Jacoby checked on Den, who had his head turned toward the side window and his hands clenched into fists on his thighs.
In the rearview, he saw the two cars carrying the lucani behind them. They’d been on the road for two hours and had nearly reached their target. The closer they got, the more he wanted to stop and beg, plead, order, force her to stay behind.
His father would’ve pulled in every resource to protect Emelia. The bastard had never paid any attention to her until someone farther up the Mal food chain had noticed something unusual in her aura. Jacoby still wasn’t sure how they’d finally determined who Emelia was meant to be. She’d never told him. He only knew she believed it and he believed in her.
That’s when they’d started planning to get out. And when Jacoby had been assigned to guard Kari, he and Den had agreed it was time to put their plan into motion. To get them the hell out of the Mal’s hands.
And here they were, possibly putting Kari back into those hands. The thought made him physically ill. In the past three months, she’d become more than a beautiful woman worthy of worship.
She’d become the central point in a triangle he hadn’t realized he’d wanted to be a part of. And now, he couldn’t think of life without it.
“Kari. You have the panic button, yes?”
She’d refused to carry a weapon of any kind. He and Den had argued with her for at least fifteen minutes about carrying a knife, at the very least. She’d lifted an eyebrow at them and reminded them that she was a goddess of health. She didn’t take lives. She healed hearts and souls.
How the hell was he supposed to respond to that?
They’d realized you didn’t. You moved on to fight another battle. To get her to stay at the car. They’d lost that one, too.
He would make sure it didn’t come to that.
“Yes.” She held up her hand and shook the bracelet around her wrist. Lady Amity had given it to her then shown her the matching one around her own wrist. “At the first sign of trouble, I’ll be sure to press the button and have you running back to my side to save me.”
Okay, yeah, that sounded a little sexist. A lot sexist.
Vaffanculo, just put him in a wifebeater and give him a case of Budweiser.
“Kari—”
Den poked his arm, out of Kari’s sight, and Jacoby shut the fuck up.
“Yes, we’re Neanderthals,” Den said. “And we’ll apologize for that as many times as you want...as soon as we’re back at the den with Emelia. I will worship you with my mouth and make you come as many times as you want. And Jacoby will let you do whatever you like with his body for as long as you want. As soon as we’re back at the den.”
Now she was smiling, and Jacoby knew they’d dodged a bullet.
“You certainly do know the way to a girl’s heart.” Scooting forward on the bench seat in the back of the white Toyota sedan Cole had assigned them for the trip, she put her hands on both of their shoulders. “But the panic button goes both ways. If either of you is in trouble, I expect you to ask for help.” Her touch made Jacoby want to promise her anything she asked for. Except for this. If he had the chance, he’d make sure they never came after Emelia again. And if that meant showing his father exactly what he could do with his power, then he had no problem with making them hurt. “Jacoby? What’s going on?” Shit. Her worried tone made him realize she must’ve picked up on his thoughts. “Nothing. Nothing’s wrong.” “Please don’t lie to—” “We’re here.” She fell silent as Jacoby made the turn into the unmarked lane about a mile from his father’s Jersey estate. He and Kyle, the lucani’s head sicari, had decided this was the best place to stage before they made their way on foot to the estate. This land belonged to another Mal family but they’d abandoned the house years ago and the last Jacoby knew, it’d begun to deteriorate and no one had been here in years. The rutted lane and encroaching forest helped that theory, and when they finally pulled up to the house, Jacoby knew he was right. No one had been here in decades. “Wow, how beautiful this must have been years ago.” “As long as I’ve known about this place, no one has taken care of it or visited.” “Such a shame.” “Not really, considering the Mal who lived here kept lucani as guard dogs. They enslaved their minds and turned them into beasts.” Kari’s hand tightened on his shoulder for a second. “They have a lot to answer for, but let’s not forget...our main goal is to get your sister and get back to the den safely.” He knew that. He also knew the second he saw his father, he was going to want to hurt him. Badly. “I know.” He turned to see Den watching him with narrowed eyes. His friend obviously knew him too well. But Den didn’t say anything. When Den nodded at him, he dipped his head in acknowledgment and got out of the car.
Den knew Jacoby had a lot of pent-up hatred for his father. It’s what had first bonded them. But where Den had simply wanted to save his mother, Jacoby was determined to hurt his father where it would truly count. In his standing in the Mal. And that meant showing just how powerful Jacoby was and how much his father was losing when Jacoby took his sister away from him. Which meant Den needed to be by Jacoby’s side the entire time to watch his back. Because Jacoby was going to do something stupid. He just knew it. Combined with the fact that Kari had refused to stay with her sister at the lucani den... Yeah. He already felt his temples tightening with a headache he couldn’t afford now. They had to be razor-sharp if this was going to work. He had no doubt the lucani were up to the task. He’d spoken to Kyle and Kaisie and they both had way more experience at this than either Den or Jacoby. They’d always been grunts, never truly part of the upper structure, even though their fathers had been born Mal. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the female sicarishedding her clothes and deliberately turned his back to her. And kept it that way. Instinctively, he knew it’d be rude to watch unless she’d given him permission, which she hadn’t. He noticed Jacoby had done the same, giving his gun another once-over. “Hey.” He leaned over so only Jacoby could hear him. “Maybe you should stay back here with Kari.” Jacoby gave him a look he couldn’t mistake and didn’t bother to respond. Yeah, he’d known that wasn’t going to go over well.
“Okay then, just don’t do anything stupid.”
“Define stupid.”
“Jack.”
Jacoby paused for a second before he looked up. “I’ll be fine. I’m not going to do anything stupid. But if something happens to me, make sure you get Emelia out.”
Den nodded but didn’t have time to add anything because Kyle walked over with Kaisie, three huge wolves at his sides. Damn, they were amazingly beautiful animals. With human eyes.
Okay, that kinda freaked him out.
“We’re ready to go.” Kyle nodded at Jacoby. “Lead the way. Don’t worry about Kaine, Duke, and Nic. You won’t see them, but they’ll be there when you need them. Den, you’re bringing up the rear with Kari.”
As much as he felt he needed to stay with Jacoby, he also knew neither of them would be able to concentrate if Kari wasn’t protected by one of them. So he gripped his gun a little tighter and nodded. Kari stepped up beside him as Kyle went to Jacoby and they headed off into the woods.
A delicate hand squeezed his forearm for a few seconds and he looked down. Kari smiled at him.
“Have a little faith, Den. Sometimes, you need that just as much as you need courage or planning.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything. He had faith. In her. In Jacoby. Hell, he even had it in the lucani, whom he’d just met. But he also knew sometimes things happened that you had no control over.
And that, more than anything, worried the hell out of him.
*****
They had no trouble getting to the mansion in the heart of the property. The forest that hid the building from the rest of the world provided excellent cover for invaders. That didn’t mean there weren’t traps. Both physical and magical. Kyle had a spell to get them through the wards without notice, and then it was up to everyone else to be on the lookout for the physical traps lai
d throughout the woods. Jacoby knew where they had been laid in years past, but that didn’t mean his father hadn’t had his security team move them. Luckily for them, and pretty stupidly on the part of his father or his team, he hadn’t moved them in twenty years. They’d decided not to wait until dark to enter. There were usually fewer guards during the day, especially around dinnertime. Maybe his father thought intruders wouldn’t be so brazen in the light of day. Whatever the reason, they planned to make it work to their advantage. When the house came into sight, the lucani spread out to check the entry and exit points and count guards. Jacoby, Den, and Kari waited out of sight of the house for Kyle to return. Jacoby had a hard time staying put but having Kari by his side helped. When Kyle finally melted back out of the trees, he used his fingers to designate how many guards then motioned them to follow. Four outside. Two inside on the first floor. Three upstairs gathered in one place. That had to be where they were keeping Emelia. They headed for the rear of the house, where only the kitchen looked out onto the forest from the first floor. At this time of day, the only person in there would be the cook, an older woman who’d been with the family for as long as Jacoby could remember. The door had a standard code lock on it and Jacoby was taking the chance that his father hadn’t changed the code yet. If he entered the right code, the alarm wouldn’t go off. They might have a few extra minutes before anyone noticed them on the cameras. He just hoped they’d be able to get inside and subdue everyone before anyone got hurt.
After a quick glance at Den, Jacoby caught and held Kari’s gaze for several long seconds. And when she smiled, he nodded and stepped up to the back door.
Entering the code, he wasn’t shocked when it worked. He was more shocked that an alarm didn’t sound, and he didn’t hear the crash of feet as guards came running.
Kyle slipped around him into the empty kitchen, followed by the wolves and Kaisie, Den close on their heels with Kari by his side.
No cook. Where the hell—
That’s when Jacoby realized they’d stepped into a trap.
“Get out. No—”
Piercing pain slammed daggers into his head. It radiated outward, targeting every muscle in his body. He had no idea he could handle so much pain and still stay upright. Around him, everyone else seemed to be having the same reaction.
They were all incapacitated.
And then his father stepped into the room.
“Hello, son. I had a feeling you’d be coming home. I’m sorry it had to end like this, but I’m sure you understand why you can’t be allowed to have your sister. But we do thank you for delivering the goddess to us.”
The tall, distinguished-looking man standing in the door to the kitchen had a smug smile on his sharp-boned face. Jacoby wanted to smack it off his face, but he was in too much pain to do much of anything.
All he could do was watch as his father came closer. He didn’t see the gun in his father’s hand until he raised it and hit him with it.
Which was the stupidest thing that bastard could’ve done. The second the gun touched him, it brought him into complete focus.
Vaguely he heard Kari scream but he couldn’t afford to lose the connection to the metal. He had to trust Den to take care of her.
Even though the pain was intense, he managed to force himself to his feet, his grin making his father’s brows rise in surprise.
“That’s the last time you get to take a swing at me, Father. But thank you for proving that I’m doing the right thing.”
*****
Kari’s scream cut off with a gasp as Jacoby stood and his father leveled the gun at his chest. Jacoby said something that made his father sneer, but she had no idea what it was. The pain spell being cast by one of the men in the room continued to scream in her ears, but she would take care of that. She was a healer. It was no match for her. Yes, it went against every molecule in her body. She’d been created to take away pain. With an effort, she moved Den, who’d covered her body with his much bigger one, trying to shield her. He fought her but, as she kept telling them, she was a goddess. And still a powerful one. She could take a little pain. Forcing herself to hone in on the spell itself, she followed it back to the man standing behind Jacoby’s father. He held no weapon but his lips moved silently, maintaining the casting. The spell required the caster to dig deep inside his psyche for the necessary fuel, which, in his case, was his childhood. A morass of misery and pain. At any other time, she would’ve pitied him. Not today. She took that pain, amplified it, and turned it back on him. It wasn’t clean and it wasn’t pretty. She saw the moment it hit him, saw the widening of his eyes and the dilation of his pupils, saw the hand he held out in front of him tremble then shake uncontrollably. In the next second, the spell stopped, and the wolves sprang into action, going after the men surrounding Jacoby’s father.
But Kari only had eyes for Jacoby. He was facing off against his father across the room. She started for him, but Den grabbed her around the waist. “No, he’s got it. Let him handle this. We need to get Emelia. I promised him.” “I’m not leaving him alone with that man.” Den leaned in and spoke into her ear. “Trust him. He’s got this. Help me get Emelia.” No. She couldn’t do it. Jacoby needed her to stay. If anything happened to him and she wasn’t here... “Kari. I need your help. Jack doesn’t.” Damn it. Damn, damn, damn. “Let’s go.” She followed Den as he led her out of the room and away from the fighting, toward a staircase behind the kitchen. No one followed them, but Kari knew there had to be men guarding Emelia. Jacoby’s father wouldn’t allow her to be taken without a fight. She hated to be right. They hit the third floor at a run and nearly ran straight into the three guards in the hall. Den didn’t stop. He ran straight for them. They weren’t expecting him, and their surprise gave him a few extra seconds to close the distance. The guards didn’t notice her right away or thought she was no threat to them. Foolish mortals. Her power reached out and searched for their weaknesses, their fears, sought their most vulnerable points. Then she funneled all their worst fears back at them. In the split second it took Den to reach them, their eyes widened and they froze. Den took out two of them with solid right hooks to the jaw. Their eyes rolled back in their heads and they fell to the floor without raising a hand. The last one, though... He fought back, as if her power had no effect on him. And maybe it didn’t. Maybe he had a natural shield. Maybe he had strong magic himself. It didn’t matter. Den was on a mission and he wasn’t about to be defeated. He took a few solid punches in the gut before he landed one on his opponent’s chin. The guy’s head jerked and he took a few unsteady steps backward but he didn’t fall. Den’s lips curved in a hard smile before he took another swing. Relentless, Den followed with punch after punch, absorbing each of the man’s slowly weakening blows while ramping up his own. Finally the guy stumbled back against the wall and slumped to the ground, eyes closed. Running to the door, she reached for it, but Den grabbed her hand a second before she made contact. Shaking his head silently, he grabbed it and gritted his teeth. “Den! What’s wrong?” He didn’t answer, just kept shaking his head though she could see he was in pain. Turning the knob made him grimace, but after a few long seconds, he shoved the door open and pushed through. Almost immediately, he shuddered but didn’t go down. He kept moving forward even though someone on the other side was throwing magic at him to slow him down. Every blow hit him like a fist, but as she came in behind him, he rushed the man in the middle of the room and took him to the ground. The guy was smaller, almost slight, and he didn’t have the muscle to go against Den. The Mal kept using his magic and Kari had to intervene. Focusing, she aimed directly at the young man, who cried out in pain the second she unleashed her power at him. That sound physically hurt her, but she kept it up until she felt his power ebb away. Finally, Den put the other man out with a crushing blow to the jaw that snapped his head back until it bounced off the floor and his eyes closed. Her immediate response was to heal him. She felt his pain, even though he was unconscious, but she also felt the oth
er presence in the room. Looking around, she found the young woman cowering in a corner of the room. She sat on a bed, knees drawn up and her head bent. Kari couldn’t see her face. But she felt the kinship, the knowledge that this girl was part of her. It was hard to explain, and Kari wasn’t sure the girl felt the same.
Kari’s hands shook as she crossed the room. She wanted to stop to make sure Den was okay but she could tell he was breathing and moving, so she figured he could wait a second for her to check on the girl. “Emelia?” Long black hair, exactly the shade of Jacoby’s, streamed around her shoulders, looking like it hadn’t seen a comb in days. Maybe longer. The white nightgown she wore had what looked like bloodstains around the hem. Kari’s anger began to boil until it threatened to spill over. If it did, she’d destroy every single Mal in the immediate vicinity. And when she said destroy, she meant kill. And that would make her lose a vital part of herself. She took a deep breath. “Emelia, I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to take you away. My name is Kari and I’m going to take you to your brother.” After a few seconds, the girl lifted her head. Kari was unprepared for the hatred focused on her. “I know who you are. Stay away from me. I don’t want your powers. I don’t want anything to do with you. I just want you to leave me alone.” What the hell? Kari blinked at the girl, unsure what to do. “I don’t know what they told you but I’m not here to make you do anything. I’m only here to free you. Don’t you want to leave?” Tears stained the girl’s pretty face and her lips trembled, but her eyes shone with fear. Of Kari. “I’m not going anywhere with you. If Jacoby’s here, he can come get me himself. I’m not leaving until I see him.” Tinia’s teat, what had they been telling this girl? Had they poisoned her mind against Kari? “Emelia, that’s enough.” Den spoke from behind Kari, his voice strong, but Kari heard the breathless pain behind it. “We need to leave.” The girl blinked and focused her attention behind Kari. “Den? Is that you?” “Yes, it is. I’m right here. Jacoby’s downstairs. We need to leave.” “Father said you were working with them.” The girl shook her head. “I didn’t believe him.” “I’m not working with anyone but your brother. He’s here to get you out.” “Then where is he?” Kari’s heart hurt at the confusion and pain in the girl’s voice, but they were running out of time. Though she couldn’t hear what was going on downstairs, she knew Jacoby couldn’t hold out much longer on his own against his much stronger father. They needed to get back downstairs. No more time for small talk. “Your father was trying to kill him the last time we saw him.” Kari deliberately hardened her tone. The girl needed to hear her and obey. Fast. “We need to get back downstairs and make sure that doesn’t happen so we can leave. Every second we spend here is another second Jacoby has to face your father alone.” The girl looked at her again; this time her fear had receded slightly and anger was starting to creep in. Good. She’d need that anger to get her out of here. “I don’t trust you.” “That’s fine.” Kari shrugged, trying not to feel offended. The girl didn’t know her and she’d been brainwashed by her father for most of her life. “I don’t care. But you trust Den, right?” The girl’s mouth flattened into a line. Stubborn. Good. She’d need to hold on to that. “Yes.” “Then listen to him. But if we wait any longer your brother is going to be injured.” Or could already be. And if that happened, Kari would make them all pay, most especially his father. Another two heartbeats passed before the girl slid to the side of the bed and stood. Her nightgown left her arms bare and Kari saw bruises on her biceps. As if someone had grabbed her and held her tightly. You would think the girl would be willing to trust anyone who told her they were taking her away. “I’ll come. But you need to bring Tag. I’m not leaving without him.” She pointed at the man on the floor. “I won’t go without him.” Kari’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “You want to take your guard?”
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