Page 84 of War Games

“She’s a fixer,” Carlos whispered. “I knew it was getting toxic, our relationship, but…” Carlos closed his eyes. “I told her when Dallas was having problems that if I could ever have you as my Alpha again, I would take it. Tywin tolerated me because you had promised I would have a place there. Recently, she was really freaked out by how Fenris had betrayed us, thanks to all that fucked-up fae magic. She was worried you would throw us out for Jacky, that Jacky hated us. I kept trying to tell her it was fine, that you would always make the right call?—”

“I would throw all of you out for Jacky if she needed me to,” Heath said quickly. “Make no mistake about that.”

“Yes, but you had given no sign of needing to do that. Jacky was hurt, but… after everything I’ve seen about her, I wasn’t nearly as worried. I guess I should have taken Jenny’s worry more seriously.”

“Did she get mail I need to try to find? We have reports she burned things in the fire pit.”

“She would get letters from other old Dallas pack members, which I didn’t think too much about… but any good werewolf knows not to contact any in a rogue pack. I figured…”

“That friendships could last, and it was a reasonable bending of the rules.”

“I always worried she had lost her friends because of me wanting to follow you here. I didn’t want to take them away from her if she had them.”

“Of course.” There were no lies coming from Carlos.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything. I just wanted to keep my head down, be a good werewolf for you… I never thought she would…” Carlos put his head in his hands.

“Will you stop me from killing her?” Heath asked gently.

“No,” Carlos answered.

Heath opened the cell door and stepped back.

“Go stay with Roselyn and Piper. They’ll be waiting for you. They’ll help you move if you need to get away from memories of her,” Heath said, waiting as Carlos slowly stood up.

The sad man finally nodded and walked past him. Heath followed him out. This was going according to his expectations. He made sure Carlos got into his car and went to Roselyn and Piper.

Then he walked into Kick Shot, finding Jenny losing her mind but unable to say anything or act on it.

“He’s gone,” he said to Landon.

That finally broke Jenny, who screamed.

Heath felt only a twinge of guilt. He’d dealt with too many betrayals to feel much more than that. Jenny knew the score.

“Enough,” he finally ordered. “Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be Jacky!” she screamed. “It was supposed to be you, and without an Alpha, the pack was supposed to go to Callahan and get added to the others!”

“Then why did you attempt it after you saw me set up a glass for a second person? You knew I would share with the woman I plan to marry. It’s a reasonable assumption to make.”

“Because Carlos wanted you as his Alpha! I thought if she was dead, you would finally see it was a good thing and go back to Dallas, be a normal Alpha again, and everything would be okay again!” Jenny looked up, tears running down her face.“But even now that she’s dead, you still pick her over us, your werewolves!”

“She’s not dead,” Heath said, smiling a little. “Subira, her mother, found me before breakfast. Jacky will be waking up soon. She’s been through something very rough, but she’s not dead.”

Jenny’s eyes went wide and her body limp as she sank back in the chair Landon had sat her down in. Landon was smirking.

“What?”

“Did you think I was sitting on my hands doing nothing over the last few days?” Heath laughed, full-chested. It felt mean to do that in front of Jenny, but he truly didn’t care.

“You killed Carlos even though she lived? He had nothing…”

Heath stopped laughing, dropping all mirth.

“Carlos is letting me kill you without putting up a fight,” he told her brutally, knowing it was the final thing he needed to break her. “Thank you for admitting that the hit was on me, and you decided to see if you could kill Jacky instead. That means this is no longer only werewolf business. It means I can tell her family anything I want, and no one can stop me. Did you put it in her glass? We haven’t figured out what’s wrong with the bourbon yet. I didn’t see or smell anything in her glass.”

Jenny was hollow-eyed. Knowing Carlos, the man she loved and was fairly obsessed with, was not there and was allowing this to happen to her was a fatal blow to her heart. He didn’t have to kill her. He was still going to, but he didn’t have to.

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