Crossroads

by Moira Rogers

  “And Derek.” Fear trembled through Nick, and she tried to steady her breathing. “This whole situation has cost him so much already. If I could get him to go away, I’d do it in a millisecond. But he won’t go. He never will.”

  “No, he won’t.” Mackenzie’s words were quiet and certain. “No more than Aaron’s going to leave Michelle, or I’m going to leave Jackson.”

  “It’s selfish to want him to leave. I know it is, and I still can’t stop.” Nick pulled away from Mackenzie and swiped at her burning eyes. “It’s not right.”

  “Well, then we’re both assholes. I’m not leaving Jackson, but I’d lock him in a closet in a heartbeat to keep him out of this shit. I think that’s what you referred to as instinct when I bitched about it while he was getting better.”

  “Yeah.” Nick paced, trying to relieve the nervous tension twisting her into knots. “Derek’s best friend almost died, and God knows what tonight has done to Kat. How will he be able to look at me? I can barely look at me.”

  “You really want to know?” Her friend’s gaze held its own pain. “Call Mahalia and ask her how she manages to look at me when the man she loved died protecting me.”

  Forgiveness. Nick started to speak, but the sharp trill of her cell phone interrupted her thoughts. She scrambled for the phone, her heart pounding. “Hello?”

  Derek’s voice crackled across the line. “I knew Alec was a crazy bastard, but you never told me just how bad he could get.”

  “Oh, crap. What did he do?”

  He hesitated just long enough to spin the tension in her stomach tighter. “Kidnapped Luciano.”

  Nick gritted her teeth. Alec might be crazy, but he wasn’t stupid. “Where is he going?”

  “We’re going to Alec’s house. Which I suppose makes me an accomplice.”

  She snatched up her keys. “Jackson and Nancy are taking care of Kat. I’m on my way.” Someone had to make sure Alec didn’t forget himself and kill Enrica Maglieri’s golden child. “Just…keep Alec busy and don’t let him knock Luciano around too much.”

  “Violence doesn’t seem to be on the menu, though I think Alec’s keeping it in reserve. He said something about leverage.”

  “Of course he did.” Which meant he didn’t think Luciano was really responsible for the attack on Andrew and Kat. “How’d Luke take it?”

  “About as well as anyone getting kidnapped, I guess. He’s unconscious and tied up.”

  “Christ. I’m on my way.” She flipped the phone shut and growled at Mackenzie. “Did you catch that?”

  “I should—” Mackenzie seized the edge of the counter and swore. “Someone needs to go with you, Nick. Jackson’s not leaving Kat and his mother, but if Alec’s decided to start throwing people in his goddamn truck…”

  “Nicky?” It was Michelle’s voice, soft and worried. Her sister stepped through the narrow doorway into the kitchen. “What’s going on?”

  The last thing Michelle needed to worry about was Alec fucking around with shapeshifter politics. “It’s nothing. I’m handling it.”

  “Nick.” Power tickled up Nick’s spine as Michelle frowned at her. “Don’t treat me like an invalid.”

  She stopped and took a deep breath. “Fine. Alec went off the rails and snatched Luke Maglieri from his hotel.”

  “Damn.”

  Nick saw her own worries reflected in her sister’s eyes, worries Mackenzie would never fully understand. Even Aaron had never been forced to participate in the complicated dance of shapeshifter politics; he was the hired muscle, a man expected to take orders and not think too closely about them.

  Michelle took a steadying breath. “I want to go with you, but I can’t. Aaron’s getting fidgety about being trapped here, but it’s the only place he’s safe.”

  Michelle couldn’t go, anyway. Even if the Conclave was having trouble finding them, which seemed likely considering the fact that they’d gone to Alec and Jackson’s office looking for information, they’d be able to locate Luciano easily. “You two staying here is for the best. I’ll smooth this over.”

  “Luciano’s one of the only Conclave kids who treats me like a person. He doesn’t deserve to get hurt just because his family’s cruel. Alec of all people should know that.”

  “He does.” Nick hoped the assurance was true. “Derek is there. He won’t let Alec do anything crazy.”

  Mackenzie released the counter and straightened. “Okay, I’m coming with you, Nick. Just wait for me and pretend you can’t hear the screaming fight I’m about to have with my boyfriend.”

  “I can do that.”

  When Mackenzie was gone, Michelle moved to sit on the stool she’d abandoned. “About the girl…Kat? She’s a psychic?”

  “Empath,” Nick confirmed. “You want something to drink? Water or juice?”

  “Juice.” Michelle tapped her fingers absently on the countertop in a familiar pattern, the pinky twice followed by her index finger. A signal that she was thinking. “Empath. You said she neutralized two men from one of the tactical teams?”

  That was one way to put it. “Alec didn’t say, but he had to kill them, I guess.”

  “I’ve seen it before.” Michelle slapped her hand against the counter. “I’ve dealt with it before. A rogue empath with a vendetta against the Conclave. They wanted the man put down, but Dad fought to give him a fair trial. I kept him in his head, fixed it so he couldn’t project.”

  Nick poured a glass of white grape juice. “Uh-huh, but you weren’t pregnant then. Your magic is all wonky now.”

  “Which is why I haven’t done anything yet.” The tapping resumed, absent-minded and a little nervous. “It didn’t take a lot of power. Mostly finesse. Jackson has a lot of that.”

  “Jackson’s pretty good with instructions.” Nick slid the small glass over the counter to Michelle. “Mahalia does it all the time. You could give it a shot.”

  “Do you think he’d feel…comfortable working with me?”

  Nick watched her sister slowly sip the juice. “I wouldn’t have suggested it if I thought he wouldn’t, sweetie.”

  “Okay.” Michelle finished the juice and rose to her feet, but she hesitated. “I’m so sorry, Nicky. For everything.”

  “It’s not—” It’s not your fault. Nick rubbed her aching head. “I’m the world’s biggest hypocrite.”

  “All of this is my fault, Nick.” Her words were quiet and confident. “I know you. You’re taking it all on yourself because you don’t know how to do anything else. But it’s my problem, and I’m not going to survive if I lose you…or if you lose Derek.”

  “No one is going to lose anyone, Michelle,” she whispered fiercely. “Not this time.”

  “Promise me, Nicole, that if things get to that point, you’ll tell me. Don’t keep me hidden here while people die for my mistakes. You might think you’re doing what’s best for me, but I can’t live with it any more than you can.”

  She’d hide all of it from Michelle if she could, but they were far past that point. “I won’t keep things from you just because you’re on the run and pregnant and freaking out. Aaron might kill me, but I can handle that.”

  The scuff of Mackenzie’s boots against the wooden floor signaled her return. “If we don’t get out of here, Jackson’s going to kill me. You ready?”

  “Mmm. Think we should take a whip and chair to deal with Alec?”

  “Punching him out might be a better plan. We can take turns hitting him until he goes down.”

  “I’m all over that.” Nick bared her teeth. “I have practice.”

  Alec had a cage in his basement.

  Derek was familiar it. Alec had told him the basement was the main reason he’d purchased the house to begin with. During the first few months after his transformation, Derek had spent more than one frantic night curled up in that cage, fighting the change bec
ause he was too terrified to give in to it.

  Just standing there brought back memories he’d fought to repress. Only instead of remembering his own misery, every time he glanced at the metal frame in the corner of the basement, all he could think about was the fact that Andrew could be there soon, suffering the same frightening magic.

  But, for now, Andrew was upstairs under Franklin’s attentive eye, and Alec had left Derek downstairs to watch over the cage’s current occupant.

  Luciano looked worse for the wear, mostly because he’d fought. Alec had untied his feet and dumped him unceremoniously on the narrow cot before retreating upstairs with curt instructions to fetch him when their prisoner woke up.

  Luciano woke quietly, with a single muttered curse as he gingerly probed his swollen jaw. “Damn Jacobson. This hurts like hell.” He sat up on the cot, his back against the bars of the cage. “Does Nick know you’re helping the headcase kidnap people?”

  Derek fought a wave of anger at the man’s casual, unconcerned tone. “I’m covered in my friend’s blood, a bunch of which I found splattered all over my baby cousin. If I find out you knew what your people were going to do, I’ll help the headcase kill you before Nick can get here.”

  Irritation and confusion sped across the man’s face, and his heart began to pound loudly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Just like I told Alec.”

  “Sure.” The iron bars were cool under Derek’s hands. “Kat had her hands in Andrew’s stomach. My twenty-four-year-old cousin had to put her hands in the guts of the man she loves, and that’s not even the worst thing that happened to her tonight. I’m not feeling very trusting.”

  “Jesus.” Luciano closed his eyes. “I gave Nick my word. Even if you don’t believe me, I wouldn’t break that. I respect her and her family.”

  He might call it respect, but there was something a lot more personal in Luciano’s voice. Only the magic woven around the cage kept Derek from tearing through the bars. “Seems to me that you pureblood assholes don’t really know the meaning of the word. Or is respect something you reserve for each other?”

  “Pureblood assholes? How does your girlfriend feel about being called names like that?”

  “I think my girlfriend’s going to call you worse things if you manage to kill her sister.”

  Luciano climbed off the cot and stalked to the middle of the cage. “I admire Nick and Michelle. Nick doesn’t let anyone tell her what to do, and Michelle has always made the best of a bad situation. I wouldn’t hurt either one of them.”

  Everything Alec had ever taught him about using his senses to sniff out the truth screamed that Luciano wasn’t lying, but it didn’t erase the memory of Kat’s shocked, dull eyes staring at nothing. “So why is there some sort of goddamn shapeshifter commando squad down here ripping people up? I thought your family was in charge of this bullshit investigation.”

  “I don’t know why, unless—” Luciano’s shoulders slumped a little. “Unless my mother knew Nick wouldn’t consider a marriage offer and figured out we were stalling.”

  “You think?” Derek released the bars and stepped back, unable to contain his sarcasm. “Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with you people? How many bodies are you willing to step over to keep Michelle from having a normal life?”

  “Michelle’s power makes her dangerous, so it puts her in danger. It always has. But the whole thing with the rogue cougar Seer has the Conclave spun. They’re nervous.”

  “Are you defending it?”

  Luciano snorted in irritation. “How many Seers have you met?”

  “One.” One who had Nick’s big brown eyes and stubborn jaw and the same way of trying to protect everyone around her even when her own life was falling apart. “I thought you said you respected Michelle.”

  “I do. She’s a damn good woman, and the only Seer I’ve ever seen who managed to keep her head despite the magic.” Luciano paced to the opposite end of the cage. “But exceptions only prove rules where the Conclave’s concerned.”

  The fact that the man’s voice held the same warmth when speaking of Michelle as it had with Nick allowed Derek to relax. “Nick’s on her way,” he said finally. “She should be here before too long.”

  Luciano leaned his head back against the metal bars. “Good. Maybe she can keep Jacobson from killing me before I get a chance to help.”

  “Maybe.” The image of Kat’s traumatized face rose in Derek’s mind again. “You’re the one who was born this way. What would you do if you were Alec and a Conclave team went after someone you cared about? Someone who was young and out of her depth and couldn’t take care of herself?”

  When Luciano spoke, it was with quiet conviction. “If I were Alec Jacobson, I’d have killed myself a long time ago.”

  Derek didn’t know if the statement was a judgment of Alec or of Luciano himself. Either way, it scared the hell out of him.

  Chapter Eleven

  Nick turned onto Alec’s quarter-mile driveway and cursed. “If he did something that’s going to get Michelle hurt, I’ll kill him.”

  “What would you say the chances of that are?” Mackenzie sounded calm, but there was a tension in the car that they’d both been ignoring for the entire drive. “Alec has always seemed pretty clear-headed to me, even when shit’s going to hell.”

  “Not when there are women involved.” Nick tightened her hands around the steering wheel. “He loses it. Especially Kat. She’s worked for him and Jackson since she was nineteen.”

  “Now she’s…” Mackenzie swallowed. “Jesus. Jackson said he’d call when she wakes up, but in the state she’s in I don’t think putting her on the phone with Alec is the best way to calm him down.”

  “She won’t want to talk to Alec anyway.” There was only one person Kat gave a damn about at the moment. “We need to make sure she knows Andrew is going to be okay.”

  “Is he?”

  “Depends on how you define okay.” And on how strong Andrew turned out to be. It was usually impossible to predict how strongly magic would take root in a new wolf. “But he’ll live, at least, and he has Derek. Yeah, I think he’ll be okay.”

  Mackenzie let out a harsh breath. “I can’t believe I was supposed to have magical babies who went around tearing apart people’s lives like this. That was one freaky goddamn plan.”

  “No argument here.” The house came into view, and Nick parked beside Alec’s truck. Quick steps took her to the porch and through the door. “Alec Jacobson! Where the hell are you?”

  The man who entered the foyer with slow, wary movements wasn’t Alec. It was Andrew, disheveled and bandaged, wearing only a pair of low-slung flannel pants. He stalked around them in a wide circle, keeping his back close to the wall. Then he took a tentative step toward Mackenzie and made a soft noise.

  Mackenzie pivoted to keep Andrew in front of her. “Did he just sniff me?”

  “Yeah.” Nick stared at him, her heart pounding. “Shit. Shit. He was—Jesus Christ.” He’d been nearly dead at the office, bleeding out and holding on by a thread. She remembered the stern set of Franklin’s jaw, the doubt in Alec’s eyes. They hadn’t been sure he’d live, and he was already stomping around the house, sniffing out his surroundings.

  He brushed past Mackenzie and stepped so close to Nick that it hurt her neck to return his steady stare. But she didn’t break the contact, just watched him as he watched her. Finally, he huffed a little and backed off, muttering, “This is pretty fucking weird.”

  “How is he on his feet when Kat looks like—”

  Andrew cut her off. “Kat. Did you bring her?”

  “We didn’t know if you were okay.” Nick kept her voice calm and even. “We didn’t want to bring her back here if you were still in bad shape, and we thought you would be.”

  He growled again, this time viciously, and drove his hands into his hair. “I can’t sit still. Noth
ing makes sense, damn it.”

  Heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs as Mackenzie eased her cell phone from her back pocket. “I’m calling Jackson. Do you want to talk to Kat, Andrew?”

  “No!” He almost roared the word. “I want her back. I want her here!”

  “Calm down, Andrew.” This time, Nick reached inside for the magic, forcing it out in a commanding wave. Calm the fuck down.

  But he wasn’t cowed. He stomped past her toward the front door as Derek rushed out of the basement.

  Mackenzie got to the door first. She pressed her back against it and glared at Andrew. “I’m not scared of the big bad wolf, so you back off and I’ll get Kat over here.”

  He took a deep breath. “I haven’t lost my mind, lady. I just want to go outside for some air.”

  “Uh-huh.” Mackenzie’s gaze traveled past Nick and landed on Derek. “Should I move?”

  Derek looked tired and miserable, but he nodded. “Would you go with him? Just in case he needs anything?” He was obviously exhausted and pained, and Nick’s heart ached for him.

  “Sure.” Once Mackenzie had opened the door, she glanced at Nick. “Should I have Jackson bring Kat? Or is he going to pee on her leg or something crazy?”

  “I’m not going to pee on anyone.” Andrew growled, and Mackenzie stepped aside and let him pass. She rolled her eyes and followed, already dialing the phone.

  Derek sighed. “Well?”

  “He seems okay, I guess.” Better than expected, actually. “Derek, this is fast. Crazy fast.”

  “I know. I wasn’t hurt nearly as bad as him, and it still took me a few days to get back on my feet. Franklin and Alec were trying to play it cool…” His voice trailed off as he stared at his hands. “Shit.”

  “Hey.” Nick took his hands in hers, her thumbs tracing soothing circles over his skin. “I’m here. Everyone is, and we can help. Are you all right?”

  “I don’t know.” The words were raw. “God, Nick. My cousin is killing people with her brain and I helped Alec kidnap a guy. Who, by the way, is in a fucking cage in the basement.”