Chapter 53

Chapter 53:

Fortunately, Jace was free when I asked him to come over. In less than three hours, he was at Darkspire and met Kael and me at the little outdoor restaurant within the pack.

Jace stopped in his tracks when he saw Kael sitting at the table with me. I had already told him he was meeting up with someone, but he didn’t know it was Kael.

“The fuck is he doing here?” he asked with a crumpled frown. “Is he holding you hostage or something, Lyric? Or is he just here to try to piss me off again?” I noticed Kael fist his hand under the table, obviously fighting back his retort.

“Jace, please. Sit,” I urged, tapping the empty seat.

He glared hard at Kael before sitting down.

Two seconds later, it sank in before I could speak.

He raised his hands. “Nah, hold on. Don’t tell me the ‘someone’ I’m supposed to meet is this fucker p>

“Call me fucker one more time and I’ll fuck you up,” Kael gritted out.

“Why don’t you save it, man, for someone who can be fucked over by you p>

Holy smokes.

“Could you two stop? Please!” I lightly hit the table, but it didn’t seem to have much effect on the two men.

“Well, I am trying, Lyric. But like I said, he is too hot-headed and ill-mannered to listen!” Kael argued.

“Wow.” Jace let out a slow clap. “Look who’s talking. Mr. ‘I-Punch-First-Think-Never’ is suddenly the etiquette police p>

I took a deep breath. “Kael, if you need this to work, you’ll have to actually calm down p>

Thank goodness, they both kept quiet. But Kael looked really pissed. I guess he’d be doing a lot worse if he didn’t need Jace’s help right now.

“Why did you call me, Ly? You should talk fast because the atmosphere here isn’t so appealing,” Jace said as he picked up my glass of wine and drank from it.

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“Actually,” I glanced at Kael. “He needs your help p>

Jace choked. Wine sprayed onto the table as he coughed violently, shaking his head.

“Hold up—did you just say he needs my help? With what? Digging his own grave p>

“With what? Digging his grave p>

“Jace, come on. This is serious p>

“Fine.” He rolled his eyes and shifted his gaze to Kael. “What the hell do you need my help for p>

Kael seemed to struggle with his words. Poor thing. It must be really hard on his ego.

“The Mountain Retreat in the East. Your father told me you have rights to it now. I need access p>

Jace was silent for a moment, as if he didn’t quite understand Kael’s words. Then, he burst into laughter.

“Oh, this is rich!” He clapped his hands together as if this was the best joke he’d heard all year. “So, Mr. Almighty finally needs me. I should call the news. ‘Kael Swallows His Pride’—headlines would be insane. Shocking to know you’re human after all p>

“I am not begging, Jace. If you don’t want to help, spit it out already p>

Geez! Such a bad temper for someone in need of help.

“Fine. Let’s say I don’t want to help you, then.” To my surprise, Jace stood up to leave.

Goodness!

“Please, just sit.” I grabbed his hand.

“No, Lyric. If this guy really needs my help, he’s going to have to ask nicely. With the right attitude p>

I glanced at Kael. Not sure that’s ever going to happen… but…

“Kael, come on. Just try to be the bigger man.” I made my eyes as pleading as they could be.

I needed to get this done and focus on my celebration.

“Are you trying to say I’m the smaller person here, Lyric?” Jace huffed.

“Fine! Please, just sit and let’s talk,” Kael said, surprising the hell out of me. I think even Jace was shocked.

Wow. He did have some pride to drop.

Jace still gave him that unsatisfied look before plopping back into his seat.

Picking up his glass of wine, he grumbled, “Make it quick p>

JARIS

Today was stressful but productive. I closed some really nice deals, which meant more money and visibility. Not that I needed more money, actually. Nerion was driving me back to the Pack house when I got a call from Luca—one of the representatives from the Central Pack.

“Jaris, you said you wanted to know if anything came up in the course of the investigation concerning the King’s death p>

“Yes? Have you found something?” My interest was already piqued.

Since I showed interest in the Alpha King’s Throne, they’d been treating me with more respect.

“We took our time cross-checking the CCTV footage, and just this morning, we discovered something new. For better clarification, I just forwarded the footage to you p>

I eagerly checked my email on my laptop and played the video. Luca explained what I was watching.

“On the day King Thaddeus died, we had some men bring in supplies to the storage room. We do this twice a month. Now, if you look closely, among the men offloading the truck, there’s one with a black face cap p>

I could see him. He wasn’t the only one wearing a face cap, but he was the only one who consciously avoided the cameras.

“He keeps avoiding the cameras, so we can’t get a view of his face,” Luna confirmed my thoughts. “And even in the house, when they took the goods to the storage, he did well to hide his face p>

It was as if he knew where each camera was because he successfully avoided every one of them.

“Now, when the people were done and leaving, this very man was not with them.” I watched the men get into the truck and leave.

Luca was right. The creep didn’t get in with them.

“So, he stayed back somewhere?” I frowned.

“Looks like he did. And on that very night, the King ended up dead p>

Fucker.

“Have you checked the cameras surrounding the other exits? Do we know when and how he left p>

“No. And we find it a bit strange that the cameras didn’t capture him leaving that day or the next. Initially, we thought he might be here somewhere. So we turned every room upside down, but there was nothing. He’s not here p>

Then how did he leave?

“I think he knows something.” I tapped the screen.

“He sure does. We’ve already captured the delivery agency. Every one of the men that had been here on that day is in our dungeon. But none of them seem to know anything about this guy. According to them, he showed up asking for a quick job for money. They claim they didn’t know he had ulterior motives p>

I thought about it for a moment. “Keep them there. I’ll come over tomorrow and question them myself. See if we can get anything out of them p>

Luca paused. He probably knew it’d be hell if I interrogated them myself. But it was necessary. I sensed something fishy. Something serious had to be done to uncover the truth.

“Alright, Jaris, we’ll be expecting you p>

I dropped the call but couldn’t take my eyes off the man on the screen. I let my finger graze it.

There was something about him. Something familiar.

I felt an unwelcome chill run down my spine and forced myself to shut the laptop.

We have to find him.