“I doubt that. Ever seen Niko use his swords? A man has a right to privacy. I don’t want anyone sniffing my dirty drawers.”
“I’m all out of fucks to give.”
Wyatt had a tendency to get worked up when he was sleep-deprived and full of caffeine and sugar. Cyrus had to be behind this, and the wolves posed a problem. Cyrus would need a way to reach out to Niko with his demands. If he sent one of his men, the wolves would tear him to pieces.
Cyrus wouldn’t risk it, which meant he was waiting for Niko to make the next move.
Niko stood up and removed his sword belt and laid his sheathed weapons on the desk. “I’m going for a walk. Crush, can you instruct the wolves to stay away from me? Keep them close to the house but no farther out than a hundred feet.”
“I’ll try, but they’ve already marked the territory.”
“Is there an alpha?”
“Yep. Good buddy of mine. Don’t know how long he’ll be able to stay, but he’s assigned his best men. I’ll go talk to him.”
Niko bowed to show his respect. He couldn’t reveal too much information since Crush wasn’t a member of Keystone. Once Raven’s father left the room, Niko lowered his voice. “If Viktor calls, tell him I’m reaching out to the kidnappers. I know who’s behind this.”
“Now that’s a plot twist I didn’t see coming. Who? Never mind. That’s not as important as why they would snatch Gem.”
“They want something from me. Inform Viktor that if anyone calls him looking for me, give that person my number. I don’t think that’s how he’ll make contact, but just in case. Cyrus is a man who prefers dealing with people face-to-face, but he won’t come close if wolves are on the property.”
“Uh, maybe you should take your weapons. He might want you dead.”
“Needn’t worry. My death isn’t what he desires. I’m afraid the only way to get Gem back is to capitulate. Swords will give him the opposite impression, so I must leave them behind. If he thinks he can’t trust me, we may never see her again.”
“Holy Toledo. You think he’d really do something to Gem? She wouldn’t hurt a fly. Well, except for those people she blasted that time in the Bricks.”
Niko turned to the door and froze in his tracks. “Don’t come looking for me, Wyatt.”
“Just don’t get your head lopped off. If you come back as a freshy, I’ll kick your kung fu ass.”
Niko plodded to the first floor, giving Crush enough time to relay the orders to his friends. Switch’s voice reverberated off the walls in the dining room. He must have been eating breakfast with Hunter and Kira. Niko didn’t have time for conversation. He didn’t even have time to formulate a plan.
He only had enough time to save Gem.
* * *
Wyatt rubbed his eyes,struggling to stay awake. He’d zoned out a few times while working on Viktor’s route and reviewing traffic reports. Viktor didn’t want to get stuck in a gridlock, so Wyatt had to monitor the situation in case an alternative route was needed. As if he didn’t have enough to do, Gem went missing. And things really went to shit when he had to work out Niko’s travel arrangements on the fly.
Wyatt rolled his chair in front of the vending machine and stared at his reflection. He looked worse than a six-hundred-year-old specter. Without his beanie on, his hair was sticking out in every direction as if he’d stuck his finger in a light socket. Why couldn’t it lie flat like a normal person’s follicles? Nope. He got the crazy-hair gene.
His stomach growled like a dog guarding its food bowl. How long had Niko been gone? Maybe he’d changed his mind and gone down to the training room to do all that weird balancing shit. Wyatt had lost track of time. He liked it that way. A window in his workspace would only make him aware of the time, and he couldn’t afford to nod off when he had a job to do. It was probably morning by now.
Hell, it was probably November.
In the middle of another yawn, Wyatt stood up and peeled off his T-shirt. After a quick whiff of his armpit, he headed down the hall to take a long hot shower. A man can’t work nonstop. It’s not good for the brain cells or the pit smells. So long as he kept his computer and phone alarms on, he could take micro naps on the sofa in his office.
When he turned the corner, he couldn’t help but wince at the thought of running into a freshy. Even though it had been months since they were cleared from the house, he never got over that creepy feeling that someone might have followed him home. Ghosts were like leaves that tracked in the house. The specter that followed Niko home was proof of that, but at least he left Wyatt alone. The upside of Keystone was that it was secluded enough that the dead wouldn’t wander into the house on their own. It was one of the main reasons Wyatt had accepted the job. A Gravewalker would never have peace living in the city; the dead were everywhere.
He started humming the words to “Even the Nights Are Better.” Seventies and eighties soft rock had a special place in his heart. It took him back to another time in his life—a time when he’d finally gotten out of the Gravewalker business after his computer hobby had led to a career change.
Dealing with ghosts had never been a cakewalk. Who could sleep with specters wandering around the bedroom at night, asking for favors? Conversing with the dead and making deals was a way of life for his kind, but it took its toll. Wyatt had met many a Gravewalker who’d lost his marbles. Yet he’d begrudgingly accepted his fate for lack of options.
All that changed when Wyatt discovered computers. He was one of the first to get a personal computer after they hit the market in the late seventies. Arcade games had always intrigued him, and he’d even dabbled in designing a few. Computers came naturally to him, and he excelled ahead of others, enough that he did programming and repair as a side job. He didn’t make much in the early days, but the internet changed everything. It allowed him to communicate with other Breed and do special research assignments. The higher authority, Mageri, and other organizations were late to the party when it came to the importance of data, so Wyatt was on one of the first teams assembled to hack into government systems and search for any files on Breed. He trained recruits hired by the authorities to use computers so they could get jobs at key companies to monitor Breed activity.
Now it was commonplace. Immortals were everywhere. Planted in the military, hotels, hospitals, border crossings, prisons—anywhere you could think of in order to track Breed.
It had all been going great until he got greedy and wanted more money. There was a cap on how much he could earn with the higher authority, and users on the dark web were offering money to locate people. Wyatt didn’t ask questions. He just took the money and passed along the info. Seemed like an easy way to make cash.
