by Sedona Venez
“Nothing?” Burrows snarled. “Four of your clients are now lying in the morgue. All of them were found dead with their hearts ripped out. That’s no coincidence.”
We all looked at him blankly, which seemed to agitate him more. Ryker and Knox stood up.
“Enough!” Ryker barked.
My head started pounding, feeling all of the sick, warped feelings circling in Burrows’s head. He was fucking crazy. Burrows stepped back, looking at Ryker and Knox warily, before looking at Storm and me.
He smiled spitefully. “Can you explain why you two were spotted in the reporter’s neighbourhood at the time of his death?”
Knox and Ryker exchanged a look. Shit! Storm and I were in trouble.
“I’m sorry, you’ve lost me,” Storm retorted.
“We found fingerprints all over his house,” Burrows snapped. “How much do you want to bet they’re yours?”
“Impossible. We’ve never been there,” I added quickly.
“Bloody fingerprints. His blood. Your prints,” he retorted confidently.
“Detective? Where are you going with this?” Reason demanded.
He ignored her, looking over at us like a dog with a bone. “It’s over. You killed a man.”
Reason stood up stiffly. “If that were true, my clients would be in handcuffs, Detective. You have no evidence that my clients had anything to do with the murders. So if you even look at them the wrong way… lawsuit. If you try to contact any of their clients… lawsuit. If you even blink at them in a way that makes them a tad bit uncomfortable… lawsuit. Do you understand me, Detective?” She nodded toward the door. “This interview is over.”
My body tensed when I felt their approach. They were like a tornado. Powerful, deadly, and touchdown to destruction was rapidly approaching.
“I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation here. This is a homicide,” Burrows snapped.
“Lawyer,” Storm and I replied in unison.
Burrows turned bright red. “So are you lawyering up? Because—”
The office door slammed open, cutting off his tirade. Mom and Aunt Ava barged in with cool looks on their faces. Mom slammed the door shut, and they both looked at Burrows nonchalantly.
“Oh God! The witches have landed,” Storm hissed under her breath.
“It seems like we’re right on time, Ava,” Mom surmised.
“Yes, it does, Lia,” Aunt Ava responded.
Reason gestured toward Mom. “Lia Credence.” She nodded over to my aunt. “Ava Credence.” She sighed heavily. “They’re Lightning and Stormy’s mothers and also their business partners.”
Burrows looked at them with lustful eyes while extending his hand too eagerly. “Detective Burrows.” He cleared his throat. “After I’m done with your daughters, I would love to question both of you, privately.”
Mom and Aunt Ava looked at his sweaty extended hand like it was a disgusting snake. Embarrassed, he pulled it back, wiping it on his jacket.
Aunt Ava smirked before pulling out her cell phone. She flicked through her contact list while looking at him coldly. She sighed as her phone dialed. “Hey, Todd! How are you?” She listened. “Yes. We just got back into town. It’s too bad Salana missed the retreat.” She paused. “You’re a newlywed. I don’t blame her.” She laughed huskily. “Yes, she’s hell on wheels… exactly how you like it.” She looked over at Burrows with distaste written all over her face. “Look, Todd, I have a shitty issue here.” She paused dramatically. “A detective…” She arched a brow at my mom. “Uh, Lia, what is his name?”
“Burrows,” Mom responded with a bored look.
“Uh, yes, there’s a Detective Burrows.” Aunt Ava looked him up and down. “Who seems to have a bug that’s crawled up his ass. And despite our attempts to be reasonable, he insists on stalking my family. It’s creepy to say the least.” She smiled. “Thank you. And tell Salana we’ll definitely do dinner this week.” She hung up and turned her back on Burrows.
Rip stared at Soar with a smirk. “She’s got the mayor on speed dial. This can’t be good.”
Detective Burrows’s cell rang. He shifted uncomfortably before pulling it out. “Todd?” His face turned beet red. “Uh—I mean Mayor Hannity. I—” He gritted his teeth. “You’re kidding, right? They’re suspects and… Yes, sir… but your request is highly unusual. All I’m saying is that you’re asking me to walk away from an ongoing murder investigation.” He paused. “Yes, sir. Murder. Several. One reporter. One woman who worked for them in a dubious capacity. And four clients. All dead in a span of one week, sir. Considering the nature of the crime scenes, I don’t think it’s a good idea to ask me to not pursue this further.”
I stared at Burrows while trying to choke down the barrage of emotions he was emitting. Anger. Bitterness. Deception. The man was a cesspool of crazy. His eyes burned with raw hatred as he scanned the room, deliberately stopping at me and staring. Suddenly, anxiousness streamed from his pores.
“There are no issues,” he snapped before Mayor Hannity hung up on him.
“Now, was that so hard?” I mumbled under my breath.
Burrows looked at Aunt Ava and Mom angrily. “I gotta hand it to you. This whole long con you’ve got going, it’s impressive.” His phone vibrated. He looked down at it, reading a text with a slow icky smile spreading across his ruddy face. He looked slyly over at Ryker before glancing at Mom and Aunt Ava. “Did Mr. Alfero tell you he knew Celina Rouse… intimately?”
I felt Detective Burrows’s desperation. Ryker’s body tightened before he stepped forward. I wrapped my fingers around his arm, stopping him from kicking Burrows’s ass. Burrows wanted to start some shit between us and I’d be damn if I’d give him the satisfaction.
Ryker considered me, relaxing his body. “I won’t even dignify that bullshit accusation with a response, Detective.”
“What the hell is going on? You can’t go in there,” Tabitha screamed from outside the office.
The door swung open. Burrows smiled at the younger man, who shoved an older man over the threshold before stepping in brazenly.
Soar slammed his hand against the man’s chest, blocking him. “Hold on. Who the hell is this asshole?”
The man flashed his badge. “I’m Detective Peterson, Burrows’s partner.” He shoved the disheveled man forward again. “This is Leo Greco.”
“I know my rights. You can’t detain me without cause,” Greco snapped in a light British accent.
I couldn’t sense Greco’s emotions. He was definitely Other. But Peterson, I read his emotions loud and clear… arrogance.
“You are not under arrest… yet,” Burrows replied.
“What is this shit?” Knox barked.
Burrows glared at Greco. “Do you recognize Mr. Alfero?”
Greco shrugged. “Like I told you, I don’t know him.” His eyes shifted from Ryker to Jackal, then back to Burrows defiantly. “Why the hell am I here? I don’t know anything about these people. You dragged me out of my hotel room for fucking nothing. I’m on vacation, man.”
Ryker’s eyes narrowed, as if realizing the larger implications of Greco’s presence.
“Drop the act, Greco. An informant sent us a picture of you casing the Credence home one week ago,” Burrows barked before nodding at Peterson, who pulled a photo out of his jacket, showing it to Greco. “That is you, isn’t it?”
Greco slapped the photo. It dropped to the floor. “Whenever I come to New York, I always like to take the time to admire the city’s neighborhoods. Is that a crime?”
Reason calmly picked up the photo, examined it, and handed it over to Aunt Ava and Mom.
Peterson nodded, but it’s clear he didn’t believe the excuse.
Burrows scowled. “You’re a liar. You burglarized the Credence safe.”
“Excellent. We would love to know why he stole our business documents and exactly where they are,” Storm commented.
Peterson stared at Ryker smugly. “You know, Mr. Greco.”
Ryker played it cool. “If you have something to say, spit it out.”
Burrows eyes narrowed. “We’ve obtained a warrant for your financials, and we will find evidence of the money you paid Mr. Greco to disable the security at the Credence home.”
“Bullshit!” Ryker sneered.
My eyes snapped over to Ryker.
Reason pointed over to the door. “Detective Burrows, get the hell out. I will not allow this circus to continue.”
Jackal, Rip, and Soar moved closer to them, staring at the detectives menacingly.
Burrows stared at Ryker. “We’ll see about that.” He looked at Storm and me with a crazed look in his eyes. “I’ll be seeing you… soon. Come on, Peterson.” He stomped over to the door, flinging it open. Peterson started to drag Greco toward the door.
Ryker looked at Reason. She cleared her throat. “Since Mr. Greco is not under arrest, he stays.”
Burrows nodded toward the hallway. “Greco, can I talk to you for a minute. In private?”
He looked at Ryker, then his enforcers. “Nope.”
Burrows glared at Greco. “Don’t leave New York.” He gave him one more look before he and Peterson scampered out.
We all stared at Greco while he shuffled nervously as Jackal, Rip, and Soar surrounded him.
“Talk, hyena,” Ryker snapped. “Who hired you to steal the Credence client list?”
I glanced at Ryker, his distaste for Greco clearly written over his face. Burrows was right; they did know each other. I looked over at Mom and Aunt Ava. My eyes widened. They seemed to know Greco too.
Greco was a strange looking man… hyena… thing. He looked a little like a weasel. Not quite my height. Thin but leanly muscled. His face was plain, easily overlooked. But those beady, predator eyes took in everything and everyone in the room.
“I wasn’t hired to steal the client list. My contact told me I was being paid to test their security for vulnerabilities. I was to break in, disable the alarm, and walk out undetected. And for my trouble, I got fifty grand in advance,” Greco confessed.
“Who hired you?” Aunt Ava snapped.
He shrugged. “I don’t know and don’t care. Everything goes through a third party. It’s safer that way,” Greco responded while looking toward the door anxiously.
“Mmm, yeah, until you get set up. The real thief needed you to disable the alarms.” Soar observed.
“Yeah, apparently,” Greco stated flatly.
Something about his shifty demeanor set my teeth on edge. “What did you see at our house?” I questioned.
His beady eyes probed me with interest.
I scoffed. “Oh, so not going to happen, hyena.”
He shrugged. “Nothing at first. I mean, it all went too easy. I got halfway back to the car when it hit me. I mean, I had already disabled the alarms, right? And it was… sitting there,” Greco responded.
“You went back for the rest of money in the safe?” Ryker interrogated.
“Well, there’s an awful lot of temptation, all that money and jewellery. When I got back into the house, there was a woman walking toward the safe. So I got the bloody hell out of there,” Greco stated.
Aunt Ava looked at him curiously. “This woman. What did she look like?”
Greco shrugged. “I barely got a glimpse. All I can say for sure is she was a wolf-shifter. I smelled the doggie stench a mile away.”
Ryker stared at him before saying. “Soar. Take Greco outside and have a conversation with him about not leaving town until we tell him to. I want him to know exactly what will happen to him if he makes me come searching for him.”
Soar shoved him out the door.
Knox scrutinized Storm. “Why didn’t you tell me you and Light went to the reporter’s house?”
“There was nothing to say. Ryker told us to take care of the situation and we did. We went over there, but his house was already broken into and he was dead. We picked up the copies of our client list and documents and got the hell out of there,” Storm reported with an annoyed look on her face.
Ryker looked at me angrily. “Burrows said your fingerprints were all over his house. Why is that?”
Barely holding my temper, I crossed my arms. “If you’re insinuating we killed him, then you’re on some shit, Wolfie. Burrows lied. We touched nothing. But why someone wants to implicate us for killing him… that’s something my family will find out.” I paused. “Your presence here is no longer needed. The Credence family takes care of their own.”
“He’s not going anywhere. We invited him here,” Mom snapped. “This is serious. You two single-handedly destroyed the family business in a matter of days.”
I rolled my eyes. “Mom, please use your inside voice.”
“This is my damn inside voice. Ryker told us what happened with Luke.” She scrutinized Storm. “You are fucking lucky that idiot didn’t kill you.”
“What the hell were you thinking, Storm? You went to see him by yourself?” Aunt Ava snapped.
“Mom, I had it handled,” Storm hissed.
“Handled? You were damn lucky Knox found you before Luke Brasson killed you.”
“Why are you…?” I trailed off when I realized. “Wait, how do you know his last name?”
Mom shrugged. “There isn’t a damn thing we don’t know. Luke is the only descendant of Morpheus Brasson. The Brassons are bloodline of warlocks who are prominent members of the Shadows.”
Storm’s mouth dropped open. “Hold on a minute. Exactly what do you know about the Shadows?”
“What are the Shadows?” I replied.
Mom tapped her stilettos impatiently. “We don’t have time for a history lesson, Light.”
“Make time,” Storm snapped.
“You two are damn pains in the ass,” Mom scolded before sighing heavily. “The Shadows are ancient Fae groupies. Essentially, a clan of fanatic Warlocks who worshipped the ground our ancestors walked on.” She shook her head in dismay. “They did some really crazy things to show their devotion to the Fae. Even offering their wives to them in hopes they would breed with them, but thank goodness, the Fae refused. Shit went to hell when the Fae disappeared. That’s when the Shadows started stalking our family, obsessed with breeding with us to create a new race of Fae.” Mom finished sharply.
“And at what point were you going to let us know about them?” Storm screamed angrily. “Light and I had the right to know about the Shadows. Luke told me the Credence curse was a bunch of bullshit. There was never a curse. Damn it, come on, guys. For centuries the Shadows have been stalking us, killing every man we loved, and you blamed it on a fucking curse.”
“We did what we had to… to protect you,” Aunt Ava confided.
I stood up, jamming my fists on my hips. “No. You did what you did to protect some bullshit Credence secret,” I snapped.
Storm huffed with frustration. “I was almost killed by Luke.”
My eyes narrowed. I didn’t like the sound of this. “What happened with Luke?”
“Somehow he got my cell number and called me while I was at Knox’s house. I was about to hang up when he started ranting like a lunatic.” Storm ran her hands through her hair. “He ranted about why the Credence women insisted on whoring ourselves to humans.”
Aunt Ava looked at her calmly. “The Shadows are fanatics.”
“They sound more like more lunatics,” I stated.
“They are lunatics. Thinking about the crazed look in Luke’s eyes makes my blood boil. He went on some crazy tirade, actually talking to himself. Insisting the men of the Shadows were born to love only us.” She looked over at Knox. “He actually killed the reporter… for me. And I fucking panicked thinking about the likelihood of him killing Knox.”
Mom cut her off. “The Shadows believe that when the Fae left, the Credence family was their gift to
the Shadows.”
Aunt Ava pursed her lips. “All bullshit of course.”
“They want to procreate with the Credence bloodline?” Knox snarled.
My jaw tightened. “I would rather render myself childless than procreate with those psychos.”
“Fortunately, every time they tried to infiltrate our family we stopped them,” Mom revealed.
I closed my eyes, pushing down the building rage for the way the Shadows killed without remorse, killings throughout centuries, which caused Credence women to suffer needlessly, with some of them going damn near insane from the burden of the Credence Curse. It was cruel and inhumane.
“Do you think your clients were killed by the Shadows?” Ryker questioned.
“That’s what we intend to find out,” Mom stated. “The only thing puzzling me is the fact the Shadows have never been this brazen. Now, I’m rethinking everything. Luke outed himself to Storm, obviously their strategy has changed.”
Ryker looked at Mom and Ava. “Unfortunately, we are both caught between a rock and a hard place. The Other Council was already in an uproar about the stolen client list. Now with your clients dead, the Council has voted to shut Credence O. down, pending the completion of a formal investigation.” His eyes hardened. “And this is non-negotiable.”
I absolutely hated the Other Council. The governing body of the Others that helped enforce the most important rule… Others did not reveal their existence to humans. Too many members of the Council had an axe to grind with my family for one irrational reason or another. “You’re the leader of the Other Council. You can explain to them that this shit is bigger than the Credence family. Our missing client list affects everyone, regardless who they blame for the list being stolen in the first place,” I stated.
Ryker laughed bitterly. “What do you want me to tell the Council? That a group of lunatics is stalking your family. I tell them that shit and they will push for a permanent shutdown in addition to exiling your family. Come on, Others are already paranoid enough. This will only give them an excuse to blame you for outing Others.”
Mom sighed tiredly. “Under other circumstances, we would fight this suspension, but there is no such thing as coincidences. Our client list being stolen, Celina’s and the reporter’s death, combined with our clients’ deaths and Luke trying to kill Storm, is hitting too close to home.”
