Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

“ H ow many?” Logan asked as he watched the front door of the brownstone across the street.

“We lost count when they started using the backdoor,” Gray said as he joined him in front of the large window overlooking the quiet Manhattan street below.

Nodding slowly, Logan asked, “When did they start showing up?”

“This afternoon,” Gray said as they stood there watching a human male make his way down the steps to the van parked in front of the brownstone.

“Pierce?” Logan asked as his gaze flickered to the shifters standing guard by the front door.

Shaking his head, Gray said, “Just Pack.”

Which meant that they wouldn’t be able to detect them until it was too late, Logan thought as he watched humans come and go from the brownstone. “Are they marked?”

“No, and they’re not human descendants of the Pack either,” Gray said, taking him by surprise.

“They have unmarked humans living among them?” Logan asked, glancing at the shifter. Marking the humans would have forced the Sentinels to destroy the Pack and drew the attention of the other Packs, but allowing unmarked humans to live among them…

It put them all at risk.

Nodding, Gray said, “They’re using them to hide their scent.”

“How many of them have been turned?” Logan asked as he returned his attention to the brownstone across the street.

“From what I can tell, none of them have,” Gray said, leaving Logan to wonder why a Pack would keep unmarked humans around without the promise of changing them unless…

“Are the humans aware that they’re living among a Pack?” Logan asked since it wasn’t unheard of for shifters to live among humans to hide their scent, but he’d never heard of an entire Pack taking that risk.

“They wouldn’t be able to hide it for long,” Gray murmured, sounding lost in thought. “Not without an Alpha to keep them in check.”

“Which brings up an interesting question, why is Pierce leaving his Pack unprotected?” Logan drawled as he took in the humans and shifters unpacking the van before his gaze shifted to the neighboring brownstones.

After Izzy gave him the address for the brownstone, he’d looked into the property and found that it was owned by Samuel Clemmons along with the adjoining brownstones. For the past four hundred years, every sixty years, like clockwork, the property was transferred to another “Clemmons,” ensuring that the property was kept in the Pack and that it didn’t draw attention from humans.

At one point, the Pack owned two square miles in Manhattan, but over the years, they’d sold off the rest of the land until only three plots remained. They sold their land to humans, two corporations, and a church. He’d looked into the corporations, ensuring that the Pack didn’t own them before he focused on the humans. When he didn’t find anything that led back to Pierce, he focused on the three brownstones that remained.

He’d looked into the original land grant given by New Amsterdam to the Pack and followed it until the English seized the territory in 1664 and they were forced to re-register the deeds. He read through the tax records, the blueprints the Pack registered in the mid-nineteenth century when they tore down the original dwellings on the property and replaced them with brownstones. He looked through the Wills and deed transfers, the city blueprints when water and sewer lines were added along with electricity in the twentieth century, phone lines, and finally, the internet a little over two decades ago.

The only thing that he couldn’t find were permits or alterations to the blueprints, which meant that he had no idea what to expect behind that front door. They could have altered the brownstone in a hundred different ways including knocking down the walls and connected the other two brownstones, which meant…

“Were your men able to find any evidence of tunnels in the area?” Logan asked as his gaze flickered from the brownstones to the van before shifting to the road that separated them.

“The only thing that we found were old coal chutes,” Gray said as Logan’s gaze landed on the sidewalk below his window and took in the old iron cover that resembled a manhole cover before shifting his attention to the one across the street.

Absently nodding, Logan ran his gaze from the coal chute covers prominently displayed in front of the brownstone to the set of cast iron doors set flush against the sidewalk fifteen feet away and absently murmured, “Why would they need a coal cellar door if they have a coal chute?”

“What?” Gray asked as Logan’s gaze shifted to the sidewalk below his window and found the matching coal cellar doors set directly across from the ones across the street.

“Send ten of your men to the original property line and have them work their way in, looking for the other end of that tunnel,” Logan said as he stepped away from the window and made his way back through the parlor and headed into what had once been the dining room.

“And the rest?” Gray asked, following close behind.

“Unless they have an Alpha or a demon hidden behind those doors, we have time to find the tunnel,” Logan said as he made his way through the backdoor, knowing the shifter would do everything within his power to find the tunnel.

It wouldn’t end this, but it would bring him one step closer, Logan thought as a slight vibration had him pulling his phone out of his pocket and let him know that the asshole survived his transition. For a moment, he considered ignoring the phone call, but…

Fuck it.

“How’s Paris?” came the bored drawl that had Logan chuckling as he made his way down the alleyway.

“You tell me,” Logan murmured as he reached over and ran his fingertips along the bricks as long-ago memories slowly began to surface.

“I’m curious about something,” Kale said as Logan stepped in a puddle, sending a rippling effect throughout the water that brought him back to that night so long ago and-

He never should have let her go to London.

He never should have let her out of his sight once they reached the tavern, Logan thought, grinding his jaw as his thoughts turned to the moment that her knees hit the ground only it wasn’t Elizabeth’s terrified expression that left him struggling not to lose his fucking mind.

“What’s that?” Logan asked, determined to gain some semblance of control over this hold that his angel had over him.

“How did you manage to trick Tattletale?” Kale asked, giving Logan the distraction that he needed.

“Having a difficult time finding me?” Logan asked as he dropped his hand away from the brick wall.

“You could say that,” Kale murmured, making him wonder how long Tattletale had been trying to find him. Probably since the moment that he’d escaped from the Compound, Logan thought, wondering if Izzy realized that Tattletale had a weakness yet.

“Is there a reason for this call other than trying to track down my location?” Logan drawled as he stepped out of the dimly lit alleyway onto the busy sidewalk filled with humans and-

God, she was fucking destroying him, Logan thought as a mixture of anguish and heartache swept over him.

“That’s not enough?”

“With you? Never,” Logan said, shaking his head as he made his way towards Central Park, careful to avoid the slums and tourist areas along the way, knowing that they would be teeming with vampires looking for an easy mark and shifters ensuring their territories were protected.

“Are you going to tell me how you’ve managed to avoid detection?” Kale asked, making his lips twitch.

“Luck,” Logan drawled as he made his way across the busy street towards the building he bought two years ago.

“Fair enough,” Kale said as one of the demons he had stationed in front of the building as a doormen opened the glass door for him.

With a nod, Logan stepped into the opulent foyer and made his way to the private elevator set off to the side. “Is this a courtesy call to let me know that you’ve decided to collect the bounty?”

“I’m debating it,” Kale murmured, sounding thoughtful. “You protected my mate and unborn child. Why?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Logan said as he typed his code into the small keypad by the elevator doors before pressing the call button.

There was a slight hesitation before Kale said, “We need to talk about that night, Logan.”

“No, we don’t,” Logan said evenly, refusing to allow the shifter to say one more fucking word about Elizabeth. She never would have gone to the shifter’s room, Logan told himself even as he found himself wondering why she wasn’t in her room that night. She-

There was a heavy sigh, and then, Kale said, “The Council put another bounty on your head.”

“It was only a matter of time,” Logan murmured absently as the elevator doors slid open.

“Why haven’t you run yet?” Kale asked, making him chuckle as he stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the penthouse.

“Probably the same reason why they haven’t tried to grab me yet,” Logan pointed out as he leaned back against the wall with a heavy sigh.

“And that is…”

“I have something they want,” Logan drawled, curious about their next move.

“And what’s that?” Kale asked as Logan pushed away from the wall when the elevator came to a stop seconds before the doors slid open, revealing the heavily guarded hallway ahead.

“Something they’re never going to get,” Logan said before he hung up and slid the phone into his pocket as he made his way past the shifters guarding the door. He walked into the penthouse and-

Immediately felt a sense of peace wash over him when he spotted his angel standing at the kitchen island. For a moment, he was content to stand there, watching Jill looking lost in thought as she picked up her mug and moved to take a sip when she saw him.

He watched as her gaze dropped to the marks marring the back of his hands before placing the mug back on the kitchen island and pushing it across from her with a sigh and grabbed another bag of blood from the fridge and placed it in the microwave. For a moment, Logan considered asking what happened a few minutes ago to make her sad but decided against it.

“Miss me, Angel?” Logan asked as he made his way to the kitchen island and watched her make quick work of pouring the warmed blood into a mug.

“Not even a little bit,” Jill said, making his lips twitch as he reached for the mug she’d abandoned.

“Are we still at a standstill?” Logan asked as he picked up the mug.

“Are you ready to tell me that tale of woe yet?” Jill countered, pausing before she took a sip.

“No,” Logan said as he raised the mug to his lips.

“That’s a shame,” she murmured with a soft sigh.

“Then, I guess we’re still at a standstill,” Logan said as he took a sip and-

Oh, Christ, Logan thought when the first drop hit his tongue and nearly dropped him to his knees. The second drop had him groaning as he quickly swallowed, desperate for more until the last drop was gone and-

“I guess we are.”