Deadly Mates (Deadly Trilogy) (17 page)

Dominic grunted, and cut me a sideways look that clearly said he didn’t agree.  Whether his disagreement was about me needing to cool down or us needing Jared, I really wasn’t sure.

The park came into view and I pulled into the lot, parking at the far end.  It was vacant, not a single car other than mine
, and I wondered if maybe, just maybe, Jeff wouldn’t show.  As I pulled the keys from the ignition, Dominic said, “Aidan, be good to her, okay?  I know you were just following my advice the last time around, but don’t hurt her again.”

So that was what his quietness was about.  I should have guessed.  The only time Dominic got that remote look on his face was when he was thinking about Jade.  I sighed as I opened my door.  “She wants to start over.  Clean slate and all that.”

He smiled a little and nodded, as we got out of the car.  “Yeah, I figured she’d do something like that.”  He scanned the parking lot quickly and asked, “You think he’ll show?”

“Hopefully not,” I said.  “It’ll give me a reason to go after him.”

Unfortunately, Jade’s dad was exactly where he said he would be.  Jeff was sitting on a worn wooden bench that was nestled under a large oak tree, sporting a lime green windbreaker and khakis.  When he spotted us coming across the field at a leisurely pace, Jeff got to his feet, leaving the bench behind as he came toward us.  He was smiling a casual
nice to see you
kind of smile as if he hadn’t just broken my nose this morning.

He stopped a few feet away from us, jamming his hands in the pockets of his jacket.  “Didn’t expect to hear from you so soon,” he said.  “Did Jade settle in at your place okay?”

I had to give him credit; he was great at the
concerned father
act, so good, in fact, that I could almost believe it.  Almost.

I returned his caring smile, and ignored his question.  “Where are they, Jeff?”

Jeff raised his hands, obviously noticing my no-nonsense tone.  “Okay, fine, right down to business then.”  He let his hands drop and a frown curled his lips.  “I’m not too sure.  They were relocating when I left.  Supposed to get a call in a day or two when they settle in.”

“Did you know the cougars have been coming into town?” Dominic asked, in his typically calm, cocky demeanor.  He smoothed
a few non-existent wrinkles from his sweater.

“Nope,” Jeff said.  He smiled, a cool and confident kind of smile, but his eye started to twitch.  “Maybe they’re looking for Tiffany.  She made a deal, right?  They’re probably trying to find her to collect on it.”

I studied him for a moment as a gust of wind blew through the park.  His eye was still twitching, and I wondered if it was because he was lying or if it was nerves.  Either way, it made me smile.  I might not have been able to pick up the scent from him, but the eye twitch, that was something to go on. 
Thank you, Mark.

“I got to say, Jeff, I figured you’d have something to tell me by now,” I said, folding my arms over my chest, my biceps curling up thick.  I might have promised Jade I wouldn’t hurt him, but I said nothing about trying to intimidate him.  I narrowed my eyes.  “What were you doing with them?”

Jeff’s smile lost the confidence.  “Like I told you,” he said.  “I was stalling the recruitment for more women.  And I was trying to get a full count for you.”

“What’s the count then?” Dominic questioned.

“I’ll know in a couple days,” Jeff blurted a little too quickly to be believable.  His throat worked fast in a bunch of swallows and his smile returned.  “Some of the guys were out and no one knows how many were gone.  They’re not an organized bunch.  I blame it on having no females.”

I took a step closer and he took a step back.  “You know, I’m starting to feel like you
’re jerking me around.”

His eye started to twitch again, as if it had a pulse.  “I’m not your enemy, Aidan.”

“Oh yeah?”  I chuckled.  “You’re one of them.  Kind of makes you the enemy.”

Jeff froze like a snapshot, blinked, and then shook his head and he laughed a humorless laugh.  “Careful there, alpha.  My daughter might be upset with me, but she’s still my daughter.”

I shrugged.  “She’ll forgive me,” I said, except I really wasn’t sure if she would.

~ JADE ~

Landon was trying to draw.

Okay, so it wasn’t really a drawing.  It was supposed to be an attack plan.  There were stick figure wolves, what I thought were supposed to be trees, and I had no clue why there was a half-moon in the background.

Aidan had been gone for forty-two minutes, and I thought it was totally lame that I actually knew the minute count.  But, yeah, I did.  I didn’t like that he was meeting my dad.  I knew he was more than capable of handling himself and Dominic had gone with him, but still, it didn’t seem like enough.  And it also seemed like a waste of time.  It wasn’t like Dad was going to tell him anything, but Aidan said we had to play it cool and keep my dad thinking we didn’t suspect him of anything.

I hated that he was right.

I glanced back at the drawing, tilting my head.  Maybe if I looked at it from a different angle the thing would make sense.  Nope.  I tried the other way.  It didn’t work.  I seriously had no clue what I was looking at.

I got up from my chair and went to the jumbo pad that Landon hovered over.  “What is that supposed to be?” I asked, pointing at the half
-moon that couldn’t really be a half-moon.

Landon stopped drawing and made a tragic face as if I had insulted him by asking.  “It’s the mountain.  I was trying to give it a backdrop.  To make it look realistic.”

“You drew the wolves as stick figures,” Beck pointed out, chuckling.  “I think you lost the whole realistic feel with that.”

“What’s the point of this?” I asked, as I turned from the drawing and went back to my chair, pulling my legs up and crossing them.

Landon shrugged.  “Just trying to be prepared,” he said.  “And we could use a playbook, don’t you think?”

Craig groaned and leaned forward, planting his elbows on the table and resting his chin in his hands.  “If you are going to be drawing our playbook
, we’re in serious trouble.”

“Come on, it’s not that bad,” Landon said, cutting everyone an exaggerated
I’m wounded
kind of look.

“Yeah, man, it is,” Mark said, as he looked over the drawing.  He patted
Landon on the back roughly in mock consolation.  “But keep practicing.  You might get better at this whole drawing thing.”

I rolled my eyes at the guys as they continued badgering Landon about his lack of art skills and
glanced at my phone, wishing again that it would beep or ring or do something.  I’d sent Jared at least five messages since Aidan left, and each one had gone unanswered.  I understood why.  Really, I did.  But still …

“Jade.”  Beck’s tone was a harsh bark, letting me know he knew exactly what was on my mind as I started to reach for the phone.  He moved silently to the table and leaned against it to face me.  “If you even think about texting him again, I’ll confiscate that damn phone.”

I let my hand fall back into my lap.  Not for the first time today, I grew angry with the guys, and when I spoke it showed in my tone.  “I just want to know where he is.”

“Not your concern anymore,” Mark said softly and firmly, as if he
were trying to be absolute on the subject, but at the same time he wanted to be compassionate.

I felt a little hurt, but not so much for myself.  I felt it for Jared.  Beck looked troubled, but I didn’t think he had the right to be.  I rubbed my face, my gaze drifting again to the phone.

“What is that?” Aidan said, drawing my attention to the doorway.  He was staring at Landon’s drawing with a seriously confused expression painted on his face.

“It’s supposed to be our playbook of attack strategies,” I said, uncrossing my legs and twisting around.  “Did
Dad tell you anything?”

He shook his head and said
, “Nothing useful but I think the eye twitch happens when he’s nervous.”

~ JADE ~

My head hurt, a throbbing pain right behind my eyes.  With each throb, a needle prick pinched at the bridge of my nose.  My butt was beyond numb and I couldn’t feel my toes anymore.  Aidan’s hands kneaded at my shoulders, and rubbed up my neck.  His touch felt like heaven — simply amazing.

It was closing in on three in the morning and still, the team was in strategy mode.  Each one of them had picked up on different things during our interaction with my dad at my house yesterday morning.  Mark noticed the left eye twitch.  Beck picked up on a light apple butter scent when my dad had passed him in the hallway.  Craig heard a hint of excitement lining Dad’s tone when he had kicked me out.  Dominic noticed the way Dad watched Aidan, as if he were waiting for an opening to rip out his throat.  And Tommy and Chris, well, they seemed to notice a lot about Jared.  Like the way he watched me as if he wanted me dead.  I didn’t really blame Jared for that.  If I were him, I figured I would probably want me dead, too.

We had taken a quick break at noon, long enough for Beck to sneak out and stash Erika at his house until he could figure out what to do with her.  Craig had gone with him and when they had gotten back, he looked completely wrecked and as the hours passed by, he didn’t look any better.

The table was scattered with empty pizza boxes and burger wrappers.  Someone had pinned up a town map on the wall and beside it was a jumbo pad of white paper hanging from an easel.  Since Aidan had gotten back from the useless meeting with my dad, they had been mapping out each area they had searched for the cougars.  Aidan pinpointed each spot he’d sent Trevor to as well.  They marked each location with a red X and then went on to place a blue X on every place they had found tracks.

I
’d thought we had made progress, but as I scanned the map from my seat, all I could see was how much territory we still had to search.  Dog Mountain was secluded, surrounded by thousands of acres of bush and there was also the entire mountain to cover.  There were three times as many blue marks than there were red.

Aidan’s fingers moved up my neck again, working the muscles along my spine, and I released a long groan when they hit the tender knot.  I wasn’t really sure how we had gone from barely speaking to this in less than twenty-four hours, but I didn’t really care.  Since seeing him yesterday,
a longing, deep and close to unbearable, had settled within me, and having him close eased it a little.  He leaned forward, resting his chin on my shoulder.  “How you holding up, sweetheart?”

Sweetheart.
  It sounded so perfect and at the same time so weird.  His fingers kept working at the kink in my neck and his breath tickled along my cheek.

“I think my brain died about five hours ago,” I said with a groan.

Aidan chuckled.  He pressed his lips to my ear and whispered, “I’m taking you home.”

Home.
  Another way too perfect sounding word.  His hands dropped from my neck and his chin lifted from my shoulder, and then he was in front of me, taking my hands in his and pulling me up from the chair.  He fired off a bunch of quick commands, telling everyone to get some sleep and to meet back here at eight tomorrow morning, and then he led me out of the building and to his car.

I must have dozed off in the car and Aidan must have carried me inside.  The last thing I remembered was buckling up my seatbelt.  Now I was tucked in a big bed, surrounded by Aidan’s scent.  My jeans were gone, so
were my hoodie and socks.  All I had on was my underwear, bra, and tank.

A number of sensations struck me all at once: the emptiness of the bed, the coldness of the room, Aidan’s scent clinging to the sheets.  But above all that, I felt a bitter stab of loneliness.  I shivered and a sharp roll of needles chased down my spine.

The room was black as pitch, not even a stitch of light came through the drawn curtains.  It took a few blinks for my eyes to adjust, but once they did, I tugged on the comforter, wrapping it around my shoulders, and then wiggled off the bed.  The last thing I wanted right now was to be alone.

The upstairs of Aidan’s house was as empty as it felt.  There was a bathroom just off to the left of the room I
’d been sleeping in, the door open and lights off.  I kept moving, tiptoeing down the hallway.  A bit of moonlight streamed in through a small window, casting shadows that I swore were trying to jump up and trip me.  I picked up my pace, passing another bedroom that was again, empty, not even a stitch of furniture, and I kept going, sneaking down the stairs as quietly as I could.

I found Aidan snoring on the couch.  The curtains were drawn.  The only light coming into the living room was through the tiny frosted pe
ek-a-boo window on the door.  He was on his back, one leg on the floor and one arm draped over his eyes.  There was a blanket pulled up to his waist.

I stood at the base of the couch, and tugged the comforter more snuggly around me, cocooning myself in its warmth, as I watched his chest rise and fall with each steady breath.  My chest expanded, my heart warmed.  He looked … happy in sleep, a soft smile on his lips, his muscles relaxed and loose.