Triple Cross

by Tymber Dalton

  “We need to ask you a question.” She needed to maintain the ruse that Cameron was still alive.

  Wariness tinged his tone. “What kind of question?”

  Best to just dive right in. “Do you know of a woman by the name of Lacey Fraser?”

  More silence. Lasting so long that she pulled the phone away from her face to make sure the call hadn’t dropped.

  When he finally spoke, the wariness in his voice had been replaced by outright defensiveness. “Why do you want to know that?”

  She absolutely did not want to admit to him that Cameron was dead. She didn’t want to paint a target on her back just yet. Until she could build herself a position of strength for negotiating with the spellbook, she needed to be as circumspect as possible.

  “We know where her house is, but we don’t know who she is.”

  “And I still want to know why you want to know that.”

  She could lie with the best of them. His reluctance to answer meant the woman had to be someone important, or at least dangerous. “Cameron asked me to call and find out. He heard some people talking about her during an…operation we were involved in. Who is she?”

  “You mean an operation like the Yellowstone clusterfuck? Where you all screwed up and got people killed, as well as pissed off one of the most dangerous cockatrice hunters out there in the process? A cockatrice hunter who happens to be the little fucking sister of the fucking leader of the fucking Maine wolves? Oh, and not just her, and her older fucking brother—nooo, you assholes went all out and really fucked things up right—but their entire fucking Clan? And the clans of several other fucking predator shifters?” He was shouting by the time he finished.

  Shit. Neither one of them had said anything to anyone else about the Yellowstone incident. She knew Cameron’s cousin, Carl Shupe, had a few moles here and there, but had honestly thought their names would stay out of it once they left the Yellowstone area.

  Especially since the other participants were all dead.

  “I know Cameron was involved,” Carl continued, his voice only marginally calmer now. “It was his brother and our cousins found dead. And reports said at least one other cockatrice involved got away. Plus I got calls from two of their widows, asking for help paying their damn bills. I’m not an idiot, Aliah.”

  She didn’t know how to reply, so she waited him out.

  “Where are you two?” he asked.

  “I’m not going to tell you that.”

  “Then I don’t have to tell you shit. Good—”

  “We have one of the missing Grimoire Lilitu,” she blurted before he could hang up.

  More silence. Then, in a doubtful tone, he said, “Prove it.”

  Her heart raced. “Can you get picture texts on your cell phone?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Give me one minute.” She hung up and retrieved the book from where she’d hidden it in the bureau, tucked into one of her pairs of jeans with the legs wrapped around it. She walked into the bathroom and stepped into the shower. With the pale tile an unidentifiable background behind her, she snapped a selfie of her holding the book up next to her face, just so he couldn’t say she’d grabbed the picture from somewhere else.

  Then she texted it to him.

  Less than a minute later, her phone rang.

  She waited until the third ring to answer it. “Yes?”

  “She’s the Maine wolves’ Seer. Why the fuck do you want to go messing around with her? Didn’t you guys do enough damage in Yellowstone? Anyone catches you so much as breathing in her direction, they’ll rip you apart at the seams.”

  She smiled to herself as she returned the book to its hiding spot. “We just needed to know who she was, that’s all.”

  “Okay, now how the hell did you two get your hands on that book? And how much do you want for it?”

  Relief washed through her. She was in the position of power now.

  “We’ll get back to you. Make sure you keep your cell phone on you.”

  She hung up on him.

  Seer, huh?

  So one of the scents was the wolf Seer. The other…

  Hmm.

  Searching through Cameron’s things, she found the nine millimeter he sometimes carried—

  Used to carry, she corrected herself, blinking away the sudden prickle of tears.

  Making sure it was loaded, she returned to the car.

  Time to go hunting.

  * * * *

  Elain drove straight to the Blackestones’ house inside the Maine Clan compound. When she’d considered turning in at Lacey’s to offload her luggage and freshen up, a sudden thought to keep going had struck her. It would put her at their house over twenty minutes early, but she knew Callie wouldn’t mind. Callie, still a few months away from delivering her baby, had already developed a baby bump that Elain noticed Blackie didn’t seem to be able to keep his hands off of any time he was near his mate.

  I wonder if my guys will be doing that, too? It was such a sweet, loving gesture.

  Then again, with three of them, I might get sick of that pretty damn quick.

  Blackie left them in the kitchen to go make a Clan Council phone call. Elain took advantage of the alone time with Callie.

  “Okay, so to clarify my question—”

  “No, they can’t read what you don’t want them to.” Callie grinned. “And no, I didn’t read your mind to know that, either.”

  “So Baba Yaga and Gigi can’t know what you don’t want them to?”

  “Nope. Can’t really see anything about each other, either. Not unless it involves someone else, and we’re having a vision about that other person.” She frowned and turned to Elain. “What, exactly, have you been doing the past couple of days that you don’t want known?”

  Elain arched an eyebrow at her.

  “Sorry. Right. Seer business. Got it.”

  “I’d tell you if I could.”

  “No, believe me, I get it. I couldn’t begin to count the number of times I’ve had to keep stuff from people over the years. Occupational hazard, and not always a fun one.”

  Callie outdid herself. By the time Elain pushed back from the table, she was so full she couldn’t eat another bite if she wanted to.

  Blackie studied her from across their dining room table. “You sure you’re all right, Elain? Anything I need to know about?”

  “Sorry. Seer stuff. Did my guys ask that?”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, but I warned them I might not be able to tell them even if you told me.”

  She couldn’t and wouldn’t blame them for trying. Brodey had apparently tried to call her a couple of times from the house phone, but each time she’d sent it to voice mail.

  He can wait.

  “Ain said you mentioned something about a cockatrice?”

  She templed her fingers, not sure she wanted to get too deeply into it right then. “This is between Seer and Clan leader, okay?”

  He nodded, glancing at Callie, who also nodded.

  She didn’t want to outright lie to him, either. But she did need to bring him into the loop. “I did some exploring. One of the two graves that the jaguars found, it did have two cockatrice in it. When I first got here, I went looking and found it. And when I put my hands on it, I had a vision.”

  His gaze narrowed as he leaned forward, elbows propped on the table. “And?”

  “You know the cockatrice spellbook we’ve got? The one Lina brought back from Yellowstone a couple of years ago? The one that belonged to Lenny?”

  He nodded.

  “Lenny’s brother, Edgar, had one, too. Not a duplicate like what Lina found in Brussels. Another original book. Lenny got it after Edgar’s death. But now it’s missing. And I think I know who has it.”

  He didn’t ask, waiting for her to continue.

  “One of the dead cockatrice in the grave was the other cockatrice kidnapper from Yellowstone.”

  “Son of a bitch,” he muttered.

  “And I think his mate has the bo
ok.”

  “But where’d they get it? Were they the ones who ransacked Lenny’s house? And who the hell killed and buried them?”

  Here’s where she had to tread lightly. “That’s where it gets…tricky. When I have more information to tell you, I will. But I’m pretty sure she’s got the book.”

  “Do you know who she is?”

  “No. I don’t have a name. All we know is that Mercedes and Jim both heard the cockatrice talking about a guy named Cameron. And he and his wife probably were the couple that escaped the meth lab before we got there. We didn’t get her name that night.”

  He sat back, thunder in his expression. “Holy crap. Do we have any clue where she is now?”

  “I think she’s still in the area.”

  “Then let’s call Kitty in. Maybe Jocko can put us in touch with Mercedes, and we can get her help.”

  Elain’s lips pressed together in a thin line as she grimly shook her head.

  Confusion filled his expression. “What? Why not?”

  Callie connected the dots first. “Because Mercedes is dead, isn’t she?” she quietly asked.

  Elain nodded.

  Daniel stared at her before throwing his head back and rubbing his eyes with his hands. “Fuck. She was the one in the other grave?”

  Elain forced her nervous bark of laughter to come out as a cough. “Yeah.” Was being the key word there, but he doesn’t need to know that.

  He was quiet for several long minutes. Finally, he looked at her again. “Any idea who killed them?”

  How to play this? She finally decided for the most direct path. “I can’t tell you who killed them. Only that they are on our side, and they are no longer in the area.”

  “Can’t tell me, or won’t?”

  “In this case, they mean the same thing.”

  “Shit,” he muttered. “Any idea if the cockatrice woman will pop up here again?”

  “I don’t know. I wish I could say no, but I don’t know. Tomorrow morning, I’m going back out to the cockatrice grave and see what I can…you know, see.”

  “Wait a minute.” He scowled. “I thought the jaguars told Kitty the second grave was cockatrice, too?”

  “I’m thinking,” Elain carefully said, “they were either having issues because of the skunk, or maybe the cockatrice killed Mercedes and buried her, which would explain that scent.”

  “Then someone else killed the other cockatrice?”

  “Maybe.” Still not technically a lie.

  “Okay. Do you want me or someone else to go out with you?”

  “No. I’ll be fine. I’m afraid if anyone else was out there with me that it might distract me. With this much time having passed since their deaths, I’d rather not have distractions in case it makes it harder to get the visions again.”

  “Okay.”

  Elain insisted on helping them with the dishes. The couple walked her out to her car when she was ready to leave a little before eleven. After hugging them good-bye, she got in and started to drive back to Lacey’s.

  Her mind drifted as the headlights cut through the darkness. She needed to be careful about how much information she gave out, and to whom. She didn’t want to mix up her stories with different people, and she didn’t want to say anything that would lead back to the jaguars and raise Blackie’s suspicions about Marston.

  That would likely be a sore spot in her psyche for the next eighteen years.

  Then again, I might decide to torture him by letting him live.

  When she made the turn into Lacey’s driveway, she stopped, the engine running.

  The house looked exactly as it had when she left it a couple of days earlier.

  Yet…

  At the base of her spine she felt a bad, nasty tingling sensation. She’d heard Brodey describe exactly the same sensation.

  It usually meant danger.

  She shifted the car into park. Leaving the headlights on and the engine running, she opened the door and stepped out, nose to the air. She walked around the front of the car, her shadow cast onto the porch.

  It wasn’t strong, but it came to her clearly in the cool, still night air.

  Cockatrice.

  She jumped back inside the car, slamming and locking the door as she threw it into reverse without even bothering to put her seat belt on. Foot jammed to the floor, she backed out of the driveway as fast as she could, glad the road was empty as she braked hard and jerked the wheel. She spun around and shifted into drive, flooring it again and heading back to Blackie’s house.

  * * * *

  Aliah swore as she turned and bolted through the woods toward where she’d left her car. The damn bitch must have caught her scent. No doubt there would soon be dozens of pissed-off wolves flooding into the area. She’d been waiting across the road from the house for several hours, just about to give up and return to the hotel when the wolf bitch had arrived.

  She’d gotten a good look at her, too, when she’d stepped out. It wasn’t an old Seer woman, so it had to be the other, fresher wolf scent she’d smelled.

  The one she’d smelled around Cameron’s grave, and around the house.

  She also noted her license plate number. Florida plate.

  Carl would no doubt be able to get that information for her.

  It wasn’t a name, but at least she had a clue, and a start. And it was one step closer to her revenge.

  Chapter Nine

  Blackie, Wally, Kitty, Oscar, and several other shifters scoured the area, but didn’t find the cockatrice. The closest they came was a scent they tracked to a popular day use area for the forest, where several dozen cars parked on any given day that time of year.

  It would be impossible to figure out which vehicle the scent led to, much less track it, unlike Yellowstone. Plus they had no idea how old the scent was, minutes or hours.

  Elain was relieved when no one reported any strange scents in Lacey’s backyard other than the cockatrice.

  Ryan’s little trick must have worked.

  Blackie ordered Elain to stay at his place with Callie, Jocko, and several other shifters standing guard over her. Jocko had brought Jasper with him, who immediately glued himself to Elain’s side as if he knew his mom had wanted it that way.

  When Blackie returned to his house a little after two in the morning, Callie and Elain were sitting up and talking in the living room. Elain had called Brodey earlier from her cell phone, chatting briefly just to say good night, after she returned to Blackie’s and got her story out to him.

  She asked Blackie not to say anything to her guys about the scare yet. Not until they had some answers.

  “Maybe you should stay here tonight,” Blackie suggested.

  Elain could tell he was itching to order her to do exactly that, and knew he couldn’t.

  She suspected if she tried to argue that he would call Ain, rat her out, and hand the phone to Elain.

  “Okay, but can we go back to Lacey’s right now, for a few minutes?”

  “Why?”

  “I want to get that scent. I want to make sure I know it. And maybe I’ll get a vision of who it is. And I want to pick up a couple of things.”

  He debated it, finally nodding. “Okay. I’ll take you.” He left Jocko and a couple of the shifters there with Callie, and had Elain and two other wolf shifters ride with him.

  Blackie handed her a flashlight when they got to Lacey’s and stuck close to her as Elain circled the house. The other two shifters stayed sharp, following, eyes and ears alert.

  She played the beam across the backyard, relieved to see the ground around the sundial lay undisturbed.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  She walked over to the porch, sniffing. The cockatrice, she suspected a female, had come back here, too, but hadn’t lingered.

  “They found the spot across the street where the person waited,” he told her.

  “Can we go there?”

  He nodded and led the way.

  Here the scent came clear and
strong to Elain’s sensitive nose. She found where the woman had sat and leaned back against a pine tree at one point.

  Handing the flashlight to Blackie, she sat in the same spot and closed her eyes. She was then looking at Lacey’s, as if through someone else’s point of view.

  Obviously, the person who’d waited.

  She felt grief and anger and rage, a desire for revenge, but couldn’t get a name or a face.

  Finally, she opened her eyes and held a hand up to Blackie for assistance. “It’s definitely a cockatrice, I think a female, but I don’t know who she is. It might be the one we talked about earlier.”

  “No name or face?”

  She shook her head. “No. Not yet.”

  “Did you want to call Mai or Lina?”

  The snort escaped her before she could contain it. “No offense, but no. They’ll tell Ain. If they’d seen something, they would have already called. I do want to go inside and get my gun, though.”

  Nodding, they traipsed back to the house, Blackie taking the key from her and unlocking the door. He and one of the other shifters went in first and checked it out to make sure it was safe and empty.

  After she got her gun, they locked the house and returned to Blackie’s. “I think maybe you need to go home sooner rather than later,” he told her. “As in tomorrow.”

  She wanted to argue. Really wanted to argue. She wanted to check out the rental house. She wanted to search local motels.

  Then again, she had another consideration.

  Her hand came to rest on her stomach.

  “Okay.”

  “I can send someone with you. Or fly you back and have someone drive your car to Florida.”

  “No.” She reached down and petted Jasper’s head. “I’ll have him with me. Lacey told me he’ll protect me. If I wasn’t supposed to drive back home, she would have told me.”

  “Where did she go, anyway? Did she tell you?”

  Elain hedged again. “Yes.”

  He stared at her. Finally, “She doesn’t want you to tell.”

  “Exactly.” She shrugged. “She’s earned a vacation, and her privacy. She’ll be back soon.”

  Callie got Elain settled in their guest room, Jasper following her in. As she prepared for bed, she sat on the edge and patted her leg. Jasper sat in front of her, his head resting in her lap, sweet eyes focused on her.