Dark Lies: Chapter 6

Savannah

The following morning, the house was thankfully free of ghosts, though I’d distinctly avoided my aunt’s office on my way to the kitchen for breakfast.

With zero enthusiasm, I pressed my spoon into the brick of shredded wheat lying morosely in my bowl. It was…well, pretty damn unappetizing, to be honest. But I’d eaten more sugar in three weeks living with the LaSalles than I had in my entire life, and it was high time I started making changes.

I sorrowfully spooned a little milk over the dry haybale.

We should just switch to eating bacon every morning, my wolf whined.

“We’re out,” I said, rather mournfully.

Despite the prospect of eating what I was certain amounted to recycled cardboard, I felt pretty good, all things considered. I’d slept hard and late, and my nerves were chill. It might have had something to do with the whiskey and Xanax Casey had given me before bed.

A sweet aroma wafted through the room, and a moment later, Casey clomped in. “You’re not really going to eat that, are you?”

“Uncle Pete eats it.”

“Yeah, but Dad also drinks his own potions. I think he might not actually have taste buds.” Casey chuckled.

I looked down at the shreds. It was a fair point.

Casey dropped a pink box down on the kitchen table. The scent of sticky glazed donuts emanated from inside, and my mouth watered.

I looked up with pleading eyes. “Case, I can’t keep eating this much sugar.”

He opened the lid and made the box talk. “You know you want me. Just a bite.”

I gestured to the fang marks on his neck. “Is that the line you used to pick up your lady friend last night?”

Casey grinned wide. “Vampire bites are an aphrodisiac. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.”

The doorbell chimed, and he glanced over his shoulder. “Are you expecting visitors?”

I shook my head and peered around him. God, it’d better not be Jaxson.

Casey’s magic prickled the air around me, and he strode up the hall toward the door, muttering, “I don’t like unexpected guests.”

I shrugged and eyed the open box of donuts. Half were plain, while the other half were maple glazed with bits of caramelized bacon. He knew my type. The aromas were driving my wolf senses wild.

Bacon, please.

I seized two maple glazed donuts and started shoving one in my mouth as I heard Casey unlatch the four locks on the front door.

“What do you want?” he grumbled.

A woman’s voice answered, “I’m looking for Savannah Caine. I believe she’s living with you…”

I instantly stopped chewing and looked behind me, but I couldn’t see all the way down the hall to the door. I could hear perfectly with my wolf ears, though.

Casey grunted. “Never heard of her. Is she somebody famous or a porn star or something?”

“Savannah Caine. Your cousin. Who put your address on her Magic Side ID. I know that’s her car outside, Mr. LaSalle, so let’s cut to the chase—she’s not in trouble, and you’re not in trouble. I just need to talk to her.”

My pulse skipped a beat, then began pounding. A cop—it had to be. But why? About what had happened last night?

“‘Mr. LaSalle,’ is it now?” Casey asked in a tone I couldn’t quite place.

My ears pricked at the sound of furious…chewing?

“That’s the way it’s always been,” the woman snapped.

Great. Clearly, they knew each other—which, judging by my cousin’s reputation around town, didn’t bode well. I scooted off the stool. While I appreciated Casey’s caution, there was no way I wanted him representing me to the cops.

“Coming,” I said as I hurried up the hall and shoved myself between Casey and the open door.

The blonde standing on the porch wore a long brown coat and jeans and had an official-looking badge secured to her belt. She had gorgeous eyes and a curvy figure, and she was emphatically chewing on a wad of gum as she shot daggers at Casey. The way she had her arms crossed and hip cocked out said, Don’t screw with me, buster. Her scent and posture told me she didn’t like Casey, not one bit. I was pretty used to that reaction at this point.

I held out my palm. “I’m Savannah Caine.”

The woman flashed one last deadly glare at my cousin, then gave me a warm smile as she shook my outstretched hand. “Agent Harlow Blake. Special Investigations for the Order.”

Casey put a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t tell her anything. We don’t have to talk to these people.”

I used my hip to maneuver him back inside and gave him a brusque shove. “You don’t have to talk to these people because they want to talk to me. Now buzz off. I’ve got this.”

After making sure he’d truly withdrawn into the kitchen, I turned back to the woman. She was poised and confident in a way I wished I could be. Her scent told me she wasn’t a shifter, but I couldn’t place what she was. Her magic tasted like honeysuckle, felt like brushing your fingers over soft grass, and smelled like warm vanilla.

“How can I help?” I asked.

“We got a report that a gang of bikers tried to force your vehicle off the road last night.”

My blood froze, and I inadvertently glanced at my Gran Fury. The bumper was still dragging on the ground, and I spied a bullet hole next to the spare tire. There was no plausible way to deny it, even if I wanted to.

“Where did you hear about this?”

“The bikers passed another car trying to get you. The driver had to slam on his breaks to avoid running over one of them. He called the highway patrol and reported that a gang of cyclists had shot out one of your wheels. Your license plate already had a statewide flag on it, so the alert made it back to our system.”

A flag?

Jaxson had flagged my plate three weeks ago when I’d ditched him—as well as his truck keys—in Belmont. But I’d assumed he’d taken it off by now. Did that mean he was monitoring me every time I came and left Magic Side? I licked my suddenly dry lips as thoughts swirled in my head. “What’s it to you?”

The special agent took off her sunglasses and pulled her blonde hair over her shoulders. “I’m running a taskforce that’s investigating a crooked supernatural MC from Michigan. I was hoping you could tell me a little about your assailants.”

I shrugged and leaned against the doorframe. “I didn’t get a good look at the guys. I don’t even know what they wanted—just that they wanted me off the road.”

“Can you tell me anything about them?”

“Shifters, I think. They were big and burly with golden-yellow eyes. No helmets, but their faces were in shadow. Lots of tattoos.”

“Did any of the tattoos look like this?”

She held up her cell phone, which showed a sketch of a two-headed wolf tattoo. My sketch.

Memories of the night I was attacked at the Taphouse by Dane and that woman bombarded me. She’d had that same tattoo, and so had one of the shifters who’d attacked Casey and me at the Magic Moon motel. Kahanov’s goons, or rather, Dragan’s.

I swallowed, but the lump in my throat wouldn’t go down. “I don’t know. How do you have that?”

She pulled a notepad out of her back pocket. “We should talk. May I come in?”

“No, she cannot!” Casey shouted from the other room.

Did he have werewolf hearing, too?

“Sorry,” I said.

She opened her mouth, but Casey’s voice interjected from the back. “You can ask her if she wants a donut. They like donuts.”

I turned red and dragged my fingers through my hair. “I’m sorry. My cousin is—”

“Oh, I know.” Her lips drew a thin line across her face, and she narrowed her eyes. “We all know who he is.”

“I’m famous!” he shouted from the kitchen.

I stepped out onto the porch and pulled the door shut. “Let’s talk over by my car.”

Agent Blake glanced at my poor Gran Fury with its dangling bumper, bullet holes, and spare tire, and I instantly regretted my choice of location.

I strode in that direction as if the car’s condition were perfectly normal and leaned against the trunk. “Okay, let’s talk.”

She smiled. “We’ve been tracking a gang of bikers. This tattoo started showing up around the same time they started moving a drug called Scarlet. Ever heard of it?”

“Nope.”

“It’s a magical blood-based drug with powerful effects on shifters. It makes them faster, stronger, and angrier. It’s highly addictive and turns their eyes red for a time. Ring any bells?”

I remembered the first two werewolves I’d met—vicious, red-eyed, and capable of chasing down my car on the highway. Even Jaxson couldn’t do that. I hesitated, not sure what to say. “It sounds like bad shit.”

“The worst part is that the supply is drying up. Prices have quintupled. And shifters are going crazy trying to get their hands on it. People are getting hurt. Robberies have spiked.” She started chewing on her gum. Hard.

“What does this have to do with me?”

She flipped open her writing pad but didn’t look away. “Word on the street up in Wisconsin is that if they find the redhead, they can make more Scarlet.”

My hand inadvertently went to my hair. Fuuuuuuck.

Her eyes locked on to mine in an unwavering stare. “I think they mean you.”

There was no point in denying it. “I was abducted by a bunch of wolves who tried to drain my blood. I thought it was for blood sorcery, but…”

She nodded and responded, but I didn’t hear her words. They were drowned out as memories of the sanitarium flooded into my mind. I felt the leather straps around my wrists and the needle pressing into my veins. Had they turned my blood into a drug? My heart started racing as my skin turned cold. They’d wanted to taste me…

Don’t freak, my wolf interjected. You’re starting to freak. It’s okay. We made it out.

That was a miracle, I responded, trying to stop myself from shaking.

Not a miracle. We kicked their asses. And if those bastards come back, we’ll kick their asses again.

I bit my lip. “Do you think they’ll come for me again?”

“Perhaps. Any information you can provide might help us shut them down.” Agent Blake looked up and met my eyes. “For instance, what’s your relationship to Jaxson Laurent?”

I froze. That was one question I didn’t know the answer to. I licked my dry lips. “Just friends.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“When I was attacked by werewolves up in Belmont, he and his pack helped me find the people responsible and stop them. That’s it. We filed a report with the Order.”

“I’ve read it. I’ve read all the statements about your abduction, the sanatorium, the showdown at the cabin up in Wisconsin. There were a lot of bodies on both sides. Jaxson lost his brother-in-law, Billy. Your statement said he died trying to fight off one of the rogue wolves?” She flicked her eyes to mine.

My gut twisted. Billy, who’d pinned me down and tried to kill me. Who I’d killed instead by ripping his chest open with my claws and hurling him over a cliff.

I shuddered. “I was jumped by a bastard werewolf. Billy tried to save me.”

She watched my eyes. Intently. Man, I hoped she couldn’t smell lies.

“And what was your relationship with Billy?”

I cocked my head. “Didn’t know him well.”

“Yet he saved your life.”

“I was lucky. He wasn’t. It was the heat of battle.”

She shook her head and gave me a warm smile that made the hair on my neck stand on end. “It’s a funny thing. He had a well-known beef with your family, the LaSalles. There’ve been plenty of incidents before. And yet, he sacrifices himself to save a LaSalle. Pretty strange.”

“I’m not really a LaSalle, so he didn’t have a problem with me. I didn’t know much about his past, just that he was Jaxson’s brother-in-law. I’ve been through all this before.”

“Of course. I’m sorry. I wasn’t part of the original investigation. In fact, I had to go to an unused closet in the Archives to find the files, which was also pretty funny. And when I read through the statements, a lot just didn’t add up.”

I put my hands up in a helpless gesture. “I told them what I saw.”

She looked down as she reached into her jacket and started fishing around. It was an overtly casual gesture, but I could tell she was still watching me out of the corner of her eye. Her voice was even in a practiced way. “I understand. I was just wondering if maybe everything wasn’t so tidy. Maybe some pack members—like Billy, for instance—were involved with the rogue wolves who abducted you. Maybe Jaxson, well, convinced you to streamline the truth in your statement a bit.”

My heart began beating faster. That was exactly what had happened. If the Order could pin the abductions on members from the Dockside Pack, they could hold Jaxson responsible and use it as an excuse to go sticking their nose where it didn’t belong.

I shook my head and tried to swallow stealthily.

Fire burned in her eyes. “The pack are into some shady stuff. If they’re responsible for pushing this drug, we’re going to string them up by their balls.”

The hair on my neck stood on end. “They’re not. I’m certain.”

“Do you have any idea what they do?”

I shook my head.

“Then maybe you shouldn’t be so certain.” She leaned close, subtly pressed a card into my hand, and spoke in a low voice. “I know that things between the LaSalles and Laurents are tense. If you’re in some kind of trouble…if Jaxson is pressuring you or is holding something over your head…”

“He’s not.”

“Of course not. But if, for some reason, any reason, you need a safe place to stay, call me. If members of the Dockside pack are wrapped up with the MC, and the MC is out for your blood, things could turn out badly.”

Yeah. Hindsight is 20/20. Fuck that traitor Billy and Kahanov and his rogue wolves.

I tried to manage a halfhearted smile. “I’m safe here.”

Agent Blake turned and started walking to her car. “Just think on it. If you remember anything that might connect the pack with those bikers, call me. You have my number.”

I looked down at my palm and then slipped the business card into my pocket.

Shit. My blood had been used to make drugs. Werewolves were still after me. The cops knew we were hiding what had happened up at the cabin and suspected that the pack had connections to the MC.

Our life is really messy, my wolf chirped. But at least our love life is simple.

I sank down on the Fury’s trunk and put my face in my hands.