Rogue Alpha (Jacky Leon Book 7), page 7
“Because I don’t. The rule of a werecat only matters in two ways. Defeat an enemy who hurt or killed our kind or kill our own kind when they break the rules,” I explained. Luckily, since I took the position, I had been asked for neither. Nothing happened in the United States for the werecats unless it was something to do with me. Everyone else lived quiet lives, out of the limelight. “Aside from that, they don’t want to hear from me and only reach out if something’s wrong. We’re not ranked like werewolves. We’re solitary. They don’t report to me when they move around. They don’t tell me about their political connections or friendships. I don’t really care what they do with their free time as long as it’s not illegal.”
“Doesn’t it make you feel like a figurehead? Title but no power?”
“I…” With a sigh, I shook my head. “I couldn’t tell you. If there’s nothing else, let’s wrap this up. I was studying for a test when you came in.”
“A test?”
“I’m learning Spanish. Started a couple of years ago,” I said, trying not to sound like I absolutely hated it. “Eventually, I won’t be the only werecat on the planet who can only speak one language.”
Bethany’s laugh was loud and honest. “I’ll leave you to it, then.” She stood to leave.
“Wait.” I lifted a hand, and she paused. “I can’t help you with Dallas. I won’t meet anyone about Dallas. Stop following me. I want to have a private dinner with my boyfriend now and then. I know you have orders to do several things, but hopefully, with today’s discussion, you can impress on your bosses, tailing me constantly is uncalled for. Do you think you can do that?”
“I’ll try,” she agreed. “But I can’t promise they’ll change their minds.”
“That’s all I ask. Just speak up for me and pass it along.” I stood and ushered her out the door with a polite goodbye. I watched her leave, then waited for Dirk to come out of his work building.
“Here to do the sweep.”
“Yup,” I said, letting him in.
“You did well with her, by the way.” He stopped only a few feet inside. “You’ve really figured out how to handle her. I don’t think she even realized you walked her through that entire conversation.”
“Thanks.” I smiled as I closed the door. I forgot he could listen to certain rooms in the house. “I’m just trying to keep everything under control and get her to back off a little.”
“Well, I think you’ve got it.” Dirk smiled at me, then it fell. “Too bad they won’t appreciate it. You know, I wasn’t trying to give you too much of a hard time yesterday. I, uh, see how many emails Hasan sends you. I shouldn’t have… joked about it.”
That cut deep, and I leaned on the closed front door. Dirk was monitoring my emails for death threats. He promised he would only read them if a keyword came up, so he could stop them from getting to Oliver or me and make a list of potential enemies. Surprisingly, there had been no death threats over the last several months.
He saw Hasan’s name come up once a week, and he grew up with the family. He probably knew what each one said through his own knowledge of the man who wrote them.
“It’s fine. I was there to spy on you and Landon a little. Have you spoken to Niko?” I asked, not looking at my quasi-nephew.
“No,” he answered, just as softly. “Haven’t tried, and he hasn’t reached out. I think he’s trying to distance himself from this. It would only make sense.”
“That’s what I think, and Heath is of the same mind.”
“Landon wants me to reach out to tell him about us, but I don’t think it’s Niko’s business,” Dirk said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“It’s not his business. You’re human. Hold on to that. Don’t invite trouble where there doesn’t need to be any,” I said, finally leaving the door. Dirk and I went into my office, and I watched him perform his sweep.
“Yeah, but he’s my father. I hate it sometimes, and it’s complicated, but he’s the only father I’ve ever really had.”
“I know that feeling all too well,” I muttered.
“I know,” he said, giving me a sad smile.
He didn’t leave when he was done with the sweep. I sat down, and he did as well, across from me where Bethany sat.
“You can go back to what you were doing,” I commented, frowning around my monitor at him.
“No, I’m cool here,” he said, leaning back in the chair as he looked at his phone. “We outcast kids need to stick together.”
I smiled to myself as I woke up my computer.
“You coming to the party Wednesday?” I asked.
“Landon won’t let me miss it,” he said, groaning.
8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Wednesday finally came for me and those who called my territory home. It was Carey’s birthday. I left my house earlier than I needed to, more nervous than I had any right to be. When I parked at Heath’s house, he walked outside before I made it to the front door.
“She’s already gone,” he said with a grin. “Landon and Dirk dragged her out of the house for a birthday shopping spree. Luckily, it’s on Landon’s tab, not mine.”
“No horses, right?” I asked, narrowing my eyes on the werewolf. “We don’t need any more—”
“No living things,” he said, chuckling. “No pets of any size, shape, or color. You know how hard it is to live in a house with a bunny or a hamster? Impossible. Dogs are… almost okay, but really, the last thing I want is to traumatize my daughter by accidentally eating her best friend.”
Laughing, I followed him into the house. He’d pulled out all the decorations and had them on the table, ready for the job to begin.
“How long do we have?” I asked.
“Three hours, and no, we can’t sneak off during those hours, either. We’re on door duty for the bakery to deliver the cake and the caterer to drop off the food. Landon and Dirk aren’t bringing Carey back until we contact them. Her friends will start arriving in three hours and will all probably be here before I let Carey come back. This isn’t a surprise party, but it’ll be nice for her to come back to a party that’s ready to start.”
“Then let’s get to work!” I grinned at him.
We broke open the plastic wrap on the paper plates, the plastic cups, and more, then set up a side table for it all. We hung up not one but three signs, all wishing Carey a happy birthday in different ways. They were all custom, and they hadn’t been part of the decorations on Sunday. I didn’t question it. When Heath decided he wanted something done, he got it done. Clearly, he had a vision for this party I hadn’t known about.
We worked diligently, hanging up everything and getting the tables prepped in only an hour and a half, most of it with us bickering about positioning those signs. Ten minutes later, I answered the door for two delivery guys, who brought in a beautiful cake and set it in the middle of the dining table. A woman followed them in and looked over the cake before allowing us closer.
“How is it?” she asked, smiling at Heath. “I came to make sure nothing was messed up over the trip. Doing small fixes on location is pretty standard.”
“It looks lovely, thank you. I know you worked with my son, Landon. I’m Heath—”
“Everson,” she said, nodding quickly. She gave him an enthusiastic handshake. “We’ve met before, though you probably don’t remember. Most of the Dallas pack came to us for cakes and—”
“Yes, I know your bakery well,” Heath said, chuckling. “I told Landon to go to you for the cake. How is business? Do you still see the Dallas pack?”
“I’m not allowed to talk about other clients,” she said, sighing. “But between you and me? Business with the pack has slowed down substantially. We just don’t see the werewolves anymore. Y’all were some of our favorite clients because you always needed three times the amount of cake as everyone else. I was surprised when an order this small came from your son.”
“It’s my human daughter’s birthday party,” he explained, gesturing to the signs. “I’m sorry to hear the pack isn’t giving you the same patronage it used to. I’ll put in a couple of calls. There’s a chance they just haven’t had any events worthy of a good cake in a while.”
“Oh, it’s fine.”
“It would be my pleasure,” he said, giving her a breathtaking smile. I’d seen Heath lay on the charm from a mile away, but up close, it was blinding. “It looks lovely. Thank you for coming all the way out here. You should head back to Dallas so you don’t fall behind on anything.”
“Of course. Have a wonderful day, and wish the birthday girl a good one from me.” She waved for the guys to follow her.
I remained silent until she was gone, watching her leave and listening for their truck to disappear from my earshot. When I looked at Heath, I was confronted with an expression darker than I expected.
“She was pleasant,” I said carefully.
“Remind me I can’t get involved with Dallas,” he said softly, staring at his front door.
“You can’t get involved… unless you want to take back the pack,” I said gently, reaching out to him. “Heath—”
“Thank you,” he said, pulling away just a little. “I don’t want the pack back. This is the way things are. From everything I’ve seen, they hit financial hard times. A money management issue must have bankrupted them. Budgets probably grew tighter. Now they’re falling apart. The only way to save the pack would be to throw money into it. Most of the smart werewolves would have left when they saw the red flags early in Tywin’s rule. Those left behind would be too attached to Dallas or financially dependent on the pack, with no connections to get out.” He growled softly. “Every time I hear even a whisper about them, it’s bad.”
“Heath—”
“Landon and I knew it was coming. Landon tried to talk to me about it last September. I shut him down. I…” He sighed. “One year. I gave them one year. It’s different watching it happen, though. I didn’t think it would hit me this hard.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Heath.”
“Nothing. You don’t have to say anything, Jacky. I’ve made my choice. Werewolves are tough. They’ll continue on. They’ll fight for dominance in their new packs. They’ll move their families. They’ll figure it out. They have to.”
“Okay.” Guilt was a strange bedfellow. “If we weren’t together, would you go back?”
He looked surprised, then shook his head.
“No. Mind you, without you, life away from the pack would have been more of what I intended for Carey. More human and less… whatever it is we have.” He chuckled. “But I would rather fight for her to have this life than the one the pack offered. The pack knew I was leaving long before it happened, and I gave them the tools they needed to succeed without me. I gave them wealth and reputation to leverage. I left a smart werewolf in charge. Tywin had watched me run the pack for years. I was wrong to think they could do it, but Carey ranks over them in my priorities. She has since the moment I first held her. She always has and always will.”
He looked at the cake again. “It looks great.”
I took the change in topic as a sign to drop it and looked at the cake. It was a pretty thing, with swirling pastel designs over a light green frosting and felt reminiscent of something.
“Flowers in a meadow?” I asked, frowning a little. “Is that the look they were going for?”
“That would fit the look,” Heath agreed. “Picturesque for a girl who loves horses.”
“Yeah.” I liked it. It wasn’t bold in the way a store-bought cake could be. It was understated in its color choices, but that made it pretty, as though someone tried to make a watercolor painting out of a cake. “Do you think she’ll like it?”
“If they got the flavors right, absolutely,” Heath said with a laugh. “Have you seen her room since she convinced me to repaint it? This green is a near match. Landon did a great job talking to them about what the cake needed to be and who it was for.”
“Do you think she’ll notice if I taste the frosting?”
“She’ll not only notice; she’ll throw a fit.” Heath pulled me away from the cake. “We still have the food coming, so get away from it.”
“Did I tell you about Bethany?” I tried to drag my feet and distract him, so I could stay next to the cake. I wouldn’t actually touch it, but it was fun to tease. “She came by—”
“Yes, we’ve already talked about how she came over on Monday,” he said, guiding me away from the cake. “You told me what she said, and hopefully, you have that situation handled. No one has approached me. There’s a chance they let Bethany smooth it out and will leave me alone.”
I grinned at him as we made our way into his living room.
“Are we just waiting on the catering now?”
“And the guests,” he confirmed.
Thirty minutes before the guests were supposed to be there, the catering arrived. They took twenty minutes to set up the food, a variety of barbeque and its offerings, then left.
“Is everything they brought disposable?” I asked softly. “Or are they going to come back later to clean up and collect their stuff?”
“Everything is disposable. Once the party is done, we can throw the leftovers in the fridge and toss the rest, the plastic serving spoons and such.”
“Oh, good. You get to do that. I’ll be going home once the party is over.”
“Landon will help me,” he said with a grin. “But I’ll remember if you run out on me once the fun is over.”
“I’ll help a little,” I promised, kissing his cheek before I fell onto the couch and stretched out.
“Now you will,” he said, maneuvering to get on the couch with me. “We can’t stay here forever—”
The doorbell rang, and I laughed as we got back up. Heath gave me a look, then headed for the door.
“Heath!” a woman greeted happily. “We’re probably a bit early.”
“It’s fine. Come in, Brienne,” Heath said. He kept talking as the little pack walked in. I saw Brienne from the living room. When she saw me, she seemed surprised. With her were two teenagers, a boy and a girl, carrying wrapped presents. I walked over to help them.
“You two must be Noah and Amber. I’m Carey’s father. You can just call me Heath or Mr. Everson, whatever you’re comfortable with. Carey is out on a shopping spree with her brother, so we could set up.”
“I can show you where to put those,” I said, pointing at the presents as I stopped at Heath’s side. “We set up a table right over there.”
Brienne stepped forward while the two teens just stared at me wide-eyed.
“Thank you, Miss…”
“Leon. Jacky Leon,” I answered with a smile.
“Oh, the Jacky Carey is always talking about!”
“You’re Jacky?” the boy said, looking at me as if I’d grown a second head.
“Yup.” I shoved my hands in my pockets, wondering just how much Carey had said about me. “Is there something for me to be worried about?”
“No. She just made you seem… different,” he said, stepping around me to put his gift down. Amber followed.
“I think what my son is trying to say is we’ve only ever heard about you, so we weren’t sure what to expect,” Brienne cut in smoothly. “I’m sorry. You’ve become almost an urban legend to these two and admittedly, to me as well.”
“Yeah, I’m like that,” I said with a grin. I pushed Heath away, hoping to keep Brienne to myself for a minute. He took the hint with a laugh and went to help the kids get drinks while they waited for more of their friends. “How much has Carey said about me?” I whispered.
“Oh, it’s nothing bad. You have a large family, lots of older siblings who live all over the world. You’re dating her father, though…” She leaned in. “You seem young to be dating Heath. You know he’s a werewolf and immortal, right?”
“I’m turning forty in June,” I whispered back, my smile growing. Carey hadn’t told them I was a supernatural, not that I thought she would. She could have if she wanted. I was technically out, but I was also glad Brienne and I had the chance to meet before she knew I wasn’t human.
“No, I can’t believe that! There’s no way you are about to be forty. You look like you haven’t left your twenties yet.”
“Alas, I’m not one of Carey’s human friends,” I said, chuckling. “I really am only turning forty, but I stopped aging nearly fifteen years ago. Not a werewolf, but pretty close.”
“Oh.” Her eyes went wide. I didn’t smell fear, something to be grateful for. “One of those new… werecats?”
“Not new to anyone but the public, but yeah, I’m a werecat,” I confirmed. “I’m the one in the pictures, actually.”
“What Jacky is trying to say is she’s the official liaison between werecats and the United States government,” Heath added, coming back to the conversation. Behind him, I could see Noah and Amber staring at me with plates for eyes. “She prefers to keep a really low profile, so please don’t go running to the press.”
“I would never,” Brienne promised. “Actually, there’s another way I recognize your name. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks.” She was looking at me again, trying to connect some dots. “You own… Kick Shot? The bar, right?”
“I do. Have you ever come by?” I didn’t recognize her, but I was barely at the bar, at least not around the customers.
“No, but I’ve meant to try it out one evening when I don’t have the kids. However, my cousin used to be there all the time, and he’d come back drunk, telling me how he was certain the owner was a werewolf. You probably wouldn’t know—”
“Joey?” When Brienne nodded, I laughed. “It’s a small world. How is he? I haven’t seen him in months,” I said, grinning like an idiot. “I kind of miss him, honestly.”
“He got a new job and moved,” she said, sighing heavily. “He didn’t really say goodbye to me. I hadn’t seen him in a few days, then saw one of his friends at Wal Mart, John, and he told me. He promised to give me a forwarding address once he had one, but I never heard back.”
