I curled my arm around his neck, pulling him close and kissing his cheek. As much as I wanted to encourage him, I had nothing to say. I was just as stumped as everyone else.
“This could be bad.” Ty set his glass on the wicker side table. “If Castro lets it leak…” He took a large swallow of whatever was in his glass. “What happened to your family—a lot of others will be involved, too. My dad paid off a lot of people to cover up the massacre.”
I winced. It was a knee-jerk reaction to that word. Massacre. Images of the bloody snow popped back into my mind, and I had to force them out before I fell prey to another anxiety attack.
“Fuck. I’m sorry.” Ty squeezed my knee. “I know this is a touchy subject, but that secret getting out could fuck up the credibility of a lot of packs, not just the Kellers.”
I nodded, biting down on my lip. It wasn’t just my identity as an omega that hung in the balance. The Keller pack could crumble with one brief statement from Castro.
Once a royal family that I had no interest in, I suddenly found myself caring very much whether or not the Keller pack survived this mess. I was the future mate to the alpha, and if it all came crashing down, where would that leave my relationship with Ty?
He turned his head, his eyes tiny slits as he thought out loud. “Losing this round isn’t an option. We have to figure out this clue. Otherwise, shit is really going to turn on its head.”
51
TY
After several hours and only one break, Dad called down to the kitchen and requested food for the entire room. We continued to work as the staff brought in food, drinks, and even painkillers for the people who, like me, had developed stress headaches.
As I chewed mindlessly on some chicken salad, I imagined Castro tracking our progress somehow—through our internet usage, perhaps. If I closed my eyes, I could see his ugly face jeering at me as he drew closer and closer to Liza’s side.
I didn’t consider myself to be psychotic like Castro, but I knew what it was like to be driven by one singular goal that wouldn’t allow you to focus on anything else.
Castro was coming at us from a place of longing. A lonesome existence where he wanted nothing more than to have Liza by his side. If I had to guess, I’d say it wasn’t all about a sexual relationship with Liza, though that was probably at the forefront of his twisted mind.
Instead, Castro wanted what was promised to him long ago when Liza’s parents had practically betrothed them to each other. Of course, they had no idea that Castro would show histrue colors as he aged and start wreaking havoc on any child who so much as looked in Liza’s direction.
From a young age, he’d thought her to be his. He wanted her full attention, and if he even thought for a second that her affections were given to someone else, he couldn’t stand it. He lost his mind and chose to eliminate his own parents for standing in his way. To Castro, Liza wasn’t a person to be cherished and loved. She was property that belonged to him.
Now, Liza was mine, and Castro refused to accept that.
The countdown continued on the screen, mocking us. It was as if the flashing numbers were laughing at our stupidity for not being able to figure it out.
It wasn’t that we’d given it a half-ass effort. In ten hours, we had disposed of multiple possibilities, discussing and jotting down any vapor of an idea that could pan out. Each time, though, we hit a dead end, and had no choice but to start back at the beginning of our search.
“Wait a second.” Nico jumped to his feet, his plate sliding to the floor, splattering food on the hardwood. He didn’t seem to care. “What if the times and dates are different coordinates in town?”
Brilliant. “That could be it.” I joined Nico at the temporary desk the house staff had rigged up in the corner of Dad’s office.
We plugged the numbers into our laptops, trying multiple combinations. All the coordinates led us to places entirely too far from Presley Acres, and we’d already determined during the hunt for the first clue that Castro was keeping things local.
“Damn. I thought I had it.” Nico sighed and stepped to the side as a maid cleaned his mess from the floor. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. “The locations have no correlation—no common denominator. I’m out of ideas.”
Dominic slapped Nico on the back. “Don’t give up yet. We still have time.” He raised an eyebrow and looked at Liza. “Maybe we should use Liza’s tactic from last time.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Dominic moved to the whiteboard. “Remember how she took the first sentence from each sheet of paper and strung them together? It formed a riddle. What if the words for each disaster, their location, and the dates can be pieced together to form some kind of message, too?”
I stood and joined my father at the board. “You might be onto something.”
I pulled out my phone and opened the notes app, typing multiple combinations of the words, locations, and dates. Other members of the security team joined me while Liza scribbled on a notepad. We worked for a solid thirty minutes, but no combination created a coherent clue.
“Fuck.” I paced the room. The tension was so thick it was a struggle to breathe.
I threw open the window and gulped the fresh air into my lungs. My wolf stirred, recognizing my need to run and rid myself of the stress and anxiety.
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be going on a run until we’d solved this puzzle.
