“What are you talking about, Augusta? I thought you decided it wasn’t me?” Diana asked quietly, her multi-colored hair swishing about her face and emphasizing her big, soft eyes. “Why’s Cade here? Girls banding together, no guys, right?”
I shook my head at her. “I kept wondering why we couldn’t find any recent purchases of four boxes of chocolate.”
“Augusta, why’re we talking about chocolates,” Christie asked.
“And there was that smell in the chocolates—and that sawdust floating around the chocolate box. We thought it was from termites.”
“Was it?” Fifi asked and then crumpled her brow. “Why am I even asking? The two of you have gotten some kind of cabin fever or something. Slade and Odra weren’t killed. I never believed they were.”
I stared at the three women. “Cade told me vampires shouldn’t breathe sawdust. Maybe they shouldn’t eat little splinters of wood, either. The smell was so strong of nuts and yet we couldn’t identify how Odra, a vampire, and her human lover was killed,” I said.
Christie blanched. “You mean why you think it wasn’t a murder-suicide? I know you’ve been working on the case. Thorley told me. But I thought it was going nowhere.”
“Are you really going to cater to this nonsense?” Diana asked. “I thought they’d dropped this, too.”
“Shouldn’t we just forget it and let Slade’s and Odra’s name rest in peace?” Fifi asked.
I continued on. “I’m sorry, ladies. The chocolates were delivered by a different carrier. We realized that. But still, the chocolates would have had to have been ordered first. Then delivered to someone’s address. And then sent to Dayle’s office by a second delivery service. It’d have to have been switched over. But that still didn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t think I follow you,” Diana said. “How did the chocolates get to the office, then?”
Raking my fingers through my hair, I took a small breath for fortitude. “That got me to thinking. So what if the person didn't purchase the chocolates for delivery and the chocolates that showed up in the box at the same time?”
“That’s ridiculous. Betty has a four box minimum. You can’t just purchase one box whenever you feel like it,” Fifi said. “Plus you can’t go into the store and purchase any boxes without candy.”
With a steady stare, much like a cat would give it’s particularly wily prey, I nodded. “You’re right. You can’t. And that’s not what you did.” At her confused gasp, I kept going. “Betty said the day that we visited her that anyone could purchase chocolates by filling bags of them. There was no minimum of how many chocolates you could get. And you knew that.”
Fifi’s eyes widened. “You horrible person! After I befriended you, you’re going to accuse me of something so terrible? Answer me this, Augusta. You said no one could find any poison in the chocolates or the wine. Nothing killed them but each other.”
I studied her and so did Cade. “Betty doesn’t wrap her boxes in plastic, so you didn’t have to worry about it looking authentic when you filled the chocolate with wood splinters.”
“Are you crazy in the way the committed are? Wood splinters? Who would even have the time to make them?” Fifi asked. “Wait a minute. I see where you’re going with this but it’s not me. It’s Betty. They came from her shop. Somehow, she put wood splinters in the chocolate and sent them to Diana.”
“It did appear as though they came from her shop. But they didn’t.” I shook my head again. “This is how you did it, Fifi. You purchased chocolates for delivery and received four boxes earlier in the year. You said so at the nail salon that you’d had a delivery.”
She blinked her doe-like eyes. “For me to eat because I liked them.”
“You saved the boxes keeping them in mint condition. Then, you went to Betty’s and purchased bags of chocolates a couple of weeks ago.”
“I did not!” she said.
“Don’t you remember going? You mentioned you’d been into her shop recently. Then you purchased enough bags to fill one box. Of course, you knew Betty’s four box minimum would shift any blame away from you because there were no recent receipts for delivery from Betty’s. You shipped the chocolates, Fifi, without a return address, sending them to Dayle’s office. You do admit you were in a relationship with him.”
“Who wasn’t?” All three girls said at once.
“I’d never hurt Dayle,” Fifi said. “Besides Odra got the chocolates.”
I waved a hand at her. “That’s right, Fifi. You knew that Diana loved those chocolates from Betty’s. So that’s why you sent them. Aware that Dayle wouldn’t touch them, you were banking on the fact he’d probably give them to Diana.”
“Why would I want to hurt my friend, Diana?” Fifi asked.
“Good question. But you said the ‘D’ on the card was for Diana,” I said.
Cade was looking at me with an expression bordering on fascination.
“I never said any such thing,” Fifi said. “You can’t trick me into admitting something I never did.”
“Didn’t have to. I never said those chocolates arrived for Diana.” Fifi’s eyes widened, even more, realizing her slip. “Diana was even under the impression they were sent to Dayle,” I said. “You said Betty put wood splinters in the chocolate and sent them to Diana, just a moment ago. How could you have known who they were really meant for unless you sent them?”
“Betty has carpenter ants, Augusta,” Fifi said. “I’ve seen them.”
“And that no doubt gave you the idea to use them to chew up the wood that you scooped up from them and then inserted into the chocolates, didn’t it? I remember seeing the empty ant case in your car.”
“You nosey little snoop!” Fifi yelled.
I nodded. “It’d probably taken a bunch, but the splinters made their way through her system and did a lot of damage inside. You had the box sprinkled with the sawdust as well so that when Odra opened it, her being a young vampire, and not knowing better, she’d inhaled the small wood splinters—which both things combined killed her.”
“Everyone loved, Odra,” Fifi said. “Including me.”
I continued. “This allowed you to think you didn’t have to worry about being tracked back to Betty’s. This also allowed you to tamper with the boxes so that the poisoned chocolates could be placed inside.”
“I had no reason to try and harm Dayle,” Fifi said.
“No, you weren’t trying to hurt him,” I said. “You wanted Diana. The ‘D’ on the receiving portion of the card was meant for her—not Dayle. You might as well admit that, Fifi.”
Diana was staring at Fifi now as well.
“Oh, Diana, you can’t believe any of this at all. She’s just a woman with too much time on her hands,” Fifi said. She ran her fingers around her ear. “After staying with Cade the hermit, she’s gone stir crazy.”
“You wanted to kill her,” I said.
Fifi looked at me, a little of her innocent expression dropping away and a bit more venom in her words. “I repeat, there was no evidence of poison.”
“That’s because no one knew where to look,” I said. “It wasn’t a standard poison. Everywhere we turned, there were wood chippings lying around. On the backs of notes with lipstick on the front. It was as if they had come off of something. That got me to thinking. Odra was a vampire. Little bitty shards of wood would be lethal if she ingested them.”
Fifi snarled, “Odra wasn’t my enemy.”
“And that was how the chocolates were poisoned. Wood chippings so tiny as to be nearly undetectable. No one could pick out their smell because of the strong aromatic aroma from the ingredients Betty put in each of her delectable chocolates. You killed them Fifi because you meant to kill Diana.”
“I didn’t—” She stumbled for the first time in speaking. “Slade died too.”
“The reason Slade died was because he’d already bonded with Odra. We found out they’d already gotten married. In th
is instance, since he was human and she was a vampire, when she, as his mate died, so did he. You can’t hide anymore, Fifi.”
Christie turned on her and started sobbing. “A vampire? Odra was a real vampire?” She stuck a fist out in Fifi’s direction. “But you’re a monster, Fifi.”
Diana growled low and began advancing on Fifi.
Fifi screeched and fast as she could she went around the counter and ran straight for Diana. “I didn’t mean for Slade to die, but since he did, I feel I already punished Christie for sleeping with Dayle while I was with him.”
How capricious. He’d never done anything to her.
“Yeah, I took away the thing that Christie loved the most and that was her brother. Which saved me from having to go after her personally. I'd rather she live with the loss. But you, Diana? You started sleeping with Dayle when the two of us first got together. You were the reason he left me.”
“Dayle used us, Fifi,” Diana said.
Fifi’s eyes narrowed to slits, and her mouth was a thin line of coldness. “You leave him out of this. I’ll finish what I started and then he won’t have anyone but me.”
Everyone went silent. But it all made sense. Fifi had been jealous of every person that had slept with Dayle. She had some odd fixation on him and never would have harmed him.
I wasn't going to let her take another victim. As she lunged for Diana, I raced around and pulled her back with a hand.
With all my strength, I held onto the vampire. She twisted to look at me scratching me with her fingers. Lengthening my own nails, I swiped at her.
I jumped out of the way and pulled back and punched her in the face.
She looked stunned and then furious. She’d forgotten about Diana as she snarled at me. She was about one hundred years old and she was strong.
As we fought, I realized that I wasn't moving quite as fast as I needed to be. I dodged as one of her kicks landed high on my chest. I backed into a wall and stood there, trying to catch my breath. She rushed for me.
You're going to have to shift, Augusta. I thought this to myself.
Then do it. Cade thought this to me.
No sooner did I think it, then my bones began to crack, my tendons elevated, my jaw lengthened, and as fast as I'd ever shifted before, I stood there in the room as a tiger.
Christie began screaming, and I realized that Slade even though he was with Odra, would have been sworn to secrecy not to tell any other human about the existence of preternatural beings. Cade and I would have to ensure that Christie kept the secret, but for now, I had to keep the murderer from killing Diana.
Fifi turned then and ran to the sink. She pulled out a big knife. Then with a cruel glint in her eyes, she came at me with it. I ducked to the side as it came for me, and slashed at her instead with my long claws.
She bared her teeth at me, and I had the distinct impression that Fifi had lost her mind. She sliced at me again, and I moved out of the way, but she got my shoulder.
I heard Cade growl in the back, and I flipped my head at him, warning him not to interfere. Then, looking at Fifi, I opened my mouth and snarled. It was one filled with power, with anger, with rage.
Commanding my Alpha power, I roared.
Fifi slashed at me again. She kept going for my shoulders. As she made another slash on my other shoulder, I batted her quickly with my paw, breaking her wrist, and the knife clattered to the ground. As soon as it did, I leaped at her, knocking her to the floor, and pinning her there. I bared my teeth at her and snarled in her face.
She lie there whimpering. Finally, she turned her head from side to side.
“Go ahead, tear out my throat. It wasn't my fault, though. It was all Dayle’s. He ripped out my heart.”
Very calmly, Cade walked over to us, and gently putting out his hand, he pulled me off of Fifi. Then just as fast, he subdued her, tied her up, and then called Agent Boyd Ramsey.
“Agent Ramsey? We’ve closed the case.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
*Cade*
AUGUSTA HADN’T COME BACK TO my cabin. She's opted instead to stay with Diana, and it hurt that I’d caused this distance between us.
Carefully, I went to the room that she used to stay in, and I opened up the floorboards. I pulled out the articles regarding Evelyn. I bundled them up and put them inside a small bag. Then I went into the other room where I retrieved an old bracelet. I wrapped it around my wrist and then headed out.
I glanced at the truck and decided that it would not suit my purposes for today. And then as fast as an indrawn breath, I took off after my girl.
When I got to the door, Diana answered. She seemed subdued, but none the worse for the wear. Agent Boyd Ramsey had taken Christie to the agency where she was made to sign a non-disclosure document and sworn to secrecy.
“She doesn't want to talk to you, Cade,” she said.
I felt as if a nail had pierced my heart, and I shook my head. “Augusta, I know you're in there,” I said loudly. “Please, can we just talk for a moment? I need to explain what I was thinking to you.”
There was silence, and Diana just looked at me as if to say she told me so. I waited for five minutes. And finally, Diana shrugged. “I’d invite you in, but I don't think she'd go for it. I'm sorry, “she said.
“Don’t need an invitation, but I’m not coming in unless she wants me to,” I said and then I yelled. “Augusta!”
Diana was about to close the door, and I was about to break it down when Augusta came up behind her. “I can take it from here, Diana.”
Diana slanted a stern look at me, “You better not hurt her again, Cade.”
It was the furthest thing from my mind. I wanted to adore her, to love her, to share my life with her. Now all I had to do was get her to see that I was an idiot and I had made a big mistake.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Once you said you wanted me to run with you.” I looked directly into her beautiful eyes. “Will you run with me?”
Her breath seemed to catch on a sigh, and I could tell that she wanted to come outside, but she hadn't walked through the door. Then, she opened it wider and stepped outside. Looking at me with her large, curious eyes, she raised them to mine. “Once. I'll run with you once.”
I could not let the joy that struck me at that moment overwhelm me. Once was all I needed. Taking her hand, I led her to some trees where she could have some privacy and shift.
She shifted right there before my eyes, and I heard the bones cracking, and then before me stood the most majestic tiger my adoring eyes had ever seen. I loved her. In all the years I’d roamed the Earth, I'd never loved anyone as much as I loved my courageous Augusta.
She flipped her head playfully at me and then took off. Keeping pace with her, we ran through the forest. We raced around trees, leaped over ice patches, and skidded through snow mounds.
It was a beautiful day. Just warm enough to play in. Just cold enough to be filled with snow.
As we raced, we ran straight to my cabin. Right before we got there, we stopped. She looked at me as though she was questioning what I was doing. And I pulled out the packet of Evelyn's papers.
She stared and as she watched, I dug a hole and put them in. “It’s time for me to bury for good what happened with Evelyn, Augusta.”
Her lovely eyes looked at me carefully. And I could see the intelligence, the understanding of what I was doing. I was finally laying the bitter agent I’d grown into to rest.
I was a new man, and I was the man that I was because of Augusta. I would do any and everything that I could to make her understand that she meant so much to me. And if she wanted to partner with me in anything, then I would do it. Because I didn't just want to be partners with her, I wanted her to be my wife.
“Augusta?”
In the early morning light, Augusta shifted from her tiger form back into human form. She stood before me naked, standing in a bed of snow, and I felt myse
lf hardening. I had to do this fast before I lost focus.
Holding out my arm, I lifted it so she could see the bracelet. Then I took it off and held it in front of her face. As she looked, I got down on one knee with the bracelet in front of me and presented it to her. “Augusta, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”
She stood there for a full minute before she ran into my arms and molded herself to me. “Yes.” She kissed my forehead. “Yes,” she kissed my cheeks, “Yes. I’m so happy.” She kissed me on the mouth.
Her eyes glistened. This was the first time I’d made a woman cry with tears of joy outside of bed. It was rapturous, blissful, and I was in ecstasy.
I lifted her up and the wind accompanied me as I raced with her in my arms, holding her against me to my cabin. The door opened and slammed shut and we were in my room.
Pushing her against the door, I buried my face in her neck. She groaned against me.
Then she put her hands on my cheeks and began to pull my head back up even with her. She stared into my eyes. “Remember what I said about bonding with your true mate?”
“Yes,” I said.
“I think you’re my mate. And if we're to be married, I was wondering if you wanted us to complete the true mate bond?” she asked.
There was nothing that I wanted more. We’d have to let the agency know and go through all the paperwork. With a growl, I held her high in the air, and let her slowly slide down until she was back even with my body. I could feel her erect nipples, and I rubbed my hardness against her.
Moving quickly, I pushed her against the bed post, and leaning down, I took her breast in my mouth. I sucked. She whimpered.
I looked at this woman I loved so much. And she stared back at me with a glow in her eyes. Then she pushed my hands back and shoved me backward until we were against the wall.
In our passion, we were both moving at an astonishing speed. I wanted her.
Cade, I want you, too. Augusta said back.
I love you. I lifted her and wrapped her legs around me.
I love you, too. She held on.
It turned me on more than anything she could have said. Ripping my clothes off, I entered her in one stroke. I leaned down and bit her. I tasted her, and I groaned with pleasure.
The Vampire's Alpha Mate: A BBW Tiger-Shifter Romance (Arcane Affairs Agency) Page 19
