Firebreak (Jackson's Hollow #2)

Chapter 4

The Charlotte cops were apparently busy elsewhere.

Lucky for them.

It was all Ryker could do to knock normally on the Scotts' front door, almost chanting a mantra to himself that these were Jo's parents. She loved them. Her parents. She loved her parents.

And they didn't know about powers or werewolves.

He could hear movement behind the door, but it took longer than he would've guessed before they started opening it. And it sounded every lock that was on that door had been locked from the sound of all the clicks. Kinda surprising considering they knew he was coming.

Ryker didn't like it.

"Good evening Ms. Maira."

"Just Maira is fine, Ryker," Jo's mom said absently, opening the door wider to let him in. Jo had told him the same thing, but it'd felt wrong to drop the Mr. and Mrs. Scott until they directly gave him permission to do so–it was just how he was raised. So he'd compromised and settled on their first names, but with the Mr. and Mrs. in front of it, although he often forgot to actually do it.

Guess they were on first name basis now.

"Is Jo still not home?" He already knew she wasn't–her scent in the doorway smelled old, and same in the house. But he had to go through the formalities of asking. He also didn't like how many unknown stale scents he'd smelled out front, but it was hard to tell if those were ones to worry about because, hey, this was the suburbs.

Everyone and their mother walked their dog through every other mother's lawn/

"No, she's not," Jacob said, placing a hand on his wife's shoulder. "Let's go sit in the living room son."

He definitely smelled some of the strange scents from outside in the living room as well. Maybe they'd had a party. He hoped it was just a party.

"Okay," Ryker said as soon as he sat on the edge of a chair, leaving the couch to the Scotts, "please tell me what's going on. I'm out of my mind with worry at this point." He couldn't hide it from them, and he was in too irrational of a place right not to determine if this was normal human boyfriend behavior.

If they had concerns about him, they could take it up with Jo later. After Ryker found her and got to fuss at her himself.

And hug her and kiss her and love her and tell her to never do this again...

"We're still a bit lost about ourselves, and we're limited as to what we can share with you," Maira said, glancing at her husband when he seemed reluctant to speak. She looked back at Ryker. "I know Jo wouldn't want you to be in danger."

"Is Jo in danger? You said she wasn't hurt," he said, barely containing a growl. Jo's parents, Jo's parents, Jo's parents. He couldn't wolf out here. He couldn't hurt them, and he needed the information they had. Even if waiting for it was killing him.

"She wasn't," Maira said. Her eyes flicked around the room, and her eyes narrowed. "The room is probably bugged. That's why we can't tell you everything."

"Maira," Jacob said, a quiet caution.

"I'm not going to let them keep intimidating me. He cares about our daughter and deserves to know as much as we can tell him."

What the hell... "Please. Tell me what's going on." It was increasingly difficult, keeping his wolf side in check. "Tell me what you can."

"Do you remember when our house was broken into?" Maira asked, "A few months ago?"

He and Jo had come down from Jackson's Hollow to check on them. And Jo had told him about the man she had burned after the idiot had attacked her. It was when he had first met them. He jerked a nod.