“But the cops couldn’t have touched pictures that weren’t here.” I leaned over one end of the table and sniffed the nearest photo, bracing myself against the wall to keep from brushing the gruesome surface of the wood. Something acrid and artificial burned all the way up my nose and into my throat. “Chemicals. These weren’t printed. They were processed the old-fashioned way.”
“There’s no darkroom here,” Jace said, still studying the pictures. “They were brought from somewhere else.” He pointed at the image of me and my friends by Robyn’s car. “Is that the day of the camping trip?”
I nodded.
“Well, that confirms it. This is the same group who went after you in the woods. We didn’t get them all.”
“We” hadn’t gotten any of them. I’d killed all three of the hunters who’d slaughtered my friends, albeit against orders. By the time Jace and his men had arrived, there’d been nothing to do but clean up.
And be there for Robyn.
“I have to update the council.”
Panic shot up my spine like electricity along a wire. “If you tell my dad, he’ll call me home.”
“And I’ll comply. They’re hunting you, Abby. You need to be as far away as possible.”
“You wouldn’t send any other enforcer away when there’s a killer on the loose. You need every set of claws you can get.”
Jace crossed his arms. “Don’t try to paint this as a gender issue. I’d send any untrained enforcer someplace safer if he was being specifically targeted. Even the guys aren’t bulletproof.”
“Okay, but if I’m being specifically targeted, won’t they just follow me? I mean, if they know where I shop, eat, and get my hair cut”—I pointed to each picture as I described it—“don’t you think they know where I’m from? And do you really think I’m safer with anyone else than I am with you?”
His left brow rose. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”
But I wasn’t just blowing smoke—my Alpha was truly a force to be reckoned with, and his hesitation said he damn well knew it. “Jace, you’d be sending me home to an Alpha twice your age who has a third of your strength.”
“We’re talking about your father.”
“Who knows his weaknesses as well as his strengths.” I crossed my arms over my shirt, mirroring his stance to drive my point home. “How many challenges have you lost since you took over the Appalachian Territory?”
He didn’t have to answer; if he weren’t undefeated, he wouldn’t still be in charge.
My father hadn’t been challenged in twenty years.
“Besides, two of my brothers are here, and they’d take a bullet for me.” Not that I’d let them. “And I promise that what just happened...” That kiss. “...won’t happen again. So, don’t use that as an excuse to send me away. Please, Jace.”
I needed to stay in the Appalachian Territory for reasons I couldn’t explain to him. But I wanted to stay for reasons he already damn well knew.
He scowled, but my victory was reflected in the set of his jaw. “You learned more from Faythe than just fighting.”
“You’re just now figuring that out?” I tried to smile, but my effort faltered with one more glance at the Abby-board.
“Fine, I’ll talk to your dad.” He dug his phone from his pocket. “Go upstairs and look around for anything we can use, but do not take your gloves off.”
I gave him a halfhearted mock salute, then headed up to the main floor.
“There’s mouthwash in the bathroom,” he called after me, and I panicked until I realized that wasn’t a comment about my breath. It was a way to cover his scent on my mouth. But it was a very obvious way, so after I rinsed my mouth, I took a soda from the fridge and drank half of it.
A minute later, Jace did the same thing.
While he called Teo and told him to put together a cleanup crew, I rifled through drawers and closets upstairs, wearing those absurdly large gloves. When he called my dad, I shifted the internal parts of my ears so I wouldn’t miss anything.
“Yes, we found the scene of the mauling, but it’s more complicated than we thought.” Then Jace listened while my father asked the inevitable question. “The victim was part of the group of hunters who attacked Abby and her friends in October. Based on the tools and chemicals we found here in the cellar, I’m guessing he was actually their taxidermist. It looks like the last stray he tried to kill and stuff killed him instead, but without having seen the other crime scenes, I can’t say how closely they’re related. It could all be the work of one stray bent on revenge. Or it could be that the hunters got sloppy and several of their victims got smart. Which makes sense if the strays knew they were being targeted. I’ll call my contact in the Lion’s Den.”
Still listening, I sank into the living room desk chair and began sorting through the crap piled on the dusty desktop.
“Yeah, it’s pretty gruesome,” Jace continued. “She’s holding up really well, considering. But, Rick, there’s one more thing.”
I froze, staring at a drawer full of old bills.
“These bastards were watching Abby. For months, it looks like. There are a bunch of pictures of her pinned up on a corkboard above the taxidermy table.”