Chapter 21

Tori Townsend

Pierce looks at us from the other side of his desk as he takes in everything I just blurted to him. Even though we're covered in mud, he hasn't commented on it.

It's dim in his office, the sun having set on our way here, and the rain is coming down harder than the earlier drizzle-mist. It pelts against the window, making my entire speech that much more daunting.

"I think you've spent too much time around those flowers, Tori," he murmurs while rising to his feet, popping his eyes back and forth between us and pointing at the mud across our faces with them.

"Excuse me?" I ask with a wide, disbelieving expression. I thought I'd get some resistance, but a complete dismissal wasn't on my list of ideas of what to expect.

"You've been spending a lot of time there." He waves a hand to soothe the sting of his words, but it does nothing of the sort. "The whole town talks about it. "

"That is simply a coincidence, Pierce. The brand and the field have nothing to do with each other."

He considers me again then turns a slightly narrowed gaze at Killian. Killian doesn't shift under the weight of his silent accusation. He simply stares back, unafraid that he has a badge. The handcuffs. The gun. "You saw this ‘Lillian'?"

"Yes," Killian rumbles with a tinge of annoyance.

"Here?"

He shakes his head, though I can tell he wishes he could tell him otherwise.

Pierce puckers his lips for a moment, and it accentuates his five o'clock shadow. "Are you going to tell me how you've seen him and where?"

Kilian's face remains blank as he says, "No."

Pierce pinches the bridge of his nose, and I take the opportunity to intervene. "You have to believe us, Pierce."

Over his fingers, he studies me before dropping his hand back to his side. To Killian, he asks exasperatedly, "What do you know about him?"

"Not much," Killian answers after a moment. "Just that he barely left his house." He goes on to explain how he managed to catch him the first time, completely eludes the torture part and the reason behind it, but goes on to explain what the Lillian does to his hostages.

It turns out that when he caught him, he'd been trolling for another woman, ‘hunting her,' he called it.

"He wasn't working alone," Killian finishes.

"What makes you say that?"

Killian glances at me, and for a second, I almost think he doesn't want to answer so that he doesn't scare me. He doesn't need to do that, though. I'm scared enough as it is. "He'd need someone to watch the women he keeps. He can't hunt and watch them at the same time. "

Pierce twitches his nose as though he hadn't considered that. "Any idea of who it is?"

Killian goes to shake his head but, unable to help myself, I blurt through a humorless laugh, "Oh, I have my ideas."

Pierce switches his attention to me with a raised eyebrow. "And?"

I cross my arms over my chest. "Your grandfather."

He tips his head back and laughs. "And what would be your evidence of that?"

I shrug, a little offended by him finding this funny. "You two are the only new ones in town. I saw a tall man in a bright orange raincoat, and though everyone seems to have one, he fits that category." I glance at Killian, remembering our conversation in the car. "And you all are from the same area. He's a purist just like the Lillian."

He shakes his head slowly. "He doesn't own a black van, Tori."

I shrug again. "Like you said, it'd be easy to hide one."

Lifting a hand, he rubs the back of his neck as I throw his words back at him.

"How long ago did you live with your grandfather?" I press on. I take a step toward his desk and splay my hands across it as I lean in his direction. "You have no idea what he could be doing now."

A red hue colors his cheeks. "Don't you think I'd know if my grandfather was stealing women? Breeding them like cattle?" He sighs out his pent-up negative energy. "I get it. You don't like him, but all you have is a coat everyone has, a threat of being unclean because of your lifestyle, and the area we lived in before. If anything, you've got him for harassing you."

Killian growls in disbelief.

Pierce only flicks a moment of attention at him before returning to me. He jabs his finger in Killian's direction. "Besides, I'd bet my last dollar that the way he obtained any information on this guy wasn't legal. It's not enough for a warrant on my grandfather, and all the other evidence leads us to nowhere."

"But-"

He slices a hand through the air. "You've got nothing, Tori, and I've got nothing on the woman with the brand. I'm sorry, but you're dead wrong."