Bad Cop (Entangled Covet)

by Angela McCallister

  She shut herself into her office and spent the next couple of hours searching every database and article she could find on the Infancy case. There were no conclusive details on the fire that took Hesperos’s life. Without the actual report Ian had promised to send her, she had no information. Frankly, she wasn’t sure it would contain the truth.

  The fact remained that nothing would come of her research mission. If Ian had murdered Hesperos, he’d be detained. Then, according to agreements with the Immortalis, he’d be handed immediately over to the Trackers. The very rule she’d counted on to save Graham would be the one to get Ian off the hook without consequence.

  Her morning coffee threatened to come back up. She swallowed hard and dropped her head onto her crossed arms. She’d been falling fast for Ian. He was sweet and strong and funny. He’d made her laugh and lifted her spirits like no other man. But he was a liar and a murderer, a man who would use his position to kill. She could never live with that. She would never live with that. Whatever had been building between them was over.

  Chapter Seventeen

  After the day’s events, Ian expected Alice to be at home, but her office light radiated from her window. He headed for her door, though a viselike tension gripped him. She hadn’t called him. As he’d expected, he hadn’t been able to sleep knowing what hell she’d be going through that morning. At the time, he’d cursed vampirism in general for keeping him from her side. Now, he wondered if she would have cared if he’d been there, if it would have made any difference to her. She’d made perfectly clear she didn’t need him.

  Alice didn’t notice him enter. Her head rested on her desk, and she was fast asleep. A starburst of warmth flashed through him. She was so very beautiful with her dark curls forming a curtain of stark contrast to her peachy skin and fuzzy, pale yellow sweater. He swept a finger along her long, thick lashes and down the softness of her cheek. Not even a flicker of movement. She had to be exhausted. He bent and brushed his lips across her temple.

  “Ian?” Her sleepy rasp hooked him in the gut.

  “Yeah.” Drawing back, he smiled. “I thought about you all day.”

  Her expression softened, but then she sat up and traded the softness for something more guarded. As she motioned for him to sit across the desk from her, his tension ramped up until his spine ached with it.

  “Was there another murder?”

  “No.” She averted her eyes and then got up to make coffee. Her hands were shaking as she loaded the filter.

  “Alice, talk to me.”

  “Where did you go last night, Ian?”

  He frowned. “I told you where I was going.”

  “I want to know what happened.” She met his gaze finally. Her forehead creased and her lips tightened, a determined anger radiating from her. He racked his brain for a reason why she’d be angry with him but came up empty-handed.

  “Dec and Ezra tracked Revenant to a rave. I met them there, and we pursued him, but he slipped away from us. There were too many civilians about.”

  “That’s it?”

  “What more would there be?”

  “You didn’t try to kill him?”

  He laughed at first but sobered when her expression grew darker. “We were trying to catch him for answers. Killing him would be pointless. We’d never find out who he’s working with.”

  Doubt flickered across her face. “Did you shoot at him?”

  “Once we were clear of the building, yes.”

  Her hands slid to her hips. “Ian, shooting at him constitutes trying to kill him.”

  “No, it doesn’t. They weren’t fatal shots to a vampire.”

  “Of course they weren’t fatal. If they were, he couldn’t have paid me a visit today.”

  “He what?” Ian shot out of his seat. “You saw him? Why the fuck didn’t you call me?”

  She stood right up to him, a mask of fury firmly in place. “He was gone before you could have done anything about it. And it didn’t matter because he was only there to give me information I should have gotten from you.”

  “What information?”

  “About the Infancy case. You lied to me about it.”

  “I never lied to you.”

  “By omission. It’s the same thing.”

  His blood pressure spiked and a red film hazed the edges of his vision. “I told you what was relevant. Anything beyond that is not your business.”

  Her eyebrows rose, and he got the sense he’d waved a bright cloak in front of a pissed-off bull. “Not my business? Why don’t you tell me about Hesperos? How did he die?”

  “I already told you. He died in a fire.”

  “Sure. You told me that, but how did the fire start? How was he trapped in it?”

  Her questions kicked the door down on his conscience in one sharp strike, the events of that long-ago night shoved in front of his face once again. It didn’t matter what crimes Hes had committed to deserve that deadly fate. Ian would never rid himself of what he’d done to Hesperos. Never.

  “Answer me, Ian. Did you kill him?” A touch of fear edged her tone but her expression gave him no leeway. If she wanted him to deny it, he’d have to disappoint her. He couldn’t entertain the idea of lying to her.

  “Yes, I did.”

  Her jaw went slack, her face blank. He felt as if he’d slapped her. She moved away from him, putting the desk between them. Might as well have been the Grand Canyon.

  He came toward her and leaned on the desk in front of her. “Alice, he was a murderer, and he was getting away with it. He had all the right connections. He thought he was untouchable, and he was right. It had to stop.”

  “But he wasn’t the murderer because the killings are still happening. What made you decide he was guilty? You were wrong.”

  “I had no doubts. Not one.”

  “But you did a few days ago, didn’t you?”

  Inside, he cringed. A few moments of doubt had ravaged him, but thanks to Declan, those doubts had been wiped away. He’d definitely killed the right guy, though that didn’t keep him from suffering guilt at what he’d done.

  “I was wrong to doubt myself. Everything was plain to see in the journal Hes kept. He detailed what he’d done to the victims.”

  “And I have no way of knowing that.”

  “You saw the journal in the video.”

  “Yes, I saw a journal, but I don’t know what’s in it. Maybe it’s not as incriminating as you think. Maybe someone planted that journal. Maybe Hes didn’t write it. Why didn’t anyone detain Hes over what was in it?”

  “It wasn’t reviewed. There was a…technicality.”

  She scowled at him. “Right. Probably obtained illegally which makes your story even less credible.”

  “You think I’m lying to you?” He recoiled as if her words had been a physical attack. “He confessed.”

  “Of course.” Her sarcasm bit deep into him, the ragged teeth of it leaving a crater-sized wound. “And you’re the only witness to his confession made while he was under duress. I have no reason to trust you. This wouldn’t be the first time you’ve lied to me, and I’ve already seen how you bend the law to suit you. You’re trying to justify killing an innocent man.”

  He’d lost his family in one swoop because of Hesperos, and she judged him for bringing justice to his loved ones, for putting an end to the murders. He should have seen this coming. He should have known she’d never understand his choices.

  “I don’t want you anywhere near this case. If the Immortalis needs to be part of this, send a different Tracker.” She sat and flipped through files, effectively dismissing him. Then she gave him a direct, emotionless command. “Not Declan.”

  “Aren’t you reporting this?”

  She sighed, and then her eyes narrowed on him. “Why? You’ll use your position to get away with it, same as you do with everything else.” She turned back to her files without a care that she was breaking his heart.

  “Do you want me to turn myself in?”

&nb
sp; She didn’t even glance up. “Do whatever you want. I won’t know or care either way.”

  He closed his eyes. He couldn’t stand the sight of her so closed off from him, so far out of his reach. The rift between them opened wider by the second, and the desolation of it ripped him open just as wide. He couldn’t change what he’d done to Hes. He had no idea what she wanted from him. To suffer? Well, he was suffering as surely as if he were broken and bleeding at her feet. But she didn’t care.

  “Fuck you, Alice.” His voice had gone hoarse with the pain. Her eyes jerked up to meet his, her shock plain to see. “Hes murdered my family. I’d kill him all over again if I could. I’d kill Revenant, too, if he lifted a finger to harm you. Yes, I killed Hes. I hate that I had to do it, but it was the right thing to do no matter what you think. So fuck you and your self-righteous idealism. And just so we’re clear, Alice, the sentence for murdering a Dominus is execution, Tracker or not. I won’t lie about it to Izel, so do what you will. Turn it in.”

  That said, he left before she could gut him further.

  He walked the streets nearly an hour before he remembered he’d left his car near Alice’s building. His legs had automatically taken him toward Pioneer Square. Screw the car. He was nearly in Ezra’s neighborhood. Part of him wanted to hole up somewhere alone to drink himself into oblivion. Too bad no one had invented a way for a vampire to get drunk. He missed that aspect of humanity.

  But it wasn’t in him to curl up into a ball of self-pity, and he had work to do and murderers to find. The team would help, regardless of Alice’s decision to cut him out of the case. They didn’t answer to her. As his fury lost momentum, a pulverizing ache filled his chest like an eighteen-wheeler had rolled over him. Why the fuck hadn’t he just told her the cases weren’t the same? She thought he’d killed an innocent man and lied to cover his tracks. If she’d known they were dealing with different murderers, maybe their conversation wouldn’t have ended with him in hell.

  He jogged up the last set of steps and tapped the buzzer. The lock clicked open right away. Good. Ezra was home, and if Ian was lucky, they’d head out for a round of rogue hunting. Or even better—Slaver hunting. He was in the mood to take off a few heads. When the door to the penthouse loft swung open, Declan greeted him, if you could call a scowl a greeting.

  “What happened to you? You look like hell.” Dec stood back to let him in. “It’s like I’m looking in a mirror.”

  “Aren’t you cheerful as ever?” Ian glanced around the loft, but it was only the two of them. “Ezra gave you free rein of his loft? Has he lost his mind?”

  “So he looks like roadkill, but he jokes,” Dec mumbled.

  Ian settled onto one of the couches and stared expectantly at his surly partner without speaking.

  With a sigh to make Eeyore green with envy, Dec sat across from him. “Ezra left to meet Alice. She got a call from Otsana with a lead on your case. Or what was your case. Which leads me to question why the fuck you’re here and not there.”

  Ian’s body went hot and tight with something painful, a jolt through his system. Alice really had cut him out. His mind went in so many directions, he couldn’t speak. She’d called Ezra. That bit into him hardest. The two had spent time together when Val had been hospitalized after getting shot with a crossbow a few months back. And Ezra didn’t just like humans; he loved humans. He got touchy-feely and flirty, and the bastard could be pretty damned charming and irresistible when he wanted. He’d put his hands on her. Touch her hair. Her soft skin.

  “Damn, Ian, the look on your face, I—” Dec shook his head, his expression about as somber as Ian had ever seen it. “I’m sorry. Something happened, obviously.”

  “Yeah, you could say that.” Ian’s voice sounded like someone had taken sandpaper to it. “She found out about Hes.”

  Dec rocked back into his seat. “Shit.”

  “Don’t go overboard or anything. It’s just my life we’re talking about.”

  “So she’s going to turn you in?”

  Ian rubbed his hands over his face as a mass of instant exhaustion pressed down. “Worse. She’s left it up to me. Dec, if I don’t turn myself in, I’m just like every other dirty cop bucking the system. If I turn myself in…”

  “You’re actually thinking about it, aren’t you? You crazy motherfucker.” Dec threw his arms out in exasperation. “Her opinion of you isn’t worth your life, Ian.”

  “One of these days, Dec, you’re going to care about someone, and you’ll be surprised how far you’re willing to go for her.”

  Dec leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. His eyes darkened to nearly black. “Been there,” he growled. “Done that. It doesn’t make a goddamn bit of difference what you do for her if she doesn’t care whether you live or die or whether you get treated like a fucking animal that needs to be put down.”

  “Whoa, stand fast.” Ian held his hands up. “Okay, you’re right. Turning myself in might be going too far, but what was all this about? Who screwed you over, Dec?”

  Dec groaned in response and shook off his moment of vitriol. “Not important. I just don’t want you jumping through flaming little hoops for someone who isn’t willing to do the same for you.”

  Ian frowned, his eyes narrowing as he studied his friend. “And you’d miss me. That’s what’s really going on here.”

  Almost a smile. There was a definite twitch of Dec’s lips. “What? You want a hug or something, you mick bastard?”

  “If you’re not careful, I’ll call on you for that. It’s not gay if there’s no eye contact.”

  “But you have such pretty—” Dec’s pocket buzzed. He flinched and then reached in for his phone. “Wait one.”

  The phone conversation didn’t last long, and it didn’t bode well either from the sound of it.

  “Hell, Ian. Another one of Ander’s infants went missing.”

  “Was that Alice?” Ian’s pulse leaped into a seismic tumult.

  “No, and you’re not going to guess who it was.”

  Ian cocked an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t bet on that if I were you. Who was it?”

  “That, my friend, was Kenji.”

  If Ian hadn’t been sitting, he would have ended up on the floor. He never thought in a million years Kenji would lower himself to seek a conversation of any kind with a Legion. He was one of those kinds of Dominorum, the ones who bought into the whole lower-caste concept the Legion fought against on a daily basis. Vampires like Kenji were the entire reason the castes were in unrest. It didn’t help that the Dominus was an adjuvant.

  With Kenji reporting the crime and Otsana calling in leads, there was only one other person on Ian’s list who could be working with Revenant.

  “What are you thinking over there?” Dec asked.

  Ian’s gaze met Dec’s. “The only one left on the playground.”

  “Ander.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Alice caught sight of Ezra as she passed through the glass doors of VLO headquarters not twenty minutes after she’d called him. He was as striking as always, tall, broad, and heavily muscled under his close-fitting, all-black ensemble. Ezra always kept his body well covered, and tonight was no exception, although instead of his usual turtleneck, he’d substituted a crisp, elegant button-up fastened to the very top. The hem of his matte-black leather jacket brushed around boot-covered ankles as his long strides ate the distance between them. Her gaze skated over his shoulder toward the sidewalk behind him.

  “Who are we looking for, little sprite?”

  Ezra’s harsh voice brought her gaze back to him. His wide grin took him from conquering Viking warrior status to guy-next-door, the sweet, hot guy you’d trust alone with your slutty, big-boobed sister. Her instincts urged her to sink into his unspoken invitation to confide, but she knew him better than that by now. Inspiring such trust was intentional, a considerably effective ploy to disarm.

  “I’m not looking for anyone.”

  “Of course not.” His eyes cr
inkled at the corners as he laughed. He offered his arm and then led her to the car waiting at the curb. The driver already held the door open. They sat in silence for several minutes. Sitting across from her, Ezra did nothing more than study her, but his expression didn’t give away his thoughts.

  “I haven’t seen him tonight,” he said at last.

  He was talking about Ian. No use pretending she didn’t understand. She’d assumed Ian would have gone to his friends, but he hadn’t. Where was he then? His car was still parked at the curb across from her building. Regardless of what Ian had admitted to doing, she was out-of-her-mind worried about him.

  Her decision to call Ezra hadn’t been calculated, but in hindsight, she’d needed to know Ian was okay. When he’d walked out, she’d been too frozen with shock to stop him. She had no idea he’d be executed for Hes’s murder. That news had squeezed the breath out of her, no matter that Hes hadn’t been guilty.

  She hadn’t realized how much it would hurt to see him go until he was gone. Telling him she didn’t care had been a monstrous lie. Oh, she cared. The moment the door closed, it hit her just how much she cared—to the point of making herself crazy. The absence of Ian felt like a prison sentence binding her until the moment she could be with him again, to touch him and feel him warm, breathing, and alive. She closed her eyes, fighting against the burn behind them, and a dizzy spell washed over her.

  But it was her own fault her heart huddled into a pulpy mass at the floor of her rib cage. She’d not only expelled Ian from her life, but she’d gone out of her way to deny feelings for him. Used his body and his comfort only to give him judgment in return. No doubt he should have done things differently with Hes, but he couldn’t do anything to change the past. All he could do was take responsibility for what he’d done, and what good would come of that now?

  Alice opened her eyes and glanced at Ezra, waiting for him to elaborate but the godlike vampire took his time. He was strangely blank, and something about that scared the hell out of her, making her stomach churn.