16

I was going to jump right into the vampire situation, but when I smelled something on Carter that about set me off, I simply pushed past him and went for the elevator. I didn't let anyone join me and acted like the spoiled little girl that I never got to be, hugging my grandma when I found her and just wanting comfort.

"Seraphine, tell me what has happened," she begged. "You are all over the place, and I cannot even keep up with your racing emotions and desires.

"Everyone wants more of me. Now the council wants me to clean up another mess," I said, hearing the whine—but also tears—in my voice. "I love Mom and Laila, but they are always adding more, Grandma. I'm thirty. I'm super young for you guys, but I've barely been Alpha—it's not even five years. I need less. Not more. Always more. I'm going to break. I feel— "

"That is why I am here."

"I don't think you're enough," I snapped, sitting up when she flinched. I sighed and apologized. "I said that wrong. I don't think you're the answer for all of it." I hurried to explain about how I kept adding assistants and more managers and help which was smart but also like… It seemed like bandages over the wounds instead of getting the big pictures managed better.

Then I told her what the judge had even suggested.

"We can get you ample help if you tell us what you need," she hedged.

I sighed, scrubbing my hand over my head. "Alena has you and others—I don't want anyone taking over, but she's super old and seasoned, but she still has elders, advisors , there. Involved. Their hands in things. We've never ever had a problem with Topher because we immediately went for super adult and the ultimate nanny.

"What I'm saying is instead of bringing in more help under me, I think it's time to bring in more help above me. Not oversight or someone to become Alpha or my board of directors… Maybe that in a way? No, but like advisors. Someone who can get into the day-to-day more. We keep joking that I need like ten of me, but I really fucking do.

"I don't feel comfortable making the level of decisions I do, Eva. All of the time. I wing it. Yes, I call Mom and you, but—she sent me help and the sirens help, but they like the club, and they don't want to be all involved in the pack. And I get it, we didn't want to risk anyone taking over or looking like they puppet me. But I think I need a few aunts or uncles to seriously help me."

I sort of shrugged like I didn't know what else to say.

"I will call my youngest and one of my sisters," she said after a moment. She sighed when I raised an eyebrow at that. "Both are a bit prickly and don't get along with most of the family or want to be—my youngest is actually who I think should take over for Melicent when the time comes, but they are like oil and water. They are close in age and—I do not think the relationship—"

"Who was the problem?" I asked bluntly.

"They both were," she replied honestly, nodding as she leaned back a little and moved her foot to the sofa, hugging her knee. "Part of it was my fault. I was so focused on helping Alena, and with so much shifting in the world, keeping us safe, that he was neglected. Melicent was always coddled as the next queen of the wolves, and she—she was a bully when she was younger, acted out.

"He was harsh in return and very unforgiving. But he is bright. My youngest is incredibly smart. He is adept at many things and—he sold another company a few years ago and is living well from that, enjoying it. He could be of vast help to you. Asking him for help might be the only way he ever…"

I nodded, reading between the lines. Honestly, he sounded a bit like the wolf version of Jimmy Havers but maybe with some validity for the way he turned out instead of Jimmy just being a dick.

"My sister is a bit of the same. She would never want to take over Alpha, but the rest—not take over, but it would all interest her. She is—I love my sisters—all of my siblings, but they are pains in the ass. I know I was the one who received all of the attention and became the strongest as the eldest, and—nothing is easy, but she is an asset , and you are correct that you need more."

I flinched at the almost chastising in her voice, practically attacking her in a hug. "You are amazing. You and Mom are more than I could ever have imagined in—I love you both so much. I kept asking—Melicent and I asked for you guys to back off and let us do our own thing. This is a bit of a one-eighty, but it's really not. I just realized how I need help.

"I need more advice and someone here. I wish I could have you here all of the time, but your life isn't here. And Dain isn't young. He's—he's the reason we haven't failed. Carter too. It's just we need help with the big picture, not pulled into fourteen directions. I need the safety net and…" I shrugged. I wasn't sure how else to put it.

Then I realized what else I needed.

Answers.

I went and got my DCFS file from the safe, comparing it to what the attorney had given me.

"What is this, Seraphine?" Eva asked gently.

"Pandora's Box," I chuckled darkly. I sighed and told her the real answer. "One of the homes I was placed at seems to be involved in this new case."

She swore under her breath which was something Eva never did. "That is the last thing you need."

I sighed again and double checked the social security number to be certain. "Actually, she was a good person and apologized when it didn't work out. Maybe…" I shook my head. I wasn't going to say this could help me after Stacey because I wasn't sure anything could.

But Marie Butler had tried really hard to hold out her hand to me when I'd been an angry kid fucked over by too many. If she was in trouble now, I would find her and help her.

I owed her at least that.

I got people on it, making it clear I needed her found. I wanted to do it the legit way, but that could draw attention and raise eyebrows. I did go speak with a few watch commanders of CPD where she used to live and work for boots on the ground. I made it clear that we couldn't put out an APB or anything in the system as it could alert the wrong people.

But I needed her found quietly to hopefully shut down something bad. They gave me their word that they'd have a few cars check into it and help with my canvassers.

It took a few days, but then luck was on our side and she happened to go to the church she used to before she got married. I had remembered her mentioning it once when I'd stayed with her and listed as possible places she'd be seen at. CPD just happened to be canvasing for her at the same time she showed up. She was terrified, but they assured her that she wasn't in trouble and was safe.

But she was smart and refused to go with them without more answers. They couldn't force her to come in, but they could keep her from running until I got there. They didn't tell her that, but the cop who called me made it clear they were losing ground with her fast and she was scared.

I wasn't far and luckily already on the move for other things as Alpha. I promised I'd be there soon and hit the lights with my detail taking off to get there before she rabbited.

I was out of the SUV before it fully stopped and racing for where I heard elevated voices. She was scared and ready to get out of there from the way she was yelling, probably mortified that she was making a scene at a church.

"Marie, I'm the one looking for you," I said as I joined the group.

She turned to see who was talking to her and did a double take when she saw me. She dropped the bag she'd been holding and leaned heavily against the pew she was standing next to. "Sera? Is that really you?"

"Yeah, it's me," I said gently as I walked over to her. I picked up her bag and held out my hand to her. I swallowed loudly and said the same thing she had to me almost twenty years ago. "Let's get you out of here and I promise I won't let anyone hurt you anymore, okay?"

Tears immediately filled her eyes and she hurried to wipe them. "I don't deserve that when I didn't keep that promise to you. I failed you just like so many others did."

"Yeah, but it wasn't your fault, and you tried your hardest. I never forgot that." I saw that wasn't going to be enough to persuade her. "I was also looking for you for work. I know what's been going on." I nodded when the tears came back. "I've got some questions for you."

"Okay," she accepted, taking my arm then.

I realized she needed it and was really in bad shape. I was furious and out for blood that the vibrant and loving woman I'd remembered was now a shell of herself and so beaten down.

I thanked the officers and apologized to the priest for the disturbance and not giving him more information before getting her out of there. I made a few quick calls to call off the search and thanked the others. We were at the office by then, and I showed Marie the locker room so she could have a real shower.

"I have nothing," she rasped, looking at the shower longingly.

"I've got your gym bag, Sera," Sander said from the doorway, wiggling at me.

"We've got you covered, Marie," I promised, going over and getting it. I thanked him and asked for food easy on the stomach and more. Then I pulled out my toiletry kit and got her situated.

Twenty minutes later she was freshly showered and in a clean pair of FBI sweats looking completely different.

Still nothing like the woman I remembered, but better at least.

There was one thing that I had to know. "Why didn't you contact me?"

Tears filled her eyes as she fidgeted with her sandwich. "No matter how horrible everything being done to me was, I couldn't bring myself to call you."

I frowned. "I never thought you'd be an idiot with pride like that and—"

"It wasn't pride ," she gasped. "I have no pride. I don't care about pride ." She waited until I did something that made her believe I accepted that. " You didn't deserve my troubles, Sera. All you've been through— I failed you . I promised to help you and be the adult and I failed. I have a soul, and the last thing anyone decent would do is turn around and—"

Now I understood. "Marie, if I was a normal person, I would get that—agree even. But I have a badge. I took an oath to help. You would be a jerk if you called me first over the regular police, but obviously something dirty is going on and…" I let out a slow breath when more tears fell down her cheeks.

Yelling at her about it now wouldn't help. She was in too bad of a spot.

"The failure wasn't yours, and I never blamed you," I told her gently. "I wish things were different. I wish you and I had left that place together because you deserved better as well." I sighed when she flinched. "I didn't understand it until I was older and going through therapy for my own life. I knew Hank was manipulative."

I was going to say more, but shock rocked me when she didn't immediately defend him. She always used to.

And I couldn't let that go.

"You're not defending him," I hedged.

She shook her head and finally tucked into her sandwich. "No, his son did all of this to me, and he set it all up. I've done a lot of thinking as well, and—I wish I'd gone into therapy a long time ago. Maybe—I wish I'd left with you back then as well." She swallowed her bite and then broke down sobbing.

I moved to sit next to her and hugged her as she clutched me and sobbed out her pain. It took a bit, but I got her calmed down, and she ate about half of her lunch. I knew she needed more, but it was clear that she hadn't eaten a full meal in weeks, and eating that much so fast could hurt her.

Which was why I pushed to have her checked in at the hospital. She didn't want the hassle, but not long after she ate she tried to hide her stomach hurt and I made the call, snapping at her not to argue with me. I was mad at myself for not making this happen first, but… I just had so many questions and she said she was fine.

Obviously, she wasn't fine.

We ended up going to the supe hospital since they were dead when I called and she was fine with it. I could easily protect her there, and they had enough resources to get us through the basics and could transfer her if it was more serious. That would be more relaxed instead of the wait times at the ERs downtown.

She seemed taken aback at how fast she was in a gown and in a room before her blood was drawn and the intake questions were asked. She blinked at me when we were alone.

I just chuckled. "I'm Alpha. When I ask for help, people jump. Plus, most supes are good people, and a human that isn't scared to be seen by them—we like them." I shrugged before pulling out my phone to record the conversation. "I need to know what happened. We're missing pieces and—it's not adding up."

She sighed. "I don't know how much I can help when I'm still confused as to—David wasn't some smart mastermind or—"

"No, we think he had help," I cut in, seeing the panic and upset fill her eyes and threaten to spin her out. "Do you want a sedative?" One of the staff came in and I glanced over. "Can she have something for anxiety even with your tests and everything? We're going to be talking about—she's too down on the tank—"

"I'll ask Dr. Sloan, Alpha," she promised. "Probably, but right now we need to get her blood pressure down." She smiled at Marie. "It's more than understandable since you've been going through too much, but it's a bit too high. So we're going to focus on that right now and then give you a full workup like Alpha Sera wants, okay?"

"Thank you."

The nurse—one of Noe's hawks—turned to me with a look that I needed to take the hint she was going to give me. "I don't know how long this lovely lady will be here, but I was wondering what you have set up for after in case we need to get in touch with her?"

I caught on instantly, knowing the anxiety and the stress of victims well. We needed to take issues off Marie's plate for her stress and worries to calm a bit so she could heal. "I was just going to contact TimeQuake for a room for as long as it takes to get this settled so she's also protected there."

She nodded. "I'll tell your security to handle it, Alpha. I'll also get the doctor in here. He was hoping to get her labs, and we're waiting on her medical history from the human hospital. They're a bit confused why we're asking for it."

"Tell them to call my office if they are, but they should be used to the FBI doing things quietly and that should help," I told her with a wink.

She thanked me and left the drink she'd brought for Marie. I wasn't sure that was to help with her blood pressure or to simply get her to relax, but at least it was something for her to do with her hands and that seemed to help her.

"Hank died," she whispered, getting into it while we waited. "Right after the new year. Just dropped at work." She quickly wiped her eyes. "I was in shock but also relieved. He… You don't need to know that part."

"I might," I lied through my teeth. "It might give me more background on how David pulled what he did."

She gave me a look that she knew I was full of shit but still gave in, probably desperate for someone to listen to her.

And not judge her. Most would judge her when she said she was relieved when her husband died.

"The closer he got to retirement the more— everything was my fault," she whispered. "That he never got a different job to have more money. That there wasn't more in his retirement savings. Everything. We didn't have a nicer house to sell and move to retire if we wanted." She wiped her eyes again. "That we didn't have more kids to take care of us.

"That was my fault. Of course, it was because I was useless and barren. It was his son's fault that we couldn't foster or adopt but…" She shook her head, giving me an apologetic look. "Even if we had two or two hundred more kids, if he let them grow up like David, they would never have helped us. Why should they?"

I nodded, remembering enough of the few months I stayed with them that Hank was a very hands-off parent. He put everything on Marie but then didn't support her, which was a joke when she was David's stepmother, and he was an angry kid who had lost his mom young.

I'd honestly felt bad for him for that.

Just not the way he'd treated Marie and certainly not me when I'd not done anything. He threw fits and hit me to show that I wasn't welcome there and needed to leave. Hank never got involved and just blamed Marie for everything. He was emotionally and mentally abusive to the max. Even I could see that as a kid.

Then again, I'd dealt with so much abuse by that age, I knew how to spot it fast.

"He became controlling, wanting control of everything, and I finally realized… Too much." She shook her head. "I realized too much. I was thinking of leaving him. It was bad enough that I'd let him pressure me into putting his name on the house when we got married, but last year he started pressuring me to fully sign it over to him.

"My grandmother's house and I wouldn't even be on it? Was he nuts? It was like a curtain was pulled back, and I started reevaluating everything." She let out a quiet sob. "Just not fast enough. I would never have—how did David pull this all off? He was always such a—always angry and greedy but not smart enough."

We were interrupted when Dr. Sloan came in. He greeted me first and then jumped right into it. Marie's blood work was all over the place with nutrients and a few other things, but nothing long-term—hopefully—or that couldn't be corrected with real meals and hydration.

He gave her something for the moment to help her blood pressure and put in a call to a human doctor who he worked with often to ask for the best recommendation given her situation for regular medication. He was honest that it wasn't something we needed as supes, so he wanted to make sure he was up-to-date, and Marie seemed surprised a doctor would admit that.

"You have some injuries that worry me that I want to take some X-rays and more of," he told me.

"The police got physical when they evicted me, and I couldn't receive treatment," she explained. "I was scared to go to the hospital because they said to live like I was dead or I would be."

Whoa. Like… Whoa .

Steam about came out of my ears at hearing that.

I got the rest of the story in between her tests and waiting for results. After Hank died, David first accused her of killing him for his money since they were fighting all the time and he'd known that. She'd basically laughed in his face that she was the one with the money and Hank had been leeching off of her for years and the only reason David was anywhere in life was because of her.

She finally let that out of the bag and how little Hank made while acting like he was the man of the house and the breadwinner. That she had paid for David's college even though he treated her like dirt and she was done with him after the funeral. He actually hit her, but she left that to shock and grief and let it go.

Something she deeply regretted now.

Two weeks after the funeral, she came back from work—her first day back to work—and found men there waiting for her with David. They said they were with some retirement home and she was being placed there against her will and David was now her guardian.

They said nothing as he gloated that everything was now his, and if she behaved, he would let her retire to this nice place in Florida and live out her life there but not to be stupid. Otherwise, she'd be out on her ass with nothing. She went to call the police, but he took her phone and showed her some court documents—everything we'd pulled as well.

And it was all legal and done.

Well, it was all illegally done since it was fraud, but it was legit through the courts. I had some questions how it all happened without her even showing up or getting notice of court dates.

Hell, nothing happened that fast in Cook County. That alone would make most people call bullshit.

So there was a growing list of people who were going down for this. The clerk or person involved in the DeKalb court. The DeKalb cops. Someone at a title company for sure flipping these properties with all this shady shit and not alerting someone.

Yeah, for sure someone there was on the take to look the other way.

On the Chicago side, there was the doctor who signed off on everything to declare Marie mentally unfit. The attorney David used. Whoever was involved in that court sham—got it on the schedule so fast and the judge probably too.

But the thing that perked up my ears was a piece that I had been wondering about.

"What do you mean he said you were going to Florida? " I asked, raising an eyebrow at that.

She nodded. "He told me that it was some cushy retirement home in Florida and I was lucky he was that nice that I would have a pool and golf so just take it early and shut my mouth. I don't even know how he did that with my job and—all of it is so insane!"

"No honor among criminals," I muttered, tapping my pen against my notepad. "But that explains…" I blinked at her. "He's not stupid. It wasn't a mistake."

"David?" she asked.

"No, the guy who owns the trailer park. He doesn't exist. He had to know we'd immediately find that out and—"

Sander came in from outside with wide eyes. "He's not sticking around. The moment anything goes wrong or anyone gets caught, he's out of here with his bags of money or probably accounts in the Caymans."

I tapped my nose that he got it. "He's making promises that he's getting people out of state so they won't be caught and it's all like above board, but he's setting it up so they do get caught and he can slip out in the chaos. Why would we care about the shady trailer park owner in the midst of all of this dirt? I mean we would, but he wouldn't be the priority."

Marie snorted. "Good, I hope David gets screwed. He deserves nothing more."

"Oh, he's going down. For all of it, and I'm going to do more than that," I chuckled darkly.

At least for her.

Well, I wouldn't stop the others, but if the DeKalb police roughed her up, that was a lawsuit right there, not just their crimes. So I would get her an attorney and he could talk to the other victims later. I saw a big settlement being paid out.

Good. I'd probably get some shit later for being involved in suing a police department, but clearly a bunch of them were in on it.

And they should have handled this all themselves. We were in the FBI.