Chapter four
“Thank goodness you’re back! We were worried. The police scanner said it was a hostage situation and shots were fired. Was Mike at the warehouse? Did you talk to him? What did he say about Kal?”
The rapid-fire questions probably would have made Lark’s head spin if she weren’t so used to how fast her sister talked.
Lark closed the door of the two-story house in the suburbs that she and her pack mates had been staying in since getting to Dallas to see Violet hurrying into the entryway, dark hair up in a messy bun, worry in her periwinkle blue eyes.
“Mike was there,” Lark said.
She didn’t mention standing on the other side of the police tape in fear as he walked right into the warehouse without so much as a weapon. As a SWAT cop, she knew he risked his life on a daily basis, but watching it in real time had been terrifying. Her heart had been racing the whole time.
Between that and worrying about Kal, she was a bundle of nerves.
“Did you talk to him?” her brother asked from the living room.
Lark followed Violet into the spacious room to see her younger brother, Jasper, sitting on the couch, a plate of crackers topped with peanut butter on the coffee table in front of him, along with a glass of milk. Dark-haired like her and Violet, his eyes were more blue than purple.
Jasper had come to Dallas with the other scouts from their pack to see if Mike had kidnapped Kal. He was also the one who’d figured out Mike and his SWAT teammates were werewolves.
“I did,” Lark said, sinking down on the other couch with a sigh.
“And?” Violet prompted, sitting next to her.
“At first, he was shocked. Then he was angry,” Lark said. “But after we got past that, he understood why I left with Kal.”
“That’s good,” Violet said, looking relieved. “What did he say when you told him that Kal has been kidnapped?”
“I didn’t have to tell him. He already knew.” Lark took a deep breath. “Cassius Roman is the one who kidnapped Kal.”
“Cassius Roman?” Violet nearly shouted. “The man who tried to kill you and Kal with that bomb?”
Lark nodded, trying not to panic like she had when she was talking to Mike earlier, but it took everything in her.
“I’m not sure how Roman knew Mike would be at the warehouse, but he told Mike that he kidnapped Kal and will only let him go if Mike returns some flash drive he thinks Mike stole from him.”
That announcement was met with thunderous silence, as her brother and sister just stared at her.
“I have so many questions right now,” Jasper murmured. “But what I really want to know is how the hell Roman even knew where to find Kal? And what’s on this flash drive he wants so badly?”
Lark shook her head. “I don’t know. Roman must have somehow figured out Kal and I survived the explosion and tracked us to Washington once he decided he needed leverage against Mike. Unfortunately, Mike doesn’t have any idea what Roman is talking about when it comes to the flash drive.”
“Do you believe him?” Violet asked. “I mean, if this flash drive is so important, how could Mike not know about it?”
“I believe him,” Lark said. “Mike would never risk our son’s life. If he knew what Roman was looking for, he’d hand it over in a second.”
“When is this exchange supposed to happen?” Jasper asked.
“Mike doesn’t know yet, but I told him that we want to be there when it does,” Lark said.
Jasper took out his cell phone. “In the meantime, I’m going to call Everett and have him dig into this Roman guy. Maybe he’ll be able to find out something about this flash drive.”
Everett was their older brother. As the lieutenant to their pack alpha father, Everett had access to a sophisticated collection of intelligence resources. Now that they knew who had kidnapped Kal, maybe Everett’s contacts could find something on Roman that would help.
As Jasper walked into the kitchen to make his call, Violet reached out to take her hand and give it a squeeze. “We’re going to get Kal back.”
Lark nodded. “For the first time since he disappeared, I really believe that. And I think that’s because of Mike. At least now we know who kidnapped Kal— even if it is someone as scary as Roman—and that Mike is going to help us get him back.”
“I can’t imagine what it was like seeing Mike again after all these years,” Violet said. “Did he really forgive you for leaving and taking Kal with you?”
Lark grimaced as she remembered the pain on Mike’s face when he realized she’d faked their deaths. “I’m not so sure he’s forgiven me.”
“But you said he understood why you did what you did.”
“Understanding why I left with Kal and forgiving me for doing it are very different things,” Lark pointed out. “Right now, we need to focus on getting Kal back safely. We’ll worry about everything else after that.”
Violet reached for a peanut butter cracker, regarding Lark thoughtfully as she chewed. In her defense, it was hard to talk with peanut butter in your mouth.
“So, is that something you’ve been thinking about?” Violet asked when she was finished. “What after might look like with you, Kal, and Mike?”
It was Lark’s turn to steal one of her brother’s peanut butter crackers, using the time to delay answering. Not because she didn’t know the answer, but because it was difficult to admit out loud.
“I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about it some,” she confessed softly. “If for no other reason than so Kal can see his father. You know how often he talks about Mike.”
Since Kal had been a baby when they’d left, he didn’t remember Mike, but she’d shown him photos and told him all about his father. It wasn’t the same as having Mike in his life, though. Now, they had a chance to remedy that.
“Is making sure Kal gets to spend time with his father the only thing you’re thinking about?”
“What do you mean?” Lark asked, even though she knew exactly what her sister meant.
“I mean, have you thought about trying to fix things between you and Mike, so you can both pick up where you left off?”
Lark let out an exasperated snort. “Of course, I have. But how could I even fix something like this? I let Mike believe Kal and I had died in an explosion, then let him live with that grief for almost a decade, because in the end, I was too cowardly to tell him I was a werewolf, and that Kal is, too.”
“That wasn’t the only reason you left,” Violet protested.
“You thought you and Kal would be in danger because of Mike’s job.
And you were right about that, by the way.
So, let’s just drop the coward thing, okay?
You did what you felt you had to do to protect Kal.
But fate has brought you and Mike together again. Don’t waste the opportunity.”
“I’m not so sure fate brought us together,” Lark murmured. “If Roman hadn’t kidnapped Kal, I wouldn’t even be in Dallas.”
“Maybe,” Violet admitted with a shrug. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t fix something you’ve been regretting for a very long time. If it’s something you truly want, that is.”
“It is,” she said, finally admitting something she’d kept hidden in the depths of her heart for so long. “I never told you this, but I’ve never stopped loving Mike.”
“You didn’t have to tell me. I already knew,” her younger—and apparently much wiser sister—said with a smile. “Now, it’s just a matter of you having the courage to tell him that.”
Lark took a deep breath and nodded. “I’ll try. But nothing is going to happen until we get Kal back. Right now, that’s the only thing that matters.”
“You won’t get an argument out of me on that,” Violet said. “But it does beg the question, what’s the plan for doing that? If Mike doesn’t know anything about this flash drive Roman wants, how is he going to pull off an exchange for Kal?”
“I don’t know,” Lark admitted, explaining how Mike had mentioned putting a BOLO out for Roman, but not holding out much hope it would work. “If a man like Roman doesn’t want to be found, I doubt he will be.”
They were still talking about how Mike’s pack—and their own—might be able to track down Roman when Lark’s phone rang. She looked at the screen, quickly thumbing the green button when she saw Mike’s name.
“Did Roman call about the exchange?” she asked, not bothering with a greeting.
“A few minutes ago, yeah,” Mike said. “If you want to be there, you and your pack need to be at the Dallas Museum of Art in twenty minutes. I’ll text our pack alpha’s number to you so your pack can coordinate with ours. Promise me that your pack won’t move in before he gives you the okay.”
Lark had about a hundred questions, even as her heart began to beat out of control. “I promise.”
“Good,” Mike said, sounding relieved. “And Lark?”
“Yes?”
“We’re going to get our son back.”
Lark nodded before remembering he couldn’t see her through the phone. She opened her mouth to tell Mike to be careful, but he’d already hung up. She resisted the urge to call him back. If she and her pack were going to get to the art museum in twenty minutes, they needed to hurry.