Page 24 of Cruel Revenge (Jacky Leon #12)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

HEATH

“ L andon, I want you to be Changed by the time we get there,” Heath ordered as he kept his foot hard on the gas.

“Yes, sir!” Landon yelled over the wind.

Shamus opened the window and grabbed Landon’s clothing as his son stripped outside in the bed of the truck moving at high speed.

Once all his clothing was in, the window was shut once again.

Dirk would be there, making sure Landon could Change fully without getting tossed out during the turns.

Heath counted on that. Landon wasn’t going to have control over his body to hold on to himself.

“Alpha… why didn’t I know Stacy and Kody would be out of the territory tonight?” Shamus asked softly.

Alpha. Not Heath. Just Alpha.

Something was going to break tonight between them if one of Shamus’s children was hurt. Something that could be impossible to fix.

Rightfully so. There was always an inherent danger in all of this.

“Because it was just supposed to be dinner. Carey’s biological mother reached out…” Heath’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. It threatened to bend. “I approved the security plan.”

“Really?”

“I did,” Heath confirmed. “And it was no more time than they were out for their classes. They’re all taking classes now, like Carey. Any one of those moments could have put them at risk. I didn’t think, with Jacky there, that something was going to go wrong.”

“Because there had been plenty of chances and no one had taken them before. Because who comes this close to our homes and her territory? Is that what you were thinking?”

“Yes,” Heath admitted to the werewolf he had known for a good long time. He’d watched Stacy and Kody grow up, except for those years he’d been in Jacksonville without any other werewolves. He owed it to Shamus to be fully honest.

“Didn’t you think it was weird that her mother finally came back?” Shamus said, his words getting hotter, more passionate.

“Jacky and my engagement is public knowledge. Carey is getting older. All I thought was that Carey deserved the chance to speak to the woman who birthed her,” Heath said, shaking as he recognized his mistakes without yet speaking them.

Knew Jacky’s mistakes. Even Carey’s. So many mistakes were becoming so clear to him.

“Jacky had made a good plan. It had coverage, and it used everyone to their strengths. Carey didn’t want me there for personal reasons.

I listened to that voice. So did Jacky. It was just a dinner to us.

The group could defend a simple dinner. Should have been a nothing evening. ”

“They were teenagers,” Shamus growled softly.

“They were trained. The only one not a legal adult is Benjamin, but he was in the comms truck, not asked to potentially fight or physically defend anyone. They are now Carey’s official guard.

They can go to places like college classes without standing out too much.

They all wanted to do the job. You helped train them,” Heath reminded him.

“You encouraged Kody and Stacy to find their own roles and jobs in the pack. They picked this. Remember?” Heath turned some heat back on Shamus.

“They were the older ones as well, with far more training than Arlo and Benjamin. Imagine how Teagan feels right now, please. Actually, no, Shamus. My human daughter is missing, too, remember?”

“Jacky would kill anyone for her, though. There’s a chance Jacky has her back already, and they’re safe. We don’t even know where mine are.”

“We don’t know what happened except what humans have fucking put on the news, and she would do anything for your children, too.

She went out of her way for all of you before.

Remember?” Heath’s nostrils flared. “Don’t pick a fight with me right now, Shamus.

I’ll answer questions, but the blame game can wait until we figure out exactly where everything stands. ”

“Is that an order, Alpha?”

“Don’t do that to me. After fucking everything, don’t do that,” Heath said, but didn’t put power in it. It was a request, man to man. Father to father.

“I’ll address you?—”

“I could have made you wait with Ranger,” Heath reminded him with a snarl. “I can stop and order you to walk back right now.”

That made Shamus sink a bit.

“Wow. Father to father,” he said, the words full of acid. “The walk home threat.”

A year-long friendship full of loyalty and trust was breaking.

“If you want a different pack after this, just tell me,” Heath said, trying to control his own breathing, his Talent fully enveloping him so he could maintain some level of control.

Shamus didn’t reply.

“And let’s be honest,” Heath said, his mind turning to the events of the evening.

“As Subira said, the witches did fatal damage to Jacky. That’s what made the necklace she was wearing activate to force her Change so it would heal.

Even if any of this pack was there… if it wasn’t the teens, it would have been you, Roselyn, and Piper.

Maybe Carlos instead of you. But if they could do that to Jacky, what chance did anyone really have?

They would have been more than ready for any werewolves there, except for maybe me and Landon and werewolves at our level.

We’re stronger than Jacky. No one else in the pack is. ”

“I know,” Shamus whispered.

“I’m not going to rest until we know everything and have accounted for everyone. If any of ours are hurt or worse… I won’t stop until we’ve gotten revenge,” Heath promised.

“Thank you, Heath,” Shamus said, a little stronger.

Improvement. Thank the gods.

Getting into Tyler was a nightmare. Worse was getting to the restaurant.

There were press vans on the other side of the street in the far parking lot.

The entire parking lot was taped off. But the worst part was that the road was closed, with a police officer standing in the middle of the road, redirecting traffic.

Heath made the turn anyway as the office held up his hand, yelling.

“Landon, stand up,” he ordered, and the massive brown wolf revealed itself in the bed of his truck, making the officer take several running steps back as Heath opened his window.

“That’s my son, Landon,” Heath called out to the officer, who was reaching for his gun now. “You don’t want to shoot him. It will go very badly for you.”

The officer was shaking as he looked at Heath for only a second. Landon was standing perfectly still.

“You can’t… you can’t come down this road, sir.”

“You don’t have the authority to tell me that,” Heath said. The officer, in his fear of Landon, had moved out of the way, so Heath touched the gas and moved. He drove right up to the tape and parked, not bothering to close the window. He cut the engine and got out.

“Stay here for a moment. Let me talk to them,” he said to the others, particularly Shamus.

Already, there were officers running over to him, yelling orders with their guns drawn. Flashes bothered his eyes already. The cameras were out. They were probably live on every level of news available.

“HANDS UP!”

“GET ON THE GROUND!”

“Are any of you BSA?” he called out, leaning against his truck. “Because if you aren’t, you should call them.”

The mass screaming stopped as someone started waving them to silence, the guy in charge of this herd of officers. Once the screaming stopped, with just the drawn weapons remaining, that officer stepped out in front of the others.

“Mr. Everson! We don’t have time for supernatural games. We have two dead. You need to leave or surrender for arrest!” someone clearly called out. “You can’t be here!”

“Did anyone here even call the BSA?” Heath asked in return.

“They’ve been called, but these bodies are human,” the man said back.

“As far as you know,” Heath said, shaking his head.

“Jacky Leon bit a man nearly in half.”

“I’m here to find out where my daughter has been taken. And the one Jacky killed was a threat to my daughter’s life and safety. I’m not going to destroy evidence. I’m here with the legal right to step in where there are potentially dead werewolves. You need to call the BSA.”

“Goddamn feds,” the man snapped. He pulled out his phone, though, and started hitting buttons. Heath waited, arms crossed in annoyance. This was slowing everyone down. While waiting, he got a call and took his phone, blaring at full volume from Shamus from inside the truck.

“Teagan?” That wolf was with the werecats, so there had to be news.

“It’s me,” Hasan said. “You can’t come here. No matter what. We will meet you at Jacky’s house.”

“What’s wrong?” Heath reminded himself to keep breathing.

“We found Jacky, and that’s all you need to know,” Hasan growled. “You will do what you must in the city, and we will meet you back at Jacky’s home.”

“No Carey?” Heath asked. “Any werewolves?”

“Only Jacky. She’s the only one here,” Hasan said.

Heath was lucky he was leaning on the truck. He held on to his Talent, keeping it up to keep everyone from knowing just what rushed through him.

Utter despair.

“Thank you for letting me know,” Heath said simply, keeping his voice devoid of emotion. He couldn’t let anything escape him. “We’ll see you back there when we can.”

The officer was yelling into his phone now but looked like he was losing. When the call ended, the officer was glaring at Heath.

“Fucking supernatural bullshit,” he said. “Fine. Everyone, we’re on fucking control of the press duty. Everson and his people are allowed to do whatever they want here.”

“What?”

“Sir!”

The protests happened, but the officers listened to orders. Once they were moving across the street, Heath waved for his wolves to follow him. Shamus got around the truck fast, but he was beaten by Dirk and Landon, who could just jump out of the back.