Death Be Blue (The Terra Vane Series Book 1)

by Katie Epstein

  “They would have done so if Cole had allowed it. Instead, he struck a deal with Raken if he confessed. Raken has opted for a stay at Portiside Prison rather than the shifters catching hold him.”

  “What about Dathan Raynes and the other SQR officers? Do we have them in custody?”

  Kaleb shook his head. “It looks like Rudolf made them his fall guys. They were all found dead, with evidence trying to claim they’d been the ones behind it all.”

  “Rudolf said to something to that effect before he set the rogues on me.” Visions of the shifters who’d helped Raken at the warehouse came to mind. “What about those who you apprehended at the warehouse? Have they been arrested.”

  “Yep. And so have those who Raken confessed worked for Rudolf in taking out our agents and the arrested SQR officers with the Earthside weapons. He’s spilled his guts about a lot of things.”

  “So, Raken has decided to tell on Rudolf to save his own neck?”

  “He already has. They recorded the confession, and he told Cole everything. He knew way more than we suspected,” Kaleb sneered. “The asshole has been working for Rudolf for a while now. He was his hand in the agency.”

  “So we have enough to arrest Rudolf?” I asked, not quite believing we might have enough to charge him with.

  “Cole has gone at him a lot harder than that.”

  “What do you mean?” I demanded, wondering what the hell had gone on while I’d been sleeping.

  “He gathered all the evidence together, including the recorded confession. Then he bypassed our father in meeting with Fella Wicker. Cole manipulated things to make it look like he was doing Fella a favor by letting him see all the evidence first hand. He also told him that sending Rudolf to prison would be safer while the shifters were out for his blood. It put Fella in a very awkward position.”

  “Why?”

  “He knew after seeing everything we had on him, that he couldn’t try and stop his son from receiving punishment. To do so, would have made him look dishonorable to his fellow shifters who lost family to Rudolf’s games. But to have his son sent to prison would mean dragging the name of Fella’s clan through the mud. It would also make Fella seem weak, and it would prove that he couldn’t control one of his sons. I was told that Fella thanked Cole, saying that he owed him one, and he asked for twenty-four hours to deal with the situation.”

  “That’s all?” I asked him, not quite sure what was going on here. “Rudolf might get to walk?”

  “You’re so dense sometimes, you know,” he teased. “How I survive being your partner, I don’t know.”

  “I could say the same,” I said with a furrowed brow of impatience. Thankfully, he picked up on my need to hear the full story.

  “Rudolf is dead,” he blurted out eventually. “They found him floating in a salt-lake by the cat plains this morning. They’ve deemed it a suicide. Case closed.”

  “He killed himself? No way!”

  “I would say his father encouraged him to do so, or paid someone to make sure he did. It won’t surprise me if Rudolf’s minions who were arrested end up the same way at some point in the future. I don’t think they’ll make it to the prison, put it that way.”

  “But you think Rudolf’s own father had him killed? Why?”

  “Cole made it appear as though Rudolf had shamed the family to a point where it could no longer be covered up. Cole and Dan have both been relentless in obtaining the specifics they needed to make sure Fella couldn’t shove it under the carpet. And the cheetahs don’t like weakness in their bloodlines. It could make other members of the clan think the family not worthy of leading them. So, he’s cut out the poison. Family or no.”

  “From one confession? Surely Rudolf would have found his way out of that one? I mean everything else was circumstantial. I don’t get how easy it’s been to take him down.”

  “It wouldn’t have been easy,” Kaleb said quietly. “Cole has put both his job and the alliances between the shifters on the line to make sure this played out the way it has. We’re lucky it’s all worked out. And ironically, it looks like shifter politics have saved your ass after all.”

  A sigh escaped my lips and, for once, I was more than happy to eat my own words. He was right. But in my defense, if we didn’t have shifter politics in the first place, then we wouldn’t need to manipulate the politics to go against them. Yeah, I know. I confuse myself sometimes. “Cole lost four agents. He needed to save face, too, otherwise he would have been seen as weak. And others would have sought vengeance. He’s done the right thing.” My heart ached at how much he’d risked in the process though. Cole. The contradiction of a control freak and a relentless predator. It looked like quite a few people—including myself—had underestimated him.

  “He did it for you, Terra,” Kaleb said as if pained. “He did it to keep you safe. With Rudolf alive, even if he’d been in prison, your life would have been at risk. His minions were just following orders so they’ll toe the line quickly enough—that’s if Fella doesn’t get to them first. But Rudolf was different. He wouldn’t have stopped coming after you until you were dead.”

  “I-I don’t understand,” I stammered, not quite understanding what to make from his comment. I was an agent. Cole’s employee. He would have done that for anyone.

  “Look … I don’t want to be the one to say this, not when I know him and you. And certainly not when I know that my brother has heartbreak written all over him.”

  “What are you trying to say?” I asked in a panic.

  “He has a union already arranged for him when my father decides to step down in the next two years. And my father has announced it will be that soon. He said he wants to retire and, if I know my dad well enough, that means he’s got something else up his sleeve. But you need to know, you need to understand …”

  “Understand what?”

  “My brother is loyal to the pack. He will take the Alpha seat one day, and that means he can’t date outside of his own people. But he’s been in love with you for a few months now. It just took him seeing you almost die to realize it.” Kaleb laughed humorlessly, pushing his hair back from his face.

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I snapped as heat flooded my cheeks. The memory of Cole softening when he saw me upset about Chris rushed back to me, and then the almost-kiss …

  “Really? You’re going to play that card?” he retorted. “I know you better than you know yourself, Vane. And you and my brother have been doing the ‘should we, shouldn’t we’ dance for months.”

  “You’re being ridiculous,” I said quickly, hating that he seemed so morose at the thought of his brother and I getting together. I mean, I knew it was impossible, I got it. But was I that bad as a potential?

  “Maybe. Maybe not. But all I can do is tell you the truth, and beg you not to go there. Cole won’t backtrack on his path to becoming Alpha. Not for anything, or anyone. Not even for himself. He will never go against father in that way, and it’s in his blood. He’s a dominant wolf who feels the burn to lead, and the Enforcer Chief position will only satisfy that desire for so long.” He paused and rubbed at his mouth before taking my hand. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  So that was the reason Kaleb was acting all weird. It all made a little more sense now. Kaleb thought he was protecting me, but there was no need. I wasn’t going to go there with Cole. I really wasn’t. I don’t think.

  “There’s nothing to worry about,” I squeezed his hand. “I don’t relish in getting my heart broken. And dating the boss is the last thing on my mind. It’s all good.”

  “You sure about that?” he asked as he studied me.

  “Very sure,” I reassured him, and part of me really wished that I could believe my own lies.

  It would make everything so much easier.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  A few days of healing later, Mayra gave me the all clear to go home. She also cleared me to return to work if I absolutely felt the need to do so. And I abso
lutely did.

  Kaleb had done his best to come and hang out with me, but we were both more than ready for something more than the same four walls.

  Cole hadn’t necessarily cleared me for duty. But I’d decided to head into the agency with Kaleb anyway to see what was going on. It wasn’t as if I was eager to face Cole, far from it. But I needed something to do before I lost my mind.

  Entering the agency with a grimace and slight limp as my body went through the latter stages of healing, I was suddenly surrounded by the agents who were onsite. They all rallied around me with encouraging remarks and pats on my back, making me feel like I was swimming through a sea of polite sharks. These agents had treated me as though I didn’t even exist a few weeks before, and now they were acting like my best friends. It felt as if I’d woken up and strolled right into Weirdville.

  “Agent Vane?” a deep voice demanded, breaking through the chatter of questions being aimed in my direction. My skin responded at the undertone of pain I heard in that summons. I peeked my head above the swarm of agents around me.

  “Yes, Chief?” I asked. My heart skipped a beat when I laid eyes on him. I tried to curb my reaction for Kaleb’s sake as I felt his watchful eyes on me, but I wasn’t sure if I pulled it off. Cole looked tired, yet his eyes filled with relief as they met mine.

  “Come with me, please,” he said. “Get back to work,” he barked at the others. “And Kaleb, report in with Doreen. Terra will join you shortly for your new assignments.”

  Kaleb shared a knowing look with me, then saluted. “Yes, Boss.”

  I watched Kaleb walk away before following Cole down the hallway to a vacant office at the end. It looked like he didn’t want anyone disturbing us in his own office. What the hell did he want to discuss in private?

  “Are you alright?” Cole asked me as the lights flickered on. He closed the door behind me and I faltered slightly. There was something different about him. A dangerous edge, and I wasn’t sure if I was happy to be alone with him right now or not.

  “I’m a lot better thanks to Mayra. That witch has some keen healing skills.”

  He laughed, no mirth present in the sound. And then he leaned against the single desk situated in the middle of the dusty room.

  “Yeah,” he agreed, but he sounded angry. Thankfully, his eyes were still blue. He crossed his arms over his chest and held my gaze. I wanted to drop my eyes, let them fall to the floor to show him that I wasn’t a challenge here. But I also knew that to do so would give him too much power right now. The room practically choked with it already.

  “You almost died.” He spoke so quietly through his controlled rage that I barely heard him.

  “What?”

  “I said, you almost died,” he repeated, a lot louder this time. He stood up and started to pace. His anger was bubbling to the surface; the evidence of that in his eyes as they turned amber. “I asked you to follow protocol in this case, and you and my stupid brother had to go ahead and act like you know everything.” He stopped in his tracks and rounded on me. “You went to see Rudolf and stirred the pot. And look what happened as a result of it. Four of my agents have been killed. Good agents, may I add. And then you antagonized the bastard enough to make yourself a target. I swear, Agent Vane, I must have lost my mind the day I decided to hire you.”

  Tears pricked the back of my eyes from the venom laced in his voice. But they were from anger rather than sadness. His temper was almost palpable and I hated how he was expecting submission while he growled insults in my direction. This kind of hierarchy may be law in the shifter world, but it wasn’t here. I wasn’t part of his pack, or clan, or whatever he called it.

  “Are you blaming me for all this?” I dared to ask him, and he laughed humorlessly.

  “What the hell do you think? You’re a law unto yourself. And my brother is like your little cub following your every move. You have him dancing to your tune and you try and get me to do the same. But I won’t have it. I won’t! I’m your boss. I own you. And you need to damn well start realizing it before I kick your ass out of this agency!”

  Shock and surprise didn’t even begin to describe my reaction to his words. This went a hell of a lot deeper than a boss who was angry toward his subordinate. But no matter what he’d done for me, no matter how he was feeling, he had no right to yell at me this way when all I had done was my job.

  “You know what, Cole?” I asked, feeling the heaviness of an emotion I couldn’t quite define settle over me. “Go screw yourself.”

  I spun on my heel and opened the door. But I didn’t expect for his hand to close on top of mine, slamming the door shut.

  “Don’t,” he said, breathless from his emotion. “Don’t leave.”

  “Cole, I don’t know what is going on with you right now, but—” I turned around and gasped, the words dying on my lips when I saw that his face was only two inches from my own.

  “You almost died,” he whispered, and he closed his eyes as if in pain. “I was going out of mind. I thought I’d lost you. I thought it was too late …”

  “Cole …” I tried to say something, but I didn’t know what the hell to say.

  He kissed me before my brain could comprehend that kissing was his intention. My stupid lips then decided to kiss him back with fervor before my head could even catch up. He pulled me closer, and I was glad that there were no glass walls in this room as he fed his hands up the back of my top.

  Cole growled with satisfaction as his hands touched my skin. And I had to admit that I wanted to growl right along with him. Problem was, I was too busy kissing his face off to make a sound. What the hell were we doing?

  My lips were like magnets to his. They wouldn’t do what my brain was urging them coherently to do. At least, I think it was coherent. I couldn’t quite hear what my brain was saying, but I’m sure the words were coherent. Then he wrapped a hand around the back of my neck and slowed down his kisses. If he thought that was supposed to help douse the fire between us, then, oh boy, he was so wrong. My goosebumps had goosebumps, while my tingles danced like it was nineteen ninety-nine.

  Time itself seemed to stop as we came together. Nothing else mattered at that precise moment as the inevitable came into fruition. I was lost to the moment, no longer trying to understand the wrongs of what we were doing.

  My traitorous leg decided to raise itself up and wrap around him, and he pulled it around his waist so he was close enough for me to feel every bit of pleasure he was feeling right now.

  “Damn it,” he whispered suddenly. Then he let my leg drop. He gave me a quick peck on the nose, and then returned to his original position of leaning on the desk.

  His sharpened shifter senses must have heard the approach before I did, because a knock on the door caused me to almost jump out of my skin.

  Taking a few deep breaths to steady myself, I reluctantly opened the door and Kaleb’s head popped inside. “Doreen said you have an urgent phone call,” he said to Cole. He then looked at me with a raised eyebrow as if he knew exactly what we’d been up to. I lowered my eyes to the floor, most likely confirming his thoughts. But I couldn’t help the feeling of guilt that arose from his earlier warning.

  “A phone call?” Cole asked through gritted teeth.

  “Yes,” Kaleb said with a hint of humor to his voice. He leaned against the doorjamb. “It’s highly classified. From the Consilium.”

  “Damn it to hell,” Cole snapped then he looked at me. “Stay here. Both of you. I won’t be long.”

  He marched off out of the office, and then it was just me, Kaleb and my guilt inhabiting the room.

  “You okay?” Kaleb asked, and I didn’t even know what to say. What could I say? Oh, I’m great. More alive than I’ve felt in years. I’ve kissed the face off your brother—you know, the guy you warned me about—and now we’re going to pretend like it never happened.

  Nope. There was no way in hell I was going to say that. Kaleb could save the third degree on my behavior for another day. It wasn�
��t as if I’d wanted it to happen. Or did I?

  Shaking my head free of the confusion, Kaleb chuckled and left the door open while he went to sit in the chair closest to him. He thumped his booted feet upon the desk.

  “They’re hushing it all up about the blue drug,” he explained as he linked his hands behind his head. “Same with the wendigo. A silence order has been administered to the agency. Or so Doreen tells me.”

  “A silence order that she’s gossiping about?” I asked in surprise.

  “She’s told me on the quiet. Doreen and I have a special relationship.”

  “If she wasn’t old enough to be your grandmother then I would know exactly what kind of a special relationship. But then again, it’s you. I don’t think a large age gap would get in the way.”

  “Doreen is like a grandmother to me, so that is so gross. She told me that they’re sweeping it all under the carpet about Rudolf. And no connections are to be pursued about how the blue drug came to be in his possession. Same with the weapons. As far as we’re concerned, it’s case closed.”

  “They’re going to overlook the escape from the Shifter Hold too?” I asked him sarcastically, and he shrugged his shoulders.

  “That’s most likely the main reason for the silence order—as well as the drug, of course. They can’t let that get out to the public, so each of us are going to be subjected to silence, unless we want to end up in prison ourselves.”

  “It makes you wonder how Rudolf came up with the idea,” I said, thinking out loud. “A breakout. A dangerous drug that was taken off the streets a very long time ago. Earthside weapons that require Consilium or Evolver approval. You know what all this is pointing to, don’t you?”

  “Someone in the Consilium is involved?” he guessed, and I nodded my head.

  “Yep. This doesn’t look good.”

  “Maybe whoever did it was doing so because of a bribe? Maybe Rudolf had something on them, and they were giving in to his demands? There could be many reasons why someone from the Consilium would be involved.”