Elizabeth slid into the passenger seat and dialed the number to the precinct. She waited for the lab to answer and told them she was sending Jennifer there for an analysis. She wanted DNA and to know what shifter strains were showing in her system. Then she had them transfer her to Colton. He answered on the first ring. This wasn’t a call she wanted to make, but she had to keep the jerk in the loop.
“I need you to get one of the investigators to work up background information on Jennifer Smith. Her parents’ address and numbers and anything or anyone else who can tell me about what type of animal she can shift into.”
“You close to finding her?” he asked.
“I did find her, but something is wrong.”
“Elizabeth, we should talk about what happened with Evan.” She heard the remorse in his voice. Too bad his conscience had kicked in a day too late.
She swallowed around the lump in her throat and kept her resolve. “There’s nothing to say unless he told you where the lab is and where the girls are being kept. My resignation still stands. After this one, I’m out. I’ll send you my report when I have something new. I just really need that information like yesterday.”
“The Jordanian Protectors already have the inside track on this case. His division pulls rank, and they actually want us to fall back. I’m trying to stall them to buy you some time.”
“Yeah, well, you can tell Evan that if there is a shred of evidence in what he’s said, then I outrank his sorry ass by being the damn princess and I’m not stopping until I bring down whoever and whatever is involved. I’ll be waiting for your email, but otherwise, I’ve got an investigation to run.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “Goodbye, Colton.”
She hung up the phone, not waiting for his response. What was he going to do, fire her?
“So, now you’re their princess?” Rhys asked.
Elizabeth saw the disappointment in his eyes and the way his muscles tensed. He was becoming guarded, and she couldn’t blame him. She’d warned him she didn’t know what the future held, and that was because it was true. She really didn’t.
“It’s just a title, one that even I still don’t believe, but lucky for me, he does.” She started typing notes into her phone. “Bink’s Labs and then the senator’s residence. He’s somehow connected to Emily and Sadie.” She glanced his way. “Unless you want to take me to my car. I can finish this alone if you need to go help your brothers at the Honey Pot.”
His jaw ticked. Had she hit a nerve?
“I think that might be for the best. Can you take me to my car?”
He looked her way, even more disappointment in his eyes. “I’ll take you to your car if you promise to have dinner with me.”
“Negotiating?”
“More like compromising.” He pulled out onto the road. “I need to check in with the guys and handle the shipment at the bar. After that, I’m free.”
She nodded and grinned. She could do compromising. He wasn’t trying to rule or run her life. She respected that. “I can compromise.”
****
Elizabeth relaxed behind the wheel of her own car and felt alone driving to the lab. Her entire life she’d lived that way. Why it bothered her now, she didn’t have a clue. Her first stop was on the outskirts of the Glades, where the lab was located. She parked in front of the building and got out walking up to the rotating doors; she pushed on them and ended up in a large, white, sterile entrance. Waiting areas were scattered around the room with splatters of cheap, fake green trees. She could smell the plastic from the fake leaves as she walked. The open area was void of people, though perfume and cologne scents lingered. A curved welcome desk with two security guards sitting behind it was the only sign that someone actually worked in the building. There were two elevators on her left with a marque hanging on the wall showing a list of names and office numbers.
“Can I help you?” The guard closest to the elevator stood as she approached. She sniffed. Human.
She flashed her badge toward the guard. “I need to speak with Patrick Smith.”
He picked up the phone and punched some numbers. “SID needs to speak with Smith.”
A couple grunts later and he dropped the phone back in the cradle. “Have a seat. He’ll be down in a minute.”
“Thanks.” She smiled before heading to the seating area. She stood next to one of the plants with her back to the guards, ignoring the seats that looked about as welcoming, and as comfortable, as sitting on a rock. She gazed out of the floor-to-ceiling window until she heard the elevator ding in the lobby.
She pivoted around to find Patrick Smith strolling her way. He’d ditched the trench coat and suit jacket and was now wearing a white lab coat in its place. He smiled at her, and she sniffed the air, expecting to smell whatever drugs or liquids he’d been using. Instead, she smelled his…fear? Oh, Mr. Smith, don’t you know our kind can smell the stress in your sweat?
“Detective.” He held out his hand in greeting. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again. Is everything okay with Jennifer?”
“She’s fine.” She shook his wet palm and hid her reaction behind the fake smile on her face. Elizabeth gestured to his clothing. “Your wife said you were an accountant.”
“Oh, right.” He lifted the lab coat. “I spilled something on my suit jacket.”
She gave a slow nod. “I just had a few questions for you. You said that Jennifer has been sleeping on and off for twenty-four hours. How did she get home that night after the bar?”
Patrick shoved his hands into his coat pockets. “Jennifer has never been one to handle her liquor. One glass of wine, and she’s normally tipsy. When she told me she was going out with the girls, I didn’t expect her to come home hammered. Around midnight, when I couldn’t reach her on the phone, I got dressed and was heading out to see if I could track her down, but all I had to do was open the door. She was leaning against the railing on our doorstep, passed out. It’s amazing she still had her purse and not a single scratch on her car.”
“When she woke up, did she say anything to you?”
“She didn’t say anything but that she had a bad headache.” He ran his hand through his hair. “She took some meds, drank a gallon of water, ate some toast, and went back to bed.”
“Thanks for your help clearing that up. Do you know who reported her missing or why?”
“Not a clue.” He shook his head and pressed his lips together. “All I can tell you is that it wasn’t me.”
“Thanks for your time.” She patted his arm as she passed heading toward the door, only stopping before she pushed through. “One more thing.”
She walked back to him, stopping halfway. “What’s your wife’s animal?”
“What?” He tilted his head. Fine lines crinkled his forehead. “My wife isn’t a shifter.”
She sniffed the air as he said the words and got a whiff of what she already knew. He was lying. Why would he lie about something so easy to prove?
He glanced over his shoulder toward the security guards. “If you’ll excuse me, I really need to get back.”
She smiled and nodded before spinning around and pushing out through the rotating door.
DNA, either in the lab or confirmation by talking to Jennifer’s parents, would tell her story. She pulled out her phone and dialed Colton. “Tell me you’ve got the information on her parents.”
“15th and 7th, Lot 22.”
She stopped in her tracks. “The trailer park?”
“Yes.”
“Huh.” She continued walking. “Their daughter lives in the ritzy part of town. I guess I was expecting them to be kind of well off.”
“On the marriage license filed two months ago, Jennifer indicated her parents were dead, but when we cross-referenced them in our database, we found them alive and well.”
“She is also pretty adamant she’s not a shifter, and the funny thing is, she smelled like she was telling the truth. What the hell is going on?”
“She just arrived a few minutes ago to give her DNA sample. I guess we’ll know soon enough.”
“Copy that. I’m going to talk to the parents. Get the guys to work on finding me someone that has seen this woman shift. Jennifer and Patrick Smith might be denying the existence of her animal, but she couldn’t have hidden it for twenty-five years. I need to know what she is.”
Colton was saying something into the phone, but she wasn’t listening. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she unlocked the door of her car. She glanced around, letting her gaze scan her surroundings. There was a shift in the air, indicating something foreboding and sinister nearby. She felt it down deep in her core. It felt similar and yet unknown. She felt as though she was being watched and lifted her nose to the air, taking a deep breath. Nothing. She turned back toward the building and scanned the windows to figure out what was causing her unease.
Patrick was standing at a window on the third floor, looking down at her with a scowl on his face. Farther up on the top floor, a man in his fifties stood in the window, also looking down at her. His hands were clasped behind his back. He was wearing a dark business suit that matched his dark hair.
“What do we have here? You’re new,” she whispered into the phone.
“Elizabeth?” Colton asked with concern in his voice. “Are you all right?”
“If you call two pissed-off men staring down at me from a building all right, then yeah, I’m fine. Listen I’ve got to go.”
She ended the call and palmed her phone. She smiled up at both men and walked back into the building, straight to the marque.
“Detective?”
She waved him off.
The guard picked up the desk phone and was talking in hushed tones as she used her phone and took a picture of the names and floors of the people listed on the marque.
“Thanks, boys,” she called over her shoulder and grinned like a kid that had stolen the last cookie. She turned around before pushing through the revolving door. “You can tell them I’ll be back.” She grinned even bigger as she walked out to her car and glanced up at both windows. The guy in the dark suit had a phone pressed to his ear, looking down at her, but Patrick was nowhere to be seen.
She’d just slid into her car when the passenger door flew open, and Evan moved into the seat. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
“Screw you.”
He shook his head and pointed out the windshield. “Drive. You’re being watched.”
She turned the ignition over as she scanned her surroundings. “If you’re talking about the guys upstairs, I already know.”
“No, I’m referring to a couple of angry wolves.”
Elizabeth gripped the wheel tighter as she turned out onto the main street, her gaze going from the rearview mirror to the road and back again. “Stanton?”
“Not him personally, but I think they might be a few of his pack members.” He glanced over at her. “Nothing you can’t handle. It just seems you’re a bit preoccupied lately.”
She chuckled. “Yeah, doing my damn job.” She glanced back at him and raised her brow. “Which, by the way, I won’t cease doing because you insist. You should just go ahead and tell me where the girls are. It will save us both a lot of time.”
“Can’t do that.”
“I should run your ass in and let you sit in a cell. That should change your mind.”
He chuckled. “I’d be out within the hour.” He turned to her. “You don’t get it, do you? The Jordanians are the reason there is even a Shifters Division in place. We’re like the founding fathers. Think of your dad in terms of being like the President. He’s the top dog, and referred to as the King of our kind, not necessarily over a continent or some mystical place, but all of our kind, and our existence.”
“And I’m the defiant daughter who doesn’t follow the rules. Get over yourself. I’m going to find those girls.” She pulled the car over and leaned across him to open his door. “And when I do, I’m coming after everyone who could have stepped in to prevent it and didn’t.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying.” Evan shook his head and slid out of the car. He rested his arm on the door and leaned back in.
“How would I? You’ve done nothing but keep secrets from me and let me live in a world where I don’t belong. Well, guess what. I’m changing all of that, starting with this case.”
“Everything that I’m doing…is for you.”
“Save it.”
“Fine.” His lips twitched. “You want answers. I’ll give you a glimpse of what we’re about. What you’re about. Meet me tonight at the corner of Cervantes and Fifth.” He went to shut the door but paused and leaned back in. “And leave the bear where he belongs.”
“As if,” she mumbled as the door slammed into place. She watched as Evan jogged toward the tree line. The big sword he’d had strapped to his back yesterday had been replaced by twin katanas with intricate designs. The deadly blades matched the power Evan exuded. He was sexy in a lethal way. The bad-boy type mothers everywhere warned their daughters about. He was the worst. Thoughts of him distracted her from her job, and not in a good way, more of an “I’m ready to strangle you” kind of way.
She put the car into drive again and headed back into the Glades, toward the trailer park. Her mind was trying to put all of the puzzle pieces into place, yet stalling out before she could draw any conclusions. Ten minutes later, she parked in front of a rusted, beat-up trailer in the back of the park against the tree line. The screen door was hanging from the hinges. Old tires and bricks were scattered in the tiny yard. She checked her gun and shoved it back into place before she stepped out of the car. She stood in place and swiveled around on the spot. She felt more eyes on her, yet this wasn’t the same feeling she’d had at the lab. She sniffed the air. The unique smells of wolves, cats, and bear were thick in the air as if the property had housed them for years. She glanced at the surrounding trailers calculating who might live where.
Turning, she headed for the door, pulled her badge from her waist, and knocked.
Curses drifted to her ears and grew louder with each step that came closer. An older woman yanked the door open, a cigarette dangling from between her lips. The scent of mildew and mold hit Elizabeth in the face, making her want to hold her breath.
“What do you want?” the woman demanded.
“Are you Matilda Franklin?”
“Who wants to know?” She popped her hip to the side and rested her fisted hand at her waist.
“I’m a detective with SID, and I have some questions about your daughter.”
“Jenny? What has she done?” Matilda took the cigarette and flicked the ashes out the door. “I hope you don’t expect me to go bail that ungrateful bitch out of jail.”
“No, nothing like that. When was the last time you spoke with her?”
Matilda took a drag of the cigarette, and the red embers burned with her pull. “When she was sixteen.” The woman turned to walk into the trailer, leaving Elizabeth to follow her. “We had a fight after her first shift. She said she hated us and wished she’d never been born and ran off. We haven’t heard from her since.”
Elizabeth pulled the door closed as best she could and walked into the dank, dark living room. Dirt covered the windows on the outside, preventing needed sunlight from entering. The couch was torn in a couple of places, the recliner not in any better condition. Ashtrays overflowing with old cigarette butts sat on the tables, and empty vodka bottles sat on the counter.
“You said it was after her first shift? What’s her animal?”
“She’s a fox.”
Elizabeth nodded and let the information sink in. “Do you have any pictures of Jenny?”
“Yeah.” She walked over to the fridge and slid a picture from behind a magnet. “She may be a bitch, but she’s our bitch.”
Elizabeth stared down at the picture of the young blonde with crooked teeth. The only resemblance between the woman she’d met earlier, and the unruly teen in the picture, was her striking blue eyes and the unmistakable mole on her neck. “Do you mind if I hold on to this?”
Matilda hesitated. “That’s the only one we have.”
“I’ll make a copy and have the original returned within the hour.”
“Yeah, I guess that would be okay.”
“Thanks for your time.” Elizabeth gave the woman a sad smile. She was a mother who missed her child, no matter what the circumstances. Elizabeth felt the waves of sorrow coming from the woman.
“If you see our Jenny…” the woman started to say, her eyes hopeful. “Tell her we never moved in hopes she’d come home.”