Page 10 of War Games (Jacky Leon #11)

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CHAPTER NINE

I t was a long weekend. Dirk and I worked on our route to get through the witches efficiently through Friday afternoon, taking a break for the evening so I could spend time with Carey and Heath, then we were back at it on Saturday. By Sunday, I was with Dirk again, this time to say goodbye to Niko, who was flying out in the afternoon. I wasn’t going to need the plane. Dirk and I intended to drive the area instead, so I was letting Niko not only use it to leave but keep it for his entire travels.

“He’ll be okay,” Dirk said, elbowing me lightly. “Stop tearing up your nails. Niko is used to this sort of thing.”

I looked down at my hands, seeing I had been picking at my nails. I shoved them into my pockets and sighed.

“Thanks. I know he’s always been good at this sort of thing. It’s just… Germany happened, then Alaska…”

“He was fine in Alaska, barely scratched,” Dirk reminded me, chuckling. “But, yeah, Germany was a rough trip for everyone involved. He’s gone, though. Rainer isn’t going to pop up in Maryland or somewhere else to get Niko.”

“Yeah…” After months, the ache of losing Fenris still twisted my heart.

Dirk made a face but didn’t say anything. He reached out with one arm and gave me a half hug, squeezing me into his side.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to bring him up.”

“It’s okay. I’ve been haunted by a lot of things for a while now,” I said, shaking my head as I stepped away. “I’ll come back out when Niko gets close. This is Heath’s one day off, so I’m going to spend some time with him.”

“Okay. I’ll work on some admin in the security office.” Dirk jogged down the stairs and walked purposefully to the security building that had been built in my yard. It wasn’t small, but it wasn’t more than a few rooms. Someone would think it was a very big shed for lawn mowers and things like that or a workshop for home improvement and wood working if they didn’t know who owned this house.

It was an eyesore that I suffered through.

One day, I’m going to tear everything down and start over here, so it at least looks like it was intentional.

I went inside to find Heath working on his laptop and decided to start pushing it closed slowly, smiling as his stormy-blue eyes looked over the top. I kept pushing it down, revealing his bemused smile. He didn’t stop me as I closed it entirely.

“I hope that wasn’t important,” I said, leaning down to kiss him, my fingers still holding the laptop closed in case he tried to open it back up.

“Sunday work is never important. Do you want to do anything?”

“Well, Niko leaves this afternoon, so Dirk is over. He can stay here and keep an eye on Carey if she needs anything… Why don’t you and I go to brunch and get away from everything here?”

“I like that idea,” he said, smiling as I kissed him again. “Let me get shoes on.”

“I’ll be at your truck.”

“Oh, so I’m driving us on this date. Am I also paying?”

I shrugged, letting him decide as I walked backward to the door to go to the garage.

“It’ll be my treat,” he said, laughing as he went to get ready.

I went into the garage, another eyesore we added to my home that wasn’t part of the original plans. Heath, being in construction and development, made the changes fast, easy, and well done, something most people couldn’t afford or even had access to. That also meant that every change popped up so fast, I would get dizzy. While Heath’s teams did an amazing job of matching the additions to my home, it was still odd seeing my home with a split-level garage, a giant shed thing, and a proper, very nice driveway.

Five years ago, I was parking behind Kick Shot, walking down a small, worn trail to get home. The tree line was closer to my house, allowing me to feel like I was surrounded at all times. I had been alone in my territory, completely absorbed in the small world I had claimed as my own.

Five years ago, I hadn’t known Heath. The five-year anniversary of that was coming up. Five years since a werewolf-witch, a half-breed like my mother and the twins, tried to take over the Dallas werewolf pack.

If it weren’t for that, nothing else in the last five years would have happened, not in the same way, if at all.

Time just keeps flying by. It feels like I can’t keep up some days.

Today wasn’t one of those days. Today, things felt slow and easy, even though I knew they weren’t. It felt like the moment at the top of a rollercoaster, and I kept waiting for it to go over the peak and begin the drop, but it wouldn’t. That feeling of sitting in the front row, seeing the fall before you, that second the coaster held you...

That was my Sunday.

Heath met me at his truck, and we went to brunch. It was a nice distraction, one I used to ask him about something other than witches and war.

“How’s the pack house coming?” I asked, laughing as I saw his eyes light up.

“We’ll be done by the end of the year. The basement floor is already finished and usable, just in case, and now we’re working on the ground level and upper floor. I’m also bringing in the landscapers and outdoor crews for the amenities behind the building next month.” He continued on, telling me how his plans were slightly different from the initial drawing, but nothing was major. Extra space was added to each floor, making some of the rooms bigger. It was little things.

I listened indulgently, knowing this was his passion project. It was necessary to have, but it didn’t have to be everything he was making it. He enjoyed giving something back to his werewolves, and the pack house was the biggest gift he could give them. A place they can call home at any time. A place they could throw their birthday parties away from humans who found them scary or weird. A place they could get together and call their own.

Things they had lost when the Dallas pack finally fell to pieces, thanks to the witches. The mansion they had once used for those events, those spaces, was now mine by conquering rights. I had renovated it into a family home for when my siblings visited but didn’t want to be in my territory with all the werewolves or at my house, which didn’t have space for everyone. There were no more werewolves in Dallas, so it was a good city for the werecat ruling family to have a place to live. The businesses and property of the pack all went to me and, in turn, to Heath, who was the original person who had collected or created everything.

While I couldn’t give Heath everything I had been forced to take on from the Dallas pack’s end, I made sure the businesses went back to him, merged into his own, and most of the accounts also went back to him for him to use on the Everson Pack, his rogue pack.

The pack house was a symbol of something important. While all the members of his pack were from the Dallas pack, they weren’t the Dallas pack anymore. He was building them a new home for a new era.

I smiled and nodded, enjoying his excitement even if I didn’t understand all the nuances and intricacies of construction, different techniques and build methods. I knew tile was tile, but he knew everything about what sort of tile he wanted and why it was important.

We got back right after twelve. Dirk was sitting on the front porch with Carey. As soon as I got out of the car, I listened in.

“Have you talked to him about leaving tomorrow?”

“No, but…” Dirk looked up and shut his mouth.

I narrowed my eyes on him. I had been hoping that was already taken care of. Heath didn’t seem to hear, and I tried to quickly mask my expression when he looked between Dirk and me.

“Anything I should know about?”

“Hopefully not. You’re planning on forcing Landon to stay with you starting tomorrow, right?”

“I am. He’s been avoiding me, but that ends tomorrow.”

“You gave him the weekend to reckon with his choices and behavior?”

“Yes.”

I looked at Carey and Dirk, who were looking at bit like Heath was a time bomb, and they had no idea how to diffuse it.

“Okay, well…” I finally felt something I had been waiting for. “Niko is in my territory. He’ll be here soon. Heath, why don’t you take Carey to the movies? I’m sure she’ll enjoy it.”

“Yeah, that sounds fun.” Carey hopped up and was already heading for his truck. “Come on, Dad. It’s been a long time since we went to the movies.”

“And now I’m going on a date with my daughter… which I will also be paying for, correct?” Heath’s indulgent smile was at odds with his tone.

“Correct,” I said, kissing his cheek before I switched places with Carey. She waved at us while Heath got in, shaking his head as he came to terms with how I was going to force him to take a real day off.

Once they were gone, Dirk started to laugh.

“He’s… an Alpha werewolf, and you two just have him perfectly trained. How?”

“He’s not trained at all. I gave him permission to take time with his daughter, something he hasn’t allowed himself to do since my trip to Alaska and what unfolded from that,” I answered. “He’s normally good at making sure they spend father and daughter time together, but she’s getting older and more independent, and we’ve all been busy. He was working when I found him inside earlier, so I dragged him out for a brunch date.”

“Some alone time with you outside of the house and some alone time with Carey out of the house.” Dirk smiled, and it came off as wistful to me. “That’s nice of you to do for him.”

“For them… and for me,” I corrected. “It’s important.”

“It is,” he agreed. “Niko comes over for dinner once a week, and I go to his place once a week without Landon.”

“How has the weekend been?”

“Saturday is normally our date night… and it didn’t happen this week,” he explained, rubbing his head. His hair was growing out. He still kept it shorter, but it was no longer buzzed short. He had enough to style now or mess up like he was at that moment.

“What did you argue about on Thursday?”

“I was just trying to ask him why I couldn’t train with my own father, and he was saying how nothing I do for the pack requires me to fight, so he didn’t see why I should take the risk…” Dirk shrugged. “He’s not… He means well, that much is clear. When we argued, I could smell his anger at the idea we’d have to fight about it. His frustration with why no one thinks he’s right… and his fear that I’ll get hurt.” Dirk sighed. “I guess I thought with the mate bond, we’d never really fight, so it’s thrown me off.”

“Subira and Hasan have a mate bond. They have for thousands of years.”

Dirk turned to me fully when I didn’t elaborate. I didn’t have to. I watched Dirk really take that in. We’d both witnessed one literally explosive argument between them. I could imagine there had been a few in their time together.

“And everyone thinks those two are perfect,” he finally said with a scoff.

“Hm… They’re the oldest mate-bonded couple of the moon cursed, as far as anyone knows… Callahan and Corissa are mate bonded, too, and they have disagreements.”

“I get what you’re saying, Jacky.” Dirk lifted a hand to stop me as he looked down my driveway as we waited for Niko to tell us goodbye. I smiled and bumped my shoulder against his. He bumped me back, and I knew he would be fine.

Niko’s stop by my house was fast, with hugs and well wishes before he had to rush to Dallas, already running late. Once he was gone, and before Heath and Carey could get back to save him, I turned on Dirk.

“You have to go home and talk to Landon about tomorrow. We’ll be driving around Texas for most of the week. He needs to know now.” We were starting with the closest witches since they seemed the least suspicious. They would know why they were being questioned again by a werecat and werewolf, thanks to proximity, and wouldn’t make much of a big deal about it. They had been told during the first round of questioning that others may come. Over a year ago now, but we were finally getting to do that second round of questioning.

“I’ll head out now and hope it’s done by dinner. It’ll at least mean we won’t be up all night talking about it… I hope.”

“You are required to get sleep tonight. You’re driving tomorrow,” I said, pushing him toward his truck. “You tell Landon that, and if he gives you lip, text me, and I’ll go over there and give him more trouble than he wants to deal with.”

“He’s stronger than you.”

“I’ve dealt with people stronger than me before,” I reminded my nephew.

I watched him leave, having successfully pushed him into his truck to do the one thing he asked me to leave to him. Once he was gone, I took a deep breath and enjoyed the one thing I rarely had much of anymore.

Actual alone time on my own property.

Carey is smart. She’ll convince Heath to take her to dinner in Tyler or something after the movie and give me the evening off… which means I get to eat whatever I want for dinner, and no one will judge me.