Library

21. April

TWENTY-ONE

APRIL

It felt like it was never going to end. The police pulled each of the four men into the conference room, using it as a de facto interrogation room. First Blayne, then Tate, Miles, and finally Steff. Then they went through again and again. It went on for hours. One of the detectives pulled me aside and asked me a few questions, but not in any formal interrogating manner.

"So, uh, is it Miss Knight or Miss Steele?"

I sighed wearily. "My legal name is April Knight."

"Okay then, Miss Knight. Any idea why someone would drop a dead body off in front of this security firm?"

"I really don't. It's crazy. I grew up in this town, and I've never seen anything like it."

The detective nodded and rubbed at his chin. "That's exactly what I figured. Lilly Valley is not, as one would assume, a hotbed of murder and violence. This does have all the hallmarks of a gang-style intimidation tactic. Do you know anything about some of the dealings this firm handles? Maybe you've heard something while hanging out with Mr. James? Steffen James? He's one of the principal owners, isn't he?"

I could see where the questioning was going. They thought Steff and his friends were involved in something illegal. Drugs, guns, human trafficking—God knows what. They assumed that whoever dumped the body had done it to send a message. In that, they were right. The problem was they were way off on what kind of message they were trying to send. It was frustrating to know the truth and not be able to say anything.

I shook my head. "Officer, I can assure you, those men are not doing anything illegal."

From the conference room, I heard Miles raise his voice. "You do realize there are other businesses in this shopping center, don't you? Why are you treating me and my partners like criminals? We already gave you the camera footage. You can see we did nothing wrong."

He was right. I'd seen the footage when I'd slid into the surveillance room. All the people involved had worn ski masks and big bulky coats, so you couldn't tell whether they were men or women. The van was generic white, and the license plates had been removed. Watching them dump the still bleeding body out onto the pavement had almost made me vomit. The fact that Ryland was part of a group of people like that made my skin crawl.

The detective talking to me glanced at the conference room. "He's getting a little worked up, isn't he? Wonder why that is?"

That was the final straw. I'd had enough. "Officer, if you're going to charge anyone in this building with something, then you'd better start. Otherwise, I'll have my lawyers here within the hour, and we'll let them start discussing this harassment. You've wasted hours here trying to get us to tell you something we don't know. You need to get your ass out there and figure out who killed that poor man. Unless you're too lazy or scared to do it."

The cop's face reddened, and he pursed his lips. He looked like he wanted to say something but held back. A celebrity of my stature could bring down a shitstorm of reporters, TV stations, and everything else a small-town police force would loathe dealing with. I glared at him, not flinching away from his stare.

Finally, he spun on his heel and yelled down the hallway. "Let's go, team. We've got what we need. Good night," he said without another glance in my direction.

After the cops got into their unmarked cruisers and departed, everyone took a moment to get their bearings. Even when you'd done nothing wrong, being questioned by the police was nerve-wracking. Miles and Tate sat at the reception desk, cradling their heads in their hands. Steff stood beside me, gently running his hand up and down my back.

Before any of us could speak, Blayne leaned around a door and called to us. "I've got some info on the dead guy."

Confusion swept through me. "That fast?" I asked.

Steff whispered, "He's pretty good at stuff like this."

We filed into Blayne's office and scattered around, grabbing whatever was available as a seat. Blayne clicked away at his computer. "I've got his name, but that was easy."

"Wait, how was that easy?" I asked, still not sure how Blayne could have gotten the information.

He grinned at me. "Cops aren't always great about keeping information secret. Especially in a small town. One of the forensic guys pulled the wallet and wrote the name down on a pad before bagging it as evidence. He set the pad down, and I saw it. The rest was a piece of cake.

"Anyway, David Dawes. No connection to any of us that I can find. We're still in contact with the other shifter clans nearby because we wanted to stay synched up after the disappearances started last year. We haven't had any word about a missing member in the last few days. I found a driver's license registered to the same name out of Duluth, Minnesota. Picture looks like it might be him, but," Blayne winced, "the… face on the body was pretty messed up."

"That's putting it mildly," Tate said, shaking his head.

"Anyway," Blayne went on. "I can't find anything else connected to this ID. It's like he's a ghost. No credit, no records of any kind. It's weird. I think this guy was either traveling or was maybe a down-on-his-luck shifter. He could have been wandering, looking for another pack before he went feral. That's the best idea I've got. The hunters found him and targeted him for extermination. Then they used him to send us a message. A message signed, sealed, and delivered by Ryland. He may not be at the top of the totem pole, but he's running point on this operation."

I moved around the desk to get a glimpse of the driver's license photo on Blayne's computer. The image on the screen was grinning and had a strange gleam in his eye. My body went stiff and the hair rose at the back of my neck. I knew that face.

The three other men in the room seemed to sense my reaction. Steff stepped up beside me. "What is it? What's wrong?"

I leveled a shaking finger at the picture on the screen. "I know him. I know why he doesn't have any records."

"What? What do you mean?" Blayne asked.

"David Dawes isn't his real name. He's Heathrow Burns. A couple of year ago, I took out a restraining order on him because he stalked me. At one point, he broke into my hotel room and trashed the place. He…" I tried not to gag at the memory. "He jerked off all over my clothes and did other nasty shit. He spent about three months in jail for it. That was the last I ever heard from him."

"Holy shit. It's a fake ID. An alias." Blayne spun in his chair and started working with the new name.

Steff pulled me close and kissed me on the temple, "I'm sorry, babe."

I shook my head. "It's fine. I'm only confused about how he got here."

"Got it," Blayne said. The large monitor mounted on the wall mirrored his screen. "Multiple arrest records for stalking. Most don't have the name of the individual, but I was able to get into some court documents. Those did have names. This is the guy. He was your stalker, April."

Steff pointed at the screen. "She got a bunch of crazy gifts after that smear story hit the papers. Could it have been this guy?"

"I could find out. What did he send?" Blayne asked.

My face went red. Heat radiated off my ears. I tried not to look at the other men. "Dildos, pornographic DVDs, a gallon-sized bottle of lube, penis-shaped chocolates?—"

"Okay, okay." Blayne winced as he held his hands up. "Jesus, what a sick fuck. Hang on. Let me pull up his credit card history."

We watched Blayne work, and I was amazed at his skill and how fast he accessed things that should have been inaccessible. In a few minutes, he had a PDF of Burns's credit card statement.

"Looks like he made a four-hundred-dollar purchase at Cupid Swallow right after the story broke. It's an adult bookstore and sex shop in LA. He also has a parking ticket from that same timeframe. Could be the guy. He was right there in LA when it all happened. I've got an airline ticket purchase about a week ago. LA to Denver."

Tate stepped toward the screen and looked at the guy's picture again. "Sick piece of shit gives shifters a bad name. How did he find April? Like, how did he get close enough for the hunters to find him?"

"All I know is he can be glad the hunters got him," Steff said, holding me tighter. Nausea roiled in my stomach.

Miles shook his head and sat forward. "Why this guy, though? The odds of them choosing a random shifter to kill, and it coincidentally being the guy who'd stalked April, is about a million to one. I think this is a direct message from Ryland." Miles turned to me and Steff. "He's trying to tell her that he can protect her and Steff can't. That's the message."

Steff growled, and I squeezed his hand in an effort to calm him down. It made me feel terrible. As perverted and sick as Burns had been, he'd needed help. A therapist and some medication could have helped him. He didn't deserve to be butchered. I'd wished for him to go to jail and get help, not this. This was not my idea of justice. It was the last thing I wanted. It proved Ryland was even more unhinged than I'd thought.

The drive home was tense with both Steff and me on edge. The guys hoped it was an isolated incident, just a simple message to me, but they weren't taking any chances. They were going to work on checking van purchases and rentals across the state to see if they could narrow down where the hunters were working from. It probably wouldn't be that easy, but they wanted to draw them out. If they could somehow get them to come where Steff and his friends wanted, they could try to end the stupidity before anyone else ended up dead.

Even though Heathrow was dead, I still didn't feel safe enough to be alone. The fact that Heathrow Burns was the least scary thing in my life right then was not comforting. Thankfully, Steff didn't want to leave me alone, either. When we pulled into his driveway and got out of the truck, Steff and I walked into his bedroom and packed some of his clothes into a carry-on. He whistled for Bently, and the dog came trotting into the living room.

"Why don't we stay here? Isn't it just as safe as my place?" I asked.

"We'll stay at your place," Steff said as he grabbed his belongings. "You're stressed enough without having to move to an unfamiliar house. Plus, you've got a top-of-the-line security system. Mine's good, but I haven't upgraded it to our latest system. The one we put in your house has all the bells and whistles."

He grabbed the food and water bowls and a container of dog food. Steff and I, with the dog trotting along beside us, walked out and across the yard to my house. Neither Steff nor I said anything. I was too shaken up, and he was not in the mood to talk. The only sound was the dog sniffling at the floorboards of my porch as we walked up and went inside.

Steff set up the food and water bowls for Bently in the kitchen and grabbed a cushion from my back patio furniture as a bed for the dog. While we did that, the dog did a full circuit of my house. Getting the lay of the land, I guessed. I was still dazed when Steff turned the lights out, locked the doors, and led me upstairs.

In my bathroom, Steff turned on the shower and undressed me. There was nothing sexual about it. His hands were tender and loving but not lustful. He was taking care of me. Still in silence, he took his own clothes off and pulled me into the shower. The stream of water was like a wall slamming against me, bringing reality crashing down. I started to shake. Tears fell from my eyes, mixing with the water from the shower.

Steff pulled me close, sliding his hands across my back. "No one is going to get near you. I won't allow anyone to hurt you. I promise."

He didn't get it. That wasn't the only reason I was scared. I looked up at him like he was crazy. "Steff, I'm worried about you. Ryland is out of his mind, and he's targeting you. The outburst at the picnic? The fucking dead body outside your business's front door? He's crazy, and I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you. Especially if it happened because of me."

He pressed his lips to mine. The kiss deepened as our tongues clashed. He clutched my naked ass, pulling me close. When he broke the kiss, he looked me dead in the eye. "He's not going to do shit. Ryland doesn't know who he's dealing with."

I rested my head against his chest and hoped to God he was right. We stayed in the shower until the water ran cold. After getting out, Steff dried me off with a towel, and I reciprocated. We collapsed into bed, naked and exhausted, both emotionally and physically. I fell asleep quickly but didn't sleep well. Instead, I tossed and turned, plagued with nightmares and strange dreams. I'd never gotten so little rest while being asleep in my life.

Even after sleeping like shit, I was up early. We still had promises to keep, and Steff and I were supposed to pick up Aiden for another day at his baseball camp. Steff was already up and in the kitchen when I came down the stairs. He was brewing coffee and had toasted bagels and cream cheese out on the table. I sat and started eating, and Steff walked up behind me and started kneading the knots out of my neck. He kissed my cheek, and I reveled in the quiet, beautiful moment. For a second, I asked myself if I could leave everything behind and stay here. Could I stand to lose this and move back to California?

The rest of the day passed in a blur. I sat and watched Steff coach the kids on all the nuances of third base. I literally had no idea what the hell he was talking about half the time, but it was nice to see him so passionate about something so normal. If those kids weren't baseball fans after listening to Steff all day, there was no hope for them.

Later, after we dropped Aiden off back home, Steff glanced over at me. "Are you up for a drive?"

I shrugged and nodded at the windshield. "I've got nowhere else to be. Let's go."

It was only a little after two in the afternoon, so he swung into a fast-food place and grabbed us lunch before driving out into the countryside. We drove for a half-hour before we pulled off the side of the road on a tiny little country road and parked beside a gorgeous open pasture. A bubbling, picturesque creek bordered the pasture. I blinked at the scenery. It looked like it had been pulled straight off the pages of a story book. Had it been this beautiful here when I was a kid? Had I really not noticed it until now?

Steff grabbed the food and a blanket off his backseat and set up a little picnic by the stream. "I know it's been a stressful couple of days, I wanted a little time with only me and you, and no worries."

I leaned back on my elbows after sitting down and grinned at him. "Nothing would please me more than to have an hour to relax and enjoy being with you."

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, there's something else I think you'd enjoy more than a picnic, but this is a good start."

I grabbed my food and swatted his shoulder. "Asshole. Accurate, but still an asshole."

Steff laughed and pulled out his burger. He took a bite and asked, "How are your parents?"

"They're good. I paid off all their bills and bought them a beach house in Texas. Right on the gulf in Galveston. I'm going to try to go visit them in the fall, maybe. They really like it."

"I love the beach. I'd be happy to go with you, if you think I'd be welcome there."

"Oh, you'd definitely be welcome. If there's one thing my mother has held out hope for, it was that one day we'd get back together. I think she already had her heart set on you being her son-in-law back then. When we ended, she was almost as upset as I was. Almost . She'd be beyond ecstatic to see you again. My dad? That's a different story. He'll give you all kinds of hell."

Steff took a drink from his soda and nodded. "I would be accepting of whatever he wants to dole out. I deserve it, and I'm sure it would make him feel better to vent after all these years. I can be a punching bag as long as we make up at the end."

I was desperate to know about his family. I'd only ever known his uncle. Even when we'd been together in high school, he'd always changed the subject when I asked about his parents and had completely refused to talk about them. All I knew was that they were alive.

"Since we're on the subject of parents, do you want to tell me about yours? I've always wanted to know why you lived with your uncle."

Steff stuffed the last of his burger in his mouth as he stared at the creek. His expression was so heartbreaking I wanted to cry. "It's not a happy story."

"Most of them aren't."

Steff sighed and began his story. He told me everything—how the Alpha thing worked in shifter clans; about his brother and his jealousy of Steff; being bullied by his brother and friends. Then the accident where the boy was killed and the way his brother framed him for it. By the time he was done, I was ready to bite through steel. A red haze blurred my vision more than the tears that were forming in my eyes.

"How could your parents do that to you? Send you away like they didn't love you or care?"

Steff threw a rock into the stream. "I don't know. I haven't heard from them since. They cut me off—no birthday cards, no calls on Christmas… just nothing. Christ, I would have liked it if they'd even called me every now and then to tell me I was a worthless piece of shit. At least then I'd know they cared enough to chew me out." He shook his head, shrugging a shoulder. "I've accepted it."

A person shouldn't have to accept that. I thought of my own parents and how devastated I would have been at Steff's age if they'd given me away and stopped loving me. It would have broken me beyond belief. I honestly would have considered suicide. Steff was even stronger than I knew.

Steff glanced over at me. "I've got you now. That's all I need."

I wiped the tears from my eyes and grabbed him by the shirt. Steff yelped as I yanked him to me and kissed him aggressively. I was desperate to show him, in that one kiss, that he was worthy of love, that he deserved to have a family who cared about him. His surprise faded, and he wrapped his arms around me. A deep growl rumbled through his chest. A week ago, that sound would have terrified me, but now, it only excited me.

I pulled away and laughed. Steff blushed. "What can I say, you bring out the beast in me."

He kissed me again, then we reluctantly pulled apart. I helped him gather up our things and take them back to the truck. As we loaded up and got back in the car, I glanced around at the meadow and creek. It had been a near-perfect day, and much-needed—especially with everything that lay ahead of us.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.