“Cordelia?” she called, and the woman turned, her body tight as a violin string. Mallory strode over, curious. “What’s going on?”
“She trashed my bike while I was inside,” she growled. “I don’t even think filing a report will do much good.”
“Who do you think is responsible?” Mallory asked.
“That jackass officer, Larue McDaniels.”
“You’re not sleeping with her?” Mallory asked with a frown. The woman’s scent was too hard to place. She never could get anything more than the smell of Cordelia’s perfume and that was very enticing.
But she certainly wasn’t wearing any superficial scent that said she had been with anyone else.
“No,” she muttered. “I told you last night. She tried to rape me. Then she threatened me. She said she’d rip out my throat if I told.”
“And that’s why you’re here?”
“I was reporting what she did to me last night,” Cordelia said.
“And what did they say?”
“Fuck me,” she snapped. “That’s what the police chief said.”
“You talked to Jenner?” Mallory asked. “And he refused to handle this?”
She glared at Mallory, her eyes glowing faintly green. Mallory’s coyote raised its head and drew in the woman’s scent. There was an undertone of something other than human that intrigued both woman and animal.
Cordelia turned away, the red of her hair brilliant against the gray day. Her ass was firm in the pants she wore, and she only got a few steps before Mallory was trailing after her like the bitch in heat she was.
“Wait a minute,” Mallory called attempting to grab her arm, but was too slow.
“I can’t prove she did this, but I can report it,” Cordelia said.
Mallory went inside with her, curious as to how this would be handled.
The report was taken and the man who did was more or less unconcerned with Cordelia’s fears of being stalked. He merely told her there was nothing they could do absent of proof.
“So, when she rapes me and beats me to death, then you can do something?” Cordelia asked, clearly seething with rage as she stared at the officer looking the moped over.
“Yep.” He gave her a smirk.
“Right,” she muttered through clenched teeth. “She told me this would happen, so my best out is to buy a gun and blow her brains out.”
Mallory snickered, enjoying the fireworks.
“Your best out is not to say that in front of a cop,” he said coolly.
“Thanks for the advice,” she muttered. “I’ll kill you right after to avoid any problems.”
He looked at her then, a startled look on his face before his eyes darkened, and he growled at her. “Don’t threaten me,” he said icily. “I can arrest you.”
“My first call will be to a hitman with balls enough to kill you and brains enough not to get caught.”
“That’s enough,” he said and reached for her. His fingers closed around her arm and the air cooled slightly. A streak of blue cut across his skin going straight to the bones of his fingers. An audible crack had him jerking his hand away.
“Officer,” Cordelia exclaimed in a shocked tone. “Are you okay? What happened?”
Mallory stared at him, wondering the exact same thing as the hint of chilled air died away along with the frost on his hand.
“M-my fingers…” He trailed off, gaze glued to his hand, face flushed.
“Oh, my god!” Cordelia cried, eyes wide. “Mallory do something.”
Mallory almost laughed, but she was too confused.
“Hey, jackass,” Mallory called, turning away from them to find an officer striding from the building.
The cop glared in their direction but kept going.
“Your buddy’s in pain over here,” Mallory called. “I think he broke his hand.”
“I think the proper term is, ‘officer down’,” Cordelia exclaimed, a hand on her cheek, cornflower blue eyes chill as frost.
And this time Mallory did laugh. The woman was fire and ice and she loved it.
Chapter Four
Cordelia glanced out the window at the passing scenery five minutes later, kicking herself for losing her temper.
She hated being in heat and not being able to do anything about it. Masturbating didn’t help and after the way things had gone with Larue, she wasn’t willing to just pick up a woman in a bar.
That was too risky, but getting laid really did make a cat less dangerous during this time of the month. As it was, keeping her claws from biting into her palms was as much a feat as keeping her power under control.
“I need a few days off,” Cordelia finally said. She couldn’t be around people for the next two or three days unless she was going to be having lots of sex.
“How many?”
A whole week technically.
“Just two.”
“You’re pretty popular,” Mallory commented, and Cordelia snorted. “The ladies like your moves and your sweet-girl persona.”
“It’s that time of the month.” She didn’t have normal periods. She only ovulated twice a year. When she went into heat though, she bloated and got some symptoms of PMS unless she had sex.
“Is it?” Mallory shot her a look and Cordelia wondered if the other woman was attempting to pick up the scent of blood. “Where are you from, Cordelia, and why come to Snowbury?”
“I’m from nowhere, and I came here because I wanted a change of scene and society,” she said blandly as she turned her gaze back out the window.
She was still hiding after all this time. Cordelia had heard Yamamoto had walked on the murder charge along with his hit man. And she and Kenji had been pronounced dead as well as the agents who’d been protecting her.
The pictures of the housefire had been pretty spectacular. However, Yamamoto’s vow to bring to justice his son’s killer had been the thing that still stuck in her mind.
She didn’t want anything but to live her life now. Going back wouldn’t bring her parents back or reclaim for her the life Yamamoto had stolen.
“To what end?” Mallory asked.
She shot Mallory a look, taking in her profile and caressing the lines with her eyes. She had a nice jaw line and that contributed to her pretty face. Her short black hair was thick strands of spiral curls that framed her face in a pixie.
“You ask too many questions,” Cordelia replied tartly. She didn’t need the damn FBI finding out where she was because Mallory was “curious.” “You don’t hear me trying to pry into your life.”
“What do you want to know about me that you don’t?” Mallory asked.
“I don’t know why you’re asking me all these questions all of a sudden.” The last time an employer had gotten nosy, she’d ended up with a cop at her door talking about her freaking finger prints and her questionable past.
She was not going to go back there and go head-to-head with the yakuza again. So, she’d vanished and learned to chill her fingertips to obscure her prints.
Mallory turned off the main street, taking them into the quiet neighborhood of apartments and condos where Cordelia had rented her apartment.
“What are you hiding from? That’s the only reason you could have come to a small town.”
Cordelia sighed. Killer, beware—never hide in a small town. The residents are suspicious and nosy.
The big city was safer because there were enough people who didn’t give a damn about when you came and went and what you were doing there. They had their own problems, and you weren’t going to be their new favorite pastime just because you were a stranger.
“I’m going to need to get another moped.”
“I’ll give you a lift into the city,” Mallory said. “When you’re feeling better.”
She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “I can see why you don’t have a girlfriend.”
“I’m not looking for one, Cordelia,” she responded. “I get laid when I’m horny, I take a woman up to my playroom wh
en I’m in the mood for S&M, and I go home when I’m not interested.”
“You don’t date your dancers?” she asked curiously.
“I don’t date.”
“Sounds like my idea of a good time,” Cordelia commented. She didn’t need to play twenty questions during the afterglow. That had nearly gotten her police custody four years ago. “I like dinner after sex not before and the same with a scene.”
Mallory pulled in front of the complex and cut the engine. She released her seatbelt and turned in the seat to look at Cordelia who met those inquisitive sky-blue eyes.
“I’m not kidding when I say I don’t date,” Mallory said gently. “I have responsibilities and a life that can’t handle a woman who doesn’t know how to back off.”
“I thought we were talking about sex, not a relationship.”
“You’re an attractive woman. Why would you just want to have sex with me?”
“Are you clean?”
“Yes.”
Cordelia shrugged. “That’s why. If you feel like it, come by tonight,” she said.
“I’m guessing it’s not that time of the month, and you just want a few days off then,” Mallory said lifting her brows.
“I didn’t say what time of the month. Ball’s in your court.” Cordelia climbed out and looked back in at her. “Shoot or pass, your call.” She slammed the door and strolled up to her apartment.
****
That evening, Jenner pushed out a rough sigh as he tossed back another drink. He hadn’t been expecting to inherit this mess, but here he was, right in the middle of it. He tightened his grip on the glass momentarily and then set it on the desk in his office in the den.
“I know you don’t want to even think about this, but right is right, Jenner,” she said.
He turned to look at the women he’d been all but ignoring because her words had been contradictory to those of his beliefs.
“People are dead. Our alpha is dead, Carleigh,” he snapped.
“I know that, big brother,” she said quietly from the chair in front of his desk. “But let’s talk about reality here. The D.A was Jericho’s friend as well as Collier’s. Not only that, he’s good buddies with Bradley.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” he muttered.
“Bradley is talking about building a resort right where Gray Tail is and, before he died, I heard Jericho talking about the same thing.”
He shook his head. “So did I, but that doesn’t change the fact he’s missing. Probably dead.”
“It doesn’t change the fact he was involved with the hyenas either,” she snapped. “He had coyotes killed because he wanted their land.”
“That was all Sam,” he retorted. But he didn’t know what he thought about that. There was no proof that hadn’t been tampered with. On top of that, those damned coyote women thought they owned this town, and it was a wolf town.
“He wasn’t the man you thought he was, no matter what you’ve convinced yourself,” Carleigh told him. “If you want to push for justice, then follow the blood. Those women didn’t die on their own, and I bet if you looked—”
“I’m not wasting my time,” he replied. He’d been investigating the one death that mattered. The problem was he kept going right back to Coyote Closet and Sam and Mallory. Jenner just had no idea what their motive was for killing that girl.
“That’s okay. I am. The paper assigned me the story. Wolves weren’t the only victims and now that the possibility that they were killed by a serial killer is out there, my boss wants answers.”
“Tell him you don’t want the story,” he ordered. Jenner didn’t want her digging into this. This whole thing was turning into a nightmare for him, and he could only imagine what a headache it would be for her.
“But I do,” she said softly.
“That’s an order from your alpha.”
“You’re my brother, Jen. My twin. I don’t take orders from you, and I’m not going to not do my job because you want me to.”
He growled his frustration, and Carleigh held his gaze with a determined glint in her own. She’d never backed down from him or anyone else in her life except their mother.
He’d wanted her support because if she believed Jericho had been framed, then she’d make his job easier with her articles. He knew she was a good judge of character, but she’d never been fond of Jericho.
“Why didn’t you like him?” he asked pensively.
“Jericho?” She asked with furrowed brows.
“Yeah.”
“He wore many masks, so it’s hard to say which one was the real one,” Carleigh answered. “If he was a serial killer, I’ll find it out and even Bradley won’t be able to stop me.”
“If you insist on doing this, be careful,” he muttered. “The real killer is still out there, and it may well be those damned coyotes.” Jerry would be vindicated, and Kamari would be proven a liar. He’d prosecute her for manufacturing evidence.
“Who gave you the video files? I’d like to start there.”
“I can’t tell you,” he said.
“That’s okay.” She got to her feet. “I have an idea where to start. I’m meeting Kamari tomorrow. I’m sure she’ll be more than willing to answer my questions. Then, I’ll talk to Mallory since she’s the one accused of killing Isa.”
Isa’s family still wanted blood, and he couldn’t let them get it until he had proof beyond a doubt Mallory had killed her. However, Jenner didn’t think he was likely to get it.
“Don’t forget to ask her where Jerry is.” He was certain she knew what had happened to Jerry.
Kamari accused him of killing her older sister and was now a member of Mystic Snow, Sam’s pack. Those two things alone damned her in his mind.
She smiled serenely. “I plan to.”
****
Tonight’s crowd was just as lively as before the murder and last night’s attack on Treasure and the other dancer seemed to only have fueled the flame. Mallory hated that her club was being turned into a stage for those looking for violence and death.
Coyote Closet was her dream, and she still wanted to expand into Mystic and a couple of other nearby cities. She thought they had something special.
Mallory slipped into her office and closed the door, and anger rushed through her. The memory of how Jenner had treated her today intruded adding fuel to the fire.
That jackass Jenner thought he had her over a barrel with the Jericho shit. She’d walked down this path as a teen when the dominant males thought they could subjugate her. They often believed they were right for positions of leadership and authority merely because they had dicks.
She didn’t bow down then, and she wasn’t going to do it now. They could all just kiss her ass.
She growled and knocked a paperweight off her desk as rage threatened to consume her.
“All I need is a little recreation,” she told herself. “A woman in chains would do nicely.”
A rap on her door and it opened at her back. Mallory whipped around prepared to snap.
“How’d it go with Jenner?” Samarra, her best friend and partner asked as she stepped in and closed the door behind her.
She growled.
Sam looked her up and down. “You’re strung tight tonight,” Sam said and came to stand before her desk. “Besides being in heat, you okay?”
“They’re trying to trap me,” Mallory muttered and then told Sam about the meeting.
“The Coalition wants to meet with me tomorrow evening,” Sam confessed. “I’m sure it’s all about my intent to resign from the organization.”
Perching on the edge of her desk, Mallory shrugged. “They’ll come after you and me, too. Hell, Jenner made it clear there was a green light on me.”
“He’s trying to force your hand, but he won’t do anything until after the meeting,” Sam told her. “He wants answers and for some reason he won’t accept that Jerry was a dishonorable alpha and a serial killer.”
“I know.” Mall
ory nodded. “He said the evidence Kamari procured was tainted, faked.”
“Damn them,” Sam growled. “If I don’t lay down the law now, Cambrie will forever be a target, and Kamari will become one.”
Mallory ran her fingers through her short hair. “Every woman with something a man wants will be subject to attack,” Mallory said quietly. “I’ll be next.” And that’s what was really bothering her.
Sam could take care of herself, but this wouldn’t end with Sam. Some of the male dominants in her pack were showing more aggression lately, and Mallory was certain Jericho had gotten to them in the recent months.
Jenner would be able to exploit their reticence at having a female alpha.
“I’ll be at your back, Mal,” Sam told her as if reading her mind, “no matter what, so don’t think you have to withdraw. In fact, it might not even be wise right now.”
“I know,” Mallory agreed quickly. “But letting you stand out there alone isn’t either. The first thing they’ll attack is the business. We have to stand our ground.”
“Then, we better come up with a plan, because if Jenner wants a fight, I’m playing to win.”
Chapter Five
Bradley studied the plans on the wall of the small office. He and his partners were finding it hard to get this waterfront project off the ground, let alone set a projected date of completion.
He pushed out a rough sigh and turned to the window. Outside, the night was pitch black now, matching the color of his mood. Bradley put a hand on the window frame, the need for blood and sex raging through him like flood waters rampaging out of control.
He needed a fix, but with the debris in the water, he had to be careful.
The animal jerked at the reins and he let out a growl and turned his back on the night peering in. His hands shook, and he knew he wouldn’t last twelve hours, let alone five.
Bradley walked over to his desk where his phone lay and picked it up. He could have drinks with friends or just go out there and get what he needed.
The device rang, and he answered it, grabbing onto the call like a lifeline.
“Yes, Jenner?” he asked. The other man was the wolf alpha in Snowbury while he was alpha of a pack in Mystic.
Catching a Coyote Page 3