Page 16 of Cruel Revenge (Jacky Leon #12)

CHAPTER TWELVE

I t was nearly seven when I got into my car with Carey. Behind us was an SUV full of werewolves, being driven by Stacy.

“Are you ready for this?” I asked Carey, who shook her head quickly.

“Not at all. I thought I was, but now that it’s time…

” She took a deep breath in, closing her eyes.

She held it for four counts, then exhaled.

“I’m just nervous. That’s all. I mean, who wouldn’t be?

It’s crazy that she could just fly out and do this.

I guess it’s a good sign that she was willing to do that for me.

It makes everything feel so fast, though.

We’ve been texting for a few weeks, really slowly, just surface stuff, and now it’s… happening.”

“Why did you keep it from us?”

“Because she wasn’t saying anything concerning,” Carey said, looking at her hands.

“Asking how far I was in school now, happy to know I was actually enrolled in college and not high school. She told me about her work. We never talked about werewolves or where I was at any point or what type of guards I normally had, you know, the red flags I have to watch for.”

“Fair enough.”

“And like…” Carey made a multitude of faces in succession, all of them unreadable because of how they mushed and blended together as she collected whatever thoughts she was having.

“If I got you or Dad involved, it would become a Thing that everyone had to deal with when I could handle it myself until this point. I know Dirk doesn’t monitor my phone unless I tell him something happened, so I just didn’t tell Dirk, and no one figured it out. ”

Going to talk to Dirk about that…

“Well…” I didn’t like the subterfuge. I put my car in drive and started the trip to Tyler. “Next time… trust us a bit more.”

“I do trust you!” Carey said quickly, her eyes going wide.

I gave her a look.

“You trust me, but you don’t tell me literally everything!” she said, huffing.

“I’m not a sixteen-year-old girl,” I retorted.

“I know this won’t be anything more than a dinner, Jacky. It’s just something I have to do, and when I needed you, I trusted you to help instead of trying to sneak off to do it.”

“Fair,” I conceded. I wouldn’t admit to anyone, not even Heath, that the reason I let her win was because of how pleased I was to hear how this was only going to be a dinner. The implication was that Courtney wasn’t going to become an important piece of our lives, at least not today.

Carey thinks I’m not selfish. She has no idea how selfish I can be, especially with her and her father.

For how immense my possessive feelings were, there was an equal measure of guilt. I didn’t own them. Heath wasn’t my mate, and Carey wasn’t my daughter. I just desperately wanted those things. There was a difference, and I had to recognize that.

It’s not normally this bad. I can’t forget that the curse changes how our minds work, too.

Makes werecats more insular and therefore, more possessive when we do let people in.

Courtney… she’s the one who triggered how bad it is right now.

She’s a threat. But I can’t let the curse control me and make me act badly.

We drove silently after that, not for lack of Carey trying to start conversations, I just couldn’t engage anymore. I was riding a thin line of wanting to turn around and wanting to kill Courtney on sight for daring to threaten my little piece of the world.

I will control myself for Carey. Courtney is her real mother. I’m in control of my curse.

Once we were at the restaurant, I was ready for what was coming. I took several deep breaths to center myself, just to be certain.

“It’s okay to be nervous, Jacky,” Carey said softly as we sat in my parked car.

“I should be saying that to you,” I said, shaking my head.

“Are you going to be okay?”

“Yes,” I promised. “The curse is making me have some intrusive thoughts. I am just trying to dismiss them.”

“You can tell me about it.”

“Afterward,” I promised. Remembering the important talk I wanted to have with her after dinner, I also remembered the talk I needed to have right now. “But before we go in, you should know one important thing.”

“What’s up?”

“Your father does know. I told him last night,” I said simply, not bothering to beat around the bush or try to soften it.

“Oh.”

“Obviously, he wasn’t going to stop you from meeting your mother. He also agreed about why you wouldn’t want him to come. He’s glad I’m here with you. He loves you. He hopes you get whatever you need out of this.”

Carey’s eyes filled with tears, and she started nodding quickly.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“We both love you, Carey,” I continued, trying not to be too emotional either. “We just want what’s best for you and to let you explore what you need to explore safely .”

“I know,” she said, smiling through watery eyes. She broke eye contact with a strange laugh, wiping her eyes. “Now my makeup is getting messed up. I have to look my best for this. Presentable.” She reached for her bag and pulled out a makeup bag.

“Smart,” I said, chuckling. I didn’t bother with makeup or nice clothes.

I wore what I wore nearly every day. I wasn’t going to be anything but myself for this.

I wasn’t going to try to be like Courtney to compete with her on that level.

Not even the excuse of this being a fancy dinner was going to make me even try.

Carey wanted me, Jacky Leon, here, and I wasn’t going to try being anything other than that.

Once Carey was done, she undid her seatbelt.

“Want to go inside? I think we beat her here.”

I nodded, reaching down to turn on my wire.

“Can you four hear me?” I asked. The werewolves parked only a few spaces from us.

“Loud and clear,” Benjamin said, sounding younger through the earpiece.

I felt bad. He was the youngest teen there, but he had gone through the training.

This was good practice for the harder stuff.

And since he was mostly homeschooled, he had time for the work.

Heath would have never trained Benjamin if he thought it would interfere with the young man’s future or if Benjamin didn’t want it at his age. Benjamin had asked for this.

“Benjamin, how is class going?”

“I’m a straight-A student, so good,” he answered. “Why? Is this the time for that?”

“I’m just curious.”

“She feels bad that you’re here,” Carey said loudly, the mic definitely picking her up. “It’s all over her face.”

I turned a glare in her direction, only to be greeted with a grin.

“Oh. Well… don’t. Heath pays really well. It’s good spending money, and like, the pack has done a lot for me, and I’m old enough to have a job, and this was the job I wanted.”

“Okay.”

“You’d make a good Alpha if you were a werewolf,” Kody said.

“I’ll take that compliment. We’re going in now. Everyone, get into position.”

As Carey and I unloaded, I could see them do the same.

Arlo, Stacy, and Kody looked like the youngest members of the Secret Service to ever exist. None of them looked particularly intimidating to me, but I knew their ages.

Others would probably pause before messing with them based on how they carried themselves.

Carey grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the restaurant. One of the staff opened the door for us.

“Jacky Leon and Carey Everson. We have reservations,” I informed the young man.

“We’ve set up the two tables as requested. The open area near the windows and door, so you can see outside if anything happens.”

“Thank you.” I could see the tables. One had two seats, and the other had one. They were about ten feet apart, easy for me to cross if Courtney had any ideas. Close enough that I wouldn’t have to strain at all to hear the conversation or smell anything suspicious.

Carey and I took our seats after we pulled our jackets off.

Carey delicately hung hers nicely on the back of her chair, while I threw mine on the table where I would be sitting alone.

I was pleased with the spot I picked. I made sure to have us position it so I could see everything between Carey and Courtney, so nothing would be out of sight.

No secret guns under the table or passed notes. I would see it all.

I’m glad I’m marrying someone who doesn’t find this paranoid.

Ten minutes later and two check-ins from the werewolves, the woman of the hour arrived.

“She’s here,” Stacy said over comms.

Courtney Lane was just as tall, maybe even an inch taller than Carey, but it was hard to tell since she wore heels, giving her another potential three inches.

She was dolled up, wearing a perfectly pressed suit with pants.

She didn’t thank the young man who held the door open for her, instead looking directly at Carey, her eyes going wide at the sight of her nearly grown daughter.

I could smell her surprise, her nerves, but I noticed the lack of love.

She didn’t love her own daughter at first sight.

It pissed me off, and she hadn’t opened her mouth yet.

“Carey,” she said, walking quickly, only to stutter to a stop when she realized I was sitting in the room as well. “Oh… you must be…”

“Hi…” Carey said, standing up slowly. “Yeah, I asked Jacky to be here with us, just for… you know, support for me.”

“I just thought we’d have dinner alone. You didn’t mention that we’d have a… chaperone. I haven’t had one of those since I was your age.” She studied me as she spoke, and the smell of her displeasure and disgust with my presence was thick. She didn’t like me on sight.

That was fine. I hated her already. I probably hated her since the moment I learned she abandoned her daughter, which was years ago.

“I’m a minor. Of course, either my dad or my legal guardian needed to know about this. I picked Jacky. Figured you and Dad shouldn’t be in the same room.”

“Legal guardian?” Courtney looked rapidly between us. “She’s my daughter, and you’re not even married to Heath yet. How?”

“It was done years ago,” I said, simply. “Why don’t you two sit down and talk? Pretend like I’m not here,” I said, not bothering to hide my vicious smile.

“Yeah, let’s sit down and eat,” Carey said, pointing to the table for them. Courtney nodded and went to her seat without another word until her coat was off and hung up like Carey’s on the back of her chair.

“Well, Carey, you were right about me and your father. We probably wouldn’t have been able to have a real conversation with him here. He’s always run over conversations.”

No, he doesn’t.

I fought not to say anything. It wasn’t my place today.

“He’s an Alpha werewolf. He sort of commands every room he’s in naturally.

He does make an effort to give people their own space to speak, though.

But we’re not here to talk about my dad.

We’re here to talk about me and you,” Carey said, and I saw something in Carey for a moment that reminded me of her father.

A look, a way of standing, the way she sat down, and stared at her biological mother.

“We are, and I’m so excited to talk about us,” Courtney said, smiling. It wasn’t a lie, but the words still felt dishonest to me. “I have so many questions.”

“Well, Courtney, I’ve been answering your questions for weeks over text, so we’re going to spend today with you answering my questions,” Carey said, her tone drastically changing from the nervous girl a moment ago.

I could smell her nerves, but that flick of anger came roaring back.

“Like, why you think you can abandon me at six weeks old and walk back in my life nearly seventeen years later like nothing happened.”