by Tegan Maher
"So we have pieces," he said, "but no picture to match them to. We're no better off than we were this morning."
"Sure we are," I said. "We have a general feel for the people most likely to commit the crime. Colleen is testing the cards for prints. It's moving, just not as fast as you'd like. This isn't TV. It's going to take more than a day to figure it out, and we got a good start."
We disconnected and rode in comfortable silence the rest of the way to the diner.
"I assume Dana's is good for you?" he asked.
"Yeah, great." There wasn't any time that wasn't a good time for the diner. The place served everything from oatmeal to T-Bones, but my personal favorite was their burgers. And their biscuits and gravy, if I wanted breakfast.
Once he pulled in, the comforting smells of bacon grease, frying steak, and coffee made my stomach rumble. Luckily, the place wasn't busy, so it wouldn't take long. Dana, the owner, greeted us with a wide smile, then pulled me into a hug. She was a fox shifter who had grown up with my Aunt Carole, so I'd known her my whole life.
She pushed me back to arm's length and examined me with a critical eye. "You're too skinny. Get on in here and lemme feed you." She tossed a glance at Alex, giving him the once-over. "You too. Lordy, both of you look like you need a solid week of good meals."
After shooing us to our favorite booth, she brought me a tea and Alex a Coke. "Now, I have meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, and cheesy broccoli on special tonight. And I just made strawberry cheesecake today, too. So, what'll you have?"
Normally, you couldn't pay me to eat meatloaf at a restaurant, but Dana's was different. Hers was the meatloaf I grew up on, and what she served at the diner was the exact same thing she'd served at Sunday dinner my entire life.
"You don't have to tell me twice," I said. "The special it is."
"Make it two," Alex said.
"Good. I'll be right back."
Alex smiled. "The woman's a force of nature. Five-foot-nothin', and I'm scared not to do what she says."
I pulled my straw from the paper and stuck it in my tea. "That's because you have strong survival skills."
"I guess so. You're lucky to have so many people that care about you. Her, Kat, Sam, your parents. Even Sean. And that's just the top of the list."
He was right. I bitched and moaned about my town all the time, but the bottom line was that I wouldn’t have traded it for anywhere else in the world.
"The bane and blessing of growing up in a small town. Everybody may know your business, but there are a whole lot of folks who only know it because they care enough to keep track of you."
He caught me up on what he'd done over the past week, and before I knew it, the food was there. She'd brought enough to feed four normal people and insisted we eat every bite. That wasn't going to be a problem. We tore into it like a couple of starving wolves—pun intended—and decimated it.
While we ate, we chatted. Alex was proving to be one of those people who I could talk about anything with. No matter how much time we spent together, we hardly ever ran out of things to talk about, and on the rare occasions when we did, the silence was comfortable rather than awkward. It didn't hurt that he was easy to look at, too.
Maybe it was the witch/werewolf thing, but the more time I spent with him, the more time I wanted to spend with him.
I sopped up the last bit of gravy with the final bite of my hot roll and popped it into my mouth. I leaned back in the booth and draped my arm over my stuffed belly, but I'd forgotten about the cheesecake.
Dana had not.
She'd popped in on us a few times, and had even sat and talked to us for a few minutes before she got busy. When she walked by carrying dirty dishes, she scooped ours up too and came back a couple minutes later with two huge slices covered with fresh strawberries in a sugar sauce and two cups of coffee.
I swear, even my werewolf metabolism wouldn't be able to keep up with her cooking if she were able to feed me every day. Still, there was no such thing as no room for cheesecake. The thought was just silly.
Alex dug in first. His euphoric expression gave me that extra push I needed to pull myself back to the table to plow into my slice.
When I scraped the last bit of sauce off my plate, I shoved the plate away. Dana saw, and sashayed her way to the table, a cat that ate the cream look on her face.
"Mercy," I said, holding up my hands. "I can't do anymore."
"That's okay. You done good," she said. "That's the one thing about all you kids—none of you were ever picky eaters."
"No liver and onions," I said, curling my lip. Alex agreed.
She shook her head. "You don't know what's good for you."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure there are enough things out there that are good for me that I don't ever have to eat a piece of liver." Just the thought made me shudder.
I glanced at my phone and realized Kat would probably be getting ready to go to work and I wanted to catch her before she did. She was old enough that she could be up during the day, but it wasn't her preference. Unlike Sean, she preferred to keep traditional hours.
We'd filled Dana in on where we were in limited terms hoping she had some insight.
"You know," Dana said when she brought us a couple pieces of pie to go, "I know Vanderveer, and I just remembered he spent some time in town a decade or so ago, too. He comes in every couple years-ish, but he rarely stays for more than a day. That time, he was here for close to a month, if memory serves. Tara would have been involved in all her kid stuff by then."
"So is there some reason that's important?" Alex asked.
I realized what she was saying. If his pattern held true, there was a third woman out there he'd kept time with. Somebody younger than Tara but older than Carly. I said as much to Alex.
Dana nodded as she scooped the dessert plates off the table. "I don't remember who, but she'd probably be right around forty."
It looked like we had another player.
CHAPTER TWENTY
"I KNOW IT SEEMS LIKE we only have three women to look at, but I feel like I should point out that we only have three women here," Alex said once we were in the car.
He made a valid point. "So you think that somebody may have followed him here?"
He lifted a shoulder as he pulled out onto the road. "I think it's something we should consider. It's not like we don't have a wide enough array, but just because you're standing in a butcher shop doesn't mean they have the cut of steak you want."
For once, just the mention of food made my stomach roll. I held up my hand. "Please, no food analogies for at least an hour."
"Okay, deal," he said. "I don't know where you put it. I'm six inches taller and fifty pounds heavier than you, and I'm stuffed to the gills."
I snorted. "Did it look to you like I had a choice? She'd have made me sit there 'til I finished my supper."
We finished the ride home in silence, letting our food settle. When we pulled into my drive, there was a silver Honda there with rental tags.
"You expecting company?" he asked.
"Nope," I replied, scrunching my forehead. "And Kat hasn't mentioned anybody either."
I grabbed the bag containing the extra slices of cheesecake Dana'd insisted on sending home with us and climbed out of the car. Once inside, Chaos darted to us, her luminous green eyes narrowed.
"There's something fishy going on in there, and I don't mean in the delicious tuna way. You need to get in there and figure it out, because he's conning Kat, hook, line, and sinker."
She had to be exaggerating because Kat was nobody's fool. I pushed into the kitchen, Alex tight on my heels, and was surprised to see some guy—a vampire—sitting beside Kat, his hand over hers on the table.
"Hey," I said, slowing before I got to them and glancing from their hands to her face, then over to his. They wore matching expressions of joy, but I was with Chaos; something wasn't right. "What's going on, Kat?"
She looked at me, her dark, almond-shaped eyes shining. "Cori S
loane, I'd like you to meet Giovanni. Gio, this is my roommate Cori, and that's Alex."
I gave him a tentative smile.
"Gio's my brother, Cori!" Pink tears of happiness pooled along the waterline of her eyes.
"Say what, now?" I asked. "What’s going on, Kat?"
"Her name isn't Kat," Gio said. "It's Martina. Martina Bianchi."
Kat grinned. "Well, it's Kat now. It's been Kat for three hundred years, and I can't imagine answering to anything else."
"Of course," he said, still smiling, though he didn't seem pleased about it.
Chaos had followed us in and hopped up on a chair. Her voice sounded through our mental link.
Ask him how he knows he's her brother.
Alex beat me to it.
"So what makes you think she's your long-lost sister?" he asked.
Kat gave a half-smile. "I told you they cared about me and would be protective."
She shoved a manila envelope toward me. "Pictures of us as kids, growing up. Our family tree, as recorded by our mother. It all matches. It was within three miles of where Sean found me!"
I looked through the pictures and had to admit that even though they were grainy, they did look like Kat. And Giovanni looked like her, too.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked her. "In private?"
The smile had slipped from her face, replaced by confusion, but she stood and followed me outside. Not that it would do any good—vampire hearing.
"What's wrong?" she asked once we were on the porch.
"What's wrong?" I hissed. "What's wrong is that after three hundred years, some guy just shows up and says he's your brother and you're accepting it, no questions asked?"
She was starting to get irritated. "Of course I asked. That envelope is just the beginning. He knows the answers to questions nobody else would."
"Like what?"
"Like how I got this scar on my arm. And where Sean found me and when. Where my birthmark is. And how I had asthma when I was human." That was one of the few memories she had, and it wasn't an actual memory so much as a flash of terror, and feeling like she couldn't breathe.
I heaved a sigh. "Kat, none of that is information that he couldn't have gotten somewhere else. You don't know where you got the scar, so he could spin any kind of fabulous tale—"
Her expression was flat when she interrupted me. "He said I got it when I fell against a broken wagon wheel. He was running interference while I got away so our father couldn't hit me."
Ouch. Maybe I hadn't used the best wording. But his story was actually much more effective than had he spun some happy yarn about falling out of an apple tree. Build that protective older brother bond.
"Okay, but my point stands. A far as your birthmark, people have seen you naked. Close up. It's on your hip, so it's visible when ... you know. For that matter, I can see it when you wear a bathing suit. Any vampire could have the information about where and when Sean found you, and the same with the asthma. It's not common knowledge, but somebody who knew the right person to ask would be able to get it."
She was angry. "Why don't you want this to be true for me? Why can't you just accept it and be happy for me?"
I grabbed her by the arm and her emotions flooded me. The betrayal she was feeling toward me right then, but also the hope she'd felt as he told her story after story.
"I do want this to be true for you. I just want to make sure, okay? There are a lot of skeezy people out there, and you know that. Let's check up on him, at least, before you start calling him brother."
She pulled away from me. "I'm capable of taking care of myself and making my own decisions. This is no exception, and you know I'm no fool."
"You aren't. That's why I can't understand why you're buying this without so much as checking into him."
"Because it feels right."
Big Brother chose that minute to come outside, Alex and Chaos right behind him. I reached my hand out.
"Pleasure to meet you, Giovanni." I sent a request out to the universe—if my psychic powers were ever going to work, let it be then.
He grasped my hand, an unsure smile on his face. "The pleasure's mine. Mart—Kat has told me all about you."
I shook it for as long as I could without making it awkward, but didn't pick up anything. Well, that's not exactly true. I got an image of what I was feeling. Sort of like feedback.
Forcing my face into a smile, I said, "I'm sure she has."
I turned to Alex. "I just remembered we didn't stop at the store and get milk for coffee in the morning. Chaos, you can go too."
Kat was glaring at me. "I know what you just tried to do."
I lifted a shoulder. "What? You may trust him, but I love you. That means I don't. Not until I know enough to trust him, too."
I climbed in the Jeep and waited for Chaos and Alex. Once we were all in and buckled up—Chaos had her own seatbelt in the backseat—I waved a hand to turn on my magical Bluetooth and called Sean.
"We got a problem over here, and it trumps any murder investigation. I need you to get to my place ASAP. Kat's in trouble. There's some guy—"
The phone was dead as soon as I said she was in trouble. Sean Castle was a relaxed dude, but Kat held a piece of his heart. If this guy was lying, lord help him, because none of us would.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ONE THING I KNEW FOR sure—Kat was not going to thank me for calling Sean. Tough. I wasn't gonna let some guy waltz in there and take advantage of her on my watch. Where had he been three hundred years ago when she needed him? For that matter, where had he been for the three centuries between then and now?
All questions Sean would be more than willing to ask. And get answers to.
I turned to Chaos. "Did he just show up and introduce himself as her brother?"
"Pretty much," she said. "He knocked on the door, asked for a few minutes of her time, and the next thing I knew, she was hugging him and crying."
Alex turned in his seat so he could see her. "Was he crying and as happy as she was, or was it one-sided?"
"Glad you asked," she said. "Not a tear. Lots of pretend crying, but not a single tear to be seen."
I explained what I'd seen when I shook his hand, but neither of them understood what it meant, either. It's not like my psychic powers were rock-solid, so it may have been as simple as that. It would have been nice to get at least something that would have helped sway me one way or the other, though.
Sean was there by the time we got back, and I was weirded out to find the three of them sitting around the table laughing.
“Come in, Cordelia," Sean said, motioning to a chair at the table. "Alex." He didn't greet Chaos, which was unlike him. He had a huge respect for her and her kind.
"Gio was just telling us some stories from Kat's childhood. Apparently, she was as scrappy then as she is now."
I pasted on a smile, not sure what to do. The laughter left his eyes for a minute as he made eye contact with me, then motioned toward a chair with his eyes. Oh. That made me feel better. He didn't trust the dude any more than I did, but he was dealing with it better than I did. No shock there; he was a heck of a diplomat.
He patted his pockets. "I seem to have left my phone in my car," he said. "Excuse me for one minute. I'm hosting this weekend, and should somebody need me, I'd hate to miss the call."
With his vampire speed, he was back in less than a minute. "I do apologize. Now, please continue. I'm on pins and needles."
For an hour, we sat there listening to tales about Kat. Sean would ask questions and seem satisfied with each answer. If he wasn't, I sure couldn't tell.
Kat glanced at her watch. "Holy crap! Where did the time go? I have to get to work! Gio, make yourself at home, or you're free to come see where I work. We have a fabulous Bloody Mary. We use top-notch synthetic."
She may have missed the slight blanch that crossed his face when she said synthetic, but the rest of us didn't. In the space of a couple heartbeats, while she had her back tu
rned rinsing out their glasses, he took our measure. It seemed we weren't fooling him anymore than he was fooling us.
"I'd love to, sister. We have a lot of catching up to do."
Sean maintained his pleasant smile and I struggled to do the same. Since Kat wasn't watching, Alex didn't bother and neither did Sean.
She dashed upstairs, and was back in just a couple minutes, dressed in her typical uniform of cutoff shorts and a Rusty Hook tank top.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Ready," he said, pushing up from the table and gathering the paperwork and pictures back into the envelope. “Can I get a box of your stash to go? It was a long flight, and I'm hungry."
"Of course," she said. "Cold or room temp?"
A slight shudder rolled through him. "Room temp will be fine."
She pulled a box out of the pantry and handed it to him. We said our goodbyes, and they made their way out the door.
As soon as we heard her car pull out of the drive, we all started talking at once. Sean held up his hand.
"He's a fraud. We all know that, but what's his endgame? I'll do some checking. Cori, your parents have connections and networks all over the world, right?"
I nodded. "And they adore Kat." My mother was a firm believer in making friends all over the world. She said there was power in numbers, though she did it for the safety of our pack and all US packs, not for the power. It was always handy to be able to call in favors when needed. Like today.
"Good," he said. “I need you to send them these pictures and have them circulate them. See if they can find out who he really is. I'll do the same."
"What pictures?" I asked.
He smiled and held up his phone. "These pictures. I managed to grab a few when I went to get my phone."
There were five, but since Giovanni—or whatever his name was—had been sitting at the end of the table, there was only one of his whole face. The rest were profiles, but those were good, too. He sent me three of them, and I called my mother. This wasn't something I was willing to put in writing, and Mom was horrible about checking her messages, anyway.