Chapter 5
five
As luck would have it, Mephistopheles got his leash tangled around a tree only a quarter mile from the loop.
The poor little guy had worked himself up until he had trouble drawing in a clear breath.
I cut the leash to save time unknotting it and lifted him against my chest where I could calm him better.
Too bad I was out of the homemade peanut butter treats I usually carried on me for clients.
If we stayed with Rían much longer, I would have to commandeer his kitchen so I could restock my supply.
I could do cookies—maybe s’mores in honor of Goldie—while I was already baking or cook him dinner one night to say thanks for his hospitality.
“You’re okay.” I inspected him for injuries. “I’ve got you.”
The way he snuffled me, tail wagging, convinced me his owner was a shifter.
Otherwise, the scent of a predator would have set his fur bristling.
“Oh, man.” Sloane burst into the clearing.
“I swear Liam’s head spun like a top when he noticed y’all had slipped away without him.
” A spring in her step told me how much she had enjoyed the show.
“I left him watching the security feeds on Tara’s phone to soothe his ego while I came to fetch you and Rían. ”
“You didn’t run into Rían on your way here?”
“I haven’t seen him since you guys left.” She shook her head at my pinched expression. “He can take care of himself, Ana. He’s a freaking dragon. He could just eat anyone who looks at him funny.”
Except she hadn’t seen him bleeding out in the potting shed, proof dragon blood didn’t make him invincible.
“I didn’t bring my phone, or I could—” I shifted the squirming Frenchie onto my other hip. “Never mind.” I had glossed over a critical detail. “I don’t have his number.”
With Brentwood in a temporary tech blackout while the Walshes settled in, I hadn’t even thought of it.
“I have my cell, but I don’t have his number either.” She puffed out her cheeks. “We’ll look for him on the way back, but if we can’t find him, we’ll have Liam dial him up and get a status update.”
“Works for me.” I had confidence I could locate him. I had spent enough time in close quarters with him to recognize his scent. “Let’s circle back to the abduction site. I can pick up his direction from there.”
As it happened, I wasn’t required to sniff him out. He was waiting for us right where I had left him earlier with his hands shoved into his pockets. His face brightened when he spotted me, and he met us halfway.
Scratching the dog behind his ears, Rían earned a few tail wags. “How is the little adventurer?”
“Tired and thirsty from the run, but fine.” I resettled the squirming Frenchie. “Learn anything useful?”
“The assailant carried your friend to a vehicle parked off the shoulder of the main road.” He pointed to a location almost straight across from the loop.
“The trail for Lon ends there, but there was no other scent in the vicinity, which means they used a charm to mask their identities. We’re dealing with paras, likely a shifter of some kind.
Probably one of Sartori’s allies. Only one coven in the area traffics in shifter-specific charms, that’s all Sartori allows, and they’re exclusive to him.
So, the charm came from him or was given with his permission. ”
That fit with what I knew about the Fabien coven, the supplier Mercer (and I) frequented.
They operated out of a cupcake shop on Langhorne Street in Meriton, a town situated between the borders of the pack lands and Brentwood.
They might have been willing to make an exception for me as Sartori’s daughter, but I was sure my days of buying their charms under the table were over after the clash with Mercer.
That was why, to preserve the singular charm I had left, one that concealed my scent, I was keeping it on the chain Rían gifted me in my sock drawer until further notice.
“We should start calling owners and evacuating Pampered Pooches.”
“I was thinking the same,” I admitted, sawing my bottom lip between my teeth. “But we’ll have to wait for that until after we learn all we can from the scene. As soon as pets and owners start flowing in and out, we’ll lose valuable evidence. I can call the employees’ families in the meantime.”
Emergency contacts ought to be listed in the computer, so it wouldn’t take long to find them. We just had to settle on a believable cover story first. An emergency at GSG ought to do it, one that required me to bring in outside help. Possibly overnight help. Or even three day weekend help.
“You sound weirdly professional.” Sloane blinked at me. “Are you a true crime junkie?”
“Um.” I scratched the back of my head. “It must come from spending so much time around sentinels.”
Mercer used to escort me on playdates when I was a kid, and he didn’t shy away from talking business while pushing me on the swings.
I figured out fast that Dad forcing parents to make their kids accept his invitations only resulted in the kids resenting me, so I decided I would go with sentinels to the park or to the aquarium or to the zoo.
They mostly acted as if I wasn’t there, a true skill when their eyes never left me, and held their own conversations.
I hadn’t realized I was absorbing so much, but kids are sponges.
“We should get back before Liam comes looking for us.” Rían opened his arms, his hands making grabby motions at the exhausted pup. “I can carry him back for you if you’re tired.”
Narrowing my eyes on him, I relented and forked over the dog. “You just want an excuse to hold him.”
“Guilty as charged.” He snuggled the dog against his chest. “Fayne wouldn’t let us have a pet.”
With a nod to me, Sloane ranged ahead, not going too far but securing the area for us.
“Why not?” I fell in step with Rían. “Allergies?”
Lizards were considered hypoallergenic because of their lack of dander, so Fayne might not have a negative reaction to her own people but only those with fur or feathers. Weird, I know, but even shifters pop Zyrtec now and then.
“It’s a general rule of thumb with juvenile dragons, and Liam and I hit puberty at the same time.” He turned sheepish. “We can, uh, have trouble telling pets from snacks when our blood rises.”
“Oh,” I squeaked out. “I see.”
“I wish I could see.” Sloane circled back to us. “I’m dying for one of you guys to shift.”
“Maybe when things settle down.” A frown gathered between his eyes. “Or if they don’t.”
A single dragon in a fight against the Sartori pack was enough to make my stomach twist, but there were at least four.
Goldie wouldn’t be fighting, of that I was sure, but Fayne might pitch in.
She had taken that gunshot to the chest without batting an eye.
That told me she was an old pro at shifter infighting.
The salon came into view, and Liam stood on the porch with Tara’s phone in hand.
A dark aura honed his features, and I knew without asking that whatever he had found wasn’t going to be good for Tara or her people.
He swept his gaze over Rían and then me but ignored Sloane.
Guess he’d figured out she helped orchestrate our escape and had earned herself a slot at the top of his shit list.
“Tara was knocked unconscious and carried out through the back door into the wooded area behind the salon. Kato fought back against his attacker and was shot in the knee to subdue him before he was struck in the head with the butt of the weapon and taken through the front door and across the road.”
Guilt and relief clashed within me that the blood had come from Kato, and that he left alive. This could have gone so much worse. As long as he received medical attention, and I couldn’t see why they would take him and not treat him, then he should be fine.
“That makes no sense.” Sloane tucked her hair behind her ear. “Why take them as hostages?”
“They’re only hostages,” I countered, second-guessing myself, “if demands are made for their release.”
“There’s more, isn’t there?” Rían handed the Frenchie back to me, awarding Liam his full attention. “What else have you learned?”
“See for yourself.” He tossed the phone to Rían, and I pressed into his side for a better view of the screen. “Just hit play. I’ve got the important part queued up and ready.”
A broad man with dark skin stood in the grooming area, staring up at the camera.
“I’m Perry Nelson, alpha of the Springvale cougar pride.
” His eyes glinted golden. “To honor my alliance with the Sartori pack, I have taken four humans from this establishment into custody. Their wounds will be treated, and they will be well cared for until such time as I receive word to release them.” More than anything, he struck me as bored with his assignment.
“Go home, Princess.” He gestured around him.
“Your daddy can make all of this go away if you’ll only cooperate. ”
Without another word, he turned on his heel and exited the building, disappearing from sight.
“So much for truces.” Sloane wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Ana.”
“They didn’t break their word,” Liam gritted out. “They made no promises to side with us over Sartori.”
“This goes beyond asking them to look the other way,” Rían agreed with reluctance. “They don’t know us. They don’t know what we’re capable of. Sartori is an old threat, a familiar one. They’ve chosen to side with the devil they know.”
“I have no choice.” I sagged on my bones, the reality of my situation sinking in fast, along with embarrassment I had thought even for a second I could outwit Dad. “I have to go to my father.”
“No.” Liam slashed a hand through the air. “That’s out of the question.”
“You don’t get to make decisions for her.” Rían curled his fingers into his palms down by his sides. “I won’t force her to stay with us, with me. She’ll never trust me if I lock her up the way he did, and you know it.”
“Then I’ll do it for you.” Defiance sparked in his eyes. “She’s your—”