Deadlock

Chapter Nine

The next morning, Carmen woke to the scent of brewing gourmet coffee, and she knew she was in trouble when her first thought was disbelief that Alec was up before her.

She wandered into the kitchen and into the middle of a spirited conversation between Lily and Franklin, who sat with the morning paper spread across the table.

«Thank you, Jesus.» Lily latched on to her presence. «Carmen, tell this man why I couldn’t come get you by myself yesterday. I plugged the address into my GPS and — hand to God — the thing laughed at me.»

Carmen forced a smile as she poured a cup of coffee. «It’s not that far from town, Lil.»

Franklin’s eyes followed her, narrowed and slightly assessing, but his voice was light. «Lily’s a city girl. Keep trying to get her to come camping with me, but so far no luck.»

«We don’t have to sleep in the woods. We can build houses now.»

Carmen slid into the chair across from Franklin’s and avoided her boss’s curious gaze. «Lily’s never going to be your queen of the wilderness. May as well start shopping for a replacement.»

«Oh, ha ha.» Lily slid a plate of pancakes in front of her and propped both hands on her hips. «Shit, Carmen, you got kidnapped. Are you sure you’re all right?»

«I’m fine.» Different, and not entirely because of the spell, but okay. «Barely a scratch on me.»

«And that’s the way we’re going to keep you.» Franklin took a sip of his coffee, and the mug looked tiny in his rough, callused hands. «I’m thinking about getting a part-time guard for the clinic.»

Carmen choked on her own coffee. «Did something happen while I was out?»

«You got kidnapped. Things are unsettled, and I’d rather not take chances. Not with you, or anyone else working there.»

Her kidnapping had had nothing to do with the clinic, but he was right about one thing — he couldn’t afford to take chances. «If you can spare me, I think I need some time off.» She could deal with her family, at least, and make sure no one else was put in danger because of her.

Franklin glanced at Lily, who raised both eyebrows and flashed him a pointed look.

Carmen set down her mug. «Okay, what’s going on?»

It was Franklin who finally spoke. «I didn’t want to put this on you, not on top of everything else, but your uncle’s been throwing his weight around.»

Rage rose at his words, sudden and breathtaking, like a punch to the gut. She closed her eyes and counted backwards, a trick she used to soothe herself. «Did he threaten you?»

«People threaten me all the damn time, Carmen. Keeping the clinic neutral is a full-time job. And sometimes I piss people off, like I’m going to hack your uncle off.» His mug hit the table with a thump. «So guards, when I’m not there. Just until things settle down a little.»

«Julio always says this is the kind of stunt Uncle Cesar pulls when he feels out of control. He shakes trees just to see what falls out.» Carmen smiled, the feral edge of anger still sharp inside her. «He’s shaking the wrong one this time.»

Lily watched her with wide blue eyes. «I recognize that look, Franklin.»

«Which is why I didn’t want to tell her.» Franklin braced his hand against the table and leaned forward. «I don’t get to tell you how to deal with your family, but you need to leave the clinic out of it. I don’t go a week without someone pissing in my Cheerios over something, and my place’d be shut down if I smacked everyone in the face simply because they have it coming.»

«Oh, I have plenty of reasons to punch Uncle Cesar in the head.» Carmen picked up her fork and stabbed at her pancakes. «We can start with the fact that he tried to sell me to your army buddy like a purebred poodle.»

It was Franklin’s turn to choke. «He tried to sell you to Jacobson?»

«Maybe sell isn’t the right word, since I’m pretty sure there might have been cash incentives readily available if Alec had agreed.»

Franklin shook his head. «Your uncle’s an idiot, and lucky he didn’t get his jaw broken. Alec’s sisters got to pretty much choose their husbands because even his father doesn’t dare cross him on the topic of unwilling arranged marriages. Granted, Alec’s father is a boot-licking lackey and not hard to bully.»

Even if his father had been strong, he might not have stood against Alec. «Cesar’s not stupid. He’s just utterly convinced that he’s right, and that the world should fall in line.»

«Then he’ll be sorely disappointed. In Alec, in you and in me.» Franklin pinned her in place with a stern look. «I’m fond of you, Mendoza, and not only because you work for me. You’ve got to promise me you’ll be careful.»

She could reassure him on that count, at least. «Trust me, Franklin. My family has a vested interest in keeping me safe and well enough to smile pretty for my engagement photo in the society papers.»

He didn’t smile. «That’d be a hell of a lot more reassuring if we were all human. A psychic could make you smile pretty for all the pictures they wanted to take.»

A week earlier, she would have denied the possibility. She would have been sure there was nothing her family wanted from her badly enough to go to such extremes. Now, she knew better. «I won’t let that happen.»

«Lily?»

Lily bent and kissed his cheek. «She’ll be careful. Carmen likes herself well enough to want to stay safe.»

She dropped her gaze so she wouldn’t have to look at them. «I’m planning on sticking close to home for the next few days anyway.»

A hand fell on her shoulder. Franklin’s, warm and comforting. «Alec’s in a damn pissy mood. Does that mean he did something dumb?»

She took her time chewing. «If you’re curious, you should talk to him about it.»

«Not a chance, Mendoza. Throwing myself on a grenade sounds like a better time than asking Alec Jacobson about his feelings. If you don’t want to share, I’ll stay curious.»

«Fine.» She dropped her fork and reached for her orange juice, wishing the glass also contained its fair share of vodka. «He’s an asshole who can’t make up his mind what he wants.»

Franklin’s expression turned serious. «Of course he can’t. That man hasn’t spent more than twenty seconds thinking about what he wants in a long damn time. He’s probably out of practice.»

Out of practice and scared by what could happen to her. «I’m an asshole too. It’s a bad situation, all the way around.»

«Yeah. And shitty timing, with your family.» He smiled, a little lopsided. «Sorry, Carmen. You’ve had a week from hell, haven’t you?»

«Could always be worse.» She just wasn’t sure how.

Alec was running a red light when his cell phone rang.

At least it was at an intersection so deserted he didn’t feel guilty about slamming down the gas when the light turned yellow. He fumbled for his phone as he zipped through the intersection, then swore when he read the display.

Nicole Peyton rarely called him by choice. Jackson was her best friend and she was married to Kat’s cousin — if she had a message for him, it usually went through one of them. The only time she called him directly was when shit was going to hell fast—

— or the Alpha had a message he couldn’t officially give to a rogue bastard.

Alec fumbled for the answer button. «Yeah?»

«You have a problem,» Nick said without preamble. «The guy who attacked Kat disappeared from Conclave custody this afternoon.»

His first thought was, shit, followed closely by the more puzzling question. «How?»

«Oh, I thought I covered that part. He disappeared, as in a teleporter popped into his cell and popped right back out, with him in tow.»

«Jesus Christ, Nicole. Are you shitting me?»

She made a strangled noise that almost sounded like a laugh. «This isn’t my idea of a rollicking good joke, Alec. A Conclave guard watched it all happen, so it was either teleportation or one badass glamour affecting about a hundred people, because no one else in the building saw or heard anything.»

«Damn.» Not good news, considering he’d never heard of a teleporter strong enough to move themselves more than a few hundred feet, much less take someone else along for the ride. Then again, psychics with strong gifts that could be put to sinister uses had good reason not to make their presence known. «I can’t tell if that’s related to my current shitstorm or a completely different shitstorm.»

«The thing with the Mendoza kid?» Nick hesitated. «Look, Alec, I don’t say this a lot — mostly because you can take care of yourself — but watch it. Cesar Mendoza isn’t good people.»

Life really was circling the drain when Nicole Peyton started worrying about him. At least she was too distracted to ask painful questions about Carmen — questions Alec wasn’t in the mood to answer. «I know Cesar Mendoza’s a jackass, which is most of the reason I think this mess with Kat has to be separate. Mendoza wouldn’t send someone on a risky job if they needed rescuing. Maybe if they needed killing, but this… Shit. Does your husband know?»

«Not yet. I thought I’d give you the heads-up first.»

«Don’t suppose you’d consider holding off for a bit?»

«Nope. I like being married.»

Married people were a pain in the ass. «Fine. At least tell him that his cousin’s fine, she dropped a shifter with a stun gun all by herself, and we’re taking good care of her.»

«I will, but don’t be surprised if he shows up anyway.»

«If he does, I’ll deal.» Alec whipped his truck around a corner and swore. «I’m on my way back to meet Kat and Jackson at your bar. Maybe I can convince her to call and fess up.»

«Works for me. In the meantime, I’ll keep an ear open for news.»

«Thanks, Nicole. Give me an hour to convince Kat she’s busted before you spill the beans to Derek, would you?»

«One hour. Talk fast.» The phone clicked.

Shit. One hour to get to the bar and convince Kat that independence didn’t need to mean cutting her cousin out of her life entirely.

Alec buried the needle.

Forty-seven minutes later, Kat capitulated and took her cell phone outside into the April sunshine to call her cousin.

Alec blew out a breath and wondered if it was too early to drink something stronger than beer. «She seems to have bounced back just fine. I think Zola’s stubbornness is rubbing off on her.»

Jackson finished his beer before answering. «Really? I think she’s getting more and more like you.»

«I hope not.» It sure as hell wasn’t a compliment, especially considering the mood he’d been in since Carmen had left his house — and left him regretting half the things he’d said.

«Oh, come on. Don’t get all wounded. It’s a good thing.»

«Uh-huh.» Alec tilted his beer bottle toward the leather satchel on the seat beside his partner. Carmen might not want to talk to him, but he’d still do what he could to keep her safe. «So what’s the news? Kat finally figure out what Cesar’s been doing with his money?»

«Yeah.» Jackson’s eyes shadowed. «You’re not gonna like it.»

«He buy a witch?»

«No. He didn’t spend it at all.» He reached into the satchel and drew out a sheaf of papers. «He’s been transferring it — cash, money market, even real estate assets. All to his brother’s kids.»

«What?» It didn’t make any sense, unless… «Oh, shit.»

«Yeah, looks like he’s sheltering his assets in anticipation of a challenge. Which, if I recall correctly, is a big cowardly no-no, right?»

«Christ, yeah. Assuming it even works.» A few generations ago, it wouldn’t have mattered. An underhanded attempt to escape the consequences of a lost challenge would have been brought before the Conclave, and retribution would have been swift and brutal. The Alpha would have taken his share of the wealth as penalty, and the wolf in question would have been lucky to escape with his life.

John Wesley Peyton might have the strength to be Alpha, but he abhorred unnecessary brutality. The man had been fighting a losing battle for years, trying to drag the wolves into the civilized twenty-first century. Cesar Mendoza might be crazy enough to think he’d get away with a stunt like this.

Jackson tapped his empty bottle on the table. «Kat tracked down the paper trail on the rental house in Algiers too.»

The bottom of Alec’s stomach damn near fell out. It had been the first thing they’d looked into, but the paper trail had gone in endless circles obviously meant to protect whoever had paid for the place. If Kat had been restricted to legal channels, that would have been the end of it.

Thank God it wasn’t — though confirmation of Carmen’s suspicions might make her feel worse, not better. «Was it her father?»

«Hate it like hell, but yeah. Diego Mendoza secured the rental six months ago.»

«Jesus. Wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision, was it?»

Jackson smiled mirthlessly. «I don’t think you can hit up the phone directory and find the kind of caster he needed for this shit. I’d be surprised if it took him less than a year of planning.»

That was going to break Carmen’s heart. «Did Kat include that in the paperwork?»

«Nope. I figured you could decide which parts to tell her.»

«She suspects already.» Alec sat back and scrubbed a hand over his face. «Suspecting isn’t the same as knowing, is it?»

«Not about something like this, it isn’t.»

He’d pushed her away because she wasn’t safe in his world. It had seemed stupid enough during the lonely nights he’d spent wishing she was in his bed. It seemed even stupider now, with proof in front of him in black and white — Carmen wasn’t safe in her own world, and it had nothing to do with him. She’d be in danger whether she was with him or not.

Hell, she’d be a whole lot safer with him. «I’m an idiot, aren’t I?»

«Yes,» Jackson replied instantly. «What are we talking about, specifically?»

Alec made a particularly rude gesture and earned himself a glare from the woman polishing the bar. «Acting like Carmen getting tangled up with me is more dangerous than the shit her family’s dragging her through. I blew her off like an asshole.»

«Oh, that. Yeah, you did.» The waitress delivered another round, and Jackson thanked her with a smile. «Good news is, there’s probably still time to fix it.»

«Yeah, these files will make a great peace offering. ‘Hi, honey. Your dad tried to kill you and your uncle’s a spineless coward. Wanna screw?»

His partner spewed beer all over the table. «And here I thought you were smoother than that.»

He was, usually, but Carmen scrambled his brain. She made the world blurry, like the mating urge was trying to take hold even though she wasn’t a wolf. Maybe the urge had been driving him the whole time, tying him in knots that nothing would ever undo. Making him dumb.

Only one way to find out. «I’ll polish my charm.»

«Good. I’m still putting out feelers about the witch but, like as not, we won’t hear a peep.»

«Dead ends and stonewalling. Business as usual.» Alec finished his beer and shoved the bottle away. «Anything else I need to know? Plagues? Rain of toads?»

«Nah, pestilence must have taken the week off.»

«Smartass. Just for that, you get to deal with Kat and her cousin. Keep Derek from storming the town and stirring up shit, would you?»

Jackson grinned. «You underestimate me.»

«Let’s hope.»

«Mm-hmm.» His partner slid the papers back into the satchel and handed it over to him. «In case Dr. Mendoza wants to see it for herself. I’m going to give Kat a ride and head home.»

«Sounds good.» Now all he had to do was learn how to grovel.