Chapter 218 Chapter 218
Leah stood close to him as he unmuted the laptop. Jesse wasn’t going to complain. His cat was ready to freak out when the waves of panic had been pouring off her. He turned the mic back on and stood back.
On the screen were Cal and Shaelan in one box, the same as Devin and Rayne were sharing one. He was happy to see Blair and Kobie there as well. He’d meant to call Blair, but things had taken a turn after he went up that mountain. The last box was Shepard Addison. He bowed his head without even speaking, some things were just ingrained.
“We’re back.”
“Noah is out on a call, so he’s here, but not patched into the video,” Rayne told him.
“I’m assuming this meeting is because of the new team?” Jesse crossed his arms over his chest and tried to focus on what was being said. He preferred this, where everyone could speak, and you didn’t have to put your face on the screen larger than life.
“Looking a little tired, Jesse,” Calum said without any readable expression on his face.
Jesse huffed out a breath, “the past week has been rough, I covered a lot of miles.”
“You should get a few down days when you get back,” Devin stated.
“Do you have a timeline on when that will be Jesse?” Shep stared at the screen.
Jesse glanced at Leah to see she had a wide-eyed expression on her face, he turned back to the screen. “I’m not sure how long it will take us to get back to Blair’s, it may be slow going.” He didn’t want the attention on Leah, so he picked up the laptop, “I’ll show you why.” Turning, he lifted it up, so that the camera could pick up Thera. She was lying in the shade of the trees a few feet from the van. Satisfied they’d all seen, he turned it around and set it back down. “We don’t know how Thera is going to take to a ride in the van.
“Oh my, she’s gorgeous,” Rayne said.
Kobie leaned closer to the screen. “That’s a wild leopard?”
“Yes. Well, I don’t know how wild she is anymore.” Jesse grinned and moved closer to Leah, so their arms were touching. “We may have to stop often until she gets used to it.”
“It’s probably a good thing the van doesn’t have windows,” Blair grinned, “I could just see the reaction as you’re heading along the highway with a leopard sitting in the back.”
“Keep us up-to-date when you leave, Jesse.” Shep cut off all humor.
“Will do,” Jesse said just as abruptly.
“I’m setting up the weapons training to start at the end of the week for Blair and Kobie,” Shep glanced down for a moment, “as much as I’d like to take our time with this we can’t afford to.” He cleared his throat, “those addresses checked out, Jesse, so they are a top priority right along with Lindon Eldon’s location.”
Blair’s expression changed to one of retribution.
Jesse looked at Leah, she wasn’t as steady as she looked now that he looked at her eyes. Hoping he didn’t spook her; he wrapped his hand around hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. She gripped it and held onto it. Turning back, he looked at the King, “do you have any numbers from those addresses?”
“We’re working on it.”
“I was there.” Noah’s voice came through the speaker. “At two of them. I can draw out the layouts.”
Jesse felt Leah grip his hand harder.
“Is Leah here?” Noah asked.
“She is.” Jesse turned to look at her. Her brows were drawn as what he was saying registered.
“I always wondered,” Noah said. “I helped Lyvia get her out and I always wondered if she made it.”
Leah’s hand went over her mouth. The one holding his started shaking. She dropped her hand to her throat. “You knew my mother?”
“I did.”
Rayne and Shaelan looked almost as upset as Leah did.
“Do you think she’s still there?” Leah’s voice was shaking now.
“I don’t know.” Noah’s tone was quiet, “all the men stationed there were moved after you got away, so I-I don’t know.”
Jesse’s cat couldn’t stand the way she was shaking. Wrapping his other arm around her, he pulled her closer. She seemed to relax and then stiffened and leaned away from him for a second.
“When was that?”
He didn’t need to look to see that Leah was gone and Evanna was now fronting. The harsher tone told him all he needed to know.
“Four and half years ago, maybe, I can’t be sure,” Noah answered. “I have to go; they’re going to drive the rig right off the embankment.”
“Thanks, Noah,” Calum said quickly.
“We have teams monitoring all motion at those addresses,” Devin said while looking down at something.
“Can you see who is inside?” Evanna moved away from Jesse but didn’t release his hand.
“I’m sorry, everyone, I need to take a call.” Shep interrupted.
“Okay, Dad, I’ll check in later.”
Shep nodded his head once and then vanished from the screen.
“We’re getting as many pictures as we can from those locations.” Devin looked back at the screen.
“I want to see them when we get where we’re going.” Evanna leaned down closer and looked at the people on the screen.
“I’ll send them to Calum,” Devin told her.
“Evanna? Hi, I’m Shaelan by the way, we spoke on the phone.” Shaelan waved at the camera.
“Hi. Wow, you are so pretty.” Evanna said with a big smile.
Jesse felt her relax a bit and was thankful for Shaelan intervening and distracting her.
“Thank you,” Shaelan glanced at Calum.
“I think you’re lovely as well, Evanna. I’m Rayne, Devin’s mate.” Rayne leaned closer and smiled.
“Nice to meet you,” Evanna said nodding. “I love your hair.” She shrugged, “I couldn’t deal with it, but it’s very pretty.”
Rayne laughed, “trust me there are days I want to shave it off.”
Thera got up and came over, she nudged Evanna and then sniffed the laptop.
“Oh, I think Thera is done with this,” Evanna said glancing at Jesse.
“Yeah, I think so too.” He leaned down to adjust the laptop so they could see them again, “we’re going to have to go. We still have to get back up to the top and finish packing things up.”
“Call me when you’re on the road,” Calum told him.
“I will. Uh, Shaelan? Any ideas on something herbal we could give Thera to keep her chill for the ride?”
Thera sat down and looked at him as if she understood him.
“I have a few ideas, but good luck feeding them to her.” Shaelan grinned.
“Text me them, preferably with pictures if they’re plants and I’ll try.” Shaelan nodded. “Okay, I’ll talk to you all soon.”
“Bye.” Evanna leaned down beside him.
Jesse disconnected from the call and powered the laptop off. Closing it, he put it back in the case and then closed the door. He had promised to take it up top so Leah could watch a movie, but he wasn’t quite sure how he was getting it up there.
“That was something.” Evanna motioned to the case in his hand, “seeing people like that.”
Jesse nodded, “technology is a wonder.” If not annoying at times he thought. Going around to the side door, he opened it and pulled one of the duffle bags over. “I need a way to get this up to the top, I told Leah we could watch a movie.”
Evanna was right beside him again. “You can watch movies on it too?”
Jesse gave her a quick smile, “no promises you’ll like my movie choices, but yeah you can.” He studied her for a second. “Is Leah okay?”
Evanna nodded her head slowly, “yeah, she was trying hard to stay, but Minn picked up on her emotions and was getting harder to control,” she lifted her arms, “so here I am.”
“I didn’t know about Noah.”
“Do you know him?” She watched as he wrapped some cord around the handle of the case.
“Yeah, I was there when they got him out.” Jesse paused and glanced at her, “he was pretty messed up.”
She snorted, “anyone that was there would be.”
He wanted to ask questions but knew it was too soon to delve into it. He hoped someday they could talk about it, both Evanna and Leah. “Are you going to be able to control Minn for the run back up?”
Nodding, she went over and picked up the run pack. “A good run will help settle her down.” She grinned at him, “any more of those bars left?”
Jesse laughed, “we didn’t eat the whole box if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I want to get boxes and boxes of them when we leave.” She looked in the van and checked it out. “We have money. They sold the vehicles and preserves, hides, a lot of things, but just kept putting the money in a box.”
“We’ll get you a bank account set up.” He tied the case to his run pack, “keeping it in a box once we’re off the mountain isn’t a good idea.” Now he was curious how much money the elders had hoarded away. He’d already been doing the math on his finances and figuring out how much he could afford to help get them whatever they needed.
“Where are we going once we’re packed up?” She watched as he locked up the van again and put the keys in his pack.
“To be honest, I’m not sure. I have to go back to Blair’s—”
“We’re sticking with you, so I guess that’s where we’re going.” She nodded her head once and then turned and walked into the trees to strip down and shift.
Jesse rubbed his hand along the bottom of his jaw, it pleased him more than he could express that she wanted to stay with him, but how was she going to get the help she needed if she was with him. He was never in one place long enough to do anything—with all the locations they were found, things were going to get even more hectic than they were. Shaking his head, he stepped back behind the van and took his jeans off. As soon as they were on the road, he needed to talk to Devin about this, and Calum as well, too much had changed.