All Hell Breaks Loose (30 page)

“Who had access to the car recently?” Alexander asked, looking from Gabi to Kyle.  “Did either of you notice anyone unusual hanging around it?”

“The last person to touch it was Maximilian,” Marcello announced grimly as he entered the cottage.

Gabi felt Julius freeze under her.  Damn.  Julius didn’t need to deal with another traitor in his Clan.  She knew how much the last betrayal had shaken him.  She sent up a silent prayer that it wasn’t the case this time, but if it was, she’d shred Maximilian into a thousand tiny pieces.

“It stood on the street for a couple of hours in the eastern suburbs while we were on patrol tonight.  Anyone would’ve had access to it there,” Gabi croaked.  “Then it was in the parking garage at HQ, which isn’t secure.  We don’t need to jump to any hasty conclusions.”

“It’s an easy one to check,” Julius said.  His voice was hard and cold.  A sudden torrent of power poured off of him, stinging Gabi’s senses.  “Has anyone looked for him?”

“He’s in his quarters, Sire,” Marcello said quietly.  “Charlie is ensuring he stays put until we sort this out.”

Julius pressed a kiss to Gabi’s temple and lifted her off his lap.  He used overly gentle hands to settle her comfortably and wrap the blanket around her with the plate of sandwiches on her lap, but Gabi could feel the leashed fury radiating from him.

“Stay,” he told her.  “I’ll be back soon.”  Then he was gone.

The rest of the night passed in a blur for Gabi.  Julius sent word that Maximilian was in the clear, but he was tangled up in the chaos outside.  Police, neighbours and journalists had all arrived outside, and it was turning into a circus.  Julius wanted to avoid altering memories as far as possible.
One look at her would have negated all the careful story-telling that had been fed to the police and emergency staff, Marcello explained when he, somewhat nervously, relayed the message that she was to stay indoors.  Fergus never left the cottage, standing silent sentinel near the front door.  Kyle came and went from the house, checking in on her regularly and updating her.  He told her Trish was very concerned about her, but the
Werewolves
(with the exception of Kyle) were also under strict orders to stay indoors until the ‘norms’ had all left.  She’d sent a thermos of coffee and a bar of chocolate for Gabi.  Kyle took back the message that Gabi was eternally in her debt.

Once the coffee and chocolate took effect, Gabi dragged herself to the bathroom and took a shower, carefully rinsing the blood from her hair.  Kyle brought her a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt from his van.  Clean, warm and fed, she felt less like something a
Ghoul
had vomited up.  Confined to quarters, but unable to relax, she found the pad of paper Alexander had used and began making notes of all the strange and inexplicable events that had occurred recently.  The picture that emerged still seemed disjointed and random.  There were no common threads between many of the events, but Gabi’s intuition was practically screaming at her that everything was connected. 
Somehow.
  They were missing some vital piece of information, some person or motive that would tie everything together.  Eventually she growled in frustration and swept all the pieces of paper onto the floor in a childish fit of temper.

“Easy, lass,” Fergus rumbled.

She’d forgotten about him standing quietly in the shadows, watching the proceedings out the cottage window.  She scowled at him; she wasn’t in the mood to be pacified.

“Sometimes taking a step back is what ye need in order to see the full picture. 
Ye’re
too close to it right now.  Some rest will do ye good.”  He nodded towards the bedroom, but Gabi stubbornly stood her ground.  “One thing ye can be sure of; whoever did this just made a serious error in judgement.  Our Sire will not take a threat to
ye
or the Clan lightly.”  He looked directly into her eyes
suddenly,
his lethal expression could’ve been etched from granite as he continued.  “And the Clan will not take a threat to our Sire lightly.”

She fell back on the sofa, still agitated, churning Fergus’s words over in her mind.  The remote for the TV was lying on the table in front of her, and for a lack of anything else to do, she clicked the on button.  It blinked to life on a late-night news programme.  The pretty blonde news presenter had a sombre, professional expression on her face as she introduced the next story.

“In other news tonight,” she said primly, “there has been a mysterious fire at the home of one of the City’s most reclusive billionaires.  Yes, the home of Julian Edwards was engulfed in fire just a few hours ago.”

Gabi nearly choked, glancing to Fergus for confirmation.  His nonchalant shrug told her that Julius was indeed the enigmatic Julian Edwards.  The man no one could ever get a picture of.  The news presenter continued as pictures flashed onto the screen.  It was footage from outside Julius’s estate.

“Our reporter at the scene says that, although it is the main house on the large estate that was affected by the fire, miraculously there seem to be no casualties,” the news presenter read.  “At this stage, the fire is under control, and authorities have said that it is most likely the result of a gas leak, as an explosion was heard just prior to the building catching alight.  Gas has been shut off to the area, and residents are being encouraged to stay away from the scene until this issue has been resolved.  No one has seen Mr Edwards himself, and it is reported that he was not at home at the time of the fire.  Several of his staff are assisting authorities with their investigations, but are refusing to speak to any members of the press.”

Oh, the human world was so naïve.

Dawn was less than an hour away when Julius finally returned to the cottage.  Gabi had eventually taken Fergus’s advice and curled up on the sofa, slipping into a fitful doze once the fire engines and ambulances packed up and left.  She felt him lift her carefully off the couch and heard him murmur something to Fergus.

“We can go back to my place,” she whispered drowsily.  “I had special blinds fitted so you can stay over.”

“Of course you did,” he said with wry amusement.  “It’s almost dawn, you’re exhausted and the cottage is all ours.  I’ve called in extra
Werewolf
guards, so we’re safe for now.  Tomorrow we can discuss sleeping arrangements.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” she warned as he settled her into a bed not quite as large as his own and covered her with blankets.  After a brief shower, he slipped in behind her, covering her body with his own and breathing in the scent of her hair.  Before her body had time to respond to the feel of him against her, exhaustion claimed her.

She woke to the sound of movement outside.  The room was dark and unfamiliar, and adrenalin spiked as she tried to force her sluggish brain into gear.  She
calmed
her breathing and opened her senses.  A heavy, muscular arm covered her waist, and Julius’s familiar scent filled her nostrils.  The bizarre events of the previous night tumbled back into her consciousness.  She stretched experimentally, remembering the bumps and bruises.  She was stiff and sore from head to toe, and a headache was thrumming warningly in her temples, but aside from the fractured finger, everything seemed to be in working order.  She dragged herself upright and out of Julius’s embrace.  The bedside clock told her it was way past time to go home and feed the animals.  She hauled her stiff, complaining backside out of bed and hobbled to the bathroom.  It was going to take a while for her muscles to warm up enough to allow for normal movement.  She found her boots next to the sofa.  Her cellphone, jacket and weapons would all be somewhere in the rubble of the main house.  She braced herself before opening the door.

Daylight definitely didn’t make the scene of the explosion look any less devastating.  In the crisp morning sunshine, all that remained of the main house was a huge, misshapen mass of burnt, smouldering rubble.  Dripping in places, and smoking in others.  The
firefighters’
job had been made easier by the rain.  The grass and nearby trees had been too wet to catch fire, and so the damage had been limited to the house itself.  For a moment Gabi considered what the death toll would’ve been if the house had been filled with Clan members, as the bomber had envisioned.  Anyone in the lower levels would have been torn apart or engulfed in flames.  She shook off the thought with a shudder.  A female
Werewolf
dressed in combat trousers and a black T-shirt nodded in greeting and continued her prowling patrol around the cottage.  A number of other
Werewolves
in similar getups were pacing other circuits.  There was a definite air of tension pervading the Estate.  Some of the cleaners stood in a small group near what had been the front door of the main house, shock and horror on their faces.

Folding her arms against the cool morning air, Gabi started towards the rubble and almost tripped over something lying on the path just outside the cottage door.  She glanced down to find
Nex
in her soot-blackened sheath and a cellphone lying on top of a folded note.  Bending to pick
up the items made her grimace, but having Nex back in her hands eased a small portion of the new anxious knot forming in Gabi’s chest.  She unfolded the note.

‘Found this lying around and thought you might like her back.  The phone is the spare from my
van,
I’
ve
give
n
Byron the number.  I’ll stop by your place and feed the zoo before heading home, so don’t panic.  Don’t wake me too early. K
yle
.’

Well, that took care of her most immediate problem, Gabi sighed with relief.  If the animals had been fed, she wouldn’t have to call a cab and rush home.  She skirted the smoking pile of rubble, trying to avoid looking for pieces of her beloved Mustang, and went to Hawthorn House to see if she could scrounge some coffee.

A sort of office had been hastily set up on one side of the lounge.  Trish was hunched up in front of a monitor, her fingers dancing over a keyboard, absolute concentration on her face.  Lines of computer code trickled across the screen, all of it meaningless to Gabi.  Derek wasn’t in the room, and by the log-sawing sounds coming from one of the bedrooms, he was sound asleep.

“Have you even been to bed?” Gabi asked.

“Oh,” Trish squeaked in surprise, spinning around on her chair. “Gabi, you gave me a fright, I didn’t know you were here.”

Gabi’s lips twitched in a smile.  “So I noticed,” she commented, then frowned when she got a good look at Trish.  Dark crescents hung heavily under the younger woman’s eyes, and red lines dominated the white of her eyes.  “You really look like you could do with some rest,” she told the other woman.  “If you work yourself into a coma, we’ll be well and truly screwed. Whoa,” she
whuffed
as Trish rushed her and gripped her in a tight hug.  She doubted Trish even realised that she was already a lot stronger than normal for a human.

“I was so worried about you,” Trish gasped.  “The force of that explosion was insane. The whole house shook, and stuff fell down.”  She finally noticed Gabi’s discomfort and released her. “Oh, god, sorry, you must be hurt, and I’m making it worse.”  She backed off, and Gabi was astounded to see tears glistening in the other woman’s eyes.  “Seeing the state of the house, and knowing you and Julius were inside, and—oh my, everyone thought the worst.”

Gabi grabbed Trish’s fluttering hands, astonished by the emotion pouring off her.  Trish really had been badly affected by the blast.  She was amazed that, with all that Trish had been through herself, the thought of injury to others was affecting her so badly.  It spoke of Trish’s core character.  She was a good person with a beautiful and gentle soul. 
Kind and bubbly and thoughtful of others.
  All the things Gabi wasn’t.  She brushed the dark thought aside.

Chapter
16

“Trish, we’re fine,” she soothed.  “I’m fine.  You just don’t know your own strength right now.  You’re going to have to do some compensating if you’re going to go around hugging ‘norms’—they’re a bit more breakable than the rest of us.  Come on, take a break, and make us some coffee.”

Trish nodded and gave a watery smile, wiping away her tears.  “That’s probably a good idea.  I’m getting tired enough that I might make a mistake.  I didn’t realise I’d been sitting at the computer that long.”  Trish led the way to the kitchen and grabbed the coffee pot to empty and clean it before starting a fresh one.  “I keep thinking I’m right on top of these guys, and then I find another daisy chain.  They’re really good at covering their tracks.”  She broke off and gave Gabi a fierce look.  “But I’ll find them, I promise.”

“I have no doubt you will,” Gabi said, “but after some breakfast you’re going to get a couple of hours sleep.  Okay?”

Trish agreed a little reluctantly.

The smell of bacon and eggs roused Derek half an hour later.  He wandered through with sleep-tousled hair and a yawn, in nothing more than a pair of boxer shorts.  Lycanthropy was obviously agreeing with him, Gabi thought, dragging her eyes away from his body.  Though he’d had a good physique before, it was obvious he’d gained a couple of pounds of muscle in all the right places.  As he took in her appearance, his sleepy expression transformed to a jumble of concern, relief and anger.  He came over and gently laid his fingers against her cheek as though unsure where it was safe to touch her.