Chapter Twenty-seven #3
Bennet hesitated, dropping his gaze. ‘Having had a chance to reflect on things, no, I don’t now believe she was involved,’ he begrudgingly admitted.
‘Reena was right in all she said. Besides, Emberlyn has an alibi. You. It couldn’t possibly have been her.
’ He slid his gaze briefly to her. ‘I apologize for my behavior earlier,’ he said, stiff. ‘I . . . I was not myself.’
‘No, I think you were,’ said Ripper. ‘I think you felt bold enough to be that person to the fullest extent because the woman you’d targeted was all alone.’
Bennet shook his head. ‘It wasn’t like that.’
Emberlyn personally didn’t agree. ‘Who was the first to suggest that I must have sent the Rabid?’
‘It was . . .’ He trailed off, his expression turning shifty. ‘I don’t recall.’
A growl rumbled out of Ripper.
‘Actually, come to think of it’ – Bennet cleared his throat – ‘it was Hank.’
That fit. He’d pushed to the front of the crowd earlier, hadn’t he?
‘Reena disagreed, and we all conceded that she’d made valid points,’ Bennet told Ripper.
‘But after she left, Hank insisted it could only be Emberlyn. The things he was saying made so much sense at the time. Looking back, I don’t understand.
’ His brow furrowing, he gave his head a little shake.
‘It was like . . . like someone used magick to manipulate me – maybe even all of us.’ His eyes went wide at the idea. ‘That must have been what happened.’
Hmm, it was possible that a spell had been cast that put the angry crowd into a suggestible frame of mind so that ‘seeds’ could be planted. But it wouldn’t have forced them to blame Emberlyn for the crime, or forced them to circle and attack her.
‘Yes, we were bespelled,’ Bennet proclaimed, eagerly latching onto the explanation to evade her wolf’s wrath. ‘Taking her on, even as a group, isn’t something we’d normally do. Especially when she has your protection. This explains it.’
Ripper cocked his head. ‘So what you’re saying is that it wasn’t your fault?’
‘Yes, yes. I’m not to blame. There was magickal interference.’
‘I should excuse what you did, then? I should let you go?’
‘Yes, you—’ Bennet choked again as Ripper went back to strangling him one-handed. Fear lived and breathed in the witch’s eyes, his face again turning splotchy and red.
‘You might want to ease up on the scare factor,’ Emberlyn advised Ripper. ‘I heard he has a weak bladder.’
‘You care if he pisses himself?’ Ripper asked her.
Not at all. ‘I figured you wouldn’t want to deal with the smell.’
‘Let me be clear,’ Ripper growled at him. ‘There are no excuses for harming Emberlyn by word or deed. Not a single. Fucking. One.’ A few moments later, he released the guy and stepped back.
His knees buckling, Bennet coughed and spluttered and hacked.
Ripper stared at him dispassionately. ‘I think you get the message I’m sending here, don’t you?’
Bennet nodded hard. ‘I get it,’ he wheezed out. ‘I really am sorry.’
He was sorry he’d found himself on the wrong side of Ripper’s attention. But just maybe it would be enough to cause him to curb his behavior in future. Time would tell.
Side by side, Emberlyn and Ripper strolled down the path. Only once they were back in her car did he say, ‘Either the prick was telling the truth about there being magickal interference, or he wants to believe it’s true because then he can escape the consequences.’
She nodded, not leaning toward any particular theory.
Ripper clicked on her belt. Just the mere graze of his fingers against her hip made her belly clench. But she didn’t have to curse her body for reacting to him so fervently anymore. He was hers now.
‘He said your uncle-in-law put your name forward,’ Ripper went on. ‘Could Hank have been the one who bespelled the crowd?’
Considering it, Emberlyn gunned the engine. ‘His magick is strong offensive-wise. But I don’t see him being powerful enough to take mental hold of an entire crowd.’
Ripper hummed. ‘I say we go talk to him next.’
Hank only lived a few blocks away, so the journey there was a short one. At Ripper’s knock on the front door, Gill peeked out the living room window. She did a double-take at the sight of them, apprehension washing over her face.
She came to the door, her shoulders stiff, and folded her arms. ‘What do you want?’ she asked, her nerves clearly rattled.
‘To speak with Hank,’ Ripper replied, his entire demeanor once more frightening as fuck.
Gill licked her lips. ‘He isn’t here.’
‘Sure he is. I can smell him. He’s standing just behind the door.’ Ripper shoved it open so hard it flew back, and a loud male cry pierced the air. Ignoring her indignant squawk, Ripper pushed past Gill and yanked her husband out from his hidey hole.
Emberlyn supposed she shouldn’t be too surprised that Hank would take cover and expect his wife to protect him. He’d always been a little weasel who expected others to fight his battles for him.
Ripper shoved him against the hallway wall, baring his teeth. ‘You really thought you could fucking hide from me? It’s like you asked yourself, “Hey, how can I piss Ripper off even more than I already have?” ’
‘You can’t hurt him!’ Gill protested.
Emberlyn shot her a look. ‘Back off. He’s a big boy. He can take his lumps all on his own. Oh, and I’m fine, by the way. Thanks for asking.’
Plastering his back fully against the wall as if it might help him escape Ripper, Hank spluttered. ‘You can’t barge into our home.’ It wasn’t a complaint, it was a full-on whine.
‘Just did,’ Ripper clipped. ‘Make me leave.’ It was a taunt . . . because they all knew that the odds of Hank manning up like that were slim to none.
And predictably, he did jack.
‘No, you wouldn’t dare, would you? A woman, yes, you’ll attack a woman – especially if you have company. But not someone who could beat the holy hell out of you.’ Ripper held a hand up near Hank’s face and unsheathed his claws. ‘Give me a reason why I shouldn’t. It’ll need to be a good one.’
Hank stared at the claws through bulging eyes, a sheen of sweat building on his forehead.
‘There is no good reason for what he did,’ uttered Gill, defeat coloring her tone.
Ripper lifted a brow at Hank. ‘Hear that? She knows. And here she is, standing up for you. Speaking for you. Taking your side over that of her niece, which makes me as pissed off with her as I am with you.’
Gill’s eyes widened. ‘It isn’t a matter of taking sides. He was wrong. I told him that he was wrong.’
‘Did you call Emberlyn to check on her? Did you apologize to her on his behalf?’
‘I’ve been busy trying to figure out who used magick to sway him.
’ Gill thrust a hand into her hair. ‘You’ll think I’m just making up excuses here, but I’m not.
Someone wove a spell to stir up that crowd.
No way would anyone have genuinely thought it a good idea to march to the manor and burn Emberlyn at the stake. ’
The fuck? Emberlyn gawked, fury tearing through her once more.
Ripper went deathly still, a growl rumbling in his chest. ‘Burn her at the stake?’ he echoed, refocusing on his captive. ‘That was the plan?’
Hank whimpered. ‘S-someone tossed out the idea. I don’t know who.’
‘You don’t know? Baby, he doesn’t know.’
‘Of course he does,’ said Emberlyn.
‘Oh, he definitely does.’ Ripper edged forward. ‘Who, Hank?’
Cowering, Hank scrunched his eyes shut.
‘Tell them, for God’s sake,’ Gill barked.
His chin trembling, Hank opened only one eye. ‘Patrick. It was Patrick.’
So, once Ripper felt satisfied that Hank understood he was to stay away from her, they went to Patrick’s house.
He wasn’t home, though. According to his girlfriend, he was with a coven member who specialized in mental cleansing – apparently, he was feeling ‘dirty’ from the manipulative magick that he’d allegedly earlier been gripped by.
Yes, like Bennet and Hank, he claimed to have been magickly coerced.
The girlfriend also stated she was convinced that the coven’s rebellious faction was behind what happened.
‘Making this claim could just be the crowd’s way of covering their asses,’ said Ripper as they headed back to her car, ‘but it would make sense that they’d been bespelled.
Nothing they did earlier could be called wise.
These people are dicks, but they’re not brave enough to really risk your wrath or mine. They’re weak.’
‘Which makes them easy to magickly manipulate,’ Emberlyn added.
They decided to pay Ruben a visit next. Nobody answered the door. Just the same, no one opened up when they went to the homes of Getty or the others involved. It was likely that they’d been warned Ripper was on the warpath and so they were pretending they weren’t home.
Returning to her car yet again, Emberlyn paused at the driver’s door. ‘Are we stopping off at CeCe’s place now?’
Meeting her gaze over the hood, Ripper frowned. ‘Why would we do that? She won’t know anything.’
‘No, but she does need dealing with after that shit she pulled last night. You had a little chat with her. Now it’s my turn.’ Emberlyn jumped into the car and closed the door.
Sliding onto the passenger seat, Ripper said, ‘I already handled it.’
‘So I should leave the situation be? That’s quite a double standard you have, considering you insisted on confronting every person who crowded me.’
Ripper’s lips tightened. ‘Baby, it’s not that I think you should let it go because I dealt with it.
You really want to go confront her, I’ll give you directions to her house; we’ll go there right now.
But she’d love for you to turn up there.
Love the attention and the drama. Like I said earlier, I’m done giving her attention. ’
Emberlyn sighed, understanding where he was coming from.
To track her down would be to play into her hands .
. . just as Ripper raging at the coven would have played into the faction’s hands.
He’d agreed to handle the latter situation differently.
She’d be a hypocrite if she didn’t do the same regarding CeCe.
‘Believe me when I say that she’ll be sitting by her window, waiting in anticipation for you to arrive,’ he added. ‘I’d prefer that we disappoint her.’
Emberlyn inhaled deeply. ‘Okay.’
‘Okay?’
‘Okay.’
His brows dipped, not looking reassured. ‘Why do I get the feeling you’re going to handle this however you see fit, regardless of what I say?’
‘I don’t know, why do you?’
‘Because you’re not a person who’s ever made a habit of letting anyone escape the consequences for things they’ve done to offend you.’
‘I’ve made exceptions.’
‘Really?’
‘No.’ She switched on the engine. ‘Seatbelt.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Drive back to the manor.’
‘I mean, what are you going to do about CeCe?’ he asked, clicking on his seatbelt.
She pulled out onto the road. ‘I don’t need to do anything. You handled it.’
‘You don’t need to, no, but you’re going to anyway. Aren’t you?’
She smiled. ‘I just love how paranoid I make you.’
‘That’s not an answer, Emberlyn.’
It was the only one he was getting.