Secrets and Shadows (15 page)
Her eyes slid toward me. “You know the truth isn’t always accepted. Or believed.”
“Yeah. They don’t trust you.”
Wanda nodded. “So I need a huge favor. I need you to plant a bug.”
“What?! I. Wil . Not.”
“Jessie. This can alert us if trouble starts or if somebody gets hurt. We can get someone there to prevent it from making the papers.” She touched my shoulder with her free hand.
I shook it off.
“If the public found out, they’d be hauled away, you know? There’d be no more—”
“No more Rusakova family.” She was right. If Pietr wondered what sort of monster crawled beneath his skin, what would the public demand the government do to find out?
“What if the Mafia returns? They’l need backup.”
Another good point. “You do it.”
“They’l be watching me, Jessie. I won’t have a chance.” She fished around in her purse and pul ed the bug out.
Such a smal thing, real y.
“They trust you.”
“That’s because I won’t betray them.”
“Right. You won’t. You’l
protect
them. If there’s trouble, we’l know about it. We can get there and help.”
Opening my hand she placed the bug in my palm. “Help us help them, Jessie.”
“Where?”
“Under a table in the sitting room.”
“Okay. But if they catch me we’re both in big trouble. I
will
throw you to the wolves. Like a juicy bone.”
“Nice.” She pul ed back onto the road. “Glad to know you haven’t become jaded by helping your government and friends.”
“Yeah. What were the odds of that?”
* * *
“They’l need to hunt,” he pointed out. “Otherwise we can’t maintain their calorie count.”
Wanda glanced at each of the Rusakovas in turn.
“You don’t want them roaming hungry, do you?” Alexi asked.
“No.
Crap
.”
“Not so easy being a werewolf keeper, is it?”
“You are not our keeper,” Max snarled.
Alexi braced himself. “I
am
my brother’s keeper,” he said. “And, like it or not, I am stil your brother.”
Max paced. Growling. I heard joints snap, changing. Without looking, I knew his eyes glowed red with emotion.
“Max…” I stepped back.
He swung his head toward Alexi, jaws long and lined with sharp teeth, eyes glowing like banked coals
—holding his transformation mid-change. It seemed even more a threat—seeing the wolf’s head on the broad human shoulders.
Max puffed out a breath. “Brrrrotherrr.” He swung his heavy head toward Pietr. “Brrrrotherrr,” he repeated, looking to Catherine. Swinging his head back to center, he lunged, snapping at Alexi; his teeth closing a hairsbreadth from Alexi’s face.
I jumped.
Alexi simply sighed. “You want the job?” he asked Wanda as Max’s feral features sank back into his human face.
“Hunting.” She hit something on her cel phone. “Signal’s not so good in here.” She stepped out of the sitting room, fol owed by the Rusakovas.
It was my chance.
They trailed her past the staircase. The back door made its regular whine of protest and I dropped to my knees, reaching under the marble-topped table to plant the bug. It stuck easily. I was preparing to stand when I heard him.
Which meant he
wanted
me to hear him.
“Lose something?” Pietr asked.
“Just—”
“Don’t lie to me, Jess.” In two quick strides he closed the distance between us. “What have you done?”
So close his breath warmed me al the way down, he dropped to al fours, the grace of the wild animal within ever-present.
He stood again, a lithe move that set my heart pounding far more than my fear at being found out.
Encircling my wrist with his fingers, he towed me onto the front porch.
Encircling my wrist with his fingers, he towed me onto the front porch.
“Why…” He released me to rake a hand through his hair. “Why would you bug us?” He arched toward me, his height accentuated as he threw me in shadow. His searching eyes clouded with anguish, and I felt a pang in my stomach. “Why betray us?”
“No, Pietr—no betrayal—” I rested a hand on the wal , throat burning as my heart and lungs battled in my chest. “A safety precaution,” I gasped. “Please.
Puzhalsta
. Believe me.” I reached up to touch his face.
He flinched, closing his eyes.
“I would
never
betray you.” My hands walked down his arms. His skin was chil ed by my touch; goose bumps rose wherever my fingers traveled. “Believe me, Pietr. Take the bug, crush it.”
“How did Wanda convince you to do this?”
“Things are so volatile right now, and if you get into a bad situation, the CIA may be useful.”
He opened his eyes to marvel at my hands. Clinging to his arms.
“Pietr. What if the Mafia comes back? Don’t you want some firepower on your side?” I stepped deeper into the shadow he cast, resting my head on his chest.
He stiffened, frozen like a rabbit who’d just spotted a hound. “You smel like
him
,” he murmured, the words tinged with disgust. But his heart sped at my nearness, racing even faster than normal. “Stop,” he begged, nudging me back.
“I can’t stand the idea of you being hurt. I’l do anything to protect you,” I swore.
He sighed, a ragged, beaten sound. “We’l discuss important things in another room.”
“What?”
Sunlight sneaked across me as he stepped back. “It stays. I don’t trust Wanda, but in this, she could be useful. Are there any other bugs?”
“Not that I know of. I mean, the phone’s stil tapped.…”
“
Da
. We make few cal s that interest the CIA.”
“Yeah. Thursday’s weekly pizza order probably doesn’t top their list of concerns.”
He chuckled.
“I miss that,” I said, examining the wood floor of the expansive porch.
“What?” he asked, voice going gruff.
“Your laugh.” I raised my eyes to his, hoping he read the emotion in them.
He looked away, intrigued by the dining room window.
“I miss a lot of things,” I said, advancing. My hand reached up and rested on his chest, the heat of him scalding my palm. “I miss holding you. And you holding me. I don’t want Derek.”
He winced at his name.
“I want
you
.” I took another half step forward, pinning my hand between us as I stared up into his glittering blue eyes. “
Pocelujte menyah
,” I begged, lips reaching up to soften the hard line of his mouth.
He roared, knocking me back with the sound. Hunched, nostrils wide, lips curled to expose his teeth, he glared at me with wildly glowing eyes. “You do
not
underrrstand,” he seethed.
“What the—?” Wanda came crashing out the front door.
Pietr dodged around her, his feet pounding al the way up the stairs. A door slammed.
Wanda looked at me. “You okay?”
I nodded.
“Great.” Her eyes scoured my face and body, like she searched for physical wounds. “Time to go. The hunting issue’s resolved. They won’t starve now.”
“Good.”
She put a hand on my back and slowly guided me down the stairs and to the car. She opened my door, and I fel onto the seat. Wanda reached over, dragging my seat belt across my body. Watching me the whole time, she clicked it together before fixing her own.
She started the car and pul ed it away from the curb. “Um. I—” Staring straight ahead at the road, she suggested, “Maybe you should step back from this. It’s a lot to handle. We’l deal with the werewolves.”
“They have names,” I insisted.
“So? They’re werewolves.”
“But it’s … it’s like you’re…” I blew out a breath. “Like you’re dehumanizing them.”
Wanda glared at the road.
“Maybe it makes it al easier. Hunting them and throwing them in for testing. If you don’t use their names, don’t think of them as human … it’s gotta’ make it easier.”
“You’re too close to this,” Wanda accused me. She pounded the steering wheel and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, “Maybe I am, too.” Her fingers curled around the wheel. “Take a break, Jessie. Let me handle this. I’l make sure they get a fair shake.”
“They don’t trust you, Wanda.”
“Yeah. But I think you need to be better protected.”
I turned. Looked at her.
“They’re monsters.”
“That’s what Edward thought.”
“Oh, yeah? He a friend of yours?” Wanda asked.
“No, Miss Librarian. Just a main character in a wildly popular vampire series.”
“Huh. And what did that series teach you?”
“A bunch. Partly that sometimes good people don’t get the chance they deserve to prove they’re good
people
.”
She sighed, reminding me suddenly of Dad. She was too rough to compare to Mom. “Your dad wants to protect you. That psychiatrist you were seeing wants to protect you. I think maybe I should consider protecting you, too.”
“Don’t do me any favors. There’s nothing to protect me from. Other than rampaging CIA agents. And the Russian Mafia.”
“Protecting your body’s one thing. Protecting your heart—you’re overlooking that. It’s easy to do first time out.”
I looked at her.
Really
looked at her. It was the first time I’d wondered about Wanda. What was her story, anyhow? No one just popped into existence as a CIA agent wading through old files the USSR
dumped in an attempt to extend a hand of friendship to a Cold War enemy.
dumped in an attempt to extend a hand of friendship to a Cold War enemy.
“I think I love him, Wanda.”
“That’s a very grown-up sentiment.”
“My mother’s dead. I’ve learned the world’s a hel —”
She shot me a look.
“The world’s a
heck
of a lot weirder than I ever dreamed. I’ve been shot at and I’ve kil ed a man in self-defense. Pardon me if I’m starting to feel I have the right to grown-up expressions of emotion.”
“Love’s big.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s why you were sent home sick.”
I didn’t bother answering.
“He’s dating your best friend.”
“
One
of my best friends,” I corrected.
“A little advice from someone who’s been there?”
“Why the
heck
not?” I shrugged.
“Go out with the footbal star. He’s real y something. Just—look out for yourself first.”
“Is that what you’re doing with my dad?”
“Aw, crap, Jessie.” She shook her head.
“Because he needs protecting, too.” I focused my eyes straight out the windshield at the leaves bouncing across the blacktop. “Seems that’s my job. Jessie Gil mansen—protector of
werewolves
and grown men. Don’t screw with the people I love, Wanda.”
Dr. Jones peered up from her seat at the desk when I entered. “Miss Gil mansen. I didn’t expect you to come back.”
My shoulders rose in a shrug. “I figured you might have fil ed my appointment slot, but it was worth a try.
”
“Real y?” Her gaze threatened to level me.
“Yes. Those things I said last time…”
She crossed her arms and leaned back. “Yes. About the Russian Mafia, the CIA…”
“And werewolves.”
A smirk tugged at her lips. “Who could forget
werewolves?
”
“Those things I told you were—” The corner of my lips twitched.
“Lies,” she concluded.
At least
I
hadn’t needed to say it.
“Would you like to start again?” She glanced at the clock.
“Yes.”
“Shal we focus on your expression of grief at the loss of your mother?”
My throat tight, the words burned a trail toward my tongue and stopped. Dried up like dust and clogged my mouth. My eyes stung. But I nodded, pul ed my hands from my pockets, and sat.
* * *
“Ah, crap, Dad. Is Wanda coming over again?”
“Nope. She should already
be
over at this point.”
“Funny guy,” I said.
“Hey, who’s to say your imprisonment can’t at least be fun for one of us?”
“It would be fun if my friends could visit,” I sniffed.
“Tomorrow,” he promised. His fingers drummed on the dash. He backed the truck up. “Don’t even say
his
name,” he dared.
So I did. “Pietr’s my friend.” Dad didn’t know it wasn’t true anymore.
He white-knuckled the steering wheel at the mention of his name. “Leave that boy to Sarah. I know he seemed to be warmin’ to you, but you get round him and you do stupid things. And I know you say he didn’t hit you—what—you
fell
, right?”
I nodded. I had fal en. While being wal oped by an attacker of the CIA variety.
“So you do stupid stuff
and
get clumsy? I don’t know. There’s somethin’ not quite right about that boy.
He’s dangerous.”
“But Wanda, with her col ection of firearms, is—”
“Wel prepared and charmin’,” he quipped.
“Wow.” I’d thought about forcing her out of the picture, but I needed her to get me back and forth to the Rusakovas’. I just never thought … “Eeeww, Dad.
Charming?
”
He grinned. From ear to ear.
“Have you
met
Wanda?”
“I’ve done more than that,” he said, puffing his chest out.
I blushed for us both. “Daaad…”
“Kissin’—kissin’! Geez, Jessie. See what I mean? Even talkin’ about that boy gets you thinkin’ stupid stuff.”
In a blink we’d blown through Junction and I’d missed my favorite part of therapy: Main Street.
Dad parked the truck and looked at me. “Pietr’s trouble, Jessie. He’s the reason you lie—”