TEN
Speeding through the streets, Jake felt his heart hammering in his chest. If he could shake the car tailing him, he could ditch the car and go faster on foot. He suppressed the urge to do so and focused on weaving the car between the cars.
He soon found himself going the wrong way and jerked his wheel left, then right, then center, to avoid crashing into anyone. Jake wasn’t scared of this; he’d done plenty of training during his SEALS that made him fearless to things like this. Finally, he relented and he morphed. It was dark outside; he wouldn’t raise suspicion. And at this point, it was the least of his problems.
A wailing sounded from a distance, and he gripped the wheel. He began to see things five steps ahead, and after making it safely to an intersection, he made a sharp left and veered back onto the right side of the road. The other car was several cars behind him, out of sight.
Contrary to the road he was just on, this one was a darker, smaller street. Killing the lights, he cruised while keeping one eye on his rearview mirror to watch for lights turning onto the road. Nothing. He quickly parked the car in front of a large truck, camouflaging himself further. Moving swiftly, Jake got out of the car and melted into the shadows to wait. Sure enough, a car came down the street. His vision was sharp, and he could tell by the quiet hum that it was the same car that had been following him earlier.
Since he had successfully lost them on the road just moments earlier, he knew they must have put a tracker on his car. It was too much of a coincidence that they had tracked him to this side street when they had no reason to believe he was even here. He crouched low and waited for them to approach his car. He had positioned himself behind his car, in a darkened alley. The building he was next to hid him well with a staircase in front.
Rolling to a stop, the car beamed its lights into his car and looked for any sign of him. Seeing none, it drove up further. He wondered if the man would continue on and pursue him later, but he was mistaken. He heard a car door slam and the click of a revolver as the man approached his vehicle. Jake’s muscles bunched in anticipation.
Then, two shots in succession at his car. There was a silencer on the gun, but it did nothing for the window shattering. Jake decided to wait for him to circle around to the passenger side before he would make his move. He never carried a gun anymore, but he knew how to best position himself so he could gain the upper hand.
Methodically, the man moved from door to door, his gun trained on the car all the while. He’d pulled out a flashlight and was shining it into the car. He could see nothing in the car, but he knew the man would check the trunk and the other side of the car. He wasn’t very good, whoever he was, Jake thought irritably. Caster hadn’t even cared to send his best this time. He sent some junior level hack that didn’t know how to properly secure a situation.
While he mentally corrected the man’s procedure, he braced himself to attack, his toes curling and uncurling. The claws on his hands were fairly itching to sink into the man’s skin. Then his moment came. Jake was ready. He lunged, throwing the man against the hood of his car. His gun went flying into the middle of the street, and the flashlight rolled. He grunted and turned his head halfway to get a look at Jake. His eyes went wide, and Jake could smell his fear. Good.
“You…you what…what are you?” The man was trembling, and Jake almost felt pity for him. Almost. He was also working with a man who’d kidnapped his own daughter and was trying to kill him. He couldn’t take any chances. The flashlight had come to a stop under the car, illuminating his face. He didn’t have to try to look menacing, he knew he looked frightening enough for a person who’d never actually seen a werewolf. Knowing Caster, he probably still had the same old blurry photos from a decade ago. But here he was, in the flesh. And the man trembling under his weight knew it.
“You are going to tell me where Josie is,” he growled. He ignored the question about who he was. The man wasn’t trained properly, but he had to have been briefed at the very least.
“Are you Edward?” the man breathed, half in awe and half in fear.
Leaning in closer to the point where his mouth was almost touching the man’s ear, he breathed, “You are going to tell me where she is. If you don’t, you will find out exactly who I am. And you’ll live just long enough to regret it.”
The man’s shaking became more like convulsions after that. “Here, here,” he tried to reach the front pocket of his slacks. “It’s in here,” he slipped out a small slip of paper with some words scratched on it. Even with Jake’s sharpened vision, he couldn’t quite make out the words.
“What does it say,” he asked, easing up on the now subdued man.
“Just has the address on here of where my partner was supposed to take her.” He managed to sound like he wasn’t in pain, but Jake could tell he was favoring his right side by the ribs.
“Walter is your partner?”
The man looked up, squinting at him. “You know Walter?”
“How long have you been working for Caster?” Jake’s curiosity got the better of him. Why did this man have partial information about the history he’d had with these people? It didn’t make sense.
“I’m, uh, David.”
“And?” What was with this guy getting at, he wondered irritably. He had little information to give, and now he was introducing himself like they were at a party together.
“I’m Josie’s fiancé.”
What the hell. “Fiancé.”
“Yes. We were engaged, and she just ran off. Got cold feet.”
“Uh-huh.”
Jake wasn’t sure what to make of what the man was telling him, so he didn’t comment on it. What he did know was that Josie hadn’t been with anyone else, she had no ring, and she had never mentioned anyone named David. But what reason this man had to lie to him, a man who clearly had the upper hand, was beyond him.
Jerking him up, Jake shoved him toward the other man’s car. “I’m taking your car since you have a tracker on mine and busted the window.”
The man began to stammer, and Jake gave him an extra shove to quiet him. “Just get in the car.”
With nowhere else to take him at the moment, he decided to take him back to the office since someone was probably watching the house. Surprisingly, no one had tried to attack him at the office. He assumed that was because there were so many witnesses.
He deftly tied David’s hands with zip ties that David had in his car, presumably to use on him. He scoffed. Was Caster underestimating him? Or did he just think Jake’s strength had dulled over the years? Unfortunately, Walter wasn’t as incompetent. What he lacked in skill, he made up for in cunning and suspicion. He never relaxed, which made him a good person to watch over a hostage.
Josie. Jake tried not to think about what she was going through, but whenever he thought about how vulnerable she was, he wanted to storm in and grab her. But he had to come up with a strategy or she’d be lost to him forever. If he didn’t have a plan, he would simply fall into Caster’s trap. A poorly laid one, at that, Jake thought looking into the mirror at the man struggling in the back.
Josie was no shrinking violet. He knew she could take care of herself. After all, she’d lived with her father most of her life, so she had to know how to handle herself to some extent. His mind drifted to the possibility that this was all an elaborate plan to make it look like she was kidnapped. What if he was underestimating Caster? If she was pretending to be kidnapped, and they had sent this ill-equipped buffoon, they would know that it would lure him to them without much trouble.
Jake needed Bill. He called, and Bill answered on the first ring. “Jake, where are you?”
Jake had entrusted Bill all day with running the site and the office with Lucy, but he hadn’t touched base with him since lunch. Even then, he’d kept the information brief. Bill had no idea what was going on, but that was about to change.
“Can you meet me at the trailer?” Jake asked, speeding toward the construction site.
“We never left,” Bill said, sounding concerned. “Is everything alright?”
“Yes, but I’m going to need your help. I don’t have a lot of time, but I’ll explain when I get there. Just do me a favor, and make sure there aren’t any cars parked out there that don’t belong.”
Bill agreed, sensing the urgency in Jake’s words. That’s one thing that Jake liked about the older man. He always knew when a situation arose, Bill either led the way or took his cues from Jake if he didn’t know what was going on, without question.
He parked and got David out of the back. He’d stopped struggling halfway to the site and then complained that the constraints had gotten tighter. He gasped when he saw Jake under the lights that glowed from the trailer outside. “You’re…you’re…real,” he breathed.
“Yes,” hissed Jake. “What do you think this chase is all about? What kind of training did you get about this situation, anyway?”
David’s acting couldn’t be that great, Jake thought. His reaction to him was genuine; there was no mistaking the fear in his eyes and the subtle body language that he was exhibiting, drawing back, the shaking in his voice. It wasn’t practiced. Which took Jake back to square one. He didn’t seem to fit the criteria of Caster’s men at all.
He morphed before going into the trailer to talk to Bill and Lucy. He would tell them, but he’d rather not scare the wits out of them in the process.
“Well, it’s about time,” Lucy said jumping out of her seat when she saw Jake shove David into the room. “Should I call the police?”
“No,” Jake practically shouted. He lowered his voice respectfully when Lucy cocked an eyebrow at him. “No,” he said more quietly this time. “I need to tell you two what’s going on, but first, let me find this guy a comfortable spot,” he said sarcastically.
He found a stool and placed it in the small supply closet, seating David on it and closing it behind him. He didn’t need him inserting anything into the conversation, and frankly, he was glad to have the man out of sight for a while until he figured out what to do with him.
“Start from the beginning,” Bill ordered, crossing his arms. Lucy joined him, perching on the big desk.
With the older couple waiting expectantly, Jake began to tell them the story that stretched back nearly three decades. From when his father was good friends with Caster when the two had served in the military together to when Jake had joined the SEALS and had wound up in the same unit under Caster.
His father had died long ago, and Caster had recognized Jake from his name and by how closely he resembled his father. Jake felt close to Caster for a time after that, like he had a connection to his father through the other man.
Then Jake sighed. And Bill got impatient. “And then?”
“What does this have to do with the hostage situation we have going on in there?” Lucy jerked her thumb toward the closet.
“Well, let me continue,” Jake said. “But I have to warn you, the rest is going to seem pretty unbelievable.”
“Try us,” Bill challenged.
So Jake launched into how he was a werewolf and how that came with a multitude of abilities that Caster had discovered. He wanted to exploit Jake and use his skills to attack enemies of the state. Covert operations and top-secret missions. The works. Jake was proud to serve and didn’t question him. Until he realized the missions were taking on a slightly personal turn. He was being used to attack people that were enemies of Caster, not of the State. He was using Jake to seek revenge on people for the smallest infractions.
Once Jake had found out about this, he’d confronted Caster. Caster always had a way of weaving his tales so that it seemed like Jake was mistaken. Jake wasn’t privy to all the information, and he would just have to trust Caster. Against his better judgement, he did trust him. He trusted him until he could no longer ignore the facts. And then, he ran. He ran away and reinvented himself.
Unfortunately, Caster was meticulous about his records and made it look as if Jake had initiated all the rogue missions. His name was kept off the records, of course. He knew Caster wouldn’t benefit if he turned him over to the military, though. Then he would have eliminated his use of him. He needed Jake too much to do that. Jake speculated that he was trying to blackmail him instead. But knowing how Caster operated, he could decide to eliminate him. And if he discovered that his own daughter was carrying Jake’s child, he could wait and exploit him.
Jake was unable to keep the raw emotion out of his voice at this last part. When he finished, he waited for Bill and Lucy to respond. They’d stayed silent through the whole thing, and he wondered if they believed any of it.
“Show us,” Lucy demanded.
Jake looked back and forth between the couple and threw his hands up. “That’s it?”
“You just dropped a bomb on us, so yes, please have something to back it up with,” Bill said. “We need to see for ourselves.”
Enough time had been wasted, and Jake didn’t want to waste anymore. His back arched, his head dipped low, and his arms came out to the sides as he changed into his other form. When the transformation was complete, he stood before them, waiting for their reaction.
To their credit, they didn’t gasp; they just looked stunned. Lucy recovered first. “I always knew there was a beast in you,” she said smugly. “Now, we have proof.”
Bill looked at her, his mouth still hanging open. “I can’t believe this.”
“I can,” Lucy sniffed. “Have you ever seen him when he hasn’t had coffee? This is pretty much his demeanor.”
Bill snorted. “I think you’re right.”
The two looked at Jake and back at each other and burst out laughing.
Jake shifted back and glared at them. “Are you two done?”
“Yes,” Bill said. Lucy laughed harder, and seeing her made Bill start laughing again.
“You realize they have Josie!” Jake exclaimed, trying to get them to be serious again.
“You’re right.” Lucy dabbed her eyes, and her smile was replaced with a more sober expression. “Poor thing must be terrified.”
“So, you said that this guy, Caster, he’s her father?” Bill asked, his eyes narrowing.
“Yes,” Jake affirmed. “But I don’t think they have a typical father-daughter relationship. It seems strained. She didn’t want to talk much about her life before moving here, so that tells me she had a lot of issues with him as well.”
“I can’t imagine why,” Bill muttered, pacing the length of the room.
“Well, I can hold down the fort if you two want to go play cops and robbers,” Lucy offered.
“I can’t leave you here alone,” Bill said, torn.
“When was the last time you saw me wilt under pressure?” Lucy began pushing them out the door.
“You two go, figure out what you’re going to do. I’ll be fine. These guys on the site can help me if I need it.”
Jake nodded, “I trust you, Lucy. I can hire some guards to come sit out here if you need that extra protection.”
Bill looked uncertain. “I don’t know if I’m more scared for her or for anyone who tries to cross her.”
“The latter,” Lucy said, crossing her arms. “Now, tell me. Who’s babysitting that fella in there? I charge extra for babysitting.”
Hours later, when Jake finally went home, he walked into his room and saw Josie’s sweater lying on the floor. He picked it up and smelled it. God, he missed her. It smelled like gardenias and a mix of some other flower he didn’t know the name of. He saw the indent of where she had lain earlier this morning and felt like it was a lifetime ago.
He would have been halfway to California by now if it hadn’t been for Bill. Bill had offered to watch David tonight so Jake could get some rest. The two planned to leave the next day, but Bill had a strategy for leaving that Jake thought made more sense. He just had to convince himself not to be impatient.
He could gain the upper hand if he followed Bill’s lead. He hated to admit it, but his emotions toward Josie were starting to cloud his judgement. Bill must have noticed and was trying to steer Jake away from creating a disaster of the already complex situation.
After preparing a bag to take the next day, Jake lay awake in bed thinking about Josie and where she was. His bed felt too big, his arms too empty. He worried about how she was faring and if she was thinking about him too. He didn’t know how she felt about him, or if she felt as strongly about him as he did about her. Maybe she only found solace in him because he was the opposite of her father. Or maybe she only needed him because she was carrying his baby. If he wanted to find out, he had to find her first. And then he was going to demand answers. No more secrets. He wanted the truth, all of it.