by Terry Spear
“So you’re saying Lelandi wouldn’t accept a mate.”
“Not Bruin’s brother. Besides, Larissa would never have mated another when she was already mated to the leader’s brother.”
“I see. There’s one problem with your story. Larissa gave me a letter stating she was mated to a red and hoped I’d forgive her for mating with me also.”
Ural’s jaw hung open.
“Furthermore,” Darien said, “our local doctor examined Lelandi, the living sister. She’d never been touched. Got another story?”
Ural tapped his fingers on the table, then crossed his arms over his chest, leaned back in the chair, and gave Darien a conceited look.
“Time’s up, Ural. Why did you come to take Lelandi back with you?”
“She doesn’t belong to your kind. Neither did her sister. Hell, you had to have known the woman had already been mated.” Ural leaned into the table and gave Darien a steely-eyed glower. “One of your people killed Larissa and now they’ll succeed with Lelandi if I don’t take her somewhere safe.”
“The man who set up the murder could have been Larissa’s prior mate.”
“Nope. I saw the shooter.”
“Like hell he did. This guy probably shot the gunman!” Uncle Sheridan roared and advanced on Ural, who looked like he was ready to have an early heart attack. “Hell, he probably is his pack’s clean-up man and was ordered to come here and take care of this mess.”
Ural cast a nervous glance at Uncle Sheridan, breathing down his neck like a giant grizzly ready to make a quick meal of him. “I saw her,” Ural spit out.
Not sure what to believe, Darien wondered if Ritka, Angelina, or Hosstene had managed to sneak by them and kill the gunman. They were the only women who might have hired a killer, since they hated Larissa and Lelandi both.
Uncle Sheridan gave a half smile. “A woman? Really.”
Ural stuck his chin up, but wouldn’t look at Uncle Sheridan. “A woman from your pack.”
“You know her? To see her, you can identify her?” Darien asked, sitting on the edge of his chair. He wasn’t sure he could trust Ural, but if the red had been a witness to the shooting—
“Yeah, I’d know her.” Ural gave a satisfied smirk and wiggled his brows. “For a gray, she has one hell of a sweet ass.”
Before Darien could stop him, Uncle Sheridan hit Ural in the head with his fist so hard, he knocked him out cold, and Ural fell to the floor in a ragged lump.
“Damn it, Uncle Sheridan!” Darien jumped to his feet and waved his hand at Ural. “What the hell did you do that for!”
“He had the nerve to talk lewd about one of our women. Son of a bitch.”
Darien placed his fists on his hips and glowered at his uncle. “Trevor, get some water to splash on Ural. Tom, call Nurse Grey in, just in case Uncle Sheridan did some major damage to Ural with that iron fist of his. Jake, take a break.”
The three hurried out of the room and Jake shut the door.
An intimidating figure even when he didn’t mean to be, Uncle Sheridan stood taller and towered over Darien by four inches. But even so, Darien could have knocked his uncle out he was so mad. “We nearly had something to go on!” He ran his hands through his hair. “Why don’t you…check out some more leads on the blackmailing scheme.”
Uncle Sheridan had the nerve to look unremorseful and for a tense minute, he stood his ground. Then he bowed his head slightly. “As you wish. But I’m not sorry. Tell that son of a bitch if he says anything more about our women, I’ll hit him harder.” He stalked out of the room and slammed the door on his way out.
Jake peered in through the small window in the door and knocked.
“Come in.” Darien crouched next to Ural and felt his pulse. Thank god, he had one.
“Do you think Ural’s making it up?” Jake leaned over Ural with a cold pack and applied it to the side of his head.
“I thought so briefly. But if he wanted to make something up, why not say it was some guy he didn’t know? I think he was up there, saw her, and knows who she is.”
“Silva was the only woman there.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. What about Ritka or one of her two girlfriends?”
Jake’s eyes widened. “Ah. Yeah. Good candidates. Although I doubt with the way Ritka’s eye was swollen, she could have seen well enough to shoot. But Hosstene and Angelina, that’s another story.”
“See if either of them have an alibi. And question everyone who might have smelled the women’s scents.”
“Will do.”
Tom knocked on the door. Darien rose from his crouched position and waved at him to come in. Trevor followed him in, carrying a bucket of water.
“Nurse Grey’s on her way.” Tom shook his head. “Uncle Sheridan’s in a real snit.”
“He’s been like that ever since he had to cut his vacation short.” Trevor splashed some cold water on Ural’s face.
The red didn’t move.
Darien swore under his breath. “No one is to beat on him any further, understand? I want to know who shot the gunman.”
“I’ll question some folks like you asked,” Jake said.
“I’ll stay with him and see if he comes to,” Tom offered.
Nurse Grey walked into the room and looked at Ural passed out on the floor, his shirt, face, and hair wet. “What happened now?”
Silva sat on the edge of Darien’s bed and gave Lelandi a small smile. “Sugar, don’t worry about the red they’ve got in jail. They won’t kill him, although that was a pretty stupid thing he pulled. How was he going to ferret you away after he pumped you full of drugs?”
“He never was much to think things out ahead of time.” Lelandi stretched on the bed, dressed in her jeans and sweater again. “If Darien or any of his men kill him, I won’t be staying.”
Silva’s eyes grew huge. “Oh, honey, you can’t mean that. You’re mated to Darien now. You can’t leave him.” Then she narrowed her eyes. “The red’s related to you, isn’t he?”
“Do you know what became of Chester McKinley after Darien made him leave?”
Silva tilted her head to the side. “Why?”
“I thought he could help us solve Larissa’s murder.”
“After the incident at the tavern, Darien sent him packing.”
Damn Darien. Fine. She’d take matters into her own hands then.
“Will you be all right? I have a date with Sam tonight after we close the tavern.”
“For show, right?” Lelandi hoped she was wrong and that Silva finally realized Sam was right for her.
Silva gave her a slip of a smile. “Sure, just for show until Trevor gets the point. I’ll tell you how it goes. Can you sleep?”
“No.”
Silva turned on the television and flipped through the channels. “Ah, here’s one of Julia Wildthorn’s romances made into a movie. Want to watch it?”
“Sure.”
“See ya in the morning, sugar.”
“Have a good time.”
“Thanks, ’night.”
Silva left the bedroom and greeted Darien on the stairs. “Lelandi is going to watch a movie.”
Lelandi ground her teeth.
“Are you going back to work?”
“Yes, sirree, boss. Just as soon as I move some of my clothes from the washer to the dryer. Sam will be firing my butt if I keep using Lelandi as an excuse.”
“Tell him Lelandi takes priority.” Darien entered the bedroom.
Lelandi folded her arms and glowered at him. “What did you do with Ural?”
“He’s staying in jail for a while. After what he pulled with you, that’s the only place he’s going.” Darien gave Lelandi a hug, but she tensed. “What movie are you going to watch?”
“One of Julia Wildthorn’s werewolf romance novels made for television, By the Light of the Moon.”
“Hmm.” He nuzzled her cheek and rubbed her shoulders, and she began to dissolve under his insistent touch. “After I discuss business with my b
rothers and Uncle Sheridan, I’ll show you what real lupus garous do in the name of love.”
He kissed her lips, his hands massaging her breasts through her blouse and was really getting worked up when Jake shouted, “Uncle Sheridan’s here. And Tom’s just arrived.”
Darien let out a husky growl. “Be back in a bit.”
“I’ll be ready and waiting.” She gave him a sweet smile and leaned back against the pillows.
As soon as Darien shut the door, she flew into action. Somehow, she had to sneak into his office downstairs and see if she could find anything of importance there. But first, she searched through his bedside tables, and her heart did a flip when she spied Larissa’s letter. She grabbed the letter and read through it, and nearly quit breathing.
I wished with all my heart to be who you thought I was. When I found the right man, it was too late for me to take back what I’d done to you.
Her sister had another lover? My god, no wonder Darien had been upset when he read the letter. But it confirmed what Silva had said about Larissa seeing some miner. Then the sickening thought swamped Lelandi. What if the triplets weren’t Darien’s?
Hospital records. She had to get into town and search for Larissa’s records and know for sure. Maybe the doctor said something about her depression, or gave some other clue that might aid her investigation.
She opened the bedroom window, letting in a gust of snowy wind, and peered out. A rose trellis clung next to the brick wall. If it could hold her weight, she’d make it. She searched in Darien’s closet and found a well worn leather jacket that smelled of him, and she took a deep breath and inhaled his sexy essence. He’d kill her for slipping away. But she was damned tired of being confined and kept in the dark. And if he was going to ignore her wishes to have Chester on the case…
She shoved on her boots and Darien’s leather jacket, the size overwhelming her. After searching through his closet further, she couldn’t locate any gloves.
Car keys.
Rummaging through Darien’s chest of drawers, she found spare keys for his SUV and something metallic hidden under a pile of socks. Shoving them aside, she gasped. Her gun! And the bullets. She reloaded it and made sure the safety was on, then tucked it in one of the big pockets of his jacket.
Looking out the window, she considered the drop from the second story. As long as nothing dangerous was hidden in the snowdrift beneath the window, she should be fine. She climbed onto the windowsill, then swung around, grasping the wooden trellis. The flimsy redwood gave way with a snap, her heart flew into her throat, and she fell on her butt in the pile of snow. She was having a very bad feeling about this.
The powdered snow cushioned her fall, and she let out her breath in relief. Once she was able to plow her way out of the snow pile, she rushed to reach his SUV. The door locks were frozen and it took longer than she liked to get the driver’s door open. After climbing in, she slammed the door, hoping Darien and his family hadn’t heard.
She planned to return before Darien even missed her, although she’d have to come in the front door, but at least she’d learn what she could about her sister.
As soon as she drove out of the drive and hit the road, she realized how bad the visibility and treacherous the conditions had become. Darien’s country home provided more privacy for lupus garou gatherings, but right now the two-mile stretch of country road seemed more like fifty. But she was free and she couldn’t stop now.
The wipers swiped across the windshield at full speed, but the snow piled up so fast, she couldn’t see a thing and wondered if she was even on the road any longer. Sheesh, that was an awful thought.
The SUV began to slide. Turn the tires into the slide? No, away from the slide. Hell, who could remember? The next thing she knew, the SUV sailed into the woods. She held her breath before the vehicle lunged into a steep embankment, taking a nosedive into something solid. The impact threw her hard against the steering wheel. Pain radiated through her chest. Bang! Something exploded. A blanket of white filled her vision.
For a moment, she sat dazed. I’m in heaven. Except for the pain in her chest and her throbbing head that jolted her back to reality. The air bag deflated like a parachute that had lost all its wind, but the scene in front of her was still cloaked in white. The snow blew through the windshield crumbling in a spider web of glass crystals, courtesy of the force of the air bag.
Snow swirled around inside the SUV, and a cold wetness dribbled down her forehead. Reaching up, she felt a gash on her forehead. Blood painted her fingertips red. Great. Just great. How was she to do her sleuthing? Not to mention Darien would really want to murder her now for turning his SUV on its nose in a pile of snow or rock, or whatever it had managed to slam into.
“Well, there’s bound to be hell to pay anyway,” she muttered under her breath, and jerked her seat belt free, then struggled to open the door. Wedged tight, the frame had crumpled with the impact. Super. She eased herself over the console and tried the passenger door. Same result. Growling under her breath, she leaned back in the seat and kicked through the remaining broken glass.
After crawling out of the SUV’s window, she slid over the hood, still warm, the snow quickly melting into a frozen glaze, which left her jeans wet. The cold wind whirling around her, turned the denim fabric into ice. Blowing snow blinded her. But she was probably closer to town than to Darien’s house at this rate anyway. No sense in trying to hike back. Although survivalists said, “Stay with the vehicle.” But town couldn’t be very far. And she had a mission to accomplish. She was certain the doc would have written about her sister’s frame of mind during the pregnancy, maybe some clue about what was going on. And after reading her sister’s letter about the affair she’d been having, Lelandi couldn’t block the feeling something more was wrong.
A little snow and cold wouldn’t stop her now.
Darien shook his head at Uncle Sheridan, while Tom and Jake looked on in the living room. “We’re not making an example of Ural. If he has accomplices intent on coming for Lelandi, they’ll come. We’ll deal with them then. For now, he’s fine where he is. What I want to discuss is who was blackmailing Larissa, how she died, and who hired the gunman to kill Lelandi. But first, any word on Ural, Tom?”
“Still out cold. Nurse Grey had us move him to the hospital. He’s confined and Trevor’s pulling guard duty. Charlotte said she’d let us know when he came around.”
Looking unruffled, Uncle Sheridan set his pad of paper on the coffee table. “Here’s what I’ve learned so far. We’ve run ballistics tests on all guns purportedly taken out in the woods the day the shooter killed the gunman. No matches. Which means either the test rules out it was one of our men, one of them had a second gun and gave us the wrong one to test, or the shooter was one of our men, except none of us knew he was out there.”
“Or,” Silva said, walking into the living room, carrying a load of laundry, “…it was a woman.”
Darien wondered how Silva had learned of the news so fast. But she always knew the gossip well before anyone else did. His brothers and Uncle Sheridan gave him shakes of their heads or shrugged a shoulder, indicating they hadn’t told her. Trevor. “Only woman out there was you. And you were with Sam the whole time.”
Uncle Sheridan snorted. “As if any of our women could shoot that far or accurately.”
Silva’s back stiffened. “I did.”
Hell, what now? Darien motioned to a chair. “Have a seat, Silva. Tell us what you know.”
She plunked down next to Tom. “I didn’t say anything before because I knew you’d be mad that I’d killed him. I did it by accident. I swear it. We were sure the gunman was stalking us. So Sam told me to take his gun and go up on the ridge. If the bastard came after me, I was to shoot him. But he went after Sam and although Sam tried to tackle him first, the guy got a shot off, hitting him in the arm instead. I meant to hit the guy’s gun arm, but he bolted when Sam dove for him, and I struck the gunman in the head. I swear I didn’t mean to. When
Lelandi said she figured the shooter killed the guy to tie up loose ends, I got scared. Sam didn’t want to say anything either because you’d given orders that we were to stick together. He assumed you’d learn who the guy was who hired the gunman without involving me. But it seems you already know the shooter’s a woman so…” She shrugged.
“Sam knows better.” Darien blew out his breath. “Did you have Sam’s gun checked, Uncle Sheridan?”
He looked peeved. “Hell no. The lunatic shot Sam. I thought he and Silva had stayed together. At least that’s what they led us to believe. I would never have guessed she killed the gunman.”
“Run a ballistics test on Sam’s gun. I want to know right away. And Silva, next time, tell the truth.”
“Yes, boss. I’m so sorry. I well, I couldn’t let you think some shooter was out there still gunning for her.”
More likely she figured she was about to be found out when Ural came to. “Damn it, Silva,” Darien said. “You knew how important this is.”
“I’m sorry, boss.”
“When you were up on the ridge, did you sense anybody else up there? Smell anyone, hear anyone?”
“I didn’t smell or see anyone either. But I was pretty worried about the gunman and Sam so I might have blocked everything else out. Once I shot the guy, I hurried down to check on Sam and see if the guy was alive.”
Uncle Sheridan said, “You made a fine mess of it. And although you’re probably not involved in this, it sure can make tongues wag.”
“I only meant to wound him. All right? I’m…I’m late getting back to the tavern. Can I go?” Silva asked Darien.
He bowed his head, but he still couldn’t believe Silva was the one who’d killed the gunman.
Looking dejected, Silva hurried to the front door. From the foyer, she yelled, “Have you guys seen how bad the storm is getting?”
Darien and the others joined her and considered the whiteout conditions. “You’d better stay the night. Call Sam and tell him I said so.”
She sighed. “All right. I’ll be in the den watching a show. If anyone needs me to fix something to eat later, just holler.” Silva headed for the den.
