Chapter 247 Chapter 247
“Where is he now?” Devin asked.
Calum glanced over at the building. “He’s in one of the small buildings. Cale is standing outside his door with a shotgun.”
“We’re able to talk freely?” The king asked.
Calum nodded, “yes, it’s Jesse, Blair, Noah, and Evanna here with me.”
“Calum sent me a message saying you’d killed a Jackal in the mountains, Blair.”
“I did but I didn’t know it was worth mentioning.” Blair crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the phone Calum held.
“We’ve never had a Jackal clan in the Alliance.” The King informed them.
Evanna looked from Calum to Jesse, she wasn’t sure what that meant. She was still having trouble thinking past seeing Jesse completely naked. She knew she shouldn’t have been thinking about that right now, or even pausing to look then, but she still was. If a male body could be beautiful, he was for sure.
“Where are there Jackal clans?” Jesse was scowling now.
Whatever was wrong, it wasn’t good. It made her feel much happier about catching him.
“We’re confirming that now,” Devin answered.
What did that mean? She had to wonder.
“How did you know he was on the property?” He continued.
“The real leopard sensed him.” Blair grinned at her, “Evanna hunted him down and had him before we could even react.”
“On the mountain,” she looked at Jesse wondering if she should speak, he nodded, so she finished, “we could scent anything that came up it, I guess that works for Thera anywhere.”
“I can’t tell you how happy we are you were there with your Thera,” The king said quietly, “I’m arranging transport for your guest, I’ll be back in a moment.”
“Can we question him, Dev?” Calum asked.
Blair nodded his head briskly, “I need to know if it was him that poisoned Jake, how many others have been here…”
“Can you do that and keep him alive?”
She thought Devin was joking, but the expression on the men’s face told her he wasn’t.
“We can.” Calum finally said after giving Blair and Jesse a look.
“Okay, see what you can find out. Did Noah recognize him?”
Noah hadn’t spoken until now. “No. There were no jackal shifters in any of the places I was.”
“So this may be fairly new.” Devin mused. “Make sure he’s able to talk when he’s picked up, Cal, he holds a lot of information and doesn’t even know he does.”
“Will do.”
“A helicopter will land at Ed’s in two hours. No one else knows other than the two men transporting and the pilot.” The king said in a low tone.
“I’ll give Ed and Gage a heads up,” Noah said.
“Thank you, Noah. I’m going to have to go now, arrange a few things. Thank you, Miss Cardenas, for what you did today and please give your leopard a big steak from me.”
Evanna smiled, “I will—sir.”
“Okay guys I’m going to go and help with some research,” Devin huffed out a breath, “hopefully this ends people on your land, Blair.”
Blair shrugged, “I’m not letting my guard down until all of Tomas’ servants are dealt with.”
“Probably a good idea.” Devin cleared his throat, “I’ll message when I know more. Oh, Zain has set up some joint email thing that will update all of you on the retrieval team at once, so we’re always on the same page.”
Jesse nodded, “we have that with the co-ordinators team too, makes things simple.”
“Simple sounds good,” Blair said as he looked over his shoulder. “I have to go. Jake is here and looks like he’s determined to have a word with our unwelcome guest.”
Calum turned and looked back at the building too. “Keep us informed, Dev.”
“I will. Let me know if he tells you anything.” The line went quiet.
“You want in on this?” Calum looked at Jesse.
Jesse turned to me, “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Evanna watched the three men walk away.
“Hey,” she looked back at Jesse, “you’re amazing.” He smiled at her and made her whole body tingle, in a good way. “How’s Minn and Leah after that?”
She didn’t need to focus to know, “Leah hides whenever I’m in protect or hunting mode. Minn is fine too.” She grinned up at him, “that was me running the cat, not Minn. If it were her, the guy would have been dead before you men got there.”
His smile widened. Moving closer, he rested a hand on either of her hips and squeezed lightly. “I’m very glad you were in control then because apparently, we needed to catch us a jackal.”
She put her hands on his chest, liking this closeness. “Do you think he knows something important?” His eyes, she thought, she could stand here all day and look at just his eyes.
“Devin and his father seem to think it’s an important find, so I’d say he can probably fill in a few blanks for us.” He leaned down and rested his forehead against hers. “I’m so proud of the way you handled yourself, I didn’t get a chance to tell you with everyone stuck to us.”
As far as she could remember, she couldn’t recall being told that by anyone. He was proud of her. “I didn’t even think, I just reacted.”
“Well, seeing you react makes me feel better about you coming to help.” His eyes held her almost prisoner, she couldn’t look away, “I’ve been worrying about it.”
“I know. I have concerns too, but we won’t know unless we try things.” She didn’t want to move away from him, “I have to talk to the doctor soon.”
“Shit, I forgot about that.” He made a low rumbling sound in his chest, and it sent heat through her. “Training is postponed until tomorrow now, so I’ll get you set up on the laptop and then go give Calum and Blair a hand.”
“Or make sure they behave?”
He smirked, “mostly that.”
“You are such a good man, Jesse.” She didn’t know what possessed her to do it, but she stretched up and wanted to kiss his mouth but wasn’t sure if she should.
When she went to move away, he touched the back of her head, avoiding touching anywhere near her neck, and kissed her again, longer, slowly, the softest of touches. Her head felt fuzzy when he stopped.
He made another quiet rumbling noise and straightened up. “I need to get you set up on the laptop and go do what I’m supposed to be doing.” His grin said he wasn’t as serious as his words.
“I like your kisses.” She felt her face heat but didn’t care. The truth was always the best way. Aunt Tillie had drilled that into her more than anything else.
“If we can ever find more than a minute that doesn’t require us to be doing something else, we’ll do a lot more of that.”
He stepped back and then leaned forward again and dropped another kiss on her mouth. “And in case I forgot, thank you.” He gave her an earnest look, “for sharing with me what can trigger you to switch.”
She could only nod, it felt like there was something stuck in her throat.
“Come on, I’ll give you a crash course on the laptop.”
She cringed. She could barely manage the electronic things like the coffee maker. Stepping into the trailer, she watched him open it. “I’m not good with gadgets.”
He glanced over at her, “we’ll get it set up so all you have to do is hit a button, then when you’re done, just close it.”
“That’s it, just close it?”
He nodded and motioned to the seat. “Call me if you need me, okay?”
Evanna took the phone out of her pocket and set it beside his laptop. She nodded and sat down. Her nerves were tense, she didn’t know what to expect. She’d never imagined talking to someone about Leah and her, ever, never mind someone that knew why they were this way and how to help them.
“You’ll be fine. I spoke to the doctor earlier today and she seems nice.”
Evanna nodded, “I’m glad it’s a woman, I don’t know if I could talk to a man.”
He smirked, “you talk to me.”
She smirked right back at him, “I think you’re the exception to many rules.”
Jesse chuckled, “I’m very happy to hear that.” The sound his phone made interrupted them. He pulled it out and looked at it. “I have to go; Calum wants me there now.” He kissed her mouth so quickly; that she didn’t have time to kiss him back. “Call if you need me.” He backed to the door and then turned and went out it.
She looked at the screen. He didn’t tell her what to hit. She looked down at it and read all the letters on the keys. They weren’t even in order. That wasn’t helpful at all. She’d watched him run his finger over the big square and touched it, then looked at the screen. “Oh.” She smiled when she saw that when she did that a little arrow moved. “Okay, I can do this.” It took her a minute to make the arrow go the way she wanted smoothly, but it wasn’t too hard. She looked at the phone and decided keeping it within reach was a good plan.
She looked out the window again, Jesse still wasn’t coming. It was dark now. The helicopter had left quite a while ago. It had been odd not having to hide from one flying overhead.
Kobie had brought her a plate earlier and said the men were still busy with that man and she didn’t want to interrupt anything. Blowing out a breath, she looked at the journal. After talking to the doctor, she understood why Leah had been so confused, but excited. It was so strange to have someone know about how things were with them. She’d left Leah a short note about the jackal, the training, and the doctor, but she was hoping for the first time ever that she would be out tomorrow too.
Yawning, she decided to go lay down and wait for Jesse. This day had been exhausting but she wouldn’t have missed any of it. She felt wanted, needed, and important for the first time in her life, aside from Leah and Minn of course. She didn’t know what had brought a man like Jesse up their mountain, but she was really happy it had been him.
Laying down, she touched her mouth. She really did like it when Jesse kissed her. Tomorrow she was going to make sure she talked to Kobie or maybe Shaelan about mates, as much as she liked being around Jesse, she didn’t know what was or wasn’t expected of her.