by Lisa Kessler
“No. Sebastian suspected after his father and my commanding officer suddenly agreed to release me and offered me an honorable discharge from the military. That’s why he sent me into Nero with Isabelle to save his niece. If things went south, he wanted me to force Isabelle to leave him behind. He’s the only one who knows.”
“And now me.” I digested the information, shaking my head.
His mouth flattened as he pressed his lips together. “You won’t remember.”
The buzzing started in my ears like a swarm of angry wasps, whispers jabbing through my mind. I winced, narrowing my eyes. “Get out of my head.”
“Sorry,” Jett mumbled. “I can’t trust anyone. No one can know.”
I covered my ears, but nothing stopped the anguish.
“Stop fighting me.” Jett took a step closer as a thin line of blood trickled from his nose. “If I push too hard…you’ll…get brain damage.”
I stumbled backward. “Why did you kill…her boyfriend?”
He frowned. “Bo bit him.”
And for a moment, the buzzing stopped. I winced, coughing out, “You had to clean up his mess.”
“Her boyfriend wasn’t the only one.” Jett swiped the blood under his nose. “Damn, you’re a crazy bastard.”
“Hold on.” My head throbbed, but Tylenol was going to have to wait. “What do you mean he’s not the only one?”
“Caldwell knew Bo was losing control of the wolf. I refused to turn humans, so during full moons, he sent me with Bo. If he bit the wrong mark, I ended them before they could become werewolves.”
Damn. Killing innocents? How did Jett keep his shit together? I’d lost count of how many people I’d killed over the years, but I convinced myself their hands couldn’t be clean if they had a price on their head. Jett was mercy killing people whose only sins were being in the wrong place at the wrong time. My stomach soured at the thought.
“Why wipe Kaya’s memory?” I asked.
“I can’t steal a memory completely, just blur it a little until it seems more like a dream.” He kicked at the pavement. “I knew Caldwell was going to lock her up. I just thought it would be easier if she didn’t remember the details.”
So he had a heart after all.
He lifted his gaze. “This has to stay between us.”
“If I don’t agree, are you going to try to blur it?” My entire body tensed up at the thought of him attacking my mind again.
He smirked. “Fuck it. Everyone’s afraid of me already anyway.”
“It’s not my secret to tell.” I stepped forward and held out my arm. Jett looked at me for a minute before he took it, clasping my forearm in a tight grip. I stared him right in the eyes. “Nero fucked with all of us.”
He released my arm and looked past me to Micah. “You brought him to shoot me if it came to that, didn’t you?”
“I needed someone who was more loyal to me than the pack.” I chuckled. “Lot of good it did me, though.”
Jett chuffed. “Why the sudden interest in who turned Kaya?”
“She’s my girlfriend.” Never in a million years would I have guessed that Jett would be the first packmate I’d share my new relationship status with. The universe had a wicked sense of humor. “When she told me about her ex-boyfriend but that she couldn’t remember who bit her, I was worried there was a rabid wolf in our pack.”
“I almost wish being rabid was my problem.”
I felt for him. I couldn’t imagine carrying around that kind of power over others. He was right. How would you know what was real?
“How many others did Bo bite?”
Jett’s gaze went distant. “A few. But there was one…” He sighed and met my eyes. “I couldn’t kill her.”
“What?” I forced my jaw to close, shaking my head. “There’s a werewolf running around loose somewhere?”
“Maybe.” Jett rolled his shoulders back.
“You seriously left a new wolf alone in the world?” I rubbed my forehead. “Hell, we’re lucky Evolution Defense doesn’t already have a shifter in their lab.”
“That was the last night I cleaned up for Bo. I couldn’t bear any more innocent blood being spilled.” He looked up at the clouds overhead. “I shifted back that night and told her what had happened. I warned her to stay out of Sedona and away from hospitals and jails. Then I left.”
“How long ago was it?”
He shrugged. “Maybe two years.”
“Shit. You put us all in danger.” I looked over my shoulder at Micah and then back to Jett. “We’ve got to tell Asher.”
“No, we don’t.” Jett frowned. “This is between us. He can’t do anything about it now anyway. I haven’t seen her again. She could be on the other side of the country by now for all I know.”
I shook my head. “I hope she’s on another continent.”
Jett cleared his throat. “Are we finished now?”
“I guess so.” I met his eyes. “But know this: I’m not keeping secrets from my mate.”
“Kaya may hate me after this, but I trust her.” He paused and added, “Be good to her.”
“Stay out of her head.” I said it with a smile, but I meant every fucking word.
“She doesn’t need to worry. My gift from Nero only works if I can see my target.” He glanced at Micah and back to me. “There’s a reason I keep my distance from the pack. The less I see them, the safer they are.”
I found myself pitying him. Jett may have survived Nero’s experiment, but what kind of life did he have? I turned toward my car and stopped. “Is my brother going to be all right?”
Jett nodded. “Yeah. He won’t remember why he went to the car, but he’s fine.”
“Good.” I hesitated to leave, unsure what to say but wanting to say something.
Jett made it easier for me by walking to the backdoor of his office and disappearing inside, saving us both from an awkward goodbye.
I unlocked the car, and Micah got in as if nothing had happened. I gripped the wheel, processing everything Jett had told me. There was a female wolf out there someplace, and if Jett wanted to, he could control every member of our pack.
“Sorry I abandoned you back there.” Micah stared out the passenger window. “Just… I don’t know how to explain it. I needed to get to the car.”
I considered telling him the truth, telling him about Jett, but I didn’t. The last thing I had expected was to feel sorry for my packmate, but I did. I used to work for the sadistic pricks who had turned him into a monster. It made sense he didn’t want the others to know what he could do, but Asher should know. I tightened my hold on the wheel. If I betrayed Jett, no gun would save me. If he decided he wanted me dead, he could make me shoot myself, or jump off a building, or die trying to fight the compulsion.
But it had been over five years since Jett had escaped Nero. As far as I knew, he’d been loyal to Asher. He had helped us take down Nero, too. World domination didn’t seem to be a goal for the big wolf. Maybe I was overreacting.
I’d looked death in the eye plenty of times, been hunted, chased, and threatened. But this time was different. This was the first time anyone ever scared me.
CHAPTER 20
Kaya
It was almost five o’clock by the time Vance and Abigail showed up on the patio of the Red Coyote. I wandered out and took a seat next to him. “Hey, stranger.”
He took my hand and leaned in to kiss my cheek. “Good to see you.”
His scent was…off. There was a faint undercurrent of fear. Emotions carried scents, and fear had an unmistakable sour sting, like nervous sweat mixed with rotten fruit. Even after he’d been shot, I hadn’t smelled it on Vance.
I frowned. “What happened?”
He met my eyes. “Rough day.”
I squeezed his knee. “Did you find anything on Deidra Harlow?”
“Not yet. I talked to Sebastian. He’s going to see if any of his old contacts from Nero might recognize the name. She doesn’t have a digital footprint whic
h takes skill in this day and age.” He searched my eyes. “But that’s not what’s gotten under my skin.” He covered my hand with his. “I don’t know if I should burden you with it, but I promised no secrets.”
While I didn’t want any more secrets, seeing fear in his eyes unsettled me. Maybe he’d be doing me a favor if he shielded me. My wolf growled, protective of her mate. She was right. He needed to get this off his chest, and we were partners now. We now shared our burdens.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “No secrets. What happened?”
“I found out why you don’t remember who turned you or who killed Chet.” He squeezed my hand. “Bo bit you as Caldwell had ordered, but he also bit Chet. Apparently Bo was getting sloppy converting humans. He was losing control of his wolf, so Jett was assigned to follow him and ‘clean up’ the messes…”
I wasn’t sure what he meant and furrowed my brow. “So why can’t I remember? I know what Bo’s wolf looks like, but I have no memory of the wolf from that night.”
Vance filled me in on Jett’s ability to control minds and memories, and I quickly understood his fear as I weighed the ramifications of a power like that.
Abby whined, placing her head on my lap, probably sensing my unease. I stroked her forehead, my mouth suddenly dry and parched. “He…blurred my memory?”
“Apparently.” Vance scanned the horizon. “He said he can’t erase a memory completely. He’s been careful to make sure no one in the pack knows what Nero did to him, and he didn’t want anyone to know he was cleaning up Bo’s mistakes, either. That’s why he warped your memory of that night.”
Again, I took myself back to that night. My memory faded just before the wolf burst through the window of my apartment and nothing seemed clear until I found Chet’s mauled, bloody body on the kitchen floor. Jett did that. I didn’t want to believe it.
I blinked back hot tears and studied Vance’s profile, the lines around his eyes, the tightness. There was more he wasn’t telling me. “What else?”
He glanced my way. “The last time Jett ran with Bo during a full moon, Bo bit another person he shouldn’t have.” He swallowed, his voice falling to a whisper. “A woman. Jett didn’t…clean up.”
My stomach soured. “She’s a human being, not a grocery spill.”
“Easy to judge when you aren’t the one tasked with the job.” He bristled. “You can’t do what needs to be done if you don’t distance yourself.”
Okay, this was the assassin speaking. This was dark side of my mate. I couldn’t just accept the more palatable parts. This mate bond was all the way to my soul. No picking and choosing. Vance wasn’t a hired gun anymore, but the scars were still there just below the surface.
I forced the horror down and asked a simple question. “Are you telling me there’s a female werewolf out there alone someplace?”
He nodded. “Appears so. Jett shifted back and gave her a quick welcome to her new life, then told her to stay away from Sedona.”
“So he didn’t want Caldwell to know.”
“Right.” Vance rested back into his seat. “We’ve got to tell Asher about the female wolf, but how do I only give him half of the story?”
“You’re not going to tell him about Jett’s ability?” My pulse thrummed. I didn’t know the right answer, either, but hiding something this big from my best friend and her mate would be tough.
“He asked me not to. I told him he needs to tell Asher, but I don’t know if he will.” Vance focused on the massive red rocks in the distance. They usually made our troubles seem miniscule in comparison. Right now, peace seemed to be slipping through my fingers. He turned toward me. “Jett’s had years to use his power for his own personal gain, but he hasn’t—at least not that I’ve seen. He blurred your memory to protect you, maybe to keep you from hating him, but there’s gotta be a temptation to use it to gain wealth or power, or even just to make someone sleep with you, right? Have you ever seen him doing any of those things?”
“No,” I answered without hesitation. “He’s a loner, but I’ve never seen him involved in anything shady.”
“He told me he constantly doubts people’s intentions and that he has a hard time telling what’s real. He stays alone because of his power.” He sighed and raked his fingers through his disheveled hair. “I worked for Nero. I made money for them. From a distance, I helped fund what they did to him. How can I betray him?”
They were heavy questions. I cupped his cheek in my hand, loving him even more for his integrity. “You can’t. But he needs to talk to Asher. This is too big to hide from our Alpha.”
“I had to force his hand today in order to get him to even talk to me. He’s not going to agree to tell Asher.” He turned his head, pressing a kiss to my palm. “When we took down Nero, Sebastian sent Jett with Isabelle to rescue Sebastian’s niece. Sebastian knew what Jett could do, and he pushed him to use it. I witnessed the aftermath. Agents shot themselves. Jett did that, and it cost him. I saw his nose bleeding today. Sebastian might not have realized that it hurts Jett to use his telepathic power, but even so, Sebastian needed that upper hand to defeat Nero. What if down the road, Asher needs it too? I understand why Jett doesn’t want anyone to know.”
I smirked, shaking my head as I lowered my hand. “I don’t know Sebastian as well as you do, but I can tell you, there’s no way Asher would ask Jett to do anything like that.”
“You never know how far a man will go when he has no other options.”
“I watched Asher refuse to follow Caldwell’s orders, even though he had a gun to his head.” I paused, collecting my thoughts. “Does Jett know you’re telling me this?”
“I told him that I’ve got no secrets from my mate.” He glanced my way with a crooked smile.
Okay, I loved hearing him say I was his. I forced myself to focus. “He’s okay with me knowing, but not Asher?”
“He said he trusts you. Maybe he figures he owes you since he messed with your head?” Vance shrugged. “I don’t know. I think we should wait and see if Jett will tell Asher himself. I didn’t even tell Micah, and he came with me today.”
“All right.” I pulled my hair around to the front of my shoulder. “We keep Jett’s ability between us for now, but we’ve got to let Asher know about Bo biting a woman who got away. We can watch Jett and let him know he can trust Asher. Hopefully he’ll tell him the rest himself.”
His gaze wandered over my face like a slow caress. “You’re a wise woman, kitten.”
“I try.” I stole a kiss. “Can I get you and Abigail some dinner?”
He checked his phone and shook his head. “No time. I’ve got practice with the Black Sheep.”
“Come to my place later?”
He slid his fingers into my hair, his lips tenderly brushing mine. Fire smoldered in my veins as he pulled back and growled, “For sure.”
He got up, taking Abigail with him, and I went back into the dining room with a smile. As I headed into the kitchen, my phone buzzed in my pocket. A text from Vance lit up my screen:
Rugby scrimmage with the Black Sheep tonight at seven.
My heart melted seeing our text ritual would continue even though we were a couple now. I even considered going for a second, but I couldn’t duck out of the restaurant tonight. We had two big corporate reservations. Besides, he didn’t expect me to show up anyway.
I sent back my usual response:
Cooking. Kick some ass.
I waited a couple of seconds for his expected answer.
Always do.
I started to put my phone away when it buzzed once more:
I love you, kitten.
I stared at his final text, fighting the urge to pinch myself.
“Everything okay?” Harley asked.
I snapped my head up and smiled. “Yeah.”
She glanced at the phone in my hand, and gave me a knowing grin. “Text from your boyfriend?”
I laughed. “Don’t make me regret telling you about my updated relationship
status.”
She shrugged. “I’m glad Vance finally got off his ass and made his move.”
I chuckled, raising a brow. “How do you know this text has anything to do with him?”
“I saw you two out on the patio earlier.” She nudged my shoulder on the way to the kitchen. “Plus he’s the only one who makes you smile like that.”
She disappeared into the kitchen, leaving me staring at my phone. I grinned as I checked the clock. If worked fast, maybe I could make it to the scrimmage after all. I’d never seen him play before. It could be fun. I dropped my phone into my apron pocket and headed for the kitchen.
Time to cook.
CHAPTER 21
Vance
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and grabbed a blue vest from the equipment bag. Scrimmages were brutal fun. We all knew one another’s strengths and weaknesses, our muscles were loosened up, and we didn’t worry about the score. I never pushed myself too hard. It wouldn’t be fair to my teammates.
No one knew I was a shifter, and I needed to keep it that way if I wanted to continue playing amateur rugby. Instead of our usual fifteen players on the field, during the scrimmage, we brought in the bench and fielded two teams of eleven. I was usually a winger, but for scrimmages, I floated into other spots on the field wherever we were weak.
As I jogged out to my position, a gust of wind carried a familiar scent past me. I stopped and turned around. Kaya waved at me from the sidelines, and my heart jumped out of my fucking chest.
Holy shit. She actually showed up.
I raced for the sideline and caught her waist, spinning her around as I kissed her soft lips. Her laughter warmed me all over.
“You’re here.” I set her feet on the ground, resting my forehead on hers. “I thought you were cooking at the restaurant tonight.”
“I got a little ahead so had some time to spare.” She shrugged, the sexiest damned smile on her face. “Besides, I heard there was a hot rugby player in town. Thought I’d check him out. I was promised he’d kick some ass.”
“Always do.” I took her hand and walked her over to the bench on the sidelines. “Gary, this is my lady, Kaya. Hands off.”
