by Tegan Maher
The number was well into the double digits though there had never been any arrests. He'd frequented the Hook, at least until Kat barred him.
I'd been at the Hook one night when he was taking a whipping because he'd pinched another man's wife on the butt, right in front of the guy. It made me smile inside when I saw the guy bust Bleigh in the nose, so I let him get a couple more licks in before I intervened. The guy had it coming to him and some people only learned if they figured it would hurt to do it again. Plus, I was off-duty.
"I know who you're talking about, Mandy. But why do you think this is important?"
"Well, Billy and Mandy had a huge fight about it. He was angry that she didn't stand up for herself. Honestly, I think he was more frustrated that she was in the position where she had to take it, but you know how it is."
"Yeah, but why would he hurt Tabbie?"
She drew in a huge breath and let it out. "That whole thing about wanting to meet Billy's family had really gotten under her skin, which made the diner incident worse than what it would have been. They'd been arguing for days, but that night, they got in a huge fight. It was so bad I thought they were gonna start hitting each other."
I pinched my lips flat. The circumstantial evidence was piling up. One thing was bothering me, though.
"Mandy, what made you come forward now?"
"He'd told me that he and Tabbie made up before she died, and I believed him. I could picture them being one of those forever couples. Then after you left, he freaked completely out. I had to leave to get ready for work, and he was gone when I got back. I thought maybe he'd just gone to clear his head or something, but it's been two days now. Why else would he run?"
Why else, indeed. I thanked her for calling, and asked her to let me know if she heard from him.
I mulled it over in my head as we drove back to the office.
"You know you have to look at this objectively," Alex said. "We both understand why he couldn't introduce her to his family, so there's no mystery there."
"Yeah," I said, "But there's something goin' on with this kid. It's not outside the realm of possibility that he would have killed the guy, even if it wasn't pre-meditated. If he'd been running in the woods, blowing off steam, and he was right there ... I could see it, but he didn't kill him. Tabbie would up dead."
"Yeah, and how would Victoria Temple tie into it?"
I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe he was out running off steam and she reminded him of Tabbie?"
"Maybe," he said. "But there's something else we need to consider."
"What's that?"
He rubbed his nose. "Maybe the guy we just found is the one who killed the first two. Maybe our boy's been on the hunt."
I scrolled through my phone for Dani's number. I needed to talk to Billy Braxton, and now.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE REST OF THE DAY was a wash. I'd dropped Alex off at his hotel and called Dani. She still hadn't learned anything at all about Billy and none of the cars in the lot had belonged to the victim.
"It's like he just doesn't freakin' exist," Dani had said about Billy. "This guy literally appeared in your town five years ago. There are no Braxton packs. I've sent his picture out, and nobody recognizes him."
It wasn't unheard of for werewolves to have no digital footprint. For obvious reasons, we're birthed at home, many of us are home-schooled, and larger packs often have enough jobs to keep everybody employed under one umbrella.
"What about the other packs? Was anybody reported missing, or even ex-communicated, around that time?" There had to be somebody. A werewolf doesn't just appear out of thin air.
"I've checked all of the local packs and have reached out to the regional ones. I've heard back from most of them. Of course there have been some ex-communications, but none that fit your guy's description. I'll get in touch once my contacts in each region have checked in, but it's not looking good."
I ran my hand down my face. "Thanks, Dani. I owe you big."
"Well, you're going to owe me even bigger. Rumor has it that the pack is getting concerned about the attention that you're drawing down there. I'd guess you have less than a week before they overrule your parents, so do what you do, girl. I'll hammer at it on my end, too. Good luck."
Since it was Friday night and I really didn't feel like cooking, I decided to grab a pizza.
I stopped and picked up a pie from Georgio's Hometown Italian. I'd called in ahead of time and when I pushed through the door, the smells of fresh-baked dough, garlic, and Georgio's special sauce swirled around me, drawing me in and making my mouth water.
Nobody knew Georgio's story for sure. He just showed up in Castle Bluff thirty years ago or so and opened the shop. He looks the same now as he did then. He's a big teddy bear of a man: bald, rotund, and dressed in the traditional Italian chef's uniform, complete with the hat and sweeping mustache.
He made everything from scratch, including his mozzerella. His recipes were as secret as his past, though. He wouldn't even share them with the guy who cooked on the one day a week he took off.
When the bell above the door jangled and he saw that it was me, a huge smile split his face. His sparkling eyes were already a little glazed and his hat was askew—Georgio loves his sauce, and I'm not just talking about what goes on his pizza. He makes his own lemoncello and starts sipping on it around noon. By the time closing time rolls around, he's as stewed as his tomatoes.
He came around the counter and swooped me up into a hug, then held me at arms' length and looked me up and down.
"Ma bella! Youra too skinny! Let Georgio throw you in a nice big piece of tiramisu!" There was no way I was turning that down; that concoction was manna from the gods.
I grinned up at him. "Now you're speaking my language!"
He pulled not one, but two giant slices packed in to-go containers from the cooler and tucked them into a paper bag and set it on top of my pizza, then tossed some fresh zeppolas in a bag for good measure. My wolf licked her chops.
I fished some cash out of my wallet and thanked him for watching out for me as always.
"You take-a good care of yourself now, you hear? Ifa dis boy I hear your mama sent gives you any problems, you let Georgio know about it, Bella!"
I smiled and assured him that I would, then gathered up my loot and scrambled out the door.
When I pulled into my drive, it was nearly eight and to my surprise, Zack was there, sitting in the porch swing waiting for me. Kat's car was there and the light was on in the kitchen, so she was there, too. I was glad, because I wanted to make sure she was okay, and find out if they'd learned anything.
Zach came over to the car and picked the pizza box out of the front seat but I grabbed the bags. I wasn't taking any chances with those.
"Wow, that smells amazing. Georgio's?"
"Of course. Is there another pizza place in town?" I was kidding, but seriously, Georgio had remodeled a few years ago and the shop was closed for about two weeks. I ordered from one of the chain places and swore I'd never do it again; he's ruined me for any other pizza. "C'mon in. I have plenty."
CHAPTER TWENTY
WE MADE OUR WAY ACROSS the porch and he pulled open the screen door for me, then grabbed a bottle of wine from the swing where he'd been sitting. We made our way into the kitchen and piled the food on the table. Chaos hopped up on a chair and poked her nose over the edge of the table, sniffing. Pizza was one of her favorite foods.
I smiled. "You know you'll get some, but you can't have it all." She sat back on her haunches and wrapped her tail around her feet, telling me with her eyes to hurry up.
If Zach was curious about a fox sitting at my table, he didn't let on. As a matter of fact, he didn't seem to be aware of anything other than his own feet.
"Look, Cori, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I knew they'd be sending somebody in. I'm assuming he's a fed, and I should have realized what was going on when I saw him. I didn't mean to overstep, or get you in trouble."
I waved him off. "It's no big deal. Thanks for understanding."
Kat glided into the kitchen and leaned against the counter, swirling what would look to Zach like a glass of red wine.
"You look so much better! You didn't text me back, and I was getting worried."
"Sorry about that. I slept until just a little bit ago."
Taking a closer look, I saw she still had some smudges under her eyes, but besides that, she looked healthy as a horse.
I made the introductions and pulled paper plates and napkins out of the pantry, then popped the cork on the wine he'd brought.
We helped ourselves, and Zach nodded toward Kat's glass. "That looks great. Rich, and look at the legs! What vintage is that?"
She barely missed a beat, and I nearly choked on a piece of crust when she replied, "Italian, 1972, but this is the last of it."
Well, at least she'd closed the door before he could ask for a glass. I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Her eyes were glittering with humor as she steered the conversation in a safer, if less entertaining, direction.
Kat plucked a piece of pizza from the box and tore off the crust. Chaos's gaze zeroed in on her, and when Kat held it out, the little hustler took it in her mouth and ran. "So Cori tells me you're a bounty hunter of sorts. You hunt down wild animals that have harmed people?"
Zach swallowed a bite of pizza and tilted his head. "Something like that."
Kat brought her eyebrows together and examined him. "Enlighten us, then. It sounds exciting. Do you hunt all animals, or just certain types? What kind of training do you have to have for that?" I doubt Zach noticed that her tone had gone from friendly to predator-versus-prey, but I did. I frowned at her, but she shot me an almost imperceptible head-shake.
Zach appeared to be floundering a little under her scrutiny; Kat could be downright scary when she wanted to be. "Well, technically I'm licensed and trained to hunt any type of potentially dangerous animal, but my partner and I specialize in wolves."
"Partner?" I asked, surprised. "Where's he at?"
"Remember the friend I mentioned who called me about the first death?"
I nodded.
"He's related to them so he's been staying at their place catching up while I've been doing most of the footwork. He's been out with me a few times, but this is turning out to be more of a vacation for him other than that."
Kat wasn't quite ready to let the whole job thing slide quite yet. "So about the wolves ... do you kill them, or are some of them rehabilitated or relocated?" Her piercing black eyes remained laser-focused on him as she waited for the answer.
"The type of animals I hunt can't be rehabilitated." His expression was hard and I picked up a trace of bitterness in his voice. I sensed a story there, but Kat seemed to lose interest and after a few minutes, it was as if there had never been any tension.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
ZACH LEFT SHORTLY BEFORE ten, claiming that he wanted to get up early. Kat was off, so we sat up and shared a bottle of wine and caught up, Chaos curled between us on the couch. I told her all about the meeting with the clan leaders and the most recent killing, but she was distracted, which was completely unlike her.
By the time we'd finished the first bottle and started the second, the suspense was killing me. I was in the middle of telling her about the Billy Braxton mystery, but she wasn't hearing word I was saying. Instead, she was gazing down at her hands, absently picking at her fingernail polish.
"So yeah, I've decided that the best thing to do would be to strip naked, set my hair on fire, and run down Main Street."
"Oh, yeah. If you need any help ... wait, what?"
She snapped her eyes to me and for the first time in half an hour, gave me her full attention.
I raised my brows and waved a hand in front of her face. "You were a million miles away, and you're never spacey. What's up?"
She took a deep breath, running her hand down Chaos's back to the tip of her tail. "Something's screwy with Zach."
"What do you mean, screwy?"
"I mean, he lied when I asked him about his job, or at least skewed the truth. I couldn't pick out much information because he was mentally scrambling for plausible answers, then when I changed the subject, the only thing I got from him was intense relief."
I let that settle, and thought about what it could mean. "So what do you think he's lying about?"
She threw her hands up. "I have no idea. The rest of the time he was here, he was pretty much wondering why I didn't eat any pizza, and what you would look like naked. Completely relaxed and focused on keeping his eyes off your boobs."
I laughed at that. "Well, at least that's nothing new. There used to be some serious electricity between us."
Examining my face, she said, "Used to be?"
I picked at a string on the couch. "Yeah, used to be. I don't know about now. It's been a lot of years." Unbidden, Alex's face floated through my mind.
She still looked troubled. "Just be careful, okay? The few images and feelings that I did pick up were of dead wolves and intense, almost savage, satisfaction."
Yeah, okay. That wasn't so nice to know.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
WE CAUGHT UP ON SOME episodes of the latest vampire series on Netflix—she rolled her eyes so many times I was glad she was sitting down; otherwise, she would have fallen over backwards. She watches them for about the same reason some people watch so-called reality TV or wrestling—it amuses her to pick out the absurdities.
Before I knew it, it was after midnight, so I had to call it a night. Chaos grumbled when we stood from the couch, then stretched and headed for my bedroom, her tail waving behind her.
Kat decided she was going to go see what was up at the bar and have a look-see into the heads of the folks there in the hopes of finding who poisoned her, so I gave her a quick hug and headed to my room. It had been nice to hang with her; we hadn't had much time to do that lately.
I crashed almost as soon as my head hit the pillow, but slept fitfully, dreaming about mangled bodies, dead wolves, and being shot at. I gave up around three thirty when I practically bolted out of bed because I'd just been dream-shot for the third time.
Drenched in sweat, I untangled my legs from the sheets and swung them over the edge of the bed. Nervous energy hummed through me and I decided it was time to take the tiger ... err ... wolf by the tail. I was going hunting.
Pausing, I debated calling Alex. Even I wasn't dumb enough to go hunting a murderous wolf twice my size if I had backup. I called, but his phone rang half a dozen times and went to voicemail. I left him a message, then decided to at least visit the scenes.
We lived on a cul-de-sac that butted up to the same woods our victims were found in, so I decided to make the change at home and cut through the woods. Maybe if I made my way through areas that weren't traveled by people, I'd pick up a trail, or at catch an undiluted scent.
We'd installed a seven-foot privacy fence around the entire perimeter of the back yard, with a gate facing the woods. We'd installed the latch three feet off the ground and rigged it so that it could be opened from the outside as long as the inside was unlocked so that I could come and go in either form.
I'm a werewolf and she's a vampire. Burglars aren't really a concern for us and the creatures that can do us harm wouldn't be deterred by a gate.
I stripped before I left my room and shifted under the cover of a giant oak in the yard. I reveled in the power coursing through my veins and shook my whole body in delight; you can't really appreciate how good that feels until you've experienced it. After stretching a bit and settling into my new form, I trotted out the back gate and into the woods.
It was about four miles to the park, so I settled into an easy lope. The moon was half full, so visibility wasn't an issue; in this form it may as well have been broad daylight. About a quarter of a mile out, I slid to a stop and put my nose in the air.
The scent of a strange wolf filled my nostrils and I put my nose to the ground, sniffin
g in an ever-widening circle until I caught the trail. Once I picked it up, I followed it deeper into the woods and it kept getting stronger as I went.
I made my way into a broad clearing that local witches use for their solstice celebrations and the scent of wolf filled my nostrils even over the lingering smells of burning wood and incense from the last gathering. A twig snapped and when I jerked my head in the direction of the sound, a flash of movement on the other side of the clearing caught my eye; a low limb was snapping back from something that had pushed through it. My gaze roamed over the area, and I saw him—a black wolf staring at me. When he caught my eye, he took a step toward me.
I bolted in his direction, stretching my body and laying my ears back flat against my head; my wolf sung as the air brushed through my fur. He turned tail and ran. He didn't bother trying to be quiet, but I could hear him—and it was definitely a male—rushing headlong through the undergrowth.
The smell of fear was now intermingled with the musky scent of sweating wolf. A black tail flashed several yards ahead and ruthless exhilaration rushed through me. I turned up the speed, trying to gauge my location.
We were heading away from the park and the thought coursed through my brain that I may have caught him before he had a chance to kill again. A splash from somewhere ahead of me clued me in on our exact location.
Dammit! We were on the back side of the lake, and if the splash was any indication, he was already in the water. I turned up the speed, now running nearly flat to the ground; if he made it out of sight before I got there, he was a free man. Even my nose doesn't work in the water, and there was so much shoreline that it would take me days to search for his point of exit.
I underestimated how close the lake was and when I broke through the trees and onto sandy soil, I almost went head-over-heels into the lake by the time I skidded to a halt. I stared out over the water, searching in all directions for the slightest hint of movement, but he was gone. My vision went red and I pushed back on my haunches and howled my rage.