“I don’t think -”
“And I am going to come to your apartment as often as I like to cook for you to make sure you aren’t wasting away hiding in there.”
She blushed and, though she tried not to, she smiled.
“You have a beautiful smile, Phoebe. You should try using it more often.” He released her and offered her his arm. “May I walk you back to your car?”
She eyed his arm and then looked at him. “Would you listen to me if I said no?”
He seemed to think about it for all of three seconds before winding her arm around his and saying, “Not likely.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Phoebe woke the next morning sitting at her desk. She took her hand off the mouse to pluck the sticky note off her face. She frowned at the less than great taste in her mouth and wrinkles that she’d slept into her blouse. Her eyes hurt from staring at the laptop screen into the early hours, cropping and cleaning up the photos she’d taken of Elle and Charlotte. Looking at the screen, she’d finished editing most of them, too, but she didn’t remember doing it.
Who knew people actually fell asleep at their desks?
Looking at the sticky note, she’d written a list of different street addresses down – all in Echo Falls. She brought her laptop back to life and saw that she must have fallen asleep while looking at offices for rent.
Indulging fantasies. Like she’d ever be able to settle down long enough to establish her business. Sure, when she’d first arrived and been lucky to get an apartment so soon, Echo Falls had represented the possibility that she could finally stop running. But the murder of local werewolves meant that Echo Falls now represented just one more place that wasn’t safe for her. And likely never would be.
She needed to be grateful that she’d gotten any work and leave it at that. The way things were, she’d have just enough time for Elle to pick out the photos she wanted and to print them off before she left.
A knock at her door made her jump, sending bolts of pain through her body. She stood up, her muscles protesting, and walked over to her bed to grab the knife from under her pillow.
“Phoebe?”
She paused and shoved the knife back under her pillow. Even through the door, she recognized the voice. Taking a few steadying breaths, she walked over to the door and looked through the eyehole.
Elle.
She opened the door slowly.
“Just me,” Elle said, smiling. “Me and presents.”
She lifted a basket filled with muffins, bottles of orange juice and what looked like deli-wrapped packages. Phoebe smelled the meats and cheeses and nearly closed her eyes at the pleasure of it.
I really needed to start buying my own groceries.
She ushered Elle in, grateful that she didn’t own enough things to make the place a complete mess. Elle didn’t seem to care either way, making her way around the kitchen with ease. Within three minutes, she had out plates, cutlery and all the fresh food she’d brought. She motioned for Phoebe to sit while made sandwiches for them both.
“You didn’t have to do all this. Thank you.” She sat on a stool and watched Elle.
Elle smiled and shrugged, pushing over a plate with a sandwich on it. “I’m just glad you let me in.”
“What do you mean?”
She rolled up a piece of salami and stared at it a few moments before answering. “I didn’t mean to walk you into that yesterday. If I’d known they needed to talk to you about the murders, I would have let you and Aidan sort it out privately.”
Phoebe swallowed her massive bite and shook her head. “It’s my fault. I should have told him what I knew when we talked the first time.” She sighed. “Instead, I practically pushed him out the door.”
Elle arched her eyebrow. “Somehow I doubt that.”
Phoebe looked at her sharply.
“Aidan told me you were banged up pretty seriously.”
She relaxed and nodded, rotating her shoulder.
Elle cocked her head to one side and frowned. “Are those the clothes you wore yesterday?”
She looked down at herself and then laughed. “Yeah. I fell asleep in them. About yesterday…”
She took another large bite of her sandwich before putting it down and walking to her desk. Gathering up her laptop, she walked back into the kitchen and placed it in front of Elle. Elle’s eyes widened and she put her sandwich aside.
“Just press this button when you want to look at the next one.”
“These are lovely,” she said quietly. She paused at the picture of Charlotte and her smiling at each other. “You are amazing.”
Phoebe sat down and smiled as she watched her slowly comb through the photos. ‘Capturing the present to preserve the past’, her photography professor had always told her. Seeing Elle so happy with the results gave her an unexpected pang of longing.
If I could just settle down and open a new business, I could do this every day.
Elle reached into her purse, rummaging around until she produced some cash. Smiling, she pushed it in front of Phoebe.
“I… You don’t…”
“It’s okay.” She grinned. “Call it a down payment. You’ll accept some now and some later, right?
“Well, yes, but -”
“Let me know what the difference is when the time comes.”
“But -”
Elle silenced her by arching one eyebrow. Phoebe looked down at the cash, moving it between her fingertips. This sort of thing didn’t usually happen. The process involved her cleaning up dozens – sometimes hundreds – of photos and then going through them with the clients so they could pick out their favorites. She printed those off and then she’d get paid. Maybe getting paid in cash so soon was a sign she should go. Or just a sign that she’d have the money to go get them printed off, seeing as a photo printer hadn’t been on her ‘must grab’ list when she’d gone on the run.
“Where’s Charlotte?”
“Mum’s day off.” She smiled. “I got a babysitter. I thought maybe you could use a friend.”
Phoebe’s chest tightened and she looked away. Sudden tears welled up in her eyes and the tiredness she’d been holding back flooded through her. She almost slumped forward on the stool. All her aches and bruises came into focus. She couldn’t resist a glance toward her bed, where she could make the world go away for short periods when the nightmares didn’t bother her. The she looked at Elle, wishing they could talk all day long about everything. Down to knowing each other’s favorite colors, she wanted a best friend and she wanted one right now.
She stood up, wrapping her arms around herself, and turned toward her bedroom.
“Elle, I can’t say how nice it is to have someone be so great without knowing me. But I’m going to leave Echo Falls as soon as I can get everything packed. I have to keep moving.”
Elle smiled. “He said you’d say something like that.”
She turned around. “Who?”
“Aidan.” Before she could say anything, Elle held up her hand. “He’s not a bad guy; he just wants to make sure you’re okay.”
She frowned. “He spends a lot of time making sure I’m okay.”
“He should.” She stood up. “Your back is bleeding.”
“What?”
She moved over to Phoebe and gently turned her around to examine her shoulder. “I’ll make you a deal. I help you take care of your back, and you come shopping with me after.”
She looked back over her shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of the bleeding. Treating your own back wounds lead to only halfway decent bandaging and a lot of frustration – not to mention pain. Shopping seemed like an arrogant show of confidence considering the murders and the attack.
“And I promise: no talk about the murders or the attack.”
“Or anything paranormal.”
Elle froze for a moment, her eyes wide. Then she swallowed and nodded. “Or anything paranormal.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Aidan flipped through the fil
es of the murder victims again. The corners of the pages were creased and dirty from all the times he’d flipped back and forth between them. Though this time he couldn’t seem to focus on any of it. He sat at Sophie’s in the back corner booth with the files spread in front of him, a mug of coffee in his right hand and Phoebe’s business card in his left hand.
Maybe I’ll see you before I leave. Phoebe’s voice chimed in his head, the mystery of her a lot more appealing than murders that had no new leads.
Something about her still didn’t add up.
Echo Falls didn’t see a lot of werewolves turned by bites. Though the city had quite a lot of people, their pack had always been large, tightly linked and respected. Only outsiders ever ‘infected’ others, and many more wolves wandered in already turned. Still, he’d been able to be there for a few recently turned. He’d spent the time with them to answer the questions they always had.
“Do I have to change every full moon?”
“Does it hurt?”
“How will I keep the secret?”
“What if someone finds out?”
“How do I tell my boyfriend… girlfriend… best friend… parents…?”
“Is there any way to reverse it?”
They all had questions, and many of them had a lot of anger – anger they let loose on him until they learned to accept their new lot in life. He stayed with them on their first full moon when the confusion of having their physical body change into something so completely different threatened to overwhelm their minds. As the wolf threatened to overwhelm the human. The experience could be terrifying, but it could also be the most exhilarating experience they would ever know.
After their first full moon, they had the choice to join the pack. So far most had joined, but if someone refused, he never tried to force him or her. An unwilling pack member would be a pack member who caused trouble.
New pack members always welcomed his guiding presence as they learned to accept the wolf and the wolf accepted him as their alpha.
But then there was Phoebe.
Phoebe didn’t ask questions. She didn’t want his ‘guiding presence’. She didn’t appear to care at all that she’d been bitten by a supernatural creature that wasn’t supposed to exist and that the bite would transform her life. He couldn’t quite imagine her submitting to his authority as alpha, though he had to admit the idea appealed to him more than it should have. Her warm brown eyes staring up at him as he vowed to protect her in his position as leader and friend…
He cleared his throat. She wanted nothing to do with it and he had to remember that. But could he really let her fade out of his life when he had so many questions about her? Her easy acceptance of his wolf side made him wonder if she had been with a werewolf. But if she had, what was she so afraid of? Any Were worth his measure – and worth her – would certainly protect her. At least, he damn well should.
He could sense the conflict in her as easily as he could read the files in front of him. Her eyes held both caution and a longing to trust. At least part of her wanted what he could offer. If only he could convince her that her longing would lead her to what she needed.
If he could only know for sure that his instincts were leading him the right way.
He pushed all the files together and left Sophie’s. He needed to refocus, and he did that best at work.
The drive to the police station took all of ten minutes from Sophie’s. The single station had served Echo Falls since the town’s start over a century ago, and marks of its long history showed through the brick masonry and peeling paint on the windowsills. Only earlier this year had they begun talking about setting up a second office on the other side of town – where Phoebe lived and the third murder had taken place. The murder of a female werewolf.
Of course, the police were still trying to figure out what the victims had in common. Two men and one woman had been killed with no family, work or social connection to each other. The only common links were that they had been killed at night and with the same type of weapon. They never found the weapons on the scene, but forensics felt sure that the killer used silver crossbow bolts.
A crossbow. He rubbed his temples and sighed.
He barely managed to stop himself from slamming his truck door when he got out and walked into the station. Like most Monday mornings, conversations and phones ringing filled the air – and that was just in the main reception area. He nodded to Mary, who took care of the reception desk.
“Aren’t you supposed to be on vacation?” she asked.
“I might be,” he said and winked, walking past her.
A large room filled with desks made up most of the station with closed offices for the detectives and inspectors at the back. Officers sat at their desks talking on phones or dealing with people who, for the most part, didn’t want to be there.
Aidan sat down at his now mostly empty desk. His desk and Will’s faced each other, and Will only raised an eyebrow when Aidan sat down. Though Thomas was technically Will’s partner while Aidan ‘took a break’ Thomas didn’t dare try to take Aidan’s desk. Thomas caught sight of him sitting down, picked up some photos off his desk and walked over.
“Aidan,” Will said and nodded.
“Will. Thomas.”
“Grant is going to have our family jewels if he sees you in here,” Thomas said, glancing to the Chief Inspector’s office.
Aidan looked at Grant’s office and then at the clock on the wall. Five minutes. “Did you finish the interviews?”
Thomas nodded and sighed. “Yeah. No one saw anything. Some people thought they heard Phoebe’s screams, but they called us.”
“The one time no one plays hero.”
“No joke,” Thomas said, crossing his arms over his chest.
The trio exchanged looks and Aidan resisted the urge to curse. If the interviews had revealed some little clue for them to follow, they would have celebrated. But, of course, they hadn’t.
“The good news is that forensics found some scraps of clothing,” Thomas said. “They said they might be able to lift something useful from them.”
“Clothing scraps?”
Thomas nodded and tossed him some the photos he’d been holding. “Not much, but better than nothing.”
Aidan studied the pictures. “So at least we know the murderer doesn’t kill naked. But if he transformed and left clothing scraps behind, then -”
Thomas hit his fist on the desk and smirked. He leaned closer. “Then what happened to the clothes? We’ve been all over those apartments and only found the scraps. This plays right into my theory.”
“Hypothesis,” Will said.
“What hypothesis?” Aidan asked.
“I think the murderer has help, and I think it’s someone we know.”
Aidan waited for the smirk or snigger that would tell him Thomas was having a joke at his expense, but both Thomas’s tone and expression remained cold. He looked over to Will who reluctantly shrugged. Thomas leaned in closer so no one would overhear them.
“We have no explanation for how the killer not only knows that his victims are our kind but also that they are not part of the pack. Close enough to call our attention but not close enough to get our defenses up. Yet. Now we have scraps of clothing floating around but no actual clothes, meaning someone picked them up. Phoebe said she heard two voices. The killer has to have help – and that help is coming from inside the pack.”
“You don’ know that,” Will said. “The killer may have teamed up with a loner or two loners could have teamed up.”
Thomas held up one finger. “But what fits? What makes it all make sense? Someone in the pack is helping the killer.”
“One fatal flaw in your theory,” Aidan said. “We would have recognized the scent of someone in the pack.”
“Yes, we would have. If we had been around to pick up the scent. You have only had your ‘nose’ at the third murder when it was fresh enough to distinguish the scent and you were only in that alley. Our traitor c
ould have been all over inside the apartments while the killer was outside fighting you. I think -”
“Well, Aidan O’Bryan! I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Aidan nodded to Thomas, signaling that the conversation would have to wait for now. Had Aidan been a man less in control of himself, he would have groaned.
Mia Ellis.
Mia had been a part of the pack for nearly five years. She, Aidan and Will had all gone to school together. She moved away for a few years but came back as a newly widowed woman with a nice chunk of money, little remorse and a lot of confusion over how to deal with life as a werewolf. Finding out that Aidan and Will were also werewolves had delighted her to no end – especially when Aidan later became the pack’s alpha.
“Mia. What are you doing here?” Aidan asked.
She huffed and rolled her eyes. “Some little snot has been putting scratches in my car.” Her annoyance snapped into a bright smile in an instant. “So I figured I’d pop down here and see if someone could do something about it.”
“We’re a little busy for that, Mia,” Thomas said, glaring at her. There had never been any love lost between him and Mia, though he would never say why.
She ignored Thomas and all but purred at Aidan. “Lo and behold, you’re back in the office.”
“Not officially,” he said, glancing at the clock. “I’m on my way out.”
“Me, too!” she said cheerfully, taking a step closer to him. “You can walk me to the door.”
Aidan looked at Will who could only shrug.
“Come on. Let’s go.” She looked at the door.
“Have some fun, Aidan,” Thomas said. “You’re supposed to enjoy time off.”
“I’ll make sure he does,” Mia said, winking at him before taking Aidan by the arm and leading him out.
CHAPTER NINE
“Charlotte would love this,” Elle said, holding up an incredibly soft and incredibly pink teddy bear. She smiled, rubbing its belly with her thumbs before placing it back on the rack amongst the other toys.
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