Stealing Joy Page 7

  I went to shrug, but Doggo decided he needed his belly rubbed, and rotated, shoving me out of his way as he moved and squirmed.

  “Dude, what the freak? This is my bed, not yours.”

  He looked up at me with his upside down doggy smile, tongue rolling out of his mouth as Yuki scratched his belly.

  She continued to coo at him. “Who is such a big fluffy puppers? Who is? You is.”

  “So, I take it the wolf is friendly and not going to eat her?” Jade asked. She was a sharp one, and always keeping an eye out for Yuki and me.

  I understood why she felt the need to watch out for Yuki. I did too. She was always so happy, and a little too pure sometimes. Like she never saw the bad in the world. Jade, more than any of our group, made sure she never did. With me, Jade was the first one to check in. Jade was the one to show up. She paid attention.

  I was tired of being squished between Doggo and Yuki, so I pushed on him. “Go make out with your new girlfriend somewhere else. Get off my bed.”

  Doggo hopped off the bed, waited impatiently as Yuki pulled over a chair, and slid his face onto her lap the second she sat down. It took some awkward positioning on his behalf to sit that way because Yuki was so petite and he was a big wolf.

  “Traitor,” I commented.

  “What did I do?” Gage asked. He walked in the door with a pop and hiss as he opened a soda for me.

  I turned at the sound of his voice.

  He stopped in the doorway, eyes narrowed at Jade. Taking in the new person, his entire demeanor shifted when he looked at Yuki and Doggo. His shoulders relaxed, his eyes widened, and a soft smile crossed his face. I lost him to her too.

  Don’t get me wrong, but I was tired of losing to Yuki. I could never be mad at her. It wasn’t something she did on purpose. Does light know why it attracts bugs? No, it shines and that’s what happens. Same with Yuki, she just was, and people were drawn to her.

  Maybe that’s why Jade felt the need to be her defacto-guard. Who knows. All I knew, was my stomach bottomed out for a split second, and I honestly wanted to cry.

  “Max finally gave up his spot for me,” Gage announced as he sat on the bed with me. He sat sideways so his left knee rested on the bed. His leg brushed against mine, and I squelched my pity party. I hadn’t lost Gage.

  He leaned forward and handed me the drink. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine, but as you can see, Doggo has abandoned me for my friend Yuki.”

  “I see that. He hasn’t been out of this bed willingly for days.” Gage nodded at Yuki.

  She gave him a dazzling smile in between her ‘conversation’ with Doggo.

  “And this is Jade. She said they knew I was in trouble when Mom kept checking in at the hospital online. So they came.” I loved that they knew me enough to come. I loved that neither of them mentioned my bruises or my hair. Then again, so far the conversation from Yuki was a constant “Who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy.”

  “Yuki, Max hasn’t been out for a bit. Would you be interested in taking him outside for a little walk?”

  Yuki perked up and rejoined the humans in the room. “Sure thing, where’s his leash.”

  “He doesn’t need one. He won’t leave your side,” Gage explained.

  Yuki stood, and Jade made a strangled noise in the back of her throat. She didn’t even hesitate with the whole Doggo/Max name thing. Puppers needed walkies. She was on it.

  “She will never be safer than when she is with him or his,” Gage said coolly to Jade.

  She nodded.

  They were silent until Yuki was out of the room, and down the hall.

  “Why are you here, witch?” Gage grumbled at Jade.

  “Gage!” Holy Hecate how rude.

  “Wolf?” She cocked her head to the side and stared at him.

  I gave myself whiplash turning from him to her. I was about to point out that the wolf left the room with Yuki. But something stopped me.

  I mean, I didn’t want to admit it. I had already taken the small bit of information from Gage and shoved it down the crack in the pillows of the couch in the living room of my brain palace. But there it was, out in the open, and somehow Jade knew.

  Jade knew something I didn’t want to admit.

  “What? No. How?” I looked from Jade to Gage. “More monsters and magic?”

  “Gage? Jade, what’s happening?”

  Gage stood up and walked around the bed to face Jade.

  She sat cool and poised.

  “The other one? She is Light and Happiness?” He pointed back at me. “What is she? Who is she?”

  Jade smiled at me. “You okay there, Bailey?”

  “I’m a little confused,” I admitted.

  “How much has this one told you?” she asked, completely ignoring Gage.

  “Just a bit. Monsters and magic exist. And I think he wants me to believe he is one of the monsters.” I laughed. Gage wasn’t a monster. “If monsters and magic do exist, then so do heroes. He is definitely one of the heroes.”

  “Don’t say that, Bailey,” he growled, more of a grumble. “I’m one of the monsters. You don’t have a reason to believe me yet.”

  I wanted to tell him I loved him, so there was no way he could be a monster. No way.

  “Yuki is—”

  Jade was cut off as two men in black suits, followed by a nurse, Travis, Zeke, and Officer Kelley rushed into my room.

  “What’s going on?” Gage switched from quiet threat mode to full on Officer Masterson. Everything from his posture to the tone of his voice changed.

  Suit number one stopped and looked at me. “You Bailey Hastings?” He flipped open his ID. Suit-two did the same. “We’re agents Smith and Jones.”

  The nurse was fussing with my IV. Travis and Zeke looked tense. Something very serious was going on but, I lost it.

  Laughing I said, “Really? The FBI has to either come up with some better fake names or you should change your real ones. The last guys they sent were Smith and Smith.”

  Suit-one looked at me and then at Gage. His eyes were wild and he clearly thought I was out of my mind.

  “Sorry, but come on. It’s funny.”

  Jade was the only one to acknowledge me. “Smith and Smith? Really? That’s so fake.”

  “I know, right?”

  “Miss, we need to move you now,” Jones spoke with authority.

  “Sheriff Gage Masterson, What’s going on here?” Gage introduced himself and stepped into an in-charge attitude.

  “We came directly here instead of trying to call,” Officer Kelley began.

  “Agents Smith escalated your case once it was established that this was indeed related to a case Smith and I are lead investigators on. We have been tracking your phone to no avail, but last night we caught a ping on your credit card. We were able to follow the original trip as you described to Smith, and we were headed out to Boise following the spending activity on that card. Apparently, no one thought to have called into your bank?”

  “I guess I had other things going on.” I don’t think that ever crossed my mind.

  “It may have saved your life.”

  At that moment, a wheelchair arrived and the nurse pushed Jones out of her way. “If you’re taking her, do you have a set up for her to travel with the IVs?”

  “No. she’ll need to be fully disconnected. We can make arrangements when we get to the new location,” Suit-one answered.

  “Where are you taking her?” Gage asked.

  “For now, a hotel. That credit card, it’s back in this county. Miss Bailey needs to be somewhere safe while we lay in wait. As far as the hospital is concerned, she is still a patient, and still in this room.” Jones leveled a glare at the nurse. “Understood?”

  “Of course.”

  “Not a hotel,” Gage barked. “She’ll be safest at the lodge. Travis get my SUV, pull it around to the back ambulance entrance. We don’t want to go out the front door in case he’s sitting in the parking lot. Zeke, Max is outsid
e with a woman named Yuki. Get them into your car and head up to the lodge. We’ll meet you there.”

  Both men left in a rush.

  I was lifted out of my bed and placed in the wheelchair. It was cold on my butt, but honestly, I didn’t care. Shit seemed to have gotten really real, really fast.

  “I should be with Yuki,” Jade announced.

  Gage shook his head. “She’s as safe as she can be with Max. Zeke will get them to the lodge, and we’ll figure all the details out from there.”

  “This lodge of yours, more of you?” she asked.

  Gage gave Jade a half smirk. “A whole pack of us.”

  I heard that and knew what he meant. I wanted to suck in my breath in shock, but instead, I hissed in with pain. Lifting the footrest was apparently not an easy process, and it whacked into my injured foot. I wanted to cry. I probably did.

  Someone tucked a blanket over my lap and off we went with a woosh. The interior of the hospital passed me in a blur. I was a little more confused than I should’ve been. I was leaving the hospital because my credit card was being used.

  Did that mean they thought Gordon was in the area? It had to.

  Big glass doors swept open—a large, gray, dirt splattered SUV waited, engine running.

  Gage swept me up into his arms, blankets and all. Which was a good thing because the chill hit me, and I wasn’t wearing much.

  “Take shotgun,” he directed Jade.

  And with his arms full of me, he climbed into the back seat.

  Travis had the car moving before the back door was even closed.

  Gage smoothed my brow and held me tight. “Shh, it’s okay. I’ve got you. There is no way I will let that man come near enough to hurt you ever again.”

  Apparently, I had begun shaking. I don’t know if it was from the cold or from fear.

  I tried to climb inside of his jacket, and nestle against his chest. I found comfort surrounded by his warmth and strength.

  “Where are your parents?” Gage asked. I guess he figured my sudden disappearance from the hospital might cause them some concern.

  “Hmm?” He was nice to snuggle into. “Mom said she was going to go shopping and then take a nap.”

  Gage shifted rather awkwardly and pulled a phone out from somewhere.

  “Are the Hastings there?” He waited in silence for a moment. “Good, keep them there. We’re headed back. Get a room set up for Bailey. She’ll need enough room for medical equipment if we need to bring it in.” Another pause in his conversation. “Yes, a bathroom.”

  He ended that call, looked at his phone, and was talking into it again. “Can you get Tracey out to the lodge? She’ll know what’s needed.” He grunted and hung up.

  Travis let out a long sigh. “That was exciting. So, what the hell is going on?”

  “Not fully apprised of the situation. Kelley and the FBI will have to fill us in. What do you have to do with this witch?” Gage grumbled at Jade.

  Travis swerved the car. Everything rocked side to side as he corrected back onto the road. He glared at Jade before turning his eyes back to the road.

  “Stop calling my friend ‘witch,’” I said.

  Jade turned in her seat to look back at us. She glared at Gage and then gave me a smirk. “It’s okay, Bails, I am a witch. A guardian to be exact.”

  “Some guardian you are. You let Bailey out of your sight and into a lot of danger. She could have been killed.”

  “Yeah, about that,” Jade hemmed and hawed a little. “I’m not Bailey’s guardian. I’m Yuki’s. Bailey isn’t fully infused, but since she and Yuki are frequently together, I keep an eye on her.”

  “How did you know where she was if you aren’t her guardian?”

  “The internet, wolfman. Probably the same way—you said Gordon was behind all this? I didn’t think he was manipulative enough—the same way Gordon knows and that’s why he’s headed back this way. Her mom likes to “check-in” and basically tells everyone where she is all the time. She’s gotten better about checking in at people’s homes, but if she is staying at this lodge of yours, she may have already told Gordon where we’re all headed.” Jade swallowed. “Accidentally.”

  Delight is safe.

  I felt Doggo’s words with a stab of pain. I flinched. It was gone in a second.

  “Bailey?” Gage ran his warm hand up and down my arm. “You, okay?”

  I pressed my fingers to my temples. “Yeah, Doggo got in my head and it hurt. It never hurt before.”

  “Did you say that other wolf can talk straight into your head?” Jade asked.

  “Doggo is the only wolf around here,”—Travis snorted, but I continued—“Yeah, he can put words in my head.”

  Jade’s glare became more intense as it looked like she tried to bore a hole through Gage.

  “Why glare at me? He’s the one who claimed her.” Gage sounded almost like a whiney teenager.

  “I would have thought you were the one to have claimed her.” Jade nodded at how Gage was holding me.

  “He claimed her first. But I can’t seem to accept that. I’m human and he isn’t challenging my actions.”

  “Hey, wait a sec. No one gets to claim me,” I complained.

  “Max did. He staked his claim first. That’s why he can talk directly to you. He beat me to it.”

  “Oh, hell no, you guys don’t get to call dibs on me. What the hell? Why didn’t you claim me first then? Huh?”

  “He did it as soon as he found you in the woods,” Gage explained.

  I was mad. “So he just goes around and says ‘this is mine’ to everything he sees, just in case?”

  Gage made a little side tilt head motion with a shrug. “Pretty much. I wanted to claim you the first time you smiled at me. You were pretty delirious, so I thought I’d wait. Make sure I wasn’t making a rash decision. By then, it was already too late. I couldn’t stop myself.”

  “Let me guess,” Jade said with a sigh. “You claimed her anyway.”

  I rolled my eyes. I couldn’t believe this conversation. I barely noticed as the road got rough and the SUV jostled me about.

  “I’m not a fan of this whole being claimed thing. What am I, lost luggage? That stupid wolf didn’t try to pee on me to mark his territory did he?”

  “You are precious to us, Bailey. I couldn’t figure it out before, but now I know that’s because you’re more than just a survivor. You are something that plays into my world.” Oh, the sound of that man’s voice when he spoke to me in lowered hushed tones. Okay, he could claim me, but only if I could claim him right back. Hell, in a few days, I’d be good to claim him all night long.

  “Are you saying I’m monsters?”

  “No, darling. You are magic.”

  The SUV continued to drive over excessively rough terrain. I didn’t have a good view out of the window, wrapped up in Gage the way I was, but it looked as if there wasn’t a road.

  “Um, Travis? Where did the road go?” I asked.

  “Taking a short cut,” he answered.

  “What? Through the backyard?” I muttered.

  “Basically,” Gage said with a laugh. “We’ll get you to the lodge, and make sure everything is secure. I’m going to need to see your mom’s online use, make sure she hasn’t tagged the lodge as one of her check-in points.”

  The SUV finally leveled out as Travis guided the vehicle back onto the pavement. He stopped and Gage was hauling me out of the back.

  “Whoa,” Jade said with amazement as she stared up at our new location.

  “Oh good, you guys made it.” Yuki ran out of a large door and onto the front decking, surrounded by wolves.

  I looked past Yuki and up at the building. Whoa was right. Of course, right then I wasn’t sure if Jade was whoa-ing the wolves or the lodge.

  “This is home? It’s a freaking resort.”

  “It’s an old hunting and ski lodge. And it’s home,” Gage said, not even winded as he carried me up the front steps.

  “It’s no
t ADA compliant so it’s no longer a commercially viable property unless we make the upgrades,” Travis started explaining. “We still run some rescue training and executive team building excursions.”

  “You said you were a trail guide, is this what you meant?” I asked

  Travis held the big front door open. I probably should’ve been impressed with the craftsmanship of it, rough-hewn and hand polished. The lodge was a log cabin work of art. But I was distracted, a cold breeze licked up my exposed backside.

  I must have squirmed because Gage complained. “Do you want me to drop your ass? Hold still.”

  “My ass is exposed to the elements. I just got an overly friendly breeze up my butt. I didn’t want to flash everyone.”

  Gage nodded at someone past my head. I heard a ruffle of fabric and then I was being lowered onto a warm blanket on a large leather couch. Gage didn’t even kiss my forehead or anything; he put me down and began making some kinds of plans with Zeke, Travis, and Mark.

  Yuki, surrounded by her own private pack of wolves and Jade, sat in some chairs opposite of me.

  “Can we stay here, Jade? This is so much nicer than that hotel we saw as we drove in,” Yuki asked. She finally stopped talking baby talk to the wolves.

  “I don’t think it’s up to us. I mean, he did say it’s a private lodge. That means exclusive. Expensive,” Jade said.

  I adjusted the blanket around my lower body and pulled another one around me. Hospital gowns weren’t very thick, and I was cold now that I didn’t have Gage’s body heat keeping me warm.

  “Gage is letting my parents stay here. I’m sure he’ll let you two as well.”

  “Bailey!” my mom called out as she appeared at the top of a broad set of stairs. In any other location, those would be the elaborate formal stairs that a hundred brides would pay the big bucks to descend. But this wasn’t a wedding destination and those stairs were heavy and solid. A masculine presence in this very robust wood lined lobby. It was a lobby, but it also was comfortable like a homey living room. Maybe that’s what Gage meant when he said it was home. It felt like one.

  Mom rushed down the stairs and came straight to me. She wrapped me in a mom quality comforting hug. “Why didn’t you say they were going to release you? I would’ve brought you something to wear, so you didn’t need to leave in a hospital gown.”