“So you want us to sit out here in the dark?”
Austin slammed the bed of the truck closed. “You got it. Don’t go anywhere near the house. I called Lynn earlier and told her to keep the doors locked up tight so Maizy doesn’t wander outside. She likes wolves but she’s too young to realize she can’t run up to a rogue. Find a soft patch of grass and camp out for the night.” Austin returned to the front of the truck. “I need to head back. After we clean up the mess your girlfriend caused, we’re going to stick around, have a few beers, and listen to some music. Then we’re coming back to deal with this. You’re lucky the music was loud enough to drown out the drama. Maybe the wind was in our favor. Who the hell knows.”
“Pass the word to my band that the show is off.” Jericho felt like crap about it, but what could he do?
“Doubt it,” Austin replied, getting back in the truck. He slammed the door and rested his forearm on the edge of the open window. “Have you heard Trevor sing? He went up there for kicks and played a blues number. Girls went crazy. As did a few men,” he said with a comical grin.
Jericho turned his back and lifted the heavy crate, causing every muscle he owned to flex and harden.
Austin’s truck kicked up dirt as he headed down the road and back to the festival. Just another night for the Weston pack. They didn’t bat an eyelash at this kind of drama, but the humans who lived in their house had a tougher time wrapping their heads around the perils of the Breed world.
He found a nice spot under a tree with a soft patch of grass. Jericho knelt down and opened the cage, speaking in a mellow voice. Isabelle’s wolf sprang out and then circled around, sniffing her surroundings and nervously eyeing him. The blood had dried on her white fur, more noticeable around her muzzle.
“It’s fine, baby. We’re home.” He fell on his back and stared up at the sky, kicking off his shoes. How could decades ago feel like yesterday and another lifetime all at once?
Isabelle nestled beside him, tucking her muzzle on his shoulder and licking his ear. They fell back into a familiar groove, and he hummed the song he’d sung to her earlier at the concert, hoping that would draw her out. Isabelle was in there somewhere, even though she wouldn’t remember this. But there was a way you could talk a person out of their animal and coax them to shift.
What bothered him was her reluctance. An hour went by, and while her wolf trotted around and checked out the property, she didn’t show any signs of tiring. Jericho could usually sit it out—the animal needed their time to run free, but Isabelle had shifted that morning and it wasn’t like her wolf to take control.
Jericho pulled out his phone and punched Reno’s number.
“Reno.”
“Hey, you got a second?”
“What’s up?”
Jericho paced in a circle. “I need to know what happened in that trailer between Isabelle and their attacker. What did April say?”
“She said he was looking for drugs and money. He worked for someone Hawk dealt with.”
“Did he know about Hawk being dead?”
“Yeah, she overheard that part of the convo,” Reno said, out of breath. The music in the phone began to fade, and it sounded as if he were distancing himself from the crowd. “April knows who the ringleader is.”
“What do you mean?”
“The guy said a name—Delgado. That’s the same sonofabitch who sent one of his lackeys after April. He’s a loan shark, but it looks like he has his finger in all kinds of pies. Drugs, for one. I know for a fact he’s been buying up strip clubs in town. Breed clubs.”
“So he’s human,” Jericho said, wiping a few blades of grass off his arm.
“Yeah, that’s problematic. He put his finger in the wrong fucking pie, but we can’t do a damn thing because he’s human, and he knows it. Delgado has other men do his dirty work and stays out of sight. That’s how the big boys like to operate.”
“Why does he think Isabelle has Hawk’s stash?”
Reno’s voice sounded tired. “Guess they did a search and couldn’t find it. You better check your girl out; she might know where it is.”
Jericho turned around and looked at her wolf pawing a hole in the dirt. “She doesn’t know.”
“Bullshit.”
“Look, Reno, I know this girl like the back of my hand. She would have done the right thing if she knew because that’s the kind of girl she is. But if we don’t give that asshole what he’s looking for, he’s going to keep coming back for her until I kill him. You can tell Austin we’ll sleep outside tonight, but if he tosses her on the street because of this shit, I’m going with her. That’s a done deal.”
“Hold up—”
Jericho hung up the phone and sat on his knees. “Come here, Isabelle.”