Chapter 16 Frankie #2
I force myself to relax, kissing his forehead as he sends a text to his friend. “I’m not mad, just surprised. Is that your friend?” I gesture to his phone as it chimes again.
He gives me a small, hesitant smile. “Yeah, Mattie. He’s really smart and I figure he’d be able to give me a clue about the letter pretty quickly.”
“And what did he say?” My lips brush against the top of his head, and he lets out a small laugh.
“He said it’s a cipher. A…Well, this one.
I can’t pronounce it.” He holds up his phone to show me a square of text.
The top row has the alphabet, and the first column is numbered 1 to 26.
The rest of the square is filled with the alphabet in a repeating pattern.
It makes no sense to me at all, but I’m not one for puzzles.
“And does he know how to solve it?”
“He says there should be a keyword that will let us decipher it, but I don’t know what it would be.”
Something nags at me, and I rearrange Seth enough so that I can sit up and grab the letters from the coffee table.
“Is it weird that my uncle supposedly goes nuts while in jail and then creates a cipher puzzle thing? I don’t remember him being into puzzles or being super smart,” Seth says softly as I shuffle through the letters.
“Mattie, I can see making something like that, but Uncle Cody? And if he’s so crazy, how did he get out? ”
I go still at his words and glance down at the top of his head. Zeke’s warnings about uninvited guests circle my mind. Did his uncle show up here? “What do you mean, he got out?”
Seth looks up at me, eyes widening. “Shit, I forgot to tell you.” He hops off the couch and heads into his bedroom. I can’t help watching his ass move beneath the thin fabric of his sleep pants.
When he returns,he has a card in his hand. Handing it to me, he curls up on the couch beside me, snuggling until most of his upper body is in my lap. I smile down at him as I look over the postcard of…
“Alcatraz? Well, that’s rather on point isn’t it?” I muse as I flip it over and read what’s written, and alarm zings through me. This letter feels different. Still crazy, but not stark raving mad like in the previous letters.
“Yeah, and then right after, he shows up,” Seth says softly. I look down at him, even though he has his head bowed so that I can’t see his face. I can still see his hands, though, and they are clenched so tightly into fists that his knuckles are white.
Gently, I run my hand down his back. “You mean your ex? I came here as soon as I could, and I have my crew keeping an eye out for the strunzo.”
Seth sniffs, lower lip trembling, and I can’t bear the look on his face.
I drop the postcard and pull him fully onto my lap.
He curls in on himself, tucking his head under my chin and his legs to either side of my hips.
I wrap my arms around his shaking back, murmuring random shit to help soothe him.
I’m going to kill that ex of his. Rip him limb from limb, maybe have my brother make his blood boil. Let him die as painfully as possible and throw a party afterward. My wolf likes this idea, and he snaps and snarls inside my head as I whisper into Seth’s ear that everything will be alright.
Seth sniffs again, rubbing his wet face back and forth against my neck. “How were you able to get in?”
I shrug slightly. “I don’t know,” I reply truthfully. I really don’t know why the wards allowed me to pass. Even though I used a key and didn’t break down the door, I shouldn’t have been able to enter without a clear invitation.
“Did the magic know I was your mate, and that’s why?”
“Maybe, but I don’t know enough about magic to make a guess,” I admit. Seth snorts out a laugh before sitting up, and I have to admit, I really do love the sight of him on my lap. “Are you okay?”
He nods, rubbing his cheeks with the heel of one hand. “Yeah, it’s just been a crazy day.”
“Do you think your uncle will show up here?” I didn’t want to ask, but if his uncle really has lost his mind, I’m not risking Seth’s safety on that ward of his.
“No. It sounds like he’s trying to find something. And I need to figure out who Vin is.” He sighs as he looks behind him at the stack of letters.
“I might know who Vin is. Vincent is the Don of the Vicellia Family and my boss.”
Seth sucks in a breath, eyes widening. “Oh.” I know he wants to say more, but his phone chimes again, and he picks it up and turns it so that I can read the message.
Mattie: Hey, thought the word at the bottom was the keyword, but it doesn’t work. Does wizard have any meaning to you or your uncle?
I think back to the few interactions I had with Cody, and nothing comes to mind. I never paid the man much attention. I never had a real reason to. And now I’m racking my brain trying to remember if he ever used the term ‘wizard,’ but I’m coming up blank.
“I can ask Vincent, but I can’t recall him saying that word. What about you?” Seth’s brows bunch together as he concentrates, but he shakes his head a few moments later. “Get me my phone, please.”
Seth grabs my phone from the coffee table and hands it to me.
I pull him against my chest as I type out a text to Vincent with my other hand.
Cody had been an informant before his arrest, spending a lot of time in Vincent’s office.
If Seth doesn’t know what ‘wizard’ means, then Vincent is the only other person I can think of who might.
“Hey, Frankie, how old are you?” Seth asks softly as he plays with the hair on my chest. There’s a lot more silver there these days, and it’s a bit of a shock to realize just how young he is.
“I’m 46,” I finally reply, and I chuckle when he sucks in a breath.
“Oh. That means you’re almost twenty years older than me.” He goes quiet and I don’t push him. I just run one hand through his hair as he idly strokes my chest. I’m sure there’s a lot he needs to process right now.
My phone beeps, and I glance at it. “Vincent is asking for the letters. He says he might know what the wizard is referencing but needs to see the letters first.”
Seth raises his head slightly and gives me a smirk. “Did he actually ask, or did he demand, and you’re making it sound nicer?”
I snort out a laugh, pulling him up enough to kiss his forehead. “Little bit of both, I imagine.”
“And, he’s like your boss, right?”
He’s not looking at me, and by his sudden rigidity, I figure he’s unsure if he’s allowed to ask questions.
I know Vincent will be furious, but Seth is my mate, and I really don’t want to keep secrets from him.
Hell, I killed that fucker in front of him, and he didn’t say a peep to the police, so that’s points in his favor, in my eyes.
“Yes, he’s my boss, for the most part. He’s the head of the Family. His word is law for us.” Seth nods, and I can see him chewing his bottom lip. He’s got other questions he wants to ask, but there’s a bit of information I want him to know first. That I need to get off my chest.
“He’s my boss, but more importantly, he’s my father.”
Seth gasps and bolts upright, and I grimace as he jabs my wounded side in his shock. “He’s your dad! Does that mean he’s a shifter, too?”
I chuckle, rearranging him so that he’s not putting pressure on my ribs. “No, he’s not a shifter; that was my mom. But he does wield magic, which I didn’t inherit.”
Seth nestles back down on my chest, eyes wide as he looks up at me. “So, being able to shift is like a genetic thing? Like your eye color?”
“Something like that. I don’t know all the details because I didn’t grow up with other shifters.”
“Oh, how come?” He’s back to running his fingers through my chest hair.
It’s an interesting experience because I’m not an overly affectionate type of guy.
I’m also not a cuddler, so this whole experience is novel to me.
But despite how good it feels, my heart weighs heavily with thoughts of my mom.
I haven’t really thought of her in decades.
Something must have shown on my face because he reaches up and runs a finger down my cheek. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“It’s fine. It’s just been a while since I’ve thought about any of this.
” I take a breath, drawing Seth’s scent into my lungs.
It helps calm me enough that I can actually answer him.
“My mother died when I was young. After her death, I lived on the streets until one of Vincent’s crew found me when I was around fourteen or so.
My mother was a loner, didn’t run with a pack, and she never really taught me anything about my heritage before she died.
I didn’t even know I would shift until the first time it happened. ”
Seth lets out a soft sound and rains kisses on my chest. “I’m so sorry. That must have been terrifying.”
Memories of that first shift flit through my mind.
The terror as my wolf finally awakened, and I felt like I was losing my mind.
The agony of that shift had me screaming and almost passing out from the pain.
It took years before I realized just how close I’d been to becoming the very creature of nightmares and horror films.
“If Vincent hadn’t realized I was his son, I most likely would have gone feral and had a bounty put on my head. So, it’s a good thing he found me when he did.”
Seth smiles at me, but whatever he plans to say gets interrupted by the chime on my phone. I glance at it, trying not to let out a groan at the very annoyed text from Vincent.
“Go ahead and answer him before he sends someone over here. Besides, I need to get ready for work.” He kisses my chest before leaning up to brush his lips against mine.
It’s a gentle, sweet kiss, and it makes my heart ache.
I watch as he gets up and heads to the bedroom, my gaze lingering on his pert ass and narrow waist.
With a sigh, I answer the text. I’m sure Vincent will lay into me when I deliver the letters to him, but he’ll get over it.
I don’t bother waiting for a reply. I follow Seth into the bedroom, and as much as I want to bend him over his bed and fuck him again, I reel in my impulses.
I can always come back tonight, after all.
“I’m glad you stayed the night,” Seth says to me as I’m pulling my clothes on. I look over at him, blushing adorably by the door. Once dressed, I wrap my arms around his lithe body and capture his mouth with mine. I could kiss him for the rest of my life, and it wouldn’t be enough.
He moans against my mouth, but pulls back after a moment, even though I can smell his arousal as easily as I can feel his hardening cock against my thigh.
“Come back tonight?”
I grin down at him. “You couldn’t keep me away.”
With a grin of his own, we put on our shoes and head out.