Blown Away (Rogues Shifter Series Book 4) (10 page)

Quentin was fuming, but he managed to pull it in with some effort and then smile tightly. “I suppose that I’ll have to accept your terms as they stand, but if you don’t do the job you’ve hired on to do I will expect a full refund. We won't be taken advantage of."  His voice and expression were frosty as he looked us over one at a time in a slightly intimidating way. What he’d said could be tak
en as a threat, not of violence—yet, but a threat nonetheless.

Garrett would need to nip this in the bud, and I had every expectation that he'd succeed in his usual
classy way. Still looking cool as a cucumber, he narrowed his eyes in thought while saying, “I can guarantee that you’ll be satisfied as long as we’re given the freedom to conduct the investigation as we see fit. And if you would re-read the contract that you signed you would see that
partial
refunds are only given out at my discretion. We’ve already received your retainer and as per our contract, the balance of our fee is to be wired to our bank in Crescent City by Friday. However, if there's a dispute regarding our work I'm sure the WPC can settle it."

He sent to me, Liam and Sasha,
“Something’s up…can you feel it? It's almost like he doesn't really want us to investigate.“

I didn’t move but sent back,
“I agree. Liam and I are watching auras. I wish more of the pack were here so we could compare.”

Quentin’s eyes flashed
amber, meaning his wolf was present and pissed off, but his voice managed to remain calm. “There's no reason to involve the Council. We’ll get down to business. I have the information here regarding the missing boys. Perhaps you’d like to look it over before the meeting tomorrow.” Gabriel pushed a folder full of papers at Garrett. It was overflowing and seemed to be disorganized, requiring more than a few minutes to sort through, at least for most people. It showed a lack of respect which Garrett wasn’t about to let slide.

“Sinc will take a look at it now while we talk.” I passed the folder down to Sinc who worked with Ethan, efficiently spreading out the pictures of the boys and all pertinent police reports and other information, collating
and sorting through it quickly.

Garrett’s gaze hadn’t left Quentin’s. “I’d like to hear your ta
ke on the situation, Quentin.”

Quentin made a big show of checking his watch. “I don’t really have a lot of time…”

“We only need a few private minutes with each of you.”

“That’s not possible.
“

“Surely you didn’t call us here and agree to pay our exorbitant fee as you call it, only to hinder our investigation. Four of my team will be interviewing the adult members of your pack tonight, females included, so we’ll need a complete list. Sinc, Ethan and Brina are going to need access to every site where the teen boys were last seen. The rest of my staff will be working the lab and communicating with other consultants in Crescent City if necessary.” Maya and Rob were on call if we needed their help with something off-site. Garrett would be moving between our groups and also doing a l
ittle investigating of his own.

There was complete silence in the room as Quentin and Garrett faced off. Now
we would find out how much the alpha was willing to do to aid in the investigation. Quentin knew that if he denied us full access to his pack and his territory, then it would look to everyone as if he wasn’t fully committed to getting the boys back. I knew he wouldn’t personally agree to a private interview, he would consider it demeaning, but as long as we could speak to the others, we’d know which pack members were involved the moment they started to lie to us.

Quentin’s gaze was calculating. “I would insist on another wolf in the room wi
th whoever is being interviewed, and no more than two of you doing the interviewing.”

“That’s
fine. We can set up two rooms: Jackie and Sasha in one, Liam and Heinrich in the other. It shouldn’t take us long. We’d like to begin at 8 PM at the house. We want to finish all the interviews before tomorrow night’s meeting. Meanwhile,” he turned to Sinc, “do you know where you want to start your investigation?”

“Yes, I’ll begin at the schoolyard. That was the site of the most recent disappearance. I have my kit with me and I’ve already sent a text to Brina
who’ll be meeting us there in fifteen minutes. If it’s alright, Ethan and I will head over there right away.” She packed up the folder, now neat and well organized, and handed it to Ethan who placed it in a messenger bag he was carrying.

“Don’t you want to wait until tomorrow morning? It’s dark.” Quentin was curious. “I suppose we can get some temporary lighting up, but it’ll take us an hour or so.”

“There’s no need, Quentin. I have Brina.” We saw the confused looks.

Garrett explained. “She’ll light up the area with fae light. She can even adjust the brightness. Liam, Brina and Kaera are all trained warriors, but they have many other gifts at their disposal with which to aid an investigation.”

“I’d like to accompany you, Sinclair, if that’s alright.” Gabriel hadn’t spoken for the entire meeting, but I’d noticed him glancing at Sinc often. He turned to me. ”I’ll be happy to be interviewed by you tonight, Mrs. Cuvier. Is midnight good for you? I’ll bring my mother then also.”

“Please call me Jackie.
I’ll see you both at our house at midnight.” He was oozing with charm and good breeding, but he seemed nervous. I gave Ethan a look and he nodded. To Liam I sent,
“Tell Brina to keep an eye on the alpha’s heir.”

He smiled and replied
, “I’ve already told her.”
My mouth turned up at the corners as I tried to hold in the laugh. GMTA.

Sinc, Ethan and Gabriel left the room and those of us that remain
ed focused our attention back on Quentin. “You’ll hold all of your interviews here in my home.” Quentin spoke with a crisp authority. He was used to being obeyed without question, but we weren’t pack members.

“We’ve already set up two interview rooms in the house you’ve been kind enough to put us up in. It will be less distracting if the intervie
ws are done there and not under...not in the home of the alpha.” I smiled pleasantly at him as he twisted his mouth in annoyance.

“
I have to insist, Mrs. Cuvier.”

“Jackie, please.”

“Jackie.” His stare was intense and I felt a small prickle of energy seeping down my spine, as if he were trying to glamour me, something I’d never heard of a werewolf being able to do. Liam and Garrett could feel it too and I sensed them pull in more energy in response.

Garrett knew that Quentin’s attempt was pissing me off so he spoke up quickly, trying to avoid a confrontation. “We need complete control over our investigation. It’s the only way that the results will be accepted by
the community as being free of outside influence. This is how we work a case.” Quentin frowned. “It’s all laid out in the contract. If you’ve misplaced your copy, I can have Sinc email you a new one in a few minutes. Perhaps you’d like to look it over before the meeting tomorrow.”

As Quentin’s words came back to slap him in the face, the temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees. The two leaders locked gazes for a moment before Garrett spoke again. “Quentin, we have no interest in interfering in pack business. We only want to bring these boys back to their families. Please allow us to do the job we were hired to do.”

After another tense moment, Quentin stood and smiled, although not as warmly as he had earlier. “You will use your house for the interviews and Sharon will make up an interview schedule beginning at 8:00 PM tonight which she’ll email to you within the half hour. She and Jake will make sure that every adult member of my pack is there at their assigned interview time.” He looked at Jake, who nodded.

“I will allow you free access to all of the pack lands, as long as there is
at least one wolf accompanying you. Please keep me informed of anything that you find out pertinent to the case. Tomorrow night at eight we will welcome you properly at our pack meeting. Thank you for helping us out with this difficult situation. I must say goodnight as we have other business to attend to.” He nodded and left abruptly, followed by Jake and Joseph. None of them were smiling.

Craig paused to say
to Garrett, “Thank you. We appreciate what you’re doing.” He left quietly.

I turned to Garrett. “This was
not what I expected.”

“
No. I think we should flash back to the house to discuss everything in private.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Five seconds later the four of us had settled into various chairs in the main living area of the house along with Kyle, Heinrich, William and Kaera. Si
nc, Brina and Ethan were busy at the school. “Kyle, find anything interesting?” Garrett smiled, fairly sure of what Kyle would tell us.

“There was a bugging device in almost every room, plus cameras in all the main common areas and entrances.  Someone who knows what he’s doing is really worried. I’ve taken care of all of them plus I’ve added some of my own surveillance equipment. The interview rooms would make 007’s boss proud.” Kyle gave us a toothy grin. “Kaera and Will helped me organize the temp lab.” We’d rented a trailer to use as a temporary forensic lab and it was well equipped for our purposes.

“Excellent. Thank you. Let’s discuss our take on tonight’s meeting.” Garrett sat back and waited, feeling that the team should feel free to speak out and not always look to him. He encouraged us to use our minds and our instincts and to feel comfortable brainstorming ideas in front of him.

This time it was Liam. “Quentin lied several times. I believe that he knows where the boys are and the reason they were taken. Why he called us in is the question.”

I had an idea about that. “I think that he may have been pressured into doing something about the disappearances by his pack, or at least the members who are not involved in whatever is going on.”

Garrett nodded. “
I agree with you. Although the alpha is the supreme leader, he can be overthrown if there's enough dissension in the ranks and there’s a werewolf strong enough to take him out. Weres can challenge the Alpha, but they may have to fight his second to the death before they can approach him. Jake is quite formidable, but considering the circumstances, I think someone might be desperate enough to cause problems. The loss of a child is devastating and can cause a parent to behave in uncharacteristic ways. Calling us in to calm the masses, so to speak, could be a motive.”

Liam added,  “Someone must have called the Western Pack Council, since Aaron kne
w all about the boys. They could have put pressure on Quentin to get to the bottom of the disappearances quickly."

"There cou
ld be another reason he’s lied.“ Will didn’t usually contribute to our group conversations, so we looked at him, a little surprised.  “Maybe he's protecting someone: his mate or one of his sons.”

I shrugged. “Gabriel is powerful, but he didn't seem like a kidnapper. We have yet to meet Karl or Katrina, but you could be right.” Will looked pleased that I’d taken his suggestion seriously.

Heinrich spoke in his deep, rich voice. “So he’s hired us, but he doesn’t really want us to find out anything. I wonder to what lengths he’ll go to keep us from discovering the truth.” We were all quiet for a moment.

Sasha leaned forward. “Perhaps extreme. With this in mind, we need t
o take our security seriously. If Garrett, Heinrich, Will and I are not here from dawn until, say 6 PM, then the rest of you are at much greater risk during that time.”

“We can protect them, vampire.” Kaera’s eyes began to sparkle with gold, but
she looked more amused than angry.

Sasha leaned back again, smiling his most beguiling smile. “I don’t doubt that, Lad
y Fae, but even
you
have to sleep. We need to make sure that our shifter team doesn’t go wandering off unprotected."

Kyle snorted, “We don’t go wandering off like toddlers, Sash. Jeez.”

"I hear kittens are easy to distract. A little catnip and..."

Garrett held in the laugh and tried to look stern. "Focus please. I don’t believe he meant it quite li
ke that, Kyle. But he’s right, the team as a whole is more vulnerable without the four of us, especially with Brina accompanying Sinc as she gathers evidence. It's only a matter of balance."

"They'll think you're still here." Liam reminded Garrett with a smile.

"Yes, the weres don’t know that we’ll be returning to Crescent City every dawn, but they do know that we're weak during the daylight hours. Sash, you and Kaera put your heads together and come up with a staggered sleep schedule that works for the group.”

Garrett looked at his watch. “We have about an hour before the pack is going to start showing up for their interviews. Jackie and Sasha will be in one room and Heinrich and Liam in the other. Kyle and I will watch from the control center. Keara and Will, I’d like you to keep things flowing smoothly. Make sure we’re only seeing two weres at a time. This room can hold ten or twelve comfortably so we can have that many waiting to go in. The rest need to wait outside.
When Gabe and his mom show up, send them directly to Jackie. Don't make them wait. Ethan can help you when he gets back. We’ll leave out coffee and water bottles. That’ll have to do.”