by Vella Day
Wendy leaned back in her seat. “Why the interrogation? I’m not dating him anymore, nor am I interested. For your information, he has a mate now.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes.” Wendy couldn’t figure out what he was getting at.
“Is he a wolf shifter too?”
“No, a dragon shifter.” Wendy didn’t know why he cared. “Look, if you’re thinking Deke was involved in setting my room on fire, he wouldn’t need to use accelerant, now would he?”
“No. I’m not thinking he was involved, but rather someone he spoke to realized you were asking too many questions.” Logan leaned forward. “There’s something else I need to tell you.”
“What is that?”
The waitress stopped by to ask what they wanted to drink, and if they were ready to order. Wendy hadn’t even picked up the menu. “Coffee. I need time to decide what to have.”
The waitress looked toward the line of people waiting for a seat. “Sure. Wave when you know what you want.” She faced Logan. “And for you?”
“I’ll also have a coffee, black, and a number six special.”
“You’ve got it, sugar.” The woman’s smile could have melted the sun.
Wendy refused to address the streak of jealousy shooting through her. She reached out and touched him, in part to get his attention, and in part to be connected to him for a moment. “You said there was something else you needed to tell me. What is it?”
“It’s not important.”
She was good at reading people. “It must be, or you wouldn’t have brought it up.”
He sat back and let out an audible exhale. “Fine. I shouldn’t tell you, because I fear you’ll stick your nose where it doesn’t belong, but you’ll find out eventually.”
As a journalist, her nose belonged in a lot of places. “What is it?”
Chapter Nine
Logan wasn’t sure why he hesitated, since his goal was to convince Wendy that she was way in over her head. “The two boys?”
“What about them?”
“They didn’t die from an overdose.”
She shook her head. “I don’t believe you. You can’t scare me off that easily.”
“I never thought I could. I just needed you to truly understand what kind of person we’re dealing with. Pushing drugs is one thing. Murder is another.”
“They were murdered?”
“Yes. Someone poisoned them,” he said.
“Holy shit! When did you find this out?”
“My cousin showed me the autopsy report right before I came here. The boys had Crenathum in their systems, but it wasn’t a lethal amount.”
“Who would want to kill two teenagers? Those two were headed for the most prestigious school in the province.”
“I know. It’s a terrible shame.”
Wendy leaned forward. “What should we do?”
She was something else. “We need to let me investigate.”
“You’re telling me to back off?”
This time he cupped her hand and squeezed it. “Yes.”
Wendy slipped her hand from his. “That’s rich. Obviously, you look like you could handle yourself, but come on—you are a businessman, not a trained investigator.”
While he probably should reveal he was a Guardian, one of the protectors of the realm, now was not the time or place. Only when they were close to mating would he reveal that piece of information. “Even though you might be trained how to dig deep, I doubt you’d do well in a fight—especially if dragons are involved.”
She looked away for a moment and then pinned him with a glare. “If everyone lived a life of fear, we’d have no press.”
Shit. He hadn’t meant to put down her profession. “I agree there are a lot of cops who aren’t dragon shifters, and they do well in a fight, but they are trained like I am.” Logan never kept it a secret that he too had some skills.
“Were you in the military or something?”
“Or something. I don’t like to advertise that information, but I do keep up on the newest fighting techniques. It helps me stay out of trouble.” Logan smiled, hoping to disarm her.
“Oh.”
“I know you want to help, and I appreciate that. I’m hoping we can pool our resources that we’ve already collected. Together we might be able to give my cousin the evidence he needs to arrest this killer.”
She ran her fingers down the napkin-covered silverware. “That sounds tempting. Tell me what you know?”
Logan couldn’t believe how excited he was just thinking about the two of them discussing what they’d each uncovered. However, if Wendy intended to interview a suspect or informant of any kind, she’d have to pass her plans by him first. And that was something he doubted she’d agree to.
“I found out that the boys had been given rat poisoning, just like the truck driver from Thedia.”
Her eyes widened, and then she blew out a breath. “I remember when everyone thought he’d just overdosed. I investigated that case but came up empty. Do you think these two cases are connected? I mean death by rat poisoning, coupled with Crenathum, can’t be that common.”
“I agree. And both were made to look like overdoses. The question is what would two kids from Edendale have in common with someone from halfway across Tarradon? Ted Yancy didn’t even live in Avonbelle Province. He was delivering his cargo from Thedia.”
She inhaled. “This probably means nothing, but did you know that Tom, one of the boys who died, and his family used to live in Thedia? Right outside of Sawmill to be exact.”
How had he missed that? “No. How did you find out?”
A glint flashed in her eye. “I spoke to a student at the school—a former girlfriend of his.”
“Former?”
Wendy told him about the interview with Mike’s mom, and how she’d mentioned her son’s girlfriend. “Mrs. Evans thought Sherry might know who was at the party, but when I went to the school to speak with her, she was absent that day. While there, I ran into a girl by the name of Melanie Whittaker. By chance, she used to be Tom’s girlfriend.”
“I have to say, I’m impressed.”
Wendy smiled, and his cock hardened.
“It took some doing to get her to talk at first, but I promised that I was only interested in learning the identity of the drug dealer.”
Logan was doubly impressed with her ingenuity. “Clever. Did you learn anything else?”
“Your turn,” she said smugly.
He inhaled, not surprised at her request. Wendy was a cautious woman, and he liked that about her. “All right. Like you, my cousin Stone and I figured that the drugs were most likely coming from Thedia due to the cold climate. We tracked down some of the names of people who sell the mushrooms, as well as contacted the pharmaceutical companies who make Trilox. That’s the—”
“Yes, I know. It’s the opiate needed to blend with the mushrooms, along with a few other ingredients, to make the drug.”
Wendy was on top of things. “Yes. Anyway, we got nowhere, though we too asked some friends to check things out.”
“When were you in Thedia?”
“A day or two before you.”
“Then it’s possible you and your cousin and not me put these men on high alert. When I showed up and asked around, they became worried.”
He liked her logic. “It’s a possibility.”
“Why did you return to Thedia the night of the fire? Had you found out something else?” Wendy asked.
“I told you. When I called and you didn’t answer, I became worried. I mentioned it to Greer who called Danita. She told Greer that you might have turned off your phone because you were in another province. Putting the journalistic pieces together, I thought you might be investigating the same drug trail.”
“Danita didn’t tell Greer I was there to interview for a job?”
“She did.”
“Did you think I just told my cousin a lie so she wouldn’t worry?”
The thought had crossed his mind
, but it would be stupid on his part to say so. “I totally believed you had been offered a job, especially after that brilliant article you wrote.” That was the truth.
She smiled and lust filled him. “You read it?”
“I did. I had to see if you got the facts right.” He winked, hoping she understood that he was kidding. The fact he’d read the article was true.
The server came by, and she ordered. “So now what?” Wendy asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You said we could work together. Where do we go from here?”
A plan fell into place. “How about stopping over at my office tomorrow? We can make a list of everything we’ve learned so far. I believe that if we share our resources, the path will become clear.”
“Fair enough.”
“Say at ten?” That way, they could take a break in town and have another lunch date.
While Logan was interested in picking her brain about the case, he really just wanted to spend time with her.
“Sounds good.”
Logan sipped his coffee, happy the logistics of his plan were out of the way. “When you aren’t working, what do you like to do?” he asked.
She lowered her chin. “This doesn’t count as a real date, you know.”
Logan held up his hands. “Absolutely, because if it were, I would have picked you up at your house carrying a bouquet of flowers, and we would be having dinner together in a fancy restaurant and not lunch at a café.”
She laughed, just as he’d hoped. “Do you really arrive with flowers in hand on a first date?”
Logan wanted there to be no secrets between them. “Not unless it’s for a special lady.”
“Logan Caspian. Be good. I do want to go out to dinner with you, but I have to write this story first.”
She didn’t have time to go out with him, and yet she could spend the evening with her girlfriends? Besides, she was nowhere close to writing an exposé on the deaths of the teens. Something else was going on, but he didn’t want to pressure her just yet for the truth.
“Fine, no dating until after your article is finished. I too have a business to run, and I don’t have time to do my work, crack a drug ring, solve a murder case, and date you at the same time.”
He couldn’t be sure, but he thought from her heavy exhale that she was disappointed. At least, she didn’t call him out on his lie.
The food arrived shortly after, and he was careful not to ask any more personal questions—just those related to the case. When she asked about him, he shared as much as he could.
As they left the café, Wendy turned left to return home. Normally, Logan would have escorted her to her apartment to make sure no one was following her, but he suspected she’d balk. It didn’t matter. He planned to watch her another way.
“Tomorrow then,” he said over his shoulder.
Wendy’s eyebrows raised, implying she was surprised he wasn’t walking in her direction. The SinCas building was to the right, so she’d know something was up if he turned left and walked with her.
“Tomorrow.” She then took off.
Logan needed to do some reconnaissance on Wendy. Hopefully he could catch sight of her from the air. This might not be Thedia, but if someone murdered two innocent boys here, the drug cartel’s tentacles probably extended this far.
To be honest, after learning how the teens died, he wasn’t sure the drug cartel was involved in their murders. The teens could have purchased the stuff from some local dealer and used the drug without prompting. The poison could have been a separate issue all together. The uncertainty of it all served to drive him harder.
Once Logan reached the roof top, he took off. The problem with this method of surveillance was that he needed to be low enough to watch Wendy but high enough not to be spotted. He wouldn’t put it past her to check the sky for him since she might suspect it would be something he would do—and she’d be right.
Once he caught sight of her and confirmed that she entered her building, he continued toward the mine. Upon arrival, he landed, shifted, and then headed straight to his office. He’d just sat down when Stone came in. “Where have you been?”
His comment wasn’t accusatory but rather contained interest mixed with a hint of humor.
“I asked Wendy out to lunch. I wanted to let her know that she was possibly the target of the fire at her hotel.” He told him what Josh had learned.
Stone pulled up a chair. His cousin loved this kind of sleuthing. “Why would anyone want her dead?”
Logan filled him in with his best guess. Because Logan appreciated Stone’s keen mind, he also explained what Wendy had learned from speaking with the boys’ mothers, as well as what Tom’s ex-girlfriend had told her.
“What’s your next step?” Stone asked.
“I want to do a deep dive on Wendy’s ex-boyfriend.”
“You think he’d try to kill her?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I need to investigate.”
“Can I help?”
“For now, make sure the mine runs smoothly while I’m looking into this. I can’t let anyone else harm Wendy.”
Stone pushed back his chair. “You’ve got it.”
Once Stone left, Logan began his work. He wanted to be armed with facts when Wendy showed up tomorrow. It shouldn’t be hard to find rudimentary information about Deke Darnell, especially if his father owned a furniture company.
The image of hiding drugs in empty drawers and transporting the furniture across province lines flashed in his head. It was a reach, but it was a place to start. The first thing was to find the name of the father’s company.
Chapter Ten
Wendy was so confused. While she’d told Logan that she didn’t want to date because she needed to work on this article, that was only partially true. It was that she needed to keep some distance. Why? Logan unnerved her every time he was near, or more precisely, he set her body on fire. He also made her lose all common sense. She blamed that for the reason why her muse had abandoned her.
What was worse, for most of their lunch, she found herself just staring at him, fascinated how several times his eyes would have glorious swirls of teal in them. Studying him like that had been so unprofessional, but she couldn’t help it. The man seemed to have put a spell on her soul. But did that mean Logan was her mate?
Yes! Her wolf chimed in.
Mom, why did you have to die before you had the chance to give me the full lecture on mates? Sure, her friends had tried to fill her in, but a mother’s perspective would have been better. Wendy had heard enough to know that if Logan wasn’t her fated mate, his reaction at least meant he was highly attracted to her. The problem was that she wanted more than just sex. Just not right now.
A small smile lifted her lips when she remembered how she’d caught him staring at her after he’d asked her a personal question—something about what she wanted out of life. She swore he was holding his breath, urging her to tell him she wanted him.
I want him, chimed her wolf. Don’t you?
I can’t afford to think about it. Remember, the only way to stay in Edendale is to write some awe-inspiring exposé. I can’t be daydreaming about Logan Caspian.
Wendy sat up straighter. If she wanted to show Logan that she could be a team player, she needed to go through her notes and write them down in a clear and concise manner. This would include her impression of each person she’d spoken to—like whether a person was nervous, if they made eye contact or not, or if they sounded sincere. Hopefully, that would help Logan figure out who to keep investigating.
With a plan in mind, she pulled a notepad from her desk drawer and got to work. Wendy wasn’t sure how long she’d been at her desk when her cell rang. Again! Her pulse shot up, thinking it might be Logan. It wasn’t. It was Danita. Most likely, her cousin had found out that Wendy had met with Logan for lunch, which meant that nothing Wendy could say would convince Danita that it hadn’t been a real date.
“Hey, what’s up
?” Wendy asked.
“I called to find out about your date.”
News traveled way too fast. “It wasn’t exactly a date.”
Danita chuckled. “Sure, it wasn’t. Did you enjoy yourself, or was Logan an insufferable ass?”
As much as she wanted to complain about him, she didn’t want to lie. “He was a perfect gentleman.”
“When are you going to see him again?”
“Tomorrow morning. We are going over our case notes at his office.”
Danita said nothing for a minute. “Really? Logan didn’t try to convince you to drop this enquiry and find something else to write about?”
“He did more or less, but I think he understands that I need to do this.”
“He really is going to let you put yourself in danger like that?”
Now her cousin sounded like him. “I think Logan understands that he can’t tell me what to do. We’re meeting tomorrow to compare notes. That’s all. If I find anything, he can talk to anyone who’s sketchy. I’m not going up against a dragon shifter. That would be insane.”
“Good for you. But Wendy?”
Uh-oh. She knew that tone. “Yes?”
“I know Deke hurt you by dropping out of your life unexpectedly, but Logan isn’t like that.”
Wendy wanted to believe that, but she had been burned before. “I know. Look, I need to prepare for our meeting.”
“You mean your date.” Danita chuckled.
“Sure.” There was no use arguing. “Talk to you later.”
Because Wendy wanted to keep what was between them professional, she dressed in a skirt and heels and arrived on time. No one was manning the front desk of the mining office, so she headed down the hallway to Logan’s office.
His door being ajar implied he was waiting for her. Before she had the chance to even greet him, he looked up and smiled. Swirls of teal slashed through his eyes, and a few pulses of sapphire lit up the skin at his throat where he’d left his white shirt unbuttoned. Her traitorous heart jackknifed, and her wolf whined at the glorious sight. Holy crap, he just might be her mate. Yikes.
Logan pushed away from his desk and came around to the front. As he neared, her body quivered. “Hi,” she said, trying to be friendly but not act as if she was having a hard time breathing around him, which she was.