Chapter 15 Jackson
JACKSON
The door to the paint room rattled as it rolled upward, revealing the car, shiny and perfect as the day it rolled off the assembly line. She was gorgeous, but I had no love for it. The damn thing had caused me more problems in the last week than I’d had in the last year.
As I ran my hand down the side of the Lamborghini, I couldn’t help but think about what this car had brought me as well.
Without the Anitolis forcing me to steal this stupid thing, I never would have met Shyanne.
Even after only a few days, I couldn’t fathom never seeing her, never knowing her, never experiencing her.
I could have rolled up to any shop in the city, but I’d found hers first. She’d been willing to help when almost no one else would have.
Walking to the far end of the room, I opened a small box and retrieved the key fob. Standing in front of the hood, I pulled my phone out and dialed Anitoli’s number. It rang and rang to the point that I thought he wouldn’t pick up, then finally on what had to be the last chance, he answered.
“Good morning, Jack. Am I ever getting my fucking car?”
His usual greasy car salesman fake charm was gone today, this morning he was all business, and business was being a hard-ass.
“I’ve got it. All clean, no tracker,” I said.
When I’d first thought about it, I’d informed Shyanne, who’d done a thorough sweep of the car while her team had been working on other stuff. From what she’d been able to access, it was clean.
Joseph sounded surprised. “Really?” The callousness left his voice in an instant, the faux nice guy act returning. “Well, then, let’s set up a meeting, my boy. We’ll take that beauty off your hands, and we can figure out next steps.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, staring at the car and forcing myself not to kick out the goddamned headlights in frustration. Next steps? Cute way of saying ‘other bullshit I’m going to make you do’.
“I’ll text you the coordinates for the pickup,” Joseph said. “Let’s say an hour? It’ll take you that long to get there anyway.”
“Fine,” I grunted, my anger evident in my voice.
“Oh, don’t be like that, Jack. This part’s almost over,” Joseph crooned. “See you soon.”
A few seconds after hanging up, my phone buzzed with a text message with coordinates. When I punched them into a GPS app, it showed a spot at the edge of a forest fifty miles outside the city. Sighing, I climbed into the car, started it, and eased it out of the garage.
As I closed the door, I threw out a hope and a wish that she’d use the money I’d given her to save this place. In the few short days I’d spent there, I’d realized what a special place it was. A family, all working for one cause, having fun, and doing business. You couldn’t ask for more than that.
The drive out of the city was possibly the most stressful of my entire life.
The car I drove was very conspicuous. It wasn’t like driving a simple black SUV.
No, even at the early hour, eyes turned to look at me.
At each intersection and stop light, people ogled the car, cell phones took pictures, and fingers pointed.
I couldn’t blame them. It wasn’t every day you saw a vehicle that cost more than your house, but it still sent rivulets of nervous sweat down my back.
At any moment, any of the people on the street could have been part of the Torrence syndicate.
They’d all know their boss’s car had been stolen.
All it would take was one phone call, one text message, and a hundred wolf shifters would be on my ass.
When I finally left the city, I breathed a sigh of relief.
One problem down, one more to go. Piloting the car down the highway, I tried and failed to not think about the awful things Joseph might ask me to do.
Rob a bank owned by some panther shifter?
Hijack a plane owned by a bear shifter family who had wronged him?
God only knew what else. I gripped the steering wheel, knuckles going white thinking about it all.
On the passenger seat, my phone gave a harsh trill, and I flinched in surprise.
Glancing over, I hesitated, fearful that I’d somehow gotten the time wrong, and it was Joseph calling to tell me I’d fucked up and the deal was off.
After flipping the phone over and seeing the name Christian Bauer on the caller ID, I let out a breath and answered.
“Hey,” I said.
“Good morning, sunshine,” Christian said. “I assume operation Deliver-Asshole-His-Car is underway?”
“It is. I’m about ten minutes away from the meeting location.”
“Where are you going? I should be there as backup,” Christian said, and I could hear the worry in his voice.
“He only said for me to come. If anyone else got out of this car, he might flip out and destroy my sister’s egg. I appreciate the sentiment, though.”
“What are we thinking?” Christian asked. “For the next bullshit task he’s going to have you do?”
“I was just thinking about that,” I said, slowing the car to pull onto a small country road. “Probably something bad. I doubt he’ll tell me to fly to Disney World and report back on the food options.”
Christian snorted. “Yeah, or seduce and bang some rival mob boss’s hot wife.”
That got me thinking about Shyanne. Honestly, I wouldn’t put something like what Christian suggested past Joseph.
If he did want me to do something along those lines, I wouldn’t be able to do it.
As of now, the only woman I could think of was Shyanne.
Strange that I’d wish to rob a bank. At least that I could attempt.
Seducing anyone other than Shyanne? Not a chance.
I’d have to risk doing something else to get my sister back.
“Whatever it is,” I said at last, “I’ll figure it out.”
“Cool. You’ll call if you need help, right?”
I couldn’t help but grin. I’d known Christian since we were kids.
He was the next in line to be his pack’s alpha, and even with that responsibility hanging over his head, he’d always remained loyal to our friendship.
The Bauer family had always been allied with the Adelmund family, even though they were wyrm dragons and we were winged dragons.
It was an alliance that went back over a dozen generations.
“You’re on my speed dial,” I said.
“Hey, just remember, if the mob boss’s wife is, like, really hot I can always pretend to be you if you aren’t up to it. I will take one for the team.”
“Fuck off,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You know I’m prettier than you. No one would fall for that.”
“Says you,” Christian said, laughing.
“I’m getting close,” I said, turning onto a dirt road and slowing the car to below twenty miles an hour. “I need to get off here.”
“You be careful, man,” Christian said. “Call me as soon as you fly your ass out of there. I want to make sure you’re safe.”
“Understood. Love you, bro.”
“Love you too, my guy. See you soon.”
I tucked the phone into my pocket. The small dirt road wound deeper into the forest, trees on each side so close, I had to keep a tight rein on the wheel so as not to scratch the paint on the branches.
The GPS on the car said I was going the right way, but I was beginning to get nervous that I’d maybe taken a wrong turn somewhere.
Then, right when I’d almost talked myself into turning around, the road opened up into a clearing.
At the far end, a decrepit old house stood moldering into the forest. Spanish moss, wisteria, and poison ivy vines clung to the sides.
The windows were all broken, and although it looked like it had once been a stately southern plantation style home, it had fallen into disrepair and hadn’t had any occupants in decades.
Parking a dozen yards from the house, I turned the car off and glanced around, eyeing the trees surrounding the clearing.
Most were about a hundred years old, and I assumed nearly the entire forest had grown up since the house had been abandoned.
Even in the morning sunlight, the shadows between the trees were dark and impenetrable. There was no one here.
My inner dragon screamed at me to slam the car into reverse and get the hell out of Dodge, but I pushed those fears aside and opened the door, stepping out into the overgrown grass.
Walking in a tight circle around the car, I tried to listen for anything, sending glances toward the house.
The only noise was the crunching sound of my shoes on the grass.
My watch said the meeting time had come, the second hand ticking away beyond what Joseph and I had agreed on.
“Hello?” I called, raising my voice to be heard. Then gritting my teeth, I said, “Mr. Anitoli?”
I hated being so respectful, but my sister’s life was more important than my pride. If I had to kiss this guy’s feet, I would do it. Once I had her back, I could figure out how to exact revenge.
I sniffed the air, trying to catch a whiff of anyone. The smells ticked away in my mind as I logged each one: the faint hint of a dead and rotting squirrel, the sweet smell of the wisteria growing on the house, the faint tang of the fresh paint on the car, the…
I stiffened and glanced around, my head jerking back and forth, looking for the source of that last smell.
My dragon roared at me to take flight and flee, but I held firm, fists clenched.
The serpentine smell of a dragon shifter permeated the area—it was the strangely earthen scent that drakes had.
Wyrms smelled like fresh water and us winged dragons had a charcoal scent.
Again, my eyes were drawn to the old house.
The broken windows were like baleful eyes, the shattered door like a gaping and screaming mouth ready to feast upon me.
From within, the first slithering sounds of movements echoed out.
The hair on the back of my neck rose as gooseflesh rippled along my arms. Was this a trap? Had I been lured here to be killed?