by K. N. Banet
“Why?” He gave me a confused look as he walked past me and fell onto his leather couch. “Don’t tell me Saturday night brought this on.”
“It did. Oliver’s idea. I like it. I’m going to look into it.”
“Jacky…”
“I have the money, and it doesn’t hurt anyone,” I said, ignoring his concerned and exasperated tone. “He thinks it’s a good idea. I think it’s a good idea. It’s not a big step or anything crazy. I just want to see what the project might look like. And cost me. Think you know anyone who can do the job?”
“I own a construction company. I can do the job,” he said, looking down at his hands for a minute. I wondered if he ever did any construction. I could vividly remember what those warm, calloused hands, hands that had done work before, felt like. “If that’s okay. I live nearby, and we’re allies. I don’t see how it would be crossing any lines.”
“I don’t either. How do we start?”
“I can’t believe you right now,” he said, shaking his head in exasperation. “Jacky, really. Kick Shot is a little dive bar. I know you’ve loved what it is for as long as you’ve been running it. You wouldn’t even hire one or two servers to take drinks around. Now, you’re building a patio because some twenty-two-year-old human thinks it’s a good idea.”
“It is a good idea. Admit it.”
“It is,” he relented, still getting over the shock that I suddenly wanted to look into a construction project that would change Kick Shot so much. “If you’re sure, I’ll get it started tonight while you have Carey. There’s going to be inspections, measurements, paperwork to fill out. You have a lawyer, and I recommend letting him know this is about to happen, so I can get my company lawyer in contact with him sooner rather than later.”
“I know how this works. I’ve done major renovations on Kick Shot a few times now. Normally, I hire someone to oversee them,” I said, grinning. “Thank you, Heath.”
“Fine. One patio for a small dive bar in East Texas, coming right up.” His amusement ended after only a moment. “Really, though, why can’t you send them back? Three days ago, you weren’t thinking about building a patio, so I know this is about one of them. Big thing to look at, thanks to advice from a young man who’s barely old enough to drink at the bar where he works.”
“Do you really want them gone that bad?” I knew I did, but I felt a sense of obligation now that they were around.
I need to learn how to be less responsible.
“I don’t like the idea that your family put people here. Have you asked them yet if they’re going to report back to your siblings? Are you okay with being spied on?”
“No, but I’m not planning on asking them. I would expect them to keep in touch with anyone they know, like their family or friends, and if those people report to my siblings, I can’t stop it. Do I want them reporting on my life? No. But that’s a fight I need to have with my siblings, not two young humans.”
Heath shrugged. “I can agree with that. I’ll drop it.”
By the look on his face, he wasn’t happy. I knew Heath happy, and the man before me was smiling, but it wasn’t anywhere close to real or pleasant. It was chagrined, annoyed. He was absolutely perturbed by this recent life change.
I didn’t call him out. This was probably more about what we’d talked about the other night. Two new people around to potentially spy on us. It made me uncomfortable, but I couldn’t send them back. I could only imagine how uncomfortable it made Heath. I tried to change the subject, to show I was willing to make this work for everyone.
“You’ve worked with humans before as a supernatural. How do you keep it…?” I couldn’t find a way to phrase my question.
“Normal? Professional? Respectful? Pick something,” he teased lightly, smirking.
“Respectful is easy. They both come from backgrounds that took them near my family,” I said, shaking my head. “Normal is a good word, but…I need them to be loyal. They’re in my space, and I need to develop that level of trust with them. How do I do that?”
“Learn their secrets and keep them,” he answered softly, leaning onto the arm of the couch. He looked good, slouched on his couch, his legs outstretched. Even at rest, werewolves and werecats could seem intimidating. Wolves were just like cats that way.
“That…” I pointed at him, realizing what he just said versus how he met me. “Doesn’t always work.”
“You’re here, aren’t you?” he said with a sly smile that made me feel like I was being hunted.
“You’re not a wolf; you’re a fox,” I accused.
“Not fair. But that’s only one way. A very good way. You learn about them, learn what makes them tick, what they want, then you slowly reveal that you have the knowledge. You give them little pieces, build them up, and show they mean something to you. You, who seem very far above them, a thing they can’t relate to. It gets worse as you get older. When the generations pass you by. I was always better at adjusting than Landon, but having kids helps. Especially Carey. She makes me relatable.”
“Ah, yes, the good ‘I also have a young child’ shtick. Let me get right on that…Wait.” I rolled my eyes. “You don’t parade her around.”
“No, but sometimes I show a picture to other dads who have daughters. The ones who have sons who know mine. The understanding and relatability were always there.” He sighed, and I knew he was thinking about Richard. It didn’t happen often, especially not around me, the werecat who ended up having to kill his oldest son. It only lasted a second before Heath was back in the real world and the conversation. “Learn who they are and learn how to make them feel like they matter. That’s all you can do. Try to force loyalty with anything else, and they’ll notice. Just be a good boss, and they’ll give you the world.”
“Hmm, see, that’s where you went wrong with me. You tried to force my loyalty by protecting your kid, and I ended up loyal to her and not you,” I teased, leaning back in the stupidly uncomfortable chair.
“I’m okay with that,” he countered, the smile returning. “I’m sure they’re great young men. I look forward to getting to know them better on Saturdays.”
“We still lose our time to talk,” I reminded him.
“That might be for the best,” he reminded me. “We have no secrets, so we shouldn’t look like we do.”
“I’m going to wait on Carey,” Landon announced, looking down at us from the large opening to enter the living room.
“Drive safe,” Heath called as his son marched off. When the door slammed, the wolf sighed. “He’s warming up to you.”
“Don’t lie to me,” I said, laughing loudly. “Please don’t lie to me.”
“Okay. He still doesn’t know what to do about this situation. He hates change, which is funny since he was born a werewolf. He’s been raised thinking werewolves and werecats don’t get along, and part of that is my fault. He doesn’t roll well with the punches like I do. I will say he respects you. He’ll never say it, but he’s glad Carey has one more person she trusts.
“She’s such a precocious thing. Flings herself into the world like it’s always going to catch her. Too smart for her own good and brave enough to give me a heart attack. If you think I’m alone in suffering through that, Landon is worse. He would smother her if I let him. Having you eases the urge to keep his little sister safe and allows him to step back the way I learned to do with him and their brother.”
Wow. We’re not even going to say Richard’s name today. All right then.
“Well, that’s good to hear. I’m not offended by him, Heath. It’s just been over a year, and I thought maybe he would have warmed up just a little by now, but that’s okay.”
“Yeah. I wish he was as easy with the world as I try to be, but it’s never going to be like that. A lot of it stems from the time period he was born.”
“Half black, born during the Civil War, and growing up in the aftermath?” I asked softly.
“There were racist werewolves, too,” Heath whisp
ered, checking his watch. “Don’t worry, I killed them as I came across them, but for Landon, life as a werewolf when he was a young boy wasn’t easy. I couldn’t always protect him, and neither could his older brother. One of my greatest regrets in life was not being able to protect him from it.”
I didn’t know what to say. Lost in thought, Heath played with his watch, checking the time, probably waiting for the minute Carey would be released from school.
“You’re a great father, Heath,” I whispered. “Don’t ever think otherwise.”
“It means a lot to hear that, thank you,” he said, looking up. “I’ll get back to you in a few days about sending people out to start the preliminary planning for a patio at Kick Shot. It’s going to take some time to arrange.”
The smile he gave me made me want to melt into my chair. His eyebrows went up slowly, and I bared my teeth as my face heated. After a moment of silence, the smile once again turned predatory.
“You don’t make this easy, Jacky,” he murmured.
4
Chapter Four
“Jacky!” Carey ran through the door, surprised and ecstatic about my presence on their uncomfortable chair. I grinned as she jumped on me, nearly thirteen now and getting bigger every day. The weight wasn’t a big deal, but she had boney knees, and those could cause some damage. Kid was tough. I quickly blocked the knees with one hand and threw my other around her in a hug.
“Hey, Carey. How’d school go today?”
“It was okay. You’re here early. Are you okay? You’re never early.” The questions continued before I could get a moment to answer any of them. “Is this about the new people? Are they good? Are they really bad? Are you going to send them back? Dad didn’t tell me their names. What are their names?”
“Carey—” I tried.
“I mean, I hope they’re cool. It would really suck if they aren’t even cool.”
“Carey—” Heath tried this time. I looked over her head at him, giving him a look of annoyance; he’d told her all about my new employees.
Before her rambling could continue, I gently put a hand over her mouth.
“Are you going to let me answer any of those questions or just keep rattling them off?” I asked gently, raising an eyebrow. I removed the hand once I knew I had her attention.
“You can answer,” she said with a little shit-eating grin, knowing she didn’t need to wear me down any more to get information. That grin was coming out in full force more often as Carey’s skills at running circles around us only became more honed.
“I was here to talk to your dad about a possible project at Kick Shot. I’m considering adding a patio for customers. The new employees are fine. They’re young. When you meet them, I’ll introduce you. You’ll probably be seeing them a lot over the next year. I don’t know if they’re cool or not. One is from London, and the other was working in Berlin before coming to help me at Kick Shot.”
Carey’s eyes went wide—people from foreign places. It wasn’t like she had never met anyone from outside the country—I wasn’t foolish enough to think she hadn’t. Her father was a werewolf Alpha who probably had business and political connections all over the world. She had to have met some of them at some point.
“So…England and Germany,” she said.
“Very good. How do you know the capitals of European countries?” I smiled, glad to see she was still a sponge for knowledge.
She shrugged innocently.
“She has an atlas and keeps searching for information about places and trying to plan vacations for us. She wants to travel the world,” Heath explained. “Popped up over the holidays when I told her we were going to take a vacation this summer but didn’t tell her where.” He stood up and came to grab his preteen off me. I snickered as she fought, but he tucked her under his arm and started walking away with her. “You can run off with Jacky after your homework is done. Homework first. It’s the same every Monday. Don’t fight me.”
“Put me down! I’ll go do my homework.” That second line was full of defeat, and I could see her upset pout from across the room. Heath obliged her, though, putting her on her feet and letting her run into the dining room where Landon waited with an annoyed expression.
“Homework first,” the big brother whispered to her. “Come on. We can do it together.”
I smiled as Heath came back. He caught a glimpse of my expression before he sat down and looked back at his children. Landon had an arm around the back of Carey’s chair, helping her pull out the right books from her bag. When she started her homework, he watched with keen eyes to see if she needed any help and instructed her.
“He’s a good brother,” I pointed out after watching this small scene unfold. It was precious.
“He loves school,” Heath said softly. “Loves higher education. He’s trying to get back in for his…fourth Ph.D. When werewolves went public, he went back to the previous colleges he had attended and had them redo his diplomas in his real name.”
“Ah, the old fake name to attend college trick,” I said, nodding. “I’ve considered it. Would still have to since I’m not a werewolf.”
“I bet everyone would just think you’re a werewolf and not care,” he pointed out.
“Like the humans do now? It’s getting more frequent. I’m certain if I expand Kick Shot, especially since you live here now, everyone is going to be finally convinced of it.”
“I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”
“I’m a werecat, not a werewolf.”
“I don’t need a reminder.”
We both laughed, and I stood up, gesturing to the walkway I knew led out the back.
“How’s the horse?”
“Hating the winter, but I’ve owned horses before, and she’ll be fine. We make sure not to spook her on full moons. Another six months and Carey will be able to ride her, with us in wolf form nearby, without a reaction.”
“That’s good.”
“Don’t think I miss your scent when you come near,” he said, giving me a curious look.
“She’s easy prey. Sometimes, I have to convince my cat that she’s off limits. Does my scent spook her?”
“More than ours does.”
I winced. “Sorry. I’ll try to steer clear a bit better and stick to deer.”
“A full moon hunt is important, but thank you for trying not to eat my daughter’s new pony.”
“You are very welcome.” I was pretty sure I wouldn’t even like horse if I did, but since I had never eaten one, I wasn’t completely sure. I did know if I killed little Moonlight Dancer, Carey would never speak to me again, so I had to keep doing my best not to.
“I’m done!” Carey yelled. “Let’s go, Jacky!”
I turned fast to see her standing up from her chair in the dining room. Landon coughed quietly, making Carey turn to him and wait. He flipped through the papers on the table, then nodded, giving her a thumbs up. I could see the big brother’s exhaustion as his sister ran toward me. Homework was done, and he seemed like he wanted a nap.
“Looks like it’s time for me and the preteen to go,” I said to her father.
He took a long, deep breath.
“Preteen,” he said softly. “Don’t use that word.”
“Why not?” Carey skidded to a stop next to me. “I am a preteen.”
“Because it makes you too close to being a teenager,” he mumbled, then waved a hand for us to leave. “Out of my hair, women. I have to get back to the work Jacky distracted me from.”
I laughed and grabbed Carey’s shoulder, leading her out of the house. As we got into my car, she was already asking questions again.
“So, the new people are nice?”
“They are. They were a surprise, no doubt, but I have a good feeling about them. We just need to get used to each other.”
“That’s good. You have good feelings about people.” She beamed at me, and my heart stuttered a little. In her world, I was a hero. I didn’t much feel like one most days, but when sh
e talked to me about me, I could almost see it.
It was the best confidence boost the world could ever give me.
“Let’s hope so. My siblings have had people working for them for a long time. I hope they picked two who are going to work well with me.” I really hoped for that because these two humans were about to meet the little girl who launched me on my current path of werewolves and responsibility. If anything went wrong, they would be the ones packing up and leaving, not her.
“Did Jabari pick them?”
I shouldn’t have brought up my siblings. If there was one thing Carey was utterly fascinated by, it was them, and since she had met Jabari, she considered him the coolest and most interesting.
“I don’t think so. They worked for Davor, Zuri, and Niko.”
“Oh.” The disappointment was clear as Carey’s shoulders slumped, and her smile disappeared.
“What? The English genius, the African queen, and the German mystery aren’t as cool as the ancient warlord?” I nearly laughed as I rattled off their new nicknames. I had come up with them months before to help Carey understand who all of my siblings were. She had wanted to know about them, and I needed to come up with short and easy ways of explaining each of them.
“I mean, they’re cool, but…”
“But what?” I demanded, raising an eyebrow. I would have turned it on her, but I was keeping my eyes on the road.
“Jabari…wasn’t he so…cute?”
“Never, ever, let your father hear those words come out of your mouth,” I said quickly. “Carey, do you have a crush on my older brother?”
I could smell it. I could hear her pulse accelerate.
Heath’s in for it if Jabari is the type of guy that gets Carey interested in boys. God save us all.
“He’s super cool, and he started to teach me how to use a bow, and he loved Midnight Dancer, and…and…” She trailed off.
“He’s way too old for you.”
“He won’t always be too old for me.”
“Oh, yes, he will be.” I shook my head slowly as she continued her argument, finally deciding to turn on the radio, which she protested. She was still trying to make her argument when I parked behind Kick Shot and got out.
