FRACTURED (27 page)

“Understood,” Janner said respectfully, with a nod.

“Excellent,” Sean purred in response.

A small silence broke out while Sean postured in front of the boys.

He wanted to emphasize his point, and he was doing so brilliantly. We all read him loud and clear.

“Sean,” Cooper called, breaking the growing tension. “Should we expect others? I'm concerned that if they tracked the phones in Boston then they likely know where the trio had been staying too.”

“Agreed. We can't afford to take any chances, so nobody will be returning to the apartment until we know it's safe.”

“Um,” I started, raising my hand in question. “How will we know when that is?”

Sean cast me his all-knowing glance, and I shut my mouth. It figured that he'd have his tactics all worked out and likely in play. I was always a step or two behind.

“You'll know because I tell you it is,” he said coldly, his eyes a deep hunter green. “
You
aren't going back there until Tobias is cold and dead.

As for the others: I haven't decided the best plan of action.”

“I think the four of us should go back,” Cooper offered, stepping toward Sean. “If we suddenly disappear, they'll know something is up.

We need to proceed as normal. Lure them in with a false sense of security and then ambush them. If Tobias is as arrogant as these three say he is, there's no way he wouldn't buy it. He'll think we were stupid and complacent, and that's exactly what we want.”

Sean looked thoughtful for a moment.

“And what about the store? We can't possibly have Ruby running it until we know who and what is coming, or if they're coming at all. Peyta either. Especially not Peyta.”

“I guess I'll have to shut it down in the interim,” I said, trying to think on my feet. “A lot of the shops have been doing heavy remodels over the past few months. I don't think it would look strange for me to newspaper over the windows and put up a sign saying 'Closed for renovations'.”

“Excellent. I'll have some of the boys get on that immediately.” He looked pleased with me, as if I'd come up with the most genius plan ever.

It surprised the shit out of me. “Cooper,” he continued, “take them back home with you, but I'm going to have Trey and the boys set up a few things. If there's any sort of attack, you'll know before they're inside. And I'll know too.”

“And Ruby?” Cooper asked, not looking pleased with me not staying by his side. He was my alpha and it was his job to keep me safe at all costs―at least that's what he thought.

“She stays with me. If harm is headed this way, I want her nowhere near it.”

Cooper looked pained but resolved. He knew it was the right play even if it put him on the sideline. “Agreed.”

“Glad to see we're on the same page,” he said, eyes still pinned on Cooper in what I perceived to be a battle for dominance. It was a pointless one. I may have loved Cooper dearly, but in a fight between him and Sean, the dark-eyed one would win every time, and I knew it. Cooper knew it too. “I'm going to go let Trey know what he needs to do. I'll be right back,” he said, coming to my side. “You'll stay here with me. I'll have the boys discreetly bring some things over for you―things I don't already have.”

He gracefully took leave of his apartment, heading down to one of the other floors in his place. I'd only ever seen one other than his apartment, and I didn't really want to relive that memory. Wherever Trey was, I didn't want to know the details.

“So,” Cooper said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. I instinctively leaned into his embrace. “You're going to be okay here without me?” He was joking on the outside, but I could feel his unease with the situation, and it called to a part of me that was less than certain that everything was going to work out all right. He and I had been through more than our fair share of close calls. One day, that luck was going to run out.

“I think so,” I replied sarcastically. “The question is, are you four going to be okay without
me
. I'm the mindless killing machine, remember?”

He chuckled slightly, giving me a little squeeze.

“You're something, all right.”

“She's amazing,” Alistair said earnestly, taking a step forward to break away from the other two. “You both were today. I may not have been Changed that long ago, but I knew what having a family was like before that and it was ripped away from me. The London pack was never family to me,” he said, looking over his shoulder at his friends, “but these two were. They helped guide and mold me into what I am now.”

I heard Cooper mutter some smartass comment under his breath, and I elbowed him in the gut to shut him up. While Cooper exhaled sharply, Alistair reached under the collar of his t-shirt and pulled a pair of dog tags free. Two separate silver-colored chains hung over top of his chest, one significantly shorter than the other; it was much too small for a man to normally wear.

As if he understood what was going on, Janner reached into his shirt and produced two similar dog tags, though his were equal in length.

“Ruby,” Alistair said softly, approaching Cooper and me slowly. “I want you to have this.” He pulled the smaller stainless steel chain over his head with some effort and presented it to me in his hands. “This was my Jemma's. It's all I have left of her.” He was too crippled by emotions to carry on, so Janner stepped in on his behalf.

“They never found the body,” he said, placing a hand on Ali's shoulder for comfort. “Tobias gave him those before he tricked us into killing Deacon.” He pulled his pair of dog tags up over his head before presenting them to me. “These were Deacon's. At first, I wore them as a trophy of sorts. But now I wear them as a reminder of who I knew him to be, what he stood for, and the alpha he was. The man I knew before we let the chaos and fear take over.” He pinned fearsome eyes on Cooper before continuing, and it completely took me aback. Janner had always seemed complacent, almost docile, but in that moment, he was a force to be reckoned with. “I was wrong to let Tobias manipulate us into killing him.” His eyes couldn't hold their confident attitude as he uttered those words. His guilt tinged the air around him, and he suddenly looked more tired and sad than normal as he continued. “I let him down,” he continued, extending the tags out to Cooper. “I vow tonight, in front of these witnesses, that I will never do the same to you.”

“And I,” Alistair added, draping the chain over my head to fall lightly against my chest, “vow to protect you better than I was able to protect my Jemma.”

Tears sprang forth from my eyes without warning. The weight of their words combined with that of their emotions was more than I could bear. I looked at Cooper, who was staring at the offering Janner held out before him. His energy warred internally―taking
it
meant taking
them
.

His animal desire to protect the boys fought with his lingering distrust and his fear of becoming the only other alpha he'd ever known. His eyes met mine, and I saw the fear winning.

“You will never be like him, Coop,” I said softly, taking his hand in mine. “You'll be exactly who you've always been―the same amazing man who rescued me back then and has continued to rescue me ever since.”

With a squeeze of my hand, his gaze returned to Janner, and he took the token offered to him. Janner's pledge to be one of us. As he slipped it over his head, I could feel something in Cooper's energy shift―a power wash over him and settle deep inside. It made me smile.

Just as Beckett jumped in to try and lighten the mood, a faint ringing sounded in the stairway, growing louder and louder as footsteps ascended. Sean broke through the doorway, storming his apartment with cell phone in hand.

“Answer it,” he said, throwing the phone to Janner. “And do not let on that anything has changed. You should sound like you're shaken and on the defensive.”

With a nod, Janner hit a button and put the phone to his ear.

“Tobias,” he bit out as though the name was poison on his tongue. It was, as far as I was concerned. “Yes, we did have a run-in with them.”

Silence. I watched as Janner's face flinched only slightly on occasion. I felt his energy go increasingly vacant as the one-sided conversation continued. It made me nuts knowing that everyone in that room could hear what was going on except for me, but I knew enough to know that he was being threatened.

My anger grew until a rage boiled just below the surface. I was starting to understand what having family―a pack―was all about. I may not have been crazy about the boys all the time, and God knew Cooper wasn't, but they were
ours
. We could mess with them, but nobody else was going to. Not on my watch.

“I see,” Janner said, finally breaking the eerie quiet on our end.

“And if we don't...?”

I looked at Cooper as my temper was threatening to spike to epic levels.

“What's going on?” I asked, whispering as loudly as I could.

“Tobias wants them to come back.”

“Why?”

“So he can kill them.”

“And if they don't?”

Cooper growled.

“He's coming here to kill them.”

“So either way, they die?”

“Yes, though allegedly less painfully if they turn themselves in.”

I totally flipped my shit.

“Give me that fucking thing,” I snapped, lunging for the phone.

I wanted to let Tobias know just what I thought of his offer.

26

Surprisingly, nobody tried to stop me. I didn't even have to struggle against Janner's grip. He let me have the phone and took a step back as my temper flared along with my use of the f-word. I suppose they knew I could only get into so much trouble over a phone.

“Tobias? Here's the deal. You can't have them. And, if you come here to get them, you'll be getting a world of hurt instead, understood?”

“Well, well, well, what have we here? Have my boys stumbled upon a
female
to ally with? Surely I'm frightened beyond belief.” His mocking was duly noted. If he wanted a force to be reckoned with, I could give him that―verbally, anyway.

“Yes, they have, fuckwad. They have a new alpha now too, so I would tread lightly when throwing threats around me or my boys, if you know what's good for you,” I spat into the phone as Sean and company looked on. Cooper moved to take the phone away from me, but Sean stopped him with an extended arm. For whatever reason, he wanted to see how the conversation played out. “The problem with that, Tobias, is that you clearly don't know when to walk away. I wouldn't underestimate me or anyone I align with. I have connections you couldn't even begin to comprehend. You fuck with me, you meet your end. Period.”

“And who, pray tell, is this who dares to threaten me so brazenly?

I'd like to know your name so I can call you by it as I cut out your heart and stuff it down your throat.”

“Ruby,” I replied with a sadistic grin, “but you'll never get the chance, my friend. Your blood will run free long before I even break a sweat.”

“
Ruby
...,” he repeated as if rolling the word around in his mouth to see if he liked the taste. “
You
won't kill me,
will
you, Ruby?”

I started to sweat. He was calling my bluff, but how could he have known?

“The hell I won't!” I blustered, hoping that, if I put enough anger behind my words, they would carry more weight.

He laughed.

“Why do you care what happens to them? They're not your wolves―your pack. They are mine to do with as I please.”

“Wrong,
Toby
,” I mocked, hoping to get under his skin. “It seems they've chosen a different family now, and, having spoken to you, I can sure as hell see why.”

“Oh,” he said, feigning interest. “Have they now? And how exactly did they do that?”

“They vowed their allegiance to my alpha and me. They are
ours.”

He laughed again
.

“
Listen,” he snapped, his laughter abruptly coming to an end. “You will give them to me or you will die, and if you think for one second that they would protect you from me, you are sorely mistaken.”

“They will,” I said, glancing over to where the three men stood, their faces solemn but their energies fierce. “And I'm wearing proof of that.”

“Oh, that's just darling. Did they buy you a promise ring?”

“No,” I replied, calming the rage inside me, “the dog tags of a fallen mate. A female that you undoubtedly killed, either directly or otherwise.”

Suddenly, Tobias seemed to be at a loss for words. “So you listen to me, you smug, limey bastard. If you so much as set foot on American soil, I will personally see to it that the only time you ever see your homeland again is when you fly over it as dust in the wind. Try me and see if I'm good for it.”

After his growling ceased, he managed to compose himself, if only slightly.

“Words, Ruby. They're just words. We both know you're not going to kill me,
don't we
?”

“Actions, Toby. I prefer actions. We both know you don't stand a chance, don't we?” I retorted snottily.

“Say it,” he pressed, his voice lower and scarier than before. “Say you won't kill me.”

“No,” I retorted, trying to keep my heart from jumping out of my throat. “Say
this
: 'I'm a dead man'.”

I never got to hear his response. Sean, having had enough of our posturing, grabbed the phone and did what he did best―intimidated the shit out of Tobias.

“I'm going to find you and end you. Keep running,” he purred, eyes bleeding to black. “I
love
to chase.” He cut the call off and tossed Janner the phone. “The others are ready to go too. He can't trace you now, but we sure as hell can trace him.”

“That's why you let me talk,” I said, thinking it was strange that nobody had moved to take the phone from me while I blustered my way through the conversation until Sean did. He wanted me to keep him on the line―just long enough to find out where Tobias was.

Before I got my answer, Sean was on his cell, ordering someone on the other end around as he walked out of the room. I presumed he was headed for Trey and the newly acquired coordinates of Tobias' soon-to-be dead ass.