Chapter 16 Jackson
JACKSON
Igaped at him in horrified confusion. Christian had two siblings—his little brother Broderick, who was seventeen years old, and his baby sister Bryn.
She was a sweet kid who enjoyed watching old-school musicals and going to plays.
She wanted to be a stage actor when she grew up. I’d held her the day she was born.
The Bauer family had been one of my family’s closest friends for as long as any of us could remember, one of the greatest alliances between wyrm and winged dragons.
We’d vacationed together, celebrated birthdays together.
Christian’s dad and my own had been as close as I was to Christian.
When my father succumbed to The Vanishing, Christian had been my support system while my mother mourned.
We hadn’t been able to hang out much the last three years, as my responsibilities had grown with the decimation of winged dragons, but that didn’t change our relationship.
I’d never had a better friend than Christian Bauer, and there was no one—no one—Christian loved more than his little sister.
My head shook back and forth, moving of its own accord. “You can’t be serious,” I muttered.
“I’m very serious, Jack,” Joseph said. “Snatch the girl and bring her to me. That’s that.”
Breath hitching, fingertips tingling with terror, I said, “What are you going to do to her?”
As Joseph smirked at me, the dragon claw on my leg tightened, squeezing so tight that he was close to snapping the bone.
The mob boss put a hand on my shoulder and looked deep into my eyes.
His grin appeared genuine, but his eyes told a different story.
There was a soulless and sociopathic emptiness in them that made my guts turn to water.
“That’s actually an interesting question,” Joseph said.
“You see, I like tying up loose ends, and right now, this car is a loose end. The Torrences won’t stop looking for it until it’s found.
I hate those fuckers. I also hate the Bauer family.
I figure, why start a war on two fronts when you can simply let your enemies duke it out and fuck each other up. ”
Shaking my head, I did my best to see where this was going, but couldn’t.
“What are you talking about?” I said.
“You see,” Joseph went on, like a professor trying to explain something to a slow and helpless student.
“We know Christian Bauer helped you steal the car. We have eyes everywhere, Jack. Which means the Bauer family is partially responsible for the slight against the Torrence family. The Bauers know who that car belongs to. Me and my people take the car, get the girl from you, dump her bitch ass in the passenger seat, and run this piece of shit car into a lake. Phone the cops with a tip, and boom!” He slapped his hands together.
“Blood feud between the Torrence and Bauer families. With a little poking and prodding from the shadows, the two will burn themselves out, and I can step in and sweep up the ashes, so to speak.”
He gave a self-satisfied chuckle. “It’s a good plan, if I say so myself.”
In my mind, I saw a flash of Bryn, on her knees and crying, as one of these fuckers walked up and pressed a gun to her head. I could picture the pop of the gun and the way her small body would crumple to the ground.
“I won’t do it,” I said, fresh tears filling my eyes. “I won’t. I refuse.”
Joseph looked like he’d been expecting that answer, he straightened and bellowed out a single word. “Luca!”
From inside the house, the earth-shattering boom of a shotgun blast shattered the quiet. I screamed, an inarticulate cry of heartrending loss and fear.
“NO! GOD, NO!” I lunged forward, yanking on the talon that held me in place, tearing the skin off my fingertips as I tried to get to the house. Tears and snot ran down my face as I screamed in horror, my heart threatening to explode. Nausea roiled in my stomach as bile rose up my throat.
No matter how hard I pulled, the claw wouldn’t release. I could shift. I’d be stronger than the thug holding me then, I could…
At the door, Luca dragged the egg into view, whole and unharmed. I sobbed in relief. Nausea burned in my gut, making me want to puke. He could have killed her, could have ended my sister in an instant, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Joseph knelt beside me. “You see, Jack, you might be an alpha, but there are times in life when that doesn’t mean shit.
Right here, right now, I’m in charge. I always get what I want.
If I want your sister’s egg blown to shit?
I get it. If I tell you to steal me a car?
I get it. And, most importantly, if I want you to kidnap some snot-nosed little rich bitch, I fucking get it. ”
He gripped my hair and yanked my head back, pressing his face so close to mine I could smell his fetid breath.
“Unless you want the next shotgun blast to actually murder your baby sister, you will do as I say. Now, are you gonna be a good boy?” He jerked my head, nearly tearing the hair from the roots.
“Because, right now, you aren’t showing me that you can be a good boy.
Do I need to cut my losses now? Shift right here and now and bite your pretty boy head off, then stomp your sister’s egg to paste? Huh?”
“No,” I whimpered, and I hated how weak and broken I sounded.
I was the fucking alpha of House Adelmund—I was the last alpha of the winged dragons.
I was stronger than this piece of shit. I was more powerful and could destroy him in a fair fight, yet here I was, crying in the dirt like a child, begging this man to spare my sister.
He had me, and he knew it, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Nothing I could do but obey. “I’ll do it. ”
As those three words left my mouth, I felt a little piece of my soul chip away. Whether I actually did this awful thing or not, simply saying I would shredded some integral part of me.
How could I follow through with this? These people had no morals, no honor.
Even if I kidnapped Bryn and brought her to her death, they’d never give me my sister back.
If they did, what would stop me from telling Christian or the Torrences what really happened?
No. They’d keep her egg, and when she hatched, they’d keep her.
They would continue holding her life over my head, forcing me to do more and more awful things until I was no longer the man I’d been before.
They’d break me, and they’d break Christian too.
He’d never recover from the loss of his sister.
The Bauer family was the strongest of the wyrm dragons.
If Joseph was right in his plan, the Anitolis would fill the power vacuum that would be left when both Christian and I were gone. I couldn’t allow that to happen.
“She goes to a private school,” Joseph was saying. My ears were ringing with panic and horror that I barely took in his words. “She also has violin lessons on Wednesdays. We’ll send you a full schedule of her activities so you can plan when to snatch her.”
I’d gotten to my knees, pressing my hands to my thighs, trying hard to stay calm. The drake guard had finally released my leg, having decided that all the fight had drained from me. He was right. The others still stood around in a ring, eyeing me warily, hot breath rippling the overlong grass.
“Obviously, you can’t be seen taking her.
If the wyrms realize you took her, then they’ll put two and two together and realize you were coerced into the kidnapping.
I can’t let that happen. If you’re recognized, we’ll take a sledgehammer to the egg.
Same thing if you fail. You get her, and you do the deed, then we talk about getting your own sister back to you. ”
“Do the deed?” I gaped up at him in horror. “You want me to kill her?”
Joseph didn’t bother answering. He gazed back at me with placid soulless eyes, giving me the only answer I needed. Bile crept up the back of my throat.
“We have eyes everywhere. If you try to betray us, it won’t end well.
We might even go full scorched earth. Maybe we won’t stop with your sister.
” Joseph smirked. “What would you think of getting a video of my boys and me running a train on your sweet momma before we slice her throat open? Using her all the way up until she’s begging to die?
Would you like that to be the last thing you see?
Things can always get worse. Don’t fuck me, Jack.
You fuck me? I fuck you harder. Understand? ”
The shock and horror had begun to ebb, leaving behind an impotent rage that threatened to boil over.
Deep in my mind, a storm rose, fueled by my dragon.
He screeched and roared at me to tear this man apart.
Images flashed through my mind of me doing just that—teeth biting through flesh, arms pulled from sockets, mouth shrieking in agony and begging for mercy.
I had to clench my fists and push back against my dragon.
I wanted those things as well, but if I tried anything, the man in the house would destroy my sister’s egg.
I could probably defeat all of them, fueled by my anger and fury, but the man in the house could kill her faster than I could get to him.
Even if I shredded them into unrecognizable piles of bloody flesh, it would be nothing more than a pyrrhic victory. No. I had to find another way.
“I’ll send you more details via text,” Joseph said as he stepped back. “Now get the fuck out of here.”
The other drakes backed up, barely giving me enough room to shift. I glared at Joseph as I slowly got to my feet. Once I was up, I stood still, frozen as if I was carved from marble, my eyes boring into his. The other man grinned back.
“You wanna do this?” Joseph said, his voice quiet and low. “We can. If that’s how you feel about it, we can have it out right here and now.”