Page 23 of War Games (Jacky Leon #11)

22

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

HEATH

F ury and fear pounded through him as he watched Dirk and Niko wrapping Jacky’s legs, which had suddenly started bleeding. Carey had texted him to let him know as he was finishing up his interviews with the human employees of Kick Shot. By the time he’d gotten to the house, one of her legs was broken.

“There’s more blood,” he said softly, battling to keep control of himself. “There’s more.”

“Underneath her. I think her back,” Dirk said, finishing the wrappings on her broken leg, moving with care and precision. He put it down slowly and looked at his father.

Heath could only wait. The moment he had entered the room, Niko had told him to stay back, not needing another pair of hands getting in the way when he and Dirk worked well together.

Niko lifted her shoulder carefully and nodded.

“Yeah, there are puncture wounds in her back now,” Niko said, the words dry and rough like gravel. “We’ll need to roll her. Wrap the sheet around her waist.”

“Can I help now?” Heath was shaking with the need to help her.

“No. I think you need to tell me what the humans were saying when we interrupted you,” Niko said, looking over Jacky’s body.

There was a territorial battle now as Heath felt the itch of annoyance at the werecat keeping him from the woman who owned his heart. He was going to stop caring that Niko was her brother quickly if Niko forgot how to share. He felt his lip rise and couldn’t stop the snarl that left him.

“Did you leave Landon with the other werewolves?” Dirk asked, ignoring the growl.

“Yes. Do you two want to go hang out with them, or will I be able to help the woman I plan to marry?” he snapped.

Niko snarled at him, leaning farther over Jacky.

“Threaten my son and I’ll gut you, wolf,” the older werecat promised.

“You two can’t treat injuries on her back without me.”

“Then get Carey back in here, and she can help us. You are not in the right headspace to be helping anyone injured right now. Go deal with your traitors and get back when that’s over.” Niko rose up. “Or I’ll throw you out.”

“I live here.”

“It’s Jacky’s house.” Niko raised his chin with that defiant expression Heath had seen on hundreds of faces. “If I need to get rid of you to make sure Jacky gets the help she needs, then I will. You need to step back. Subira won’t tolerate this sort of shit, Everson. Get a handle on it.”

“We need a real healer,” Dirk whispered, already rolling Jacky over. She was nude, the dress and everything else with it now discarded. Heath wished he could cover her, but while he was mad at the male werecat, he wasn’t going to kick her family out of the house, not really. He needed one thing to be grateful for, and that thing was going to be that her family were the ones handling her in such a vulnerable state.

And in her own bed. I can be grateful for that, too…

He tried to find those things to be grateful for as he watched Dirk finish rolling her, exposing the large punctures in her back. Niko started cleaning them out, sighing.

“Nothing vital was hit… by whatever is doing all of this,” he said, shaking his head with the same dismay they all felt.

“We need a real healer, Alpha,” Dirk repeated, looking at him for something. “Or better equipment and supplies. Our first aid kit can do a lot, but the sun hasn’t even gone down yet. Subira won’t be here until the morning because she has to fly in. Once she’s here, I’ll be able to get to work on other things, hopefully. I can’t do this and investigate the pack at the same time.”

Heath kept staring at Jacky’s body, the holes in her back and the blood trying to seep through her bandaged legs. The previous injuries had been minor. The scrapes on her hands and elbow, the bruise showing up on her cheek… those had been small.

This proved these injuries could be fatal. He’d seen what the injuries had looked like.

Something bit her. Something sank its claws into her… but not here. She’s been protected here the entire time…

“Find whatever you need to keep helping her,” Heath finally said to Dirk. “You don’t need to worry about the pack yet. She’s the priority for you. I’ll handle the pack however I need to.” He turned around, knowing he needed to get out of the room, or he would never find out who did this to her. It didn’t matter that he was the real target, that it was supposed to be him in that state. The reality was it was her, and heads were going to roll.

“Thank you, Alpha,” Dirk said as Heath closed the door behind him.

Heath found Carey in the living room, waiting for him to come down. Her eyes, the one thing he definitely gave her, were wide with fear that matched her scent. He reached out and pushed the hair from her face. Fear made her look younger than she was.

She’s so close to grown. I don’t want to do this, but I don’t have any choice.

“You have two options, sweetheart. You can go up there and listen to Niko and Dirk about what help they need, or you can go to your room and talk to?—”

Carey walked past him and went up the stairs, her decision to help Jacky not needing to be said.

Heath walked out, knowing this was going to live with his daughter. It was going to live with all of them, at least the ones who lived through it.

Heath went back to Kick Shot first. He was on the last human for interviews. He reached the upstairs office to find Oliver and the cook he’d been talking to.

“Did you tamper with anything at all before or during the reception?”

“No,” the cook said as Heath faced him.

“Did you bring anything foreign into the building?”

“No.”

Both were the truth, so Heath looked at Oliver, the first he had interviewed, just to be certain of the human’s trustworthiness.

“Let them all go home.” Heath turned and left them there, leaving Kick Shot as quickly as he could, not wanting to linger near the place where Jacky had fallen.

He went to the packhouse. It had been hours since he left Landon there with them in cells. He went to the basement and found Landon there, still waiting, looking relaxed as he leaned on the back wall. The pack was beginning to look tired. Most were struggling to stay awake. Ranger and Shamus were the most alert, a sign they still knew their positions and that more was expected of them.

Heath needed to decide who to interrogate first. He’d be able to find the truth going through them one by one, but he wanted more than just the admission or to catch one of them in a lie. He wanted everything . He wanted all the evidence. This went beyond who in the pack had betrayed him and gotten Jacky hurt. He wanted solid evidence to throw in the face of whoever had bought one of his werewolves.

“Landon, come with me,” Heath said, going back upstairs with his son. Once they were on the ground level, Heath walked farther away, making sure none of the pack could hear them.

“Ranger or Teagan?” Heath didn’t clarify that.

“Teagan. Age plays against him here. He knows older wolves who might decide you’re an enemy. However, if he’s clear, he’s good to keep around to help us since you’re clearly losing some control, Pa.” Landon nodded toward him. “And I smell Jacky’s blood. What the hell is happening over there? Did someone take a sample or something?”

“Something is injuring her, but we don’t know what or how. She’s still unconscious. Something broke one of her damn legs,” Heath said, a growl punctuating the end.

“Fuck. Okay. Teagan is also old enough to know how to help with medical aid if you pick him first. Ranger is experienced in it, though, with his military and police force training. He’s competent.”

“Subira is also on the way to help her daughter,” Heath continued. He’d left Landon without news for too long. “All the humans are clear. One of those werewolves did this. There’s no question about that now.”

“Flip a coin,” Landon said, shrugging.

“Teagan it is,” Heath said, knowing both wolves had a potential reason for being behind this. Teagan was once a member of Corissa’s pack. Heath and Landon had killed Sheila, Ranger’s lover. It didn’t matter if neither of them had ever acted like those things mattered to them. Heath stopped before he got to the basement, only a shred of humanity making him recognize one thing.

“Clear Arlo and Benjamin while I talk to Teagan. I know it couldn’t have been them. Too young, nothing to bribe them with.”

“Yes, sir,” Landon said. Heath could smell the relief from his son at his directive.

Interesting. Something is making you soft, Landon.

On any other day, that would be a good thing.

Perhaps it still is.

Heath went downstairs and stopped in front of the cell with Teagan.

“Teagan, with me,” Heath ordered. “Everyone else, hold in position.” He let power roll through the second half, making sure they hadn’t secretly plotted to escape together.

Teagan rose up and followed him out. Landon went to get the boys next, holding both of their shirts. Together, they all walked to Kick Shot, leaving the others locked below the unfinished packhouse. Oliver and the other humans were already long gone, having run to freedom the moment Heath had given them permission. Heath took Teagan into the office while Landon kept the boys downstairs.

“Sit. You know what I want. You’ll answer honestly and completely. A single lie forfeits you. I won’t give you an opportunity to explain it.”

“Of course, Alpha,” Teagan said softly, sitting down.

“Did you add anything to the bourbon bottle on the family table?”

“No, sir. I never contaminated it, intentionally or unintentionally.”

Heath released some of his tension, glad that the likelihood he had to kill this wolf had just dropped drastically.

“Did you see anyone acting suspicious?”

“I saw nothing I considered suspicious at the time, sir. Many of the pack went to look at the bottle since they aren’t old enough to own such things. Shamus even told his children that he was disappointed he didn’t have something similar for both of them. He picked it up to read it, but that didn’t seem suspicious at the time, lamenting about the position his ex-wife left him in when it came to preserving the history of them growing up.”

That sounds like Shamus.

“Give me a list of names you saw approaching the bottle.”

“Shamus, Stacy, Kody, Carlos, Jenny, Roselyn, and Arlo.”

Heath could smell the fear that Teagan had when saying Arlo’s name.

“What did the boy do?”

“He sniffed it, and I went over to him to tell him that he was still too young to be drinking, werewolf or not. Also that I would let you skin him for drinking your liquor.”

“I see. The others?”

“I only remember Shamus clearly because his lamenting made me laugh,” Teagan said, sighing. “And I’m certain I didn’t see everyone. I wasn’t watching your table, of course.”

“Of course.” Heath finally sat down. “Who do you think did this?”

“I have no idea who in the pack would try this without potentially incriminating them falsely. Everyone in the pack has their weak spots. Roselyn and Piper are only here because other packs have issues with their relationship. Jenny and Carlos are here because Carlos has nowhere else to go. Ranger is maimed; he’d never survive another pack. Shamus is here for his kids, who were thoroughly traumatized by what happened in Dallas when you weren’t their Alpha. Some of those can be used against them, some of them can’t.”

“All of them would have to be bought to betray me. Clearly, someone was. Any suggestions of who would buy someone in my pack to attempt poisoning me?”

This was when Teagan seemed less comfortable, shifting around his seat and rubbing his hands on his legs.

“Teagan, you know why I’m asking you.” Heath needed this wolf to say it. Teagan, who had been around when the Tribunal formed and much longer before that, once a member of Corissa’s pack.

“I do,” Teagan said softly, closing his eyes. “You’re asking me if I think Callahan and Corissa are capable of poisoning a potential rival who may have caused too many problems for them just by existing.”

“I am.”

“Yes, they are,” Teagan confirmed. “I believe they are completely capable of it.”

“I’m glad we agree.” Heath stood back up and held a hand out to Teagan, who took it in a firm handshake. He helped Teagan to his feet. “Thank you for being honest with me. I need you to help Dirk and Niko keep Jacky alive. Landon will escort you and the boys there.”

“Are they…” Teagan’s fatherly worry was immediate.

“Landon has been talking to them downstairs. I’m certain he’s already decided they’re fine to leave with you to the house. We know they wouldn’t.”

“They wouldn’t. They would never. They love your daughter, and they respect you. Arlo has hero worship of Jacky?—”

“I know,” Heath said as gently as he was capable of. It was hard to be gentle right now.

He and Teagan went downstairs, and Heath sent Landon off with them to go to the main house. When Landon was back, he looked furious.

“What now?” Heath demanded.

“Dirk drove off for some reason!” Landon snarled.

“He went to get more supplies to help Jacky,” Heath said quickly. “Now, I need your help with Ranger and Shamus.”

“Why are we doing these three first?” Landon asked. “Why not some of the others more likely to betray us and find the right person faster?”

“Because I need to make sure my strongest and smartest are on my side,” Heath answered. “We’re going against the Tribunal werewolves. I need them helping if they’re loyal and dead if they aren’t. The others are easier to deal with and less costly to lose.”