Jess replied before I could. “No you can’t.”
It wasn’t a question.
Jess continued. “They’ve got her someplace safe, surrounded by Chandler family and friends. You’d be tilting at windmills trying to find out where they are.” She poked at the photograph. “They grabbed her to get you to pressure Rebecca to give up the information about where Evan is. They don’t give a shit about you or Angie.” Her tone sharpened. “And they sure as hell won’t care about a SWAT team showing up on their doorstep. If you’re looking to expose the family you couldn’t pick a better way to do it. It’d be a bloodbath, pure and simple.”
The unwanted image flashed in front of me. Felis fighting with the police; injured or dead on both sides and our secret out to the entire world. There’d be no containing such a disaster—it’d be impossible.
“Wait a minute.” I drew a deep breath, banishing the bloody images. “They’d risk everyone finding out about us to keep Angie?” I asked. “Wouldn’t they run and leave her behind?”
Jess fixed me in place with a piercing stare. “Maybe, maybe not. Depends on how psychopathic the guards are. They might start firing or attack instinctively and not even think about leaving. A clusterfuck all around. Do you want to take that risk?” She answered before I could. “No, you’re not.” She pointed at Bran. “And you’re not. Period.”
“So what do we do?” I asked.
“I don’t know and I don’t want to know. But whatever you do, remember you’ve got to keep our existence secret.” Jess headed for the kitchen. “The Chandlers have kicked this up to a Code Red. I’m not happy and no one else is going to be when this is all finished.”
“Can you force them to give Angie back?’ Bran asked. “Get the Grand Council to issue some sort of edict, some sort of paperwork to turn her loose?”
Jess stopped in the doorway. “This sort of thing hasn’t happened before. It’s going to take hours to get through to all the members, the Board and the Council. Then they’ve got to consider some sort of action and all the politics involved.”
“Politics?” Bran’s voice rose. “This is a woman’s life you’re dealing with.”
“This is something we’ve never had to deal with before.” The stress in Jess’s words scratched the inside of my eyelids. “Mary Chandler’s gone off the deep edge and now we’re talking damage control. We don’t have a protocol in place for this, so it’s going to take some time to put things in place, decide what the best move would be.”
“There’s not enough time,” Bran replied. “You’ll meet and talk and talk and by God do nothing and she’ll end up—” The words caught in his throat.
He was imagining Angie under McCallister’s claws, screaming as he ripped her face to shreds.
To start.
“Probably not. Chandler thought this out, she knew it’d take too long for us to get the higher-ups involved.” Jess glared at him. “Whatever you’re going to do, get to doing it and let me handle it from this end.”
“Fuck.” Bran shook his head. “I’ll be in the car.”
The screen door slammed shut, bouncing twice before coming to a full stop.
“She means a lot to him.” Jess eyed me. “How does she fit into his life?”
“Whatever she was, that’s in the past. Bran said it was a one-way love affair. She adored him and he did the right thing and stayed focused on his article.”
“Doesn’t mean it was all one-sided. The way he reacted to that photo tells me it’s not.”
My stomach twisted into knots. “He’s upset because when he went back to save the kids, pull them off the street, they were all gone. Including Angie.”
“Now he’s got another chance to save her. I get that,” Jess said. “As long as she knows he’s yours and backs off when it’s time.”
“He knows. She knows. And I know.”
“Yes, yes you do. She means a lot to him. But don’t forget he’s wearing your marks on his skin.”
I paused, one hand on the screen door. “He’s wearing her marks as well—but they’re on the inside.”
Bran was standing by the side of my Jeep when I walked out, his arms crossed in front of him and scowling.
I wasn’t the reason.
Eddie Longstrand stood a few feet away, watching Bran watch him. The parking lot was near-empty. There were three cars left—my Jeep, Jess’s Taurus and a beat-up pickup truck I assumed belonged to my friendly neighborhood enforcer.
I stood on the porch and lifted my face toward the sun. The cool breeze brought me the news there was a new litter of barn cats. Out in the forest along the edge of the farm I caught the scent of a deer, springing away from any potential hunters.
I walked up to Eddie. “What are you doing here?”
“My job.” He looked over my shoulder out into the forest. “Jake told me to help you.”
“What?”
He rolled his shoulders back, the thick, toned muscles rippling under his shirt. “Jake told me to help you out. He don’t like the way the Chandlers are acting and don’t want to get caught up in the trouble coming down.”
It took me a few seconds to decipher the silence between the words. Jake knew there’d be hell to pay at the end of all of this and didn’t want his family pulled down when it hit the fan.
The chance to tweak the Chandlers’ tail was a bonus.
“You going to behave yourself?” I asked.
Bran coughed, saying a curse in the middle of it.
Eddie ignored it. “I’m not a thug like McCallister.” He turned his head to one side and spat on the gravel. “Hitting you was bad enough but this, this kidnapping a human? He went too far. She went too far.”
“You know the Chandlers better than I do. What’s Mary thinking?” I leaned back on the hood of my car. The warm sun on my skin was wonderful and I sucked the sensation up, trying to store it away for what I knew was going to be a rough few hours. “She must have known this was going to start trouble, big trouble.”
Eddie chuckled. “That she does. But she’s worried that if she lets her youngest go off and ignore her legacy that others are going to follow, leave her dream. Her older son, her family associates who have already spent time and money trying to bring Middleston down.” He spread his hands. “How can you have a feud if no one wants to feud?” A smile twitched at his lips. “And I’d be out of a part-time job.”
“Works for me,” Bran said. “If you weren’t working for this jackhole we wouldn’t be here.”
I’d forgotten how fast Felis could move. Especially when pissed.
I blinked and Bran was flat against the driver’s door, Eddie’s forearm pressing on his windpipe.
Bran scrabbled to get a hold on him, trying to dig his fingers under the iron bar threatening to cut his air off.
“Do not disrespect Jake Middleston,” Eddie said in a low rumbling voice. “You can get away with a lot ’cause of who you and who you’re with but you’re not going to get away with that.”
I slowly peeled myself off the hood, trying to look concerned but not threatening. He wouldn’t hurt Bran and Bran knew it.
Didn’t make the situation less ugly.
Bran’s breathing was high and wheezy but he wasn’t panicking. He glared at Eddie, the defiance in his brown eyes not waning.
“What sort of dirty work have you done for your boss? Covered up for a crime?” He coughed and drew a shallow breath. “Beaten on any women lately like your buddy Nathan? You get your rocks off pounding on girls?”
Eddie’s arm shifted a fraction, allowing Bran more air. “I’m not like McCallister. I’m not a thug. I don’t know what you think an enforcer is but we’re not all punks.”
“Could have fooled me,” Bran rasped. “If it looks like a duck—”
Eddie pulled his arm away, letting Bran slide free. He didn’t move away but kept deep inside Bran’s personal space, close enough to renew the attack.