“Ramirez. First name Gilbert. I don’t know what rank he is, but he’s a uniformed officer.” Surely the police department wasn’t so large that the operator wouldn’t know who Gil was. He was pretty memorable.
The woman sounded hesitant. “There’s no officer by that name here. Are you sure you called the right police department?”
“Yes. No. Do you know where I can find him?”
“Ma’am, I know every officer in Marshall, Mars Hill, and all towns in this area. There’s no one named Gilbert Ramirez. I’d know.”
“Oh.” Kenzie stilled, cold flowing through her. “I guess I made a mistake.”
“Mmm-hmm. Well, you take care of yourself, ma’am. I have another call.”
She hung up, leaving Kenzie standing in the middle of her kitchen, stunned, clutching the phone in her slowly lowering hand.
If Gil Ramirez wasn’t a police officer in any town around here, why had he been in a Marshall patrol car at the roadhouse the day after it was attacked? Wearing a name tag that said “Ramirez”? With access to the computer database linked from the car? How had he gotten all the information on Serena? And the reports on the forensics on the shell casings found in the woods?
Shit.
Kenzie had always realized Gil was more than an ordinary human. She’d thought his explanation that he was a shaman answered her questions.
But now her heart squeezed in chilling worry. Who the hell was he, really? And why had he come here last night giving her all that crap about the mate bond, making her insane with heartbreak?
Her thoughts whirling, Kenzie flung herself out of the house, forgetting to grab a coat against the cold. But who cared? She strode along the main road through Shiftertown, breaking into a run as she headed for the bottom of the hill and the small house there.
Pierce Daniels, the Guardian, opened the door to her knock. “Kenzie?” His golden Feline eyes widened. “You all right?”
“No, I’m not. I need a favor. Can you get into the Guardian Network and look someone up for me?”
“Sure,” Pierce said, surprise changing to concern. “Come on in.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“What do you mean, he’s not there?” Kenzie sat cross-legged on the chair next to Pierce and pretended she could understand the cryptic script scrolling up the dark screen of his computer.
Shifters weren’t allowed the top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art computers, but that didn’t stop the Guardians. In any case, they preferred old-style, no-frills boxes that booted up to show C:\> and nothing else.
The Guardian Network encompassed all Guardians across the world and contained a database so vast and detailed it would make any spy network have a nervous breakdown. The Guardians programmed it in an ancient Celtic-Fae language, so though Kenzie could now see a screenful of writing, she couldn’t read it.
“He’s not there.” Pierce touched the screen, tracing lines of flowing script. “We have no record of a Gilbert Ramirez—not your Gilbert Ramirez anyway. There are plenty of humans with the same name, but none claiming to be police officers in Marshall, or even living in the area, and no one who matches his exact description.”
“Son of a . . .” Kenzie rubbed her temples. “I liked him. I trusted him. I invited him into our home, for crap’s sake. Bowman’s going to shit a brick.”
A small voice said from the front door. “Well, we knew he wasn’t human.”
Ryan stood on the front porch, peering in through a crack of the unlocked door. He wouldn’t barge in, even though most cubs were given leeway to go wherever they wanted, as long as they were courteous. Ryan already understood enough about territory to not try to enter until invited.
“Come on in, Ryan,” Pierce called. “What are you talking about, kid?”
Ryan wiped his feet as he’d been taught and walked into the house, shutting the door against the cold. He came to Kenzie’s side to study the computer screen with her. Kenzie draped her arm around him and gave him a quick, fierce hug, deliriously happy she wouldn’t have to leave him.
Ryan didn’t mind the hug, and he patted Kenzie’s knee. “I was walking home, and I saw you run in here. The man who calls himself Gil isn’t human,” he told Pierce. “Pretends to be, but isn’t. Smells all wrong.”
“He’s human with something else in him, you mean,” Kenzie said. “He told me he was a shaman.”
Ryan rolled his eyes. “He’s playing you, Mom. Or is using a glam. I guess it didn’t work on me. He’s not right.”
Pierce’s red-brown brows went up. “Really? Wow. Out of the mouths of cubs . . .”
Ryan patted Kenzie’s knee again. “Want me to tell Dad for you? He might get less mad at me.”
Kenzie shook her head, her emotions spinning. “No, I’ll do it. It has to be me.”