I understand his frustration and even the anger he can’t control directed at me, but it won’t change what this looks like. God, I hope I can do more and find out more, but the chances are slim. The only reason I could do this in the first place is because I think I had a brief link.
I don’t know. I don’t know how this works yet.
“I am, Logan, and I don’t like it either. Barbie may not be a fan of mine, but she’s a strong female I happen to respect. I don’t want to find out that she went with them. I don’t want to acknowledge what that suggests, but the very least I have to point out is what I know. She trashed this place. She wasn’t afraid. She left,” I say, outlining each point carefully.
I don’t mention who I think Barbie is, or that I could have dealt with her before, unbeknownst to us both, because I don’t really want to be in the hot seat here.
To tell anyone my secret activities would open a can of worms I don’t need open now. Or ever.
“Fuck,” he snarls, stalking to the shelf where once I imagine a whole collection used to sit.
Swiping his hand over the wood, he leans his head down and seems to be gathering himself with effort. This must suck for him. I know Barbie is a friend, and I’ve even seen the two around town before, having dinner or just hanging out.
I understand what betrayal feels like. I know this must hurt him. That hurts me for reasons I don’t want to think about but can’t avoid forever.
I love Logan Kilter. Chances are I always have. His hurt is my hurt. His happiness is my happiness.
We’re bonded, blooded, mated, and though it was a reluctant joining, more by him than me, it’s there. He’s my male, and it’s up to me to see that things work out. No matter what it may cost me.
God, loving someone sucks! It means I don’t get to be selfish and that is my particular color. Shit.
Banner sighs, coming over to pull me into his side, and I look up at him, smiling uncertainly. He nods, closing his eyes briefly before turning to Logan to get his attention.
“Hannah will try again later. Maybe now that she’s got a connection she can do it from home. As for you, you need to get to work.”
“This is my job!”
“Not in this mood. Go make the Seers brothers suffer some more, that should put you in a better mood. As for me, I’ll take Hannah home and stay with her until she’s ready to do this.”
“She’s my mate. I should be the one doing this and being there with her,” Logan argues, his eyes flashing bright green.
“Well, then I suggest you start fucking acting like one instead of questioning every fucking thing she tells you,” Banner snarls, taking my hand and pulling me out the door without a word.
We get halfway home, walking slowly through the woods when he mutters a curse and scrubs at his neck.
“You gonna tell me everything when we get there or are you going to try and soft soap shit like you did with Lo?”
I forget, and resent, that this male knows me way better than a male who not only has seen, tasted, and touched every part of me, but has a bond to me.
That sucks, but I’m hoping that if I can prove to Logan that I deserve more maybe he’ll give it.
I nod, waiting until we’re back in the kitchen and Logan’s huge bulky coat is on the chair, a cup of coffee at my elbow before I sigh tiredly and cuss a blue streak.
“She’s either very connected with the attackers, or she’s with the resistance and that kidnapping was planned,” I say, watching Banner go still as a statue.
“What do you know about the resistance?”
More than I want to.
“I know that they work in the shadows and behind the scenes and that whatever they do is always good for pack. All packs. I know that I have suspected Barbie since she came back to town a few months ago and Brig took her to dinner. I don’t know much. Nothing at all really, but the way he goes nuts about information and always thwarting my father…the resistance is the only thing I can think of to explain it,” I admit.
“I don’t understand.”
Sighing again, I drink my coffee, taking my time to formulate what I want to say without giving too much away. I love Banner and Logan, but I’m not getting my neck stuck on the chopping block just to clarify something they don’t understand. If they want knowledge, they need to find it.
“A few years ago, there was a female, Jessa Rubens. She was promised to a Banes, the elite mating of the year. Anyway, I got the impression she was keeping secrets and not as happy with the status quo as she wanted people to think. I tried to keep up with her, sort of hang around in her circle and keep myself informed, just in case she knew some council stuff I didn’t. I liked to be prepared in case Daddy came home in a mood.”
I smile when Banner snarls at that, putting his anger down to his hatred of all things council and Damon Seers.
“Anyway, she started staying away from lunches, missing shopping get-togethers and parties, and it wasn’t just that she was disinterested, oh no Jessa was rebelling. So, I’d shift sometimes and follow at a distance, hoping to see something.”
“What did you see?” Banner asks when I pause and fiddle with my cup, my conflicted mind dealing with the need to choose a side but not wanting to.
Not yet anyways. Even if I have to because it’s the right thing to do.
“I saw her having lunch with Barbie and that little Callan female, the younger one with the brown eyes.”
“Lily?”
“Yeah, that’s her. That would have been just…okay, I guess, except that not long after that Jessa started speaking out. I mean she wasn’t going to leave the elite, she was way too spoiled and happy with a Banes match to do that, but for some reason she started making waves.”
Big waves. Fatal waves.
Banner nods, reaching for his cup while I think about the horror that occurred after.
“Logan mentioned something about her. She disappeared.”
“Not disappeared, Ban, like she ceased to exist! She was killed. I know she was, but I can’t prove it,” I insist, knowing in my soul that that female never made it out of her parents’ house.
“Okay, what else? You think she was resistance?” he asks, making me smile.
“Did I ever tell you that the Rubens were financially strapped?”
He pauses, shaking his head while he looks at me like I’ve just asked to see his balls.
“How is that relevant?”
“I told you, Jessa was a brat! She loved shopping and money and status. When she stopped doing all the usual elite things, it was because she couldn’t afford it. Her folks were struggling just to keep their servants,” I say, wincing when he snarls, not liking the word.
“I’m not being an asshole, Ban. It’s just what the elite call it, okay. Don’t shoot me for years of conditioning! Anyway, she wasn’t around because of that, something I only discovered when Mom mentioned it months later.”
“Okaaaaay? I’m lost here, Han.”
“Don’t you see? I think she was paid to cause a ruckus and distraction, so the elite were looking her way.”
“For what purpose?”
I roll my eyes, trying to remind myself that Banner doesn’t know elite news and gossip, so obviously he wouldn’t know the significance.
“That was the year Alex Bolt left the pack and took Belle Cooper with him.”
“The male who Fated her? Wait! I know this! She was mated to Grey Marks a month before. Nasty bastard. I remember getting a callout from the female at the store about a disturbance. Grey was ready to rip Belle’s head off. I tried to get her to come back to Nick’s place with me, but she told me to mind my own business.”
I nod. That’s standard elite response when you know you’re in deep shit and trying to minimize the end result, namely Grey beating the hell out of her.
“Yeah. See, she only discovered that she was Alex’s Fated after the mating ceremony. By then it was too late. Her family refused to petition for a divorce, and Belle was so
unhappy, I swear I thought that female was going to kill herself. Nasty fucker that Grey. Anyway, the very same time Jessa was creating waves was when those two disappeared. It was elite news for months while the Marks clan searched for her. She never came back. Nor did Alex,” I say, grinning when he gets it.
“The resistance got them out and relocated them to a friendly pack.”
“Bingo. At least that is what I’ve always suspected. But see here, Jessa wasn’t the smartest bulb in the box. I bet she thought she’d do it, pocket the money, and then smooth things over later by going on some hate campaign against another shifter mix.”
“Holy fucking shit! You think Barbie and this Lily Callan are involved? That they can contact them?” he asks, making me laugh so hard I almost fall off my chair.
Christ! I think males are so Goddamned used to thinking of females as helpless and weak they don’t ever see the bigger picture. It figures he’d sit here thinking they were only contacts.
“Ban, honey, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re being fucking stupid. I think Barbie and Lily are part of it! Have you seen Lily around lately? She usually hangs out at the bar and shoots pool with the enforcers.”
She’s an enforcer whore. No, I am not being a bitch. It’s the truth. Basically, she has a thing for those kinds of males and will go with anyone who gives her a chance. Like one of those females in biker gangs, just waiting for a chance.
Only now, I don’t so much think that was her main goal. I think, and I may be wrong here, but I think she was skimming information.
“Goddammit. What now?” he asks when he puts it all together, his eyes going hard.
“Beats the hell out of me, man, but I am so missing that cell,” I mutter, wanting the peace that being locked away offered.
“Logan—”
“Is in deep shit if that is the case, Banner. If Barbie got her chance to infiltrate ranks with those bastards invading us and attacking our pack, then she’s not coming back anytime soon, and I am sorry to tell you this, but she knew I was in her head and shut me down. I probably won’t get back in unless she wants me to,” I confess, biting into my lip.
“Fuck.”
“Hallelujah brother,” I mutter, needing something way stronger than coffee.
Banner must feel the same because he rises and comes back with brandy and two glasses, pouring and sliding one my way.
“How are we going to fix this?” he growls, making me smile because this part I know. Intimately.
“Lie.”
********************************************************************
“And you say she’s pregnant?”
I hear the gasp, as Becky Gomes starts spreading the gossip to the table of females having lunch with her, and smile, dusting off my shoulder with pride as I saunter out of the restaurant and out onto the street, giving Banner a slight chin nod to let him know my work is done.
I can hardly believe starting that rumor about Barbie and Brig was that easy, and neither can I believe that the elite female was that easy to fool, considering she sneered at me the whole time I was letting little comments drop.
By the time this reaches Barbie’s parents and they approach Nick to demand how their daughter got knocked up by my brother when she is supposed to be out on pack business, I’ll have laid so much groundwork that all they’ll see is an elaborate plan put in place by Barbie herself to fool everyone and escape the pack before her star-crossed love affair with a dreaded elite male was discovered.
Sure, Brig is about ten seconds away from having a father’s foot shoved up his ass—my own finger wave to revenge—but I think he’s earned this, very nicely, and that he’ll have to find a way to make it work.
Any which way we look at it, this buys us time to find Barbie, Nick’s no longer in the hot seat, and my father can suck a bag of dildos in his quest to get that council seat.
With this new scandal, everyone hearing that Brig knocked up a mixed breed and then kept it quiet, my father will have a shot at that seat about as much as a gorilla has of speaking French.
Aaaand I get to flip my father and brother the finger.
A good days work even if I do say so myself.
Sauntering down the road alone because I convinced Banner that he can’t be seen with me for this to work, I lash out, catching a nose when a hand grabs me and pulls me into an alley, a snarl reaching my ears.
“Goddammit Hannah, you’re making waves.”
I grin, giving Brig a sweet sugary smile and flutter my eyelashes with a dramatic sigh.
“Oh Brig, honey, that ain’t nothing, big brother. I could have so totally told everyone that you’re a high-level resistance member who doesn’t see anything wrong with sacrificing your own sister to the cause if need be, I purr, stopping short of punching him because I just had my nails done.
Well, I mean, where do you think a female like me starts an effective rumor?
“Dammit—”
“Oh, come now, you didn’t think I’d figure it out eventually? Give me a break. Every single time you used me and hurt me with your callous demands I was watching you. Every single time you thought you were being so smart, I was smarter. I’m no fool, Brig, and the worst part is that if you’d just told me instead of stabbing me in the back continuously I would have helped. Willingly. Now you can kiss my ass.”
“I wasn’t going to let Banes hurt you!” he whispers furiously, his eyes going hard as diamond chips when I snort, not believing him.
“We could have gotten to you any time between the Silvertons place and the lake. How do you think you made it that far, huh? You weren’t very good at disappearing into the scenery what with looking at the stars and stopping for water.” Brig huffs, choking on a laugh when I gasp my offense.
“I got thirsty. And I was thinking, damn you.”
“You were stalling because you didn’t want to leave, Han. Admit it. Christ, you’d be a terrible agent,” he mutters, hurting me deeply.
Subterfuge is my middle name.
“That’s not very nice. I’ll have you know—”
My hiss is halted when Brig grabs me, hugging me so fiercely I go still before tears reach my eyes and everything inside me melts. I can’t help it. I need a hug. I’ve been so scared that he actually meant it, that he didn’t care.
“I love you, little sister. Never ever doubt that. I’d have killed that asshole long before he got to you if Kilter wasn’t there.”
“He ripped my throat out. I almost died,” I argue, hugging him back like a baby.
God, Logan is totally ruining my street cred.
“You didn’t, and I knew Kilter wouldn’t let you. I’m sorry, Han. I really am. I can’t afford to be outed yet, not until I get more on the council. I just, I don’t want you hurt. Why do you think I let it slip in Kilter’s earshot that you can see things? I knew he’d try to use you to find Barbie, and while that was happening he’d be forced to mate you.” He laughs, kissing my shocked face softly.
“You—”
“Are an asshole, I know, but it had to be done. I can’t walk around doing my shit while you’re in danger, Hannah. You’re messing with my plans, you pain in the ass. Getting arrested, having Dad go nuts on you all the time. A male can only stand to play so long before he loses the plot and snaps. I needed you out of the way.”
“Well, you could have done it nicer! I don’t enjoy dying, Brigger. It hurt!” I whine, slapping him just for the hell of it.
He hisses, holding his cheek where my claws swiped four nice grooves and mutters under his breath.
“I’m sorry, Hannah,” he says sincerely, his eyes clouding with regret before they harden again and lose all emotion.
“Me too. You’re about to have three hundred pounds of pissed off papa wolf up your ass, big brother, and trust me, that is gonna hurt. Good luck explaining why Barbie has decided to run away carrying your illegitimate love young,” I trill, making him curse and punch the wall.
“Sonofabitch.”
“That’s what I thought while I was bleeding to death in the woods while my brother left me to be attacked. We’re even now. Mostly. I think. I mean, I hold a grudge,” I say regretfully while smiling inside.
“Christ.”
“Yeah brother, you better start praying.”
Chapter Nineteen
Logan
I’m still not sure what we’re going to do as I sit in Nick’s study and watch him pace, his anger more than understandable after I just told him what Hannah said and listened to him curse for ten solid minutes.
“This isn’t good. And Han is sure?” Bear asks for the third time, making me snap when my wolf tries to break free.
“She’s sure! She saw, heard it, whatever it is she does, and she told me more than once, unequivocally, Barbie trashed the house. Barbie left with those shifters. She wasn’t taken!” I tell them again, hardly getting the words out they hurt so much.
“Fuck! What the hell am I supposed to tell her Goddamned father after assuring him his daughter is safe and hard at work for the pack?” Nick snarls, making me grimace and run my hands through my hair.
“I don’t know Alpha, but whatever it is, you better come up with something,” Bear says ominously right before I hear yelling and the door burst open for Kendall to stalk in.
“Kendall.”
“You told me she was out working! You told me she was okay, and she’s been checking in, even if she doesn’t call her mother or me, and now I have to hear that my daughter is out there, all alone and no one is doing a thing about it?” he snarls, his face purple with fury as he yells at Nick.
I snarl, my natural urge to protect my leader rising to the fore when Kendall’s face starts morphing, the hair and pop I hear telling me he’s fighting a shift and that his wolf is winning.
“Ken—”
“Goddammit, I want you to do something about that Seers kid. If you don’t I will.”
Wait, what?
“Ken, just calm the hell down and tell me what’s going on,” Nick says patiently, ignoring the blatant disrespect that can get most shifters in a lot of shit when the guy whines and take a seat, holding his head in his hands.
Greyriver Shifters Page 43
