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“Pretty sure Tanner has some of Declan’s moonshine in his office if you want something with more bite?”
I considered it for a moment. Declan’s brew was vicious enough to send humans blind after one drink and knock shifters out for a few hours. Did I yearn for oblivion so I could erase the images of Eva’s scarred body? Yes.
Was that a good idea? No.
“Bourbon is enough.”
“You gonna tell me why you’re trying unsuccessfully to get shit-faced?”
After a few moments and some more booze, I decided Silas needed to know. So did Tanner. We were all invested in Eva, even if she thought we planned to kick her out after a few weeks.
She hadn’t said that, exactly, but it was obvious she was trying to keep her distance. If not physically, then emotionally, at least.
“I walked in on her getting changed for the shower.”
Silas glared at me. “Seriously? Ever heard of knocking first?”
“The shower was running. I had some clean laundry for her, so I knocked and walked in. I honestly assumed she was in the bathroom. You know she doesn't have many clothes here.”
Silas rolled his eyes, clearly not convinced me walking in on Eva was an accident. Well, it was, so he could go fuck himself.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter how it happened. What matters is what I saw.”
“What did you see? Aside from her naked body? Which is fucking wrong, by the way. We’re supposed to be treating her with respect, not perving on her.”
“Oh really? So was that at the forefront of your mind when you kissed her the other day?”
“Fuck off and just get on with the explanation for why you’re in a foul mood.”
“She’s covered in scars, Silas. Scars that someone ends up with after being systematically abused.”
Silas turned pale beneath his normally tanned complexion. “I knew her guardian was an abusive asshole, but I didn’t realize it was that bad.” He grabbed my bourbon and took a large gulp straight from the bottle, ignoring my scowl.
“Yeah, it’s worse. This guy is more dangerous than we thought. I’m not sure he’s going to let her go that easily. She’s basically walking evidence he abused her, and if she goes to the cops, they’ll arrest him.”
“Not so sure about that,” Tanner remarked as he strolled in. His eyebrows shot up in surprise to see me drinking. “I’ve been digging deeper. The guy is a cop, yeah, but at first glance he’s squeaky clean. Which makes no sense, given what we know. So I called around, pulled in some favors, and discovered he’s on the payroll for a crime syndicate that operates out of Silver Falls. He turns a blind eye to mob shit going down when needed. He’s also not the only one on the payroll. Half the cops in his station are corrupt. It’s not surprising he’s got away with things for so long.”
“Fuck, as much as I want to torture him for days, that makes it difficult to get rid of the fucker.” The thought of Eva’s guardian screaming while my wolf chewed off body parts was appealing to both me and my wolf. He chuffed in approval.
“Yeah. If he goes missing, it’s not only his cop friends who’ll come looking - his mafia contacts will also start asking questions. The last thing I need is a hit man on my ass.”
“Like you give a shit,” I snorted. “It’s highly unlikely any human hit man can take you out.”
“True, but never say never. I don’t particularly want to draw a lot of attention. It’s bad for us and terrible for my job.”
Tanner made a good point. Carelli wouldn’t want to get pulled into a mafia war with another criminal gang, and we didn’t want a bunch of hired guns working on commission trying to take us all down.
What a shitshow. The sensible thing here would be to give Eva some cash, expedite her departure with the aid of the snowmobile we had stored in the barn, and forget about her. The trouble was, it was way too late for that.
Not only was this guy Brent almost certainly on her trail like a goddamn bloodhound, but she was important to us. Not that Tanner would admit it. The guy was stubborn to a fault, and so fucked up he probably had no clue what a normal emotional attachment even looked like.
“Why has the plan to off this guy suddenly escalated, anyway? I have remote cameras set up in a one kilometer perimeter. If he or anyone else passes them, I’ll know about it. And so far, he hasn’t.”
Silas glanced at me, obviously wondering whether I was going to tell Tanner what I’d seen. It maybe wasn’t the best idea, but I felt like him knowing would ensure he was more invested in protecting Eva. Not that I had any doubts about his commitment to her welfare. Even if he couldn’t admit he had feelings for her, there was no way he’d let anything bad happen to her.
He wasn’t that kind of guy.
“She’s covered in scars, Tanner. Horrible ones.”
