Page 25 of Cruel Revenge (Jacky Leon #12)

People screamed as they realized just how large Landon was.

He was around five feet tall at the shoulder now.

People didn’t realize just how big and powerful werewolves got.

Heath’s wolf was just as big. They would only get bigger as they adjusted to their place in the werewolf hierarchy.

Pictures were taken. Video was probably going out to the world.

The BSA was probably furious, someone sitting in their office, making notes of everything happening.

Years of goodwill were being destroyed because of this.

A problem for tomorrow. A problem once I have my daughter back.

“Landon, smell around, try to find out if any of our werewolves ran off to hide and haven’t wanted to move,” Heath ordered, taking the barest look around. “Dirk, I want all the security footage of this building. They have cameras. Shamus, you’re with me.”

Dirk and Landon both started running for their jobs. Dirk went in through the broken window of the restaurant. Landon started sniffing around.

Heath could still smell everything. The burning gas and oil from the vehicles were strong.

The police officers had contaminated the area by walking all over it.

But he still caught his werewolves and dozens of others.

He still caught Jacky and Carey as he passed Jacky’s vehicle and headed toward the restaurant.

Looking inside, he saw how they had been sitting. He went to Jacky’s spot.

“Heath…” Shamus was cautious.

“She couldn’t see the comms truck from here,” Heath noted, sighing.

He touched her coat, still on the back of her chair, somehow undisturbed.

“The young ones should have parked it there.” He pointed to an empty spot in the parking lot, plain as day.

“She would have been nervous for Carey. She wouldn’t have thought about where they had parked the truck. ”

“Simple mistake,” Shamus pointed out, now less cautious, picking up on Heath’s cues. “With consequences.”

“Yes.” Heath was at a pure analytic point now, refusing to feel, refusing to think of anything except for the facts. It was a common technique for anyone in these moments, often enough. There was something about being able to pull back and just look at the evidence that made things somewhat easier.

He would break down later. He would lose his mind later. Losing it now helped no one, certainly not his daughter.

“I should have made note of it in the security plans. I assumed they were experienced enough and would know where to park in sight of Jacky.”

“Perhaps they believed the comms would save them from needing to be so obvious,” Shamus pointed out.

A valid argument. Heath could understand it.

“Then comms must have been cut first,” Heath said softly. “Then the violence unfolded with no one able to talk to each other. If they had been able to talk to each other, things probably would have played out differently.”

“Agreed,” Shamus said, nodding. “Maybe not with different results, but with a better chance for everyone.”

Heath turned, smelling Jacky’s blood.

“And that must be how they nearly killed Jacky,” he said, pointing to the two blood-covered metal poles sticking out of the wall.

“Fucking hell,” Shamus muttered, his mask breaking.

Heath couldn’t blame him. It took everything in Heath’s long life to control himself at that moment.

Everything . He saw her tattered shreds of clothing left, drenched in her blood.

She had to have been wearing them during her Change, something moon cursed avoided.

She had burst through them, though, being as big as she is.

Heath walked out of the restaurant, grabbing Jacky’s jacket as he went, only to see that Landon was coming toward them. He threw Jacky’s jacket over his shoulder.

Landon smelled of grief.

“Show me,” he said softly to his son.

Heath followed his son around the restaurant, past the truck where it was clear that Benjamin had been taken.

There was little blood inside, so injuries at that point were at a minimum.

The scent of magic was thick. Heath didn’t know the spell or spells cast, but they were enough that perhaps Benjamin couldn’t say anything to get help.

The truck was intact, which meant the comms would have been recorded as well, just in case they needed to be reviewed later. The keys were still in the ignition.

“Dirk will drive this home,” Heath decided, then continued to follow Landon.

The tension went up as Landon stopped over a covered body. From a distance, Heath knew.

So did Shamus, who started running at a full sprint. He was the one who yanked the cover back, then screamed and sobbed as Stacy’s blank eyes looked at the sky.

“No! Not my baby girl!”

Heath didn’t close his eyes to deal with this. He couldn’t look away. Landon came back to him and sat down.

“The only one?” he asked softly.

Landon nodded.

“In your best estimation, do you believe everyone else was taken?”

Landon nodded once more, then laid down, watching Shamus cry over his daughter’s body.

There was a small hole in her forehead.

Heath let it continue for nearly three minutes, then stepped forward and put a hand on Shamus’s shoulder.

“Let’s get her home,” he whispered. “Then you can have the night to grieve. We’ll get you the time.”

Shamus nodded, choked back the cries, and moved away from his daughter’s body. Heath reached down, lifting the young woman from the ground, keeping the cover over her for privacy. He would give her dignity.

She was the bravest of young women. She walked into a deli as a human to meet a werecat without any sort of idea how it could go.

She protected her brother while witches sniffed around the pack.

She was smart, studying for science degrees most of the pack couldn’t understand.

She was full of smiles and laughter for everyone and had a sense of right and wrong that never failed her.

She had fought for her pack.

He would take her home.

He put her in his back seat and allowed Shamus to sit in the passenger seat again.

Landon waited at the restaurant until Dirk came out.

“Take the comms truck back to the packhouse,” he told Dirk. “We’re going home now.”

“Okay. I have their camera footage. Left no copies unless they have an external server or a cloud I missed. I didn’t want to spend too much time in there. The scent of magic is strong throughout the entire building.”

“It is what it is. We’ll come back later once the BSA has scared off everyone else,” Heath said softly. He got into his truck, Landon jumping into the back, and left.