“Agreed.” None of the options were good. “Be forewarned, the drug’s addicting, so whoever had a taste will want more.”
Randolph reached into his pocket, and Raven resisted the urge to put him out of commission. As if sensing her unease, he carefully lifted one hand. “I found this.” He tossed an envelope stuffed full of paper across the table. “You might find it useful in your investigation.”
He stood and gave a light bow. “It’s truly been a pleasure.”
She thought he might have been sarcastic, but the hardness in his eyes softened. It was the first time she could tell the color. Winter green. That’s when she realized his power rested in his gaze. He must have realized what she’d guessed for he straightened abruptly. “We’ll meet again.”
The promise sounded more like a threat. Some people adapted to their new life as one of the paranormal, others fought it tooth and nail. Randolph liked the killing, liked the thrill. If they met up again, he would push her to see what she could do, test himself against her. She didn’t think he’d kill her, she was too much of anomaly to destroy without probing for answers, but that was a gamble she wasn’t willing to bet her life on.
When Randolph walked to the door, people didn’t seem to notice him even as they moved out of his way. One of his lackeys pulled an unrestrained Jackie from the club.
Raven didn’t take a deep breath until after they left. Before she could even relax, Durant snatched her wrist and hauled her toward the back of the club, nearly pulling her off her feet as he did so.
Jackson followed, Taggert a step behind, pausing just long enough to pick up the gift Randolph had left at the table. And Raven realized it was a favor, one that he expected her to repay.
How the hell did she keep digging herself deeper into other people’s problems? What happened to all the easy cases where everyone minded their own business and stayed out of hers?
“Wait here.” Durant didn’t even pause to see if the men would listen to his demand when he dragged her into his office and slammed the door in their faces.
“Raven!” Cassie rushed forward, only to stumble to a halt at Durant’s growl. But that didn’t stop her from talking. “Did you find him?”
Her informant. Something on her face must have given her away. Cassie stilled, not even breathing. “I believe so.”
“Dead.” Cassie’s voice went flat, the animation in her eyes dimmed and bled black for a second as emotions stormed through her.
“I’m sorry. He was already gone by the time we arrived.”
“Yeah. I think I already knew that.” Cassie nodded, and some of her control returned. Remarkable for one so young. For being dead, she was quite vibrant, her skin a healthy pink, her mahogany hair shiny even in the dim light. Death agreed with her. Shifter blood had advanced the change by a couple of weeks. Cassie grabbed her jacket, avoiding their gaze as she walked to the door. A light ginger spice clung to her. “I think I’ll take a walk.”
“Take the guys with you.” She didn’t know why she said it, but she didn’t want Cassie alone, not with Randolph in the neighborhood. When the door closed, Raven watched it for a moment longer.
“She’s fed. Your pack’s safe.” The carefully restrained voice made her tense. He was furious, his anger battering her shields.
He had no right. He’d invited her into his business, so he must have wanted her to handle it. She’s the one who should be angry. Now a hired killer, a trained hunter, knew about her. All her work to keep below the radar was fading fast. Soon, others would know as well.
“What the devil did you think you were doing?” Durant swung her around, the angry tiger right beneath the surface and ready to fight.
“You invited me. What was I supposed to do? Stand there and let him kill one or both of us?”
“I can take care of my own business.” A hint of fangs peaked out from his mouth.
“Then why the hell did you call for me?” His eyes turned golden, his animal shredding his humanity. Raven snapped her mouth shut, her fingers itching to reach for power and defend herself.
A growl sounded around the room. “How the fuck is the pack supposed to protect you if you throw yourself into danger?”
“What do you mean? It’s my job to protect you.” The volume increased with her frustration until it matched his. Every time she thought she knew what to expect from pack, they changed the damn rules.
“You protect us by ruling, not by endangering yourself.” He calmed a little at her confusion. “The pack is there for your protection. If anything happened to you, everything would fall apart. Some other alpha could step in and take over.
“You have to make alliances, plans to have your pack absorbed by another. Unless they have some talent that makes them useful, your pack members will either be killed outright or revert to rogue status. That’s why pack wars are a bloody, desperate fight to the death.”
The dire future he painted didn’t look so rosy. “Why would shifters set up the ruling structure that way?”
“To keep the pack strong. Weed out the weak.”
“An alpha should be strong enough to protect everyone.”
“You’re only as strong as the weakest link in your group.” Anger left Durant, and he gentled his voice, his comforting leather scent twirling about her. “We don’t follow human rules for a reason. We’re not always human; most of us enjoy the animal side of our life and revel in the lax laws.”
To be able to rule the pack, she’d have to understand both shifters and their laws more. She thought she’d known what to expect but obviously, she’d underestimated what needed to be done to keep her pack alive.
“What do I need to know?”
“Trust us. Allow us to guide you. Don’t push us away.” He stepped closer, clasping her hand in his. “I–”
“Raven.” The door flew open, and Taggert entered. “Dominic’s on the phone. The police found another body and are asking for you.”
Chapter Twenty-four
DAY 7: AFTER MIDNIGHT
Scotts’ dour face peered at her over the police line. She plucked at the bright tape and raised a brow at the necessity. They were three miles into the forest with no one around but authorized personal.
“One body is torn apart and scattered through the woods like breadcrumbs.” Scotts ran a hand over his head and blew out a heavy sigh. “We marked the area off. Easier to find and collect all the evidence.”
The tape wound around a dozen trees, the space at least thirty feet across. There had to be only shreds remaining of that poor soul.
“The other body is for you.”
“Me?” Raven almost got whiplash turning to look at him and nearly missed a step. Those hard cop eyes of his watched her for any nuance, searching for answers...or guilt?
She very deliberately relaxed her posture. Scotts’ stiff body language and all-cop attitude scraped her skin the wrong way. Something was very wrong. “Explain.”
“This.” He pulled out a plastic bag. Inside rested a letter, the surface half-matted with blood. One word jumped out at her. Her name. The letter was addressed to her specifically.
“The note was found pinned to the poor bastard’s back with an eight inch blade.” He hesitated before handing over the letter. “He’d been alive when it was done.”
Evil saturated the note; she could feel it reaching for her, ready to drag her into hell. Dread clamped hard on her chest. The killers knew her name. Since she worked hard to keep her life private, it had to be those damned newspapers. “Body first, then the letter. Show me.”
“Come.”
The breeze sliced through her, stealing her breath. Floodlights barely fought back the invading darkness. People milled about, their sideways glances slamming into her back. She registered their looks then dismissed them. Though disturbing, they weren’t the ones who sent that slice of unease deeper. There was a presence that lurked in the air that seemed to be stalking her.
The body lay sprawled face down under a pool
of lights three yards away. Large. Male. Mid-thirties. Malnourished if the clear lines of his ribs were any indication. And not an inch of flesh remained free of mutilation. The police left the body untouched for her. Raven drew up short. “Why do I have a feeling you’ve already decided my fate, and I’m being marched to the gallows?”
“Look at him. Read the letter.” The gruff voice held no warmth.
The chill in the air wrapped around her skin and burrowed into her flesh. The branches smashed ominously against one another, the sinister sound like a clank of a skeleton as it dragged itself toward her. That haunting image of her past rose so vividly, she couldn’t force herself closer, couldn’t bear to see him try to speak, begging her for help.
Surprisingly, it was the stench of congealed blood clogging her nose that reassured her. With the vile taste coating her mouth, she pushed forward and breathed lightly in hopes of keeping her lunch. She needed to see everything. She didn’t have time to be weak.
The pressure in her chest eased. The analytical part of her mind shoved aside the horror scattered across the forest floor. She had a killer to find. “What happened to the flesh?”
“They skinned part of the body, then cauterized it with a blow torch to prevented him from healing too quick.” Scotts looked at the darkness as if unable to bear gazing at the ravaged body.
Raven tightened her lips and crouched, unwilling to miss anything because of her squeamishness. Pus and blood continued to ooze in spots while others were crusted over. Some areas appeared waxy. She shooed away the flies, noticing the recently hatched larvae busily eating away the evidence. “A shifter. You can tell by the new skin growth. He tried to heal.” She shuffled closer, noticing the fingers. “Claws or nails were torn out of his body.”
She picked up a stick and lifted his hand closer. Twigs and leaves stuck to his fingertips. She couldn’t imagine the pain. “He was crawling toward something when they stuck the knife in his back.” She glanced up to see Scotts looking at her. “He was heading north. Away from the road. Away from freedom.” Toward the shredded body. Only one thing would make a shifter do that. Pack.
Without a word, Scotts stuck the letter in her face. The comforting tobacco scent she associated with him was sharper, more blunt, and anything but peaceful. She obediently read, knowing she wasn’t going to like what she found. “Let’s play a game of cat and mouse. We skinned the kitty, see if you can catch us before we capture and devour your little mouse. We look forward to the chase.”
A tremor shook her hand, and she shoved the letter away, wishing she could push it out of her mind as well.
She cleared her throat. “They must have grabbed a weak shifter. If we don’t catch the killer, they’ll do this again.” She nodded to the corpse. “From the pronouns in the note, there’s more than one killer.”
“And they also have your name.”
She couldn’t take her gaze off the body, the crushed bones and the collapsed side of his face that resembled nothing more than raw beef. His determination haunted the air as did his despair when he realized it was too late.
She looked north, the direction he’d been dragging himself, her eyes drawn to the scattered pieces of what remained of the other body. “If you can find his identity, you should be able to find out the name of his companion. My guess would be female. They pinned him, then forced him to watch as they tore her apart. Despite what they’d already done to him, he was trying to go back for her.”
Scotts bent closer, his warm breath doing little to thaw her soul. “How did they know you were on the case?”
“Out of all of this, that’s your question?” Raven pointedly locked gazes with half a dozen officers then raised a brow at Scotts, unable to keep the snarkyness out of her voice. “It’s not exactly a secret.”
“You’re off the case.” Scotts stood, stiff strides swiftly carrying him away from her.
“You can’t do that.” Raven bolted to her feet, struggling to calm the wild surge of emotions ricocheting through her skull.
Hostile energy poured off Scotts when he whirled, the power of it bombarding her defenses. “This is an official police investigation. If you stick your nose or any part of your body in my case, I’ll have you arrested.”
“What? Don’t you even want me to see the second body before treating me like the suspect?”
Scotts stalked back to her, stopping when he was in her face. “The killer knows you. He made this personal. That means you’re off the case. It’s protocol.”
“Bullshit. We both know it’s at your discretion. How does taking me off the case help?” Then something clicked, something so horrible she pulled away from him even as she thought it. “You’re not taking me off the case to help; you’re taking me off the case because you think I’m connected somehow.” Disbelief covered the well of pain that threatened to sink her. The truth glittered in his eyes, the way he flinched under her stare.
“Not you, but you’ve been hanging out with the wrong people. They–”
“You mean paranormals?” Disgust tightened her face. “When did you become so prejudiced?”
Scotts appeared tired all of the sudden, rubbing a hand down his face. “Your wolf, Jackson, has been asking questions.”
Her gaze flew to the two men on the other side of the police tape. Jackson straightened abruptly under her regard, but he didn’t turn away from the accusations. Damn him. “Fine.” She gritted her teeth, keeping her gaze on the traitor. “But you’re making the wrong decision. Whatever may or may not have been done was not brought on by my people.”
“Raven.”
She walked away, ignoring the rest of his speech. He didn’t want her on the team, fine, but she didn’t have to stay to be preached at either.
“Let’s go.” They wisely followed without a sound of protest as she marched toward the car. Pissed at being steamrolled out of the investigation, she wrenched opened the door. But instead of getting inside where her anger would fester in the metal cage, she rested her arms across the top. With her volatile state, she couldn’t risk being in the cramped space with two shifters.
She met Jackson’s shuttered gaze.
The bastard knew.
“You went against my orders. I told you not to interfere.”
Jackson lifted his chin, a mutinous look to his face. “Wolves investigate all shifter deaths.”
A growl worked its way up her throat. “Investigating is fine. My problem was you went to them against my orders. You had no right to involve them in my case.”
“We take care of our own.”
“Pack mentality. It’ll get you killed.”
“It keeps our people safe.”
“Tell that to the two people tortured and scattered over the ground.”
“That’s not fair.” Jackson puffed up his chest, growing a couple of inch as he straightened.
“Instead of telling me to my face, you let me discover your perfidy by someone I work with and dressed down for it in public. Now, not only are the killers issuing me their own challenge to the hunt, but your questions get me kicked off the case.”
“That was not my intent.” His jaw bunched as if forcing himself to speak. “Did you ever think the cops are playing you? Using you as bait?”
“These are cops. It’s illegal without my consent.”
“Unless they believe that you had something to do with it.”
She and Scotts had worked together for years. They were a team. Yet she couldn’t refute Jackson’s comment since the same thought had crossed her mind.
Regret darkened Jackson’s expression, surprising her with his sincerity, but he didn’t take anything back.
He could be right. But if Jackson thought she had something to do with the murders, he would’ve set the shifters on her without giving the police a chance to take her into custody. She needed to know if she could count on him. “Either you believe I’m capable of solving this investigation or you don’t. Do your loyalties lie with the wolves or me?”
/>
Jackson flinched, then scanned the tree line with hard eyes. He looked so torn, she almost felt bad for putting him on the spot. “Maybe it would be best if I met you back at the house.”
Part of her shattered at his non-answer. Despite the hint of confusion in his voice, she bit her lip against offering him comfort. “Maybe.”
He stayed still for a moment, waiting for her to relent. The silence felt heavy, and she battled herself. He nodded and turned away.
“Raven–”
“Get in the car.” She wondered if Taggert would abandon her as well. A pit opened at her feet, ready to swallow her and suck her back to the lonely world that existed before they bounded into her life and shook up her staid existence.
Taggert gazed at her solemnly then obeyed. She hesitated, watching Jackson disappear in the darkness and a jagged pang of regret bit her hard on the ass. How could she ask him to choose between his wolves, and a woman he barely knew? Once behind the wheel, she turned over the engine and took off in a spray of dirt and gravel.
It took Taggert five minutes to speak up and defend Jackson. Longer than she’d thought it would take. “Jackson was trying to protect you.”
“How? By getting me kicked off the case? Now, instead of being able to use the police resources, I’ll be out there on my own.”
Taggert’s large eyes landed on hers, a hesitance in them, yet he forged ahead. “I’m sure he didn’t plan for you to get fired.”
“He meddled.”
“He did what he thought was right.”
With that, she couldn’t argue. She had to respect a person who thought they were doing what was right, though that didn’t mean she had to like it. Lights filled the mirrors.
Blinded by the dickheads who were following too close, she swore and slowed down so they would pass. When she hit forty and they slowed with her, unease had her tightening her grip on the wheel.
Electric Storm (A Raven Investigations Novel) Page 22
