A Wolf's Heart (Harlequin Nocturne)

by Vivi Anna

  But right now he couldn’t muster anything in his gut, any amount of belief or hope. He felt Elise slipping away from him. And he had no way of getting her back.

  Someone patted him on the shoulder. Gabriel turned to look into Kellen’s soulful eyes. “I’m sorry, Gabe.”

  He nodded, unsure of exactly what to say or how to behave.

  “We’ll find her, my friend. Believe that.”

  He nodded again, but his heart wasn’t in it. Because everything inside him screamed of loss and failure. Already his heart was grieving Elise’s death. And it hurt so much he could barely keep on his feet.

  Chapter 26

  Groaning, Elise opened her eyes again. After screaming until her chest hurt, she’d blissfully passed out.

  She looked down at her hands and arms and saw that there was no blood. Lifting her hand to her face, she ran her fingers over her eyes and nose and mouth and found no sticky residue of blood.

  It had been all a dream.

  She turned over onto her side and looked around her, her stomach flipping over. No, not a dream. She was still on the set, on the floor, and she still felt raw and hollowed out and nauseous.

  “It was a hallucination, Elise, from the drugs I’ve given you.”

  She startled at the voice. Pushing onto her elbows, she looked around the room, searching for its source. But she was alone in the room.

  “Why…” Her lips were sore and cracked and her throat raw. She swallowed and tried again. “Why am I here? Why are you doing this to me?”

  “You know why you’re here. This is where it all started. Don’t you remember?”

  “No. I don’t remember.”

  “You will. You will.”

  Elise rolled onto her back and closed her eyes. The tears rolled silently down her cheeks. She felt very alone. Where was Gabriel? Wasn’t he coming for her? Did he even know where she was?

  Chapter 27

  Gabriel knew she was in trouble. He felt it the second he walked up the dark, deserted road to their rendezvous spot.

  He kicked himself for being late. His father had kept him with another one of his lectures about how Gabriel was disgracing the family by carrying on with “that Leroy girl.” He should’ve told him to shove his words. Then maybe he wouldn’t have been fifteen minutes late meeting Elise.

  When he came around the bend, that’s when he saw her. That’s when he smelled her blood and heard her whimpers of pain.

  He lost it then. Without thinking, he ran toward her. The only thing in his mind was to save her. He didn’t even realize it had been Yves on top of her when he pounced on the man hurting his Elise. He hadn’t known it was his best friend until he’d nearly ripped out his throat with one hand.

  Leaving Yves to mewl like an injured puppy, he went to look after Elise, to tend to her. But when he looked down at her, she stared up at him, with milky-white dead eyes.

  He’d been too late. She was dead.

  “Elise!” he shouted. “Elise!”

  That was when she sat up, blood dripping from her nose and mouth and eyes, and smiled. “You can’t save me.”

  Gabriel jolted from his sleep. He knocked his head up against the car window.

  Sophie glanced at him from the driver’s side. “Bad dreams?”

  He rubbed at his chin and face. There was a horrid taste in his mouth. He reached down and took a swig from the coffee cup in the cup holder. “Sorry for nodding off.”

  “You needed it.”

  Sipping his coffee, he looked out the window as they raced back to Nouveau Monde.

  The evidence had been photographed, collected and shoved into stainless-steel kits. There was nothing to do now but to take it back to the lab in Nouveau Monde and analyze, study and try to find a connection. A thread to follow. Anything that would give them a lead.

  The drive back was torture for Gabriel. Sitting in the passenger seat, he stared out the window and went over every little piece of evidence they already had. He went over every statement they’d taken from the people around Elise and tried to find the one thing he was missing. Because he knew it was there somewhere. It always was.

  There was someone in Elise’s life who had both the motive and the means to hurt her. It had to be someone close, to know her schedule and to have access to the soundstage, and know where her secret summer cottage was. Although it did turn out to be not so secret, as the reporter attested to.

  But they’d been watching him and so far it didn’t appear that he’d spoken to anyone about it.

  So it was someone else. Someone they’d never suspect. Someone who appeared to be a friend to Elise.

  Gabriel flipped open his phone and dialed. “Lily? It’s Gabriel.”

  “Is Elise all right?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “I get feelings sometimes. And this one is telling me she’s in danger.”

  “Can you meet me at the station? I have some more questions for you.”

  “She’s in trouble, isn’t she?” He could hear the sorrow and desperation in her voice.

  He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “Yes.”

  “I’ll be there.” She disconnected.

  * * *

  Forty minutes later, Gabriel was in his office with Lily. The rest of the team was going over the evidence, pushing the lab to its fullest potential.

  “I need to know everyone you’ve spoken to in the past week.”

  “Do you really think it’s someone close to Elise?”

  He nodded.

  “I just can’t believe anyone who knows her would do something this awful.” Tears still streaked her cheeks. She’d sobbed uncontrollably for a while after he’d told her that Elise had been kidnapped.

  “I’ve been in law enforcement long enough to know that there are those who are capable of horrible, unspeakable things.”

  She just looked at him, maybe trying to decide if he was one of those people he was talking about. If he came face-to-face with Elise’s kidnapper, he’d definitely find out just what he was capable of.

  “I talked to Elise’s publicist, Monique, and her gardener and housekeeper, to make sure that the house was being looked after in her absence.” She squinted as if trying to remember things. “Rory called me just to see how things were going. I think that was in reference to Elise.”

  Gabriel frowned. “Rory is?”

  “Her agent.”

  “Right.” He recalled meeting the man at Elise’s home. A vampire, if he remembered. And a seemingly nice guy. But hadn’t there been something about him that had rubbed Gabriel wrong?

  “How long has he been Elise’s agent?”

  “Going on ten years.”

  “He’s a good guy?”

  Lily smiled. “Oh, yeah, the best. Since signing with him, Elise has gone on to star in many great films. Before that she’d done only a couple of independents. Nothing too noteworthy.”

  “So, he’s kind of helped her become the star she is.”

  “Most definitely.”

  Gabriel looked down at the files he had on his desk about the case. He flipped through the statements from the people closest to Elise, including her gardener and housekeeper. But there wasn’t one statement from Rory Langford.

  “As a matter of fact, it’ll be ten years to the day come tomorrow.”

  His head snapped up at that. “Are you sure?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, Rory’s always been celebratory with Elise on their ‘anniversary’ so to speak. He sends her tons of flowers on that day.” She sniffed. “He’ll be heartbroken when he finds out she’s been kidnapped.”

  Gabriel picked up his phone and made a call. “Francois? I need you in my office right away, and bring the reports from the vandalism case at Elise’s charity ball.”

  It was no more than five minutes before the young male witch and analyst extraordinaire popped into Gabriel’s office.

  “Oui. You beckoned.” He glanced at Lily, smiled and extended his hand. “Bonjour. I am Fran
cois.”

  Smiling, she shook it. “Lily.”

  “Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

  “Francois, just give me the files please.”

  He bowed a little. “As you wish.” He set the files down on the desk, then made himself comfortable in the chair next to Lily.

  “The guest list from the party is in here?”

  “Should be at the top.”

  Gabriel opened the file and rifled through it. He found the guest list and scanned it. He found Rory’s name in seconds.

  “Was every single guest questioned that night?”

  Francois nodded. “Yes, as far as I know. All their statements should be in there, in alphabetical order.”

  Gabriel thumbed through the multitude of pages. But when he got to the Ls, there was no paper with Rory Langford’s name on it.

  “There isn’t one for Rory.”

  Francois shrugged. “Everything should be in there. I made sure the constables had everything together before they gave it to me.”

  “Do you know the constables who completed the reports?”

  “Good guys, good cops. All of them.”

  Gabriel chewed his bottom lip. Something wasn’t adding up. Through all of this, all the investigations, there was one person who seemed to be exempt from everything—the questioning, the suspicions. Rory Langford.

  That didn’t seem right. Or normal. And his people didn’t make mistakes. Something was definitely wrong.

  “Have Rory and Elise ever been involved?” he asked Lily.

  She looked shocked at the question. “Goodness, no.”

  “Did you ever get the sense that Rory had a thing for Elise?”

  She shrugged. “Doesn’t everyone? I mean she’s gorgeous and kind and charming. Who wouldn’t fall a little in love with her?”

  “Do you need me for anything else?” Francois asked as he stood.

  “Thanks for this, Francois.” He touched the file on his desk. “And could you do a search on Rory Langford? He’s a big movie agent, there has to be information on him somewhere. I don’t care what it is. A parking ticket, an article in a newspaper, a Blockbuster movie rental card. Anything to get a bead on him.”

  “No problem.” He looked at Lily and smiled. “It was my supreme pleasure to meet you, Lily.”

  “You, too.” She fluttered a little like her namesake at his devout attention.

  When he left, she sighed. “He’s extremely nice.”

  “Who?”

  “Francois. He’s so charming. I bet he could charm a hungry man out of his last meal.”

  “Yeah.” But Gabriel wasn’t thinking about Francois. He was thinking about the vampire Rory. Could he possess some power that charmed people, persuaded them? Maybe even get them to do things they didn’t necessarily want to?

  “Lily, have you ever heard of a vampire with the power to persuade?”

  “As in so charming you want to sleep with them at first glance?”

  “No, like you’d jump off the tallest building in Nouveau Monde if they asked you to.”

  She shook her head. “That would be some power.”

  “Yes, it would.” He scratched his chin where stubble was quickly becoming whiskers. “How old is Rory, do you know?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Lily. You’ve been a big help.”

  She nodded. “You’re going to find her. Right?”

  “Yes. I’m going to find her.”

  She stood, reaching across the desk and taking his hand. “I believe in you, Gabriel. Because I know how much you love her. And I know how much she loves you.”

  He met her gaze and saw the truth there. His wall came crashing down. “Did she ever talk about me?”

  “In a way. I always knew there was someone out there that she was missing. She never said your name but I knew, once I saw you two together, that it was you she’d been longing for all these years.” She squeezed his hand. “Call me to keep me up-to-date. I’m going to go to Elise’s and try to do something that will keep my mind distracted and the tears away.”

  “I’ll call as soon as I know anything.”

  She walked to the door and put her hand on the knob.

  “Thank you, Lily.”

  She smiled over her shoulder. “You’re welcome.” Then she left, shutting the door behind her.

  When she was gone, Gabriel sighed deeply. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes for a brief moment. He needed to find out everything he could about Rory Langford. He didn’t think he had enough to get a warrant for the guy, or for his house, but he would put out a call that he wanted to talk to him.

  This guy was hovering just under the radar and Gabriel wanted to know why.

  He had a bad feeling that Elise was in grave danger. That if it was Rory who had Elise, then she was under the thumb of a very powerful vampire. One who, if Gabriel was right, had been in love with Elise for nearly ten years now without any love back? Love could be a dangerous thing. It could create but it could also destroy.

  He had to find Elise before that happened.

  Chapter 28

  Gabriel was heading down to the morgue to get the report on the autopsy of Constable Ron Sharpe, when Sophie caught him in the hallway.

  “That liquid we found on the floor near the broken door?”

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s ketamine.”

  “Well, that’s certainly not what I was expecting.”

  “I know, right. But ketamine has been known to work as a sedative.”

  “Yeah, but only in high doses. Where does someone get their hands on that kind of stuff?”

  “Veterinarian practices use it all the time during surgeries. It’s especially effective with big dogs.” She rubbed at her nose. “Something to do with the olfactory cells inside their noses. Would work effectively on lycans, as well.”

  Scratching his neck, he nodded. “Okay. Run with it. See if there have been reports of thefts at any of the veterinarian practices in the city.”

  “Will do, boss.”

  He grabbed her arm before she could dash back down the hall. “Oh, and keep the name Rory Langford in your mind. If there is a connection anywhere there, please let me know immediately.”

  She lifted her brow in question.

  “He’s Elise’s agent. Has been for the past ten years.”

  “He’s a suspect?”