His eyes got big as he saw Leo. “I’ll have to ask my Alpha about this,” he said. A minute later, he waved us through.
“That’s a good sign, right?”
Leo looked back at me. “That they didn’t shoot me on sight? Sure.”
We pulled in front of the Pack House entrance, and an Omega took the keys from Adrienne to park it for us. We entered the building, where the dignitaries and Pack gathered before the funeral.
Conversation ceased, and loud growls started to echo through the room. “LEO!”
It was Lance Carver, and he was marching towards us with his Betas in tow. Everyone in the room stopped, knowing I had killed his father, yet shocked to find out that I was still alive. As Lance got close, Leo opened his arms, and the two men embraced. “I’m so sorry about your father.”
“He died a warrior’s death,” Lance said as he stepped back. “We should tell the story before the others rip you apart.”
He led our group to the stairway, where we could address everyone from the landing. Leo laid everything out; the vampire plot to start a war between the Packs, the abductions, and his decision to attack Alpha Stan and Chairman Carver to make it appear as if it was working. “We believed the vampires had a source in the werewolf world, and we were right. They were working with former Alpha heir Timothy Lords.”
“Nutless went after Vicki again,” an Alpha said from the back. “Is it POSSIBLE to be that stupid?”
Nervous laughter followed this. “Yes,” I said. “I am offering a million-dollar reward for the capture of Timothy Lords and his wife, Traci.”
Leo continued the story, explaining how the Vampire, Werewolf, and Mermaid leadership had cooperated to bring down the Mexico City Coven and Master Vespucci. “My niece forged friendships that helped save us from extinction, and I don’t say that lightly,” Leo said. “Chairman Carver heard what was happening and agreed to help. He led an attack team in the raid that freed six of our people and died fighting. We cannot let his sacrifice and the deaths of six other wolves be in vain.”
“Tonight, we honor my father and his legacy,” Lance said.
The funeral was well-attended, and I shed tears for the man I’d battled in court or council several times. He was rigid in his beliefs, but he loved his people.
We boarded our plane again at midnight, heading for Red Wing and two more funerals in Minnesota.
************
Thank Luna for private jets because we got a few hours of sleep in the big reclining seats on our way west.
I groaned as I heard the pilot give the weather in Red Wing. It was clear, zero degrees, and winds out of the northwest at twenty miles an hour. That put the wind chill somewhere around minus 22 Fahrenheit. I looked down at my clothing and let out a sigh. “I should just shift. It would be warmer,” I complained.
“You walk off the plane and into the car,” Leo said. “Don’t tell me you’ve turned into one of those whiny fashion model types.”
I stared at him before I realized what he was doing. I hated anything that implied I was weak. “I’m not,” I said. “I can tough it out. It’s only a visit.”
Dad picked us up from the airport in the big Ford SUV. It wasn’t a long drive to Leo’s big home, and it was great to be back, even at four in the morning. Leo gave us a basement guest room, so I got to say hello to the sharks and fish in the basement tank as we went past.
Mom woke me up at ten. “Brunch in an hour, then the memorial service is at one.” The Miesville warrior, Jake Johnson, was twenty years old. He was a year ahead of me in school and went straight to work as a framer in Leo’s construction company. He hadn’t found his mate yet, thank Luna.
We dressed and walked out of our room into a full house. There were hugs and tears everywhere, and it took me ten minutes to make it up to the kitchen. I saw his mother, Debbie, sitting in the living room surrounded by a dozen women of the Pack. Never mated, Debbie had been drugged and raped at a party after a football game her senior year. When she found out she was pregnant and refused to get rid of it, her parents and Pack cast her out.
Debbie moved to Minnesota and enrolled at a public school in Mankato, working nights and weekends as a waitress. She got her degree in education at night while living as a rogue and a single mother for a dozen years. Leo scented her in the stands at a swim meet; they talked for an hour, and he offered her a spot in his Pack. They had both flourished in Miesville. “Excuse me,” I said as I let Nicholas’s hand go and walked into the room. I moved in front of Debbie, kneeling in front of the chair. “I’m so sorry,” I said as I looked at the distraught woman.
Debbie pulled me into her arms, and we cried for a few moments together. “None of this was your fault, Vicki. Jake wanted to go; he begged Leo to take him. You and Amy were his friends, and he was going to get you back.”
I sat back, drying my eyes. “I still can’t believe it. Jake was a good wolf.”
“He was, and life will go on. Bring that man of yours over here and introduce him.”
I linked Nicholas, and he came over as I stood up. “Nicholas, this is Debbie Johnson, Jake’s mother.”
“It is my honor,” Nicholas said. “May Luna hold him close tonight.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Take care of our Vicki. She’s special, and we’ll miss her.”
“I promise I will,” he said. We greeted the other ladies in the room, then went to fill our plates. The mood was somber, and Leo’s memorial service had us all in tears. We loaded into cars after it ended and drove north to Stillwater for the next funeral. Ivan’s memorial service for his fallen warrior was just as emotional. Since it got dark at four-thirty in the afternoon, we all shifted and ran on his Pack lands to where his parents scattered the ashes over a cliff.
“Unky Leo? It’s Tuesday,” I said as we piled back into the cars for the trip home.
“We’re going,” he said.
I smiled, and Nicholas looked at us, trying to figure out what was going on. “What’s on Tuesday?”
“Prime rib night at Wiederholt’s. It’s a tradition,” Mom said with a smile. “Fourth generation running it now. I worked there before I found my Brent.”
We got a big table, and I got a chance to show Nicholas my favorite foods. “This is damn good, but you’d never expect it by looking at the outside of this place,” he said. He had a plate-sized, two-inch-thick slab-o-beef with a baked potato on the side. I had the same, and we polished it off with a slice of their turtle cheesecake.
When the check came, I snatched it before Leo could pick it up. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to be able to pick up this tab,” I said. I had more money than I’d ever dreamed of, but I’d never forgotten my roots. Leo’s gift of his wife’s car to a struggling waitress here was the start of a new life for us. I paid it forward, leaving the young waitress a huge tip.
I was sleepy and content with my little food baby in my belly, and we slept deeply that night. At first light, we were back at the Red Wing Airport. Leo, Adrienne, Mom, Dad, and our families filled up the 12-seater jet as we flew west to Oregon.
After our rescue, there was a flurry of communications between Linda Cartwright, Amy, my publicist, and the Discovery Channel. They wanted to capitalize on the publicity as our series would be coming out soon. I didn’t want to do it without the other girls, so the solution was to tape the interview before tonight’s funeral.
As soon as we arrived at the Pack House, I got mobbed by Amy and the twins, plus three SEALs on Christmas leave. The three Navy men congratulated Nicholas and I on our engagement, but they weren’t happy Nicholas was taking me to Australia.
Then it was time to show off rings to the families. I had my engagement ring on, and Amy had her wedding rings; both of us were happy that we’d taken them off for the dive. The police had recovered them with our other gear.
We weren’t the only ones. Noelani showed me the engagement ring Manuel gave her yesterday, while Makani displayed Ricardo’s ring. “They’re the same,” I said as I hugged them.
“Only the inscription is different,” Makani said.
“They proposed to us in the airport, in uniform, with hundreds of people watching,” Noelani said. “It was so romantic.”
“And Linda got it all on video,” Kai said with a smile as he looked over at her. “Ka-ching!”
“You and a hundred people who already posted it to YouTube,” I teased. “Congratulations!” I gave Manuel and Ricardo a big hug, then Kai. “And I’m so proud of you for making it through BUD/S training!”
“The fun is just starting,” Kai said with a smile. “I missed you all. I wish we could have been down there, but we didn’t go on leave until Christmas Eve, and Alpha Steven told us to stay home.”
I got a few minutes alone with Linda, who was the unsung hero of our group. “If it hadn’t been for you, Adrienne wouldn’t know about the trackers, and no one would have found the first hideout,” I said. “Vespucci would have kept me in that prison for the rest of my life.”
“I can’t have that,” she said as she wiped her eyes. “We signed a contract, and I need my people out there diving!” We hugged again, happy to be reunited.
The Dateline NBC crew set up in the Steele’s living room, with one of the dormant volcanoes filling the picture window behind us. The four of us took care of makeup and hair in the twins’ bedroom, then put on our Bodyglove-line dresses and some understated jewelry. Our families stayed in another room, watching on a monitor as the sound guy got us wired up. Linda was recording everything they did and more.
The interview went on for over two hours, despite the omissions required to protect the supernaturals involved. We spent some time talking about our modeling and dive tour, then the events around our abduction. “The other two women captured were your security detail, correct?”
“Yes, they declined to participate in this interview as they are not public personalities,” I said.
“Do you blame them for allowing the kidnapping?”
I rolled my eyes at the question. “No. I blame myself, and I take full responsibility for what happened.”
“Why?”
“To save money, I decided to cross-train my security people as extra divers and camera operators. It seemed like a good idea then; I figured we’d be at sea, away from threats, so I wouldn’t need them watching me. When we left the tourist area of Cancun, which does have good security, I hired four off-duty police officers as security instead. That didn’t work.”
“The police officers were gone when we came up from the dive,” Amy said. “We don’t know if they were scared off or paid off, but they weren’t protecting us. We were on private land, diving a cenote that wasn’t open to other divers.” She shook her head at me. “Six kidnappers rolled in with automatic weapons; even the police wouldn’t have stopped them. That’s not Vicki’s fault; the Cartels control the countryside, and we should have known better. We ALL assumed too much risk.” She reached her hand over to hold mine. “It was scary, and we know how few people get rescued. The Mexican Federal Police did a great job storming the mansion and freeing us. They deserve to be recognized.”