Page 23 of War Games

“I should,” Dirk said, shaking his head at the idea of Jacky or Heath needing to deal with this for him. “I want to do this with you. Subira is right. Someone should go with you to these places. I might be the youngest werewolf in the pack in terms of how long I’ve been a werewolf, but I’m also your nephew. It’s my place to go with you. I’m a member of our family.” Those words sounded strange from his mouth, but since Jacky was important to his life that made reconnecting with his father, which made those words come easier. He wanted nothing to do with Hasan, but that was a small problem compared to what all the Moon Cursed were dealing with.

“And?”

“And I need to be able to tell my mate that he can’t keep holding me back,” Dirk said, standing up. “Let’s take all of thisto your office and talk it over. We can make a route, who to start with and everything. We’ll group states and try to get them done all together on short trips out of state.”

“Just like your father sometimes,” Jacky said, chuckling. “Okay, let’s go.” She started collecting the stack and paused as she looked at Carey. Dirk felt terrible. Carey obviously wanted to be involved and knew that was about to end, and it was his fault this time. He just hated working at the dining table.

“Carey… I’m sorry, do you want to watch movies again tonight? I know we’ve all been busy…”

“Yeah, that works for me. Let me know when you want to start,” Carey said, smiling brightly. “Go get your work done. Find those witches and take them down.”

“Okay. We’ll get through dinner and do movies. With popcorn. I’ll leave the popcorn and movie choices up to you.”

Dirk was in Jacky’s office faster, holding the door open for her. She sat down, the smile disappearing.

“Are you sure?” Jacky asked, her eyes gold instead of her human hazel. He knew she had no idea they were like that. She almost never did.

“Yeah. You heard her. Let’s get to work. We’ll plan to leave on Monday… that gives me the weekend to talk with my mate and try not to make this a fight.”

9

CHAPTER NINE

It was a long weekend. Dirk and I worked on our route to get through the witches efficiently through Friday afternoon, taking a break for the evening so I could spend time with Carey and Heath, then we were back at it on Saturday. By Sunday, I was with Dirk again, this time to say goodbye to Niko, who was flying out in the afternoon. I wasn’t going to need the plane. Dirk and I intended to drive the area instead, so I was letting Niko not only use it to leave but keep it for his entire travels.

“He’ll be okay,” Dirk said, elbowing me lightly. “Stop tearing up your nails. Niko is used to this sort of thing.”

I looked down at my hands, seeing I had been picking at my nails. I shoved them into my pockets and sighed.

“Thanks. I know he’s always been good at this sort of thing. It’s just… Germany happened, then Alaska…”

“He was fine in Alaska, barely scratched,” Dirk reminded me, chuckling. “But, yeah, Germany was a rough trip for everyone involved. He’s gone, though. Rainer isn’t going to pop up in Maryland or somewhere else to get Niko.”

“Yeah…” After months, the ache of losing Fenris still twisted my heart.

Dirk made a face but didn’t say anything. He reached out with one arm and gave me a half hug, squeezing me into his side.

“Sorry. Didn’t mean to bring him up.”

“It’s okay. I’ve been haunted by a lot of things for a while now,” I said, shaking my head as I stepped away. “I’ll come back out when Niko gets close. This is Heath’s one day off, so I’m going to spend some time with him.”

“Okay. I’ll work on some admin in the security office.” Dirk jogged down the stairs and walked purposefully to the security building that had been built in my yard. It wasn’t small, but it wasn’t more than a few rooms. Someone would think it was a very big shed for lawn mowers and things like that or a workshop for home improvement and wood working if they didn’t know who owned this house.

It was an eyesore that I suffered through.

One day, I’m going to tear everything down and start over here, so it at least looks like it was intentional.

I went inside to find Heath working on his laptop and decided to start pushing it closed slowly, smiling as his stormy-blue eyes looked over the top. I kept pushing it down, revealing his bemused smile. He didn’t stop me as I closed it entirely.

“I hope that wasn’t important,” I said, leaning down to kiss him, my fingers still holding the laptop closed in case he tried to open it back up.

“Sunday work is never important. Do you want to do anything?”

“Well, Niko leaves this afternoon, so Dirk is over. He can stay here and keep an eye on Carey if she needs anything… Why don’t you and I go to brunch and get away from everything here?”

“I like that idea,” he said, smiling as I kissed him again. “Let me get shoes on.”

“I’ll be at your truck.”

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