Half Truths (A Helheim Wolf Pack Tale) (21 page)

‘Can we talk to
your waitress please?’ Grey asked politely. Her voice was so smooth compared to
Vaile’s.

Suleman smiled
at Grey, instantly setting Vaile on edge. ‘Of course Constable Grey,’ he
simpered. ‘Victoria!’ he called over his shoulder. A few moments later, a woman
dressed in a black leather mini skirt and black corset wandered from around the
corner. Her hair had been dyed black to blend in with the club, her lips
painted scarlet red and her eyes shaded to a smoky finish. When she cast her
eyes on Vaile, she stuck her chest out, and Grey stepped closer to him.

‘Hi,’ Victoria
said silkily.

‘Vic, this is
Detective Wolfe and his partner Constable Grey. They have some questions for
you,’ Suleman said, turning to leave after slapping Victoria on the ass. She
mock squealed and swatted him away playfully. The hungry look in Suleman’s eyes
told Vaile that he not only peddled whores, but sampled them too.

‘Victoria?’

She turned back
to Vaile, smiling seductively and stepping closer to him. Her hand rested on
his forearm where he had them folded across his chest. Grey cleared her throat
as Vaile pinned Victoria with an arctic glare. No amount of sexual favours were
going to get her out of this clusterfuck.

She dropped her
hand and the act of flirtatious siren with it—transforming her into a woman
just desperate to make some green. She sashayed over to a stool near the wall
and sat down heavily.

‘We need some
information from you about what happened tonight. Suleman said you were back
there with the Vic. That right?’

She didn’t
answer for a long time. In fact there was no noise except for the click of the
heating until Vaile smelled tears and Victoria’s body began shaking. ‘I did
this,’ she told them around a heaving sob.

Vaile’s brows
rose. ‘You killed him?’ Victoria looked up; her eyes red while black mascara
ran down her cheeks in streaks. Normally Grey would have stepped forward and
offered her a tissue, but not tonight. When he looked at Grey, her gaze was
steely—her expression hard. Could she be jealous? He scrubbed the idea away
almost instantly and got back to work. ‘Are you admitting that you killed him?’
Vaile pressed, finding it hard to believe that such a slight girl could be
capable of murder.

‘Not literally,’
she snapped suddenly, rubbing her hand under her nose. ‘I took money from
someone to leave the room—to leave him alone with her.’

‘It was a
woman?’ Vaile asked, suddenly getting that sinking feeling again. He could feel
Grey looking at him, but he didn’t meet her gaze. ‘What did she look like?’

‘She was black,
the same height as me, but she was solid like she hit the gym every day. She
had cornrows too.’

‘Eye colour?’
Vaile snapped impatiently.

‘It changed.
They were yellow one minute and black the next. I asked her when she bought her
contact lenses—since not many people have them yet—but she didn’t answer. She
just shoved five hundred bucks into my fist and told me to leave and not come
back. I can’t make five hundred bucks in more than a couple of days, and I’ve
got bills to pay. I just figured she wanted some privacy with the guy.’

Vaile glanced at
Grey, giving her a
did you get all that?
look. She nodded once, looking
over at the whore with a contemptuous look on her face.

‘Victoria, leave
us now. Tell Suleman not to come behind the curtain until CSI are done.’

Victoria nodded
and left them alone.

‘What’s wrong
with you?’ he asked Grey once they were as alone as they were ever going to
get. Her eyes were trailing after Victoria like she wanted to kill her.

‘I don’t like
her.’

‘No kidding,’ he
replied dryly.

Grey looked at
him and flushed; dropping her eyes. ‘I just don’t have any respect for women
who sell themselves like that. Shall we?’ she asked, raising her pale brows and
nodding over at the curtain which shrouded the body from view.

‘Yeah. You got
gloves?’

Grey nodded,
reaching into her pocket and pulling out a pair for him. Electricity sparked
between them as they touched fingers, but Vaile ignored it by swinging straight
into the investigation.

The guy was
still sitting up in the booth he’d commandeered when he’d arrived. His
button-down had been ripped off the body, laying on the ground and soaking up a
small amount of his blood. The harsh glare of the lights overhead made the
blood seem fake, but the rusty, metallic tang in the air stirred his wolf into
a restless state. The guy’s throat had been slashed, but there wasn’t enough blood
on the floor to account for the wound. When Vaile looked down, he was not
surprised to see the symbol he was expecting staring back at him—taunting him
because he couldn’t figure this out. If it was a vamp kill, what kind of
message were they trying to send? If it was Eirawen, why didn’t she just come
out and attack them? She was hardly the one to skulk around in the shadows, not
taking credit for what she was doing.

Vaile closed his
eyes, allowing his wolf to creep a little closer to the surface, feeling his
eyes slip. Grey noticed, and probably not for the first time.

‘What’s wrong
with your eyes?’ she asked, taking a cautious step towards him.

‘It’s the
lighting,’ he replied, brushing past her and approaching the body. His eyes
slid closed, allowing his wolf’s sense of smell a better chance at picking
something up. He crouched next to the guy and inhaled. Unsure, he took in
another deep breath. There. It
was
what he thought it was. Sitting back
on his heels, he searched the body again looking for any other distinguishing
marks.

‘What is it?
What have you found?’ Grey asked softly. She knelt beside him, balancing her
weight on her toes. ‘Vaile? What is it?’ she asked again.

He swallowed.
‘There’s an odour on this body.’

Grey frowned. ‘I
don’t smell anything.’

Of course she
couldn’t. His sense of smell was a thousand times better than hers thanks to
his wolf. ‘Trust me, it’s there.’

‘I trust you,’
she murmured. Vaile looked at her, stuck in the green of her eyes. Shaking
himself free of her gaze, he looked back at the body. ‘What is it?’

He couldn’t tell
her that he’d just smelt another wolf. He inhaled again. Definitely wolf. ‘I
need to check if the same smell is on the other bodies,’ he replied brashly,
standing from his crouch and pulling his gloves off. His mind was churning over
the possibility. If this was a wolf kill made to look like a vampire kill, what
was the point? He needed to identify the wolf. He needed to go back to the
morgue.

Vaile had been acting so strangely.
Larissa wasn’t sure she should follow him so blindly, but there was a voice at
the back of her head telling her to; telling her just to trust him, that he
wouldn’t lead her astray.

‘Vaile, where
are you going?’ she demanded to his huge back. His arm held up the black velvet
curtain, crushing the fabric in his fist. A very fine shudder ran through his body
before he turned.

‘I’m going to
the morgue again.’

She swallowed
thickly, hoping her voice wasn’t going to shake over the following words.
‘Well, I’m going with you then.’

‘No. You stay
here.’ She thought he meant to storm off at that point, but he stayed where he
was—just staring at her, probing her with his constantly shifting eyes. She put
her hands on her hips.

‘I’m not hanging
around here for you to get back. I’m coming with you,’ she said, more
forcefully this time. ‘Besides, you would just be driving across town to come
and pick me up again. My building is on the same side of the city as the
morgue.’ She could see Vaile chewing the inside of his cheek.

Eventually he
said, ‘Fine.’ But instead of leaving, he waited for her to walk through the
curtain. Suleman was waiting on the other side; cigarette smoke licking his
face as he pushed it out through his nostrils. He glanced hungrily in her
direction and Larissa felt her skin crawl.

‘Suleman, nobody
goes in there until the crime scene has been cleared,’ Vaile barked. Suleman’s
dark eyes evaluated Larissa carefully before ratcheting back to her partner.
Vaile must have noticed because he stood in front of her, his wide shoulders
shielding her from Suleman’s prying eyes.

‘I asked if that
was clear,’ Vaile snapped again, standing taller still by rolling his broad,
muscular shoulders back.

The air seemed
to thicken with testosterone.

‘Yeah, I got it.
Good evening, Detective,’ he nodded at Vaile. ‘Good evening, Constable.’
Suleman reached for Larissa’s hand, pulling it to his mouth. His lips were
rough against her skin like they’d been dry and chapped for a long time. She
jerked her hand away at the same time as Vaile’s huge, meaty hand wound its way
around Suleman’s throat.

A loud,
shocked-sounding exhale escaped Suleman’s mouth as he was thrust up against the
wall of his own club. ‘Police … brutality,’ he managed to say. Vaile growled,
his fingers inching closer and closer together.

‘Think I give a
fuck? Touch her again like that, and I’ll slap your ass with assaulting an
officer. Then I’ll personally deliver the punishment.’ Vaile’s lips had curled
back from his teeth, his eyes ice-blue when they should have been grey.
Larissa’s body instantly reacted to him—to the power he had in his body. He was
a moving mountain of a man, and she wanted to experience him, all of him.

But there were
more pressing issues at that moment. Larissa glanced around the empty club to
make sure no one else was still hanging around. When she looked back, Suleman’s
face was turning a light shade of red. Quickly, she placed her hand on Vaile’s
forearm—marvelling at how his muscles twisted into deadly cords beneath his
skin. ‘Vaile? Let it go. We have somewhere to be, remember?’

Vaile’s fingers
inched closer together; her words obviously unheard. Suleman kicked out
frantically as Vaile lifted him off the ground, just missing Larissa’s thigh.

‘Vaile, let go,’
Larissa said in her strongest voice. Vaile looked down at her again, blinking
away the blue from his eyes. He looked around them, remembering what he was
doing then—where he was—his eyes slowly moving back towards Suleman who was now
making mewling sounds in the back of his throat. The sound reminded her of a
lamb she had once tried to save after it had been savaged by a dog. It had made
the same pitiful sound.

Vaile released
his fingers. Suleman dropped to the floor, grabbing at his neck while sucking
in frantic breaths.

‘Get … out … of
… my … club,’ Suleman hissed up at him. Taking Vaile by the forearm, Larissa
dragged him out of there.

‘Call base to
see where the ME is. Nobody in or out until they arrive,’ Grey told the
uniformed officer waiting in front of the police tape. He nodded, angling the
radio on his shoulder towards his mouth. Larissa hauled Vaile off in the
direction of his car, knowing the only reason she was able to do it was because
he was letting it happen.

She let go of
his arm. ‘Do you want me to drive?’ she asked without looking at him. He didn’t
answer. ‘Vaile? I’ll need the keys if you want me to drive.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he
finally said. Larissa turned to look at him.

‘It’s okay.’ It
was more than okay. Vaile had done that for her. Sure, it wasn’t a bouquet of
flowers, or a box of chocolates, but it was a male protecting what was his and
she liked it.

‘No. It’s not. I
would have really hurt him if you hadn’t been there.’

She managed a
small smile. ‘Well, I was there, so it doesn’t matter. Come on.’

Vaile unlocked
the car and got in.

‘How are we
going to get into the morgue this late?’

‘I’ll call Lee.
He owes me a favour.’

‘But isn’t he
away for the weekend?’ she asked frantically, remembering Vaile had mentioned
it to her.

‘I’ll call his
assistant then. I need to get in there tonight,’ he ground out, pulling out his
phone and dialling. Two rings in, Larissa could barely hear the sleepy voice
answering on the other end.

‘Briggs,’ Vaile
said. ‘I need you down at the morgue … Yeah, there’s another body. Smith is
picking it up. Meet me at the morgue in twenty.’ Vaile clicked the phone shut
and dumped it into the centre console.

Fifteen minutes
later, they were taking the exit for the morgue. Larissa’s hands were in her
lap, twisting nervously as they parked. Vaile glanced over.

‘You stay here.
I won’t be long.’

‘No. We’re
partners, remember? Where you go, I go.’

‘But you’re
sweating and it’s nearly twenty degrees out there.’ He gestured outside the car
with his strong, chiselled chin.

‘I’m fine. Just
give me a minute.’

His eyes
narrowed, his mouth thinning out severely. ‘You’re having a panic attack,
aren’t you? You had one the last time we came to look at the body.’

‘No, I didn’t,’
she replied too quickly.

Vaile huffed.
‘You were with Mrs Mills in the viewing room last time. The first time we came
here, you nearly passed out from sheer panic. What is it about morgues that
gets to you?’

‘You mean
besides the dead bodies?’ she snapped sarcastically. ‘Nothing, really.’

Vaile’s
expression sobered. ‘Does it have something to do with your fiancé?’ he asked
gently.

Larissa’s heart
stuttered in her chest. She didn’t want to talk about that now. Talking about
it brought up all those memories again. But even that didn’t seem to stop her.
She swallowed thickly. ‘Yes.’

‘You had to ID
his body?’ Vaile’s expression was pinched—uncomfortable, like maybe he’d had
the same experience. She nodded, not trusting her voice. Vaile’s grey eyes
watched her carefully before straying to the rear view mirror. ‘That’s Briggs.
Stay here. I’ll be as quick as I can.’