Chapter 36
Charlotte was relieved to get a chance to leave the master suite for a few minutes to digest what Byron’s bounty hunter friend had found.
Seeing Danielle cry on Jude’s chest was heart-wrenching.
In that moment, she understood two things: only Steve’s death would deliver justice, and having a partner with whom to go through thick or thin was the only way to survive terrible news like that. Danielle had that partner in Jude.
She felt envious, even though she shouldn’t be so self-absorbed and instead look at the positive: Jude would make sure that the Leons could hurt neither Danielle nor her.
What she didn’t understand was why Jude seemed to trust Byron now, despite the surveillance clip he’d seen.
But what if Byron was fooling them all? What if he used the information that Danielle had killed her stepfather against them later?
What if he used it to blackmail them, just like the Leons were doing?
Her head was spinning. The stress of her current situation was getting to her. Crossing the foyer, she looked around to make sure nobody from the Gallagher family was around. After a few steadying breaths, she opened the door to the living room, pulling it shut behind her.
“Jude wants you all to meet him upstairs in the master suite,” Charlotte said.
Austin raised an eyebrow. “Why up there?”
“Flora is back, and apparently, the vents in this room can carry the sound as far as the kitchen.”
“Got it,” Austin said.
He was the first to leave the living room.
The others followed him. They were already halfway up the stairs when Charlotte left the living room and closed the door behind her.
She crossed the large foyer when the entrance door was opened.
Eve entered first, Ransom on her heels. She greeted both with a casual hello.
Eve barely looked at her and, instead, headed toward the back of the house without a word.
When she was out of earshot, Charlotte whispered to Ransom, “Not very talkative, is she?”
He grimaced. “She’s pissed that we had to take a detour because there was an ICE raid.”
“Here?”
Ransom nodded. “They’re getting more frequent.
Apparently, they picked up some Latinos outside the Home Depot, and it got violent.
ICE is getting more lawless by the day. I mean, just last week, they shot a U.S.
citizen for inadvertently blocking one of their unmarked cars and not getting out of the way fast enough. ”
Charlotte sighed. “Something’s gotta change.”
“Ain’t that the truth?” Ransom let his gaze roam. “Where is everybody?”
“In the master suite. Come, I need to fill you in on what’s happened.”
They walked upstairs. Charlotte looked around, making sure nobody was in the vicinity, before she told Ransom what the Leons had threatened them with, keeping her voice to a whisper.
“Fuck me!” Ransom hissed.
Charlotte grimaced, then opened the door to the master suite. Ransom entered behind her and shut the door.
Jude looked at him. “Ransom, you’re up to speed? Including that we know that Steve Leon killed Danielle’s mother?”
Ransom nodded. “Charlotte filled me in.”
“Alright,” Jude said.
Charlotte swept her gaze to the others in the room.
The entire eight-man-strong Werewolf Alliance team was now assembled, plus her parents, Danielle, and herself.
The only outsider was Byron. Her father cast Byron distrustful looks, his dislike of him evident.
Did her father know about the surveillance clip Jude had shown her?
She doubted it, or he would have insisted on excluding Byron from this meeting.
Her father wasn’t somebody who forgot and forgave easily.
She ran her eyes over Byron, remembering what it had felt like to be in his arms, when he turned his head and made eye contact as if he’d felt her gaze on him.
As quickly as she could, she looked away, but the damage was done.
He’d caught her looking at him. She was glad that with so many people in the room, he wouldn’t say anything personal to her.
And once this meeting was over, she would simply avoid him.
“Now that we’re all on the same page, here’s the objective,” Jude began. “We have to eliminate Steve, Bruno, and Hector Leon in a way that their pack won’t suspect us and therefore won’t retaliate against us.”
“That means it has to be done in public,” Byron said instantly. “There have to be witnesses who’ll point at somebody else, not us.”
“I don’t see how we can do it in public and not incriminate ourselves,” Parker said with a shrug.
“We’d have to do it disguised,” Wendell threw out.
“You mean like bank robbers?” Parker shook his head. “The Leons aren’t stupid. Their pack will put two and two together and realize it was us.”
“Gotta agree with Parker,” Jude said.
“How about we make it look like an accident?” Francisco asked.
“Never gonna fly,” Austin insisted. “Remember when the brakes in Danielle’s car were tampered with, and she and Jude landed in a pond?
We knew pretty quickly that it wasn’t an accident.
The Leons will send somebody to investigate, and they’ll figure out it was us and then start a war to avenge their leader and his family. ”
“It would only work if it looked like the Leons weren’t the target,” Byron mused.
“And that is only the case if other people—innocents—are among the victims. Like that case where some guy put a bomb on a plane his mother was going to be on, because he wanted her life insurance money. The bomb killed everyone on board.”
Charlotte’s stomach flipped at the suggestion.
“But, honestly,” Byron continued, “We can’t do that. It would make us just as bad as the Leons.”
Relieved, Charlotte released a quiet breath. She caught Byron’s look and didn’t immediately look away this time.
“Do we know of any other packs that may have a beef with the Leons?” Jude asked, looking straight at his father.
“You mean in order to make it look like a rival pack was involved?” His father shook his head.
“The Werewolf Alliance is not aware of any. Which brings me to another point: with all the evidence we now have against the leadership of the Leon pack, I could get my fellow elders to bring charges against them.”
“Charges?” Byron asked. “Fuck charges! Neither Charlotte nor Danielle will ever be safe as long as Steve and his father and uncle are alive.”
James glared at Byron and raised his voice. “Figures that you’re the bloodthirsty one.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Byron snapped, making a step toward James.
Austin put his arm across Byron’s chest to stop him from getting any closer.
“Dad, that’s not helpful,” Jude warned. “I’m with Byron on this.
We can’t solve this problem without spilling blood.
So if you want to sit this discussion out, be my guest. But we’re not going to get the tribunal involved.
If anything, that will make the situation even worse.
This is something that stays between us in this room.
And neither the Werewolf Alliance, nor the rest of the Gallagher pack will have to find out about this. ”
James grunted in displeasure, but Maggie put her hand on his arm to calm him.
“I know this goes against everything the Werewolf Alliance stands for,” she said in an even voice, “but there are times when you have to choose a different path.”
“Fine,” he finally said and looked at Jude and Byron. “But if this goes south, and the Alliance hears of this, you’re on your own. I won’t be able to intervene.”
“It won’t go south,” Jude said confidently.
There was a brief silence before the assembled continued the conversation. All suggestions had one thing in common: the Leon pack had to believe that the hit was carried out by somebody not connected to the Gallagher pack. Again and again, ideas using disguises were suggested and then rejected.
“To get back to the bank robber idea,” Wendell said. “What if we actually stage a robbery, and time it so that we run into the Leons as they’re leaving their hotel and then hijack their car, and shoot them when they’re resisting? Which they totally would.”
“Too many things can go wrong with that,” Byron said. “This is something that would have to be planned down to the tiniest detail, and we don’t have that kind of time.”
When Wendell grunted, Byron added, “Don’t get me wrong, the idea of them being killed as part of a larger operation that has nothing to do with them is good, but it’s not gonna work on the fly.
And there’s also the issue with the police.
If we pull off a bank heist, then leave the bank to intercept the Leons leaving their hotel, the police will already be on our asses.
And who knows how many others could get killed in the process. ”
“Unless we are the police…” Charlotte murmured to herself.
Next to her, Ransom asked, “What are you saying?”
She didn’t answer Ransom’s question directly. Instead, she addressed Danielle, “The Leons are Latinos, although Steve looks a little pale.”
“The pack dates back to when California was still in Mexican hands,” Danielle explained. “So, yes, they are Latinos, but Steve’s mother is Caucasian.”
“That’s good enough. Bruno and Hector have dark enough skin.”
“Dark enough for what?” Jude asked, furrowing his forehead.
Charlotte smiled for the first time since the Leons had issued their ultimatum. “Dark enough for my idea to work.”