“Yes.” She grabbed her coat. She might be safer on her own.
They made their way to the pack’s underground parking facility where Mallory unlocked the door for her.
“You’re pretty quiet,” Mallory commented. “Are you okay?”
“I’m tired. Maybe a little shell-shocked.” She was far from either. She’d been through worse and gone days without sleeping.
Mallory leaned toward her. “It’s going to be okay,” she said softly and the warmth of her reached out to Cordelia, drawing her animal’s attention, but she kept her hand at her side.
“I know.” Cordelia gave her a smile and Mallory kissed the corner of her mouth, setting her senses rioting and her blood heating.
“I won’t let anyone get to you. I promise.”
“Thanks.” Cordelia turned to open the door and climb in.
Mallory closed it behind her and Cordelia squeezed her eyes closed for a moment. She drew in a slow breath. She had to find her center before she came apart or allowed herself to depend on someone else.
She couldn’t do that. Other people could get her tossed back into a life that was nothing more than a bitter memory.
Mallory was in beside her a few moments later and starting the car. Then, they were exiting the parking lot, pulling out into the sunny day. Mallory turned on the heater, but Cordelia didn’t feel the cold as she stared out the window.
When they reached her apartment, there was no yellow police tape across the door, so Cordelia used her key to unlock it. The scent of blood wafted to her along with paint.
She passed through the living area, nose wrinkled, heading to her bedroom. Cordelia pulled to a halt in the doorway as she stared at the message painted on the wall in red.
Whore. I’ll punish you for this.
The dresser drawers were half open and her clothes, torn and cut, sprinkled over the floor. On the bed was a doll with its throat cut, the stuffing leaking out of its throat and chest. Mallory’s name was on the doll’s mangled chest.
The red was scattered around the room staining the sheets and carpet along with the wall.
“Shit.” Mallory breathed out behind her.
Tears filled Cordelia’s eyes, but she quickly dashed them away as she went to the bathroom to see if the things she’d left in the vanity had been left intact. Stuck to the mirror was a blue page.
I’m coming for you, slut. There is nowhere you can hide. It’ll be Mallory’s blood instead of a pig’s that I paint the walls with next time.
Cordelia swallowed tightly and jerked open a vanity drawer and screamed. The pig lay there dead and mauled as if attacked by another animal.
Trembling, she drew back shaking her head.
“Cordi.” Mallory was behind her between one heartbeat and the next.
Cordelia covered her hand with her mouth and tears spilled down her cheeks as memories rushed back to her.
Yamamoto hadn’t tortured her and her mother, he’d merely attacked one night. That night had been the longest of her life as she’d watched her mother being raped and beaten and then mauled by the white tiger.
The smell of the blood assailed her as the past slipped an icy hand around her throat. Trying to keep it together, Cordelia breathed in and out, but her breaths came quick, flooding her brain with too much oxygen.
“Cordi, baby.” Mallory pushed her down on the closed lid of the toilet and forced her head down between her legs. “Take it easy. Breathe slowly, honey. I’ve got you okay? Just relax.”
Cordelia bit off the scream rising up inside her.
Can’t. Can’t.
You can’t lose it.
This is nothing. It’s just a blip on your radar. You’ve seen worse, heard worse.
Cordelia.
“Cordi, sweetheart. Look at me,” Mallory ordered, but her voice came from far away. “Cordelia.” Mallory slapped her, and the sting penetrated the fog of her brain.
“I’m fine,” she whispered. “I’m—” You’re alive.
She’d never really had a chance to grieve the losses in her life. Not her father, not her godfather, the agent who’d taken a bullet for her mother right after they’d been placed, and not her best friend or her mother.
She’d had to be brave. The blood, the death, and loss had been nothing.
Her mother had chanted that to her over and over each time someone had died helping them. Behind her lay a trail of blood and broken dreams and this was just one more stop on that path.
Cordelia drew in a long shuddering breath and Mallory wiped tears from her face, but Cordelia pushed her hand way.
“Don’t. I just lost it for a minute. Pigs. I’ve never seen a dead one except on my plate as a pork chop or bacon.”
Mallory blinked, and Cordelia laughed, the sound diffusing some of the tension and fear inside her.
Mallory grunted. “Come on. I’ll call Jenner.”
She nodded. The action a resolution more than an acknowledgment. Cordelia was leaving tonight. She couldn’t get caught in the mess the wolves had going on with Mallory and Sam.
More importantly, she couldn’t allow Larue to terrorize her like this.
Chapter Seventeen
“I did talk to her,” Carleigh told her brother.
“And?”
“And she gave me an SD card,” she said. “I talked to my boss, and he’s going to call in a favor and have the card analyzed by the FBI to find out if it was tampered with.”
Jenner frowned. “You need to give that to me,” he commanded. “This is a police investigation.”
“You lost the other one,” she snapped as she glared at him over his desk. “Why would I put this copy in danger? Don’t you understand, Jen? Why would she give me this information if she was guilty?”
“She’s just trying to help Sam and Mallory,” she retorted. “I’m not going to allow them to turn this town into a nightmare.”
“It’s already turning into that,” she said. “I found something on that SD card that I’m going to look into.”
“What?”
“I’m not telling you,” she said. “Not yet.”
“Carleigh, you can’t just go traipsing all over town checking this out. It could be dangerous.”
“Yeah. I know. I talked to Isa’s sister, too. She wasn’t seeing Mallory, Jen. She was seeing her best friend.”
“So?”
“So, there are a few facts that even Kamari or Isa’s sister didn’t recognize. Kamari didn’t grow up here so she had no idea what to look for, and Isa’s family don’t want to see the truth any more than you do.”
“Don’t be so cryptic,” he muttered. “Just tell me.”
“I will once I’ve checked it out. There’s another serial killer loose in this town and if I’m right, we know him.”
****
“If you could have seen her, Sam, you’d have wanted to kill that bitch, too,” Mallory said in a controlled tone. “Her apartment turned out to be a mess. There was a baby pig in the bathroom and a big one in the kitchen.”
Sam sighed from behind her. “Sounds like she was sending a message.”
“Her place was bugged. McDaniels has been watching her. She saw us having sex and threatened my life, but I don’t care about that.” She snarled at the memory of Cordelia’s pale face and the fear that had rolled off her in waves.
Cordelia had come silently apart right before her eyes.
“She barely hung on, Sam.” She turned to face Sam who was seated in front of Mallory’s desk in her office at the club. “Something happened to her, something so tragic, she makes up lies about her past to hide it.”
“There’s nothing we can do about her past, Mal,” Sam said quietly. “But we can protect her now.”
“I’m going to keep her safe even if it costs me my own life,” Mallory snapped.
“Let’s not go that far,” Sam said. “She’s just a dancer—”
“She’s one of our dancers.” She slammed her fist on the desk. “We owe her
that much. She was attacked in our club.”
“Tell me how you want to play it?” Sam asked.
“I want her dead,” she said, her tone harsh. And this time it was more than the animal’s thoughts she was giving voice to.
The fury came from the heart of the woman who was falling hard.
Sam nodded. “You want to do it, or you want me to?” she asked. “I won’t ask Syd or one of the others to take out a threat when the girl isn’t your mate.”
“I’m not going to just go after her,” Mallory said with a growl in her voice. “The next time she attacks me, I’m going to kill her.”
“Are you sure it was her who attacked you?”
The scent had been marred, so she couldn’t use that as a marker.
“I’ve asked Rowel to check something out for me. If he comes back with an affirmative, I’ll know.”
“If it was her, we can go hunting,” Sam told her with no remorse in her voice or her eyes.
Mallory nodded. “She’ll make a move. All I need to do is wait.”
****
“So how are you holding up?” The green-eyed woman seated across from her in Coffee Crossing asked.
She shrugged. Cordelia knew Kyra—Black Velvet wasn’t all human. Like her, Kyra wasn’t from around here though, so she could relax around her a little without fears of what she said getting back to Mallory or anyone else.
“The woman trashed my apartment after attacking us last night.”
“Us?”
“Mallory was there,” she said with a little smile.
“Ohh. Sleeping with the boss, are we?” Kyra teased.
“It’s not like that exactly,” she said, her smile widening. “It’s not serious.”
Kyra grinned. “Is that what Mallory is saying? Because I’ve seen her watching you and it’s not just because she wants to make sure you aren’t slacking.”
“No way.”
“If she was a guy, she’d have a hard-on every time you took the stage.”
“You’re such a liar,” Cordelia exclaimed, confusion and hope blooming in her heart.
“I’m so not.” Kyra laughed. “That woman’s in deep lust with you no matter what she tells herself.”
“Lust we can do,” Cordelia said softly.
“Hey, you know it’s okay to fall in love.”
“Yeah, right,” she muttered. When she was fifty shades free of her past.
Kyra reached across the table to cover Cordelia’s hand with hers. “I know you don’t want to get your hopes up, but if you don’t take a risk now and then, what’s life all about?”
“Look who’s talking,” she said putting her other hand over Kyra’s. Kyra had a thing for one of the women who came into the club now and then.
Kyra gave her a rueful smile. “That’s different. She’s not even a lesbian.”
“Okay, so that could be a game-changer.”
Kyra chuckled, but there was a sadness in her eyes that Cordelia recognized. They were similar in some ways. Both alone, with no family, no past and not many friends.
She felt a kinship with Kyra she didn’t understand, yet it was what had prompted Cordelia to befriend her. Their friendship was still growing, and she was going to hate to leave it behind because she knew they could truly be best friends.
“Have you gone to the police?” Kyra asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
“They don’t care,” Cordelia replied angrily. “I talked to the detective in Mystic this morning, and he said Larue wasn’t going to be charged.”
“Why not?” Kyra demanded.
“Because I was behaving suggestively,” she muttered. “She was being sent to anger management and suspended for a week without pay here.”
“That so sucks,” Kyra murmured. “Damn thin blue line.”
“Yeah.” City or country didn’t matter. The police always backed their own even in a losing fight.
“Hello, baby. I was just thinking about you.”
Cordelia stiffened and turned her head to look into Larue’s angry stare.
“Just can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I? At least this little slut’s no real competition since you like strong women.” Larue jerked Kyra’s hand away and sat down in the booth next to Cordelia before she could protest.
“Are you insane?” Kyra demanded.
“Shut up,” Larue ordered pointing at her.
“You—”
Larue reached across the table and grabbed her around the throat. Kyra gasped.
“Let her go,” Cordelia ordered frantically. She didn’t want to see anyone else get hurt because of her.
“Tell her to get lost,” Larue ordered. “She’s just a distraction keeping you from paying attention to me.”
Kyra made a sound that sounded like a growl, as she pressed the balls of her fingers into Larue’s hand. The nails seemed to be turning curiously blue.
“Fine. She’ll leave,” Cordelia said quickly.
Larue released her, and Kyra scrambled from the booth, but only left after a look at Cordelia who nodded slowly.
Larue gave her a smile. “You were pretty adept last night in fending off that wolf,” she said. “What did you do to him? I saw his blood, but we can’t find him anywhere.”
“I want you to leave me alone,” Cordelia said. “I know you’re just messing with me because someone wants you to.”
“What did you see that night, angel? Hmm, tell me. I’ll have them back off because you’re mine.”
Cordelia stared at her, her jaw going slack for a moment.
“Yeah. You’re only partially right. My friend is concerned you might tell Mallory something that prevents a goal from being met. So, you can keep your mouth shut and stay away from her, or you get hurt.”
“You’re going to hurt me now?” Cordelia asked softly.
“I don’t want to,” she said. “I just want you in my bed, but a job is a job and a piece of ass is—well, expendable.” Larue’s eyes hardened. “So, you have two choices. You can dump Mallory and start seeing me or you can never have a moment’s peace until I kill you.”
“L—”
“I like you, but I will kill you,” Larue told her silkily. “Make no mistakes.”
She nodded. “Okay.” She was leaving town tonight anyway, so it didn’t matter what the woman said.
“Okay what?”
“I’ll never let you touch me,” Cordelia said coldly. “Not that you could. Being this close to you makes me want to claw your eyes out. Mallory on the other hand, she makes me cream my panties every time I see her.”
“You little bitch.”
“I think the lady wants you gone,” Mallory’s hard voice said from behind Larue before Cordelia could reply.
“Get lost, Mallory, before I make good on my promise.”
Mallory gripped Larue by the nape and jerked her backward. Larue growled as she landed on her back to glare up at Mallory.
“Leave her alone,” Mallory snarled, reaching down to clamp her hand around Larue’s throat.
“Last night was just the opening act, Mallory,” Larue murmured. “You shouldn’t have trespassed on my territory.”
“News flash, jerk,” Mallory growled. “Cordi isn’t yours unless she says she is, and I missed that bulletin.”
“Bitch.” Larue started to take a swing at her, but Mallory stepped on her arm and the woman growled in warning.
“Get off me. I’ll have you up on charges for assaulting an officer.”
Mallory bent down to whisper, “They’ll never stick because you’ll be six feet under by the time it goes to trial if you don’t stay away from Cordi.”
“Ladies, take it outside,” a harsh voice called. “Or I’m calling the cops.”
Larue pushed Mallory’s foot away and tried to sit up, but Mallory pressed her foot on the woman’s chest.
“Are we clear?”
“This isn’t over, Mallory,” she said. “You better get Sam to watch your back.”
&
nbsp; “You don’t want that,” Mallory murmured. “Sam’s not nearly as patient as I am.” She withdrew her foot, and Larue stood up.
She shoved Mallory and turned to Cordelia. She grabbed her by her ponytail and jerked her to her for a hard kiss.
“Later, baby.” Larue turned, and Mallory hit her so hard she staggered back before sinking into a nearby booth and collapsing.
Chapter Eighteen
Cordelia stared at her in shock and then glanced at Mallory. The animal was in her stare, and it was furious, the rage taking her breath away.
“Let’s get out of here,” Mallory said holding out a hand to her.
Cordelia took it and let Mallory help her from the booth. “I have to pay for this.” She motioned to the glasses of half consumed tea.
“Got it,” Mallory said and pulled out her wallet. She tossed two bills on the table. Then, she led Cordelia out to the parking lot. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “You shouldn’t have hit her. Now she’s going to get you into even more trouble.”
“I doubt it,” Mallory said. “Rowel said she was on suspension for a week. If she goes to Jenner, he’ll have to extend her suspension, especially if you file charges against her. With witnesses, he’ll have to act.”
“That’s—what are you doing here?”
“I was swinging by for something to eat, but clearly this isn’t the place for that this afternoon,” Mallory said. “So, why don’t we go to the market deli? They have great food. We can grab some to go and take it down by the pier.”
“It’s cold out.” Cordelia didn’t really want to spend any more time in Mallory’s company than necessary. The more she was with her, the more she wanted to be with her.
“Then, we’ll go to Canine Wharf,” she said with a grin.
They were in Mallory’s car within minutes and pulling out of the lot.
“What about the car you came in?”
“I came with Sam and Adalyn,” she said. “They’re probably inside getting ready to order.”
“Oh.” That nixed the idea of talking Mallory into going back for her own car. What was she going to do?
“Rowel said Mystic isn’t filing charges against her and Jenner’s just sending her to anger management.”
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