by Mandy Rosko
“We’ll at least be able to trace where it came from. Mason…” Alyce handed the gun over. “Thank you for coming on such short notice.”
Mason took the weapon. “No problem. We’ll search this thing for prints, where it was purchased, anything we can get on it. The same with the clothes.”’
“Thank you.”
The name didn’t bring forth any memories for her, but she trusted Mason. He spoke and moved like someone who knew what they were doing. “We’ll find who did this to you and bring them to justice.”
It was only then that she caught the glint of pity in his eyes, and a quick glance at the others showed her that they had matching gazes. She didn’t want their condolences. She wanted justice.
“Other field agents will be arriving shortly,” Alyce said, mercifully changing the subject. “This is getting to be something of a problem that the academy can’t handle on our own.”
“We’re all a team anyway. FUCN’A is the future of FUC, and we take care of our own,” Mason said. “We’re assigning some of FUC’s best agents as personal protection for you and Albert until we can find out exactly what happened and get a handle on this.”
Beverly nodded, wondering who those agents might be but also knowing that no one would be more driven than she and Albert already were. “They’ll have to keep up because Albert’s going to want to fly around and swoop in on every snake he comes across just to get his payback.”
Alyce smiled, looking hopeful. “Ah, so your memory is returning?”
She shook her head. “Not so much.” The idea had just popped out of her mouth.
But she knew it to be true. “Some things are coming back but not much. Did you hear anything about Natalie?”
She wasn’t expecting that they’d be able to get in contact with the girl so soon, and Beverly only asked to fill the air with chitchat while she waited for news on Albert. So getting an affirmative answer was something of a shock.
“I called her home before you called me back. Her former roommate answered.” Alyce delivered the news with a grim look.
“Former? She doesn’t live there anymore?”
Alyce and Mason looked at each other. Andrés made a face, pressing his lips together and looking away before Mason answered. “She’s dead. Apparently, a suicide.”
“Dead?” That...was a real punch to the gut. She hadn’t expected that. The little lion shifter was dead?
But she was Beverly’s chance to find out what had happened. She was so young, too.
“You said she apparently committed suicide?”
Mason answered this time. “All this happened quickly. We barely had the chance to check before you were attacked, but based on how she went, there’s a chance it was murder.”
“What makes you say that?”
He looked her right in the eye, and, smart man, he decided she could handle hearing it.
“The scene was set up like she’d acted alone, like she poisoned herself. But we’re investigating and waiting on the final autopsy report.”
Beverly knew where this was heading. “It was snake venom, wasn’t it?”
Mason pressed his lips together and nodded his head regretfully. “That’s our preliminary guess.”
Holy shit.
Eleven
Dead. How could she be fucking dead? Beverly had only just learned Natalie might have had some knowledge of what happened to her, and now it turned out the lion shifter was gone for good?
Andrés put his hand onto her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “I’m sorry. We’ll figure this out. We won’t let them get away with doing this to you.”
Beverly didn’t want words. She wanted something to be done about this. She wanted her husband to not be shot and bleeding all over the place.
Mason and Andrés left, promising that their protection agents would be there soon.
But Beverly was not interested in protection. She was interested in revenge.
She waited until Mason and Andrés were out of the area before speaking to Alyce again. “Do you know anything that you’re not telling me?“
Her eyes widened briefly at the accusation. “What would I not tell you?“
Leaning forward in her chair, Beverly put her elbows on her knees. She wanted to trust this woman, but she barely knew her. “The man who attacked us, who shot Albert, he was a cobra shifter. Do you know what that means?”
Alyce’s expression softened. “Beverly, we can discuss this later. Your husband is getting a bullet removed.”
“This is exactly the time I want to talk about this. Albert was shot. I want to know everything you know. Were any of the cadets cobras? Or do you have a suspect in mind who was? And don’t give me any of that bullshit about how the victim doesn’t get to be part of this investigation. If you had any idea that somebody was going to try and come to the house—”
“I didn’t know. Jesus Christ, Bev. How could you…” Alyce inhaled, looking very much like a woman who was trying to calm herself before she said anything she would regret. “It was our mistake. We should have known better than to let you just go home and assume nothing would happen. This is clearly bigger than just a kidnapping.”
“A kidnapping and a murder… perhaps two.” Beverly clutched her hands over her knees. She was never going to forget, or forgive, the people who took her baby.
The look on Alyce’s face told her that she knew exactly what she was talking about. “There are two cadets who are snake shifters. One is a cobra, and one is a rattlesnake. Are you sure it was a cobra?”
Beverly had to hide her shock. She’d thought she would have to fight Alyce a little more before she gave in and gave her information. “I’m not a snake expert, but I’m pretty sure it was a cobra. Do you think Albert knows?“ It was possible that he didn’t know every student, especially in their shifter form, so he might not have connected their intruder with an academy cadet.
Alyce stuffed her hands into her pockets. She seemed to have trouble looking her in the eye. “The instructors know what talents and abilities our students have, yes, but if you didn’t hear him calling your intruder by name, then either the intruder wasn’t a student, or Albert might not know this student in his hybrid shifter form.“
Before she could ask anything else, a nurse finally arrived. Beverly jumped to her feet, fighting to keep from rushing to the other woman and grabbing her hands. “How is he?“
“He’s recovering well,“ said the nurse, thankfully putting Beverly out of her misery as swiftly as possible.
Beverly breathed a heavy sigh of the most relief she’d ever felt in her life. “Thank God. How long until he heals up?“
“He was fortunate. The bullet in his shoulder didn’t hit anything major. Now that the bullet is out, his healing will take effect nicely on its own. He should be right as rain in a couple of days.”
“Can I see him?”
“Of course, right this—”
A male voice shouting interrupted her. “I said get off me!”
Beverly looked up, watching her husband push his way out of the clinic room, shrugging off the hands of one of the doctors, who seemed to be trying to get him to slow down.
“You were just shot, Mr. Huntley, and unless you want to rip open the stitches I worked to put in, you need to slow it down!”
“I need to get out of here and—Bev! Alyce,” he shouted as he ran to them.
“Mr. Huntley!” The doctor sounded scandalized as she followed him. It wasn’t until Albert lifted a certain finger to her that she rolled her eyes and threw her hands up. “Fine! Put your stitches back in yourself next time and see if I care.”
“Thank you, Diane,” Alyce called.
Beverly was going to have to make a point of apologizing to the other woman if and when she got the chance. For the moment, she was too caught up in letting Albert pull her into his arms, letting him hold her.
He was bare-chested, a bulky bandage wrapped around his shoulder. She probably shouldn’t be holding him like
this, or letting him hold her, but Beverly couldn’t help it.
She held on to him just as tightly, feeling the heat of his body, listening to the sound of his heartbeat. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”
“And you better get your own lab back up and running ASAP,” Diane called over to them. She stepped behind the receptionist desk, reaching around the poor woman for a clipboard and looking it over with a steady eye. “I don’t appreciate having patients dumped on me who march out of here immediately after being tended to, not caring about their injuries. They just come back the next day.”
While Alyce tried to placate Diane, Beverly told Albert how Mason and Andrés had been there and how they’d taken the bag of clothes and the gun. He absorbed the information, and she could tell he was pretty clearheaded now, but that didn’t mean Beverly was suddenly all right with him walking around. “Uh, should you maybe sit down?”
Albert shook his head. “No, I’m pissed off, and I want to get home to watch the team scrub our house for any shred of evidence. And when those two are finished arguing, I’m going to get that bullet put into evidence, too.”
Alyce turned away from Diane and looked at Albert as though he’d just lost his mind. “You do remember that you don’t give the orders around here, right?”
Albert narrowed his eyes, but then he put his hand over his wounded shoulder.
There wasn’t any blood showing through the bandage, but Beverly was starting to see Diane’s point about making Albert rest. The more he snapped and snarled about wanting every piece of evidence gathered up, about finding that damn snake and taking care of him, the more he was taking energy away from his body healing itself.
“Albert, honestly, it’s okay. I’m certain you know the FUC people and trust them to do their jobs right. Let’s get home and get you settled and resting. Then we can plot how to get some nice and bloody revenge.” She used a sickeningly sweet voice, one that contrasted with the violent promise she was making.
But it worked. Albert’s mouth quirked as he fought off a smile or laugh, and she saw his body relax just a bit. “I don’t want to lie down on the couch. I want to fly around and kill every snake I find and eat their insides. They’re not going to stop coming for us. I see that now.”
“Albert, to be honest, I want to let the FUC agents handle this now.”
He looked at her as though he couldn’t believe something so blasphemous had just left her mouth. “What?”
“You were shot. You’re not an agent anymore, and I was one of the teachers. If someone comes after us again, I want there to be FUC agents right outside our door, and if they try coming back after you’re injured, have at it. Tear anyone to pieces who tries to screw with us again, and I’ll be right there with you. For now, can I just put you on the couch, turn on the TV, and give you a blanket with some drinks? I’ll even throw in a blow job if it makes you more comfortable.”
“Jesus, Beverly!” Albert said, laughing but turning a light shade of embarrassed pink as he looked to Dr. Diane and Alyce.
Beverly was warmed from the inside, so pleased with herself for bringing that reaction out of him. But she didn’t just want him laughing. She wanted him recovering. “Is that a yes?”
Albert rubbed his hand over his face, shaking his head, but he was still smiling, staring at her as though she were the best damn thing to happen in his world. Which made her feel pretty damn good, too.
“Sure, why not? But,” he added, looking back at Alice, “I know you don’t want me on the case anymore, but I mean it. I want all the notes. I want to know who every suspect is, when there is an arrest, and all the updates when they happen.”
“We’ll make it happen,” Alyce said, not looking at either of them. Diane pretended to look over her notes on her clipboard, but Alyce kept her hand up, facing the floor as he agreed to Albert’s terms. “You know I was going to keep you in the loop anyway. You don’t have to ask.”
Albert nodded, though he still didn’t seem pleased with the answer. “Right. Well, make sure of that. Can we go home, or do we have to wait around?”
“No, go if you want. Mason’s last update said that agents are still sweeping your house, but I’m sure they’d let you grab some clothes. We can take care of arrangements for a hotel with bodyguards posted outside.”
“As long as there’s somewhere I can make him lie down while I play sexy nursemaid.” Beverly wiggled her eyebrows at her mate.
Alyce groaned. “Right, both of you can at least wait here. I’ll call Andrés back and tell him you both need a ride. That way FUC can scour your car for any evidence.” Poor Alyce’s cheeks were so darkened with blush that it was difficult to tell if she would ever change back to normal.
“That’s fine. Until then, let’s talk about this student cobra shifter,” Beverly said. She looked up at her husband. “You already know, don’t you?”
For a hair of a second, Beverly worried he would try to pull a fast one and not tell her. That he would want to protect her some more by keeping that information from her.
Albert looked to Alyce, who nodded and answered for him.
“Johnathan Marsh. He was the cadet who had a bad reaction to the smoke filling the school on the day of the attack. He’s our suspect now.”
Beverly nearly lost it.
It was worse than remembering that the lion shifter girl had followed her out of the room. At least, in that case, there was still a chance that it was a misunderstanding. That the girl had seen something or had wanted to go with her to help.
But now the picture was becoming more apparent. Johnathan Marsh had pretended to be sick. She had felt sympathy for him, had tried to comfort and protect him…
“He’s a cobra?” Beverly asked for confirmation in as calm a manner as she could.
“He is,” Alyce said, losing some of the blush in her face now that the topic was safer. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We need to find out what kind of cobra you saw and compare the two. There are hundreds of species out there.”
Despite her words, Beverly knew it was highly unlikely that there were two cobras nearby. She didn’t know how she remembered that information, but she knew that snake shifters were somewhat rare. If it were a bear or a wolf, that could be called common.
A cobra, not so much.
“Where is he now?” Beverly’s heartbeat picked up pace. Despite her insistence to Albert that they wait for the team to go over all the evidence, she could hardly think about anything other than wanting to see what Johnathan looked like in his cobra form.
“He dropped out after the attack like Natalie did,” Alyce said. “FUC has been looking for him. They’re checking on all cadets who dropped out after that day now that we know what happened to Natalie.”
“But you haven’t found him? Dead or alive?”
“The FUC agents haven’t reported back that they’ve found him yet, no,” Alyce said. “That doesn’t mean he was responsible for what happened or that he is dead. Every option is being kept open.”
Beverly inhaled a deep breath. She tried to piece together what this could mean for her, and for Albert, if Johnathan was her attacker.
She didn’t remember anything about him other than how sick he’d looked that day.
Had both he and Natalie followed her out of the lab?
Were they working with others? And if so, how many?
If only her damned memory would come back.
Albert put his arm around Beverly’s shoulders, keeping her close. That was good. She needed it. “Let’s get out of here.”
Twelve
Andrés was on another assignment, but another driver showed up to get them. Albert spoke with her, but Beverly wasn’t interested in re-meeting another FUC agent. She sat in the back and sulked but was pleased that the driver didn’t pester her with questions…or condolences.
At their house, Beverly saw that Alyce hadn’t been kidding. The FUC agents had already been over the house for fingerprints and DNA, and they assu
red them a clean-up team would be there within the day.
“Can’t we just stay here then?” Beverly asked Albert.
“They aren’t sending us to a hotel because our home is a crime scene. They’re sending us to a safe house for protection.”
She should have figured that out.
They packed quickly and then got back into the car with their driver, who was still mercifully quiet. Beverly made a mental note to find out who she was later, when she was more up to socializing, because she was very thankful for the silence and would like to buy her a drink to show it.
She wondered if the driver was one of their new security team members. “So, are the guard agents going to meet us at the hotel?” she asked Albert.
“If Alyce said they were going to be there, then they’ll be there. To be honest, I’d rather they weren’t.”
Beverly could still feel the heat of his stare.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I kind of want to have you to myself right now, and knowing there will be FUC agents standing around outside in the hall where I’m going to have you isn’t the most romantic thought in the world.”
She reached her hand across the back seat to caress his. “I doubt something like that can stop us. Embarrassment is their problem, not ours, right?” She met his gaze with sultry eyes and saw him gulp. “What’s the matter, big boy? Worried about a little sexual healing?”
In a swift move, he was across the seat and kissing her. It lasted only a few seconds, though, before simultaneously he cried out in pain as the driver barked out, “Seatbelts!”
“You okay?” Beverly asked when he was settled back in his seat, his seatbelt securely fastened.
He was rubbing his shoulder. “Fine, just shouldn’t pull a move like that again so soon.”
“When we get to the hotel, you get to just lie back. I’ll take care of everything.” She smiled at him but then turned her attention to the window. She didn’t want to risk getting him excited again.
