by Roxy Wilson
For money, he committed a crime, and then in order to cover that, he killed a man. He tried to kill them because he saw them as threats. He was already way too deep into this mess. There was only one way out, and that was for him to take the money Reece offered and walk away. Or else he could surrender, but that he wouldn’t do. The man was motivated by self. Everything he did was for himself, but he wanted to believe he did it out of love for his family because that made it easier for him to manage the burden of guilt.
“Please,” Nya pleaded. “You don’t want to hurt us, Chief. You’re not that man. I know you, and there’s a lot of goodness inside you. You can do the right thing here, and you’ll benefit from it.”
For a moment, Reece thought the man would agree.
The lure of the money he offered could turn things in their favor, but then Sullivan shook his head. He tightened his grip on the gun. “This is the right thing. Money will make a difference, but I’ll always be looking over my shoulder. No, I can’t be greedy.”
Shit.
Reece’s hand tightened on Nya’s. This was the moment; he could feel it. Anything could happen. This man was on the brink of insanity. He could do anything. Nya. His first and last thought was for her only. If he could save her, he would be happy. Reece didn’t care about his own safety. After finding the woman of his dreams, he wanted to spend time with her. Perhaps a lifetime. But if he couldn’t get that, then he would die happy knowing she was safe.
“Don’t do this,” he stated in a soft voice.
Perhaps there was still hope. Maybe Sullivan would listen to reason and not commit this despicable act. Perhaps he would realize that doing this would land him in greater trouble. Two more murders wouldn’t make him free.
Sullivan nervously licked his bottom lip. His eyes gleamed. “Once you’re both gone, I can…I can just go on with my life. The police will never be able to prove that it was me who stole the money, that I killed Miles, or you both. They might speculate, but…they’ll blame you. It’s only your word that money was stolen from your account.”
The insanity that sparked in the man’s eyes told Reece he was beyond any logical thought. He had tried his best. Sullivan was wrong, of course. Murdering them would land him straight into prison, but he wouldn’t realize how wrong he was until he was sitting in the electric chair.
If anyone could save them, it was Reece. All he had to was shift and attack the Chief. He might get shot, but there was a good chance that Nya would be spared. That’s all he wanted.
It was all he hoped for.
As he let go of her hand and took a step forward, Reece felt the change in his muscles. He didn’t really have an option. Perhaps his pack would disown him for revealing the secret to a human. Maybe the world would get to know about werewolves. They might get persecuted, or worse. But he had to save Nya.
Just as he got ready to shift and lunge at him, a mass of muscles and fur streaked out from the forest and slammed into Sullivan. Nya screamed. Sullivan let out an oath of fury. The gun slipped out of his hand and landed on the ground. The huge wolf that snarled right on top him was magnificent. She was also familiar. Faine. She had come to their rescue. Sullivan’s eyes were as wide as saucers. He gaped at the wolf as if he couldn’t believe what he saw. Faine growled. There was a madness in her eyes which the Chief could also see.
“Easy, Faine,” Reece said. “We don’t want to kill him.”
“Get this damned dog off me,” Sullivan demanded in a voice that quivered.
“It’s not a dog, but a wolf,” Reece said. “And it can rip off your throat in a matter of seconds. And the good thing is there’s no law that prevents an animal from killing a human, so you better be careful.”
Sullivan bit his bottom lip as he studied the wolf that nearly stood on top of it. His gaze darted to the gun but it was too far away. Reece didn’t want to put his fingerprints on the gun. When the police got this killer, he didn’t want the man to get off on a technicality.
“What the hell kind of wolf is this? I’ve never seen them in these parts.”
“I’m not surprised to hear that.” Reece wasn’t sure how much in control Faine was. When he scented her in the vicinity, he’d been afraid she would bring more trouble with her. It was a possibility she was working in cohorts with Sullivan, so she could exact her revenge on Reece for not reciprocating her feelings to him. He’d been concerned, scared even, that she might kill Nya, but now he could see he’d misjudged her. She was on their side. Actually, he was a little scared that she might overdo it by hurting the man. “Faine, back off,” he said.
She didn’t move an inch. Rather, she lowered her head and growled right into the Sullivan’s face.
He paled. “Call off your damned wolf. I’ll surrender!”
“You’ve no choice but to do that now,” Nya said. “I wish you’d listened to us earlier. At least, then you would have had the pleasure of knowing you did the right thing. How could you have killed Miles?”
“He got in my way. I was just trying to—”
“You were trying to protect yourself,” she accused in a voice that showed her disgust. “I trusted you. We all trusted you! Everyone in this town is going to be shocked when they figure out what you’ve been up to. Why, Chief? Just for money, you risked your life, your reputation, and took away a man’s life. Maybe I could have forgiven you for the theft in Reece’s company, but neither I nor anyone else is going to forgive or forget what you did to Miles. He didn’t deserve that fate.”
Sullivan didn’t say anything. His gaze was fixed on the wolf. Faine stepped back a little. When she was at a reasonable distance away, he sat. There was a defeated look about it. His shoulders hunched and he appeared to be a broken man. Perhaps he finally realized all that he did wrong. Maybe now he would be willing to go to the police and confess.
Reece wanted nothing else but to put this past behind them. He wanted to start all over again with Nya and this time, he didn’t want any shooters, killers, or werewolves to put obstacles in their path.
Faine backed off a little more.
Reece breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t trust her fully. She looked enraged. Given the slightest provocation, she would attack the man, and he didn’t want that to happen. Sullivan should sow what he reaped. He killed Miles, and in return, he should be sent to jail. Reece glanced at Nya.
She looked as shaken as he felt, but seeing his gaze on her, she smiled. “Looks like it’s over.”
Chapter Twenty Seven
It was nearly over. While she’d been pessimistic when she and Reece were held at gun point along with Reece, Faine’s presence changed everything. Nya never expected help to arrive from such unexpected quarters. The woman took her by surprise. The ease with which she leapt to their defense told Nya that she was really sorry for what she did.
They needed to hand the Chief over to the police, and then they could go home and relax. The Chief’s actions dismayed her. How could he act with such callous disregard for another person’s life? How could he be so selfish and so steeped in loathing for others?
It irked her to realize she didn’t understand these facets of his personality even though they worked in such close quarters for such a long time. The man disappointed…and disgusted her. She didn’t want to look at him. Pity stirred in her heart for his family who would have to go through the humiliation of seeing him in court. His daughters, Courtney and Melissa, would never be able to live it down. He’d condemned them to a lifetime of embarrassment and pain.
The Chief stood. He glanced at the enraged wolf who glared at him. “Maybe we can come to some sort of an understanding?” he said to Reece.
“Nothing you say can interest me.”
“I’ll return the money,” he said. “You can have it all back.”
“The money doesn’t mean all that much to me. Losing it was a blow because you managed to breach my security. It won’t happen again.”
“But you won’t gain anything by prosecuting me. I’ll
give it all back.”
Reece sneered. “And you want me to just forget about Miles? He wasn’t at fault here. His murder needs justice.”
The Chief licked his bottom lip. He turned to face Nya. “Look, I made a mistake. Okay. I admit it. It wasn’t…planned. I saw an opportunity and I just grabbed it. I wasn’t thinking straight. I’ve been having trouble at home, and I guess I kind of hoped more money would solve a lot of problems. If I could take my wife away on nice vacations, and give her fancy things, she would want to stay here with me. She wouldn’t want to move to another city. That’s all I wanted.”
“If that was all, I could have forgiven you. Maybe Reece would have forgiven you, but you compounded your mistakes,” Nya said. “When Miles figured out it was you, you should have surrendered at that point. Reece might not have pushed the case with the police. You could have come to some sort of a settlement with him.” She took a deep breath. While her heart swelled with pity for his wife and children, she had none for him. He didn’t deserve it. “But you killed Miles, and I don’t think you even now realize the significance of that action. You took his life away from him. He didn’t deserve it.”
“It was temporary insanity,” he pleaded. “I didn’t want to kill him. All I wanted was to convince him he should stop the investigation.”
“When a man is gone, he isn’t going to come back just because you’re sorry.”
“I’ll…I’ll help his wife.”
“I don’t think she’ll accept any help from her husband’s murderer,” Reece said. “In any case, you don’t need to worry about it. I’ve already established a trust fund for his kids. They’ll be taken care of until they’re twenty-one.”
Nya could only gaze at the man who could do such an amazing and generous gesture with such ease. He was incredible. She’d never thought for a second that he would do something so unbelievable. “You did that?”
“It’s done.” His gaze didn’t waver off Chief Sullivan. “Unlike others, Miles’s wife never believed I killed him. I gave her my promise that I’ll find the killer, and I have. Now you’re going to face her and the lawyers in court. You can plead temporary insanity if that’s what you want, but I bet no one is going to believe you, especially when we tell them how cleverly you lured Nya and me here so you could kill us too.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” the Chief asked.
Nya couldn’t believe his ignorance and his delusion. He wasn’t willing to accept responsibility for his actions. All he wanted was to get out of this situation, in any way possible. Maybe he really was insane.
Walking over, Reece grabbed Nya’s hand. “We haven’t done anything to you. Whatever has been done is your own mistake and now, you have to pay the price for it.”
Perhaps something finally came unhinged in the man’s mind, or maybe he was just looking for an opportunity, because with a loud scream, he lunged at Reece. With a mighty heave, Reece flung him away.
“No,” Nya yelled at the exact moment when the Chief grabbed the gun that lay a mere foot away. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. It was almost as if she could predict the outcome, but couldn’t do anything to prevent it from happening. Nya stared at the barrel of the gun, unable to move. She was frozen on the spot.
The Chief pointed the gun at them and fired a shot. Reece yanked Nya down and away. Rather than worry about her own safety, Nya screamed in terror as she saw Faine leap into the air as she tried to shield them. She stumbled on the ground, but then with a powerful jump, she crashed into the Chief and he rolled on the ground.
Nya screamed again.
Chief Sullivan rolled right off the edge of the cliff. His screams echoed in the forest long after he lay dead at the bottom.
Nya trembled, but she couldn’t force her limbs to move. The shock of seeing him fall and the realization that Faine took a bullet for them was more than what her exhausted brain could handle.
Reece ran to the wolf that lay on the ground, unable to move. “No, Faine.”
Nya was unable to process all that happened. Chief Sullivan was dead. He deserved that fate. She didn’t have any compassion for him, but sympathy welled in her heart for Faine who risked her life to save theirs. As if she was walking in a dream, she joined Reece who held the wolf’s head in his lap. Tears gleamed in his eyes. She put a hand on his shoulder as she gazed into the wolf’s eyes. It’s warm, soft fur was coated with red blood that oozed out of the wound. Tears escaped Nya’s eyes as she stared at the woman who risked all to save them.
“We can save her. Let’s take her to the hospital,” she told Reece.
Reece tried to pick up the wolf, but the animal let out a weak whimper. “She wants to die here, like this, in this form.”
“But…” Nya gazed at the animal and watched as the light of life flowed out of its eyes. It stopped breathing. She put a hand on the animal’s fur and shed tears for the woman who sacrificed her life, so she could give her and Reece a chance to build a life together. Maybe she loved Reece too much and didn’t want to live without him, or perhaps this was the only way she could think of to atone for what she’d done.
She also didn’t deserve to die.
Faine was yet another casualty of Chief’s Sullivan quest to fulfill his selfish desires.
It took them a long time to get their emotions back in control. All Nya wanted was to put her head down and cry, but there were formalities they couldn’t avoid. “We have to call the police,” she told Reece.
His eyes were bleak as he rested the wolf’s head on the ground. “Do it.”
“But…” She gazed hesitantly at the animal. “If they do an autopsy, they might figure out she wasn’t an ordinary wolf.”
“They won’t. Unless they do a DNA examination, they won’t be able to tell anything,” he said.
“I’m so sorry, Reece.” She squeezed his shoulder.
While Reece might have been able to save them anyway, Faine’s selfless act touched Nya in a way she couldn’t describe. Faine didn’t owe them anything, but she must have felt their lives were more important than hers. It was such a great and noble gesture that they would never be able to come to terms with it.
Nya called the police. As she waited for them to arrive, she took an update from Quinnn. “What’s the news on the fire?”
“It’s under control. The firefighters expect to leave by evening.”
“Any idea how it started?”
“Well, they’re saying that it was deliberately set by someone. They found the point from which it spread, and it was an actual bonfire. Traces of petrol have been found on the site. Maybe some kids who ran off when the fire got out of hand,” he theorized.
Nya had a different theory. Chief Sullivan must have started the fire, so he could lure her into the forest. He must have hoped in the confusion and fear, no one would notice that he went missing for a few hours, and he would use that time to kill Reece and Nya. The man was a crazy genius. He’d meticulously planned every detail and thought of various ways he could come clean, away from the mess he created and yet, even at his last breath, he refused to take responsibility for this actions.
But of course, she couldn’t say all that to Quinn. Not now. Not when she hadn’t talked to the police yet. “Maybe…I’ll talk to you later, Quinn.”
Nya used the time to talk to Reece. At all costs, they needed to protect Faine’s true identity. There was a small chance no one would believe them. It was of course their word against a dead man’s. She was worried; the police had built a good case against Reece and they might think she was trying to protect him.
When Officer Peterson arrived, she allowed Reece to take the lead.
Officer Mason listened intently after he’d sent people to retrieve Chief Sullivan’s body. “So, he lured Nya here because he wanted you.”
“He sent a text from her phone. Naturally, I came here,” Reece replied. “When we figured out that he was the murderer, we tried to talk to him. I thought we had a good chance to convincing
him to surrender.”
“But then what happened?”
“He tried to shoot us, and this wolf…my pet wolf, came in between us and took the bullet. The Chief fell off the cliff.”
Officer Peterson glanced at the wolf’s dead body. “All of this seems…very farfetched.”
“I vouch for everything Reece said, but if you don’t believe me, you can check my phone to see that I got a call from Chief Sullivan and he asked me to meet him here. You’ll also find that the firefighters will corroborate that the fire was lit by someone. It wasn’t a random event. They’ll do their own investigation, and I’m sure they’ll uncover something that will point to him.” She wiped a hand on her brow. “If he got cans of petrol to douse the forest around the bonfire, he must have bought them from somewhere.”
“You already have enough evidence to convict him of the theft. Miles’s murder…yes, that can be difficult to connect to the theft,” Reece said. “But we’re not lying.”
“Actually, I’ve already seen many calls from Chief Sullivan to Miles.” Officer Peterson smiled when he saw the amazed looks on their faces. “What? Did you think I wouldn’t do my job? I figured they were friends or something.”
“Chief Sullivan must have called him to the forest to talk about the investigation Miles was conducting on his own,” Reece said. “They fought and Miles was killed.”
“Hmmm. I’m sure when we go back to all the evidence we collected, we’ll find anything that connects the murder to Chief Sullivan.”
Nya was more than a little surprised that he was willing to believe them so easily. She’d thought he would blame them for the murder, but perhaps he finally came to the conclusion that Reece couldn’t possibly be the killer.
Officer Peterson’s gaze met hers. “Slow but not an idiot,” he said.
She smiled. This was truly a triumphant moment, but she couldn’t find anything to be excited about. Two more people were dead, and all because of an event that set a chain of tragedies into motion. So many lives were destroyed and touched in a negative way. Miles’s children and wife would finally have closure. Chief Sullivan’s wife and children would forever live with this stigma. Faine was dead, and while she didn’t have a family, her pack would mourn her death.
