“Excuse me? A zoo animal?”
He could see the lie on her face, could hear it in her voice. He couldn’t hear her. Not her thoughts. Not after what he’d done to break this case. He’d lost his psychic edge, maybe permanently. He’d lost more than that, enough that he shouldn’t care about the case anymore, but to his own surprise, he had no desire to give up.
“I think you know differently.”
“It’s late, Detective Cross.”
“One more look.” He clicked to the footage where the wild dog tore open the panther’s side and practically shoved the phone in her face. “This is how she ended the night.”
Her eyes widened and a strangled sound escaped her.
About to press her for information, Shade caught movement from the corner of his eye. One glance behind him, and he tossed away the cell to shove the Reyes woman out of harm’s way. The night exploded with sound, and her arm jerked as she took the bullet.
Before Shade could get to his Glock, something hot and sharp crashed through his skull.
Then all went dark.
…
The doorbell’s shrill buzz nearly tossed me out of bed. A quick glance at the clock confirmed it was 4:13, well before dawn.
Had I dreamed the sound?
Another blare, more insistent this time, confirmed someone was, indeed, at my door. One of the cats flew off the bed. Shade, no doubt, had misplaced his keys. Again.
Grumbling, I climbed over a second cat who couldn’t be bothered to move and stumbled out of bed and into the hall to the intercom. The video screen revealed not Shade, but his partner and best friend, Ethan Grainger.
“Isn’t Shade answering his door?” I asked over the intercom.
I could hear Shade’s dog Boomer barking downstairs. We lived in a two-flat we’d inherited from our grandmother, Shade in the first-floor apartment, me in the second.
“I need to talk to you.”
At four in the morning? He sounded so serious. Of course he wouldn’t wake me in the middle of the night if it wasn’t something serious.
“Okay.”
I pressed the buzzer that let him up. Spotting a long-sleeved shirt I’d left on a dining room chair, I grabbed it and pulled it on before unlocking the door. Ethan’s short, light-brown hair accentuated his broad cheeks. His blue eyes had gone all eerie, filled with something that went beyond simple grief.
My heart thundered.
“What is it?” I was fully awake now and filled with unease. I’d heard too often about official visits to relatives of coppers when something bad had to be reported. “What’s happened to Dad?”
“Not your father.” Ethan shook his head. “It’s Shade.”
My world suddenly got smaller. Tighter. My eyes began to sting. I knew. But I wouldn’t believe it.
“Where is he?” I demanded, my heart thudding against my ribs. “What hospital?”
“I’m so sorry.” Ethan pulled me to him and held me so tightly, I couldn’t move.
“No!” Tears flooded my eyes and I awkwardly struck him in the chest. “No.”
“I’m so sorry. You know I loved him like a brother.”
I was in the midst of a nightmare, but I was truly awake.
Shade, my twin, my other half, was gone.
Ethan let me cry until there were no more tears. Until my eyelids were so swollen I could hardly see. Then he led me to the living room where he sat me down in a chair and found a box of tissues so I could get myself together.
He waited for me to ask “Wh-what happened?”
“Shade was a hero again tonight. He was shot saving a woman’s life.”
“Who?”
“Her name is Elizabeth Reyes.” Ethan shook his head. “I don’t know why, just that he was on her porch waiting to talk to her when she came home around midnight. She took the first bullet before Shade pushed her out of harm’s way.”
I tried to take it all in. “He was on the job, then. Alone.” Shade never worked without backup. At least, I didn’t know about him doing so.
“Apparently. He didn’t confide in me. Not in a while.”
Shade had been acting odd lately. Secretive. Argumentative.
“And he was shot saving her?”
“Right. She said they’d hardly spoken for a minute before the first shot rang out. She was winged as he pushed her out of the way and took a bullet himself.”
“One bullet? That’s all it took to kill him?”
He nodded. “I’m sorry to have to tell you he was shot in the head.”
“Oh, my God.”
The last thing I had done was turn my back on my brother.
To never see him alive again.
I had to live with that.
Forever.
Chapter Four
My brother was buried on a day with no sun. Appropriate, for I felt the sun had been snuffed out of my life.
The mournful sound of bagpipes made my chest squeeze tighter.
Literally more than a thousand people had shown up at the cemetery, as they always did when one of their own was murdered on the job. In addition to the Chicago Police Department chiefs, the mayor, and other local and state politicians, there were the uniforms, mostly from Chicago, but many from the suburbs and neighboring cities and states, some from as far away as Minneapolis and Florida and New York.
Facing tragedy, they were all so stoic.
I remained outwardly stoic, too.
His graying red hair perfectly groomed around his florid face, Dad was surrounded by men in uniform at the other end of the coffin, including Shade’s partner, Ethan, and his lieutenant, Ryan Connelly. Dad kept looking at me. Any weakness on my part would reflect badly on him, so I choked back my tears.
I wanted to pull Shade’s body from the coffin and somehow breathe life back into him. Then I could tell him I was sorry that I’d told him to leave me alone.
But there was no going back. No do-over. No chance for forgiveness.
The rustle and chirps of live things around me reflected my anguish. Always drawn to me, animals commiserated. A squirrel stopped within yards of me and sat up, bushy tail twitching, staring at me with beady dark eyes. It chattered, sorrow evident in the pitch of its gunfire clicks and clacks. Its little heart thumping double time, a frog croaked its way toward me from the nearby pond. A flock of sparrows flew over my head, ruffling my hair before ascending on the gravesite in formation as precise as an Honor Guard.
I somehow held it together. The wind soughed along the headstones and drizzle splattered the graveyard.
“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.” Though his skin was leathery, his white hair thinning, Father Costa had a strong, vibrant voice that carried across the cemetery. “And let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.”
A weird sensation suddenly buzzed me. I started. It felt as if someone or some thing was trying to get inside my mind. Not an animal. Animals were open. This felt furtive. I shook off the creepy feeling and scanned the graveyard around me. All eyes were glued to the scene at the coffin.
Except…
I felt more than saw him. Like a dark wraith, he hovered in the distance, near-hidden in a stand of trees at one corner of the cemetery. He wore no uniform. No suit. His shirt and pants were as black as the hair that whipped along his shoulders, his face pale in contrast.
My knees bobbled as I recognized him, and I had to catch myself from collapsing.
The man who’d controlled the predators at the fight the other night was here.
My pulse thrummed.
Who was he, and why had he shown up at Shade’s funeral?
Remembering the mutual dislike so evident between the stranger and my brother, I wondered if he’d had something to do with Shade’s death.
I blinked, and as suddenly as I’d become aware of him, he was gone. Exactly the same way he’d disappeared outside the fight arena.
A lone bugler played taps. I tore my gaze back to the burial. Seven officers stepped f
orward, each firing three rounds. A twenty-one gun salute to honor a fallen hero. Twenty-one wounds cut through me, and it took all the strength I had left not to fall to my knees in surrender.
Connected in a way that most people wouldn’t understand, Shade and I had been two parts of a whole. Dad didn’t understand. Shade had been able to read people, the reason he’d become a copper. I’d always been connected to animals, the reason I worked as an animal rescuer. Even with our differences, Shade and I had always been in psychic sync. Although something had been off between us for a few days before his death.
And then a single shot to the head had ended my brother’s life.
Had ended me.
I wanted to weep again, but my eyes burned and remained dry as the city flag that had draped the coffin was folded precisely into a triangle and handed to my father.
My best friend and business partner Phoebe Hunt stepped up to hug me. Today her blue-black hair was braided in cornrows and cut with streaks the same purple as her summer sweater and slacks.
“Anything you need.”
“I know. Thanks.”
Phoebe’s deep brown eyes were watery and the tip of her broad nose was wet. She’d always crushed on my brother.
“Don’t worry about the shop,” Phoebe said. “I’ll take care of everything,” she promised. “Take as long as you need.”
I nodded, yet thought that I needed to keep my mind occupied with something other than my brother’s murder. The pet supply store Phoebe and I owned would give me a distraction.
The mourners dispersed. Lieutenant Connelly led many of the uniforms to their vehicles. They would head for a local bar where they could drink to my brother.
“We should get going,” Dad said, a whiff of whiskey on his breath.
“I—I can’t face all those people. You go on.” I thought he looked commanding in his dress blues, no emotions apparent except his gloved hands clenching and unclenching the folded flag. I brushed nonexistent lint from his jacket, my futile attempt at getting closer. “I want to stay to say good-bye.”
“I can wait for you,” came a deep voice from behind me. “Shade wouldn’t want you to be alone today.”
I turned to Ethan, who’d been far more than Shade’s partner. They’d been best friends, as close as brothers. He appeared nearly as devastated as I felt.
“Thanks, but I’m fine.”
“I don’t mind waiting.”
His voice was as pinched as his normally handsome face.
“What went wrong, Ethan? How did this happen?”
Ethan shook his head and regret thickened his voice. “Something was off with Shade. I wish I had pressed him.”
I scared up a smile and said, “Please, take Dad to the bar.”
Unwillingly he did as I asked and the men walked off together, trailing the crowd.
I realized the cemetery crew was waiting for me to leave, too, so they could lower the coffin into the ground. One of the guys seemed to get that I needed a little privacy. He moved toward the backhoe, signaling the rest to follow him.
The drizzle turned to a light rain, and finally tears pooled in my eyes. My heart felt broken. Somehow, on shaky legs, I stepped forward, and with an outpouring of grief, at last allowed myself to touch the coffin, which had remained closed through the wake and the funeral.
If only I could see Shade one last time.
“Skye.”
For a moment, I wanted to think I was hearing my brother. I whipped around and came face-to-face with my mystery man. His face wasn’t as pale as it had appeared in the moonlight, but lightly bronzed, making him look rugged. My pulse surged as I wondered if he had anything to do with my brother’s murder.
“Who are you? What business do you have here?”
“I want you to know how grateful I am to your brother.”
“Grateful?” I said. “You and Shade didn’t like each other.”
“Maybe we didn’t. But Elizabeth Reyes is my mother.”
The breath caught in my throat, and my heart missed a beat. Elizabeth Reyes—the reason my brother was dead. “They told me he took a bullet for her.”
He nodded. “Your brother saved her life by giving up his own. I can’t soften the pain of your loss, but know that I am in your debt.”
“Why was someone trying to shoot your mother?” Unreasonable anger filled me. It didn’t matter that Shade had been dedicated, that he’d put his life on the line most days. Why did my brother have to die for his mother, whatever her deal? “Why was Shade with her in the first place?”
“I couldn’t say.”
“Can’t or won’t? The fight the other night—why did you and Shade dislike each other?” I turned to the grave. “And then you disappeared.”
I glanced back, and once again, the stranger had vanished into thin air.
Whoever he was, Elizabeth Reyes’s son hadn’t told me his name.
He didn’t deserve a second thought. Not today. Today was about my brother.
I couldn’t help but feel totally alone as I said my good-bye.
“It’s always been you and me. When I said to leave me alone, I didn’t mean forever. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I said, my voice breaking.
I tried tuning into his wavelength as if he would answer as usual, but as had happened the night we’d fought, I couldn’t sense him.
Nothing.
Feeling a crushing weight on my chest, I let the tears fall as they would.
I would never see my brother again.
Never.
…
It was dusk by the time I arrived home. Shade and I had separate apartments, separate lives, but we’d always been close when it had mattered.
Now the building felt barren and gray, like a place I didn’t want to be.
Nevertheless I entered the foyer, all original, all wood but for the mosaic ceramic tile floor. Standing in front of the door to his first-floor apartment, I picked up the mail—mine and Shade’s—and as I stood there, frozen simply seeing his name on the envelope, I swore I sensed him. Not that I heard or saw anything tangible. Just a feeling that made my pulse skitter and my hand shake as I unlocked the downstairs door to the stairwell.
Heavy hearted, I started up the stairs toward a framed print of a black panther. The big cat’s eyes pierced me, reminded me of my responsibilities—rescued animals all waiting for me. The cats were whining, Peach throwing herself at the door. Boomer whistled through his nose. The three cats were mine, the dog Shade’s. And they all needed to be taken care of. The thing about having animals was that I would never be completely alone.
Once their needs were met, the cats settled down, but Boomer followed me around my apartment, toenails clacking against the oak wood floors. I’d tried making the dog understand that Shade wasn’t here anymore, yet Boomer kept looking at me through those melting dark-brown eyes as if he didn’t believe me.
“He’s gone, boy, gone forever,” I murmured, sitting on the floor with him.
Boomer was a sweet dog with fierce protective instincts, some kind of terrier mix with tufts of wiry fur. He yawned and placed his head in my lap. I leaned back against my bed, my heart wrenching with pain. Peach hopped up on the mattress. Phantom followed. I crawled into bed as Dreamer joined us. I settled down with cats wrapped around me. The dog settled down at my feet.
Surrounded by unconditional love, I let my mind drift.
I was in the cemetery again, distracted by the man who didn’t belong. The son of the woman whose life my brother had saved by giving up his own.
I stared at him. His power called to me, confused me. My pulse threaded unevenly, and my mouth went dry, and I felt an inexplicable pull that I couldn’t deny.
Not exactly a pleasant feeling. It tore through me, leaving me breathless and surrounded by a darkness that had a ragged, frightening pulse.
Who was he? What was our connection? I needed to know.
My mind was rushing toward him to better see his face when exhaustion won and
darkness claimed me.
Chapter Five
When I awoke, Boomer made yawning sounds he normally reserved for Shade, and tore out of the kitchen to the enclosed back porch.
Sighing, I followed him and opened my back door. “All right, see for yourself.”
The dog shot down the stairs to the first-floor apartment and pranced as he waited for me to catch up. The second I opened Shade’s door, the weird sense that Boomer and I weren’t alone returned. I felt as if someone was there. Had someone broken into Shade’s apartment? The mysterious man from the cemetery immediately came to mind. Pulse hammering, I tried to catch the dog by the collar, but he was too fast for me. A sharp noise from the bedroom stopped the dog outside the door. He began barking hysterically.
My heart thundered. “Who’s there?” And then I choked out a big, fat lie. “I already called 911. The police are on their way.”
Grabbing a kitchen chair as a shield, I swung it in front of me and moved down the hallway as a dark figure flew from the bedroom into the dining room, whipping Boomer off his feet and tossing him across the room. The dog shrieked as he slammed into the far wall. His fear and pain engulfed me. That did it. I advanced on the thief, chair swinging. His head whipped around. He was young and tough-looking, with a scar that ran down one cheek.
Stupid bitch! He reached out and easily ripped the chair from my hands. Give that to me.
He hadn’t said the words out loud, but I’d heard them. Shocked, I stopped dead in my tracks. His black eyes focused on mine and I felt like something was probing my skull. I mentally pushed back. The look he gave me, like I confused him somehow, was followed by his fast retreat. He was out the front door in seconds, the dog snarling at his heels. He slammed the door on the dog’s nose.
“Boomer, honey, are you okay?”
I was shaking, but the dog’s tone shifted back into the familiar whine that told me my brother was around. And then another voice shocked me.
“Have you already given some strange guy access to my apartment?”
Boomer bolted past me.
Barely breathing, I looked into the living room. There, next to the fireplace, stooping toward his dog, was my supposedly dead brother. The sun suddenly came from behind the clouds and through the bay windows in a shimmering wave of light worthy of a resurrection.
Animal Instincts (Entangled Ignite) Page 3
