We made it down to the first floor and out to Callie’s Prius. When we were loaded into the car, she took off right away. To be honest, I didn’t think her car had that kind of pickup, but Callie was speeding down the road toward the highway in no time.
“Are we really late?” I asked, feeling bad for keeping her.
Technically, I could have taken my own car, but it seemed pointless. We were going to the same place from the same place at the same time. Why would we take two separate vehicles?
Callie sighed and shook her head. “No, we’re not late. I just like getting there before everyone else.”
Sometimes it was easy to forget that soft-spoken Callie was the boss of this organization. That she had responsibilities and duties that I knew nothing about. It made me feel even guiltier for making her wait.
“I’m sorry,” I said again.
She shot me a look and a wry smile. “It’s okay. Honestly, it’s great seeing the two of you so in love. It gives me hope for my own future.”
Speaking of her future, since I’d moved out to Asheville, I’d noticed quite a few awkward encounters between her and Wyatt. Evey hadn’t had any information regarding them and I figured it was time to go to the source.
“Maybe it’ll be your turn next.”
She snorted as she changed lanes and exited the highway. “Doubtful.”
I watched her profile as she navigated the city streets. “Oh, I don’t know about that. There are plenty of eligible bachelors that live right in the lodge.”
She shook her head. “Not interested.”
I could tell she didn’t want to have this conversation, but I wasn’t ready to drop it.
“What about Wyatt? He’s a really great guy, and he’s single. Ever thought about going out on a date with him?”
Her knuckles were turning white with how hard she was gripping the steering wheel and I was thankful we weren’t barreling down the highway at high speeds anymore.
“That would be a solid no.”
I twisted in my seat so I could see her better. “Well, why not? You’re both available and there seems to be some tension between you two. Why not give it a chance?”
It might have been my imagination, but I thought I heard the steering wheel groan beneath her tight grip. “Not interested,” she said again.
“I think he might be.”
I didn’t actually know if that was true or not, but I’d caught him looking at her a few times in a way that made me think there might be more to their awkwardness.
She shot me a look out of the corner of her eye. “Believe me, he isn’t.”
“How do you know?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “I just do.”
“But, Callie–”
“Ellie, I love you, but I really don’t want to talk about this right now. Can we please drop it?”
I studied her for a while as we sat at a red light. I knew she knew I was looking at her, but she refused to meet my eye. My gut told me there was more to this Callie and Wyatt thing, but it didn’t look like I’d be getting anything out of her today.
I sighed and reached out to pat her arm. “Sure, Callie. I’m sorry I brought it up.”
She let out a deep breath and shrugged. “It’s okay. I’ve just got a lot more on my mind than some meat head enforcer.”
I frowned at the side of her face, but she wouldn’t meet my gaze again. Sure, Wyatt was built like all the enforcers were, but I wouldn’t have called him a meat head. In fact, he was one of the most decent men I’d ever met. Why she had such a low opinion of him I wasn’t sure, but I figured I had plenty of time to figure it out.
Callie found a parking spot on the street and had the car off and was out the door before I’d even unbuckled my seatbelt. Clearly, I’d struck a nerve, and I was feeling pretty awful about it.
I got out of the car to apologize again when I first smelled it. I covered my nose with my hand. “What the hell is that?”
Callie shrugged, but her eyes were sharp as they darted around the street. “It smells like something is dead.”
That was exactly what it was. I hadn’t been able to place it before because I’d never smelled anything like it. Now that she mentioned it, the scent was distinctly rotten, and it made my stomach roll.
“Where is it coming from?”
Callie shrugged again before taking off down the sidewalk. I jogged to keep up with her fast pace as she sped toward the office. The scent kept getting stronger, and it felt like I’d lose my measly breakfast.
Finally, we got to the front door of The Asheville Initiative and found where the smell was coming from.
Pinned to the front door was what used to be a tabby cat. A very familiar-looking tabby cat with black and brown markings and a distinctly broken neck.
Instantly, my rolling stomach heaved, and I knew I’d be sick. I ran to the alleyway between our building and the next and threw up everything I’d eaten that morning.
Callie followed me to the alley and stood next to me while I tried to get myself under control. Her soothing hand on my back helped, but nothing could erase that image from my head.
“Callie, please tell me that wasn’t Charlie,” I said as soon as I could form words past my retching.
She was quiet for so long, I turned to her. There was a tight look on her face and her shoulders were stiff. “I’m not sure, Ellie. I don’t think it smells like him, but it looks just like your cat.”
I leaned over and gagged again. Unfortunately, there was nothing left in my system, so I dry heaved until I could get myself back under control. I heard a couple soft beeps and then Callie was speaking.
“Abey, I think you need to come down here.”
I straightened up and held my hand out for her phone. She gave it over willingly and the first thing I heard was Abraham’s frantic voice.
“Callie! What the hell is going on?! Is El okay?”
I took a deep breath and swallowed the bile that wanted to make its way back up my throat. “I’m fine, Abraham, but I think something happened to Charlie.”
“Charlie?!” he yelled. “I just saw him a little while ago.”
I closed my eyes and willed my heart to keep beating in my chest for just a little longer. “Can you please go check on him right now?”
I heard his heavy footsteps pounding through the phone line and crossed every finger and toe I had.
It couldn’t have been Charlie out there. I’d just seen him that morning. How could something have happened to him so soon? And why? He was just a harmless cat. Who would have hurt him like that?
I heard a door slam before Abraham called out, “Charlie! Where are you, buddy?”
I held my breath while I waited for him to confirm that Charlie was there. That he was all right. That he was in one piece and not nailed to the front door of our office.
My stomach heaved again, and I swallowed the saliva in my mouth, hoping I could keep it together for another couple of seconds.
Finally, Abraham let out a deep breath that gusted through the phone line. “He’s here. He’s okay.”
I slumped against the dirty brick wall behind me as tears welled in my eyes.
It wasn’t Charlie.
My cat was okay.
My cat was safe.
It wasn’t him.
I let out a shaky breath and turned to Callie. Relief was painted across her face, and I knew she’d been worried about Charlie too.
“El, what the hell is going on down there?!” Abraham yelled into the phone and I remembered we hadn’t explained anything to him.
I took a deep breath. “When we got to the office, there was a dead cat that looked just like Charlie nailed to the front door.”
“What?!” he bellowed.
I pulled the device away from my face as my ear rang.
&
nbsp; “Put Callie on the phone!”
I handed the phone to his sister and slumped against the wall again. My stomach was still churning, but I thought I was past the worst of it. Now that I had myself back under control, I needed to get a better look at what had been left for us.
When Callie saw me making my way back toward the street, she followed as she filled Abraham in on everything that happened. Which didn’t take very long, because we knew next to nothing about what was going on.
The smell grew stronger the closer I got to the door, and I had to pull the collar of my shirt up over my nose to tolerate it. My stomach was still queasy, and I knew it wouldn’t take much for me to start throwing up again.
The poor cat’s head was at an awkward angle, its little limbs dangling lifelessly from where it was nailed to the door. Whoever did this had taken what looked more like a railroad spike than a nail and hammered it right through the cat’s chest. There was blood streaked down the newly painted mint green door and pooled on the ground.
Above the dead cat was a message written in blood that I hadn’t noticed before.
Go back where you came from.
What kind of message was that? And who was it directed at?
I scanned the words over and over, but they still made little sense.
Who would kill a cat to send a message like this?
Who could be this cruel?
My nose burned with tears as I thought about what that poor cat must have gone through before it died. My only hope was it wasn’t aware of much and it had been over quickly.
I swallowed again as I tried to control my reaction to what I was seeing.
“Okay. We’ll wait right here for you,” Callie said behind me.
I turned to see the worried expression still on her face.
“What going on, Callie? Who did this?”
Her eyes darted between both of mine as she bit her lip. She glanced over at the door and winced before looking at me again. “I don’t know, Ellie, but I don’t think it’s anything good.”
We both turned back to look at the door as the strong smell of cologne met my nose and fought against the stink of death. We both turned at the same time to see Matt walking down the street towards us.
“Damn it,” Callie muttered under her breath. “All we need is for a human to get involved with this.”
I turned to her. “You think a werewolf did this?”
She shrugged. “I’m not sure, but I don’t think we can rule that out.”
My mind struggled to come up with an explanation for what happened. Something to explain what was going on.
“Maybe this message isn’t for any of us. Maybe this was for whoever rented this space before us.”
Callie shook her head softly. “That last tenant here was a florist. I highly doubt they made an enemy like this selling flowers.”
I bit my lip and looked back at the door. “So, it’s definitely for us.”
Callie sighed from behind me. “If I had to make a guess, I’d say the message isn’t for us, it’s for you.”
Chapter 28
“Hey, ladies! Are we working outside today?” Matt asked as he joined us on the sidewalk.
Our faces must have expressed how unimpressed we were with his lame attempt at a joke because his expression slowly changed to one of confusion.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
We were standing in front of the door, blocking the sight of the dead cat. I hoped Callie had a plan because I was coming up blank.
“Um, sorry, Matt. We’re not working in the office this morning,” Callie said.
Matt frowned. “How come? What’s going on?” he asked again.
Callie looked at me with wide, pale blue eyes, but I just shrugged. My mind was reeling from the site of the dead animal, worry over my own cat, and my stomach was still churning, threatening to cause more problems.
“Um. A pipe burst.”
Matt’s frown deepened. “I thought this whole place just got renovated. You’re telling me something went wrong already?”
Callie shrugged, her smile tense. “Yeah. They’ll be hearing from me today, that’s for sure.”
Matt sighed and shook his head. “So, what’s the plan?”
Callie glanced at me again, but I was even less help than I’d been last time. “Um. You know what? Why don’t we all meet at the coffee shop down the street? Hopefully, we’ll have this issue sorted soon and we can get back in the office by this afternoon.”
Matt didn’t look convinced but nodded anyway. “Okay, yeah. Sure.” His eyes darted to mine. “You coming with?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but really didn’t have anything to say. Thankfully, Callie jumped in. “I need her to wait with me.”
Matt glanced back at Callie. “For what?”
“Oh. Um,” Callie said, and I could almost hear the gears in her head turning from where I stood next to her.
“My dad was a plumber. She wants me to talk to them when they get here,” I finally spat out. It wasn’t one of my finer lies, but with the shock I’d had, I was just lucky I was making complete sentences.
Matt’s eyes were shrewd as he assessed the both of us, but finally he shrugged and took a step back. “Okay. I guess I’ll go get us a table.”
“That would be great!” Callie said a bit too loud. She cleared her throat. “Could you get in touch with Katie and have her meet you there? No sense in her coming down here just to get sent away.”
I liked the way Callie thought. Holding Matt off had been hard enough. We didn’t need Katie asking her own set of questions. We’d barely survived Matt’s.
He shrugged and pulled out his phone. “Yeah, no problem. I’ll give her a call now.”
“Thanks, Matt. The plumbers should be here soon and then we’ll be right over,” Callie said.
He put his phone to his ear and shot us a thumbs up before turning around and heading down the street. As soon as he was out of earshot, I released a big breath and turned to Callie. “That was close.”
Her lips twisted into a grim smile. “Yeah, but at least he’s out of the way now. We don’t need to have any of the humans getting involved with this.”
Something she said before Matt showed up was still reverberating through my head and I knew I needed to bring it up, although I had a feeling I didn’t really want her answer.
“Callie, why do you think this message was for me?”
She turned to me with a raised brow. “You think it’s a coincidence that cat looks just like yours?”
I opened my mouth to answer her when there was the loud screech of tires against asphalt and the slam of a door.
“El?!” Abraham boomed.
We both turned to find my fiancé barreling towards us. He didn’t stop until he had his arms wrapped around my shoulders and his nose in my hair.
“I was so worried, baby.” He pulled me back and looked me up and down. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Abraham. Nothing happened to us.”
He turned to Callie and assessed her for damages too. When it seemed he was satisfied, he pulled me back into his hard chest and let out a deep breath. We stood there like that for a long moment while the frantic beat of his heart slowly decreased. Finally, he sighed and stepped away from me.
“Okay, tell me everything.”
Callie launched into the story of how our morning began. It didn’t take her long because not much had happened, but Abraham’s brows furrowed more with every word she spoke. When his eyes darted behind us, his lips thinned, and his shoulders tensed.
He walked up to the desecrated front door and took his time examining it. His shoulders dropped with another heavy sigh as he pulled his phone from his pocket.
“I need you down here as soon as possible with a new door for The Asheville Initiative
.” He paused for a moment while the man on the other end questioned him. “Yes, I know it was brand new, but it needs to be replaced and I need it done now.” He nodded a few times and then pocketed his phone again. He turned to Callie. “I should have a new door up here within an hour.”
“What about this mess?” Callie asked. “I can’t have my employees walk past a pool of blood on their way into the office.”
Abraham nodded and pulled out his phone again. “Wes, grab Aubrey and a bunch of cleaning supplies and bring them downtown to Callie’s new office. Tell her she’ll get paid double time for this.” He answered a few more questions with single syllables until he ended the call and shoved his phone in his pocket again.
“Neither one of you have gone inside, have you?” We both shook our heads, and he nodded. “Stay here.”
He went to stalk past me, but I grabbed his arm. “Wait. Where are you going?”
He looked down at me, his expression still hard. “I’m going to check the office to make sure there’s nothing else inside.”
He tried to walk away again, but I held on. “Don’t you think you should wait for Wes?”
He shook his head. “No. I want to take care of this now.”
“But, Abraham, what if there’s someone in there?”
His expression hardened. “Then that would just make my morning.”
What did I say? The McCoys were insane.
I dug my heels in and gripped his arm tighter. “Abraham, I don’t like this. Please, just wait for Wes so I know you’ll have backup in case anything happens in there.”
He looked down at me, his expression softening the slightest bit. He leaned down and kissed my forehead.
“I’ll be fine, baby. Just give me a minute and I’ll be right back out.”
I tried to hold on to him, but I was no match for his strength. He gently disentangled himself from my grip and unlocked the front door before slipping through it.
I waited outside, my hands fisted at my sides and my heart clenching in my chest. I couldn’t shake the fear that someone might be in there waiting to strike. Or several someones. I knew Abraham could fend off one or two men, but a whole group?
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