Hector
He stormed up the front stairs, clearing them in a single bound, careful to restrain himself as he went through the doors so that they didn’t break under his impact.
“Where’s Andrew?” he barked.
Gray turned from the wall he was standing in front of, paintbrush and paint can in hand.
“Pardon?”
“I need to see Andrew immediately,” he said.
“I imagine he’s either in his office or asleep,” Gray replied, setting his instruments aside for the moment. “Why, what’s up?”
“Better come with me,” Hector said, striding forward without slowing down. He reached Andrew’s office but the door was closed. A quick turn indicated it was locked, and a peek under showed the lights off.
Gray was waiting for him in the lobby. “No dice?”
“None.”
“Can I find out what’s going on yet?”
“Treason,” Hector growled as his legs flexed twice, hurling him up the stairs in a double leap.
He turned to the right and headed down the hallway. Andrew had the closest room to the stairs. Hector rapped his knuckles on the door three times, then paused, then another three times. He waited ten seconds, then repeated it, but nobody answered.
“Where is he?” The question was a half-bellow as he returned to the stairs and vaulted over the railing, landing easily on the ground below.
“What is going on?” Gray asked, stepping up in front of him.
“Somebody did this on purpose,” he growled, gesturing around the embassy. “All of it. It was a setup.”
“Hector, you need to explain to me exactly what is going on,” Gray said, his voice deathly serious.
“I was out moping around earlier,” he said, pacing back and forth impatiently as he spoke. “And I happened to randomly come across a scent that I recognized. One I’d smelled before. So I tracked it down.”
“Who was it?”
Hector smiled. “It belonged to the same man who was half of the arguing couple out in front of the embassy the day of the fire.”
Gray nodded for him to continue.
“Turns out, there was no couple. There wasn’t even a real fight. They were paid to stage it. He was supposed to wait until I came outside, hit her, and then run.”
“How did you find this out?” Gray asked.
“I questioned him,” Hector replied icily. “But that was after I stormed the building he was in, and after the person who had hired him fled.”
“Who do we think it was?”
“A shifter.”
Gray went still. “That’s a hell of an accusation to level at someone.”
“When they fled, they dropped a stinkbomb, Gray. Think that one over for a moment.”
Hector watched his friend process that and come to the same conclusion. Only a shifter would think to cover his tracks, and only someone expecting other shifters would carry such an implement on them.
“Did this human identify who it was?”
“No,” he spat. “He never saw his face. Always met in darkness. But he said he was big, like me.”
“Damn,” Gray whispered. “Damn, damn, damn.”
“Exactly. We need to find Andrew. This changes everything. It means that I’m not responsible for the fire starting.” He paused. “And it means that someone likely killed Corvin before they lit the fire.”
“But why Corvin?” Gray asked. “That’s the part that doesn’t make sense. What did he do? He’d been here barely a few days at that point.”
“We obviously missed something,” Hector replied. “Once we catch this asshole we’ll make sure we find out.”
“I always did think it weird that Corvin didn’t make it out. He didn’t seem like the alcoholic type.”
“He wasn’t drunk,” Hector said. “Just a little buzzed. Not even really slurry his words. There is no way he just passed out and didn’t try to escape. No, someone made sure he was dead, then lit the fire to cover their tracks and to blame me.”
“What do we do now?” Gray asked.
“I’m not sure. We need to tell Andrew, obviously, but since we can’t find him, that’ll have to wait until morning. We can obviously scent-test every shifter who comes back. Any of them that smell like either stinkbomb or a fresh shower are going to be under suspicion. But other than that, I’m not entirely sure,” he admitted, feeling stumped by the question. “In the morning I’m going over to the fire department. They’ve got a report on the fire. I guess we’ll find out for sure if it was set deliberately or not.”
The look between the two of them made it clear what they thought the report would indicate. Everything had been too coincidental to start, and now that there was evidence of shifter involvement, the whole thing was starting to come unraveled. All they needed now was their guilty party.
“I suppose I should tell Rachel too,” he said after a moment. “Let her know that there’s an inside track that maybe I’m not going to have to leave.”
Gray frowned. “Right, forgot to tell you. She was here not too long ago looking for you.”
“She was?” he asked, trying to keep the smile off his face.
“Yeah. Last I saw of her she was heading up to your room to look for you. Maybe she’s still there?”
Hector didn’t wait around. He was already moving for the stairs—the left-hand one this time—taking the steps in three bounds this time as he reached the top and rounded the corner, almost bowling over another shifter.
“Sorry!” he said as he dodged aside and continued down the hall to his room. “Rachel?” he asked, opening the door and walking inside. He called his bear and let it test the room. Her scent was immediately detectable, strong and recent at that. But she wasn’t in the room. Following the trail, he went outside the room again and back toward the staircase. The scent of her coming and going started to get intermingled and it was tough for him to track it, but he kept it up, down to the bottom of the stairs where it split again.
He followed her outside in the rear loading area. Almost immediately his arm started to ache as he remembered what had happened the last time he was out here. Angrily he tried to keep an eye out for approaching trouble as he crossed the paved lot, noting where her scent was going. The storage shed. She must have been looking for him in there. But why?
“Rachel?” he called, starting to get worried.
He reached the door to the storage shed, noting the dent in the wall that he’d put there not so long ago. Her scent ended at the door, where it mixed with—
Hector went rigid.
“Oh no,” he whispered as the horrible smell hit him. “No that’s not possible.”
He sucked in a breath. “GRAY!” he roared at the top of his lungs, the sound so loud it rattled windows and vibrated the metal walls. Windows popped open as several shifters yelled at him to keep it down because they were trying to sleep.
The nearest door opened and Gray emerged.
“Get Martin. Our mystery shifter has Rachel,” he said, his eyes pinpricks of blazing anger as he strode forward into the storage shed, muscles flexing in time with his fists. Hector wasn’t fooling around any longer.
He went into the room ready to tear apart anyone who would lay a hand on his mate.