Were in the City Ch. 17

Jessie sighed, "I am truly sorry for what has happened. I too wanted no trouble - I just wanted to meet Beth. I'm tired, my leg is killing me, everything is so new and I barely understand what is happening at times ... I'm probably messing this all up, but I would like a chance to convince you to work with us, not report us."

Jacob looked at Liam, She's beginning to act on her plan to keep us safe and free I think.

Liam nodded. Will it be any worse than it already is if we let her give it a try? As it is, we are running tonight. I don't know how we can trust Jenkins though, no matter what he says.

Beth spoke up again, "Bill, will you listen to what she has to say? I believe it's important. Give her a chance."

Jenkins shook his head, "Not now. Beth you are hurt, so is she, and so is the prisoner in the back of my truck. You all need medical treatment and rest, we can't just sit in this parking lot right now and have a discussion like that. We have to take Zeb's body back to his family, our pack must deal with his loss, and I have to sort out the situation with the Algonquin Pack."

Jenkins looked at Jessie, "I don't know who or what you are, but both times we've met I've seen things that shouldn't be possible and felt your strength. You are a rogue Alpha, something that should not be. I'm generally a good judge of character -- I don't sense you are trying to manipulate me for nefarious reasons. I trust and respect Beth a great deal, so her speaking up for you is significant to me."

"What I'm about to do is VERY dangerous for me and mine, and you'd better damn well appreciate that. You and your friends here do anything to jeopardize my pack in any way and so help me I WILL hunt all three of you down and put the "kill" part of that Council order into effect without regret, do you understand me?"

Jessie nodded, "Yes, we understand."

"Good. Five days from now, at 10am, we meet back here -- you and your two friends, me and two of my pack. You can make your pitch to me then and I agree to listen ... only to listen. If my answer is no, I will give you 12 hours before I report all three of you to the Council. Until then, I will say nothing to anyone, I will not have you followed, and I will command those here with me today to say nothing of this day to anyone without my permission. Do you agree to this?"

Jessie turned to look at the twins. Jacob was pleased that she hadn't just said yes without their agreement. He had a few things he needed to say first ... so he shifted and stood, looking at Jenkins.

"I have two things to ask before we can agree. First, someone betrayed this meeting to our enemies -- how do we know our next meeting will remain secret? Second, and don't take this the wrong way, how can we trust you to keep your word? ... and don't tell me an Alpha's word is always trustworthy because you know I know that's bullshit."

Jenkins winced, looking frustrated. "Yes, I guess you would think that way wouldn't you. Which one are you?"

"Jacob."

Liam shifted, standing beside him. "I'm Liam."

Beth looked at them both with astonishment. "No, you can't be! Jacob and Liam De Vries?!" She looked at Jessie, "You call them family?! Do you know what they've done?"

Jessie nodded, "I know some of it Beth, not everything, but enough to understand their situation." She looked at Jenkins, "I have the answer to Jacob's second issue about trusting your word. When I touch someone skin to skin I get a sense of who they are. If you allow me to touch you while you give Jacob your word that you and your pack members will say nothing about us, and will meet with us in good faith in 5 days, I will know if you are telling the truth or not."

Liam spoke up, "I have the answer to Jacob's first issue about maintaining the secrecy of our next meeting -- we will agree to tell no one else we will be meeting in 5 days. Jenkins, the two wolves who return with you will be two of the three here today, you will not mention anything to anyone else. No one talks about the meeting to Helen Lavalle or anyone in her group. Will that make it safe enough?"

Jenkins nodded, "I think that will work ... and although I find it very unsettling, I will let Robin hold my arm while I repeat what I said about the meeting."

Jacob nodded to Jessie, and Jenkins repeated everything while Jessie held his bare arm. "He's sincere Jacob. He will keep his word." Jessie asked Jenkins, "Will you issue your Alpha command not to talk about today to your pack members while I hold your arm?" Jenkins nodded and did that. Jessie sighed, "All done Jacob. We'll be alright for at least the next 5 days."

Jessie's bad leg suddenly gave out and her backside hit the pavement with a thump. "Ow! Sorry ... I think I'm at my limit for today."

Beth laughed softly, "I think we all are! Dean, I'm afraid you are going to have to carry me to the truck."

Jacob, Liam and Jenkins looked at each other for a few more seconds before they all separated, returning to their vehicles. Jacob picked Jessie up and carried her to the car while Liam opened the trunk to retrieve his medical kit and some clothes for the three of them.

Jacob said, "We'll wait for them to leave first, then go."

Liam nodded, "Good, I want to check Jessie's leg first and rewrap it for the ride home. It's going to take some time to sew it up later I'm afraid. I'm going to give you something for the pain now, it's got to be bad."

"It was manageable while I was focused on other things, but now I'm really feeling it." Jessie was watching the truck. "Jacob, the one who was watching Gordon in the truck bed has shifted and is heading into the trees."

Jacob nodded, "He's going to watch over the body of their fallen pack member. Others will come back for them later."

"I'm so sorry for that. It's my fault ... those wolves were after me."

"Jessie, don't think that. This meeting would have worked out safely for all if someone trusted by Jenkins or Helen had not betrayed you. We are going to have to think carefully about how to communicate with Helen from now on, until we find out who gave you away. We have to warn her without anyone else knowing about it."

While Liam re-bandaged Jessie's leg, Jacob gathered up anything that was theirs and all of them drank some juice. Fifteen minutes after the Jenkins truck left going north, their car was headed south, Liam driving and Jacob in the back seat with Jessie. The twins kept an eye on the road behind them for a while making sure they were not being followed before they relaxed a bit.

Jacob knew Jessie was too tired and zoned out on pain meds to tell them all she'd learned from Beth right then, but he had to ask, "So Beth was able to identify your grandmother?"

Jessie nodded, "Yes, she told me her name and how she knew her. She's not Silvie. Don't worry Jacob, I'm not your granddaughter."

He gave Jessie a quizzical look, "I didn't think you were. Silvie and I never took things that far so you couldn't be ... were you worried about that?"

Jessie yawned, half asleep, "Yes ... a little bit I guess ... I actually checked if it was against the law to have sex with your grandfather ..." Liam's strangled laugh echoed around the car. "... it is incest, by the way, but only punishable if one of the parties is under age when it starts ..."

"Well I'm glad then that I'm not."

"Me too ... it would get too complicated ... could I still have sex with Liam? If he was my grand-uncle that's not incest but he's your identical twin, so it would be like having sex with you but not you .... and I don't want to not have sex with either of you ..." Jessie's voice faded as she dozed off, her head on his shoulder. Jacob looked up at a grinning Liam through the rear view mirror who was mouthing silently "I so love the way she thinks!"

It took almost 2 hours to get home. They all ate a quick simple dinner and then took another hour to carefully clean and stitch up Jessie's leg. Jacob watched Jessie and Liam sleep for a while before he got up and sat outside on the back porch, his mind churning through too much to be able to rest.

They had five days. What was Jessie going to say to Jenkins, what kind of deal could she make for his silence? They had to be ready to run if Jenkins' answer was "no". Jacob was afraid the betrayal of their first meeting came from Helen's side of things and the implications of that worried him greatly - how to tell Helen without anyone else there finding out? What had Beth told Jessie about her grandmother?

Round and round it all went. An hour before dawn, his mind unable to circle through it all again, Jacob shifted, curled up by the back door and went to sleep.

*****************************

Jacob woke up when Liam's call finally penetrated his deep sleep, Brother where are you?

Back porch. What time is it? How's Jessie?

Almost noon. She's awake, but her leg is really bothering her. She doesn't want to take anything too strong and, as she put it, go all loopy, until she's told us what Beth told her, so get in here.

Have you eaten yet?

No. I'll meet you in the kitchen and we'll get something quick for us all to eat.

Fifteen minutes later Jacob and Liam brought tea, toast and scrambled eggs up to where Jessie was sitting up in Jacob's bed, looking rumpled and uncomfortable.

Jacob handed her a plate, sat in a chair with his own food, and said "Ok, tell us what you know."

He listened in amazement as Jessie revealed the existence of Silvie's twin sister Miriam and how Beth and her sister Alice had saved her.

"They sent Miriam to England with a friend of Alice's when she was seven months old and never saw her again. They tried to find her later but never did. That's all Beth knows. I got the impression Beth thought Miriam hadn't lived long so that was why they never found any trace of her. I should have asked for the name of Alice's friend, maybe there's a way to find records of her now."

Liam nodded, "Make a list of questions for Beth as you think about what you know now. You can give it to Jenkins at our next meeting and maybe there's a way for Beth to provide the answers."

Jacob said softly, "Beth said you were "part Parker" which is true. What she didn't say out loud in front of Jenkins was that you are also "part Richard". Jacques Richard is your great grandfather."

Jessie nodded, looking worried, "Is that a problem for you?"

Jacob shook his head, "No ... is it a problem for you? I killed your great grandfather."

Jessie held out her hand. Jacob reached over and took it. "No. From everything I've heard from you, and from Beth, he was not a good man. I can't control who my ancestors are, good or bad they did what they did. All I can control is what I do, and hopefully I'm a better person than Jacques Richard was. And I understand what you did and why."

"It is quite the mind-bender though ... I end up here and now with you two ... and I messed up Tony Richard who it now turns out is my cousin. If the other Richard men knew that "the driver" they sent those wolves to get was their cousin, would it make any difference to them? Would they still want to make a nasty example of me?"

Liam nodded, "Oh yes, absolutely. There's no love lost between them all, that's for sure. They use each other, abuse each other, play one off against others -- they are a messed up family! They might change their minds and not kill you, but you'd still have to be punished in some unpleasant way."

Jessie reached for her mug of tea and sat sipping it slowly. "So no advantage at the moment to announcing my lineage to anyone? That's fine. Other than Beth's word, there's no proof anyway, so no point in saying anything I'm guessing ..."

Jacob and Liam both nodded, "Better to say nothing".

Jacob starting gathering up empty plates and Liam brought Jessie more pills. "Take these now, and sleep. You'll heal faster if you rest."

Jacob was turning to take things back to the kitchen when Jessie said, "I've been meaning to ask somebody for a while now ... Beth said it when she was talking about Silvie and Miriam and you've said it before too ... everybody says "an unmarked Richard daughter" ... do you know what that "marked" thing is all about?"

Jacob nodded, "I didn't know what that meant for many years. Somewhere along the way I got the explanation. It's a genetic trait that can run in families. It's polydactyly -- 6 fingers and 6 toes."

Jessie started choking on her last sip of tea. When she finally got a good breath back she said "Holy freaking hell! Hand me a phone."

Puzzled, Jacob gave her his and watched as she pulled up her grandmother's photo and zoomed in on a section of it. "Crap!" Jessie looked up at him, "How many people do you think Helen may have shown this image to?"

Jacob shrugged, "A few, not many yet I'm guessing. Don't worry, very few people still alive would have seen Silvie Richard so it's just an unknown woman to almost everyone."

Jessie nodded, turning the phone so Jacob and Liam could see the screen. "An unknown woman maybe, but one with 6 fingers on the hand holding her hat!"

"Beth told me not to tell anyone, but I trust you two ... Beth told me Miriam, my grandmother, was a marked Richard daughter. And that photo proves it -- you can see she's got 6 fingers. If Helen's group is where the leak happened for our meeting, how secure is that photo? How secure is the knowledge that the photo is my grandmother? If it gets to Mark or Stephen Richard, they'll see Silvie just like Jacob and Helen did, and if they notice her hand ..."

Liam groaned, "Shit!"

Jessie nodded again, "I think the probability that the Richard men would want to kill me has just gone back up to 100% yes?"

"Oh, and I might as well confess a couple of other things right now ... Beth says Miriam had the same skin to skin connection thing that I have ... and see these little scars on my hands by my little fingers? That's where I had my extra fingers removed when I was a baby. I've got the same scars on my feet where I got my extra toes removed. I'm a marked Richard daughter too!"