Chapter 20 Wrong Connections
WRONG CONNECTIONS
“This is bigger than we thought,” my alpha said.
“Somebody has spent over a year dismantling the Lincoln sisters’ finances and paying off a coven to do God knows what.
This is no longer just about a kidnapping.
This is a plan with significant financial repercussions that will have a negative impact on healthcare of the supernatural community in Amberford.
” The mate bond hummed with the sharp focus that meant his protective instincts had fully engaged.
“I’m taking this to the Alliance. Cornelius and the others need to know.
” Samuel’s gaze settled on Gavin and me.
“Keep digging into those shell entities. I want to know where that money trail ends. And Didi?”
“I know.” The witch was already on her feet, her face grim. “I’ll start working my coven contacts and look into the Ashgrove witches.” She left the room.
Samuel pulled his phone out of his pocket and started dialing as he headed out. The call connected. His voice dropped into the low, clipped tone he reserved for pack business and Alliance meetings.
Gavin and I exchanged a look.
“Looks like it’s the two of us looking into that Delaware company.” I studied the bags under his eyes. “You should take a nap first.”
The dragon newt blinked fuzzily. Now that he’d told us about his findings, the energy seemed to have drained out of him.
“You sure?”
I made a face. “How many Abbys do you see?”
“Five,” he said promptly.
“I rest my case.”
I spent the next few hours chasing the Delaware holding company through a labyrinth of financial records. Gavin soon joined me, a coffee in hand.
Bo poked his head out from under my desk.
“Should he be drinking that?” he said in a stage-loud whisper.
Gavin pretended not to hear him.
I hesitated. The dragon newt was famous for his volatile and dangerous relationship with caffeine. The fact that he was already well over his weekly allowed quota should have worried me.
“The situation warrants it,” I said finally.
Bo wagged his tail and looked at me with limpid eyes. “Does the situation warrant me coming off my diet?”
“No.”
The Husky huffed and disappeared under the desk, tail drooping.
My gut tightened the deeper Gavin and I delved into the shell entities. Whoever had set them up understood corporate law and financial obfuscation at a level that made my former employers look like amateurs. Each layer peeled back to reveal another and the trail grew colder with every step.
Samuel returned at lunch time, his expression steely.
“I’ve informed Cornelius,” he said, dropping into the chair beside me. “I also spoke with Portia, Finnic, and Wendall individually. The Tremaines and Tatiana are out of town right now.”
I hesitated. “What about Melody?”
Samuel’s silence was answer enough. Melody was officially on the suspect list.
“How did Cornelius take it?”
“About as well as you’d expect from a fae who’s always stressed about property taxes.
” Samuel rubbed the back of his neck. “He’s concerned, of course.
He admitted that the Lincoln sisters’ absence has been nagging at him.
With Daria on the West Coast, he thought it best for her to deal with the matter once she returned, since it concerned witch business.
He’s authorized a formal investigation under the Alliance’s oversight. ”
I felt his tension spike across the mate bond. “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“It means whoever is behind this will know we’re looking.” Samuel met my eyes, a muscle twitching in his cheek. “The Alliance isn’t known for its discretion. Once they start digging, word will travel.”
A chill crept through me. My wolf growled softly.
“You think we’re putting a target on our backs,” I said.
“I think we already have one.” His hand found mine under the table, his grip warm and steady. “Which is why I don’t want to let you out of my sight from here on out.”
The mate bond pulsed with an intensity that made parts of me tingle. I glanced in the direction of his office.
Samuel’s mouth twitched when he picked up on my illicit thoughts.
Bo’s head popped up between us.
“I really don’t think humping should be at the top of your to-do list right now,” my dog observed solemnly. “You have bigger fish to fry.” He licked his chops. “Speaking of fish, how about we order sushi from that place up the road?”
“No,” Samuel and I said as one.
Bo sighed dramatically.
Didi returned late in the afternoon.
I knew something was wrong before she opened her mouth. The witch’s face was tight with the kind of controlled fury that preceded someone getting turned into a frog.
She called an urgent meeting and dropped into a chair in the conference room where we’d reconvened. “The Ashgrove coven has gone dark.”
Samuel’s attention sharpened. “Define ‘dark.’”
“As in nobody has seen or heard from them in weeks. They’ve stopped attending inter-coven gatherings.
They pulled their children from the shared coven school last month.
Two of my contacts tried to visit them recently and were turned away at the door.
” Didi’s fingers curled on the table. “One of them said the woman who answered didn’t even look like herself. That her eyes were… wrong.”
A chill danced down my spine. Bo’s ears flattened.
“That’s not all,” Didi continued, her tone hardening.
“I did a bit of digging into the Ashgrove witches’ history.
The property where their coven sits has a complicated past. It changed hands under circumstances that didn’t sit well with the coven registry at the time.
There are notes about an irregular land transfer that was never formally resolved. ”
The accountant in me reared her head. I furrowed my brow.
“That’s the kind of thing that could be used as leverage if somebody wanted to exert pressure.”
“So, blackmail material,” Samuel stated flatly.
Didi dipped her head curtly. “Possibly.”
Gavin’s horns started smoking.
My mind raced, the pieces coming together like a ledger that balanced in all the wrong ways. “Maybe someone decided to exploit that vulnerability to force the coven to assist them in making sure the Lincoln sisters vanish for good.”
Didi shifted in her chair. “There’s something else.” The witch hesitated.
We stared. For Didi, hesitation was practically an alien concept.
“When I was looking up the Ashgrove coven’s connections, I found an overlap I wasn’t expecting,” Didi admitted reluctantly.
My wolf’s instincts kicked in. “Melody Flowers.”
Samuel shot me a surprised look. Gavin’s horns popped out fully.
Didi nodded. “Three former members of the Ashgrove coven left about six months ago. They joined a different coven. Melody’s.”
Samuel stilled. I could feel his wolf rising through the bond, alert and dangerous.
“That could be a coincidence,” Gavin offered weakly.
Didi’s expression clouded. “In my experience, coincidences are just patterns that haven’t been explained yet.”
I frowned. Didi was right.
Melody had stepped into the Lincoln sisters’ Alliance seat with a smile and a convenient story about them needing a vacation. Yet her behavior at Coven Headquarters had revealed an altogether sinister alternative for that sequence of events. I chewed my lip.
Was Melody being blackmailed too?
“We need to talk to her,” I told Samuel.
“Agreed.” His face darkened. “But not at Coven Headquarters. We should visit her at home.”
That made sense. Melody had acted as if the walls had ears at Coven Headquarters.
“Let’s drop by her place tomorrow morning.
” Samuel tapped a finger on the table. “In the meantime, keep pulling on the financial thread and the Ashgrove connection. If Melody is involved, I want to know how deep it goes before we confront her.” He looked past my shoulder and grimaced.
“We should probably let Gavin go home for the day.”
The dragon newt was snoring softly with his eyes open.
“That’s freaky,” Bo huffed.