The remark confused me, but I quickly realized McNeal might see me as a way to bait my father.
“You think he cares about me?” I laughed but the sound quickly died as I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’m not even his real daughter. He left us years ago and doesn’t give a damn about my life.”
McNeal drummed his fingers impatiently on the railing. “Your father is a thief.”
“What did he steal, a few grand? Write it off.”
“Fifty million in diamonds.”
Holy shit.
“My dad worked in a warehouse,” I said in a voice of denial.
“Is that what he told you?” McNeal huffed out a laugh and glanced upward. “He was a runner who completed payment transactions.”
“What does that mean?”
“If someone didn’t pay their debt, your father finished the transaction,” he said with his fingers shaped like a gun.
Oh my God.
“You’re lying.”
“Am I?” He took a step up and I took a step back.
“I’m going to find him, and the longer I’m forced to wait, the more dangerous I become. Your family has been nothing but trouble; I should have washed my hands of you years ago by taking him out too.”
“Too?” This time I stepped forward. “What do you mean… too?”
“I can sense by your energy you’re not human,” he said. “And I’d be curious to know more about how that came to be. Your brother was a fool. At least your father wasn’t begging for immortality; he just wanted a fat paycheck. Humans should know their place.”
I was three seconds from lunging at him. “What do you know about Wes? How could you know him?”
“Nelson wanted to bring him into the business.” McNeal shrugged. “Only, your brother didn’t want monetary gain, that stupid human wanted immortality. Some of your kind get fixated on living forever and are willing to do anything, give up anything. Like a Mage is just going to give away that kind of power for a job? Fuck no. You got to earn your keep with us and show us your worth. It might take a lifetime to earn, but I didn’t tell him that. Just gave him his assignment and he chickened out.”
“What assignment?” I breathed. My heart raced like a hummingbird and my legs trembled.
“To kill a young Shifter—an alpha. We got a population problem around here with some of those wolves eating up land, and I’m trying to solve it. You take out the young alphas, and they can’t form packs. Packs are stronger, so creating more rogue Shifters by circumstance makes them easier to pick off—it’s a numbers game. Plus, no female wolf is going to pair up with a man who isn’t part of a pack. He had a problem with the assignment; some shit about the guy being his friend.”
It felt like a sheet of ice slid over my skin. McNeal was talking about Austin. Wes was trying to become immortal and his first assignment was to kill his best friend.
“You killed my brother?”
“Not personally,” he corrected. “I keep my hands clean and outsource all the dirty work. Keeps me out of Breed jail.”
“You aren’t afraid I’ll turn you in?”
He smirked. “You know what they call an accusation without proof in our world? Slander. And there are heavy consequences for ruining an immortal’s good name.”
A loud motor purred in the parking lot and abruptly cut off. When the door slammed, McNeal whipped his head around.
“We’ll deal with this later. You better think real hard about where your father is, because things could get messy.”
Faster than I could track, McNeal ran off. Just a blur of movement down the stairs and across the lawn. I felt dizzy and gripped the railing.
“Alexia!” a man shouted, footsteps climbing up the stairs.
It was Lorenzo.
He cupped my chin in his hand and tilted my head up. “Are you unharmed?” Then he looked over his shoulder. “I saw the Mage; do you know him?” His eyes narrowed to slivers and I shook my head. “Sit,” he said, coaxing me down on the step.
“He’s after my father.” My hands wouldn’t stop shaking and my cheeks felt flushed. “What are you doing here?”
“I got a man on your house and he gave me a call to let me know you were back. I heard you went to negotiate with Ivan. If that’s the case, he’ll have your mother back faster than we will. Cole must have paid him a fine penny for that favor. My men got as far as a gas station outside of El Paso but lost the trail. He’s been stealing cars and changing directions—giving us a run for our money.” Lorenzo’s voice softened and he caressed my right cheek. He drew in a deep breath and his eyes hooded. “You’re okay?”
“I don’t know what I am anymore,” I replied in a distant voice.
“Beautiful?” he murmured against my cheek.