As Darkness Falls by Riley Storm

Chapter Seventeen

“Turn here,” I said, lifting a finger and pointing at a gravel drive approaching on our left.

Aaron responded immediately, slowing the truck and wheeling us through the turn with practiced ease, the sudden change in course not messing him up the slightest.

That’s him. Mr. Calm-Under-Pressure.Hopefully, it’s something that indicates competence and not a façade that will break at the worst moment.

“Why here?” he asked once the truck was bouncing along the drive, heading up to the house at the end. “This isn’t the Aldridge place.”

“I know,” I said. “Change of plans.”

My eyes were focused ahead on the farmhouse with the giant wraparound porch that was swiftly coming into view. It was unusually bright. All the exterior lights were turned on, which wasn’t a normal sign. Was something else wrong?

“Dani,” Aaron cautioned, looking around suspiciously as he slowed to a halt in front of the house.

“I know,” I growled. “We need information.”

Was that really it, though? We had all the information we needed. We knew the last place Jo was being held. Johnathan had given us that, along with everything else he could think of on the basement labyrinth beneath Aldridge Manor. It should be more than enough to get us in and out with hopefully minimal conflict.

“Then, we should have brought him,” Aaron criticized.

I glared at him briefly, but my eyes kept returning to the unusually bright farmhouse. It had been years since I’d seen it this lit…

“We don’t need him, nor do we need to risk him blowing our cover,” I said. “We went over this.”

“We also went over all the information we need,” Aaron pointed out.

“Not all,” I said quietly, studying the house, trying to figure out if the lights were a warning sign or something else. I didn’t get out of the car. Not yet.

“The longer we’re here, the more noise we make, the better chance people will have of seeing us driving around,” Aaron said.

I almost looked to the back seat to invite comment from Vir, but I held my stare. Aaron was providing criticism and counter-points, but he wasn’t going against my commands, and until he did that, I didn’t need to worry.

“I told you, we need the trucks,” I said. “Jo can’t shift yet. That means she’s slower on foot than you and your men. We can’t outrun Lars or his enforcers that way. We need something faster. The trucks are it.”

“We need surprise for this,” Aaron said, his continued protests making it clear he was thoroughly unhappy with the unexpected delay in our plans.

I grunted, the wordless reply the only acknowledgment I was going to give him for now.

“That’s how you carry out one of these plans,” Aaron said as if he hadn’t heard a thing. “You don’t parade down Main Street begging for attention from everyone you pass.”

“If you and your men could outrun the enforcers, then maybe we could have snuck in,” I said. “Vir’s faster and strong, too. He could have carried Jo while the rest of us ran.”

Aaron snapped his mouth closed.

“Leaving me out of the conversation would have been preferred,” Vir said quietly from the backseat, his voice calm. “I don’t believe I’ve done anything wrong.”

“Not yet,” I muttered.

“We could take the enforcers,” Aaron pointed out, still acting like neither Vir nor I had spoken. “We’re all re-armed, with proper ammunition and weapons. If we snuck in and took them out silently, they wouldn’t stand a chance.”

Earlier, blood-thirstier me had agreed with that idea. My wolf still did. She hated that anyone who touched our friend was going to be allowed to live. The rest of me didn’t.

“I want to give them a chance,” I said, rehashing the same argument again. “How many of them are acting in fear? Has Lars threatened their families? If Lars is removed from the picture, we’ll see who is acting out of fear and who was truly loyal to him.”

Personally, I suspected the split was about even. Some of the thugs who hung around with Lars had been Aldridge family sycophants for generations, and nothing would change their minds. Others were first-timers, and those I suspected had much weaker loyalties.

“Except we’re not planning to remove Lars from the picture,” Aaron said. “We’re here to rescue your friend. That’s all.”

“I know,” I said.

But if Lars gets in our path on the way out…

“The people of this town are just used to his family being the Alpha family,” I muttered. “If they could just see that better options existed…”

“Not our responsibility,” Aaron cautioned.

“I know. But it’s time for people to understand that those they ‘know’ to be their leaders might not be good people. By freeing Jo, we might be able to show them that without directly intervening.”

“Quite,” Aaron said.

I felt more than heard Vir’s reaction. A glance in the rearview mirror showed him smirking. “You have good instincts,” he said when he saw me looking. “That’s how you lead.”

I rolled my eyes. “Shut up, Vir. Keep working on how to sever our Soulbond.”

The god shut up, his eyes going flat.

Ignoring Aaron’s smirk, I got out of the truck. “Try not to kill each other while I’m gone,” I said before slamming the door closed on their replies.

“How do some women do this?” I muttered to myself as I approached the house, seeing the second truck filled with Aaron’s team doing a U-turn in the driveway to point back down the lane while they waited.

Smart move, I thought, noticing Fred behind the wheel.

“Dani?”

I spun my head around to see Mr. Alustria, Jo’s father, standing in the doorway, only the screen storm door separating us. I’d not heard him approach.

“Hi, Mr. A,” I said with a wave of my hand, trying to act relaxed, even if my heart was thundering in my chest.

“Dani, what are you doing here? I thought you were dead?”

“Lars tell you that?” I asked, irritation filling me as I walked up to the door and paused in the light spilling down from overhead.

“Rumor got around,” Mr. A replied slowly. “You’ve changed your hair.”

I frowned, then looked down, remembering the chunky blue highlight I’d gotten just before I’d come back to Seguin the last time. “Right,” I said with a smile and a laugh that rang hollow and empty. “Yeah. You know how those rebellious streaks go sometimes.”

In truth, with everything that had happened since that night, I’d completely forgotten about the added color to my normally midnight locks.

“What can I do for you, Dani?”

“Can I come in?” I asked.

Mr. A—his real name was Ron, but everyone just called him Mr. A—grew sad. Terse.

“Jo’s not here right now,” he said awkwardly.

“I know,” I said. “Lars took her. That’s why I’m here.”

“How do you know that?” Mr. A asked, stiffening in surprise. “I only guessed as much. You’re sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” I said.

“I see.” Mr. A gave me a long look, then opened the door. “You have changed, Danielle.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, entering the house. “Thanks.”

“What do you need from me?” he wanted to know once I was inside. “Do you want any hot chocolate?”

He glanced out the window, obviously wondering who was in the trucks.

“No,” I said gently. “Thank you, though. But I don’t have time for that.”

“Mmm,” Mr. A said, his eyes dark and thoughtful.

“What I need to know is whether or not he’s reached out to you. Ransom note. Threats. Demands. Anything like that about Jo?”

“No,” Jo’s dad said sadly. “Nothing. As I said, it’s only a rumor that Lars ordered her taken because she was friends with you.”

I snarled audibly. The fact that someone, anyone, would come to harm simply by being friends with me was despicable. But that someone would go after Jo was even worse. Her father was the sweetest, most giving man I knew, despite his faults earlier in life. He’d pulled himself together, and now he looked after both Jo and her mom with a tenderness any father and husband should work to emulate.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “This is all my fault.”

Mr. A smiled. “Jo would have supported you anyway,” he said. “Even if she knew this would come of it. She was like that, my Jo.”

“She still is like that, Mr. A,” I growled. “Do you have any other information?”

“No,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry. I’ve been trying, but much of my time is taken up here. Marie…She hasn’t been well. Jo’s disappearance hit her hard.”

“I see,” I said, knowing well of his wife’s drug problem. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” Mr. A said. “My Jo, she knows the risks.”

“That’s just it,” I said stiffly. “You shouldn’t have had any risks. You should have turned me in. I should have turned myself in. So nobody else would suffer because of me. I wasn’t worth it.”

Mr. A’s growl filled the bottom floor, and he pulled me into a hug, using enough force to ensure I couldn’t squirm out of it.

“You’re wrong,” he said into my ear. “You are worth it. That’s what separates us, Dani. That’s what keeps us different from monsters like Lars. Compassion. Caring.”

I was silent. What else was I supposed to say to that?

“Why are you back?” Mr. A. asked as he let me go. “And who are your friends?”

I stared at Jo’s dad.

“I’m here for Jo,” I snarled with deadly promise. “We’re going to get your daughter back.”