Page 131 of Saving the Last Heir
“Fair point,” I admitted. “Come on. Let’s let everyone know. My parents and Christian know, but I should let the others in on the plan. Once we swing by your place and grab anything you need, we can head to the airport.”
“Wait, what time’s the flight? Don’t we need tickets? What if they’re sold out?” Shyanne’s eyes grew distant as she mentally tried to do the math and planning.
“No need to worry,” I said. “If I was going by myself, I’d shift and fly, but since you’re coming with me, I’ll put a call in and have our private jet ready. We can take off as soon as we get to the airport.”
“Privatejet?” She gaped at me. “For real?”
I smirked. “There are a few benefits from running the family businesses. Might as well use them when we can. Maybe once this is all over, we can do some morerelaxingtravel.”
My smile faded when a form appeared at the bedroom door. It was Christian. He didn’t look happy. In fact, he looked positively stressed out.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“You need to come outside,” Christian said, his voice tight with worry. “Now.”
Standing, fear sending gooseflesh up my arms and legs. “What happened?”
Christian sighed and shook his head in disgust. “You have a visitor.Multiplevisitors. They showed up a few minutes ago. It’s Alessio Torrence.”
“Oh,fuck,” Shyanne breathed, putting a hand to her mouth, and turning to me. “The car?”
With everything that had happened, I’d almost forgotten that this all started with me stealing a mob boss’s car foranothermob boss. I’d screwed one very dangerous man to appease a different one. Swallowing hard, I nodded and took Shyanne’s hand to follow Christian.
When we stepped out the front door, it was all I could do not to jerk to a stop. It wasn’tjustAlessio Torrence. This was him, his entire organization, as well as another ten or fifteen wolf shifters. Half remained in their wolf forms, prowling around the edges of the party. The ones in their human forms stood next to the cars that had brought them there. I wondered if any of them had shifted in front of Shyanne’s friends and family. I prayed they hadn’t. They might feel the need to kill to keep their secret from strangers.
“Are you going to tell us what this is about?” Dad asked, glaring at the new arrivals. He had his arm around Mom, who cradled Jacqueline against her chest, and looked at the wolf shifters with distrust.
Alessio ignored my father and grinned at me. It was a menacing look that held no humor whatsoever. The hard gleam in his eye belied his young age. The guy couldn’t have been more than twenty-five or six, but looking into his eyes, I had the feeling he’d done things many men twice his age would have flinched from.
“Hello, there,” he said, his voice surprisingly deep. “You must be Jackson Adelmund.”
“I am.” I let go of Shyanne’s hand, nudging her toward Christian as I walked toward the wolf. “What can I do for you?”
Shyanne’s friends stood near her father and Cassandra. The four men looked back and forth from Alessio to me, obviously confusedandconcerned. I didn’t spare them more than a cursory glance, instead keeping my attention on Torrence.
The younger man glanced around at his entourage, then back at me.
“I don’t know if you know the kind of man I am, Mr. Adelmund, but I keep my ear to the ground. I hear things,” he said.
“I’m sure you do. Idoknow the kind of man you are. Maybe we can talk about this in private and maybe?—”
“Word on the street is, you’re the one who took something from me, Jackson,” Alessio said. “You took something that matters a great deal to me.” He narrowed his eyes. “Do you know what I do to men who take things from me?”
“I can imagine,” I said, keeping my eyes locked on his. If need be, I’d shift and fight these men. Wolves were dangerous, but even this many wouldn’t be enough to defeat the number of dragons here. They’d be annihilated. What I was most scared of was the children and humans in attendance. Any or all of them might die before we could fight the wolves off. My stomach turned at the thought of one of these men sinking their teeth into Shyanne or Jacqueline.
“That’s good.” Alessio winked at me. “You see,usually, I wouldn’t even come here like this. You’d never have seen me coming. I know what your kind can do to mine in a straight fight. I’d have taken you down before you ever saw me.”
Clenching my fists, I held my tongue, my heart slamming against my ribcage as I tried to think of the best way to get the most vulnerable people out before a melee broke out.
“That would be entirely within your abilities,” I agreed, trying to stay on his good side. Perhaps I could talk him down.MaybeI could make this a little less bloody if I was careful.
Alessio stared back at me for several long seconds, his face a stony mask. Finally, the smile returned, and he ran his tongue along his lower lip.
“I’mnotgoing to do that, though,” he said, and I nearly let out a sigh of relief, but controlled myself. “Do you know why?”
“Why?” My mouth felt dry as sandpaper.
“Because as much as I loved that car, you did me a favor that was larger and more meaningful than your disrespectful act. You removed a problem. A problem named Joseph Anitoli. You see, word has gotten out about that as well. Getting him out of the picture will open up pathways to money and power I couldn’thave dreamed of before. I can buy adozenof those cars in a few years if I want. You’ve done me a solid.” He stepped forward and stuck his hand out.
