A KNOCK BOOMED AT my door, causing me to bolt up in bed. It was only nine in the morning. No one came by this early; they all knew my sleeping habits. Even Noah, who I’d been dating now for a month, knew better than to call or come over at such an ungodly hour.
I went downstairs, habit making me put a silver knife in my robe pocket, and looked through the peephole.
Tate was on the other side, and he also appeared as though he’d been freshly woken up.
“What’s wrong?” I said as I opened the door.
“We need to get to the compound. Don’s waiting for us, and he’s calling in Juan and Dave as well.”
I left the door open and went back upstairs to throw on some clothes. No way was I showing up in my Tweety Bird pajamas; that would hardly inspire respect among my men.
After changing and doing a quick brush of my teeth, I climbed into Tate’s car, blinking at the bright morning sunlight.
“Do you know why we’re being hauled in? Why didn’t Don call me first?”
Tate grunted. “He wanted to ask my opinion of the situation before speaking to you. There were some murders last night in Ohio. Pretty graphic, no attempt made to hide the bodies. In fact, they were displayed.”
“What’s so unusual about that? Terrible, I give you, but not out of the ordinary.”
I was confused. We didn’t jet around to every nasty crime scene, or we’d never be able to cover them all. There was more than he was telling me.
“We’re almost there. I’ll let Don fill you in on the rest. My job was just to pick you up.”
Tate had been a sergeant in Special Forces before joining Don, and his years in the military showed. Follow orders, don’t question command decisions. It was what Don loved about him—and why I frustrated my boss so much, because my credo seemed to be the exact opposite.
In twenty minutes, we were at the compound. The armed guards waved us through the gates as usual. Tate and I were such a common sight, we didn’t even show identification anymore. We practically knew all the guards by name, rank, and serial number.
Don was in his office, pacing by his desk, and my brows shot up. My boss was normally cool and collected. This was only the second time I’d seen him pace in the four years since he recruited me. The first was when he found out that Ian, or Liam Flannery, as Don still thought of him, had gotten away. Don had wanted me to bring the vampire in to keep as a pet, so we could siphon blood from him to make more Brams. When I came back without Ian, I thought Don would pop a seam. Or wear a trench in his carpet. My being stabbed was barely an afterthought. Don really had a mixed-up set of priorities, in my opinion.
On his desk were photos that looked downloaded. He gestured to them as we came in.
“I have a friend at the Franklin County Police Department who scanned these two hours ago and sent them to me. He’s already contained the area and barred any more police or medical examiners from the scene. You’re leaving as soon as the team is assembled. Pick your best men, because you’re going to need them. We’ll have additional personnel standing by to deploy at your command. This has to be put to bed immediately.”
Franklin County. My old hometown. “Cut the mystery, Don. You have my attention.”
In reply he handed me one of the photographs. It was of a small room, with a pile of fresh body parts strewn on the carpet. I recognized it at once, because it used to be my bedroom at my grandparents’ house. The writing on the wall froze me, and I knew at once why Don was freaked.
here kitty kitty
That wasn’t good. Not fucking good at all. The fact that this deliberate taunt was clearly addressed to me, and in the house I grew up in, showed two terrifying things. Someone knew my stage name—and my real one.
“Where’s my mother?” She was my first thought. Perhaps they only knew about Catherine Crawfield, or maybe they knew about Cristine Russell, too.
Don held up a hand. “We’ve sent men to her house with instructions to bring her here. We’re doing that as a precaution, because I think if they knew who and where you were now, they wouldn’t have bothered with your birthplace.”
Yes, that was true. I was so upset I wasn’t thinking clearly. That had to stop, because there was no time to be stupid.
“Do you have any idea who this could be, Cat?”
“Of course not! Why would I?”
Don pondered that for a minute, pulling the hairs on his eyebrow.
“It’s coincidental that you’ve been dating Noah Rose for a month now, and suddenly someone’s found you out? Have you told him what you are? What you do?”