Chapter 65

Time to process the information about Ryker was fleeting. Jo stared at the two men in front of her for a long moment before they reiterated that they’d be waiting downstairs, and she closed the door, still blinking, trying to will herself to make sense of what Adrian had told her. It wouldn’t compute. How could Ryker’s family have been killed by Vampires, and yet, he spent so much time cooperating with the same type of creatures who had killed them? Either he hated his family, or there was so much more to this story, Jo probably wouldn’t have time to hear the whole thing until after she caught Holland, which might take years.
While she got herself ready to go on the next leg of the journey, she messaged almost everyone who would be accompanying her to let them know that she was expecting them to be packed and ready to go in a few minutes. None of them were particularly excited to be leaving, though Zane didn’t make a fuss. The others hemmed and hawed a little until she reminded them that they might actually have information about where the bloodsucking bitch was hiding. That stopped the complaints, at least for the time being.
When she heard a sharp knock on her door right as she finished packing up, she assumed it was probably Elliott. It wasn’t. She opened the door to see her brother standing there, his eyes narrowed.
Blowing out a hot breath, Jo asked, “What do you want?”
“You’re fairly certain you know where Holland is hiding, and you’re not taking me with you? What kind of bullshit is that?”
“The kind of bullshit I need to avoid if I’m going to be able to concentrate and get my job done,” she said, stepping aside as he pushed his way into the room.
“Jo, you can’t leave me behind when you know that I have just as much invested in finding her as you do, maybe more.”
“Why more?”
He turned and glared at her. “Because, unlike some people, I actually believe Mom is probably alive.”
Jo’s eyes turned to slits. “This has nothing to do with that.”
He took a step toward her. “This has everything to do with that!”
“Cadon! This isn’t the hunt! It’s just a reconnaissance mission. We won’t be going in.”
“That’s bullshit!” He was in her face now, a finger dangerously close to the “snap-it-off” zone Jo liked to keep around her perimeter. “If you find her, you know you’re not going to wait for us.”
“I will, too!” She shouted at him, closing the door to the hallway so as not to annoy the other guests. “I won’t be able to go in with a skeleton crew and get her. That would be suicidal and a great way to ensure I fail. Frankly, I’ve had enough of that to last me a long while, thank you very much.”
He was still shaking his head, his arms folded. “I know you, Josephina. You won’t be content to stand by and wait. If you see one chance to get in there and take her out….”
“We’re not supposed to take her out!” she reminded her brother. “We’re supposed to bring her in.”
“You don’t want to do that, though.”
She didn’t need him to remind her of what she wanted. She was fully aware. “I don’t have room for you. Lucas said six. There isn’t someone I can leave behind in order to take you.”
“Leave Scott.”
“The Healer?”
“Leave Zane.”
She looked at him and tipped her head to the side. “Leave behind the only person on this entire team who can stand me to take my jackass brother?”
“Hey, I steered you back on course after your mental breakdown at the last hunt!”
“By screaming at me and telling me how you weren’t surprised at all that I was giving up and walking away? Yeah, you’re a regular cheerleader! On second thought, why don’t you go grab some pom pons and come along?” She rolled her eyes at him, done with the conversation.
“Leave Elliott, then. He won’t want to come anyway. He just got here--from Africa. They can use someone with his experience here.”
“I need someone who can’t get killed.”
“Why? If you’re not attacking, what difference does it make?” Cadon asked, his tone taking on a sarcastic flare.
“Just because I’m not attacking doesn’t mean Holland isn’t!” she shouted back.
Cadon began another tirade. “I know I should’ve refused to come on this trip as soon as Dad said you were in charge!”
“Oh, shut up!” Jo yelled back. “You’re such a whiny asshole. If anyone else was leading, would you be complaining about your assignment?”
“No, because no one else would be as stupid as you are and leave me behind!”
Jo turned and shouted at him again, calling him another name, but then the door to the hotel room came flying open and their burly uncle was standing between them. “Children! Children! Children!” Elliott’s long arms were spread wide to keep them apart. “I have traveled thousands of miles across deserts, and rivers, and lakes, and frozen tundra to join you, and here you are, ripping each other’s throats out. What the hell is going on?”
They both started shouting at him at the same time, Jo trying to explain how her brother was a little cry baby bitch because he couldn’t accept that she didn’t want to bring him along, and Cadon calling her every name in the book for being an idiot and not realizing his abilities were irreplaceable on her team.
Elliott’s voice boomed over them. “Stop! Cadon, sit down on that couch and shut your mouth. Jo, sit on the bed and do the same! I can’t understand either one of you when you’re screaming!” He ran a hand through his mop of dark, curly hair and turned to Cadon. “What the hell are you complaining about?”
“She’s taking a small team out with Lucas to see if the secret palace location he’s found is the one referenced in the email we found in the cave, and I’m not on it!”
“And you’re pissed off about that because you want to go--so that you can keep fighting with her every two seconds of your life?” Elliott asked him.
“No! I’m pissed off because I should be going. That bitch took my mom, too, and I want to be there to interrogate her, to figure out what the hell she did with her.”
Elliott held up his hand to signal that he wanted Cadon to stop. “And why are you not taking your loving brother along on this mission?” he asked Jo.
She took a deep breath and blew it out. “Not because he argues with me every second, although that is a good point.” She glared at Cadon for a moment, and he literally stuck his tongue out at her, which made her roll her eyes. “Lucas said I could only have four people. I bargained for six. I have other team members that I think are more critical to this sort of mission than him.”
“Only because she wants to take her boyfriend, who so far hasn’t been that impressive!” Cadon shouted.
“He’s not my boyfriend! But he did follow me halfway around the world even though he didn’t have to. He’s not here to impress you!”
“All right, all right!” Elliott said, his hands out again. “And… who is it that you think is so critical to this mission--which is a reconnaissance mission, not an attack, right?”
“Right. Brandon, Cass, Zane, Scott, me… and you.”
Elliott had been nodding along with each name until she got to the last word. “Me?” he repeated, his green eyes widening.
Jo nodded. “I need someone who can’t die. With these stupid scandium bullets… you never know.”
“What about Cass? She can’t die,” he reminded her.
“I know. Someone else who can’t die.”
“Shit,” Elliott muttered.
“See!” Cadon took it as an opportunity to insert himself back into the conversation. “I’ll go and Elliott can stay here.”
“No!” Jo shouted, trying to sound like an assertive leader instead of a bossy little sister. It didn’t work. “I’m the leader!”
“Oh, dear lord!” Elliott proclaimed. “Enough!” He turned to Cadon. “Listen, man, I know you wanted your dad to pick you to be the head of this operation. He didn’t. Part of the reason for that is because you don’t take orders well. I know it seems ironic that he would want you to get your ability to handle directions together first before you started handing them out, but that’s the truth.”
Cadon’s mouth dropped open. “Neither does she!”
Elliott closed his eyes for a second. “You got a problem with the bossman’s decision, you take it up with the bossman. I am not, and will never be, in charge of jack shit. I’m just telling you how it is. I’ve known your dad for a long-ass time, and I am guaranteeing you, he would not be impressed with the way you are handling this. Do you think your dad ever marched in to tell his leader he didn’t like his assignment and threw a baby fit about it?”
“His sister was never in charge!” Cadon countered.
“Do you really think that matters?” Elliott asked.
Jo couldn’t imagine her dad ever acting like either one of them. Her mom, maybe, when she first joined the team and was unpredictable and often out of control. But certainly not their dad. Then, Elliott turned to Jo. “And… do you think your dad would’ve let someone suck him into a loud argument that sounded like two kindergartners shoutin’ at one another down the hallway?”
Her answer came quickly. “No.”
“No, of course not. If you can’t handle criticism calmly, then you’ve still got a long road ahead of you, Lil Jo. The bottom line is, the answer to any question of why are you doing such and such has to be more along the lines of, ‘I know what’s best for this operation. Now, step off.’ Do you think the likes of Christian Henry never came up to your dad to challenge his thinking? To give him fits about what he was doing?”
Jo didn’t have to imagine much to assume Christian had done just that on more than one occasion, and probably lots of other people had, too. “I’m sure he did.”
“And how many back and forths that sounded like the Three Stooges having a conniption fit do you think your dad let himself be drawn into?”
Jo wasn’t sure who the Three Stooges were, but she was confident in her answer of, “None.”
“So you can’t let that happen either. I know you’re new to this and you never asked for this assignment. But it’s here. You got it. So have a little dignity.” Turning to her brother, he added, “Have a little respect.”
Cadon nodded, even though it was clear he was still mad. “All right,” he said through gritted teeth. “I guess I’ll stay here.”
“Good,” Elliott said with a sharp nod. “Because… I did not hear my out-of-control, barely not-a-teenager daughter’s name on that list of people accompanying me, which means, you get to keep an eye on Mandy.”
“Son of a bitch,” Cadon muttered, running his hands down his face.
“I figured she would be okay with the bigger team,” Jo offered. “Or she could go into Moscow to help Emma with the scandium.”
“Oh, I think she’ll be all right here with your brother,” Elliott said, suddenly looking a bit happier that he was going to have to go, so that he could get a break from her. Cadon stood up, and Elliott clapped him on the shoulder. “She’s down in the bar. Why don’t you go tell her how much you missed her?”
Jo realized she would need to say something to all of the team members joining them from Africa. What that might be, she didn’t know, but it would have to be brief because she needed to be on her way. It was almost the time that Lucas had said he wanted to leave.
Cadon walked out the door, and Jo turned to her uncle. “Thanks for setting us straight,” she said, glad he was there. “If you wanna head this up now--”
“Hell, no!” he said emphatically. “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, puked all over it. No thanks.”
She bit back a smile at his strange sense of humor. “Okay. But… keep in mind I have absolutely no fucking idea what I’m doing.”
“That’s okay,” he assured her as she grabbed her bag and they headed for the door. “You’ll figure it out.”
She thought about Ping and how she hadn’t figured it out in time to save him, but she didn’t mention it to Elliott because she’d already had enough people remind her that it wasn’t her fault Ping was gone. While she was still unconvinced, she didn’t need to hear it again. “Are you ready to go with a group of Vampires to hunt down another Vampire?” she asked him.
He shook his head. “The last thing on earth I wanna do is go anywhere! But yes, if it means figuring out where Holland is so we can find your mom, I’m there.”
He put his giant hand on her shoulder, and they walked out into the hallway together, Jo already praying that this went well. Everyone wanted answers, and it was about goddamn time the universe started providing some.