Page 36 of Cruel Revenge (Jacky Leon #12)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

A n hour later, I was allowed to leave my office.

Subira released me, knowing I had spent much of the hour not just telling her about Carey, but also thinking of searching for her.

Not the possibilities of what could happen to her, but how we could find her.

Now, I had ideas of how I could help. Things to ask about, to follow up on, even if others were handling them.

I needed to know where the search was taking everyone, what they were looking for.

I was centered, for the moment.

“Dirk!” I called out when I left my house, knowing my nephew was in the security building. His head popped out as I drew closer. “I have questions.”

“Let’s hear them,” he said, holding the door open for me so I didn’t have to break my stride to enter.

“Cellphones. Have there been any hits from their phones? Everyone had their cellphone. Unless they were destroyed or turned off, they should still be trackable. Also, one of the SUVs lost a door. They were on television. Human law enforcement should be looking for them. Were plates run? Do we know if there have been more sightings?”

“She’s finally awake,” Dirk said, grinning at me.

“And I’m ahead of you. I’ve got alerts for every phone, just in case they come back on the network.

The problem is, I looked backward. The witches have or had a jammer of sorts that blocked everyone’s phones in the restaurant.

That’s why none of the restaurant staff called the police when the witches started showing up.

Your phone came back online once the witches left.

So there’s a distance limit thing. We need the phones to get out of it.

Obviously, we can’t do that. We can just hope it happens. ”

“Damn, okay. What else?”

“I’ve talked to the local law enforcement, who aren’t entirely cooperative, but the BSA is.

For now. They’ve got some things done for us.

First, they’re hunting down the vehicles.

Local law enforcement not being helpful is getting in the way.

I’m… almost certain that they’ve been located or tracked and we’re just not being told?—”

“By who?” I asked softly.

“The state guys,” Dirk admitted without hesitation. “Troopers and the like.”

“Is anyone else on this? Or have you been building your case for it?”

“I’m still building my case, but I was going to bring it to you, no matter what.

Zuri doesn’t have pull with anyone but the BSA, and she’s the public face.

Niko technically shouldn’t be in the country.

We can’t expose anyone else from our family.

Heath is coordinating werewolves, making sure teams are ready to go.

He hasn’t come back from the Tribunal since he left earlier.

I’ve only been thinking this for about twenty minutes, because, and they don’t know this, I’ve been listening. ”

“Have you been recording? Because if there’s one thing I can do, it’s put pressure on the humans.” I was getting pretty good at it.

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. I have been.” He went to his computer and opened an audio file. “This was a trooper saying they found two suspicious vehicles in Houston, near the airport. One is missing a door.”

“The airport?” I nearly lost my breath, but this time, I was able to restrain the response. I had to be strong for Carey, to hold myself together so I could save her.

“Deep breathing, Jacky, because there’s good news here.

Davor and I already looked at flights. And that’s the second thing the BSA is doing.

No private flights are leaving any Texas cities right now, and that radius is widening as they realize just how bad this is.

The few that did take off, we have all the flight plans, and none of them went far.

One from Dallas to Houston. One Houston to Atlanta.

And one from San Antonio to Mexico City. ”

“Fuck. Mexico?” I didn’t have any experience in that country, with its government or the locals. The werecats there were nice enough, but I didn’t visit. I didn’t have time to roam my continents the way my siblings often tried.

“Yeah, but here’s the good news. If Carey was severely injured and going into the Change, they wouldn’t be able to move her until it was all over.

That’s dangerous enough to take down a plane.

Even if they didn’t know about the Change, they would want Carey alive.

They would have had to treat her to at least stabilize her and ensure her survival.

They were probably one of the canceled flights.

Clearly, they would have wanted to get Carey out of the country as quickly as possible, but they weren’t able to.

Not only because of our response, but because Carey had gotten away and hurt herself that badly. ”

“Which means they wouldn’t have gotten her on a plane in time,” I said, gasping.

“Exactly.” Dirk grinned. “We just need the troopers to cooperate, and we can narrow the search for at least Carey.”

“And the werewolves?”

“They were loaded into a trailer and left while you were distracted by the SUV with Carey. They went the opposite direction, and that one doesn’t have stolen plates, and it’s all white.

We don’t know where it went. Again, we need to lean on the humans.

They have been looking, but I haven’t been hearing anything. ”

“And I’m the werecat representative to humanity,” I said, growling softly. “Well, it looks like I need to find Beth and get some meetings scheduled, and I needed them hours ago.”

“Beth is still at the restaurant, managing the cleanup. Want me to call her here?”

“No, I can make the call,” I said, already pulling my phone out as I left the security building.

I started walking toward Kick Shot. I didn’t have to ask my family about Kick Shot and what was happening with it.

Whenever there was a nearby emergency, Oliver and I established a response.

Everyone received paid time off, indefinitely, until we were ready to reopen.

Not unemployment, not layoffs. Just vacation time that didn’t count against their benefits.

Which meant I had a large space I could use for meetings during situations that belonged to me that wasn’t my house.

“Hello, Jacky,” Beth said, her words somewhat curt. “I thought I was dealing with Zuri for the evening.”

“I want to know how searching for the vehicles has gone. With the BSA, local law enforcement, and state troopers, I thought a couple of SUVs would be easy to find. One is even missing a door. Or an unmarked trailer that had three werewolves in it.”

“Jacky…”

“You know, don’t you?”

“There’s something I need to tell you.” Beth took a deep breath, her words already lacking the confidence of our years of professional teamwork.

It gave me the idea that she didn’t want to be the one who had to say this.

“It’s been decided that due to the circumstances, we can’t risk any more humans being hurt or killed in this.

Which means… if anyone is going to find and help Carey or those werewolves, it’s going to be us.

We’re going to keep any intel we find to ourselves, because you need to worry about the people who have already been hurt. ”

“And you couldn’t tell me this at the restaurant?”

“You were going to be informed when we were able to sit you down at the office to talk,” Beth explained. “But we’re not able to force you there, and when you bristled, I realized that saying it in person was a recipe for more trouble.”

“How long ago was this decided?”

“When we finally got on scene. We allowed Heath and his werewolves to look at the scene first, but we’ve decided to run our investigation and will make our own decisions. You aren’t sharing intel with us, either. Don’t pretend that you are.”

“Beth, this is not the hill the BSA wants to die on right now,” I growled as I walked down my long driveway. “And with the situation, that statement might be literal.”

“Don’t threaten us, Jacky. I understand you’ve had a bad evening.

You were severely injured, Carey was kidnapped, and so were three other young and vulnerable members of Heath’s pack.

I know that Stacy is dead. But that’s why my superiors think you shouldn’t be overly involved with our investigation. ”

“I convinced werecats to reveal themselves to the BSA to help stop a murderer in Dallas,” I snapped.

“I’ve revealed three of my siblings over the years, and one of them is going to be going on camera to make a statement at seven, something we hate doing as supernaturals.

I worked with the agency when I was forced into the public eye by it!

” I snarled again, frustration mounting.

“After everything, your bosses want to stop working with me now ? When my daughter is missing ?”

“Your soon-to-be stepdaughter,” Beth said. “Who we know you’re attached to, and love as your daughter, but legally, she’s only Heath’s child… and Courtney Lane’s. If we could reach her?—”

“She helped in the kidnapping,” I hissed. “Don’t you understand? She was in on it. She helped witches kidnap Carey for her own reasons.”

“That’s something we’ll discuss with her when we find her. For all we know, she’s also been taken captive as collateral damage. But Jacky, I need you to be honest with me. If you find her first, will the BSA ever get a chance to speak to her?”

“I can’t answer that,” I said, realizing it was such a simple little trap to walk into. Courtney Lane was a human. She was an American citizen. She had not yet committed a crime as far as anyone knew.