Chapter Eight – Partners in Crime
"If he's on the run, he might very well hide somewhere that is not your place," Vince suggested.
Danny shook his head. "I don't think he's a criminal. I refuse to think that. He's honest and direct, and he has a firm handshake--"
"And he's very good looking, which would explain your temporary madness," Vince interrupted him promptly.
"What temporary madness?" Danny asked, stopping for a moment to take a good long look at his friend.
"You're thinking of contacting him, admit it."
He was, but how could Vince tell? Oh well, they had been best friends since forever, which could easily explain it. Danny shook his head. It was madness, as Vince aptly put it, but he couldn't just play the role of a law-abiding citizen and call the police to report what he knew. That was simply something he couldn't do, although there was no reasonable explanation for his sudden lapse in judgment.
"He's a good guy," he insisted. "There must be some misunderstanding. He's not from the city, which means that he was probably too direct with those people at the store."
"Danny, man, listen to me," Vince insisted. "By what they showed on TV, he wrecked that store. Also, there was someone else with him, which means he's working with an accomplice. Just this morning, he didn't know anyone in the city, and by lunchtime, he's robbing a store with another perp. This guy is--"
"Dangerous, I know."
"Also, sexy as hell," Vince added with a grin. "Is that what's going on, Danny? Thinking a lil' bit with your dick, given the circumstances?"
Danny grunted. It was easy for his bestie to make fun of the situation since he wasn't the one who would get in hot water for housing a criminal under his roof.
"I think he deserves the chance of being able to explain himself," he decided and pulled out his phone.
***
"How the hell did we get up here?" Jack asked in a hysterical voice.
When needed, for short periods of time, Ryder could make his wolf move faster than what the human eye could comprehend, but it required a great deal of energy and it wasn't a stunt he could pull every day. However, the situation he'd created all by himself at the incense store had required him to make use of that dangerous skill. The exertion had turned his bones into butter and now he was breathing hard while lying on the roof of a tall building where the police wouldn't even think of searching for him and Jack.
"And you're a wolf," Jack accused, his voice raised to a high pitch.
Turning back into his human wasn't an option for at least a few more minutes. "I told you as much," he growled at the young clairvoyant.
Jack made himself little and then brushed his hair back quickly. "You don't have to raise up a storm about it. You're a real wolf," he added, this time in a much more appeasing voice. "Can I touch your fur?"
"You're a strange human," Ryder growled again, but this time he lowered the volume of his voice. After all, his wolf was capable of putting the fear of all that was holy into the bones of many. No wonder Jack was reacting the way he was.
"Okay, no fur touching," Jack said, pulling his hand back. "Man, you did a number on those people. Now we're wanted by the police. I can't ever go back to my place. Oh, well, I suppose that it doesn't matter anymore that I haven't paid my rent. My criminal career is absolving me of all such obligations."
"You talk a lot," Ryder pointed out.
"I'm scared shitless, and I'm trying to put a positive spin on things," Jack explained. "Is that okay with you, or are you going to eat me?"
"I don't eat humans," Ryder growled, making Jack's hair stand up in all directions and turning the young man's earlier work on it useless.
"That's good to know. I hope you're not going to change your opinion days and weeks into our stranded situation."
"Stranded? Why?"
Jack gestured around. "We're on the roof on the tallest building in the city. Are you sure we can go back down the same way we came up? I mean, for me it was all a blur, but I think you climbed the façade like it was nothing. With me… in your teeth?"
"No, I held you under my arm," Ryder explained.
Jack let out a long exhalation. "Good to know, because I was worried for a minute there. I mean, if you had a taste of this juicy package," he pointed at himself, "you might want to take a bite, and I need myself whole for everyday stuff. Like being broke and getting into serious debt."
Ryder tuned out Jack's incessant chattering and forced himself into his human. His journey into the city was growing more and more dangerous.
Jack threw him another weird look.
"What now?" Ryder asked. He needed to start making a plan that involved returning the clairvoyant to his home in the city.
"I thought you'd be naked when you transformed back," Jack said promptly.
"A common misconception," Ryder explained.
"Cool. It's like magic," Jack said, nodding as if he had come to understood important things about the universe, all in a single afternoon. "What are we going to do now? I'm pretty sure they caught us on camera, and I'm also a bit too well known by that witch."
"This means you cannot go back to your home," Ryder said, understanding that he needed to assume responsibility for the upheaval of the young man's life by getting him involved in his affairs. Still, his calling as a clairvoyant should have superseded his desire to lead an ordinary life in the city. It wasn't his place to judge Jack's choices. For now, however, he needed to supply a proper alternative.
"It looks like that, yes," Jack confirmed. "Do you happen to have an opening for a fortuneteller in your… tribe?"
"Pack," Ryder corrected his companion.
"Pack," Jack repeated. "So there are more like you. I'm so not totally freaking out right now. Nope, I'm definitely not."
"Good. This isn't the type of thing to be freaking out over," Ryder insisted. Jack had a better constitution than he gave himself credit for. Humans stronger than him would have broken down screaming by now.
"Yes," Jack said brightly. "The more I talk about it, the stranger it becomes. So I'm afraid it's not working. You're a wolf!" he exclaimed suddenly.
"We've already established that," Ryder reminded him. "You will come with me to Pinemoor once I solve this situation and bond with Theodore. You will have a place with us."
Jack looked at him as if Ryder was growing horns. "Come with you? To this place I've never heard of? To live among wolves? A human among wolves? By the way, there is already an influencer doing that sort of thing, but he's a trained professional, and I'm just me, all soft meat, ready to eat!" He threw his hands up in abandonment.
"No one will eat you. I can see that you are a coward, but you don't have a choice. You will help me in my quest."
"And if I refuse?"
Jack was under no obligation to help him, and that was true. "Then, you will go to jail," Ryder said with a shrug.
"Okay. Then Pinemoor it is. Ah, I really was hoping for a trip to the country. Looking so forward to it," Jack commented quickly.
Ryder had a mind to ask him if he was speaking the truth, because the young man was mercurial and strange in many ways. His phone began ringing, and the strangeness of the sound reminded him that he needed to focus on things besides convincing this clairvoyant of his predestined role.
"Hello," he said politely.
"Hi, Ryder, this is Danny. Um, I was thinking… I mean, what have you been up to?"
There was a voice in the background, saying something about a heist. Danny was, obviously, not alone. Ryder frowned. The nice smelling human had no business having other males around him, sniffing him. He shook his head, surprised by the strength of his reaction, especially since it was so misplaced. Such possessiveness should only manifest when his mate was involved.
"I'm afraid I cannot continue our arrangement," Ryder said promptly. "I am currently pursued by the police--"
Jack snatched his phone so quickly it surprised him. The clairvoyant could only do so because his energy had been spent on that bout of force that had brought them here, to a safe place.
"Are you nuts? Are you telling random people we're wanted by the cops?" Jack hissed at him.
"Hello?" Danny called from the other end. "Ryder, are you okay?"
And then, the stranger's voice. "The guy was just involved in a heist. I don't think he's that okay."
"Vince, please, just give me a minute," Danny moaned.
The way he did that made Ryder feel a slow rumble growing inside his chest. His reactions toward this human were difficult to understand. An image flashed through his mind of how Danny would make noises while having his lithe body caught underneath Ryder's. And that stranger was named Vince, which Ryder remembered was the name of Danny's friend.
He shook his head and grabbed the phone from Jack. "I owe this human the truth. It's the least I can do."
"The truth that you're a--"
Ryder covered Jack's mouth with one hand and shook his head, staring the clairvoyant in his eyes until the guy nodded in understanding.
"Who is there with you? The other, um, the other…" Danny hesitated.
"Perpetrator?" Vince supplied right away.
Ryder pursed his lips. Too many humans were getting involved in this mess. "The other fugitive, yes," he confirmed.
Jack threw his arms out and rolled his eyes.
"Do you have anywhere to go?" Danny asked.
"No, but that is not your concern," Ryder said politely.
"Then you should return to my place. The police won't know you're there. Only that we'll have to be, you know, surreptitious about it."
Vince intervened in his friend's conversation once more. "Wait, Danny, are you for real? You're getting in trouble for a guy you don't know at all."
"Yes, I know," Danny said, "but I know that he's a good person. I'm sure he had a reason for hitting that store." His sweet human voice seemed closer as it addressed him. "Ryder, can you tell me how you got involved in this situation? I'm sure it all started with a misunderstanding. And can you please tell me more about the other fugitive?"
He did owe Danny the truth, but he couldn't reveal the truth to him, because humans weren't supposed to learn about the existence of wolfshifters. Clairvoyants like Jack were a different matter.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you anything about what you're asking me," he said.
***
"Is he… is that other man your lover?" Danny asked, clutching the phone tightly.
"Really?" Vince grunted by his side. "Is that the most important thing you should be asking about?"
"He is not my lover," Ryder replied firmly at the other end. "But I am responsible for him now because I got him involved."
Danny had no idea why he had asked a crazy thing like that, but now he couldn't take it back. "Good, that's good. I mean, I wouldn't want any sort of problem for you if the man you're with right now is actually your partner. Since nothing happened between us last night. Nothing whatsoever," he added brightly.
"Why are you sleeping around when you're supposed to have a mate?" the other perp's voice squealed at the other end, although his voice was faint and Danny had to strain his hearing to catch everything he said.
"A mate? A classmate from school?" Danny asked. It wasn't the sort of term people used in Glasstone unless they were really posh and went to boarding schools and expensive colleges overseas. The way the other fugitive had asked the question was odd. As if Ryder was supposed to have a significant other in his life. Not that it was Danny's business. He wasn't supposed to be so closely interested in Ryder's love life. Also, being mates with someone didn't mean that. Unless it was some strange choice of words that only Ryder and the other perp could understand. He seemed to be unreasonably jealous of such things.
"That doesn't concern you," Ryder interrupted Danny's train of thought by chiding his partner in crime. Then, he returned to his conversation with Danny. "Are you sure you want to risk yourself by allowing me to hide at your place?"
"Yes. You're new to the city, and, um, and--"
"And he thinks you're damn fine," Vince drawled into the phone.
"Vince!" Danny exclaimed. "Stop saying things that aren't true." The last thing he needed was a big helping of humiliation on top of everything else. Ryder didn't need to know just how much Danny drooled just by staring at him.
***
So the human Danny didn't find him particularly attractive. It made sense then why they hadn't ended up having sex. Ryder couldn't tell why that bit of information made him frown so hard, but his temples throbbed with a newfound pain. If he were alone with Danny, he would growl and whine because of the outright rejection.
He shook his head violently. Any such thoughts had no place inside his mind. At this hour, especially with the moon following its path through the sky, invisible to the naked eye with the sun up, implacable and announcing the doom of Ryder's pack with each passing hour, he needed to focus on the only important things. Theodore should be the only one in his heart and bed.
"I must insist, Ryder. Even if you can't tell me what happened, I know you don't know anyone in the city. The police can be—well, they're not always just. I just know it." Danny sounded honest and willing to help, and that was something Ryder couldn't simply ignore. After all, his situation was dire under the circumstances.
"How do you know that?" he inquired politely.
"There are plenty of people who have been wrongly accused. I read the papers," Danny replied. "Anyway. Don't let yourself get caught. I'll call in sick and meet you at my place. Maybe when we're face to face, you can tell me more about the incident at the store. I promise you that I will listen to everything you can say. I won't judge you."
"You kids are going to be the death of me," Vince complained, again interrupting their conversation.
As much as Ryder could understand that Vince, as Danny's close friend, had the human's best interests in mind, he was growing increasingly annoyed with the influence he appeared to have in his host's life. Danny had a lithe figure, and he was frail; he was in need of a lot of protection, but that didn't justify someone nagging him like that at every step.
Ryder sighed. Once more, he needed to remind himself that it wasn't his business who decided to protect Danny from the world. In this case, Vince was correct in assuming that Danny had to be sheltered from a string of problems, seeing how the police would definitely arrest him if they found out that he was sheltering someone who had committed a crime.
"I cannot get you involved," he decided. "It is my trouble--"
"Hi Ryder, this is Vince, Danny's friend. Look, you and Danny can lay low while you two are hiding at his place, but what about your partner?"
Ryder threw an uneasy look at Jack. He couldn't abandon the fortuneteller just like that. All the more reason for him to refuse Danny's generous offer.
"I'll hide that guy," Vince proposed, without waiting for Ryder's reply. "We couldn't see him well on TV, but he looks skinny as fuck. I'm sure I can take him if he gets any strange ideas in his head."
"Hey," Jack protested, grabbing the phone from Ryder's hand. "Now, listen here, asshole, who do you think you are to--"
"I have a Jacuzzi, all the streaming services, and organic food. Are you going to protest much or are you coming?" Vince asked.
Ryder was keeping close, listening to the conversation taking place between Jack and Vince.
"Organic, you say?" Jack mumbled. "I believe I'm okay with that."
"Good, then it's a deal. Danny will take Ryder, and I'm taking you. Are you armed and dangerous?"
Jack took his keys out of his pocket and dangled his many amulets. "Not really, no. Unless you count my sharp bone structure."
"Aren't you a funny guy? You two criminals, make sure that you meet us at the corner of Fifth and Tenth in half an hour."
"I don't think we can make it," Jack squealed.
Ryder took his phone back. "We can make it," he assured Vince. This was their only chance to find shelter at the moment. He would look into alternatives later.
"Good. See you there. And get some hoodies, hide your faces. Dig me?"
"Yes."
He looked at the consternation etched onto the clairvoyant's face for a moment after finishing his conversation with Danny's friend. "Do you know where the meeting place is?" he asked calmly.
"Yes, but we're on top of a freaking--" Jack began.
Ryder grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him toward the edge of the roof. "Can you point it out to me?"
"Yeah, but what are we going to do? Fly there?"
Ryder closed his eyes for a moment. He would be pushing his body to its limit by doing this, but he needed to act fast. Time wasn't on his side. "I'm afraid you will have to purchase the clothes we need from the fortunetelling fee I paid you."
"Hello, did you hear my question? How are we going to get there?"
"Just close your eyes, but remember that we need to stop by a clothing store on our way."
"Yeah, okay, there's one--" Jack pointed into the distance.
That was all he needed to know. Ryder grabbed Jack under his arm and dove down to the busy street below.
TBC