Firebreak (Jackson's Hollow #2)

Chapter 11

"Come home right now."

Ryker scowled and leaned against the side of his truck, his grip on his phone almost tight enough to crack the screen. "You know I'm not going to do that."

"Ryker, Dad's losing his mind. It's all we can do to keep him from running after you, you hardheaded idiot. And you're not doing Jo any good rushing into things without a plan." Brett sounded angrier than Ryker had ever heard him in the past, but he honestly didn't get why his older brother didn't seem to understand why he had left. "You didn't even tell Charlie."

He hadn't told Charlie because he couldn't risk his Beta telling anyone. "I'll come home once I get Jo."

"By yourself?" Brett spat out. "Why didn't you ask someone to go with you? Charlie, Blake, the twins? Me?"

That last one was said with a heavy amount of hurt in Brett's tone, but Ryker straightened his shoulders. He wasn't about to put Brett in danger when he had his wife and two kids to think about. He couldn't do that to Aaliyah. Staying silent, Ryker glared out across the mostly empty rest area parking lot. The midmorning sun was starting to clear out the remaining clouds.

He was heading toward Jo's position in the straightest line possible as a human, and then once he got close, he would wolf out and figure out where she was being held. Once he found her and got her out, they could take the truck back home and anyone who tried to take her again would have to face the whole pack, plus the Callahans and the Duncans. Not exactly a smart move.

He sighed. "Can you get Jo's parents and get them to come to Jackson's Hollow for a while?"

"No!" Brett snapped. "Get back here. Now. You can go get them yourself, and we can talk about this like adults." A rare growl escaped him. "You're acting like a kid."

Ryker's skin tensed. He knew Brett only said that because he was mad, but yeah. He didn't like him pointing it out that Ryker was younger and presumably less mature. "I'm doing what needs to be done."

"Stop trying to sound like an action hero," Brett said, "Jo would be furious if she knew you were putting yourself at risk to go find her. Especially since you didn't get help."

"I'll have to ask her when I find her," Ryker retorted. If Brett thought he was being juvenile, fine. He would lean into that.

"What if you can't get to her?" Brett asked. "This is the government or something, right? How do you think you're going to rescue her from some kind of government facility? You can shapeshift, and they have people like Jo."

"We don't know much about them."

"Exactly!"

"Just trust me," Ryker said, "I'm not being rash." Okay, maybe he was, but he wasn't going to run up to the building and claw at the door, demanding to be let in. He would be smarter than that. "It'll be better if I go alone. I'll get less attention." That had to be a better plan than descending on the place and potentially getting his pack members hurt in a huge fight. Maybe he could sneak in. Pretend to be a guard.

"They might have something that can sense werewolves, have you thought of that?" Brett said. "I doubt it. I don't think you were thinking a lot before you ran off in the middle of the night." His voice turned into a hiss. "Lexi has been crying all morning. I don't know if she's more worried about you or angry that you left her behind."

Ryker felt a pang of guilt, but he shoved that back down. He couldn't feel bad about upsetting Lexi going into this mission, he had to be focused. "Believe it or not, Brett, I'm not trying to be an idiot. I plan on scouting out the area to get an idea of what I'm up against before making any kind of plan. If I promise to call you before carrying out the plan, will y'all feel better?" He couldn't guarantee his plan would include the rest of them–not if it didn't make sense. But he could tell them what it was in case things went south, and maybe they'd at least have a few useful ideas to add.

"You're going to do it anyway, no matter what I say, aren't you?" Even though he constrained it, Ryker knew Brett was mentally giving a long-suffering sigh. Ryker had never really been the patient, sit-back-and-wait one of the two brothers growing up.

"Yeah, I am," Ryker admitted. "But you know it doesn't make sense to have more than one person scouting. And with Jo being my mate, no one else will have as good of a sense of where she is."

"Just be careful," Brett said after a moment. "There's no point in saving Jo if she has to turn right back around to save your ass." Brett must not be near his kids if he was using language like that, the dude hardly ever cursed anymore.

"I will be," Ryker said. Because he could agree with Brett on that–they both knew Jo didn't shy away from a fight. Unfortunately, that trait seemed part of what had caused her to take off without telling him first. That was one thing he wanted to have a long talk with her about when he got the time. Including him in her fights.

After he held her a good long while.

"Okay," Brett said, interrupting his thoughts. "But you better tell us your plan as soon as you have one, got it?"

Ryker nodded, then remembered he was on the phone. "Got it," he said. "Talk you later then."

"Love you, Ryker."

"Yeah yeah, you too," Ryker grumbled into the phone, involuntarily making a face at how mushy Brett had gotten on him. He hung up the phone before Brett could drag out the conversation any longer and pocketed it.

He climbed back in the truck and picked up the now-cold microwave burrito he grabbed from the gas station. Oh well. Taking a bite out of it and barely registering the taste, he maneuvered back on to the interstate. It was well into the night, but the nice thing about being a werewolf was that he could pull a bit of his inner wolf out to see in the dark. Driving at night was practically just as safe for him at night as it was during the day.

It meant he could get to Jo faster.

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A/N: I know this chapter is short, but...

SURPRISE!

DOUBLE UPDATE! Since there wasn't a Firebreak chapter for last week, I posted two this week! Continue reading and enjoy!