EIGHT
“Wake up,” Jake shook Josie’s shoulder gently. Her hair swept across her cheek, and the sunlight hit it in such a way that it looked almost golden. Jake longed to climb back into the bed with her. But they had to get to work, and it would look suspicious with both of them absent—even if Bill could run it for them. The last thing he needed was Bill making sly remarks, he thought.
Gauging from Josie’s comfort with him last night, he wanted to believe her reactions toward him were authentic. That she wasn’t just a pawn being used by her manipulative father. He didn’t think Caster would stoop so low as to use his virginal daughter, but maybe that was the case. His heart hurt to think of that possibility, but he had to protect himself.
He’d sworn he’d never let Caster get to him again after what happened with Sylvia. What had happened with her was calculated and cold. Even now, when he thought about how she had been with him when they were alone, he found it hard to believe that she had been pretending the whole time. It was possible that he just didn’t want to believe it.
Josie blinked sleepily and brushed her hair to the side. She yawned and stretched leisurely, causing the covers to expose part of her smooth, bare thigh and the tops of her breasts as well. Jake’s mouth went dry, but he steeled himself against the visuals. “You can shower here, but you’ll have to go home to get a change of clothes,” he reminded her. “I made breakfast already. Have some before you go.”
Josie blinked again and nodded. “I’m up. I’ll just go home and shower. I wouldn’t mind a strong cup of coffee, though.” She clutched the sheets to cover her body, much to Jake’s relief and disappointment, and then sat up.
“I’ll get going then,” Jake informed her. “I have an early meeting with one of the groups that you met with a few weeks ago. They were interested in meeting with you as well, once you make it in the office. I’ll let Bill know that he has to fill in at the office.”
“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled,” Josie chuckled.
“Now that he and Lucy know that I know they’re together, I have a feeling she’s going to be shadowing him everywhere. So I bet she’s going to come help around the office like before.” Jake shook his head, “I knew she couldn’t stay away.”
Josie looked at him pointedly, and he realized she was waiting for him to leave so she could get up. “Hey, I think we’re past the point of being shy,” he protested. He wanted one more visual to satisfy him before he left.
She stared at him, and he relented. “Fine,” Jake said mournfully.
He left after giving her instructions on setting his alarm. As he pulled out of his garage, he saw a dark gray sedan he’d never seen before, waiting at the corner of his street. It pulled out ahead of him, and he followed it. It was too early in the morning to be a coincidence. No one lived near the patch of land where the car had been parked.
He pursued it, first from a distance, and then more closely. He could tell from the silhouette that it was a male. But he wanted to see if he could catch a glimpse of the driver to see if he recognized him. He found an opportunity to pull out ahead of him and took it.
Pulling up alongside the vehicle, he chanced a quick glance at the driver. It was no one he recognized. He felt relief at this. Then he felt a jolt. The other driver was ramming his car! With no time to do anything but speed up, Jake committed the man’s face to memory.
Caster had sent some new faces, just as he’d suspected he would. Pulling onto a ramp, Jake began to weave in and out of early morning traffic. The man kept up. He flew through toll passes and looked to see the man still behind him, dogged in his pursuit.
Gritting his teeth, Jake exited to a less busy street and, through a series of turns, wound up in a neighborhood. He’d lost the man, for now. It was still dark outside, but the light was coming up just over the horizon. He found parking on the street and killed the lights.
He opened his sunroof to hear every sound with more clarity. Moving to the back of his car, he morphed. He could hear a quiet hum approaching, but there were no lights behind him. The noise stopped. His senses were keener when he was a werewolf, and he heard the slightest click of a door opening.
Bracing himself, his muscles bunched up in anticipation. Booted footsteps approached, and he grew angrier at the sound. Without warning, he lunged through the open sunroof onto the man. They rolled, grunting and punching. The man was agile and swift. His hand connected with Jake’s a few times before Jake caught on to his maneuvers.
He waited for the man to come close to him before giving a loud roar, leaping behind him to gain an advantage in his attack. In the back of his mind, Jake wondered if Josie was being followed as well. Perhaps this was all a diversion. He had to finish the man first if he wanted to help her.
They wrestled for several more minutes, and Jake began to wonder how the man had become so powerful. Or maybe he was just that out of practice, he conceded. He might be out of practice, but he still had more experience and cunning on his side. He took a couple of punches and pretended to be wounded by the last one the man had given him. Thus far, the man hadn’t drawn any weapons on him.
That was a good sign. It meant that Caster wanted him alive. Likely to further his purpose, but at least he wasn’t trying to finish him just for the sake of finishing him.
The man watched as Jake pretended to tend to a wound. His body, covered in thick fur, was hunched over examining a gash on his leg. He saw from the corner of his eye that the man was out of breath, taking deep gulps of breath, relaxing as he thought he had the upper hand. Jake morphed back into his human form and wasted no time in doing a back-flip onto the man, flattening him against the pavement.
The sun was rising more now, and he risked being seen. He remained on top of the man. “How many more are there?” he demanded.
The man didn’t answer. He stubbornly glared at Jake from under the blood oozing from different parts of his face.
Jake drove his fist into the man’s face, angrily. “Tell me.”
“I can’t say,” he stammered, trying to reach his face to wipe some blood dripping into his mouth.
“Is Caster in town?” Jake asked.
“No, but he’s waiting for you and his girl,” the man was slumping over, favoring his left side.
Caster’s girl. Jake wondered where Josie was now. Was she in on this? He dragged the man up to a sitting position and tied him swiftly. She had to be. There was no other explanation, he thought. He gritted his teeth as he thought about how he had been duped yet again.
Maybe the wedding had been a fluke; she hadn’t intended to meet him there. Maybe the plan was that she was supposed to come try to work for him. It was possible the pregnancy was not part of the plan. His mind raced with possibilities for her motivations to seek him out. But in the end, he just wanted to believe that she was guilty. A part of him wanted to believe otherwise, but he squelched those thoughts.
Until he got Josie alone, she was guilty as far as he was concerned. Most likely, this man was sent as a diversion so she could escape. But she came to you. He couldn’t make sense of anything. She was Caster’s daughter. There had to be foul play here. He wasn’t going to be fooled again. He gave the man one last glance and dashed back to his car.
Jake was soon speeding back to his house to see if Josie was still there. He knew she wasn’t, but he went anyway. So much had happened in the past twenty minutes since he’d left for work. There was little chance she was there, but on the off chance that she was, he wanted to catch her there to finally get some answers out of her. As he drove, he spoke with Bill on the phone and told him to call if Josie came into the office.
“Is everything alright?” Jake could hear a note of concern in his voice.
“You and Lucy keep an eye on things. I’ll let you know later what’s going on.” He didn’t know what to tell the older man yet. But if he had to, he would use his help. The older man was dependable and would likely help him, even with no information provided. While he was invaluable to Jake in many ways, it was his loyalty to him that Jake valued above everything else.
Rounding the corner to his street, he could see immediately that she wasn’t there. It seemed that she’d left alone, since her car was missing as well. That could be a good sign, he thought. It could also mean that she wasn’t a party to her father’s plans and she was innocent. He wanted to believe that so badly.
Turning the car around swiftly, he began to race toward her apartment. If she was innocent, she would be at her place getting ready for work. He would have his answer as soon as he reached her place. And he did. His heart jumped in relief at the sight of her car parked in her spot. He realized he was gripping the wheel so hard that his knuckles had turned white.
Then he saw her door ajar, and he froze. Was she on her way back out? Something told him she wasn’t. Before exiting his car to look, he did a cursory glance around the complex but didn’t see anyone outside aside from an older woman walking her dog.
Opening his door, Jake began to walk carefully toward Josie’s door. He tried to appear casual as the woman paused by his car and gave him a once over. He gave her a tight smile and waited for her to pass. From her vantage point, she couldn’t tell that Josie’s door was partially open.
Finally, the woman continued on as the dog tugged at his leash to explore something in the grass ahead of them. As soon as she passed, Jake threw the door open, and his heart sank. The new lamp she’d purchased was knocked to the floor. The purse she’d had with her last night was thrown, and some of the contents had spilled out. Even her phone was on the floor. They’d taken her. His heart hammered in his chest, and he fought to control himself.
Jake walked room to room and did a quick sweep. It seemed they hadn’t made it past the entryway because the rest of the rooms were left undisturbed. He saw the prenatal vitamins sitting on the kitchen counter, and he clenched his fists. She was pregnant, damn them. She was already showing a bump, and it was visible even in her looser clothing. If they had been following her these past couple of weeks, they probably already knew she was expecting. If not, they certainly knew today.
He shoved his hand through his hair as he thought about where they could have gone. As a werewolf, he could track them down easily. But he couldn’t shapeshift now; he would have to wait until nightfall. Josie couldn’t wait, he had to help her now. If they hurt her or the baby….
Jake’s eyes squeezed shut, trying to keep the idea out of his mind. He didn’t want to think of that possibility. He had to focus on how he planned to track them down right now. His options were limited, but he planned to use every resource available to him and call in any favor that was owed to him. He needed all hands on deck.