“It’s like I told you, Samuel. She wounded Jeff at the witches’ meeting, but she didn’t kill Diego. I can’t even pick up Diego’s scent on her anymore.”
“But her house had it,” he growled from behind me.
“Yeah, Diego’s scent mixed with blood and magic. Someone else’s blood, not hers.”
Samuel spun me around to face him, squeezing hard on my upper arms. He growled, showing long, jagged teeth. “Who killed Diego?”
My heart raced as fast as my mind. “I sure don’t know. I never met anyone called Diego. And there weren’t any murders in Duvall before you showed up.”
He grabbed my throat with one hand and squeezed. Lights danced before my eyes, and my knees went watery. “The only ones dying around here have been wolves, but that’s going to change. I promise you.”
He was strong enough to crush my windpipe and kill me with one hand, but he didn’t. He let go of my throat, but kept a hold on my arm.
“I’m telling you. Diego bit whoever attacked him,” the tracker said.
Samuel glanced at him. “We’ve been over this,” he growled. “I don’t care how powerful a witch or wizard it was; Diego’s bite would have killed whoever it was by now. We’re still tracking Diego’s scent, so the killer is alive. And if this bitch didn’t do it, she’s at least had him into her house.” He yanked on my arm, making me stumble.
Nobody had come to my house and bled on the furniture. Could I have picked up the scent somewhere and tracked it in on my shoes?
“Tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know anything. I’m not even really a witch—”
The blow caught me across the cheek and knocked me down.
“You lie to me again, and I’ll break all the bones in your left arm.”
“Samuel!” the man at the window growled as Samuel caught me by the arm and pulled me back to my feet.
“What?”
“Police cars.”
I rubbed my cheek as the door swung in. Zach stood in the doorway with a shotgun leveled into the room. Samuel yanked me in front of him.
“Y’all wanna live, you might want to think about lettin’ her go,” Zach drawled, voice smooth and easy like he was asking them to pass him a bag of Cheetos.
Samuel glanced at the window and made a tiny motion with his head. In a flash of speed, the other two crashed through it and were gone. I heard the popping of gunfire from outside, but Zach didn’t look to the window. He watched us.
Samuel dragged me toward the window, whispering in my ear. “I want you to know I’m going to kill you. Before that though, you’re going to suffer the Ritual of the Nine. Nine hours of having your bones broken from smallest to largest. Pain beyond imagining.”
My heart seized up in a sharp contraction, and I bit down on my lip as I started to shake. Zach walked into the chapel with us, calm as sunshine, waiting for his moment.
Suddenly I was flying forward. Zach got the gun barrel up just in time. I crashed into him and fell to the floor.
Zach swung the gun and fired it. The thundering blast echoed in my ears, and my wrist ached where I’d landed on it, but I didn’t care. They were gone, and I was still alive.
Zach ran to the window and looked out. “Winged him, but he kept going.” He walked over to me with a grim expression.
“The other two?” I asked.
“Gone, I guess. You all right?” he said, putting a hand out to lift me up.
I moved my wrist gingerly. It was mighty sore, but not broken. “I’m okay.”
He tipped up my chin so he could look at my cheek.
“When I catch that son of a bitch, he’s going to fall down a couple flights of stairs before I throw his ass in a cell.”
I sat down on a wood bench so I could shake without falling down. “How did you find me?”
“I got to Lyons’s house just as you were coming out. Followed you.” Not all jealous ex-husbands come in handy, but mine definitely does. “Now, are you going to tell me what this is all about?”
“I don’t know.”
“You must know something. What did they say?”
I shuddered, thinking about the torture ritual. “One of their gang members was killed, and they thought I might have done it.”
Zach’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You?”
“They don’t know me.”
Zach looked me over. “But where would they even get an idea like that? I’m looking at you, and I can’t see how anyone with half a brain would jump to that conclusion.”
I thought about my quick-draw routine on the chapel roof. “Um, I don’t know. They got some bad information.”
“From who? Astrid?”
“For one,” I said, my lips curling into an angry frown.
“She brought you up here to them? And left you?”
I nodded. “She traded me to save her own skin.”
“She’s Lyons’s friend.” He paused. “How does he fit into this?”
I shrugged.
“You better not protect the guy, Tammy Jo. He got you mixed up in this, and it could’ve got you killed. Now where did you go with him the other night?”
My phone rang, and I pulled it out of my pocket. Speak of the devil.
“Hang on a minute,” I said to Zach and flipped it open.
“Where are you?” Bryn asked.
“None of your business.”
“Security said you and Astrid left together. Are you still following her?”
“Mmm hmm.”
“Stop your car, so we can talk.”
“We can talk. Go ahead.”
“Don’t go any farther. She can’t be trusted.”
“How do you know she can’t be trusted?”
He hesitated, but I waited in silence, trying to ignore the hole Zach’s eyes were trying to bore into me.
“I saw it,” Bryn said finally.
“Saw what?”
“You’re familiar with Tarot cards?”
“Yes.”
“I practice something along those lines. Astrid came up with the symbol for betrayal more than once.”
“But she’s a friend of yours.”
“She’s an acquaintance, not a friend.”
I remembered Astrid calling while Georgia Sue was out cold on Bryn’s kitchen table. Bryn had told Astrid she couldn’t come over. And when she’d wheedled her way onto his property, he’d put her in the guesthouse, away from us.
“Tamara?”
“What?”
“Come back to my house. I can’t protect you from this distance.”
He sounded so sincere, but then maybe he was just trying to lure me there. Maybe he’d found the note and wanted his coins back.
“We do need to talk. I’ll come by soon,” I said, then flipped the phone shut. “Bryn Lyons. He said Astrid’s been acting strange. Told me not to trust her.”
Zach rolled his eyes. “Little late to warn you.”
“Yes.” I chewed on my lip, trying to decide what to do. Bryn’s house did seem to be the only place the werewolves didn’t attack, and I needed to negotiate the return of my locket.
Some of the other deputies showed up, and Zach talked to them. I tried to figure out what to do. I didn’t really want to go to Bryn’s by myself, but taking Zach would be like bringing a lit match into a shed of fireworks.
“All right, it’s been fun, but it’s time for us to go,” Zach said, sliding an arm around my shoulders. “Give Smitty the keys to Nadine’s vehicle. He’s going to return it for you.”
“But I need to fill it up with gas and run it through a car wash for her.”
“You’re a real considerate thief.”
“Momma raised me right.”
He rolled his eyes. “You can buy Nadine a tank of gas another time. You’re coming with me.”
I gave Smitty the keys and walked with Zach to his prowler. I slid into the passenger seat, thinking that I’d borrowed the prowler and hadn’t gassed it up or cleaned it, or had the dent fixed. And here he was always saving my life and getting bitten by werewolves for me. I was a terrible ex-wife.
He got in the car, and I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He looked at me.
“That the best you can do?” he said, mock serious.
“You know it’s not.”
“Then lay it on me. Can’t think of anything I could use more right now.”
We leaned together, and I kissed him for real. One of the guys banged on the roof to encourage us, startling me. I drew back. Only a man would think whooping and startling the heck out of a near-kidnap-and-murder victim was a good idea.
“You’re gonna be all right,” Zach said, like he could tell I was still worried. He started the car and pulled out, heading toward the station.
“You’ve got paperwork to do?”
“Nope. I’m putting you in protective custody. Smitty’s off duty, but he’s gonna drop the truck at TJ’s and then come back to the station to play cards with you ’til I get back.”
“I’m not five years old.”
“I’m well aware of that.”
The sun was setting. I definitely didn’t have time to play cards in jail. “I’m refusing protective custody. If you want to, you can come with me. I’m going to ask Bryn Lyons some questions about this whole mess.”
“I don’t need you to help me question Lyons,” he said.
“Got a warrant?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Then you won’t get in to see him without me.”
“The sheriff’s working on the warrant.”
“Feel like twiddling your thumbs until then?”
“When did you get such a smart mouth? You used to be sweet.”
I folded my arms across my chest and frowned. I didn’t like to get ugly, but I couldn’t afford to be too sweet under the circumstances.
We drove to Bryn’s property, and there was a big delay at the gate while security cleared things with him. Finally, the gate slid open, and we drove inside.
Mr. Jenson was waiting for us in the foyer, and he scrutinized my face with an expression like he’d just found some renegade ants making a run for the pantry.
“Mr. Lyons is in the living room,” he said, holding out a hand to point the way. The house shook slightly, and Zach and I both looked up.
“Another quake,” Zach mumbled.
I bet it wasn’t Bryn casting spells while we were a room away, so who did that leave? Astrid? Hadn’t seen her car and bet she was on her way back to whatever rock she lived under. Lennox maybe.
I heard Bryn curse from down the hall, which surprised me since nothing seemed to rattle him much. I led the way to the living room, only pausing when I first stepped in because Mercutio jumped down from the top of a secretary to greet me. I hugged him and kissed the top of his head.
“It’s rare that I envy a cat,” Bryn commented as he sat on his sofa.
Zach stood in the doorway, arms akimbo, stance wide.
“I need to talk to you,” I said, straightening up.
“It’s mutual.” Bryn’s tone sounded like he wasn’t too happy about it. I guess he’d been in his closet since we’d last talked.
“Ladies first,” I added quickly.
“That is the house policy,” he said, his cobalt blue eyes mocking and sexy at the same time.
Bryn was too darn smart not to realize that he was taunting Zach, and Zach was too darn smart not to realize he was being taunted. If I didn’t play my cards right, I was going to find myself right square in the middle of a fistfight.
I cleared my throat and cast a glance at Zach. He frowned slightly but stood totally still. Of course, he’d looked relaxed holding a twelve-gauge on a trio of wolven murderers, too. Who knew how long he’d keep up the pose?
“When the gang came to the actors’ meeting, I thought you were an innocent bystander, like me, but now I think they probably came looking for you or Lennox or both.”
Bryn raised his eyebrows. “Interesting theory, but without merit.”
“It was no accident that you were at Georgia Sue’s Halloween party instead of the mayor’s, was it? You were there because you knew what was going to happen.”
“Are you accusing me of something?” His gaze slid to Zach, then back to me.
I knew I would never get the truth out of him in front of a cop, but it wouldn’t have mattered if I’d told Zach to take a tour of the house, he wasn’t going anywhere.
Mr. Jenson reappeared with a hand towel wrapped around something. He held it out.
“Ice,” he said.
“Thank you.” I put the ice to my cheek and sat down on a thick-cushioned ottoman across from Bryn. “Astrid turned me over to the gang. One of them cracked me across the face before Zach got there and saved me.” I held up the icepack for a second as illustration.
“I’m sorry I didn’t warn you sooner.” His voice was even and very formal. This was getting us nowhere.
I sighed. “Is there anything that you can tell Zach to help him catch them?”
“Regrettably, no.”
I frowned and shook my head. “Look, if I don’t—”
A phone rang, startling me, and I looked around trying to place it. Bryn moved quickly to the opposite wall and slid a painting aside, reaching into a cubbyhole.
He pulled a security phone loose and answered it.
“I understand. I’m sending Jenson to you with Ms. Trask. Lock yourselves in the vault.”
Chapter 27
I stood, staring at Bryn, but he didn’t look at me. He turned to Zach instead.
“Feel like being a cowboy?” Bryn asked as he walked to the couch he’d been sitting on and reached behind it.
He yanked a shotgun free and tossed it to Zach, who caught it one-handed.
“I’ve got guns,” Zach said.
“Not like these,” Bryn said, tossing him a pistol. Then he got a couple guns for himself.
“I’m a good shot,” I said. “I can help.”
“No,” Zach and Bryn said in unison.
“Jenson!” Bryn called out, yanking a small pack from behind the couch. I could hear the bullets rattle as he walked to the door.
“Sir?” Jenson said, materializing.
“Take her to Steve and follow his instructions.”
I grabbed Bryn’s arm and lowered my voice to a whisper. “No, I should stay and help. You might need to siphon power or something!” I said, my heart racing at the thought of my two favorite men getting slaughtered.
Bryn flashed me a smile. “I wish there was time for that. I’ll hope for a rain check on the offer.”
I stepped back, shaking my head.
Zach pumped his gun, then leaned over and planted a kiss on my trembling mouth. “Go on now.” He looked at Jenson and said, “Carry her if you have to.”
“Yes, Jenson, get her out of here,” Bryn commanded him and walked out, waving Zach to follow him.
Mercutio bounded after them.
Of course, he’s going to play. That cat likes fighting entirely too much.