by Vella Day
“Glad you could make it,” he said as he gathered her into a hug.
While Wendy understood she should move back, she liked the way his arms enveloped her and made her feel warm and tingly.
“Hey, have a seat,” he said. “Can I get you some coffee, tea, juice, or water? We have a well-stocked breakroom.” He grinned and then winked.
More heart pounding happened. It was her wolf who was doing this, she was sure.
He asked you a question, her wolf said.
“Coffee would be great. Black. Thanks.” Wendy smiled but her stupid lips quivered in the process.
He ran a hand down her shoulder before stepping toward the door. As much as she wanted to ignore his fine ass, she couldn’t.
As soon as Logan disappeared down the hallway, Wendy looked around his office. It was neat, yet comfortable. The furniture seemed a bit worn, like real work was conducted here. When he returned, Logan was carrying two coffee mugs with steam rolling off the top, which he set on the desk. “Better let it cool.”
She appreciated how considerate he was.
Needing to focus on the job and not on the hunky man in front of her, Wendy pulled out her notepad. “Did you find out anything significant since yesterday?” she asked, trying to get her head in the game.
A strange look crossed his face. “I don’t know how significant it was, but I learned that Ted Yancy was a driver for Sawmill Furniture.”
She’d uncovered that tidbit months ago. “I know.”
“Do you know who owns Sawmill Furniture?”
“Deke’s father. I looked into him. Just so you know, the incident was before I met Deke. The driver might have worked for Deke’s dad, but that didn’t mean his father had anything to do with the man’s death.”
“I agree. In light of the death of the teens though, I want to do a little more digging.”
“Fine by me. Do you have anything that indicates the deaths are linked?”
“No, which was why I spoke with Anderson this morning. I asked him to check if there were any other deaths in the recent past in which someone had Crenathum and rat poison in their system. He found nothing.”
She had to think about that. “I can see it is possible the same person murdered the driver as well as the boys, though I can’t imagine why.”
“Neither can I for now.”
Needing a moment to think, Wendy reached over to his desk, lifted her cup, and blew across the still hot surface. When it had cooled a bit, she sipped the hot brew. “Then let’s prove it.”
Logan smiled. “I plan to. With your help, naturally,” he said.
Wendy prided herself on being open-minded, and she didn’t want him to think that she was prejudiced, especially with her having dated Deke. “Then let’s get to work.”
“Good. I’ve set up a computer on the table if you want to use it.” He nodded to her tablet. “Or you can use your own.” He gave her the Internet password so she could do her searches.
“Thank you.”
“Do you know the name of Deke’s mate?” he asked once she was set up.
Clearly Logan had no other clues if he wanted her name. “Becky. I don’t know her last name.”
“What does she look like?”
She was beautiful, exotic, and a shifter. “Brown hair, green eyes, and model thin.”
“Thanks.”
“Why?” Wendy really wanted to know how his mind worked.
Logan leaned back from his desk. “When I research, I like to paint an entire picture of the people involved. Even the smallest detail can help.”
She couldn’t argue with that. “Good to know. Did your cop cousin teach you to do that?”
“Anderson certainly helped.”
Logan returned to viewing his computer. The chair at the table he’d set up for her faced him, and the arrangement wasn’t going to help with her concentration. It did have one benefit though. She could study Logan. If he found some juicy piece of information, she doubted he’d be able to hide it.
Get to work! she told herself. As much as she’d like to watch him, analyzing his strengths and weaknesses, she had a job to do.
Wendy lowered her gaze to the laptop. The first order of business was to look for photos of the two dead teens in the Edendale Prep High School’s online yearbook. Why? Wendy wanted to know who both Mike and Tom hung out with. While it was a long shot, it was possible one of their acquaintances might be the killer or at the very least be able to point her in the right direction. As she did her search, she sipped her coffee.
“Did you know that Deke has a criminal record?” Logan blurted, interrupting her concentration. From the smug look on his face, he was happy to have found something wrong with her former boyfriend.
Wendy’s fingers stilled, and she forced herself to keep a blank face. “No, but I can’t imagine it was for anything serious. As a young dragon shifter, he probably wasn’t the most well-behaved, especially since his father was wealthy and was often at work instead of playing with his son.” Deke complained how his dad wasn’t around much during his childhood.
“You’re right. It was never for anything serious. In fact, he never even spent a night in jail. Rather, he was fined for his transgressions.”
Which his father probably paid. “What were the offenses?”
“Deke was brought in a few times for disturbing the peace and getting into fights.”
That wasn’t so bad. “How long ago was that?”
“Enough time for him to have grown up.”
She appreciated that Logan was willing to be fair. However, it bothered her a bit that Deke had never mentioned his less than perfect past. “For all of his flaws, I never thought he was the type who looked for trouble. His father was quite powerful in the province. If Deke messed up, it would have reflected poorly on his dad. From what I recall, his father ran for city council a time or two, but I’m not sure if he ever won.”
“Would you say they were close?”
She wasn’t sure what he was getting at, but she’d answer honestly. “I had the sense there was some resentment between them.”
“Good insight. I’ll check it out. What angle are you working on?”
She told him about trying to find who the boys hung out with. “One of their friends might have been jealous of their success and wanted them gone. According to Tom’s former girlfriend, Tom struggled in school. I think she was surprised he got into Hanfield.”
“A person with a higher scholastic ranking might believe he or she should have been the one to get into that school.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Even if this person didn’t harm either boy, I might be able to figure out who was at the party that night.” Melanie’s list had basically been a bust. “If their friends had been doing drugs, it probably wouldn’t have been their first time. They might even know who sold them the drugs.”
“Great job. Keep working on that.” Logan smiled, and Wendy held in a sigh at how handsome he looked.
Pride filled her. More than anything, she wanted him to respect her abilities.
Wendy returned to her search of the online yearbook. Whenever the same student appeared with either Mike or Tom more than a few times, she made a note of his or her name. After a while her eyes began to blur. Just as she was about to get up and refresh her coffee, an image caught her eye, but she had to blink a few times to prevent her imagination from running rampant. It was a photo of Tom with a man in the school parking lot. And the man looked a lot like Deke. It couldn’t be him though, because there was a sign in the background announcing an ongoing play in town during the time she thought Deke was back in Thedia. If the photo hadn’t been so blurry, she would have asked if maybe Logan could enlarge it.
Most likely, it only looked like Deke, because they’d just been talking about him. She pushed it aside and continued making her list.
“Coffee?” Logan asked.
Oh, crap. She hadn’t even noticed Logan had left his desk and was standing next to
her with a coffee pot. “Yes, thank you. You read my mind. I was about to get some.”
He filled her mug and then leaned over her shoulder. His alluring lemony scent had her wolf scratching. She worked hard to push aside the lust.
“You find anything?” he asked.
“I think so.” She showed him her list of student names. “I will contact them to see if they were at the party.” She could only hope she had better luck than her first try.
Logan tapped the image on the screen of Tom and the man. “Who is he?”
“I don’t know. Tom had two tutors. It could be a teacher or either Mr. Quigley or Mr. Hammersmith. They both worked with Tom.”
“How about we print the image and show it around the school?” Logan asked.
“It’s kind of blurry.”
“Agreed, but someone might recognize him.”
“You really think it’s important?”
“I’m not sure, but all adults are suspect. While it is possible the drug dealer was a fellow student, I want to cover my bases in case it wasn’t.”
“I thought we were trying to find a murderer, not a drug dealer,” she said.
“Who’s to say they aren’t one and the same?” He then cocked a brow. If his eyes hadn’t been twinkling, Wendy might have felt he was testing her.
“They definitely could be.” She sighed. “I swear, the more I dig, the more loose ends I uncover. Soon I’ll be buried in them.” Her stomach grumbled, and she sipped her coffee.
Logan chuckled. “It always seems like that.” He snapped his fingers. “I have an idea.”
She looked up. “What is it?”
“Before we check out the photo at the school, how about we catch some lunch and then take a little trip?”
That was the last thing she expected him to say. “Where to?”
“It might be time to get some help from a person who seems to know things.”
“That’s a little cryptic. Who is this person?”
“Do you remember Kenton and Bevon from the mining incident?”
“Remember them? I could never forget Kenton. He saved me from that terrible Malpan.”
“True. If you didn’t know, Kenton and Bevon have a few other siblings who also have abilities. I’m not sure I would call them psychic, but they have powers. They’ve given advice to Burk, Griffin, Nessa, and several other members of my family at one time or another.”
“Do you think Kenton will be there? I’d love to thank him.”
“No guarantees, but it will be fun to see the eternal flame again even if he’s not.”
“That’s pretty far away.” She’d read about the flame in school but spending all that time driving for a short visit never seemed worthwhile.
“Not for a dragon shifter.”
“We’ll fly then?”
“If you’re up for it.”
She smiled, and his nails extended, not to mention something else grew right before her eyes. “For sure.”
Logan cleared his throat. “You can leave your purse and tablet here. You don’t need to be carrying anything during our hike through the forest.” He held up a palm. “But first, lunch is on me.”
“I appreciate that.”
Once outside, Logan stepped back and shifted. Sunlight bounced off his sapphire and black scales, and she had to swallow a sigh. He was truly magnificent, so powerful and hot—no pun intended.
His mouth parted slightly, and Wendy could have sworn he was smiling, though she didn’t know if dragons could smile. He moved closer, reached out, and gently picked her up. After he interlaced his talons to provide a comfortable resting spot, he soared upward. Wind whipped through her hair, and the air cooled the higher they traveled. His heat seemed to alter something inside her. It was as if they were connected on an elemental level.
Mate, mate, her wolf shouted.
I’m beginning to think you are right.
Hallelujah.
The trip to town was unfortunately short-lived. She might have been disappointed had she not known that after lunch, they’d be going far across the realm, and she could once again be pressed against his body, able to feel his soaring strength. Their destination in town was the SinCas building where he landed on the roof. Logan set her down and then shifted.
“You good?” he asked, sounding so sincere, she wanted to remind him she was anything but fragile.
Wendy stepped close and ran her hand down his arm. “Very good.”
With a palm to her back, he walked her over to a metal door that led to a downward flight of stairs. She didn’t ask which restaurant they were going to, because she didn’t honestly care.
Wendy wasn’t sure when exactly her attitude about being with him had changed, but after seeing Logan work on the case that she wanted to solve, it had created a bond between them—and it was time to see where it could lead.
Chapter Eleven
Lunch with Wendy had been hard to get through, mostly because every time Logan looked at her, he wanted her so bad that he was tempted to tell her they were mates.
She knows we are, his dragon chimed in.
I wish she would act like she knew.
Wendy was currently in his grasp high above the fertile plains and hills of Tarradon. Clearly, it would take all of his control just to fly to the middle of the realm with her so close to his heart. And those damn flames inside his body kept erupting with a need to make her his own. But he would practice patience even if it killed him.
Stop being so dramatic. Enjoy her while you can.
His damn dragon needed to shut up. It didn’t matter that his animal might be right for a change.
Logan didn’t fly to the middle of the realm often, which might be why he was in awe of the spectacular scenery, and he hoped Wendy appreciated the view too. To her credit, she didn’t squirm. Even her grip on his talons was light. Logan supposed having dated a dragon shifter before helped her get over her fear of flying.
Eventually, the edge of the forest appeared, and he slowly made his way to the ground. Once he landed, he gently placed Wendy down. As he stepped back to shift, she stretched, implying the flight must have been hard on her body. Not moving for that long would have been difficult—not that he had that kind of first-hand experience.
He had considered meeting Fay by himself, but Wendy needed to hear what she or any of the siblings had to say—assuming they were around.
Logan recalled the trouble his brother Griffin had when he’d tried to learn the fate of their cousin Tory after Kenton Forrester had transported her to his realm. Griffin had waited hours for one of them to show up at the eternal flame. Only when he’d exited the forest ready to take flight did Fay Forrester make an appearance. All she would say was that everything would be okay, and thankfully, she’d been right.
Before Logan had decided to take this trip, he had considered seeking out the Four Sisters for their help, but they only performed their magic when a mate was in trouble. His wasn’t, and he planned to do everything in his power to keep it that way.
“It’s about a twenty-minute walk. Are you up for that?” he asked.
She smiled, forcing him to block out her allure. He had a mission to complete.
“Lead the way.”
Logan pointed to the wide opening in the trees. “It’s just down this path.”
She walked by his side, oohing and aahing whenever the light streamed through the leaves. Wendy grabbed his arm to stop him. She then looked upward and spun around, her eyes wide. “Can you feel the magic?”
Logan took a moment to absorb the atmosphere. “Not so much for me, but if the Feys and Fairies live nearby, it probably is all around us.”
He only saw a wide dirt path and tall trees on either side. If she was able to spot magic, maybe Wendy was part white lighter. It was possible she was like her white lighter cousin, Danita, though if she were, Wendy would have been aware of her abilities. Then again, Danita didn’t know she could stop time until after she’d been captured.
They were halfway there when Wendy tripped. His fast reflexes allowed him to catch her by the waist. “You good?” he asked.
She straightened and then faced him. “Yes. Thank you. I really need to watch where I’m going. I owe you enough.” She smiled, and Logan wanted to kiss her, if only to drink in her joy—but he didn’t. Hopefully, that would come later.
During the final leg of their trek, he told her about his family’s former interactions with the Fairies and Feys.
“Do you think one of these people will know who killed the teens—teens who live in a different province?” she asked.
“I don’t think that’s an issue for the Forresters. Are they omniscient, you might ask? I couldn’t say. What I do know is that they come from a different realm, though I don’t need to tell you. You were the one who saw Kenton create a portal to Feyrion.”
“I saw a portal, though I can’t vouch for where it went.”
He could understand her hesitation to draw that conclusion. “My relatives were told there are additional portals near the eternal flame, but they never saw one in action like you did.”
“You know, I never had the chance to ask why your family was at those mines to save the slaves.”
He’d wondered when she’d ask. Logan debated telling her about them being Guardians, but he wanted the timing to be right. “Our sales of copper had plummeted dramatically for two months straight. When we heard there might be a competing mine using forced labor, we had to investigate.” That was no lie.
“I see. I’m glad you were able to shut it down.”
“Me too.” He needed to clear up one more thing before they met with the Forresters. “When we get there, I’d like to do the talking.” Wendy stopped and spun to face him, probably ready to give him a lecture on them being equals. He rushed on. “It’s only because the Forresters have interacted with my family that they might trust me.”