Vance by Sandra R Neeley

Chapter 4

“How much fucking longer do we have to sit here?” Rance grouched. “It’s been four days. Four fucking days.”

“Until they stop fucking picking through what’s left of that bar,” Draven answered.

“You think they’ll find her?” Rance asked.

“I don’t even know if there’s anyone to find,” Jack said. “After the fire, we may not find anything but a corpse. If we even find that. Could have just been a way to lure us down here.”

“Jack is right,” Draven agreed.

The door to the motel room they’d rented opened and Niko walked in. “Food’s here,” he said, sitting three large white plastic bags stacked full with Styrofoam containers on the table by the window.

“You hear anything while waiting for the food?” Jack asked.

“According to the gossip in the burger place, they found five dead in there. Burned so bad there’s no way to tell what killed them, but the coroner is sending the bodies to the medical examiner in Boise for confirmation on identity and hopefully cause of death.”

“Um, fire,” Rance said.

Niko shook his head as he dug out his Styrofoam plate of food and sat down with it in one hand as he took a bite of his burger. “Nah, the fire was to cover up whatever happened.”

“Obviously. But they said that?” Jack asked.

“Just a couple of old-timers talking conspiracy and all. But one of them said the police found blood out back behind the bar, and a bunch of tracks from some kind of huge cat. Mountain lion like, but bigger,” Niko said meaningfully as he met Jack’s gaze and continued eating his burger.

“So, if Jared is one of them, and it looks like he is, he fought in lion form.”

“Yeah. My thoughts, anyway,” Niko said, finishing off his burger and slapping away Rance’s hand as he tried to swipe a fry. “Your damn food is in there. Stop trying to eat mine.”

“You’re selfish, you know that?” Rance asked, taking his own plate out of the same bag Niko had taken his out of.

“He wouldn’t have fought as his lion if he wasn’t fighting another shifter,” Jack said. “Jared was nothing if not honorable. Too honorable.”

“There’s no fucking reason for this. All he had to do was come home,” Draven said.

“Preaching to the choir,” Jack said. “He wouldn’t even make contact with me. I’d have welcomed him back. First born and stepping up to be Alpha, doesn’t mean I had to be the only one. We could have done this together.”

“I know,” Draven said.

“We all do,” added Rance. “I’m hoping it’s not him. Hoping it’s some kind of mix-up.”

“Me, too,” Jack said sincerely. “But we’re here, waiting for a chance to look for his mate thanks to a message a stranger gave me.” Jack looked off toward the television droning on in the background, before shaking his head. “And that just pisses me off more than anything else. If he knew to have someone call my new number, he knew I was Alpha. He knew our father was dead. He knew it was just me and him now, and he still didn’t make contact.”

“Don’t know where he’d get being so stubborn from,” Niko snarked.

Jack snapped his gaze from the television to glare at Niko.

Niko grinned at him. “Just saying.” Niko kept grinning at Jack exaggeratedly until Jack looked away from him. “Anyway, when I passed by the first time, there were only a few people at the site, poking around here and there. When I came back past the second time, they were gone. Maybe the activity there is dying down.”

“Thank fuck,” Jack grumbled. “I need to get in there see if he meant what I think he meant, and then get out of here.”

“You think she’ll come out fighting?” Rance asked.

“If she’s there it’s been a few days, she could come out with any kind of attitude at all,” Draven said.

“Once she sees Jack she’ll calm down, though. Looks just like Jared,” Niko said.

“If a little shorter and a lot wider with about eighty more pounds of muscle looks the same as Jared,” Rance said.

“Yeah, he’s bigger, but they still look like damn twins,” Niko said defensively.

“If she’s there, hopefully, he’s told her we’d be coming for her,” Draven said.

“My brother wasn’t a fool. If he had it set up to have someone call me if something happened to him, he made sure she expected to be released by me as well,” Jack said.

“You think she’s really there? I always thought that story about your grandfather hiding your mother away was bullshit,” Draven said.

“I don’t know if she’s there or not, but there’s nothing else that message could possibly mean. And no, it wasn’t bullshit. It happened. My grandfather hid my mother from my father’s Pride when my father went to claim her against her wishes,” Jack said.

All three of the others were quiet when Jack said the story wasn’t a bullshit fabrication.

“That’s some shit,” Rance finally said quietly.

“The fact that he was my father, didn’t make him a good male. All it does is prove that he not only won the battle, he killed my grandfather and most of those who wouldn’t or couldn’t tell him where my mother was hidden. After he found her, he killed the rest that refused to swear allegiance to him as their new Alpha, and then he forced my mother to mate him, impregnated her and forced her to give him heirs,” Jack said bitterly.

“It’s a miracle you’re not a psycho bastard,” Niko said.

“Niko!” Draven scolded.

Jack shook his head. “No, he’s right. My mother loved us — unconditionally. I adored her. If it hadn’t been for her, who knows what either me or Jared would have become. After she died, and then Jared disappeared, if I hadn’t stayed behind to keep the bastard’s ‘legacy’ intact, he’d have probably hunted Jared down, raped and killed his human mate in front of him, and dragged him back to serve the Pride as he was meant to do, as we were both meant to do. But I couldn’t do that to Jared, or to our Pride.”

“Can I just say? Glad we have you now, Alpha,” Niko said.

“Amen,” Draven and Rance echoed.

~~~

Later that night under a cool, crisp, crystal-clear sky, beneath the light of a full moon, Jack, Draven, and Niko examined the area behind the burned-out bar while Rance kept watch out front for any unwanted company.

Jack knelt beside a much walked through area of tracks, now almost completely covered by the shoe prints of those who’d investigated the scene. There were still a few partial lion prints to be found, and spatters of blood. Jack closed his eyes, taking a moment to bury the emotion down deep. When he finally opened them, they were the gold of his lion, and his canines were clearly visible, too big to be completely concealed beneath his lips. “I can smell him,” he said, his voice a raspy growl, his lion too near the surface to be ignored. “This is where he died.”

“Same,” Draven said.

“I can smell others over here, too,” Niko said near a copse of trees at the edge of the property.

Jack rose from his crouched position and walked over to where Niko stood. He inhaled deeply then stepped past Niko and into the small wooded area. He walked around within the shadows of the trees for a few minutes before speaking. “They waited here,” he said.

“There’s too much concentrated blood here,” Niko said, “and there.” He pointed to where Jack had knelt before.

“It would be everywhere if they’d actually fought,” Jack agreed.

“Someone shot them,” Draven said, walking toward them.

“How do you know?” Jack asked.

Draven pointed to the far side of the building. “Scent someone over there. But not his animal. He was a shifter, but not fully shifted. Found this,” he said, holding out a bullet casing.

“I thought the police had been all over this place?” Niko asked.

Draven shrugged. “Small town police force. Probably don’t deal with anything but domestic disturbances. This casing is fresh, been out in the weather for less than a week. I can still smell the gunpowder on it. I’m pretty sure they missed it.”

“So, some hide here. Get Jared’s attention, one comes out of there,” Jack said pointing to the far side of the building, “and surprises him, shoots him.”

“I think so,” Draven agreed.

“And the others?” Niko asked. “The shooter kills them, too?”

“Maybe they objected when he shot Jared.”

“Then they shouldn’t have set him up,” Niko snapped.

“All we can do is surmise. We weren’t here. But at least now I know one of the bodies they found is Jared’s,” Jack said. “I need to get him back, bring him home.”

“Then we will,” Niko said confidently.

“But for now, we need to see if he hid his mate around here somewhere,” Draven said.

Jack nodded and turned back toward the burned-out bar. “My mother was beneath the floor of her father’s common house. Let’s start beneath the floor of the bar. If she’s not there, we’ll search the property for any kind of safe room at all. Jared’s gone, I know that for sure now. I’m not going to leave here until I have no doubt that his mate isn’t hidden away here somewhere.”

“We gonna find out who shot him and the others?” Draven asked.

“Hell, yeah!” Niko insisted.

Jack nodded. “Absolutely. I can’t take his head to my taxidermist unless I know who the fuck he is. He will tell me exactly what happened, and he will pay with his life after he answers all my questions. Then I’m going to kill him — slowly.”

They fell silent as they stepped onto the slab of the burned out bar. One side was completely gone, gutted by flames, leaving nothing but ashes. The rest were only partially standing to varying degrees. Jack took a minute to look around the bar, from the charred plumbing, seeing where the bathrooms were. The remnants of the scorched bar let him see that there had been a large wrap around bar, with what looked to be a kitchen behind it, and there was a partially melted juke box off to the side, along with a couple of pool tables that only someone familiar with a pool table would have been able to identify. “Pick a corner and start. Move slowly, look at every single inch, moving whatever debris is in your way. If it’s here, it’ll look like nothing more than a defect in the floor.”

“A lot of the wooden floor’s burned away,” Draven said, looking down at the floor beneath his feet at the opposite edge of the room.

“Good. It’ll make it easier to find,” Jack said. “It should be cut into the slab.”

They spent hours searching and searching again. Finally, after going over the area in the kitchen and beneath the bar itself one more time, Jack stood looking out over the main room. “You moved both those pool tables?” he asked.

“What’s left of them, yes. One anyway. The other is mostly gone,” Draven said.

“Mostly isn’t enough,” Jack answered, walking toward the burned tables.

“I checked most of it. I just didn’t finish looking when I kicked through most of the debris and didn’t see anything unusual.”

“The debris may be hiding the door,” Jack said, shoving aside the remnants of the table, and using his booted feet to scrape the floor as clear as he could. Then he squatted down and started running his fingers over the floor, concentrating on the area that Draven hadn’t searched before. He stopped, went back over the space he’d just searched, then looked up at both Draven and Niko who stood just off to the side, waiting to help if he needed them. “Found it,” he said.

“Holy fuck,” Niko breathed out, rushing to Jack’s side.

“Where?” Draven asked, following Niko and kneeling beside Jack.

Jack leaned closer to the floor and blew across the slight unevenness he’d just found in the cement. Then while they watched, he extended his claws from his fingertip, inserted one into a tiny fissure in the cement, then all three moved quickly back when a stone on stone grinding sound could clearly be heard as the cement lid shifted, exposing the safe room beneath the floor, and an unconscious female on the cement steps just underneath it.

“Sonofabitch!” Jack rushed out, hurrying to step around the female and get down low enough to gather her in his arms. “Hey, you okay?” he asked, trying to rouse her. He turned her over and put his ear to her chest. “She’s alive,” he said as he slid his arms beneath her.

“Damn,” Niko said.

“What?” Jack asked, as he carried her up and out of the safe room.

“She must have been trying to get out. Look at her hands.”

Jack looked down at her hand as Niko lifted it and placed it across her own abdomen. Her nails were broken and bloodied. Her hands were bruised and scraped raw in some places. Even her upper arms were bruised.

“This is so fucked up,” Jack said, tucking her in toward his chest when the cold night air began to mist. “And completely fucking unnecessary!”

“You know what, though? He saved her. Maybe the how he did it was out there, but he saved her. She’s here, nobody got to her, and she’s not lying in a morgue beside him,” Niko said.

“Amen,” Draven agreed. “And I could have been the reason she got left behind, dying down there.”

“Naw, I wasn’t leaving until I dug the fucking place up if necessary,” Jack said.

She started to rouse a little, trying to move and open her eyes, which were swollen, presumably from crying so much.

“It’s okay. It’s alright, you’re safe now,” Jack said.

“Nobody’s gonna hurt you. We got you,” Draven added.

Kassidy rolled her head to the side to try to see who was speaking to her, and focused on Draven. She became obviously distressed and looked from Draven to Niko who’d stepped into her line of sight.

“Noooo,” she rasped out, trying to free herself from the hands that held her. But she hadn’t eaten in the entire time she was down there. She was dehydrated, weak, and barely able to move in any kind of coordinated fashion.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright! I got you,” Jack said again.

She turned her face toward him at once, and any objection she had to him holding her died. Her eyes filled with tears, and she started to cry long, slow, heart-wrenching sobs. This wasn’t Jared. But he looked like Jared, almost exactly like Jared. Jared had said that if he wasn’t able to come for her, someone who looked just like him would. And if this male was the one who’d freed her from the safe room, that meant that Jared was dead.

Jack held back his own tears. He knew the woman cried for Jared, and in his heart he did, too, but he’d never show it on the outside, it just wasn’t part of his makeup to show his emotions. Speaking them was one thing, showing them was another. “I know. I hurt, too. But we found you. You’re safe now. We’re taking you home with us. You’ll never have to be afraid again.”

Jack started toward the burned out side of the bar they’d come in through. “Check the safe room. Make sure there’s nothing in it we need or that could identify us. Then close it up.”

“Consider it done,” Draven said, as he stepped down into the darkness that had been her tomb for almost an entire week. He looked around with the eyesight of his lion, needing only the moonlight to make out everything perfectly. He poked around for almost ten minutes with Niko standing watch above.

“I can come down and help.”

“No, do not come down here. Stay up there and make sure I don’t get locked in this fucking room,” Draven said.

“Scary fucking thought, isn’t it?” Niko asked. “You see the blood under the, what the fuck is this? A hatch? A lid?”

“I don’t know. And yeah, I see it. She was trying to claw her way out.”

“Hurry up,” Niko said. “I want to get the hell out of here.”

“I’m trying,” Draven said, upending everything he saw, looking for anything that might be of value to them or the girl for any reason at all. Finally, he grabbed a small picture from the floor beside the cot, and on impulse, grabbed the pillow lying there, too. “There’s nothing here but food and water. Lanterns and batteries, some books. That’s it.”

“Let’s go, then,” Niko said.

When Draven picked up the pillow, her cell phone fell to the ground. “Hold on, her phone…”

Niko waited while Draven picked up the phone, then came back up the steps. He hesitated when he saw the bloodied claw marks on the cement that would have granted her freedom if there’d been a way to open it from the inside. As soon as he was up and out, Niko set about trying to figure out how to close it. Only took a few seconds before he was successful, and hurrying to catch up with Draven.

The moment Rance heard them say they found the female, he’d run the half a mile or so down the darkened highway to where they’d left the SUV to bring it back. He was only a block or two away, with Jack already in the car with the quietly crying female in his arms, when Draven and Niko finally joined them.

“Straight home, Alpha?” Rance asked. Though they were all friends, had been for all their lives, they always slipped into business mode when in serious circumstances and official business. “Stop by the motel, get everything that identifies us, leave cash on the bed to pay for twice the length of time we stayed, and make it a five-minute stop only,” Jack said.

“Done,” Rance said, driving them toward the motel.

“You find anything else?” Jack asked, looking at Draven and Niko.

“A picture of the two of them, her pillow and her phone. Only supplies and books left in there.”

“Let me see the picture,” Jack said.

His arms were still holding the female securely, so Draven held up the photo for him to see. Jack looked at it in the darkness of the SUV. The female he held in his arms leaned on the bar with Jared behind her with his arms around her, she smiled for the camera as Jared looked at her. He was clearly head over heels in love with her, unable to even look away from her to smile at the camera.

Jack nodded slowly, then simply looked ahead as Rance drove them down the dark, lonely highway.