Casually strolling back to my car with my hands sunk in my pockets, I fingered the paper as I replayed the night’s conversations in my head. She had three dads. That was a little strange. I couldn’t really understand how that worked, but okay. One of them was a demon. I guess that was where the fire in her eyes came from. I wondered what the other two men were. I suspected she may have been a shifter or a vampire, but I didn’t have anything solid to go on. What was her mother? She couldn’t be a full blooded demon. I’d have scented that right away. Every demon I’d ever encountered had a spicy, cinnamon sort of scent to them. She smelled like safety and home and power. A strange combination of pine trees, crisp snow, and charcoal. I’d never met a hybrid before, so again, I didn’t have enough information to go on there either.
I could call Palmer. He would know. The male knew everything, but he was in Northern Ireland and wouldn’t be back until Wednesday. Damn it. I didn’t want to call him while he was busy. I had no idea what he was actually doing there. This could just be a lust thing. Something told me that was wrong, though.
I could call Briggs, but the insufferable asshole had been camping, as he called it, for weeks now. Ever since that she-wolf had broken his fucking heart. He could probably tell me what this pulling in my chest was. Then he’d probably rant about how women were terrible and he was swearing off love. If he didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, then maybe he wouldn’t get it broken so much. I wouldn’t tell him that. The last time I did, we ended up with a broken dinner table and both of us had black eyes. Lesson learned.
Still lost in my thoughts, I finally made my way to my car. The sun hadn’t started to rise yet, but the night was light. The street lamps on the sidewalks illuminated the area, but didn’t quite make it to where I had parked. I could just make out the silhouette of a man standing on the passenger side of my classic car. My pride and joy, my white 1976 Stingray.
As I got closer, I realized that it was none other than Taylor Caplin. You have got to be kidding me right now. It was almost 6am. “Vaughn,” he acknowledged like he’d just noticed me for the first time in his entire fucking life, while he was leaning his greasy ass against MY car. I needed to stay calm or I was going to kill him. I had to find out what he wanted first.
“Taylor,” I responded, laying the sarcasm on thick. I really wasn’t in the mood for his bullshit and seeing as how he was not my boss anymore, I was sure I could solve this quickly. Not with murder, Vaughn, chill out. I’d have to continue to talk myself down if he didn’t leave soon. He’d pissed me off too many times and talking to myself would only work for so long. “What do you want?” I questioned him with hostility.
“Oh, nothing much.” He side-eyed me while turning his head to inspect my car. “I was just wondering what you were doing with Sloane.”
“Ms. King,” I bit out with anger in my voice before I could take a deep breath to calm myself, “and I are none of your business.”
“I see,” he sneered at me. “So there’s nothing going on between you two.” He nodded his hollow skull at me as he pretended to think about his next words. “It sure seemed like you were gone for an awfully long time, but nothing happened. What a pity. A fine woman like that needs someone who can seal the deal, if you know what I mean.” His leering grin set me off. This dirty dick fucking bastard.
Oh, I knew what he meant, and I was seeing red. My jaw muscle ticked as I rolled my neck to the right and then the left to stretch my tense muscles. I let loose an inhuman growl, fully intending on knocking his ass into next week, but not killing him yet. It was swallowed by a guttural whinny sort of sound just as a big ass black horse came out of literally nowhere and kicked him square in the chest. Taylor sailed through the air and slammed into a light post. What was that? Twenty? Thirty feet away?
Where the fuck did the horse come from? The shadows? I must have been seeing things.
I looked over at the horse, wide-eyed, but didn’t dare move another muscle. Yep, it was a huge godsdamn horse. I heard Taylor moan painfully, sadly confirming he was still alive despite how badly I wanted to kill him with my bare hands. Thick, black smoke began to morph around the horse until Jack stood before me, in his dress pants and nothing else. If I thought it was funny when he was pissed earlier, then maybe he was right and I was a bit dim-witted.
Jack was livid now. He was breathing heavily through his anger and walking barefoot across the gravel lot towards Taylor, with what I could only call a determined gait.
“Jack,” I softly called out, trying to steady the raging beast. He didn’t stop or say a word until he made it to Taylor. With all the menace pouring from the male, I started to think this motherfucker might die today. I hated the man, but Jack looked like he was ready to tear his spleen out through his throat. It truly wouldn’t have surprised me if he did. It certainly wouldn’t hurt my feelings, and I’d definitely help him hide the body.
He dragged Taylor up off the ground by the collar of his thousand dollar dress shirt and brought him to eye level. Taylor’s feet dangled nearly a foot off the ground as Jack held him so close their noses almost touched. Jack stared at him for a solid minute. I could hear Taylor swallow from where I stood. He was terrified. I was so fucking ecstatic about it that I wanted to cheer Jack on. I was also a little jealous that it wasn’t me doing the terrorizing. I still had to lie low around the people who thought I was human. That meant not scaring the dipshit with my powers.
Slowly and calmly, oh so fucking calmly, Jack whispered, “If you value your life, you will keep Sloane King’s name out of your mouth. You will not come near her or her friends again. The next time I see you, or hear that you have uttered her name, I will personally hunt you down. When I find you, I will rip your still beating heart from your chest so quickly that your last vision will be of me taking a bite out of it. Do you understand me?”
Holy fuck. I was quite frightened myself, but I almost laughed as Taylor’s face went completely white and he started to piss himself. Jack’s nostrils flared as he gave Taylor a good once-over, and then he tossed the man twenty feet in the opposite direction. He took a visible breath, trying to even his anger out, before turning to me. “So, that’s the creep you were talking about, yeah? If Sloane catches him stalking her, she’ll kill him herself.” His grin was a little too large for comfort as his long strides ate up the distance between us. “No need to worry about that bitch. She’s way more bite than bark. You’d be surprised to know how many ways she can kill a man with something as simple as a spoon.”
I was going to save that information for later. Right now, though, “Are you okay, mate? Do you need a ride to your car or something?”
“Nah, man, I’m good. Sloane sent me. Apparently she saw him and didn’t think it was important to tell me until someone other than herself was in danger. I know you’re a high winter fae, but iron bullets are iron bullets and that guy’s got a gun.” He casually tossed his head in the direction of an unconscious Taylor Caplin. “Uhm, had a gun,” he corrected himself.
I nodded my head while I processed what he’d just told me. Sliding some more information away for later, I looked over and noticed a gun lying a few feet from where Taylor landed. Huh, he wasn’t bullshitting. I never saw the gun.