“Shut up, you selfish bitch!” I roared. My voice bounced off the walls of the apartment.
“You want to hit me, don’t you?” Katya taunted.
“I want to wrap my fingers around your neck and choke you until you’re ready to black out,” I ground out. “You make me so fucking angry, Katya.” As much as I hated her for making me lose my temper, I still gloried in the emotion. I felt so much rage that it warmed me all over.
“Why don’t you just kill someone now?” Katya purred. “Once I have a body, I’ll let you fuck me while you choke me. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
My eyes narrowed when I realized she was trying to manipulate me. Had she been attempting this with anyone else, I might admire her ingenuity.
“Stop playing games with me, Katya,” I ground out. “You already know it has to be Julia Dupree. Your childish attempts to manipulate me won’t work. I am going to punish Julia Dupree, and then I’m going to find a way to fix things with Tatiana.”
I did my best to tune out Katya’s complaining and focus on finding a way to get closer to the blonde bitch without drawing too much attention from the police. Then a thought occurred to me. It was possible I was looking at this the wrong way. With my new connections to the police, it might be better to get them more involved with her.
“I think I know how to get closer to the bitch,” I mused.
Katya stopped her whining. “So, I’ll be released from this cursed state soon?”
“Of course, you will,” I assured her. She didn’t need to know I was seriously reconsidering my agreement to help her. If believing I was going to help her have a physical presence again got the bitch to stop complaining, I was more than willing to play along until I decided what to do with her.
Chapter 20
Julia
My last clients had taken longer than I’d expected, so I was still finishing up scheduling their fantasy weekend nearly an hour after I’d planned to leave for the day. Since I’d come in early, Oliver wasn’t pleased with my need to stay longer. I was grateful to Gryph for suggesting they watch a movie in one of the conference rooms by the lobby. I suspected he was watching the lobby, not the movie.
It seemed I’d be there even longer since Gryph and Oliver had informed me that they needed to check several boxes from a late delivery before we headed out. I had no idea how long I’d have to wait for them.
Just as I finished up the last details for my clients, Allie entered my office and dropped down on my sofa. “What a day,” she said with a dramatic sigh. We’d both been so busy, I’d scarcely seen her since she’d walked into the office at ten.
“What are you still doing here?” I asked when I noticed the time. It was just after seven. Her last appointment had been at four.
“Dylan is driving me home, and he got caught up in some meeting.” Allie explained.
The offices of Bliss were in the same building as the law offices my brother and his best friend, Dylan, owned. Despite working in the same building, Allie and Dylan rarely commuted to and from work together since their schedules didn’t often coincide.
“Had I known you were going to be here this late, I would have ordered dinner for us,” I told her.
Allie shook her head. “I’m not sure you could have gotten anyone to deliver up here after Gryph frisked the pizza guy earlier today. That werewolf is definitely taking this threat to you seriously. I’m just glad the other werewolves left.”
“I’m still not convinced there’s any threat,” I added, hoping I was right. If I hadn’t admitted to Gryph I wasn’t certain there was any danger to me, I’d feel guilty about all the effort he was putting into protecting me.
“I’m with Gryph and Dylan on this,” Allie began. “I think you’re in danger. There might not be a crazed serial killer out to get you, but someone was angry enough to threaten you. We shouldn’t ignore it.”
“Dylan thinks I’m in danger, too?” I asked. “Did he tell Trevor?”
Allie laughed. “Why are you so afraid to tell your brother about this?”
“My brother is more than a little paranoid after what happened with you and Mel,” I reminded her, wondering how many crazy people could hold a grudge against me or people I knew. “You may have also noticed he hasn’t accepted that my sisters and I are grown women.”
“You must realize that if Dylan knows about the email, Trevor also knows about it,” Allie pointed out.
“Maybe he’ll handle this better than I expected,” I mused.
“I wouldn’t hold your breath,” Allie told me with a soft laugh. “Dylan told him earlier today and made sure Mel called to calm Trevor down.”
“Then I definitely owe Mel,” I added.
“How’s your big plan going?” Allie asked. She was keeping her question vague since we had a werewolf close by.
“I told Gryph all about my big seduction scheme,” I admitted.
Allie smiled. “I had a feeling you’d tell him.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“You’re not the type to play those sorts of games,” she explained. “You also like Gryph.”
“I do like him,” I admitted softly. When she grinned, I quickly added, “That doesn’t mean I accept that I’m Gryph’s mate, or even that I plan to date him. I like you and I don’t want to date you.”
“There’s a big difference between what you feel for Gryph and what you feel for me,” Allie pointed out.
“I suppose you’re right,” I agreed. “Gryph confuses me.”
“It seems you confuse him, too,” she told me. “I imagine any involvement with a werewolf is complicated. Even though I’ve known Gryph for a few years, I still don’t know much about werewolves. At times, that’s made it difficult to be friends with Gryph because I don’t always realize I’m breaking some werewolf rule. Gryph isn’t good at opening up to people, so you can’t count on him to tell you those things.”
I thought about our conversations over the last two days. Allie was right about it being difficult for him to open up, but he’d shared a lot with me. “He seems to be trying. I’m going to talk to Mel’s sister, Evie,” I told her.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Allie remarked.
“What time is Dylan getting here?” I asked as I shut down my computer and started to pack up for the day.
“He should be here any minute,” she replied. “Why are you here so late? I figured you’d left without saying goodbye until I heard Oliver’s howl. Can I just add that it is adorable how well Gryph gets along with Oliver? I saw them in the conference room watching a movie about an hour ago.”
My lips curled into a wistful smile. “It really is sweet,” I agreed.
“Are you about to head out now?” Allie asked as I packed up my laptop.
I let out a long-suffering sigh before responding. “I wish I could. We got some packages in, and Gryph said they didn’t smell right. I’ll be here until he’s done going through them. Hopefully, it won’t take him long to realize there’s nothing suspicious about our shipment.”
Allie laughed. “That’s a werewolf for you. At least, his sense of smell should make it easier for him to isolate the box that smells funny.”
Oliver trotted into the office and announced, “It’s not fair!”
“What’s wrong, baby?” I asked.
“I was helping Gryph!” he told me.
“I know you were helping,” I assured him.
“Gryph told me I had to leave when he found a really smelly box,” Oliver complained.
“Sonofabitch!” Gryph shouted from the reception area.
Allie sat upright.
We both remained silent until there was a soft knock on my office door.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I’m going to call the police, Sass,” he told me. “Allie, you should probably let your warlock know we may be here for a few hours.”
“What did you find?” I pushed.
“I’ll explain after I call the
police,” he told me. “Don’t let Oliver out of your office.”
Chapter 21
Gryph
It was taking everything in my power not to punch one of the smug asshole detectives in the face. Both were shades, and both had opted to create nearly identical forms. Each of the blonds was just shy of six feet tall with slight builds. Both had full lips and a square jaw line with a hint of scruff. Their eyes were the only way to tell them apart. Detective Hardy had brown eyes, while Detective Mason had blue. Upon arrival, they’d spent ten minutes trying to decide if crime scene techs were really needed. Since they’d been dispatched with the detectives, it seemed like a ridiculous argument.
“All I’m saying is that crime scene techs are used when an actual crime has been committed,” Detective Hardy insisted.
“Threatening Julia is a crime,” I told him.
“I suppose this could be viewed as a threat to Miss Dupree,” Detective Mason mused as he looked at the decapitated stuffed beagle with the words, Die blonde bitch, written in blood on the side.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a stupid thing to say because Dylan practically growled his response. “Of course, it’s a threat. She’s already received another threat.”
“That’s right,” Detective Hardy said as he looked around the lobby. “Miss Dupree received a disturbing email.”
“It wasn’t much of a threat,” Detective Mason added gruffly.
“I disagree,” Gryph growled.
“I had assumed you were sent out here because you’d already worked on my case,” Julia interrupted.
Detective Mason shrugged. “That must be it. We’ll have another look at that email when we get back to the station. It seems someone may be threatening Miss Dupree.”
“Clearly, someone is threatening her,” I ground out as I gestured to the stuffed beagle.
“I’d agree if she was a beagle,” Detective Hardy told us with a condescending sneer.
“Are you making light of the danger Miss Dupree is in?” Dylan asked with a definite edge to his voice. “I’d hate to be forced to file a formal complaint with your lieutenant.”
“We have yet to decide if there is a threat to Miss Dupree,” Detective Mason argued.
I knew my eyes were nearly yellow. Between someone threatening my mate, the police acting like it was no big deal, and Dylan standing up for her, my wolf was definitely not happy with the situation. I knew Dylan was like an older brother to Julia, but that didn’t change my wolf’s reaction. He wanted to be the one protecting her.
“It’s definitely a threat,” one of the techs gathering evidence chimed in. They’d ignored the arguing detectives and started doing their job as soon as they arrived. It was nice to know someone was willing to do the job they were being paid for.
Both detectives glared at him. “When we need your opinion, we’ll ask for it, Edgar.”
Edgar looked pissed, but he reined it in, having more restraint than I did.
“Stop with the games,” I snapped. “We all know this is a threat. What we need to know is what you’re going to do to stop these threats.”
“We’ll need a list of people Miss Dupree has been romantically involved with,” Detective Hardy stated.
“This could be someone who was a former client of Bliss,” I added, earning me a scowl from the detectives. “The email she received doesn’t sound like it came from an old lover.”
“While it’s nice that Miss Dupree has a guard dog, it would be best to leave the police work to the experts,” Detective Hardy snapped.
Detective Mason placed a hand on Detective Hardy’s arm and opened his mouth to speak when Julia interrupted them. “I think it would be best if someone else was assigned to my case. You clearly have a problem being here.”
Both detectives looked taken aback by her suggestion. Detective Hardy was the first to recover. “We’re the detectives assigned to your case, Miss Dupree,” he told her. “If we can all just work together, we’ll be able to solve this.”
My jaw was going to hurt with as hard as I was clenching it. These detectives didn’t seem interested in working with us, despite Detective Hardy’s suggestion.
“This seems like a crime of passion,” Edgar the tech chimed in again. If his grin was anything to go by, he enjoyed fucking with the asshole detectives. I decided Edgar was okay with me. I was certain Edgar was a shade since he had very little scent. With a mop of messy black hair and eyes nearly that dark, Edgar looked too young to be working with the police. Then again, it was hard to tell the age of a shade since they chose the form they used. He could have been centuries old, and I would have no way of knowing unless he told me his age.
“If this is a crime of passion, we should be looking into ex-lovers,” Detective Mason began. “Most crimes are committed by a lover or ex-lover.”
“Just a minute ago, it wasn’t a threat. Now, it’s a crime of passion,” Dylan said with raised eyebrows. “Which is it?”
“We’re here to investigate, not make hasty judgments,” Detective Mason snapped.
“Then you’ll look at people other than my exes?” Julia asked.
“We deal in relationships here,” Allie added before the detectives could respond. “I’m not saying this has to be a former Bliss client, but I don’t think it should be ruled out.”
“The exes seem like the best angle,” Detective Mason replied.
“None of my relationships ended with any great tragedy,” Julia argued. “There wasn’t any drama that could make someone hate me like this.”
“It’s true,” Allie added. “I’ve heard the stories about her worst break-ups, and they were really boring.”
“Hey!” Julia protested. “Things got pretty heated when I broke up with Merissa my junior year of high school.”
“This Merissa may be our suspect,” Detective Hardy stated, looking to Detective Mason for agreement.
Detective Mason was staring at Julia with something close to hatred, but he quickly masked it with a bored expression. With a casual shrug he added, “She sounds like a good suspect. You did say you had a heated break-up.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Julia insisted. “My break-up with Merissa was more than a decade ago, and the heated part came from a disagreement over who owned a signed CD. I just felt that a gift remained with the recipient, and she disagreed.”
“We’ll need her full name,” Detective Mason told her.
Julia sighed and reluctantly answered their question. “Merissa Vigil.”
“You dated Merissa Fucking Vigil?” Dylan practically shouted.
Both detectives looked thoughtful as they processed what she’d said. As for me, I had no clue why this was a big deal. “Who is Merissa Vigil?”
“She’s a witch from a very powerful family,” Edgar answered with something akin to glee.
“A break-up with a witch like Merissa Vigil could have angered her family,” Detective Mason added.
“While I agree that many of the important witch families are assholes, they aren’t killers,” I pointed out. “Why would this be such a red flag?”
“It really isn’t,” Julia began. “Her family just happens to be more powerful, and many are intimidated by them. Merissa’s father had a relationship with a fallen angel before he met Merissa’s mother. People just assume Merissa is scary because of her brothers. Her brothers aren’t that scary. At least, Merissa always insisted they aren’t. Since they’re both much older than Merissa, I’ve only seen them a handful of times.”
“Xavier and Rainer Vigil are both powerful warlocks and demon lords,” Dylan added. “Rainer actually works for Lucifer. While I’m inclined to agree that they’re very unlikely to go after you like this, they are both extremely dangerous.”
“Merissa isn’t harboring some secret resentment since I let her have the CD back,” I pointed out. “She got what she wanted.”
“Maybe it was you she really wanted,” I suggested, even though it didn’t feel right to
me either. Ten years was a long time to wait to seek revenge for something like this.
Julia shook her head. “I was Merissa’s only experiment into dating women. She quickly discovered she preferred men, and she’s happy with her warlock, or so I’ve heard.”
“One of her brothers may feel you hurt their sister,” Detective Mason added with a dismissive wave of his hand.
“Neither Xavier nor Rainer would send threats,” Dylan stated confidently. “They also wouldn’t wait years for revenge. It’s definitely not one of them.”
“He’s right,” Julia agreed.
“We’ll handle the police work,” Detective Hardy added in a condescending tone. “You should stick to what you know, setting up hook-ups for your clients.”
“Hook-ups?” Allie demanded.
I decided we weren’t going to get anywhere with these detectives. I’d call later to see if I could get the case reassigned. Clearly, the detectives who’d been sent had no intention of looking at anyone other than Julia’s exes. While I agreed it was worth looking at the Vigil brothers, it seemed like a bad idea to rule out other possibilities. I wasn’t even certain these detectives would look into the Vigil brothers. “Is there anything else you need from Julia tonight?”
“That should be all for this evening,” Detective Mason replied. “We’ll contact you if we have more questions. In the meantime, we will need a list of people you’ve been romantically involved with, Miss Dupree.”
Julia gave him a curt nod before responding through her teeth. “Just leave your card, and I’ll see what I can do about getting you that list. I’ll also let you know if I can think of any former clients who might be angry with me.”
“We don’t need the list of clients,” Detective Hardy assured her. “The techs will finish gathering evidence, and we’ll be in touch if we need more information.”
“Will you be staying at your home alone?” Detective Mason asked.
Seductively Spellbound (Spells That Bind Book 3) Page 9
