by RJ Blain
“Why did you have to remember that? That’s not fair.”
My uncooperative memory left too many gaps, but I clung to the few memories of Elliot’s brother I had. “He does his taxes better than you do.”
“You remember that?” The hope in Elliot’s voice cut deep.
“Some of the details are hazy, but I remember going over his taxes.” I’d done my time as a tax accountant and financial advisor for a lot of people, Markus included.
Over the years, I’d made a great deal of money managing Markus’s money. I straightened, my eyes widening as I remembered I’d been wanting to discuss Markus’s finances with everyone.
“The money flow,” I blurted.
“What?”
“Markus’s income. I did his records all digitally for years—almost a decade. I have the account numbers of all incoming and outgoing transfers. When I did the paperwork, I made a digital archive; it simplified compiling his tax documents and doing audits.” I dug into my pocket for the Inquisition-issued secure phone, loading up one of my personal accounts, which I used to handle Markus’s accounting work.
I had documented each and every item in Markus’s accounts, emailing myself reminders of which transactions were filed where in case I forgot something or needed to cross reference information.
Amber, Evelyn, and Elliot watched me as I tapped away at the screen. It took me a few minutes to jar my memory and locate what I was looking for. “Do you have a laptop I can borrow, Elliot?”
“We’ve got one,” Amber announced, hopping to her feet. “Do you need secure access?”
“No. I just need to access files in my email to begin with. I’ll also need some financials from the Inquisition databases.” I hesitated. “This won’t be legal.”
“Fuck legal. Just don’t get caught—and if you think we’ll get caught, we’ll figure something out. I’ll need my laptop, too,” Elliot said, sliding off the arm of my chair to follow Amber out of the room. “Got enough machines for everyone, Amber?”
“Easily. Richard keeps extras around, and Evelyn can unlock Dante’s laptop, too. Sit tight, you two. We won’t be gone long.”
After the pair left, Evelyn regarded me with a faint smile. “We were really worried Elliot would crack. Richard’s got the pack to focus him and keep him stable, but Elliot doesn’t have the same support. It’s a good thing you found your way home.”
“It’d be a lot better if I knew what had happened.”
“Amber’s bond with Nicole is a bit like mine with Dante; she can’t get a fix on where Nicole is, just that she’s alive somewhere.”
“Alive or within a blood diamond?”
“You remember the blood diamonds?”
“I do. I don’t know if I remember all the details, but I know enough of the basics. Are they actually alive, or have they…” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the question.
Dante was the only one who could save someone from a blood diamond. I remembered that much.
“They’re alive. We have limited knowledge about the blood diamonds, but everything Dante has figured out has suggested the victim is truly dead unless they’re restored. Now, what we don’t know is whether or not they’re draining them to the point of near death without actually completing the stone. It could be they’re siphoning power to fuel stones without completing the process. Everything we’ve researched indicates that’s possible. They might be using Dante and Nicole to power stones without actually killing them.”
“Good for us finding them alive, bad in terms of Basin having ammunition against us.”
Evelyn nodded. “Exactly so. It’s true you found your mate as a squirrel?”
At the rate I kept blushing, my face would become permanently stained red. “Yes.”
“Dante could’ve done it.”
“Richard said he could’ve sworn he smelled Dante when he was at Elliot’s house.”
“His magic has a distinctive scent marker, easily distinguishable from his twin’s. If Richard said he smelled Dante, he did. So, it’s a reasonable assumption my mate somehow—for some reason—forced you into the shape of a squirrel. He can make a volcano heel. Changing you into a squirrel isn’t beyond his abilities. Richard mentioned he had a very difficult time getting you to shift back to human, too. It’s really unlike him to need any help forcing a shift.” Wrinkling her nose, Dante’s mate drummed the tips of her fingers together. “The why is easy to guess; of the three of you, you’re the one with the least versatile magic. You’re a force of nature, no doubt about it, but everything I’ve seen about how you operate involves not lifting a finger unless something goes wrong. But, considering the weather, something has gone wrong. Your witchcraft is either haywire or gone, isn’t it?”
I flinched, and uncertain of what to say, I nodded.
“Perhaps that is what Basin wanted—your powers. My mate’s powers. Nicole’s powers. I’m not sure whose is more dangerous; yours or theirs. Dante was still learning what he could do. Nicole can do so much, but her powers are reliant on her.” Evelyn sighed and shook her head. “If Basin’s operating on what the Inquisition knows about witches and wizards, you would be the prime target; they’d be bonuses. If they don’t recognize Dante’s power for what it is, we might luck out. I don’t even know if they could get energy from Nicole. She’s so different from a witch. You’re the one with a quantifiable power—and a known reputation.”
I admired the calm, logical approach Evelyn took to the situation. How could she, knowing the father of her child—her children?—might never come home to her?
No matter how many times someone tried to convince me I wasn’t to blame, the reality of the situation loomed over me. Of everyone I had spoken to, Evelyn’s version of it made the most sense.
My witchcraft was a known, desired entity.
Basin had a lot to gain capturing me, and because I had been too blind to know Markus for what he was, I had offered myself, Dante, and Nicole to them as easy prey.
“I’ll do everything I can to get them back.” My voice emerged broken, tired, and weak.
“I know. I never blamed you, nor will I. We’re pack.”
In her voice, I heard calm, sincere confidence. In her scent, I smelled no hint of duplicity. When she smiled, I saw her belief in me, and her acceptance of everything I was and wasn’t.
No matter what happened, she wouldn’t abandon or betray me.
We were pack.
Elliot and Amber returned with five laptops, two of which went to Evelyn. Dragging over an end table, I plunked the one given to me down, opened the lid, and after Elliot tapped in a password, I went to work.
It took me half an hour to gather the files I needed so I could load them into a database and begin the real work. My mate perched on the arm of my chair, watching my every move. Had anyone else dared to be so nosy, I would have either changed seats or resorted to something a little more aggressive.
His presence reassured me. As long as he remained near me, I could almost believe he didn’t blame me no matter how much I blamed myself.
“No wonder you said it wasn’t exactly legal. You have him by the financial balls. Damn, Vicky. You even have his grocery expenditures in there. How are you going to turn his budget into something we can use?”
I pointed at the column listing the account numbers; the list of accounts and banks was stored in two different email accounts. Two more email addresses held records of incoming and outgoing transactions with the same identifiers I used on the rest of my spreadsheets.
Once compiled into a singular database, I could build a complete record of his transaction history.
“There’s only one problem with this,” I confessed while I continued to insert records into the database. “I only have information for up to two months ago.”
“Before you went missing.” Elliot shrugged. “Nothing we can do about it. If I have insiders at any one of his banks, I can get the information. The warrant is a phone call away.”
Evel
yn chuckled and patted the closed lid of the laptop beside her. “If he has Canadian accounts, let me know. This gem has access to just about everything, and Gerald won’t mind me poking around if it leads us to Dante.”
“Gerald is one of Dante’s associates,” Elliot explained. “He’s basically the Canadian version of me, except his boss is the Canadian government and not nearly as attractive as you are.”
I paused in my work long enough to level a glare at the Shadow Pope. “His boss is a man, Elliot—and a rather good looking one. On occasion, I do watch the news.”
“His boss is married.”
Maybe I was dense, but even I could spot a good opportunity to yank Elliot’s tail when it came up and slapped me in the face. “How is his marital status relevant? Can’t I admire his appearance?”
Evelyn laughed. “The best part of this? I can’t even tell if she’s serious.”
“She’s shier than Dante, Evelyn,” my mate complained. “I never thought I’d meet another living being as reclusive as my brother. But no, I found her, so of course I went and fell in love with her.”
“There’s hope for you, Elliot. Dante’s very enthusiastic.”
With a snort, my mate gestured at Evelyn’s bulging stomach. “Trust me, Evelyn. We can tell. Fenerec may be the only species on Earth where the fertility of the female is entirely dependent on the enthusiasm and general performance of her male.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Dante’s mate murmured.
“The only complexity involved is the male keeping his female interested enough to keep biting him.”
Having already learned what Elliot was talking about—and remembering just how good he was at making me nip his neck—I feared my face would spontaneously combust. “Will you two stop that?”
Evelyn’s wicked smile warned me of trouble, and she delivered when she said, “You’ll need to know eventually, Vicky. I’m sure you’ll want Elliot performing for you soon enough.”
Amber joined in with merry laughter. “Maybe next mating season, Elliot. She’s going to be a tough nut to crack.”
“She’s worth the wait.” Elliot grinned at me, nudged me with his elbow, and pointed at the laptop. “Break it down for us. What sort of work has Dupree been doing behind our backs?”
Grateful for the shift back to business, I cleared my throat and turned my attention back to the laptop. “The real problem will be the contract work. All of his bounties were recorded as contract and consultant work through individuals and companies. I’m going to need information on the legitimate contracts issued to him from the Inquisition so I can eliminate those first.”
“Easily done. When we realized Dupree was our culprit, I had accounting pull down everything we had on him.” Elliot hopped off the arm of my chair and went to the couch to sit between Amber and Evelyn, grabbing the laptop designated as his. “Evelyn, hop into Dante’s system and yank out Dupree’s files. I know I routed a few through him, but they should be marked as provided by one of the Inquisition’s firms. It should be listed as a consulting job for site surveying. If you can’t find it, I’ll get on the horn and browbeat Brandon until we track down the records.”
“No need. I already have the information on my system. I did my digging right after Richard flew you all in and I got briefed on what had happened. I just didn’t know what to do with the information. I have everything the Canadians have as well as everything Dante’s operators have.”
Elliot nodded, narrowing his eyes as he tapped away at the keys. “I’ll forward the details to your work address, Vicky. Think you can put something together we can actually understand?”
“That’s why they pay me the big bucks and you the pennies, Elliot. Give me everything you have. If he left a trail, I’ll find it,” I swore.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Elliot’s incessant hovering annoyed me and my wolf so much I bit him and left his twitching body sprawled on the floor. To ensure he stayed down, I rested my feet on his back.
Amber leaned over the coffee table to look at my mate. “You realize Richard is going to bring your puppies down here within the next hour, right? He’s not going to get up from that without help.”
“He can sleep there, then.” Until I found the missing link, the pieces of the puzzle tying Markus to Basin and leading us to them, I couldn’t afford extra distractions, not from anyone. “If I need him, I’ll wake him up.”
“You’re mean,” Amber replied, her scent sweetening from amusement. “I don’t even know why I’m surprised; it takes a tougher than nails woman to run the type of company you do. If my understanding of the situation is right, you weren’t just running it—you were working as one of your own employees at the same time, too.”
“I hired good people, including my footrest here. When you have good people overseeing your operations, it’s a lot easier—I set the company up that way on purpose. I could’ve taken the more hands-on approach, but the results have been good. Why break what isn’t broken?”
“You know, things were drastically different before you came along. I think you may have been the best thing to happen to the Inquisition—and to Elliot. He’s spent all his life knowing everyone expected so much from him, aware he would decide who lived and died when the rules were broken. He’s always been serious, but he developed a playful side after he started working for your company. Now look at him. He’s still the Shadow Pope even after being confirmed a witch, and he has a Fenerec for a mate. Of course, there are a lot of people who find your rank endlessly amusing. Who knew a born-and-bred American would end up with a princess?”
Snorting, I shook my head. “It’s not a big deal.”
Evelyn sighed. “You don’t want it to be a big deal, but it is, especially to the European Fenerec. With the British Fenerec all but wiped out from the plague, you’re far more than a princess to them. To my knowledge, you’re the only British female Fenerec left.”
“There’s two other British bitches, but they’re young. One is twelve, and the other is thirteen.” I clicked my tongue, dredging through my damaged memory. “Maybe a little older. I think Seattle’s pack currently has them?”
“Huh. Seattle?” Amber grabbed her cell phone and texted a message. “Seattle is a good choice. Sanders has a lot of young wolves ready to mate, and he’s almost as good as Richard at getting a bitch through her pregnancy. Add in Desmond and the fact they have an Omega, and Seattle’s well rigged to handle pregnant bitches.”
Amber’s phone beeped, and the fire witched chuckled. “Your memory’s mostly correct. Sanders does, indeed, have both British bitches. Your ages are incorrect, though. One’s fifteen and the other is seventeen, and the seventeen-year-old is newly mated with a puppy confirmed on the way. The other is courting, and she might sink her teeth into her male by the end of the season.”
“Sanders is letting her mate early. Fifteen?” Evelyn snorted. “He better be a damned fine wolf.”
“Ah, there’s nothing quite like gossiping about another bitch’s love life during the mating season.” Amber sent another text, which was answered within several moments. “Sanders tells us to mind our own business.”
“Does Sanders like Elliot?” I asked.
“Loves him, as far as I know. Sanders remembers Elliot’s predecessor, and absolutely hated the man. Why?”
I pointed at my unconscious mate. “Photographic evidence. I demand an answer, or I can’t promise what will happen to my captive.”
Amber laughed, hopped to her feet, and circled the coffee table to take photographs of Elliot sprawled on the floor beneath my feet. “You’re catching onto the playful side of pack life pretty quickly. I’m actually impressed you didn’t freak out when he dropped like a rock.”
“She bit him on the plane. Lesson already learned,” Richard rumbled directly behind me. “Mission accomplished, Your Royal Highness, Princess Pain in my Ass. What the hell have you been teaching those puppies? Kung Fu?”
Without Amber’s
intervention, both Snowflake and the laptop would’ve hit the floor. Instead, only the fox crashed onto my mate with a squealed yip while the laptop landed in Amber’s arms.
I didn’t hit the ground until I cleared the coffee table, and I scrambled halfway over the opposite chair before I recognized the Alpha. “Don’t do that!”
“Why did you bite your poor mate this time?” Richard crouched beside Elliot and pressed his fingers to my mate’s throat. Snowflake growled and abandoned my mate to hop onto the couch beside Evelyn. “I’m grateful he’s still alive.”
“Where are my puppies?”
“Sitting room near the kitchen.”
“Alone.” Narrowing my eyes, I slid off the chair and straightened.
“No one is going to threaten them here. They barely made it to the couch before they decided to take a nap. Have pity on me. I’ll even make them lunch. I’ve been attacked enough for one morning.”
Evelyn waved her hand and captured my attention. “It’s really okay, Vicky. If anyone accesses the floor without one of the primary codes, the security system beeps. There’s a speaker for it in here. The only folks with a primary code are me, Richard, Alex, Lisa, Amber, and Elliot.”
“You’ll get one as soon as I have a few minutes to set it up and explain how the security system works,” Richard promised, rising. “I’m sorry I startled you. I meant to tease you, not launch you into orbit. What have you four rascals been up to without me?”
Evelyn pointed at the laptop Amber held. “Watching Vicky work. You almost cost her an entire morning worth of work with that stunt. So help me, Richard, if you ruined what she’s been doing, I’ll deal with you personally.”
I reclaimed my laptop and my seat, checking over my work to make sure nothing was wrong with it. “It looks fine.”
“What are you working on?” Richard leaned over to stare at my screen.
“A list describing the many ways to inflict injury on overbearing Alphas who look over my shoulder while I work.”