“So, what’s the deal with Piper and the Colonel?” Jace didn’t want to pry, and he really shouldn’t care… but he did. Piper was definitely a full-blooded Wilding—wild and sexy and feisty. Not entirely bad qualities, except for that wild part, but the way she’d blown up like a hair-trigger IED when the topic of her father came up made Jace more than a little curious. Yet it was the sad look in her eyes that really drew him in. She’d locked down emotionally there at the end as if she was dead certain she couldn’t depend on anyone but herself.
Just Piper against the world.
That gnawed at him. And it kept drawing his wolf uncomfortably close to the surface. No one, but especially a shifter, should ever be that alone in the world. That’s what family and pack were all about.
Jace’s father had died a long time ago from an early heart attack, but family was everything in the River pack. And not just blood relatives—the River pack wolves were like brothers. And his mother was a momma wolf to every stray shifter that came through the area. She’d practically adopted several who had taken up residence at the safehouse—they helped keep it running in return for having a family and a home to call their own. As for Jace’s actual brothers… Jared and Jaxson were like his own flesh. He couldn’t imagine not trusting them, the way Piper obviously didn’t trust Daniel or even her own father.
Jace’s question still hung in the air, unanswered, as they walked toward the two-story entrance to the Joint Base’s command center. He waited until they were past the two heavily-armed honor guards and just inside the glass door.
“Hey, man, I don’t want to pry into your family,” Jace said, quietly. “It’s really none of my business. I just think it’s somewhat relevant to our mission here.”
“You’re right.” Daniel tossed a cold look his way. “It’s none of your business.”
Okay, then. Jace arched an eyebrow. “Do not trespass sign duly noted.”
Daniel growled, but it seemed more in frustration than anger. He stopped before they got much further into the two-story reception area. “Look, I don’t mean to be an ass. There’s just a lot of private family stuff that went down a long time ago. All you need to know is that Piper’s erratic. My sister’s been making shit up since she was a kid. She ran away from home more times than I can count. And she’s always done exactly whatever she wants to, no matter how difficult that makes life for the rest of us. If she’s here on base, we need to find her before my father does. Before she digs herself a hole deeper than I can get her out of.”
Daniel’s worried look was the first hint Jace had seen of the kind of brotherly concern he expected. So… maybe it was in there, just buried under a mountain of bad history.
“Understood.” Jace wanted to know more, but they needed to keep their eyes on the prize—making sure Piper wasn’t getting sucked into a mess she couldn’t handle and finding the truth about Noah’s disappearance.
Daniel led the way up to the second floor and a small office with the door that he quickly closed behind him. He logged into his computer and scanned his messages.
“Give me a minute,” he said, “and I’ll see if there’s any hint of on-base unusual activity. Then I’ll see what I can do about finding out what happened to Noah.”
While Daniel worked his computer, Jace stared out the window at the sprawling campus. Where would Piper have gone? She had to already be on base. Which meant she must’ve used Daniel’s ID. The question was… why hadn’t the guards at the gate mentioned anything about that? It should have come up during their security check, at the least. Piper was counterintelligence—did she just waltz in with false ID? Probably. If what Daniel said was correct—and there was no doubt Piper was unpredictable—then maybe she didn’t do the logical thing. Maybe she was holding off, laying low until she came up with a better way to access the Joint Base’s resources. Then again, the girl who grabbed him and kissed him in his own kitchen, after breaking into his house, didn’t seem like the type to hesitate to action.
A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.
A short brown-haired woman popped her head in the door. “Sir? Your father would like to see you in his office.” She ducked her head and closed the door behind her, as if she knew she was delivering bad news and needed to escape quickly.
Jace threw a fast look at Daniel, eyebrows quirked up. “Does that happen often?”
Daniel’s face was clouded, a deep scowl immediately setting in. “Never.” He had already risen up from his chair, but then he hesitated and shut down his computer.