Of Wolves and Oranges

Chapter 29:

I am going to kill Ric. After a twelve-hour flight, and a three-hour drive home, all I wanted to do was go to bed and sleep. But what do I find, a fucking, welcome home party. In my house. There's no chance to shower so I pull on some swimming shorts and dive in the pool.

I still need to find Ric. But there are people everywhere, all wanting to eat and party, so I grab a beer and stretch out on the lounger by the pool. The way I feel at the moment I will most probably pass out right here, in the middle of the party. I close my eyes and let the noise roll over me as I drift asleep. I jolt awake, to find a pair of long legs straddling my waist and a hand caressing my chest. I look up and into the face of Bethany. I blink slowly, this chick can't catch a hint.

"You have got to be kidding me?"

I grab her shoulder and try to push her away.

"But Jakkalsie." She struggles against me, then gets a dangerous glint in her eyes as she grinds against my hips.

"Don't fucking talk to me." I lift her and push her off me, she stands as I rise but wobbles backwards on her crazy-ass heels. I glare around me, my wolf threatening a change. "Where the hell is Ric?"

He appears, his face serious. I was about to lay into him but the look in his eye stops me. "What?"

"Were you expecting, Liz this evening?"

"No, Why?"

"I've just passed her, running out of here. Looked pretty upset."

I glance at Bethany and he follows my gaze. We look at back at each other, "Shit."

His cell rings and he whips it out of his pocket. "Yup, we know she's here. Ja, I saw her car. Ooohhh crap."

He turns to me, pale under his tan. "Liz picked her car up from the mechanic two hours ago. My man stayed at the mechanics and saw three SUVs arrive over an hour ago, then tear out again. I'm assuming they put a tracker on her car. Where would she go now?"

"Zini. That's where her friend Sonja lives." I yell as I run out to my truck, Ric on my heels. "Phone Jake Cabashi."

But as we come over the pass, we see her little grey Golf standing abandoned on the shoulder of the road. There is no sign or scent of her, just the overpowering smell of the Naidoos.

"Fuck. How are we supposed to find her now?" I slam the side of truck with frustration. Ric is still on the side of the road barking orders into his cellphone.

"Yeah and do you have her phone on the map, Zandile? Great, which way are they heading? OK, I figure they're heading somewhere in Amatikulu. Send everyone in that direction and we can meet up at the gates of the sugar mill."

He hangs up as I accelerate down the road towards Amatikulu.

"You put a tracker on her phone?"

"Yeah. At lunch that day. I figured that if she was that important to you, we had better keep an eye on her. But it looks like she slipped past my tech team, maybe because she hasn't left the hospital in three weeks, they stopped watching her. Shit, we fucked up there."

I look across at him. "His face lit up by his phone as he co-ordinates this like a military operation."

"Ric, before anything else happens, thank you. I didnt want to get us into this situation, there are going to be human bodies."

He glances up, "Dont go all soft on me, Jaco. You know I like a good fight as much as the next shifter." He winks and returns to his phone.