KnightForce Deuces (18 page)

“Not going to argue with you
.” Jasmine
waited a few minutes, checked their link and smiled. Silas was
asleep. She sat on the sofa and listened in to his La Patron link.
So many conversations going on at once, how did he manage
it?

“Three full-bloods were taken and forced to
work with the rebels. Their families were threatened; they were
told you wouldn’t get involved. I think the way Chase terminated
Brennan sent a message and I suggest we continue,
” Angus
said.

Jasmine listened and wondered what kind of
message, if any, the Alphas received when Silas was
asleep.

“Silas?
” Angus called again.

Jasmine struggled with the idea of answering
Angus so he wouldn’t worry or not saying anything and allowing
Angus’ message go to whatever voicemail Silas set up.

“Those bastards
,” Angus said jolting
Jasmine out of her thoughts.

“What bastards
?” she asked without
thinking.

“Jasmine? Fuck! What happened to Silas? Is
he alright
?”

She blinked a few times at his tone before his
words penetrated. “
Huh? Silas is sleeping, he was so tired his
Alpha link bled into our private link. You can’t sense
me?”

“No. He’s never so tired that he doesn’t
protect you from his more public link
,” Angus said. “
You
finally put him to bed, thanks. He wouldn’t listen to anyone
else
.”

Touched by his words, she smiled. “
Actually,
he was going to rest anyway but I broke the quarantine and came
upstairs to push things along.”

“The entire Nation is
grateful.”

“Who were you calling bastards?
” she
asked.

“The rebels who blew up the
half-breeds in Colorado. They changed the rules of the game and
will be hunted like dogs and exterminated like the roaches they
are.”

Jasmine’s lips pursed at the colorful example.
“
Are you saying they never did anything like this
before?”

“Not this degree of violence or
expertise either. Silas and I both smelled for bombs and didn’t
find anything.”

“What does that tell
you?”

“That the game has
changed.”

“Or the players,”
she said
softly.

Angus didn’t say anything and then whistled.
“
Someone’s taking advantage of our conflict with the rebels? I
can see that. The fire department said that explosion was done by
someone highly skilled in electronics and explosives. Those
services aren’t cheap.”

“Any chance it could be connected to what’s
going on here
?” she asked thinking of various
scenarios.

“Anything is possible,
” he said.
“
Walk me through what you think about the players
changing.”

“Ever since Silas slapped the hands of the
president, the Joint Chiefs, and shook the world economy, the
attacks against us have been more and more sophisticated. I think
they are involved in some way.
”

He told her what happened with the rebel
attack.

“And you didn’t smell them? The only way
that happened is if they used some sort of device and where would
they get that from
?” she asked more convinced than before that
some part of the government was involved.

“Hawke’s brother used a dampening device.
But Jasper examined the rebels and didn’t find any devices or
anything. There was a strange odor but it dissipated when they
died. Maybe that had something to do with it
,” Angus
said.

“Pity none of them lived so you could
research it
,” she said.

“Actually…. we captured three of
them. Turned out they had been looking to escape the rebel
group.”

“Can you trust what they say?
” she
asked.

“Most of the information I took from their
memories, all three had similar stories
.
Started out just
for fun and when they wanted to leave, couldn’t.”
Angus paused.
“
One second, Jasper is scanning them now.
”

Jasmine returned to the bedroom door and looked
in on Silas; he hadn’t moved from his spot on the bed. She closed
the door, headed to the kitchen to start cooking; it always helped
her think. A single knock sounded on the front door and then Tyrese
walked in.

“Ma?”

“In here.” She pulled out ingredients for a
cake.

Tyrese placed a kiss on her cheek. “Where’s
Silas?”

“Sleeping.” She tipped her head back toward the
bedroom.

Tyrese’s brow rose but he didn’t say
anything.

Jasmine said, “I appreciate Danielle helping
out as much as she has the past few days and now she’s watching the
kids for me.”

Tyrese smiled. “Since she didn’t have a large
family growing up, she’s in heaven right now. Especially with David
and Renee, she thinks they are going to change the world. What are
you making?”

“A pound cake.” She glanced at him.

He quickly sat at the table, watching her
measure out ingredients. When she placed the batter into the oven,
she cleaned everything and prepared to make pies. She hadn’t made
much sense of her jumbled thoughts yet. What would the government
gain by targeting them? Silas acted as if humans weren’t a real
threat but history proved otherwise.

“Rone’s son…”

Jasmine’s stomach clenched in remembrance. So
much happened in such a short space of time.

“What happened? I thought I’d pass out from the
pain.” Tyrese looked at her.

Jasmine never fully understood how her sons
were connected and wasn’t surprised Tyrese experienced Tyrone’s
pain.

“Ryder got tangled in the cord and didn’t come
down right. Matt worked really hard to save him. It was touchy for
a little while,” she said, her heart heavy just thinking about it.
Rose lost it and Danielle comforted her while Davian held onto
Tyrone when he collapsed with a panic attack when the baby didn’t
respond. According to Danielle, Matt focused solely on Ryder and
when the baby finally released a cry, Rose and Danielle joined
him.

“Dani tried to explain but kept crying, I knew
it had been bad. I’m glad Matt was there,” Tyrese said.

Thinking of her argument with Silas over Matt’s
arrival, she was happy she pushed. Otherwise things could have been
drastically different.

“We got a break
,” Angus said. “
The
full-bloods we captured still have that peculiar odor. They said
they were given something to drink right before they shifted for
the attack but didn’t know what was in the cup. Chase sent them to
his lab for blood work; we should find out something soon.
Hopefully we can copy it, using that in the field would
help.”

“That’s good news, I’ll let Silas
know,” Jasmine said.

“We got another lead. There’s
another attack scheduled in a couple of days. One of the
full-bloods was scheduled to go to meet a group in Boulder but was
pulled for this operation at the last minute. Chase got a report of
rebels in that area, we’re going to check it out.”

“You think it’s another group of
bombers?”

“Maybe. But they’ll pay for the
lives of those four pack members either way.”

Chapter 18

Silas’ eyes flew open. His heartbeat pounded.
Taking a huge gulp of air, he lay still and filtered scents and
sounds. Exhaling, he rolled over from the sweat-dampened sheets and
stared at the ceiling. Had he been dreaming? Or did he and Jasmine
actually stand in front of the Goddess discussing Wolf politics?
Jasmine accused her former government of deliberate sabotage of the
pack. She claimed they were secretly funding weapons that would
harm or destroy both full-bloods and half-breeds. He shook his
head. Standing before the Goddess in a long white Grecian-style
dress, with gold braids framing her waist, she stated her position
without fear and a level of confidence that still surprised
him.

How had she figured out what he and Jacques
suspected for decades? Not that he blamed them. If he were
president of the United States and had been informed there were
dual-natured individuals living in the country, he would have done
exactly what Lincoln had done decades ago. Search for ways to
survive against an enemy attack. With the addition of millions of
half-breeds, the human government had been thrown a curve ball of
gigantic proportions. Half-breeds were more human than wolf and not
the animals Silas suspected the government had been comfortably
calling his pack.

“Jasmine?”

“Yes
?”

He scooted to the edge of the bed and stood.
Rested, he followed the scent of food. His mate had the strangest
habits. But if cooking a few meals eased her, he had no complaints.
Entering the kitchen, he froze as a greeting died in his
throat.

Jasmine stood in the middle of the kitchen,
stirring something in a large, yellow ceramic bowl. Cakes, pies,
cookies and assorted other foods covered the countertops. A few
platters of delicacies lay atop the table.

“How long did I sleep?” He asked running his
hand through his hair while staring at the overflowing
counters.

“Hmm?” She looked up at him.

Silas waved at all the food. “How long was I
out?”

“A few hours.” She said, pouring batter into a
pan.

He nodded and picked up a glazed pastry. “I had
a strange… dream?” After swallowing the sweet, he told her about
the visit with the Goddess and the conversation.

Jasmine’s mouth dropped open and then she
frowned. “Could that have happened without me being aware of
it?”

“Not that I know of but you don’t seem that
surprised about the conversation.” He leaned against the counter,
watching her.

She waved her hand. “If you mean about the
government, no, that doesn’t surprise me. When all the layers are
peeled, you’ll find some super-secret government group underwriting
the chemicals, bombs and all kinds of things against
us.”

Pleased she firmly identified with his pack, he
popped another pastry into his mouth. “I agree with you. Not sure
about the flesh bombs, though.” Their most recent request to meet
with him and Hawke came right after Froggy died. His spirits
lagged, thinking of his old friend who had supported him 100
percent from day one.

She grabbed a bottle of water from the
refrigerator. “One question, how do you keep all the conversations
straight that’re going on inside your head? So many calling out,
asking for different things. After Angus, I shut it
down.”

His brow rose, he never allowed his La Patron
link to bleed into their personal one. He wouldn’t work to that
point of exhaustion again. “What’s going on with him?”

Jasmine repeated the conversation she had with
his litter-mate.

“I hope he shuts this case down without anyone
else dying; Chase could use a break.”

“So could you.” She paused. “What was the
Goddess’ answer to everything going on?”

“That’s what was so strange. She never answered
any of my questions. Instead, we both listened to you.”

“Me?” Jasmine shook her head. “You don’t listen
to me when it comes to stuff like this.”

“Why do you say that?”

She met his gaze and offered a half-smile. “Do
I need to give an example of times I offered advice and you didn’t
listen?”

Thoughts of their more recent arguments filled
his mind, like the time he sent Tyrese to Lyrill and almost started
a war. She had warned him something wasn’t right about the entire
situation but he hadn’t taken her advice. Then the whole thing with
Rose giving birth and needing a doctor; he hadn’t been thinking
about the particulars.

Pulling out a chair, he sat down at the table.
An appetizing pastry with some kind of fruit filled a platter in
front of him. He took one and pointed at her. “Okay, I’m
listening.”

“What?”

After two bites, he finished and picked up
another. “Talk to me. What do you think is going on and how can we
stop it?”

Jasmine pulled out a chair and sat in front of
him. “First off, you’ve gotta stop playing with the Feds. Just
because you don’t think highly of humans doesn’t mean they aren’t
sneaky. They’ll attack when you least suspect.” She held up her
hand, stopping his response. “I know you have full-bloods and
probably half-breeds in every branch of government but they’re
being watched as well. Chances are they receive diluted information
to pass on. Think about it, no one warned you about the poison or
the Liege. But someone knew.”

Silas nodded. “You’re right. To a point.” He
looked down at the empty plate with crumbs. “Those were
good.”

Glancing at the crumbs on his mouth, she
smiled. “I can tell.”

“Not only do I have full-bloods in every branch
but they work in government labs creating all kinds of things. I
think the government has something in place that allows them to
differentiate between full-bloods and humans but that wasn’t always
the case. Pack members infiltrated deep into the system and set-up
all types of protocols that enable us access secure databases to
this day.”