Chapter 42
JESS
I spent several hours trying to work on a painting I had started the previous week. I guess it was about mid-afternoon when I heard sounds at the front door. I ran to open it, thankful that Cade was home at last.
But when I pulled it open, it wasn’t Cade who was shaking the snow off himself on the threshold. It was the doctor, Jake Cartwright.
My heart seemed to stop. Why was he here? I looked past him at the snow swirling. I’d been so involved in my work I hadn’t noticed that the snow had turned heavy. Shouldn’t Cade be home by now?
Jake had given me the bad news once about my grandfather. And there was something odd about the expression on his face now. “Jake? What is it?” My voice was so dry I could hardly croak out the words. “What’s wrong?”
He stamped snow on the mat and stepped inside. “Cade here? I need to speak with him.”
“No, he’s not here. He’s out hunting. I didn’t realize the weather had turned so bad. Do you know where he is?”
His gaze swept me and he must have taken in how alarmed I was. “Hey, it’s okay,” he said quickly. “No, I’ve no idea where he is, but I’m sure he’s fine. I drove over because he wasn’t picking up his cell, but that’s no surprise. Cell service sucks out here in the woods.” He took my arm and walked with me into the living room.
“I know. Sorry. I saw you and panicked.”
He grinned. “Happens to me all the time. But no worries. Cade’s a woodsman and a wolf. A little storm isn’t going to bother him.”
I was relieved by his confident tone. “I’m just feeling guilty because we had a bit of an argument before he left.”
“Ha. Well, in that case, maybe he’s stopped off at a bar on the way home to get himself some sympathetic male companionship. Totally normal.”
I remembered my manners. “Do you want some hot coffee? Or something stronger?”
“No thanks, I’m good. When Cade does get home, I want to talk to him. Will you give him a message for me?”
“Of course.” I noticed that his face had grown worried again. “What’s going on?”
“Yeah, I got some news. There’s a Council meeting tonight, but I’d like to tell him before the meeting, assuming cell service comes back.”
“It’s been spotty lately. Is this something you can tell me? I’ll make sure he gets your news before he heads out to the meeting.”
For a moment, he looked uncertain. “Does Cade talk to you much about pack business?”
“He didn’t in the beginning, but now he does. You can count on me to be discreet.”
“Okay, good.” He pulled of his down jacket and sat down. “It’s disturbing news, truth to tell. That’s why I wanted him to hear it before the meeting.”
Damn, something was definitely up. Despite his physician’s sangfroid, I could tell by Jake’s demeanor that he was upset. Had someone died?
“Do you know about the murder we had a few weeks back? Motorcycle gang member attacked by what looked like a shifted wolf?”
“Yes. Cade told me. What about it?”
“Late last night, there was another attack. Same method. I was on night duty at the ER when the patient was brought in.”
Alarm washed through me again. Seriously, it seemed I was living in a bath of adrenaline these days. I was so over-sensitized that full-blown panic erupted at the slightest thing.
“The victim came in a little before dawn. She was still alive, but she’d been severely clawed and bitten and there wasn’t much I could do for her. She’d already lost a huge amount of blood and she wasn’t in good health to start with. Druggie. Connected with one of the MCs.”
“We stabilized her and she came to and started talking. But she was on a combo of drugs, so it’s hard to tell if she was making sense.”
“What did she say?”
“I’ll tell you, but pass this news on carefully, okay? Make sure Cade understands that the woman was raving. There’s no evidence that she was telling the truth. Anyway, she claimed to be poor Jock’s old lady, and a hanger-on in the Rockets MC.”
“Jock is the man who died?”
“Yep. Seems like this woman had been treated real bad by the other members of the club since his death.”
No doubt. From the little I knew, women associated with motorcycle gangs didn’t fare too well under any circumstances.
“Anyway, she claims Jock was killed because he was stupid enough to try to blackmail a shifter. But this is the real kicker: she said that the person Jock had been trying to extort was the same person who hired him to take the hit on Cade’s brother four years back.”
The hit? “Cade told me that Aaron was caught in the crossfire of a shootout. Now you’re saying he was assassinated?”
“It could be complete bullshit. This is a drug addict and a prostitute talking, and she was out of her head. Not the most reliable witness.”
My heart was pounding now for another reason. If Cade’s brother turned out to have been murdered, all the horror his family had lived through would be brought back. Plus, he’d want to know who’d done it. He’d want revenge.
“Did she say who this shifter was?”
He shook his head. “She claimed Jock hadn't told her that.”
Something else occurred to me. If these two shifter attacks were related, then it was unlikely that I’d had anything to do with the first attack. I hadn't really been worrying about that lately, but it was still good to know.
“Is this witness safe? If someone attacked her last night and failed to kill her, they might try again.”
He looked down at the floor. “That’s the thing. They didn’t fail. She seemed to rally for a few minutes, but then she crashed. Massive circulatory system failure. She’d lost too much blood. We couldn’t get her back.”
“So she’s dead.”
“Yeah. And we have no way of verifying her confession. If it even was a confession rather than some crazy fantasy. But Cade’ll want to know about it. And to look into it, no doubt .”
I nodded. Yet another problem to deal with. “Is there anything to suggest that she was telling the truth?”
“Well, we do know Jock was at the bar the night Aaron died. His story was that he didn’t see anything, didn’t do anything. Didn’t even have a gun on him.” Jake rolled his eyes at this. “He didn’t get caught with one, at least.”
“The police must have investigated.”
“They did. Aaron’s and Cade’s dad did, too, you can count on that. He didn’t believe a damn thing anybody in the MC had to say. But if there really was a hit on Aaron, it’s never been proven. He was a popular guy. Everybody loved him. Who would want to kill Aaron?”
We looked at each other. “Someone who wanted to replace him as future leader of the pack?”
“You’re not referring to Cade, I trust.”
“Of course not! I’m referring to Brandon. Wasn’t he Cade’s competition for the post?”
“Yeah, he was. But he submitted, didn’t he? And Brandon and Aaron were best friends.”
“I don’t trust him.”
Jake shrugged. “Neither do I, but he’s been loyal since Cade took over. I’d be the first to jump on him if I had any excuse, but he’s buckled down under Cade’s leadership, considering he’s a strong alpha himself.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Suzanne put him up to it.”
He shrugged. “I don’t think even Brandon would go against the pack and against the man who was his closest friend on account of a woman.”
I couldn’t really find the right words to argue with that.
“Anyway, if Cade could share the news with his mother, I’d appreciate it. Obviously, Lorna has to be told. I hope for her sake it’s not true. Would be cruel to drag it all up again.”
“If there’s any possibility that Aaron was murdered, Cade will want to bring that person to justice.”
“Me, too. Aaron was a friend of mine.”
We shared a long look and I felt like a real member of the pack. Cade’s mate. Jake had told me something important and I would have a part to play. I just wished Cade were here now, so he could help figure out how to handle it.
For the first time, I felt the responsibility of my position as mate to the leader of the wolf pack. It pressed down on my shoulders like a boulder. Fuck. I wasn’t going anywhere, after all, was I? My own bullshit seemed trivial in comparison with this.