Echoed Defiance (Jacky Leon Book 4)

by K. N. Banet

  6

  Chapter Six

  The week flew by on me. It was astounding, really. When I first started to relinquish control of Kick Shot, I had been at a loss what to do. I still was most of the time, but I was getting better at finding small things to do. Since the bar had been burned down and rebuilding took time, I had dedicated myself to new skills. I had always felt wholly ill-unequipped for my position as Hasan’s representative, and nothing was going to change that, due to my age and lack of experience, but all my free time was giving me a chance to try to make up for both of those things.

  So, I was teaching myself languages. Thanks to my location, I decided the first had to be Spanish. I did quizzes, used apps and programs, and I was coming along. I still wasn’t very good, but it killed time. I was beginning to realize how my siblings knew so much. When there was only free time, learning something kept you sane.

  I was finishing up my daily lesson when my phone started to ding with an alarm. Already knowing what it was, I silenced it without reading the notification. I had a meeting at Kick Shot about the interior design, a meeting I was thankful was just going to be me, Heath, and his favorite designer, who already knew the look I wanted. We just needed to finalize the pieces and colors.

  I left my computer and dressed in something sensible. I spent my days in shorts and tank tops, thanks to the overbearing heat, not my usual jeans and band t-shirts. It wasn’t just the heat, though. I didn’t need to worry about dressing for work because I had none.

  I didn’t move quickly. The meeting was at the bar, so the walk from my house was my only commute, something I had to fight for since the rebuilding process had begun. I was the one who paid for the trailer sitting in the parking lot because it had been my demand. Heath had tried to convince me to make the drive to his home for meetings. He wasn’t surprised when I had put my foot down on that idea.

  As I walked around the building, I smiled at the sight of him, leaning on the hood of his truck. I had known he was there. The smile didn’t last long as the designer burst out of the trailer, blonde, her bone straight hair getting caught in the wind. She looked like a movie star, dressed to walk into the homes of the rich and belong there. Her blue eyes caught the sun and shone like stars.

  “Finally! I’ve been here for an hour!” she declared, looking between Heath and me.

  “You getting here early is not the client’s problem,” Heath said with a bite, his gaze shifting over to her. “You know that.”

  The exaggerated sigh of the designer, Miss Lucille Ralston, was every stereotype I could think of. She was privileged and wealthy, from the moment she had been born with the typical silver spoon in her mouth. She was a good designer, but Heath had made sure to tell me everything about her, like the fact her grandfather was the werewolf Alpha of New York. Her business had boomed thanks to the silent, steady support of the pack. Now, she designed homes for the rich and famous. Heath had told me when he asked to hire her, he and the Alpha of Los Angeles were only tentative allies, both serving on the North American Werewolf Council. That rubbed off between Heath and Lucille, who tentatively worked together. He had made it clear to me Lucille was great at her job, but not the easiest for him to work with. He’d made it sound like a warning.

  Sure enough, every time I was in the same area as both, there was friction. I’d grown used to it.

  “You’re lucky you pay so well, considering the heat of this blasted place,” she snapped at Heath. “I can’t believe you moved out—”

  I growled softly, getting her attention.

  “Be nice in my territory,” I reminded her softly. She knew I wasn’t human. There was no way the granddaughter of a werewolf Alpha didn’t know what I was. I never outright confirmed it, but the knowledge was there when she looked at me.

  “My apologies. It’s nice to see you, Miss Leon. I hope you’re doing well this afternoon,” she said, her eyes dropping. She even held the door open for both me and Heath when we made it to the trailer at the same time. “This should be a quick meeting. We’re just confirming one final time. The floors and paint come first, then we’re going to get in the light fixtures…You probably don’t need all the little details.”

  “It’s fine, and I’m doing pretty okay, thank you. Please feel free to tell me whatever you think I need to know. I’m okay with knowing all the little details,” I said, smiling kindly as I sat down at the small table in the trailer. I could see the pictures of everything I had chosen and started going through them. “I’m happy with everything so far. With an entire rebuild, there’s no way to keep the charm of the old building, but I’m glad you found ways to keep the feel of the old place.”

  “I’m glad.” Lucille sat across from me.

  Heath, in his Alpha way, said nothing as he moved to a small kitchenette and began making coffee. Making coffee probably didn’t seem like a very Alpha thing to do, but I knew what he was doing. He was hovering without getting involved. He wanted me to finalize everything and was just there to make sure I didn’t get run over. It had nearly happened a couple of times over the course of the rebuild, thanks to the strong personalities he liked to hire. Lucille was just one of them.

  “This doesn’t need to be a long meeting,” Lucille continued, not noticing Heath or not appearing to. “We’re going to sign some confirmation documents, just so everything is in writing about the final decisions. Thank you for meeting me. I like to have a paper trail.”

  “I bet,” I said with a chuckle. “How many times did you have people get angry because they didn’t like the end result?” It wasn’t a question of her ability to do her job or her eye for interior design. People could be fickle. It was a conversation she and I had to have before, more than once.

  “Let’s just say you are one of my most consistent clients. You knew what you wanted from the start, and that’s always a treat to work with.” Her smile was genuine. I didn’t dislike Lucille, but her strong personality rubbed me wrong sometimes, especially when she turned it on Heath. She didn’t make the mistake of turning it on me, which was a plus. I knew it was familiarity that caused her to do it with Heath, but my possessiveness over the werewolf made it a dangerous thing for her to do.

  Not that she knew or understood, or that I could tell her.

  “Hey, don’t be rude to Alpha Everson. I’m kissing him when no one is watching him, and I’m prone to killing people who are mean to people I think are mine.” Yup, that would go over well.

  I signed the papers, noting exactly which pieces of furniture and fixtures I wanted in what colors. I signed off on the photos of them as well, just to make sure there was no mix-up.

  It was over and done with as quickly as it had started, Lucille smiling the entire time. As she left, there was no barbed comment to Heath, who had stayed silent the entire time.

  “It’s always interesting seeing her,” I said lightly. “Do you think her grandfather told her about me?”

  “I’m certain she knows everything there is to know about you and your place in the supernatural community,” he said, chuckling as he sat down in her spot. “Are you excited for Kick Shot to be open again?”

  “I really am,” I said, groaning at the end. “I’m so bored, I’ve decided to learn languages.”

  “I know. About time you started picking up new skills.” He was teasing, but he wasn’t the first person to say it to me. “Speaking of new things, we had a talk on Monday. I thought about it all week. Do you really want me to start telling you more about the supernatural world?”

  “I mean…” With my anger gone, it didn’t seem like much of a priority. The family thought I was fine, so it seemed as if I could continue to get away with my ignorant life. I had barely thought about it all week.

  “I knew it.” His smile was all the ‘I told you so’ necessary. “Well, I was thinking, just to help with some things, of getting you some simple security measures.”

  “Like?” I leaned back in my seat, wondering what he could possibly want to do t
o make my territory any more secure than I could.

  “Have you ever heard of fae charms? There’s a popular one, everyone uses it, that’s called a Look Away charm. It stops humans from looking too closely at something and makes them unable to concentrate when they look at it. It’s used on cars a lot, so we can get away with driving too fast, things like that.”

  “I have heard of that,” I said, snapping my fingers and smiling. “Yeah, Davor told me a little about it when we were trying to get to the hospital.”

  “Well, to help you avoid prying human eyes, you should invest in it. It’s a simple, easy introduction to getting supernatural work done. I never did them to my vehicles, but I got half my pack in touch with fae in Dallas to get their vehicles done.” Heath gave me a semi-guilty look. “It’s actually something I was surprised to find you didn’t already have. It barely works with supernaturals, but it really helps with humans.”

  “I’ll consider it,” I said, shrugging. “It doesn’t sound like a terrible idea.”

  “You asked,” he said.

  I should have known he would pick up on my sudden reluctance to the idea of more magic in my life. I liked my life of minimal magic.

  “I did,” I said with a groan, throwing my arms up in defeat. “And when I was pissed off at you, it made sense, but I really like keeping my life simple. Now that I’ve talked to my family, and it’s been a few days…”

  “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll do it. You don’t have to worry about a thing. You can decide to come with me one day and see who and how it’s done, or you can just let me take your car and get it done without you. I’ll even pay.” He leaned in and grabbed my chin, using a thumb to trace the outline of my lips. “Please?”

  I narrowed my eyes. I knew what this was—Heath was finding a way to be an Alpha. Aside from the way he was making the offer, it was tempting.

  “It would keep me safe and secret, wouldn’t it?” I asked, trying to ignore the way his warm, calloused finger moved as I talked.

  “It would help keep Carey safe, too,” he murmured, his eyes dipping to my lips now.

  “How long have you sat in silence, wondering if I would get it done?”

  “Ages. I tried not to think about it after a while. It took a month for me to realize you just never would unless I said something, but by then, I’d already figured out you wouldn’t want me to bring it up.”

  “And now? Alpha werewolf needs to make sure everyone is protected? He’ll even do it himself to make sure it’s done?”

  “No. Boyfriend werewolf wants to do something nice for you and, in turn, appease the need to protect his daughter. If you don’t want it, I won’t make you. An Alpha werewolf would try to make you.”

  I coughed, pulling away to cover my mouth as the word ‘boyfriend’ finally registered. It was like the air had stopped in my lungs, deciding at that moment, I needed to pass out and stop breathing. Heath reached out, nearly coming over the table to rub my back. I could hear him asking what was wrong, but I didn’t respond as I hit my chest, trying to get my lungs to stop seizing.

  “Boyfriend?” I asked as I remembered how to breathe. “That’s what you think you are?”

  “I thought it was the best way to describe our relationship,” he said, his face closing off and his scent dying. It was a funny sensation. One moment, I could smell him and how he worried about my sudden fit. The next moment, that flavor in his scent was gone, sucked out of the air with no indication that it ever existed.

  I stopped coughing, rubbing my chest to help with the ache the coughing fit had given me.

  “Don’t do that,” I whispered. “Please?”

  “If you don’t want—”

  “We’re not dating, Heath. Boyfriend…” I scrunched up my face as I said the word, which probably wasn’t the most tactful thing to do. Heath’s blank face told me enough. I had hurt him. At the same time, I had to make my own feelings known about the designation. “We can’t have a relationship. Not like that.”

  “Is it the relationship you have a problem with? Or the word?” he asked. “Because we’re barely able to keep our hands off each other when people aren’t looking. There’s something between us, Jacky. There has been for months.”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted softly.

  He stood up quickly and walked toward the door. He didn’t leave, standing there, staring at the doorknob like it was the most interesting thing in the world. His scent was still locked up tight, leaving me in the dark of exactly what he was feeling.

  “Carey wanted you to come over for dinner,” he said, looking back at me and leaning on the door. “Do you think it would be possible? She’s wanted to see you all week.”

  “Yeah, she texted me yesterday.” I kept my voice soft, looking away from him. He looked too good there, leaning on the door in the most casual way but somehow commanding the room. “Heath, I don’t know what we are. I know what we can’t be. You know that, and I don’t understand why—”

  “We’ll play it by ear,” he whispered. “I guess I was hoping you and I were more than casual. I feel like a boy in the fields again.” He started to chuckle. “Kissing the farmer’s daughter when the boss isn’t looking.” There was a sadness underneath his words, something deep.

  “How did that end up for you?” I asked, looking back at him again. “Kissing the farmer’s daughter.”

  “I married her, and she gave me my first son, who would stay by my side for two hundred and fifty years,” he answered. I saw the pain, could smell the pain now. It went on and on.

  It made me think of Shane and how much I missed that man. How much I had wanted to spend my life with him and how much it had destroyed me to lose him. I had buried it, hiding it under the need to survive and learn to be a werecat, but it had always been there. It would always be there. The same way Heath buried his pain under being a werewolf and a father, focusing on everything else except the loss he had suffered.

  “I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I just need time. This is…this is new to me. I haven’t been with anyone in over a decade, then we kiss, but I’m not sure what that makes us, then there’s what we are…”

  “I know. I shouldn’t have assumed there was more between us than what we have.” It looked as if it was hard for him to say those words, the way his muscles tensed, and his jaw was clenched.

  “I would love to come over for dinner,” I whispered, looking down to avoid his intense grey-blue stare that was beginning to lighten up to ice-blue, his wolf eyes. “And you can take my car to whatever fae you want for that spell thing. For Carey’s protection, of course.”

  “And now she learns how to bargain and bribe with an Alpha werewolf,” he mumbled, a rueful expression on his face when I looked up at him. “Let’s go. Bring your hatchback over, and I’ll drive you home after dinner.” When he realized I was watching him again, he smiled. “Do you think I could convince you to join me on the trip, and we can have a not-date?”

  “We’ll talk about it,” I said, chuckling. The question made me realize we were fine. At least for the moment.

  7

  Chapter Seven

  Carey ran to my car when I arrived at the Everson house. A picturesque thing with a wraparound porch, it was a beautiful home. Not that I had a moment to appreciate it since I got out of the car and was attacked by a thirteen-year-old.

  “Dad beat you and told me you were coming!” she declared, grinning. “He said you were right behind him, but that was like an hour ago.”

  “I wanted to clean up,” I said, giving her the hug I knew she wanted. We walked to the door together, my arm over her shoulder and hers around my waist. “I know we text, but you never told me how you were doing after Monday. Want to say something before we go inside?”

  “Not really. They come, they leave. Everything goes back to normal. Dad would never let them take me, and I know you wouldn’t either.” Her nonchalant words carried more weight than I figured the young teen realized.

  The loyalty a
nd faith she had in us was heartwarming…and correct. There was nothing on this earth that could take her away from Heath Everson, who loved his daughter more than the sun.

  And there was no one who could take her away from me. The world had tried that once before, when I had just met her, and nearly succeeded. I would never allow it again.

  “Well, if you ever want to talk about it, you know you can, right?” I stopped her before we got to the door and turned, so we were face to face again. “I know it’s hard having people look too closely at your life and judging you for things that shouldn’t be their business. If you ever feel like you can’t talk to your dad or brother, you can talk to me.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Her one-shoulder shrug told me she wasn’t taking this nearly as seriously as I was. Or she wanted to avoid talking about it in general. Carey was much like her family of werewolves. If topics were too emotional or vulnerable, they weren’t going to bring it up and made it seem like whatever it was didn’t matter. I was used to the act and had seen it falter on many occasions, but I never tried to force it. Not with brute force, at least. I knew how to fool Carey into talking to me.

  “Fine, don’t talk to me,” I replied, lifting my hands up in defeat.

  “Jacky!” The whine nearly made me chuckle. “It’s not easy. All the kids at school know I was raised by werewolves, and now, a lot of them know what happened in Dallas. Like, it’s not hard to search for me on the internet, and everyone has the internet. Some have really mean parents too and…” Her face screwed up into a pout, something I thought she had outgrown. Turning away, she looked to the street and kicked a small rock off the concrete walkway to the front door. “And they don’t even know about the people who come here and make Dad feel bad or worry Landon. I hear them talk! I hear how other people talk about us all the time…”