Page 42 of Cruel Revenge (Jacky Leon #12)

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

SPECIAL AGENT BETHANY KIRK

B eth stood in the quiet office for nearly a minute, coming to terms with what had just happened. She’d lost the trust of Jacky Leon.

I deserved it. My bosses deserved it. I tried telling them that playing around with her when it came to Carey was a bad call. They thought she would respect the BSA the way werewolves are forced to. She came in knowing this was going to blow up for us.

Damn, she’s good.

Beth knew she had to face the music eventually, and the sooner the better.

The entire office was in chaos now, but she was relatively calm now that everything was said and done.

She hated being stuck in the middle of her conniving bosses and Jacky.

It wasn’t a comfortable place to be; it rattled her.

Now, Beth was more confident, freer to say the most important words she needed to say today.

I told you so to her bosses.

She found Director Rhodes in the conference room, surrounded by people, but things were calmer. The Director had gotten everyone on task. Beth had a feeling it was all going to amount to nothing. She also found it interesting that they had

“Kirk, you’re back. Good, we can continue. Where did Jacky go?” he demanded when he realized she had returned to the room.

“She left,” Beth answered.

Everyone turned to her, the expectation in their eyes. She was supposed to control Jacky. That was her job. Keep the werecat where everyone could see her, get intel, but don’t give any.

Did all of them know the job was impossible as written?

She was certain some of them did. The only reason Beth wasn’t fired multiple times over was the BSA wasn’t certain they could find someone to replace her.

In the end, Beth accepted that her job wasn’t actually as written.

It was to keep tensions down, to keep the peace, and to keep an eye on Jacky.

To be the one person she was willing to communicate with.

Jacky had never really broken the rules before this, never had a reason to need more handling.

She was helpful, and things were resolved when they worked with her.

But Rhodes and the rest of them just had to be greedy for more this time. Thought with Carey missing, they could get more by being the heroes and not allowing Jacky to do it herself.

“Is there anything else you’d like to say?” Rhodes said, recovering from his shock.

“I feel if you have the tech guys come in, they’ll be able to tell us how much information was just taken in a hack,” Beth continued, her hands in front of her.

Rhodes hit the table, and the crack got a little bit bigger. He pointed at her.

“I’m going to finally have you replaced. This is unacceptable.”

“Certainly. Ignore the fact that I told you not to do this. I told you that playing games of information with Jacky would never go your way. She knows more than we do at every turn. She always has answers. She’s surrounded by powerful ancients willing to pull the strings in every situation, and we can’t even identify them.

Multiple other agents and I met two of them tonight, and none of us is able to provide enough detail to even start a sketch to identify them.

What we do remember is that one of them said we wouldn’t remember.

Her mother, I think. Every minute that slips by, I forget more about them.

She has multiple siblings we’ve never met.

We know that we’ve been hacked before by someone near her. ”

“Get to the point,” Rhodes said, a vein bursting on his forehead.

“You tried to play a game, not realizing you don’t make the rules!

” Beth yelled, throwing her hands out. “None of us do! They do! She does! You’re the one who wanted to use Carey being kidnapped as a fucking bargaining chip, and you deserve everything you get for it!

You lost the moral high ground against them the moment you did that, you piece of shit!

They weren’t going to try with us at that point! Why would they?”

“Clear your desk and go home. Don’t come back. You won’t have a job when I’m done with you.” Rhodes looked around. “All of you get out. Agent Jan, you can stay. I might need you to get me back on task when I’m done with this.”

Beth was fine with that because Rhodes clearly forgot his place and the reach of his power. She waited for the room to clear and went in for another attack on the fucking asshole in front of her.

“Good luck with replacing me,” Beth said with a hard laugh.

“The only people who can fire me are in Washington D.C. at the main office, and they won’t until they have already secured a replacement who Jacky will speak to.

Then Jacky will ask why I got fired, and if she doesn’t get the truth from the BSA, she’ll find it herself.

Just like she just did. You know as well as I do that whatever hack just happened gave her everything she needed to beat you to Carey and the werewolf boys.

Because once they get to Houston, they’ll be able to find them really quickly, I bet. ”

Rhodes was beaten, and he knew it. Beth knew she had one chance to do something insane.

“Allow me to direct all actions concerning Jacky from here,” Beth said simply. “I can at least get us back on her good side. If we lose her, we lose the werewolves, too.”

“How?” Rhodes sat back down, his posture deflated.

“Jacky told me that Heath beat Callahan.” As she said those words, Rhodes reached up and began to rub his temples.

“Heath is in charge of the NAWC now. He’s not a member; he’s above them.

He’s the one who directed the packs to check in on witch businesses around the country.

That’s why no one is talking to us. Jacky no longer trusts us.

She told me that, so maybe we could attempt to speak with Heath instead.

They want to find Carey, Benjamin, Arlo, and Kody.

We’re just in their way. And she’s taking that badly. ”

“Fuck.”

“You don’t get to just take over,” another agent snapped, and Beth turned on him, looking him up and down.

It was Agent Jan, a known supernatural hater who worked in the BSA to push his own view of how supernaturals needed to be handled.

He had liked Rhodes’ uncooperative, negative, and aggressive manipulation.

Because of that, Rhodes had kept him close all night. Now it was failing.

Fucking office politics at its finest.

“Do you have a better suggestion?”

“We catch all of them and load them with silver for being out of control,” he snapped.

“She hasn’t done anything we can consider illegal for a supernatural,” Beth retorted.

“She killed someone, and we can’t prove he was another supernatural!”

“She killed someone actively kidnapping her daughter, and if we don’t like using ‘daughter’, she is still one of Carey’s legal guardians.

” Rhodes was explaining now. He’d been all bluster to Jacky’s face, but Beth knew those threats had been empty.

Everyone should know that. “It would never hold up. It was a high-stress situation, and Jacky was nearly killed. We’ve seen the blood.

She should have died. You put that in front of a court of humans and there are any mothers on the jury, you’ll never get a guilty conviction.

Other supernaturals think she’s justified, without a doubt. ”

“And the police she injured?” the agent asked.

“That’s not worthy of the death penalty,” Beth hissed.

She knew other agents could be stupid and corrupt, who just hated supernaturals and wanted to manage them, but this was an insane line of discussion.

“Are you insane? Also, I’ve been told that at seven, Zuri, her older sister, will be live with the werecat statement on what happened.

Jacky, obviously, isn’t in the best place to be giving a public statement about her daughter being kidnapped in a violent attack. ”

“I bet there’s going to be a lot of money thrown at the problem and a story of Jacky and Carey paraded to the public in a PR wave that makes it all the more sympathetic,” Rhodes said, not looking at Beth or Agent Jan.

“Every mom in the country will be rooting Jacky on once the whole story gets out there from the mouth of her sister. Zuri is… something else.”

Beth would have thought her boss had a crush for a minute.

“It won’t be perfect, but we’ve had major incidents with supernaturals before. They come and go. This one is big in shock value, but it’s… fairly minimal in damage aside from minor injuries to some of the local police.” Beth sat down near Rhodes.

“Sir, I think we as the BSA back off and support the moon cursed. Clearly, something is happening. Things have been strange for years. We had the Dallas pack fall apart. We had werecats in the city to meet Jacky and Zuri, and someone committing murders trying to frame a werewolf. We’ve had…

Alaska happened, and since then, Jacky has been leaving a lot.

But not once has a human been killed until last night that we know of, and witches did it trying to take Carey. ”

“And nearly killing her, apparently,” Rhodes finished for her. “If Jacky is to be believed.”

“And she’s not,” Agent Jan argued.

“She’s never lied to us in a way that hurt us,” Beth countered.

“She protects her people just like we protect ours. We know the werewolves do the same. She would also never play games with Carey’s life.

The Change can be fatal. Heath never wanted his daughter Changed.

He’s on record for over a decade saying that.

Jacky would have only done it if it was necessary. We know that.”

Rhodes looked at her. Studied her.

“Fine. Clearly, I misplayed this. You can tell D.C. that. I’ll see this through, then present myself for their reprimand if they find one necessary.

” Rhodes got up and paced the space near his chair for a moment.

“Do you think we can win back the moon cursed? Or am I responsible for breaking a relationship we’ve had with the werewolves for forty years? ”

“I think we can, but it’ll take work.” Beth stood up as well. “I think we start by listening to Zuri’s statement, then backing it.”

“This is insane,” Agent Jan said, throwing something. “We’re just going to let them do whatever they want?”

“We’re going to let them get their kids back and stand down.

I’ll take the punishment from D.C. if there is one,” Beth said, ready for it.

Ready to stand on her chosen hill. She was going to make the choice for the BSA.

If there was going to be a brawl, she wanted to be on Jacky’s side.

Somehow, someway, Jacky came out on top. She would explain it in D.C. later.

“Then we’ll prepare something to say and adjust it once we see what Zuri has to say,” Rhodes said.

Agent Jan cursed violently and stormed out.

“Should I call the other agents back in?” Beth asked, grabbing a remote. She tuned into the local news, knowing everyone in Texas at least would pick it up the moment it went live. Beth had a feeling that somehow the livestream would get out there within seconds of it starting.

“Please do.” Rhodes shoved his hands in his pockets as he looked at the screen.

“Special Agent Kirk… I’m sorry for all of this.

You tried to warn me. Couldn’t have expected that Carey was now a werecat or that Heath was in charge of the werewolves, but even without that information, I should have taken your advisement.

I get pressured a lot for more information, about not getting new intel out of these situations… ”

“I know what the Directors are told to do. You’re only trying to do your job to appease the other organizations.

” Beth shrugged. “But I’m an expert, and my job security is pretty waterproof.

I’ll probably be doing this job until I retire, unless Jacky doesn’t want to talk to me anymore.

Just remember that. Would hate to have to deal with this yet again. ”

Beth called in the other agents, and they waited.

When seven rolled around, breaking news hit.

A new werecat was revealing herself, live for the world. Zuri.

The tale she wove about Jacky and Carey and the bond they shared was enough to make the anchors cry live on air.

Carey, a young girl without a mom in her life, struggling to live normally with her werewolf father and brother, who just want her to be safe.

Jacky, the tough-as-nails, lonely woman who saved Carey and swore to protect her for the rest of their lives.

About to be a real family once Jacky and Heath got married, brought together by the girl they both loved as a daughter.

She emphasized that not only was Carey gone, but three other young people, three young werewolves, two of whom were born as such.

She spoke about Stacy, who was shot trying to save the youngest werewolf, young Benjamin, who was also only sixteen.

Zuri mentioned that Kody, her younger brother, was also missing. And Arlo, Benjamin’s older brother.

“Damn. She is fucking good,” someone whispered.

“The millions she’s going to give away to fix things helps, too,” Beth said, chuckling.

“But she is good. It’s easy to be that good when you’re telling a true story, though.

” Beth turned to the agents. “Now, the Dallas statement. We’ll run it through D.C.

, but since we’re ground zero, they probably won’t argue with our choice here.

We can’t have this getting any more out of hand. ”

Beth was going to keep a damn good eye on everyone, though, because she had a feeling it wasn’t really over for her yet. Not until Jacky, Carey, and everyone else were back where they needed to be. Home.

“Director Rhodes, there’s an emergency flight asking for permission to leave from Houston. They claim they have someone critically injured. I can confirm, but I need approval.”

“No flights are leaving any Texas cities,” Beth snapped before anyone else could answer. “Not a single one. Houston has plenty of hospitals. They can use one of those in the meantime.”

“But—”

“No exceptions!” she yelled, turning on the agent.

Director Rhodes just nodded.

“Special Agent Kirk is right. It’s a shame, but we can’t have any private flights going up right now.”

“Plus, emergency medical flights are through certain companies, and those aren’t being denied air space,” Beth said softly, shaking her head. “Not privately owned flights…” Beth narrowed her eyes at the agent. “Tell me who sent that flight request to you.”