Page 33 of Magical Midlife Rescue (Leveling Up #11)

TWENTY

Jessie

I sighed wearily as I dragged myself to the main lobby to meet Niamh and Fred at the hotel bar.

The meeting had run on for hours, Austin hashing out his plans for a company-like organization, with a CEO and board of directors and voting parameters for a ruling body.

It wasn’t entirely ironed out yet. He’d wanted Kingsley’s help with the best approach, and the meeting had acted like a round table of sorts to do just that.

Everyone was interested. They’d been on board with the original attempt to unify, though they were nervous about Austin being the organization’s head. They wanted some assurance he really was a changed man, and they wanted to see him in action.

Apparently, they had a way to do just that.

Margery had gotten word that a nearby pack was in trouble: a ruthless sort of character had challenged for power and killed the governing body.

He’d become a terror to his people. He wouldn’t let pack members leave if he could help it, and the body count of those trying to push back was growing.

The couple who had escaped were begging for help.

The alphas had agreed to let Austin and me handle it.

They’d be watching, ready to step in if needed, seemed to expect they would have to, and probably planned to say, “I told you so.” They’d even offered us some of their people to fill out our ranks, which Austin politely declined. We didn’t need them.

They thought it was bravado. One of them had even smirked.

Shifters seemed to hold grudges—that was what I was noticing, anyway.

Or maybe they’d just never heard anything good about Austin until recently.

He wasn’t the boastful type, and for the longest time after leaving Kingsley’s pack, he’d lain low.

They’d heard his name, that he’d wiped out whole hunting parties and others besides, but it had seemed like tall tales.

That, or it had cemented the “wild” persona they’d stuck him with.

My annoyance with their attitudes was on a high simmer.

Still, they weren’t outright telling him “no.” They were giving him a chance to prove himself. I’d held my frustration in check solely for that reason, though I wasn’t far from calling them idiots to their faces. When the shoe fit…

When I entered the bar, Niamh was nowhere to be found, but Fred sat at the end corner, still in her yellow suit. Her laptop was open in front of her, and a tablet sat beside it with the stylus resting on top. She didn’t glance up as I sat kitty-corner to her.

The bartender stopped in front of me. “Hi there. Do you need to see a menu?”

“No. Can I have a Cosmo, please? Thanks.” I ran my hand down my face, probably smearing what was left of my makeup.

“Oh, hey!” Fred glanced up at the sound of my voice and beamed. “How was the meeting? Tired, huh? You look tired.”

“Very, yes. Where’s Niamh?”

“Her room. I weaseled my way through a hard-to-crack firewall and got a bunch of info about that Momar dude. His current operations, more specifically. She said she couldn’t think with the chippy bartender always smiling at her, so she went back to hide out for a while. She does that, I’ve noticed.”

She had these last couple months, it was true.

Niamh had been on her porch a lot more lately, pondering, working things out.

Then she might disappear for a couple days, wanting to take care of something in person.

Mr. Tom said it was how pucas worked when they were dialed in and that I should leave her to it.

He was pleased that she was finally being useful rather than wasting bread for dry sandwiches and drinking the town dry.

Given I had so much to do myself, and I had to trust my team to do their part, I left her to it.

She’d been on this earth a lot longer than I had, and her whole existence up until O’Briens had been dedicated to an elaborate game of chess.

Or so I’d been told. She had experience that would hopefully benefit us all.

I nodded and thanked the bartender when he brought me my drink.

“Do you need anything?” I asked Fred.

She looked around at her setup. “Oh. Um…yes. I didn’t realize my drink was gone. Just a coffee, please. Three sugars. Thanks.” With that, she bent back to her computer, and her fingers danced across the keyboard.

I nodded to the bartender and pulled up a game on my phone.

“Did you know about these things?” Fred indicated the electronic notepad before writing something. “I didn’t. They’re the best freaking thing on this earth, I’m tellin’ ya. I mean, I knew they existed—I don’t live under a rock—but I’ve never tried one until now. I’ve been missing out.”

She finished her note and went back to her computer.

Her silence resumed. The soft murmur of conversation ebbed and flowed around us, interrupted by the click of keys.

After a while, her typing stopped, and she leaned forward, closer to the screen.

She made another note, then shook her head and started to shake, slowly bubbling into laughter.

“I have a crush, bro!” She leaned back again, hands back at the keyboard. “If the Captain had more coding knowledge, she’d be unstoppable. Her tactics are so fresh. Her evasive maneuvers are ingenious.”

“The Captain…” My heart skipped. “You mean Nessa?”

“Yeah. Get this: she has this shack in the middle of nowhere. I thought she’d mostly gone off the grid, using that shack of equipment at odd times.

But no! It was a decoy. She installed a program to seem like it’s active, but it really just messes around on the dark web a bit and doesn’t cover much ground.

No, she’s out using random IP addresses and different accounts and aliases.

” Fred held up her hand. “But she’s checked into her other accounts here and there.

She didn’t hide her breadcrumbs well enough. I’m on her trail.”

“You know where she is?”

“I’m nearly positive, yeah, and I’m double-checking now.

Once I’m sure, we can figure out what they’re up to.

” Her smile broadened. “This is so fun. I feel like I’m rupturing something, it’s so fun!

It’s like this enormous, complex puzzle, and we only get hints at a time.

This Momar person seems like a spider. We’re just in the outer web now, but he skitters here and there, then hides out of sight. He’ll be a tricky one.”

She continued muttering to herself as she worked her keyboard, her focus zeroing in again on her screen. I let her be as her coffee arrived and paid the tab.

“Just…save your receipts, okay?” I told her, only finishing half my drink before pushing it away.

There was no point in my being here if Niamh wasn’t.

Besides, I’d gotten enough information from Fred for the time being.

They were still working on things, and we didn’t have anything concrete yet. “We’ll reimburse your expenses.”

“Meh.” She waved me away, her gaze not leaving the screen. “There’s no point in paperwork for a few coffees and a truckload of sugar.”

“Okay, well…the offer’s there.”

“Thanks.” She gave me a smile before going back to her task.

She was certainly diligent. A hard worker. Also, clearly great at her job. Niamh had made a good call with Fred. We were that much closer to closing the gap between us and our missing mages.

My heart ached to see them again. My gut said I’d better hurry up and make that happen.

Austin

“Her crew is incredibly messy,” Kingsley said, resting in his suite’s living room with his feet up on the coffee table. He held a scotch and closed his eyes as he leaned his head back. It had been a long afternoon. “I didn’t warn the others before the meeting.”

Austin gritted his teeth against a surge of anger. Kingsley wasn’t trying to be mean-spirited toward Jess—he was stating the truth. Austin knew he was right. Had always known and had never been able to do anything about it. He’d stopped trying.

“They’ve been practicing lining up for a couple months,” Austin said, watching the fading light dance across the brown liquid in his glass. The suite was quiet. Mac was playing golf, and Earnessa was at the spa.

Kingsley laughed quietly. “Huh.”

“Yeah. In practice, they actually looked mostly okay. Passable. Then, today…it just went all to shit.” Austin joined his brother in laughing. “Spectacularly. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like when she tries to push order onto them, they become that much harder to control.”

Kingsley took a deep breath. “The thing is…” He shook his head. “It’s not a deal breaker. I’d worried it might be. Did you see Jessie’s reaction when someone asked what would happen if her crew turned on her?”

“I felt her tense. Her feelings through the bonds were confusion.”

“It was this…” Kingsley started laughing again.

“This that is the stupidest question I’ve ever heard expression teamed with absolute confusion, yeah.

I figured I better interject before she came right out and called someone an idiot.

Though by then, everyone knew there’d be no challenges.

It was a solid move to wear what you did.

Her as well. It immediately put people at ease.

” He paused. “A little more at ease, anyway.”

“That was the point. I know the rumors that surround me. I’m exactly as wild as people fear.”

“Nah. You’re a controlled wild.”

“To you. You’re my brother—you’ve seen my absolute worst. What you see now is a far step above that, but it isn’t far enough to make the alphas in there today comfortable.”

“They’re entrenched, generational alphas without any strife. They don’t understand the sort of issues that your territory and your mate face. I didn’t either, and I’d been to your territory.”