Panic made my stomach roll. What the hell was going on? I put my hand on the butt of my gun. “It might, depending on why she chose your daughter's identity.”
“How were these people killed?” Madeline asked. The defiance in her voice had faded, and her eyes were still on the picture.
I swallowed. “They were found dismembered at a local pack club.”
“Was that the cause of death?” She looked up at me again. “Were they…dismembered alive?”
The thought horrified me. Lycans could take a lot of damage before they died, they could have lived through a few limbs being cut off or torn off if the situation was just right. “I don’t know yet. The bodies still have to go through autopsy.” I picked my phone up and put it back in my pocket. I pulled out a card with my contact information on it and handed to her. “If you think of something, let me know.”
“I think it’s time that you leave, Ms. Collins.” Mr. Gray’s voice dropped to a growl.
So we were dropping titles now. A lot of people did it, thinking it’d piss me off. Some days it did. I worked hard for my agent status, but it wasn’t something to respond to when a werewolf was trying to get a rise out of me. “Then I shall. It’s a shame; I was hoping to try the food here.” I stood and walked to the front door. My gaze darted around as I tried to spot some sort of staff, but there was no one else.
The door shut behind me and I heard the clicking of a lock. Interesting. I went back to the car and walked around it. My magic was still enacted, and it didn’t look like anything had been messed with. Paranoia.
I got in and turned the car on. Nothing exploded, and no other magic was triggered. That made me feel slightly better, but only a little bit.
By the time I got back to my house, the sun was setting. The sun cast shadows through the branches of the pine trees, casting most of the house in darkness. I threw the car into park and got out. My feet hit the dirt, and my paranoia started creeping again. What if Tomes was waiting for me out in the woods? What if he hadn’t run back to Ira to warn him and he decided to stay here to deliver on his promise of killing me?
I unholstered my gun and clicked the safety off with my thumb. If he was out there, I wasn’t going to be taken by surprise. I swept the area as I made my way to the door. I lowered my gun and used one hand to put in my code to unlock the door. One of the changes I had made to the house was to install a state-of-the-art security system that included cameras, alarms, and keyless entry. Less likely that someone can swipe a copy of my key, and even if they did, I could catch them on camera as they entered the house.
I walked in and disarmed the alarm system with a few taps on the screen. I scrolled through the menu to see if there were any videos that I needed to review. Nothing. Not even wildlife visiting. Perfect. I put my bag down and went straight downstairs. I stood in front of my board and tried to decide where I needed to put Tomes. I was determined to connect all the threats on my life in the last two years to figure out who was so determined to have me dead. I sat on the couch and grabbed a sticky note off the coffee table and wrote the date and Tomes’ situation ‘MIA’. I stuck it to the board in the current spot on the bottom timeline, stepping back to look over the board.
Two lines crossed the board, the top one was the timeline of my parents’ murders, including a year before and a year after. Black sections left room for missing information, and a crooked note hung to the side with names scribbled on them. The bottom line was my timeline, starting with the first attack on my life, the hex from the Cult of Ra. A piece of blue yarn connected my timeline to my parents, marking any connections events had.
I locked my jaw and looked over the information. There was nothing else I could do right now, but I felt like I was missing something. Levi would have all the information I needed, but because he lied to me before, I didn’t know if I could trust him to give me the right information now. Not to mention, I didn’t think he’d be happy that I was looking into this. He had always cautioned me away from it, telling me that it could turn into an obsession. He was right.
A meow sounded by my feet, and I looked down at Osiris. The Sphynx cat rubbed up against me, his wrinkles moving as he did. “How did you get down here? I thought I closed the door behind me.”
I moved and looked up the stairs and saw the door cracked. I must not have shut it tight enough. I picked him up and scratched his ear. “I don’t want to chance you tearing up my boards.” I walked back upstairs with him right as the doorbell rang. I sat him down and looked at the screen of my security system. Simon stood on the doorstep awkwardly holding a thing of pizza and a six-pack of beer.
I made sure the basement door was shut and locked before going to let Simon in. “Hey.” I stepped to the side. I shut and locked the door behind him, and then led him to the table in the kitchen.
“I had to contact the next of kin of the other two victims. How do you do that part of your job?” He put the pizza down.
“I shut all my emotions in a little box and try not to visit them often.” I grabbed paper plates and napkins from the kitchen.
Simon sighed but didn’t say anything else about it. We dished out the pizza and sat in the living room.
“The place looks good. What made you move?”
I snorted. “My house imploded and I felt bad for the neighbors. They shouldn’t be subjected to that. Out here it’s safer for them and me.” I took a bite of pizza. “Besides, it feels like home here.”
“I’m surprised Levi allowed it.”
“Believe it or not, the house is in my name, not his. And he doesn’t control me.” Of course, Levi had tried to convince me to stay at the manor, but that wasn’t an option with Mario there. Chances were that I’d kill the vampire, and nobody wanted that.
Simon smirked. “You know he probably has this place wired.”
“No, that would be my uncle, and I found all the wires and bugs when I installed the security system. He has yet to come by since.”
Osiris trotted in and then turned around after laying eyes on Simon. “And you still have the cat,” Simon muttered.
He rubbed his eyes. “Okay, so tell me about the imposter.”
Straight down to business. I motioned back to the kitchen. “Go get the beers. We’re going to need them for this.”
He left the room and returned with the six-pack. “Figured I’d save us a few trips and bring them in here with us.”
I nodded. “Good call. So Madeline Gray is alive and well, and I was able to confirm her identity through the PIB database. However, she knows something, because she was much more hesitant to provide me with answers than her father was.”
“Do you think he knows something?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know, and I shouldn’t be discussing this with you.”
“Someone infiltrated my pack. I deserve to know what is going on in the case.” There was a low growl in his voice that I hadn’t heard before.
I leaned back on the couch. “Do you really want to push this with me? Because if Nick had been there you would have been the first person on the suspect list.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing he’s dead.” Simon snapped and then hung his head. “I’m sorry.”
But he couldn’t take the words back. I curled my fists to resist smacking him as anger heated my face. I pressed my lips together, torn between crying and screaming at him. Even if Nick wasn’t dead, he wasn’t here. He was gone. Everyone else was going about like he was dead, and some days it made me question what I saw that night. “Harsh words.”
“Abby…”
“You’re grieving. I understand that, but you have to remember I have a job that I have to do.” I met his gaze. “It was your idea to come over with pizza and beer.”
“So you could fill me in on what was going on.”
“I never promised details.” I shot back. “Look, what I can tell you is this, whoever our Jane Doe was, it wasn’t who you thought. So having said that, have you made any new enemies?”
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He shook his head. “There’s still a rift in the pack, but it’s slowly getting better. Things have been…relatively quiet.”
“Until they all ended up dead.” I leaned back.
Simon put his head in his hands. “They weren’t the only ones killed and delivered.”
“What?” I nearly jumped off the couch. “Why didn’t you say something at the club?”
“Because Mason was there and I didn’t want to bring it to his attention. It was done on our lands.” He met my gaze. “I thought your circle was supposed to ward against harm.”
“No, my circle is meant to warn against stray visitors and unwelcome people. You just answered one very big question.” I cracked open my beer. “You know the person who did this. They may not be a wolf, but it is someone who is welcome on your lands.”
He paled just a bit. “I don’t know who that would be. I think you’re the only non-pack member that’s been there recently.”
“Almost a year ago, hardly recently. Weren’t you planning on integrating the pack into human life more?”
He hesitated. “Not after what happened with Mina. The pack is gun-shy about giving up our traditions. Which was one of the reasons I agreed to start dating Maddy.” He shook his head. “I should have known something was off.”
Part of me was satisfied that he’d been tricked, but the logical part of me squashed down the jealous feelings and focused on the case. He was a friend. He was a friend in deep shit if Mason found out he was hiding information.
“How many more?”
“Two, one woman and one male. They were left in the cabin for us to find.” He opened his bottle and pressed his lips together. The far-off look in his eyes told me he was reliving it. “We handle our own when it’s on our land.”
I nodded. “I know. What did you do with the bodies?”
“We returned them to kin. They all had family in the pack.” He took a long drink.
“Did these three have pack family?” I leaned forward. “We know Maddy claimed to have family in the other pack, but what about the two men?”
He closed his eyes and thought. “They had pack family.”
“That’s not much to go off of. If we can find out who Maddy really was, then maybe we can confirm that similarity.” I took a deep breath. “I’d like to visit the pack grounds tomorrow night.”
He hesitated. “Will it help?”
“Yes. I can be closer to my magic and see if it’s either fading or if someone messed with it. That will help us know if it was a friend or foe that did this.”
“Travis will be there.”
“If he tries to harm me, I’m putting a bullet into his knee.”
Simon shook his head. “No guns on pack grounds.”
“A knife then.” I gave a wicked grin. I didn’t need my weapons to cause harm now. I could do it with magic, but I didn’t want to let Simon know I’ve used those skills. He still didn’t know about the fire elemental ability.
“Not funny.”
“Mmm, it’s a little funny. Not as funny as him streaking through downtown. What was that about?” I reached for another slice of pizza.
Simon shook his head. “Him being ridiculous. He shifted and left because he thought he smelt something familiar. When he was talking with you, he smelt it again and went after it.”
“Ass naked? Did anyone cite him for indecent exposure?”
“Mason.” Now there was a small smile on Simon’s face. “The detective was none too happy with him.”
Leave it to Mason to cite a werewolf. “Mason isn’t happy with anything that disrupts investigations.”
“Hey,” Simon’s voice softened a bit. “Are you doing alright? After Nick?” His words dropped off like he couldn’t admit it either.
“I’m doing as well as I can. Boss Man has me in grief therapy, and it helps.” Sort of, except I hadn’t told them that Nick’s body disappeared from the morgue, and I saw him…disappear. “I keep busy with cases, and occasionally Levi is still sending me out to do some things.” But not a whole lot recently since the blood-starved vampires had happened.
He nodded. “Levi’s worried about you.”
“So he’s talked to you too then.” I shook my head. “There’s no reason that everyone needs to check up on me.”
“I’m not checking up on you. Though I have to ask how you feel about Mario being here all the time?”
I shook my head. “I don’t like it, and there’s something about it that doesn’t sit right with me. Why do you ask?”
“Some of the wolves expressed concerns about having a strange new vampire around since we have an alliance with Levi. I haven’t seen either of them around town lately though.”
I rolled my eyes. “They’re on ‘vacation.’” I made the quotes in the air with my fingers. “I have no idea where they are at all.”
“Typical of him.” He snorted.
I finished the last piece of pizza. “He’s been keeping me in the dark even more lately.”
“That says a lot. What did you find out?”
I pressed my lips together, debating on if I could trust him. I couldn’t tell him what I was working on, but I could give him a little bit about what was going on. “I learned that he used to be a guard of the vampire king. He knew who was murdering people in my last case, and in the name of politics and protecting me he waited until the last moment to even give me a name, Ira, and then told me that he couldn’t go after them because Ira and the king have the same maker.”
“Interesting.” Simon shook his head. “Those are some pretty big things to be hiding.”
And there was probably more. I heard Osiris meow in the kitchen, and I flinched, waiting for him to come running into the living room as a warning. Nothing happened.
“Have you considered retiring or taking an extended leave?” Simon asked suddenly and it jerked me out of my paranoia.
“And do what?” I shook my head. “I love my job at PIB; you know that.”
“You could take a break until you’ve recovered from all the attacks on your life.”
“It’s not happening, Simon.” Who knew when the attacks would stop? “Besides, what do you know about the last year?”
He snorted. “I know that your house exploded, that you were kidnapped by your own uncle to be killed, I know that Tomes is out of jail, and I worry about you.”
So he had the same thought I did. “I’m fine. Tomes is probably off telling Ira all about me.”
“Which means the attacks will pick up again, Abby.” Simon gave an exhausted sigh. “I think you should think about it. The pack can offer you a safe place—“
“Oh yes, because no place is safer than the woods where someone is leaving dismembered bodies.” I let the sarcasm come through. “If you came here to convince me that I need to go into hiding, you’re way off the mark. Hell, nothing has happened since the attack on the PIB building.”
“Yet. There’s still time.”
Yes, there was, but I hadn’t seen head nor fang of the blood-starved vampires, and Levi was on vacation. “Who’s the paranoid one now?” I muttered.
“It was you who told me that your paranoia kept you alive.”
I nodded. “It does.” I rubbed my eyes. “Look, I’m tired, and with my luck, Jason will call me with autopsy results in the wee hours of the morning.”
Simon stood. “Thank you for this. I needed something normal.”
“We talked murder, betrayal, and lies over pizza and beer.” I raised a brow and got up to let him out.
“Yeah, like I said, normal.” He shook his head. “I’ll see you later I assume?”
“I’ll let you know tomorrow when I’m ready to head to pack lands. Unless I can drive myself?”
“Sounds good.” He headed toward the door.
“Nobody better try to eat me.” I disarmed the alarm and opened the door for him. He looked at the panel and then to me. “It arms automatically after ten minutes. Silently.”
�
�Paranoid.” He chuckled and walked out.
I shut the door behind him and manually armed the alarm. There was no point in denying it now. I glanced at the basement. But how paranoid was I becoming?
My phone rang before the sun was up. Like I had expected, Jason’s number flashed on my screen. I slid the icon to answer the phone and put it on speaker. “The sun’s not up.”
“I haven’t gone to bed.” He shot back.
Okay, that was fair. “What do you have for me?” I tried to clear the sleep from my voice.
“You’re not going to like it.” He sighed. “They were dismembered alive; they died of blood loss.”
Holy shit. I shot up in bed. “How long were they alive, can you tell?”
“No, I can tell you the estimated time of death, but not how long it took.”
I rubbed my eyes. That wasn’t the news I wanted to bring back to Simon. “How can you tell they were dismembered alive?”
“The way the blood reacted and congealed. The way the skin was. There’s a number of things. I did see some sort of tool mark; I still haven’t identified if it’s a man-made tool or if it was something else. I’m running the imprints through the database as we speak.”
I pressed my lips together. “I’m really hoping this is some type of creature because to think someone would dismember werewolves alive has me seeing red.”
“The idea that anyone could do that makes me sick.” Jason sighed. “I’ll let you know when I have more.”
“I need you to run an identification report for the female. It turns out that she stole someone’s name and life story. We need to know who she really is.”
“I’ll mark her down as Jane Doe for now then. I’ll get that report to you via e-mail as soon as I run it.”
It would go straight to my phone that way. “Thanks.”
Jason disconnected and I laid back on my pillow. At least I didn’t have to go down to the morgue, but now I was wide awake. The sun would be up in minutes, and the weather was warm enough in the morning that I could go out with a light jacket.
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