Chapter Four

I was at work the next morning bussing tables after the breakfast rush, when I felt a shadow falling over me. I looked up to see Rolf standing there in the flesh and looking gorgeous in a dark brown Henley with some slim cut jeans.

“Oh, hey,” I said. “You startled me.”

“Feeling jumpy, Levi? Why do you think that might be?”

“I have no idea. Look, I have work to do around here, if you’ll excuse me.”

“I just gave your boss a fifty-dollar bill to let you take your break now and talk to me. Let’s go out back—I have some questions for you.”

“I think you wasted your money, because I have nothing to say, unfortunately.”

“Really? Not even about reports that your boss’s truck was parked outside a cemetery last night around midnight?” He raised an eyebrow at me. I hated the fact that it made him look even sexier.

“Yeah, the truck was parked very close to where a grave was found this morning that someone had vandalized and desecrated during the night,” he said. “Isn’t that odd? The vandals even dug up some poor woman’s body—can you believe that? They destroyed the coffin too. Do you have any idea how expensive a coffin is? It’s thousands of dollars.” He turned to look around the store. “Okay, look, since you don’t have the time to talk to me, then maybe your boss would be interested to know his truck arrived outside the cemetery gates on the outskirts of town at ten minutes before midnight and left at around one in the morning—in the company of a known gang leader named Willie Watusi. Think he’d like to hear about that?”

I gasped and might have fallen over in shock except he caught me and steadied me on my feet.

“Close your mouth, sweetheart. It’s not a good look for you.”

“How…how do you know about that?”

“Don’t worry about how I know. I just do. Now are you going to talk to me, or do I talk to your boss and then take you in to explain yourself?”

“No! I-I mean, please don’t. Don’t mess up my job,” I implored him, catching his hand and looking up at him. “Please, Rolf. I need this job, and he’d fire me if he knew. Or if I went to jail for that matter.”

His lips tightened as he gazed down at me, and he shook his head. “Then you better come outside with me and start talking. I think you have a lot of explaining to do.”

I let him take my arm and lead me to the back where I usually took my breaks, near a small area where we kept the trash cans. It had a little more privacy than the side alley. With every step, I felt more and more resentful and sullen, and I couldn’t help it. I felt hunted, and I hated being threatened, even by the truth. I was guilty. I had done what he accused me of, after all. But if he told my boss something like that and I didn’t want him to know about it, I could lose my job. The fact that I was in the wrong, and I knew it just made it all worse.

By the time we got outside, I was fuming and turned on him like a spitting cat.

“This is a crappy thing to do, you know. To threaten me like this. A job like mine might not mean much to someone rich like you, but this job keeps a roof over my head and food on my table. And decent jobs for someone like me in this city don’t come along every day.”

“Well, look at it this way. You won’t need a job if you go to jail.”

My knees got weak then, but I steadied myself with a hand on the wall.

He leaned against the side of the building, too, with folded arms, and he stared down at me. He looked angry and tense. The muscles on his chest and arms were bulging out a little and made my mouth water. Or it would have if I hadn’t reminded myself just how mad I was at him.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” he said sarcastically and not sounding sorry in the least. “If it counts for anything, I wouldn’t really have said anything to your boss.” He shrugged. “Probably.”

“Oh, you’re just being mean!”

“Okay, then why don’t you explain it to me? Nice and slow. What were you doing at that cemetery with Watusi?”

“You wouldn’t believe me.”

“Try me.”

He just kept glaring down at me, looking unconcerned. I noticed he had stubble on his handsome face, like he hadn’t yet shaved all day. He also looked bad tempered and out of sorts. Well, he was an Alpha—what else was new? But I still couldn’t figure out why he was so angry.

“Go on. Tell me what you were doing last night at that cemetery. This ought to be good.”

“How do you even know about it? Even down to the times I was there?”

“I said, never mind how I know. I just do. What you and your boyfriend and your fellow gang members did last night was a serious crime, and when it comes out, everyone involved is going to jail.”

“Oh…”

That got my attention in a hurry, and I sagged up against the wall of the alley too, because my knees had suddenly gone weak. I started twisting my hands together, and I closed my eyes and moaned.

“I think maybe I need to contact a lawyer before I say another word.”

“If you feel the need to, then go ahead.” He pulled out his cell phone and handed it to me.

“I don’t know any numbers. I have no idea who to call.”

He shrugged, as if he couldn’t possibly care less. Which of course, he couldn’t. Why did I ever think for one moment that he might? Why had I let ever him kiss me and make me think he might actually give a damn about me?

When would I ever learn?

****

Rolf

I stood there looking down into that beautiful little lying face and tried to harden my heart against him. He had straight-up lied to me. He’d said he wasn’t involved with Watusi and his Mongrel gang, and I had believed him. I was so damn jealous I was sick to my stomach.

This little omega was a serious distraction that I didn’t need. And he was in this…whatever it was…up to his pretty little neck. I knew it but hadn’t been able to prove it yet. To tell the truth, I wasn’t sure what I’d do about it if I did.

I wouldn’t be moved by his pleas though. No matter how much he begged. He thought that every time he flashed those big green eyes at me, I wanted to take him in my arms and soothe him. And maybe that was true…but I was done. Finished!

Maybe in the past, I’d felt too much for this omega, though for no apparent reason. And really, we had no past. I barely knew him. Sure, he was beautiful and sweet, and he smelled like a succulent, ripe peach. He was pretty and his eyes were luminous green. He had a gorgeous body… I’d like to take him to bed for at least a week or two…

And I forgot what point I was trying to make.

But anyway, I’d seen plenty of good-looking omegas before and none of them had ever affected me the way this one did. I could overcome this if I tried. I knew I could.

My feelings for this one were beginning to interfere with how I did my work. I had come here for the purpose of getting Willie Watusi and making sure he paid for his crimes. I still intended to do that. What kind of person could be with a man like Watusi anyway? Nobody good, that’s who. Nobody I wanted in my life, that was for sure. To think I had entertained the idea of taking this omega to bed.

No more of that! Or maybe I should do it and get him out of my system for good. Maybe after I’d had him in my bed a few times, this feeling that he was supposed to belong to me would finally subside or go away altogether. I still hated the idea of him being with anyone else—especially that scumbag Watusi—but surely that would fade over time. He was desirable and sweet and beautiful, sure, but he was absolutely not the omega I wanted or needed to settle down with. He wasn’t my mate. He wasn’t even mate material. He was a damn Mischling, and I’d never be able to mate one of them. Never. My parents would have a fit.

Not that I cared what my parents thought.

But I wasn’t even ready to settle down yet, though I’d known I should start a family and produce some heirs for a few years now. I was my father’s heir and set to inherit everything he owned one day. Not only that, but I’d be in charge of the pack, and I needed an omega who could be a calm and steadying influence on me. Not some young punk with an attitude who may have had a pretty face and a hot little body, but what else did he have that I needed?

Not a damn thing. And if I kept telling myself that, I thought I would be able to believe it soon.

I’d been upset and furious that morning when my partner, Conroy, told me he’d followed Levi to a cemetery on the outskirts of town, where he’d met up with Willie Watusi and his little gang of lowlife misfits. Actually, I was furious…and jealous, if the truth were told. He had lied to me when he told me there was nothing between him and the Mongrel gang leader, and I was going to make sure he regretted it.

I’d been sleeping soundly when the phone rang early in the morning, and I fumbled for it.

“Do you know what time it is?” I growled.

“I do, but I thought you said you wanted to know if your boy did anything unusual.” The voice belonged to a co-worker named Alex Conroy. His job had been to watch and follow Levi Jones wherever he went.

“Yeah, so?”

“So would you call digging up graves and molesting corpses in a cemetery unusual?”

“What?” I sat up abruptly, throwing off the covers and scrubbing my hand over my face. “Say that again. Surely, I misheard you. What did he do?”

“I followed him like you told me to. I saw him get out of his truck and meet with the Watusi guy. Then they both climbed over the cemetery fence. I followed them after they all went up a hill, and I hid out in some trees nearby to watch. It was crazy.”

“What truck? What cemetery? What the fuck was he doing? Tell me about it.”

“Which part? The digging up graves or molesting corpses?”

“Damn it, Conroy, make sense! What the hell are you saying?”

“I’m trying to tell you that I followed Levi Jones like you asked me to. He borrowed his boss’s truck and drove out to the Shady Pines Cemetery a few miles from town and got there right around midnight. He had that big dog of his with him. Have you seen that thing? He’s huge. As big as a small pony.”

I made another little impatient growling sound, and he kept talking. “Okay, sorry. Anyway, Jones met up with the Mongrel gang like you thought he might, and they went inside the cemetery. They dug up the grave of a person named Marjorie Thomas, who was only buried a few days ago, and they seemed to be searching for something inside the coffin. When they apparently didn’t find what they were looking for, they got mad, kicked the coffin and left the cemetery and all their mess. They went back to the city, and Levi drove the Watusi subject to his house. Then he drove home, took his dog and went back inside his own apartment.”

“Have you notified the local police yet about the cemetery?”

“Not yet. I wanted to tell you about it before I called them.”

“Call and tell them about the cemetery break-in and about Watusi and the Mongrel gang being involved. But don’t give them any information about Levi. Not yet. Leave him out of it for now. I want to talk to him first myself.”

“Will do.”

We hung up and I tried to get back to sleep but tossed and turned the rest of the night. Finally, I got up around seven and got dressed. I didn’t even stop to shave but went immediately to the police station to see if they’d rounded up Willie Watusi yet.

It turned out they had, but he still wasn’t talking. Belligerent as always, he claimed he didn’t know why he’d been “singled out” and why the police thought he had anything to do with the grave desecration. He didn’t give out any information on who helped him and indeed, kept insisting that he’d never been there. Our witness must be crazy. And mistaken.

His grandmother backed up his story about him being home all night. Although we still had him in a holding cell, he was already asking to contact an attorney. I needed to get Levi to talk and fast.

I went by the café as soon as I left the station and found him working at the tables in the back. He looked hot and tired, and I forced down the urge to get him out of there and let him sit down. I reminded myself how angry I was at him. I could already smell his delectable scent, and it was stronger than before, which meant I’d been right about him just coming into heat. He was almost all the way into it and soon any Alphas around would be aware of it. He should be at home, damn him. I resisted again the urge to take him out of there and glanced around with suspicion, but I didn’t see any other shifters inside the café.

After bribing his boss to let me talk to him, I’d hauled him out back to an alley for a conversation, but now he was talking about lawyering up. Why did he feel the need for that if he were innocent? It made me furious. He was still standing there in front of me, wringing his little hands and looking up at me, all stressed, making no effort to call anybody.

“Well?” I said, crossing my arms over my chest impatiently. “Are you calling a lawyer or not?”

He looked up at me with those luminous eyes of his and actually said, “I don’t have any money for a lawyer. Can you tell me what you think I should do?”

Damn it. It was like a chicken asking the fox what to do after the fox broke in the henhouse. I didn’t want to be affected like this by him. I shifted my feet uncomfortably and crossed my arms over my chest so they wouldn’t reach for him. I started to tell him to figure it out on his own, but could I just stand by and let him go to jail, right alongside Willie Watusi? Hell, the other prisoners would eat him alive.

“Look,” I said, “why don’t you just talk to me? Maybe I won’t have to take you in after all if you explain why you did it. Did Watusi threaten you? Did he make you go to that cemetery last night? Give me something to work with here, baby.”

The word had slipped out before I could stop it, so I frowned to disabuse him of any notion that I felt sympathetic toward him.

“He did say he would rearrange my face if I didn’t take him. And I knew he would too if he got the chance. But mostly, I went to try to stop whatever he was going to do. I didn’t want to go with them, but I didn’t like to see him get in trouble again. You have to believe me. I told Willie no at first. But he said if I wasn’t with them, then I was against them, and that’s when he threatened me a little. I agreed to meet him at the cemetery, but that’s as far as it went. I told him I wouldn’t dig up any bodies.”

“Do you hear yourself? Dig up bodies!” He flinched so hard I immediately lowered my voice. “That poor woman was only buried a few days ago. She was a mother and a grandmother, who died of cancer in no-doubt terrible pain, and she deserved to rest in peace.”

Actually, that part was a total fabrication. I had no idea what the poor lady had died from, but I was hoping to guilt him into a confession.

“Oh no,” he said miserably, looking down at the pavement. “You hear a lot about the ground swallowing people up, but how come it never happens when you really need it?” he asked me, looking forlorn. It surprised a little laugh out of me.

“I mean, I didn’t know who she was or about the cancer thing. That’s terrible. That poor lady. And I knew it was wrong to dig up that body. I told him to stop.”

“You told him to stop.” I used a sarcastic tone, but it went right over his head.

“Yes, I did! But he ignored me.”

“Tell me why he did it,” I said, making my voice hard and implacable. “What did she ever do to him and don’t give me any shit about how he’ll find out and retaliate. Right now, your biggest worry is me.”

He gasped and glanced up at me and then gave the alley entrance on the side of us a long, yearning look.

“Don’t you even think about running, Levi.”

He looked up at me in surprise. “How did you always know what I’m thinking?” He turned back to me and squared his shoulders. “Look, I can’t tell you anything more. If I do, he’ll know it was me. He really will kill me—have no doubt of that.”

“He won’t do shit.” I took hold of his arm and pulled him close, but I was careful not to hurt him. “You listen to me. That guy is a punk, and he’s no one for you to worry about.”

“Easy for you to say. He probably already knows about you coming to see me. I think he has people watching the store.”

“Tell me why he broke into that cemetery, and I can protect you.”

“No, you can’t, and I can’t talk about this anymore. Look, I need to go inside. Please. This is only making things worse.”

He pulled away and I didn’t stop him, though I’m sure he felt the heat of my gaze on his back until the door closed behind him.

Great. I let him sweet talk me out of what I knew I needed to do. Now what? I was furious with myself for not throwing his pretty little ass in jail.