Ripper (29 page)

I shrugged. “Only because you haven’t been around me for very long.”

He shook his head and before I could move away, he grabbed me and kissed me senseless. “Okay, baby, I love you. Why is this so important? Why can’t you give it up? I would feel so much better if I knew you were safe.”

I leaned into him. I couldn’t resist this man when he touched me. I melted like butter when he said he loved me. If he really thought I was in danger, he would have come up with some stupid plan to protect me. “It’s important to me because I can do this, Gray. I can find this guy. I’m tired of hiding. You want me to come out of my shell, well, this is it. You can’t have it both ways. I can go to ground and hide and be the person I’ve always been afraid I really am or I can stop hiding and become who I want to be.”

I didn’t tell him that he was a big part of why I needed to do this. I needed to feel worthy of him.

I felt him nod against me. “All right, sweetheart. But I am not using you as bait.”

“I still need to get into the club.” I pressed my luck. “You can’t kill Marcus.”

“I find out he’s laid a hand on you and I promise I will,” Gray said.

It was time for me to live up to my previous words. It was time to be really brave. “I like Marcus, but I don’t love him. I love you, Gray.”

He drank the words down like a man dying of thirst. His mouth was on mine, tongue sweeping in with none of his former polish. He kissed me, pressing me against his body. “You won’t regret it, Kelsey. I’ll take care of you.”

“And I’ll take care of you,” I promised.

“Wow,” a surprised feminine voice said. “Big old manly love ’em and leave ’em Sloane has an honest to god girlfriend. Will wonders never cease?”

The faintest hint of a blush stained Gray’s cheeks as he smiled ruefully at the woman standing on the hill with a large case in her hand. “Hello, Nicole. Allow me to introduce my fiancée, Kelsey Atwood.”

He hadn’t actually asked me, but I didn’t mention that to the perky looking blonde with round glasses. Her eyebrows practically reached the sky. “Seriously? Chambers is going to win a bunch of money. The office pool had you never getting married. Wait. Atwood? As in superhot stud Jamie Atwood?”

“He’s my brother, but, wow, you have an entirely different notion of hot than I do,” I admitted.

The blonde grinned as she set down her enormously cumbersome pack. She looked almost too small to be able to carry it, but she did with an ease that spoke of long use. “We can’t all get someone as gloriously perfect as Sloane there. Besides, I like Jamie. He’s the right size for me, not too big, not too small. Sloane would crush me.”

Sloane did kind of crush me, but I liked the feeling.

“So where’s the site?” Nicole asked, looking eager to start working.

Gray pointed down and Nicole grimaced.

“This is about that serial case you’ve been working, isn’t it? Wolves, right?”

“This is where he’s dumping the bodies,” Gray confirmed.

Nicole surveyed the site and got to work. Gray started to explain what she was doing and how she was doing it. Forensics for supernatural cases tended to be a lot harder than a regular case. For the most part the evidence collected was meant to be a case for the Council rather than a court of law. While the general public believed that supernaturals were myths, the government had known about them for a long time. I knew the Army made use of them. Most law enforcement had carefully selected people who would liaise with the supernatural world. Gray had the hard job of having to deal with the full Council. Gray would produce his evidence against the accused to the full Council or a single member who would then take it to the Council and an order would be written. Sometimes it was for incarceration, but often it was an order of execution. If Gray took matters into his own hands, he was forced to stand before the Council and have his kill be declared “righteous.”

“How many times have you had to go before the Council?” I asked, never taking my eyes off Nicole’s incredibly thorough examination of the site. She had an entire chemistry set on a small folding table.

“Three times,” Gray replied. “Luckily, I had excellent evidence and Quinn isn’t on the Council. That brother of his is, but he doesn’t seem to give a crap about righteous kills. He’s a kill ’em all kind of guy.”

“So when you take your evidence to the Council, do you have to go through the whole ceremonial thing every time? How long do you have to wait for the full Council to sit?”

Gray smiled and it was that lopsided grin that told me he was embarrassed by whatever he was about to say. “I have a councilman I regularly meet with. He always takes my calls and has been easy to deal with up until now.”

“Marcus,” I guessed.

“Yeah. He’s an incredibly smart man and very interested in justice. He’s consulted with me on a case or two. I wouldn’t call him a friend, but I certainly got along better with him than anyone else on the Council. He’s quite tolerant, if you know what I mean.”

Except when he thinks you’re working with Quinn against him, then Marcus could be quite emotional. I chose to not bring up the subject. “So you’re willing to kill the only man on the Council you actually get along with? Won’t that make your job hard?”

“He touches my wife and I won’t give a damn about my job, darlin’,” Gray promised.

“I have five bodies here, Lieutenant.” Nicole was staring at her laptop screen. It was all incredibly high tech. The laptop was connected to some strange medical looking equipment. “All five of these are female and werewolves. Four are in an advanced state of decomposition and the fifth was placed here sometime in the last twenty-four hours. I’ll bag that one and take it back to my lab, but from what I can tell she died from blood loss. Someone really sliced her up. I think she might be missing a kidney, ewwww.”

“And the other site?” Gray asked.

“Strange.” Nicole surveyed the second, smaller grave over her glasses. “Only one female and she wasn’t a wolf. It’s definitely a shifter of some kind, but I’m not sure what. I’ve collected a sample and I’ll be able to run it better at the office. My field machines aren’t as accurate.”

Something gold glinted in the grass a few feet from me. “What’s that?”

Nicole made sure the latex gloves she was wearing were snug before she reached down and picked up a small gold necklace that was lying in the grass. She held it up and in the light I could see it was engraved with a J.

“Joanne Taylor,” Gray said with a sad shake of his head. His cell phone rang and he looked down. “Speak of the devil. I have to take this, Kelsey. I’ll be right back.”

“I think you’ll find she was a doe,” I told Nicole.

Nicole bagged the necklace in an evidence bag. “I’ll start there then. The latest victim shows evidence of being tied up. Her wrists are burned pretty badly, so it was probably silver.”

Gray grabbed my hand. “We have go, Kelsey. Nicole, can you handle the rest?”

“Of course,” the efficient tech said. “I’ll have my report on your desk Monday morning.”

“Good,” Gray said and started to haul me out of the cemetery.

“Where are we going?”

“That was Vorenus.” Gray guided me along, his long legs eating up the distance. I ran to keep up. “He’s on his way to Helen Taylor’s. She got a package this morning.”

“Oh, no,” I breathed, picking up the pace. “Tell me she didn’t get those pictures.”

“She did, sweetheart,” Gray affirmed. “The entire doe community is in an uproar. We have some damage control to do.”

We hopped into the truck and as we pulled away, something about the necklace played around in the back of my mind.

* * * *

When we turned down the narrow road to Joanne Taylor’s home, I knew we were in trouble. The street was lined with cars. We had to park a block away and walk. Gray held my hand, but I disentangled us as we approached the house.

“I’d like to look somewhat professional, please,” I said at the annoyed look he gave me.

We were moving up the sidewalk toward the Taylor’s small two-bedroom home when a limo stopped and Marcus Vorenus stepped out. He said something to the driver and then the limo slid down the road. His dark eyes turned to us but if he had an emotion in his body it didn’t show. He was polite and a little cool. “I’ve been waiting for you, Lieutenant. I thought it proper that we enter together. We must show that the Council and law enforcement are working together. Good afternoon, Ms. Atwood.”

I knew Vorenus was an academic and that meant he could walk in the daylight. That particular class of vampire wasn’t the strongest. They didn’t begin to compare to warriors, but academics had their own abilities. They were the smarty-pants of the vampire world. Their powers were almost entirely mental. Persuasion. Instinct. Intelligence. I’d heard they tended to get obsessed with subjects and became super experts.

Even though I know all the facts, I supposed I still thought it would be odd to see any vampire walking in the daylight, but Vorenus practically shimmered in light. As Daniel had been at home in the velvety darkness of night, Marcus belonged in the sun.

It clung to him, lighting his skin and nearly giving the man a halo.

“Hello, Councilman.” It was awkward because it came out a little breathy, a little flirty. I hadn’t meant it to, but the minute I was close to him, I felt more at ease than I’d been before.

Gray was all business. “When did Helen call the Council?”

“I received her call about an hour ago,” the vampire explained with his calm authority. “She told me what had happened and I promised I would come. I also promised to inform the king this evening. I was lucky she called me at all. She’s been told that vampires killed her daughter.”

“Well, that’s only to be expected,” Gray said, not a trace of compassion in his voice.

“Some of the killings took place during the day,” Marcus pointed out.

“So, he had an accomplice or he has special talents.” Gray wasn’t willing to let up.

Marcus sighed as though weary of all the games. “Are you playing devil’s advocate, Lieutenant? Or are you accusing me of something?”

Gray stared at the vampire with cold blue eyes. “All of the girls went into that club. None of them came out alive. The way I figure, a vampire has to be involved.”

“Why would a vampire waste the blood?” I hated the tension between the two of them.

“Who knows why a vampire does anything, darlin’.” Gray emphasized the endearment. “They enjoy games.”

“Ah, but Lieutenant, vampires are not the only ones who enjoy games, are they?” Marcus posed his question with the hint of a questioning smile. The vampire looked dapper in a perfectly tailored pinstriped suit and a snowy dress shirt. His red silk tie was a splash of elegant color. “The rumors are that you very much enjoy games. This killer likes bondage and I believe has a problem with vampires. Perhaps I don’t have to look far to find a suspect of my own.”

I put myself in between the two men who seemed like they were ready to throw down. “If the two of you are finished acting like two bulls about to lock horns, you might remember that Marcus was in London with the king when one of the murders took place and Gray was with me last night. There are security cameras in the parking garage. They can verify his whereabouts until we left. I can verify them the rest of the night. The only person he managed to tie up last night was me.”

“Kelsey!” Gray radiated disapproval. I guess demons weren’t big on sharing.

“Well, apparently everyone knows your kinks, babe,” I said with a shrug. “Stop beating the crap out of each other. I’m going in. If you two want to take potshots, stay out here.”

Marcus nodded my way. “Of course. I apologize.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart. I’ll behave,” Gray promised.

We started to walk up toward the house, the men following my lead.

 I knocked briefly on the door and was admitted into the house. The air was quiet and thick with grief. The windows were all open, letting in the sunlight and the afternoon warmth. But I felt a chill as I saw Joseph Castle sitting next to Helen Taylor, his meaty hand patting her lightly on the back.

The whole herd seemed to have come out. I could tell the deer from the other shifters in the room. They all had wide, dark, gentle eyes. They stood close to each other, as though they could physically share their grief and in doing so lessen it. I wondered what it felt like to have a whole group of people to depend on, who huddled together in times of trouble, held each other when tragedy struck. It seemed like a beautiful thing to me.

And a wolf was among them.

Yeah, somehow I didn’t think he’d come here to protect them.

Marcus stepped up, holding out a hand. “Helen, the Council offers you condolences in your time of grief.”

Helen took his hand, her head held high. “Thank you, Marcus. I appreciate you coming out.”

“You’re late, Councilman,” Castle said, a sneer in his voice. “Do all the vampires have their stories straight?”

“Mr. Castle, the vampires are sleeping,” Marcus replied, his tone revealing nothing of the contempt he must feel for the alpha. “I come to offer condolences and to introduce Mrs. Taylor to Lieutenant Grayson Sloane of the Texas Rangers. He’s handling the case for the human authorities and recently discovered your daughter was involved.”

Gray tipped his head forward. “Ma’am. I apologize for presenting myself in such a casual fashion. I was actually working on your daughter’s case when I got the call.”

Helen’s eyes seemed dazed. She looked around like she wasn’t really hearing anything until she focused on me. “Kelsey Atwood?”

“Hello, Mrs. Taylor.” I was quieter than usual. I felt the heavy weight of guilt. She’d likely been dead before I even got the case, but I couldn’t silence that voice that told me I should have found her. I should have been there. I should have known.

It’s funny how illogical an instinct can be.

“Is it true? Did you find her?”

I took a deep breath. “I did. I’m so sorry. There’s no mistake. I found her body not an hour ago.”

She stood up and held herself with such dignity I wanted to weep for her. Castle tried to stand next to her. She regally shrugged him off. “I would like to speak with Miss Atwood alone.”