Chapter 20
BAILEY
I blow out a hard exhale once he’s cleared the second door.
“You good?” Dani asks. “He had you cornered.”
I blow out another breath. “He’s…”
She waits.
I give my head a shake and move back to my desk and jam one of Stacy’s stuffed white chocolate and macadamia cookies into my mouth and take a big bite, the gooey white chocolate center oozing into my cheeks like sweet lava. I hold the opened box in Dani’s direction.
She takes a cookie and bites it. “Mm. Holy crap!” She seeks a chair like her knees have buckled before she takes another bite.
“Right?”
“Mm!”
“I know,” I agree after swallowing. “My awesome sister-in-law. Your awesome cousin-in-law. Coffee?”
“Please.”
After I’ve made her a coffee in my mug that has a book cart on it with lettering that says this is how I roll, we’re sitting together at my desk.
She says, “I just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing.”
“Not so hot,” I admit. “He’s right up in my space and it… hurts. I can’t talk about it. I… can’t face all of this and all that it means. I know I’ll eventually have to, but…” I can’t finish the sentence.
Not yet. I can’t let myself process this yet.
I’m glad we got interrupted because I was cracking open and everything was beginning to leak out of me.
And it was too much. I’m glad we were interrupted otherwise it could’ve sent me to bed for a week, wallowing in depression.
There’s no time for that. I’m on a forty-eight-hour deadline.
What I need to do right now is focus on getting that petition filled with signatures.
I need to figure out the best way to frame my application for a law change.
She shakes her head. “He’s getting a good helping of some bitter medicine. Medicine he needs.”
“I just want him to go away and leave me alone with my heartbreak. I feel like I’m on the verge of major grieving and it’s too much, way too much, so I’m trying really hard to stop it from penetrating.”
She gives me a kind smile.
I add, “He can’t help it that he can’t be what I wanted him to be. So, no, I’m not looking to dole out pain. I just… I can’t think long term right now, but… what’s gonna happen after the three days are up?” I ask.
“We’ll have another meeting. We’ll hear you out and then we’ll talk about it behind closed doors weighing it all out before we act.”
I blow out a breath of relief. “So… I can avoid reality for at least another two days.”
“At least.”
I do my best to shake off my emotions. “On another note… are you guys making progress on helping my parents yet? I know you’ve got your hands full, I’m just so worried about them.”
Dani nods. “Aunt Mimi thinks she can help. She should be here in a few days. Couldn’t move her flight sooner or she’d be on her way here by now.
Erica can’t just siphon it away, not only because it’d need to go somewhere and we don’t want that but also because she can’t trace it. She can’t mess with it.”
“No remote magic options?”
Dani shakes her head. “Not this time. Undoing a deceased witch’s spell can only be done under very specific circumstances.
Soleil was under sanctions so it’s not her spell per se, but it was done on her behalf, so we’ve got some leeway.
We don’t know the coven the witch who helped was from.
Aphra didn’t know either, it was some big secret, but she was formidable.
We’ve had some clues and we’re on it, but …
anyway, all that detail isn’t important to you.
Basically, our coven should be able to fix it.
It’s delicate, like pulling a thread on a knitted blanket, but making sure you stop at the right spot in a way that won’t unravel the entire thing.
If anyone alive has those skills, it’s Aunt Mimi. ”
I blow out a relieved breath, then ask, “What about Cicely?”
“That’s not as easy as undoing a spell, unfortunately, and undoing spells isn’t easy.”
“Yikes. I sure hope Cicely gets through this okay.”
“From what Grey and Ronnie have gleaned so far, Jared is very damaged,” Dani tells me. “Severe trauma cleaved his beast away from the rest of him. That beast is in kill mode. Sees everything around it as a threat. We’re brainstorming.”
“Is Cicely in true danger? I mean, her own mate wouldn’t harm her, would he?”
“He’s staying muzzled when he’s near her. They’ve got a big cage for him out there in a building in the woods.”
“That’s not foolproof though, is it?”
“No. And I can’t usually talk about what we do behind the scenes but because we had no knowledge, no warning about potential problems there I can say this much.
It’s feeling like it’ll be okay in the end.
Vivi sees a happy ending for them. What that looks like and whether or not there’ll be any casualties we don’t know, but we do know at the end, they’ll both be left standing together.
You can’t tell anyone this, but it’s going to work out.
It needs to. Their pairing is important for the big picture for this pack. ”
“What does that mean?”
“Can’t tell you that. Shouldn’t have said as much as I did. I’m not a rule-breaker. But you and I are family, and good friends, so you’re in the girlfriend circle of trust.”
I smile, but internally I wince, resisting the urge to ask if me and Jase are part of that same big picture. Because if she says we are, that I have to suck it up and just let all this happen, I don’t know how I’ll cope. Instead, I focus on my best friend.
“You and me are definitely friends,” I say.
“I appreciate what you’ve done for me with this three-day thing with Jase very much.
Can’t tell you how much. I’m just… I’m worried about Sis.
She’s really strong, kinda stubborn, and I don’t want her loyalty and strength to put her in harm’s way.
Leona told me folks are saying his wolf isn’t afraid of our council.
He’s fearless and deadly with terrifying teeth that could easily rip her to shreds if his wolf doesn’t recognize her. ”
“I’ll give you a hint at how Fate plays,” Dani says, voice not much more than a whisper. “Look up the herbal uses of sweet cicely root.”
I open up a search window and scan through the long list on the screen pictured beside the cicely plant, something Mom definitely grows.
Dani points to a bullet point that says sweet cicely root can treat wounds and dog bites before saying, “Fate knows what it’s doing.”
“So… in that vein, does that mean Fate wants me to feel all this pain and Jase all this frustration?”
She opens her mouth, but I raise my hand. “No. Don’t tell me. I just told myself I didn’t want to know and now I’m being stupid by even bringing it up.”
“Fate has it all in hand,” she insists. “It’s gonna work out how it’s intended to. It always does. Sounds like you’re being a big help to Jared and Cicely, too.”
I found out today through census records that Jared’s pack was dissolved.
We dug deeper and Joel got even further than me with his alpha-level access to legal files that included interviews with the SCC about the events that happened just before the dissolution.
Jared’s first shift meant the death of his pack alpha as well as a few betas.
We were able to put a timeline together to map out the sequence of events and paint a picture.
A little program I wrote to scan all our databases pulled names and locations of surviving pack members who submitted witness statements to the SCC after the death of that pack’s alpha.
Jared told the guys he hasn’t been in touch with anyone from his pack since he was barely into his teens.
Joel and Lincoln will be running with further research while I focus on working on my petition and legal request.
I see movement from the corner of my eye and look through the glass wall that sections the library from the entrance to the town hall; a little vestibule that we call the lobby. Malachi Carswell is coming this way.
“I’d better dash,” Dani says, taking another sip of her coffee while getting to her feet. “Good coffee.”
“Here. I’ll give you a to-go cup.” I grab one from the stack under the coffee station.
Malachi waves as he approaches. “Hi. Busy?”
“What can I do for ya?” I ask.
“Do you… um… think you could help me find a book?”
“Books are my jam, so sure.”
“Uh… Thinner by Stephen King? I couldn’t find it yesterday in his section.”
“Bachman. He wrote Thinner under his Richard Bachman pseudonym.”
“Oh!” He palms his forehead. “Right. Okay. I’ll look.” He wanders that way.
Dani says under her breath. “If he knows Stephen King wrote it, he knows the pen name. Or he could’ve looked it up online. He’s trying to strike up a conversation.”
“He asked me on a date,” I whisper. “Just before I went to Italy. I told him I’d think about it. I think he’s here to see if I decided. I’m guessing he hasn’t heard about Jase and me.”
“You gonna go?” she asks.
Hm.
“Just an innocent date. What could it hurt?” she suggests, mischief in her eyes.
“And put him in peril? That wouldn’t be nice. Jase might hurt him.”
“Or, Jase might realize what he’s put you through a dozen or more times.”
I rub my lips together while I ponder this.
“If I were you, I might be tempted. Your call, though.” She winks before she pops the lid on her paper coffee cup. “See ya.”