed his continued disbelief. Why should he buy any of it? Yes, he’d seen my eyes. He knew I was stronger than an ox, but I’d purposely kept many of my Wolfen attributes from him.

“Yes. As far as why you could never find anything about our kind, that’s on purpose. Imagine if the world knew of our existence. Chaos.”

“Yes, imagine.”

The light knock on the door was followed by Riker sticking his head in. “We have the meeting with the clients.”

“Are they here?”

“Not yet but should be any time. We should have a last minute huddle.”

Parker groaned. “He’s right. You know the Italians.”

“Why are they here again?” I snapped. The answer was clear, but I still didn’t want to waste my time with them.

“To build a bridge or extend an olive branch. Pick one.” Parker grabbed his laptop and headed for the door. He’d put together a colorful presentation on the global markets. It succinctly highlighted the fact that two could play together in the sandbox and still remain extremely wealthy.

Riker glanced in my direction, waiting until Parker left. “I heard you went to see Daphne.”

“News travels fast. I heard she smelled you covered in blood.”

“Yeah, she’s staying for a week in between apartments. She followed me around the house for thirty minutes.”

“What did you tell her?”

“As little as possible,” Riker admitted. “She’s tenacious.”

“I know. We need to be careful.”

“I’m aware of that. No sign of Sedona?”

“Not yet. Let’s get going so we can get this over with,” I clapped him on the back, wishing this meeting was already finished. Then I would hunt the woman down.

We walked into the large conference room, the well-lit area perfect for making guests and perspective clients feel like our worth meant something. I immediately moved to the bar, grabbing a bottle of water while Riker closed the door.

Mother wasn’t usually interested in being involved with these types of meetings and right now, I was glad she wouldn’t be attending. I wasn’t ready to hear another gothic warning about our future.

“We need to maintain our composure,” Parker started off as he was busy setting up the visual display.

“That’s right,” Chase huffed. “The Italians are hotheads and never believe in anything even when the truth is shoved right in front of them.”

“Sounds like someone we know,” Riker chided.

Chase puffed up and I moved toward them. “We’re not getting into it right now. Period. This is a business meeting about our billion-dollar company. Understood? We’ll talk later.”

We all heard commotion outside and I grimaced. If the Italians were going to start out fighting, then they could kiss my ass.

The door was thrown open, one of our assistants struggling and berating whoever was trying to get inside.

“You can’t just go in there!” Gina barked. “They are in a meeting.”

“I don’t care.”

Sedona.

What the hell was she doing here?

She waltzed in and Gina followed, talking loudly as she continued to try to explain. “I’m sorry, gentlemen. This… woman refused to obey the rules. Do you want me to contact security?”

“That won’t be necessary,” I told her.

“What rules? Wolfen rules?” Sedona snapped. “The big, bad wolf is going to punish me?”

She had no idea how much I craved doing so.

She allowed her gaze to sweep the room once, but her eyes found mine.

And they were full of venom.