Dad. Shade. The baby.
Dad was going to be a grandfather, and she couldn’t tell him, either. Not now, if ever.
How had this happened to her? How had she become a person of half-truths?
“So,” she asked, “do you have any new information about the case?”
His expression closed. Dad didn’t approve of anyone but other cops knowing their business. “Nothing substantive.”
“But there’s something, right?” she asked.
“You already know about it.”
Uh-oh. What had he heard? “About what?” she asked over the sound of her rushing pulse.
“The dogfight. You were there, weren’t you?”
“You know me and her dedication to saving helpless animals.”
Dad gave her an intent look, and she noticed his eyes were red-rimmed. Had he been crying about Shade?
“Well, it seems your brother thought dogfights were connected with some murders that Shade and Ethan were investigating.” He stopped a minute and cleared his throat, as if he was having trouble talking about it. “Turned out they were using other kinds of animals. You were there, so what do you know about that?”
Trying to figure out how to handle this—she couldn’t tell Dad the truth—she said, “Yeah. I was totally shocked—”
And was relieved when a uniformed officer called him. “Hey, Roger, we got a guy up front looking for you.”
Dad seemed torn. Maybe he thought he was going to get new information about the animal fights out of her.
Or maybe he wanted to talk about Shade. She clenched her jaw, fighting the sting in her eyes. “Hey, if you have to go, go. Don’t keep whoever it is waiting. We can always talk later.”
Nodding, Dad left to see what his visitor wanted.
When this was all over, she could try to get closer to him. Maybe she could even figure out a way for him to meet his grandchild without telling him everything.
Heading to find Ethan and Luc, she opened the interview room door, to her relief just as Luc clicked off Shade’s cell.
Neither man spoke.
Ethan appeared stunned, and Skye was doubly glad she hadn’t been there to watch. She didn’t need to see to believe.
She gave Ethan a minute before asking, “Are you ready to open up your mind now?”
“After seeing that, seeing a dead panther change into our last victim, what choice do I have?”
Ethan didn’t sound happy, and she could see he was still struggling with the idea of anything supernatural. Luc had simply closed himself off for the moment.
“You can help us shut down the shifter fights,” she told Ethan, “without letting the whole city know the real details.”
“Hey, I’m not ready for a psych evaluation. This goes no further if I can help it.” He was staring at Luc as if he was trying to get under the other man’s skin. “How are you involved?”
“The woman in the video worked for my father. She was a good friend of mine, someone I knew since I was a child.”
Ethan shook his head. “I’m sorry for your loss. I recognized her. Our latest victim. Did you know the others who have died?”
“Not well. But the fight last night? They tried forcing my sister into that arena. Luckily we arrived in time for me to get Nuala out of there.”
“If she had to fight, she might have lost the baby.” Skye looked straight into Ethan’s eyes. “Shade’s baby.”
Ethan sat up straight. “Wait! Shade?”
She nodded. “I’m waiting for him to get his memory back before telling him.”
Then Ethan glared at Luc. “You’re one of them, too?”
Some emotion foreign to her passed through Luc’s expression. “I am my father’s son.”
“That’s no recommendation.”
Irritated, she asked, “Ethan, are you willing to work with us to shut this thing down or not?”
Ethan was still staring at Luc, unanswered questions tightening his features. “Yeah. Matter of fact, I already started by digging into the histories of the fight venues. The properties were all bought in the last six months by different companies.”
“Then what’s the connection?” she asked, her confidence in him rewarded. She’d known he would do something to help whether or not he believed the more unusual parts of her story.
“They were shell companies. I tracked them back to a single corporation. Come back to my desk. I have something to show you.”
Skye followed Ethan, keeping an eye out for her father in case she needed to waylay him again. A silent Luc stayed at her side. Thankfully, none of the other detectives seemed interested in them. Everyone was hard at work on their own cases.
At his desk, Ethan shuffled through a stack of files and pulled out a sheet of paper. “This is the company logo for Fauna.”
Fauna meant animal kingdom. The company logo was a fancy “F”. A snake wound its way up the vertical line, and a panther crouched along the lower horizontal line, while a hawk perched on the upper one.
“How fitting.” All predators, like the animals in the habitat. “Did you get the name of the owner?”
Ethan’s expression darkened. “Unfortunately, not. The ownership of the company is buried in a trust. Trusts aren’t recorded, so there was no way to find the names of the beneficiaries. All I could see was the name of the registered agent.”
“Who is?” Luc asked.
“Someone named Sam Hawk.”
Hawk as in one of the logo creatures.
Luc didn’t say anything, but she sensed his reaction. He’d gone stiff but was trying to cover. Whatever he was thinking, he was keeping it from her.
Ethan asked him, “Do you know this Sam Hawk?”
“The name is familiar.”
Skye sensed it was more than familiar to him, that he knew the man but didn’t want to admit it. And she didn’t want to challenge him, not here.
She turned to Ethan. “If you brought Hawk in, do you think he would tell you anything?”
“If I can find him, I can bring him in, but I don’t know if I can break him. Considering...” He turned to Luc. “What are you going to do with this information?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“I suggest you figure out exactly who this man is in your father’s organization. And then tell Skye where I can find him.”
Luc nodded but didn’t answer Ethan. Skye wasn’t sure Luc was willing to do any such thing.
“We should get going,” she said. “I’ll let you know anything we learn.” She flashed a look at Luc. And you’ll do the same, right?
His refusal to answer made her chest go tight. What did he know that he didn’t want to share?
Nevertheless, she wouldn’t press the issue, not here. But when they were alone, she was going to get some answers from him.
Chapter Thirty-Three
After Luc had wheeled the Jaguar out of the parking lot, Skye asked, “Who is it, Luc? You know something. I can feel it.”
He didn’t say a word, simply drove fast, his moves between and around other cars sharp. And dangerous. He didn’t care. Part of him already felt destroyed.
“Please slow down. You’re scaring me.”
He slowed the car, if barely. “I don’t want to believe what I think is true.” Even though he’d seen the logo for himself. And the owner’s name being Sam Hawk couldn’t be a coincidence.
“Tell me.”
“Not here. Not like this.” Hollow inside, he didn’t want to go out of control and hurt someone else. Especially not Skye.
“Where?” she asked.
“My place.”
“Your place. Assuming we get there alive,” she muttered.
Luc drove with the same aggression he’d needed to stay alive in Iraq. Images of those days were burned in his mind like photographs. Add to that Jez being ripped apart. And Hank’s poor body covered in blood. What next?
His decision about making a commitment was suddenly more confusing. If he became one of th
em by choice, he would have power over the Kindred he didn’t have now. If he didn’t commit, could he stop more people he cared about from being killed? If he did commit, would he still even care what happened to them? He didn’t know. Look at what had happened to Nik. The thought unsettled him the most. The thing that had, so far, kept him from giving up his soul.
“Hey, this is the Museum Campus area,” Skye said, as if she suddenly realized where they were. “We’re nearly to The Ark. I thought we were headed for your place.”
“We are.”
He made a sharp turn east and headed down a line of high-rises straight in the direction of the casino boat. Reaching the building farthest east, he turned toward the garage entrance. The door lifted automatically, and he drove inside and parked.
A few minutes later, they were in the elevator, zooming upward. His apartment was a third of the way up the building. He could have gotten a penthouse, but he considered his apartment in the perfect position. With floor-to-ceiling windows, it was high enough for spectacular views both of the high-rise skyline to the north and the lakefront to the south, with a glimpse of the greenery of the surrounding trees. But most importantly, its shadow fell directly over The Ark, a quarter of a mile to the east, with nothing in between to impede his view. The living area was open concept with an incredible kitchen. And there was a very large balcony that swept the length of the apartment overlooking the lake and casino boat. He didn’t spend all that much time here, but when he did, The Ark was never out of sight unless he was asleep.
Crossing to the edge of the kitchen peninsula facing the windows, he grabbed a bottle of tequila and poured a shot. Maybe he could burn away the frustration and feeling of helplessness.
“Want one?” he asked Skye.
“No, thanks.”
Downing the shot in one gulp, he poured another. Liquid courage would bolster him for the discussion with her he could no longer avoid. He opened the glass door to the balcony and stepped outside where he had a clear view of The Ark. His destiny, one way or the other. He felt trapped by his heritage, couldn’t simply walk away from it. And yet, as much as he hated it, he loved it, too.
He stood at the railing and tossed down the second shot of tequila.
Skye moved next to him. “Tell me now.”
Her arm brushed his and, for once, he didn’t experience the hot attraction that usually zapped between them. He wasn’t feeling much of anything but pain that started deep inside and traveled outward to his raw nerve endings. He’d always known Pop’s world was filled with uneasy surprises, but this one was really ugly. Unable to describe the depth of his devastation, he set down the glass on a nearby table and leaned on the railing, his gaze pinned to the center of what would undoubtedly be his own destruction. The Ark.
Skye didn’t give up so easily. “Seeing the Fauna logo upset you. Why?” she asked.
Knowing she would keep at him until he talked, Luc said, “You only met my brother Nik briefly, but maybe you noticed his ring.”
Skye placed her hand on his arm. “Gold with predators etched on the surface.”
“A wolf, a snake, and a hawk.”
“Ah, like the Fauna logo. You fear that Nik owns the company promoting the fights. His ring isn’t absolute proof.”
Ironic someone like Skye was standing up for someone like his brother.
“Not the ring alone, no. But when we were kids, Nik and Nuala and I took on character names and played out silly scenarios. Sam Hawk was a comic book hero that Nik particularly admired.” The irony of the hero part didn’t get by him. “Nik made Nuala and me call him Hawk.”
“The reason you were familiar with the name,” she said, apparently remembering his response to Ethan.
“The other day I asked him directly if he was running the shifter fights, and he wouldn’t answer me. Just got evasive.”
“Still, you can’t be sure. You need to talk to him—”
“There’s no talking to him. You don’t understand what Nik’s like now. What he’s been like since he gave up his soul.”
She was quiet for a moment. Then she asked, “That changed him how?”
“It turned him into a different person. He used to be a real big brother to me. Teaching me things. Standing up for me when one of the other Kindred bullied me because my mother wasn’t one of them.” Luc tried to remember that any time Nik did something hateful, but it was getting more and more difficult. “And then one day it all changed. Nik called me a bastard and Pop stood up for me and punished him. And things were never the same between us again.”
“Luc, don’t you see? He’s jealous of you.”
“What reason would he have to be jealous of me?”
“Your father’s love for you is evident.”
“Nik is the firstborn.”
“But from what I understand, your mother is the woman Cezar loves, and you are her child.”
That hadn’t really occurred to him. That Nik simply wanted him gone to have Pop’s full attention on him. Was his brother really willing to do anything to make that happen?
“I always knew Nik and I were different. He was raised as Kindred. But I didn’t think he was—”
“What?”
“This. I grieve for the brother I used to have. I can’t believe that he can be so evil. First Jez. Then our sister because she’s carrying your brother’s child. Your brother and my mother and now Hank. I should have figured it out. I knew it would all come back to me. But Nik?” He’d feared that, but he hadn’t been ready to admit it could be true. “I should have stopped him long ago, before he ever got to Jez.”
“It’s not your fault. You can’t blame yourself.”
“If I had died in Iraq according to plan, they would still be alive. Mom and Nuala would be safe.”
“I’m glad you didn’t die in Iraq.” Skye leaned into his arm and gazed up at him, her expression filled with longing.
Luc was too numb to feel the irrational attraction to her as he normally did, not even when she looked so beautiful wearing a low-cut flowery dress that displayed the curve of her breasts and the familiar sea glass pendant that hung between them. He was too devastated to care about anything but stopping Nik before someone else died.
Skye asked, “What do you mean, ‘according to plan’?”
Pressure from Pop to make the transition had forced his hand. “I was so torn by the two lives I was trying to lead here, that I enlisted to get away from everything. I figured Iraq would end my struggle.” Truthfully, he hadn’t expected to survive. “But after seeing the despicable things humans did to each other—things much worse than death—I reconsidered my positive view of humanity. Not everyone was the human my mother is. I decided to stay alive, and I allowed myself to become a monster to do so.”
“War affects a lot of men psychologically, makes them think that way of themselves.”
“I didn’t just think it. For the first time in my life, I let the panther out to destroy. You saw Hank tonight. I did worse to the enemy when we were ambushed by the insurgents.”
More of those never-forgettable images flitted through his mind. For a moment, he was back in Iraq. Hot... dusty... deadly... Bloodied body parts all around him. People he’d killed in a mindless rage. Rather people his panther had massacred. But he hadn’t been sorry. Not then. Only later, when he’d had time for reflection and had realized the magnitude of what he’d done, only then had he realized he’d become the same monster he’d been avoiding all his life.
It was then he had seriously considered that he was no different from the hordes working for his father.
No different from Nik.
It was then he had bowed to Pop’s pressure to work for him, even if Luc still hadn’t been able to make the commitment Pop wanted.
“You were fighting a war,” Skye said. “I’m sure it was horrible. But it was your life or theirs.” She hesitated a moment before adding, “Your animal instincts simply took over.”
“That’s how I justifie
d it then. But what if I turn into Nik now? How much worse would that be, to see people I know die like that? And me be the monster again?”
“That’s not going to happen.” Skye slid between him and the railing and placed both palms on his chest. “That’s not who you are.”
“How do you know? How can you be so sure?”
“Because I’ve spent more time with you than I have with any man other than my brother. You must know how much I love Shade, how highly I think of him. You’re so much like him. You’re loyal to the people you love. And when you see the unthinkable, you want to see justice done.”
“You still haven’t decided what I think compromises justice.”
“I didn’t know before, but I do now, because I know you. You’ll do the right thing, whatever that is.”
It was as if Skye had put a spell on him. Or maybe it was the tequila. She was getting to him, making him feel more human. And the way she was looking at him...
His animal instincts kicked in when her soft flesh pressed up against him. He reached out and trailed the back of his fingers along her cheek. He locked onto her gaze and hooked his wandering hand around the back of her neck. Skye didn’t resist when he tugged. She melted into him and threw her arms around his neck.
No longer thinking about anything but what he was going to do to her, Luc found her mouth and possessed it.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Luc had power over her Skye could no longer resist. Her thoughts were unfocused, her body was coming alive. A single kiss and she was undone.
Tearing his mouth from hers, he ran his lips down her throat, leaving a trail of fire to the sensitive juncture between her neck and shoulder.
“I need you, Skye.”
When his mouth hovered there so he could taste her, a shudder of excitement swept down to her breasts. She was breathing hard in seconds, and then she was hardly breathing at all, because he was kissing her again, making every inch of her quicken with desire.
Skye needed him. This. More. She remembered they were from two opposing bloodlines, so more might not be possible.
Her hands trembled as she ran them over his shoulders and chest. He groaned and turned her in his arms so her back was to him. He cupped her breasts and found the aching flesh at the base of her neck again. He kissed her and ran his teeth along her nape. Sensation seared her so deeply that she cried out. When he pressed into her from behind, his arousal told her how much he wanted her.
Animal Instincts (Kindred Souls Book 1) Page 18