Wicked Ride

  Lex’s instincts started to hum. “Have you found anything?”

  Simone studied her and then slowly nodded. “We believe he may have a child out there, but we don’t know where or who yet. Once we do, I’m sure Kellach will pass the information on to you.”

  Lex smiled. Neither of them believed Kell would pass on the information. “Your cousin seems to have a mistaken belief about me.”

  Simone smiled, turning once again unbelievably beautiful. “Oh, that you’re to stay safe and let the big, bad enforcers save the world?”

  Lex warmed. “Yeah. That about sums it up.”

  “Ah, men in, ah, our family seem to have an outdated sense of protectiveness, but I’m sure you’ll teach Kell another way. Women have been warriors in my culture, with my people, for centuries.” Simone stepped into the room and eyed Victoria. “What do you do?”

  “Sing. You?” Tori asked.

  Simone folded her hands in her lap. “I work for the family business in Ireland.”

  Lex lifted an eyebrow, wondering more than ever about the ruling council. “Doing what?” she asked silkily.

  Simone grinned. “Management.”

  Nice save. Lex would find out more, but she had work to do. “I have to get to the station but will be home later. I mean here later.”

  Simone rolled her eyes, while Tori barely bit back a snort. Lex turned for the door, knowing it was probably a bad idea to leave those two alone, but she didn’t have much choice. Apollo was killing people, and Bernie had nearly died. She shut the door on Tori chattering to Simone about why men’s brains were actually smaller than women’s and headed down to borrow Kell’s truck again.

  If she didn’t knock it off, she’d actually start depending on him. Would that be so bad?

  Man, was this actual love? God. That’s all she needed.

  The drive to the station started sunny and, in true Seattle fashion, turned cloudy by the time she’d fetched an overflowing basket of mail from the post office. At least it wasn’t raining. She hauled the loot in to the station with her, surprised to see Bundt and Masterson huddled over a computer.

  “You supposed to be here?” she asked Masterson.

  “No.” He kept his gaze on the screen. “I’m supposed to wait for the doctor to clear me for duty, but I’m sure he’ll get around to it soon enough.”

  Lex tossed the basket on her desk and skirted Bernie’s to reach the duo. “What are you two looking at?”

  Bundt fiddled with the controls on the screen. “Video e-mailed anonymously to us about an hour ago, but it’s blurry. I’m working on it.”

  Lex’s phone rang, and she stretched to reach it. “Monzelle.”

  “Hi, Detective. This is Margie from the office of parole,” a nasal voice said.

  Lex’s head snapped up, and her heart kicked against her ribs. “Yes.”

  “I’m informing all interested parties that Parker Monzelle has been granted parole, mainly because of a batch of letters asking for his release from his ex-wife. He’ll be free tomorrow.” High-pitched and somehow still sounding bored, Margie gave more details, but Lex had stopped listening.

  Holy shit. Parole. Damn it. “Are you sure? Is there an appeals process?” Lex spit out.

  “No. Thank you.” Margie hung up.

  Lex removed the handset from her ear and looked at it. A buzzing started between her ears.

  “Lex?” Masterson asked.

  She shook her head. “What?”

  He lifted his chin toward the phone. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” She shook herself out of a near explosion and set the receiver back in the base. “No worries.” She’d need to move her mother somewhere else, and she had to warn Tori. But at least the bastard wouldn’t get out until the next day. She swallowed. Yeah, she’d figured he’d get out someday, but not yet. And not when things were finally going all right.

  Masterson smacked the screen.

  “Knock it off,” Bundt muttered. He grabbed a folder and held it over his shoulder for Lex. “I finished the research for you and called in a couple favors.”

  Lex, still fighting brain fog, reached for the file. “What research?”

  “Trevan Demidov. The guy had a kid with a woman back east a few decades ago in the states. It’s interesting because Demidov was a citizen of Ireland, and the mom one of ours. She died when the kid was five. Kid’s name is Yuri. He took his old man’s name, so he was easy to find.” Bundt’s fingers clapped across his keys as he talked. “Had to call in a couple favors to get his juvie record, but I got it.”

  Lex opened the file and gasped at the photo on top. The witch who had nearly killed Bernie. Light blue eyes, brown hair, fighting shape. He’d been caught early on starting fires. Big fucking surprise. As an adult, Yuri had been a person of interest in a couple investigations involving missing prostitutes, but those cases had gone cold. He’d managed to stay off the radar for at least a decade. Interesting.

  “Any news on his father?” she asked.

  “Nothing. The guy was all over the social pages years ago, and then one day, poof. Gone.” Bundt glanced over his shoulder. “He was tight with some woman name Simone Brightston, who has to be related to the lawyer chick of the guy you thought about banging. They look identical, except the woman in the pictures would be at least fifty or sixty by now.”

  Masterson rubbed his chin with his healthy arm. “That’s weird, though. Having the exact same name.”

  Lex shrugged, her cheeks heating. “I don’t know. A lot of men have sons with the same names. Why not women? Maybe the lawyer is Simone the second. Or third.” Or a freaking witch who didn’t age. Yeah. She should tell them that. She grinned. “Maybe she’s immortal.”

  Masterson scoffed. “Good one.”

  Bundt shook his head. “Can you imagine how much tail you’d get with immortality?”

  Lex shut her eyes, still reeling from the bad news about her father. “How are you two still upright?” Morons.

  “You would like to see me prone, now wouldn’t you?” Masterson wiggled his eyebrows.

  She laughed.

  “Eureka,” Bundt bellowed, throwing his hands in the air. “King of the precinct here.”

  Masterson bent down, and Lex hurried to see the video. She squinted as the picture formed with a body hanging on a tree. Make that spiked to a tree, flesh burned all over.

  “Shit. That’s Spike,” Masterson muttered.

  Lex stilled, and her body flushed cold. “Spike Evertol?”

  “Yeah.” Bundt growled. “What the fuck?”

  As she watched, large men stalked toward the victim. The video was blurry, and their faces remained turned away from the camera, but she instantly recognized them as Kellach and Daire Dunne.

  Bile rose from her belly, and she shoved it down with cold, hard reality. Spike had been a dealer, a junkie, and a snitch. He’d been killed for one or all three reasons. Kellach had lied to her.

  Still watching, she saw Kellach move away and leave Adam and Daire to remove the spikes and let poor Spike’s body crumple to the ground. Daire turned toward the camera as if trying to find something.

  Bundt swore, and Masterson turned her way. “Shit.”

  She nodded and continued to watch as the Dunne brothers removed the pieces of corpse, burned skin and all, and disappeared off camera with shovels. She inhaled sharply through her nose. “I’ll type up the request for a warrant, and you guys call SWAT. We have enough to raid the entire Titan of Fire compound again.” They needed to find that body.

  Betrayal swept through her, so much more painful than when she’d been a teenager let down by the father she loved. She’d trusted Kellach, and he’d used her. For whatever purpose, he’d taken her trust and her heart and manipulated her. Man, he was definitely keeping secrets.

  Panicked, she fumbled for her cell phone to call Victoria.

  “Yep?” Tori answered.

  Lex gripped the phone. “Be casual and tell me if Simone is still there.”
br />   “Nope. She had to go meet somebody but is coming back for a drink later.”

  Thank God. Lex breathed out, her shoulders lowering. “Good. Okay, listen to me. Get the hell out of there and go to Mom’s. She’s close to being released, and she’s doing tons better, so I was going to request her release next week, anyway. Get Mom and go to a hotel—any one. I’ll figure out how to pay for it later.”

  Masterson frowned, his gaze on her. “I got you if you need cash.”

  She nodded and mouthed a thank-you.

  Tori sputtered. “What’s going on? Lexi—”

  “Just do it.” Lex lowered her voice to a sharp command. “Trust me, Victoria. Get away from Kell’s place, go to Mom, and get to safety. It’s urgent.” At least until Lex could figure out what was going on.

  “Okay.” The sound of Tori moving filtered through the line, providing some sense of comfort. “I’ll get Mom, but you are so explaining this all later.”

  “I will. I promise. The doorman will hail you a taxi, but don’t tell him where you’re going. Wait until the door is shut, then you tell the taxi driver Mom’s address.” Her mind calculated the best way to keep her family safe. If Kellach had burned Spike to death in such a horrific way, he had no soul and wouldn’t hesitate to kill again. If he hadn’t killed Spike, he’d still had no problem hiding evidence and apparently burying the body, which was criminal and dishonest.

  Either way, she was done with him, heartbreak or not. She absolutely wasn’t her mother, staying loyal to a man she couldn’t trust. To a man who kept such secrets.

  “I’ll call you later. Stay safe. ” She ended the call and sat at Bernie’s desk to type an e-mail request for a search warrant as well as arrest warrants for Kellach, Daire, and Adam Dunne. A sharp blade sliced through her heart, so she typed faster. She’d known better. She really had.

  Masterson’s phone rang, and he answered it to listen and then say a quick thanks. “Fire is making a move on the Grizzlies in a few minutes. Good source.”

  Lex hunched her shoulders. “I’ll make note of that and see if I can get another warrant for the Grizzlies. We do have a duty to keep the peace.” She typed faster.

  The pain melded into something hotter, forged in pure, raw fury. Oh, Kellach Dunne and his entire family were going to pay.

  Chapter 31

  Kell straddled his bike, wondering how the hell he was going to keep Bear and his buddies from demolishing all of Titans of Fire. Shit. Did he even care at this point? Unfortunately, until he got a line on the other distributors and the manufacturer of Apollo, he had to keep Pyro and the boys alive.

  When he and the other thirty members of Fire roared into Bear’s territory, he should’ve been surprised by the line of Grizzlies and bikes, patiently waiting, but he wasn’t. He was Bear, after all.

  They stood in front of their bikes, a solid wall of at least forty men. Tough, weathered, and most of them shifters, including Clarke, one of Bear’s badass lieutenants. Of course, the Fire gang didn’t know they could shift into bears.

  The Fire riders, led by Pyro, came to a stop just yards away from Bear.

  Bear lifted his head. “You sure you want to do this?”

  Several weapons were visible on the Grizzlies, so at least they planned to fight as humans and not shifters.

  Kell rolled to a stop next to Pyro. “I strongly suggest we don’t do this.” Even so, he knew it was too late. If Pyro turned back, it’d be a sign of weakness, and he wouldn’t allow that.

  “It’s a good day to fight,” Pyro said.

  As if in agreement, thunder rolled, and the skies opened up. The deluge pummeled down.

  Kell sighed, making a promise to himself. His next assignment would be somewhere without rain. Maybe on a beach. When this was done, perhaps he’d take Alexandra someplace warm. The idea of her sexy body, bare on sand, almost transported him from the ridiculous fight about to commence.

  Pyro lifted his arm and gave a battle cry.

  Three helicopters instantly hovered into sight, massive vans screeched to a stop, and human policemen in black combat gear came out of nowhere.

  Shit.

  One guy grabbed Kellach off his bike, and it took every ounce of control he owned not to fight back and burn the bastard. He found himself face-first on wet asphalt, hands cuffed behind his back, gazing at Bear on his gut. Bear could shift and disembowel the SWAT member who was cuffing him, but instead, he lifted an eyebrow toward Kell.

  Kell shrugged. No idea. Had the cops somehow found out about the fight and decided to end it? If so, it could be a good result; he wouldn’t have to fake a human fight. Suddenly, his spirits lifted.

  Boots, small and sexy, stepped into his line of sight just as a human male tugged him up by his cuffed hands. Alexandra looked at him, raw fury in her eyes. Rain plastered her soft hair to her head and slid in rivulets down her smooth face.

  He frowned. “Alexandra?”

  She pivoted and cold-cocked him across the left cheekbone. She hit him so hard his head snapped back, and pain flared through his skull.

  His mouth dropped open. “What the hell?”

  Bear snorted and let out a belly laugh as another SWAT guy pulled him to his feet.

  Alexandra stepped back, her boots splashing water. “Kellach Dunne, you’re under arrest for the murder of Spike Evertol. You, you fucking bastard, have the right to remain silent . . .” She continued with his Miranda rights, swearing intermittently, her voice cold but so much heat in her eyes, his body responded to the challenge.

  Even so, he held back, knowing full well some of the SWAT uniforms had cameras. If they hadn’t had witnesses, if he didn’t have his own laws to uphold, he’d take her to the ground and show her exactly who he was.

  Finally, she wound down.

  “You fucking called SWAT on me?” he growled, letting his fury flow.

  She looked up at him and snapped, “You bet your ass, dickhead. Enjoy prison.” Without another look at him, she turned and walked over to read Adam his rights.

  Adam shot him a look. How the hell did she know about Spike? They’d buried the body where it’d never be found.

  Kell shook his head and kept his gaze on his woman, who stubbornly ignored him.

  Daire, his hands zip-tied behind his back, glared at him. He glared back. What a shit storm.

  Vans arrived as techs ripped through the Grizzly garages, throwing things outside, generally making a mess.

  Bear looked on, his lids half-lowered, his body relaxed. If anything, he looked so bored as to be sleeping on his feet. Not even the rain pouring down upon his head and soaking his clothing seemed to bother him.

  Finally, a tech came out, shaking his head.

  Alexandra whistled, and other cops uncuffed Bear and his buddies. “We didn’t find anything. This time.”

  Bear loped toward her, and she faced off with him, no fear on her pretty face. The woman knew exactly what Bear was and how dangerous he could be, and she faced him like she would any perp coming toward her.

  Even as pissed off as he was, pride filled Kell. The magnificent creature standing so bravely in the storm belonged to him.

  Bear reached her. “I thought we were friends.”

  She shook her head. “Stay on the right side of the law, and we’re friends. Stray an inch, and I’ll put you away.”

  Bear cocked his big head to the side. “You really want me for an enemy?”

  “Your choice, Bear.” She held his gaze, not budging an inch. “You might want to rethink your friends, anyway.”

  Bear grinned. “If you end up killing Dunne, give me a call.” He turned and shot Kell a smart-ass grin. “Later, Dunne.” Turning on his heel, he loped to his garage and began mumbling orders to set things right.

  Kell showed his teeth. He might have to burn his old friend, and at the moment, he was fucking okay with that.

  Alexandra turned and flashed her teeth at Pyro. “A similar raid at Fire turned up guns in your room as well as those of two pro
spects who are already heading to the station. Green guns.” She cut Kellach a hard look.

  Holy fuck. Garrett and Logan had been caught with green laser guns? Those couldn’t fall into the hands of humans. His head jerked up.

  Alexandra turned away from him again, and he growled.

  She stiffened but didn’t turn back. “Release all of them except for Pyro, the three murder suspects, and the two prospects. Take them to the station and book them.” She began to walk toward a squad car.

  “Alexandra,” he murmured. He had to get those guns back, She had to know how dangerous it was for humans even to see them. “You’re making a mistake.”

  She turned, her chin lowered. “Oh, I’ve made plenty of mistakes, but I’m remedying that right now.” Pivoting, a stunning warrior in the crashing rain, she walked away from him.

  A move she would soon regret.

  Lex watched through the two-way mirror of the interrogation room, wanting to be in there so badly her hands shook, but nothing could compromise the case. Her pseudo-relationship, as Bundt thought of it, would get in the way. He and Masterson sat across from Kellach, Daire, Adam, and Simone.

  Even so, Kellach’s gaze met hers directly through the glass.

  She moved to the side.

  His gaze followed her.

  Shit. Witches could see through the mirror? How? She moved again, just to make sure, and Simone caught her gaze and rolled her eyes.

  Fine. They could see.

  Kellach kept her gaze, fire flickering in the black depths of his eyes. Even yards away, through glass and a cinder block wall, she could feel his fury. Hot enough to burn and a deadly promise of the fight to come once he’d gotten out. He’d been processed already but would remain in a cell until the following morning, when a judge would set bail.

  Perhaps with the video, bail would be denied.

  What kind of power did the Dunnes have? It’d be interesting to see if international pressure was applied.

  Simone tapped a red-tipped fingernail on the table. “We’d prefer to discuss the case with Detective Monzelle.”

  Bundt snorted, the sound echoing. “Monzelle wants your boys here hung from the nearest tree. Believe me, you don’t wanna talk to her.” He shifted to face Kellach, his back remaining to Lex. “You wanna work with me. Tell me how you killed Spike, and we’ll see what we can do for a deal. Maybe you won’t get the death penalty.”