Deadly Pack (Deadly Trilogy Book 3) (10 page)

I opened my mouth to tell them as much, but was stopped short by a high-pitched shout.  “Get out of my way, Dominic!”  My heart tripped at the panicked voice.  Mom.  There goes not causing a scene.  I swiveled in my seat and winced, catching sight of her pushing and shoving at Dominic’s chest, trying and failing to get past him.  “I’m serious,” she shouted.  “Get out of my way!”

I glanced back at the werecougars, taking in their smug grins.  Every cell in my body buzzed with awareness.  These two weren’t here to bring me back to my father.  They were only here to track me down.  I was sure that my dad knew they’d never stand a chance, just the two of them.  And I was also pretty sure that he didn’t expect to see them again.  They hadn’t been calling in reinforcements.  They’d been calling for my mother.

I had to admit that it was actually a pretty smart play, sending in someone I loved who couldn’t defend themselves against a bunch of shifters.  Dad knew I wouldn’t ignore her.  That I’d protect her.  That I’d leave with her to get her out of harm’s way.

The tall one chuckled and I shot him a dirty look.  He shrugged.  “Like I said, we’re not on his bad side.  Your mom’s pretty worried, too.  She wasn’t too happy to hear about how your mate manhandled you and tossed you into a car.”  His expression changed to one of mock concern.  “If he does that in public, one can only wonder what kind of a beating he gave you when he got you back home.”

I laughed once, feeling sick and cold and a little shaky.  “Dom!” I called, drawing his attention.  People were starting to look.  At us.  At Mom and Dominic.

I waved him over.  Mom stopped flailing and yelling, and she stepped around him.   She rushed toward us with a determined gait.  She’d dressed in a hurry.  I couldn’t remember ever seeing her leave the house in jogging pants before.  Her face was splotchy and tear-stained.  Her hair, a tangled mess.

I needed to think.  If Dominic was here, most of the pack would be with him.  I took a quick look out the large front window, spotting the two wolves and a few other pack members in human form pacing the parking lot.  People walked by the wolves, barely paying them any attention, as if seeing them in town was a normal occurrence, but then, I guessed it kind of was normal.  It should have made me feel better, but at that moment it really didn’t.

When Mom reached our table, Aidan let his arm drop from my shoulder, and he sat a little straighter beside me.  “Hi, Pam,” he said casually, if not a bit cautiously.  He offered her a smile, which actually looked pretty believable, but it didn’t fool me.  His scent carried a hot spike of anger.

Mom completely ignored him, keeping her tear-filled eyes on me.  “Jade, honey.  You need to come with me, right now.”  She held out a hand to me, her eyes pleading with me to take it.

I hesitated.  I didn’t know what to do.  She couldn’t stay here and I wasn’t going to leave with her and go to my dad.  I didn’t know what lies she’d been told, but by the way she was glaring at Aidan, I could take a pretty good guess.

“Pam, why don’t you sit down for a minute?” Beck said, waving to the empty place beside me.

Mom dropped her outstretched hand.  She glanced at Beck, and then at the others as if she were only noticing them now.  Her face crumbled and she made a strangled sound from the back of her throat.  “I trusted you boys,” she whispered.  “How could you let this happen to her?”

Resolve settled itself in my belly as I listened to my
mom and saw the heartbreak in her eyes.  It was time.  She needed to know everything.  Beck opened his mouth, but I jumped in before he could get anything out.  “Aidan, give me your keys.”

The werecougar who’d sat down, rose from his chair and said, “You’re not going anywhere.”  He folded his arms over his chest.  I thought he was probably trying to go for tough, but he failed.  He was short, stubby; he might be a shifter, but he clearly wasn’t a match for the team or Aidan.

I laughed once, a startled sound, and slid out of the booth.  “You really think you can stop me?  Look around this table.”  My voice was rising, coated with anger, and I waved a hand toward the front window.  “Look outside.”

The men looked to where I pointed and they cursed under their breath.  They started to back away, but didn’t make it far.  Landon and Mark were out of their seats in a blink, blocking their way.

I looked down at Aidan, still sitting in the booth.  He hadn’t moved to grab his keys.  He was giving me a look that said he wasn’t letting me out of his sight.  “I need a pedicure,” I said and held out my hand to Aidan.

“Shit,” Dominic muttered, from his place behind my mom.  “Jade, maybe that’s not …”

I cut him a look and didn’t let him finish.  “It’s time, Dom.  Call Mac, okay?”  I looked back to Aidan, and held his eyes, pleading with him not to argue.  “Give me your keys,” I demanded.  “I’m taking Mom back to our place.”

He frowned.  I knew he was confused.  I knew he had no idea what I was doing or thinking.  He glanced at Dominic, then at my
mom, and then he dug his keys out of his pocket and tossed them to me.  “Take Mark and a couple other members with you.”

I leaned into him, kissing the corner of his mouth.  “Love you, baby.”

~ AIDAN ~

Jade needed a pedicure.

At one time, not very long ago, I thought that having Jade in my life would never be boring.  I wasn’t wrong.  Since meeting her, I hadn’t had a boring day.  I hadn’t even had a boring hour.  I remembered being happy about that, knowing that no two days would ever be the same.  I was glad that she didn’t back down with me.  She challenged me.  She surprised me.  She kept me on my toes.

Now, though, a part of me wanted the boring.  We had two werecougars at our table.  We still hadn’t come to a decision on what to do with the team.  Her mom thought I was abusing her.  Her dad was clearly done pretending to be working with us.  The werecougars were not only trying to bring in more women, but there were three kids, one of them, a young girl within their clutches.  And Jade thought now was the time for a freakin’ pedicure.  I seriously didn’t even know what to think about that.

Jade wrapped an arm around her mother’s waist and ushered her through the diner, Mark following closely behind her.  She didn’t look back, not once, and in a few short seconds, she was out the door.

Letting her go went against ever
y protective instinct I had.  I wasn’t the only one struggling with it either.  The team, Dominic, we were all on edge.  But that determined glint in her eyes … I knew if I didn’t give her the keys, she would have left anyway.  Having the car with doors that locked made me feel a bit better, but not much.

When the door shut behind them, I met Dominic’s eyes and arched an eyebrow.  He knew I wanted to know what this
pedicure
crap was about, but he only shook his head.  He looked conflicted as if he weren’t entirely sure if he should stop her or let her go.  It was obvious that he knew exactly what Jade was up to.  He huffed and shook his head again and then he yanked out his phone, most likely to call Marcy.

“I’m still thinking that these morons pissed off Jeff,” Craig said.  He rose slowly and stretched his arms over his head lazily.

“Yep,” I agreed.  “Or he just forgot to give them an exit strategy.”  I lifted my shoulders in a half-hearted shrug.  “Maybe it’s just a simple oversight.”

I looked at our guests.  I didn’t have a clue what to do with them.  I couldn’t just let them go.  Except right then, that’s exactly what I wanted to do.  If only
to give me the time to go after Jade and find out what the hell she was up to.

“You all aren’t going to do anything,” the chubby one sneered.  “We’re in public.”

“We’re in a town that loves our pack,” Beck said.  He was smiling, a manic kind of smile, that actually gave me a little chill.  He jerked his chin toward the front of the diner, pointing out the wolves still pacing in the parking lot.  “No one even blinks at our presence.”

The waitress started our way, a couple menus clutched against her chest.  Her bright smile was gone, a forced one in its place.  She stopped at our table.  “Menus?” she asked, looking at our company and then back to me.  Her scent told me she was a bit nervous, but she was far from scared.  I couldn’t really blame her, not after watching Pam’s little freak out with Dominic at the door.

“They won’t be staying,” I said, smiling as warmly as I could.  “And we won’t be either.  Could you put a stop on our order?”

She nodded and her face fell, disappointed.  “Sure.”

I pulled out my wallet and tossed a few twenties on the table to cover our bill, before standing up.  I waved my hand in an
after you
kind of gesture to our guests and said, “Let’s go.”

The guys moved in around the werecougars, forcing them to walk through the utterly quiet diner.  People watched us move, although it wasn’t with fear.  It was curious gazes that followed us out, and I found myself thinking that it was actually kind of nice that the town knew about us, trusted us.  It sure made some parts of pack life a hell of a lot easier.

The werecougars didn’t put up a fight.  No.  They moved out the doors without a word, heads hanging.  I thought they were probably cluing in to the fact that no one was coming to help them.  That Jeff had thrown them to the wolves — literally.  At least these two had some sense of self-preservation, unlike the idiot who’d bitten me last night.  Or maybe they had just simply given up.  The truth?  I didn’t really care either way.

In the parking lot, there were more pack members in wolf form than I’d noticed from inside.  Six wolves, all various shades of brown, circled Beck, Craig, and Landon, as they put the cougars into a truck and got in.  A couple of the pack members hopped into the truck bed, and then they pulled out of the lot.  The wolves loped after them and I gave out orders for everyone else to head back to the headquarters.

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.”