Hobb growled under his breath, but he lowered his eyes in submission to his Chief.
I wanted to bust his balls for giving in to her so easily, but we didn’t have time for that shit. Instead, I said, “My gut tells me that whatever’s going on the Bay and the other super communities in the region—including Raven’s Cape—can all be traced back to the same source.”
“You’re basing all this on ahunch?” Hobb said. “From everything you’re telling us, other than the amulet and some visions in a fireplace, you haven’t foundanyevidence that the witches are being held here.”
This time, Ididget out of my chair, shoving it back so hard it hit the wall and cracked the wainscoting. “Look, Hobb. I don’t know what your problem is, but we’ve got our hands full here. We’re talking about several murders, missing persons, a hostage situation, and a violent supernatural crime wave. If that’s not enough to keep you awake at night, there’s also intel from a source close to our hunter suggesting he’s creating some sort ofsupersupernatural army, hybridizing witches with vamps, shifters, demons, fae, you name it. So if lending a hand isn’t your thing, fine. But do us all a favor—including the women and girls whose lives you’re putting at risk with all this dick-swinging bullshit—and stop wasting our time.”
His eyes glinted with malice, the low rumble in his throat turning into a growl. “Fuck you, wolf. You show up unannounced inmyjurisdiction, giving—”
“Fuck me? Fuckme?” Forget keeping things smooth. I was done playing this guy’s power games. I growled right back at him, my heart hammering, my muscles tensing for a fight.
Ronan got up and stood by my side, his eyes demon-black. “Ever been to hell, Hobb? Because you’re about one dick move away from earning your one-way ticket.”
“That’s enough,” Elena said calmly, rolling her eyes as if we were no more than a pack of kids fighting over a toy in the sandbox. Maybe that was the life of an alpha among alphas, but I wasn’t used to this kind of pushback. “All of you, sit down and take a deep breath.”
We glared at each other another beat, then finally took our seats again. This was my sister’s home. Kicking her boyfriend’s ass and destroying her dining room was probably not the best way to patch up our decades-old rift.
“Emilio,” Elena said, “let’s try to remember whose jurisdiction you’re in. And Hobb—”
“Screw jurisdictions. I’m—”
“AndHobb,” she continued, silencing my protests with her patented icy glare, “my brother is right. This affects us all, and it’sallconnected.” She put a hand on Hobb’s shoulder as she leaned over to refill his coffee cup—a quiet gesture that seemed to relax him. “There’s no such thing as coincidence.”
Her words lit a spark in my chest, reminding me of Gray. How many times had she said that very thing?
I took a sip of coffee to buy a second or two to myself. As a detective, I’d learned the importance of compartmentalizing, especially when I was working a case with personal stakes. I had to; I wouldn’t be able to function otherwise. But now I closed my eyes and allowed myself a peek behind the wall—the one I’d so carefully erected to keep my personal feelings about Gray separate from my investigation of her disappearance. I pictured her face the moment she’d tasted my brownies, all blissed out and happy. The way she twirled her hair when she was reading her book of shadows, so lost in the pages she didn’t even realize she was doing it. Her fierce determination when Darius and I had started training her to fight. The feel of her gentle touch when she’d kissed me on the cheek after I’d brought her new shampoo.
My chest hurt, but it was worth the pain. I needed to remember why I was sitting here dealing with Hobb and all the leftover shit between me and my sister. It was because Gray was more important than my petty desires to avoid all of that discomfort, and the idea of anyone hurting her again…
My teeth clenched so tight, my jaw ached.
“We’ll get her back, brother,” Ronan whispered, pulling me out of my trance.
When I looked over at him, his eyes were no longer black, but full of the same pain I felt inside. In that moment, I realized he understoodexactlywhere my mind had gone.
He understood it, because his own mind had never left that dark, tormented place. Not from the moment Gray was taken from us.
He’d loved her for a long time. I was just getting to know her again, but already I cared for her more than I could put into words. I couldn’t even imagine how hard this must’ve been on him.
I didn’t know how he handled the pain, the fear, but I only knew one way. So I slammed that wall firmly back into place and focused on the job, just like I’d done on every other horrible case I’d ever worked.
“No,” Lansky said, “there isn’t.”
It took me a beat to realize he was still talking about coincidence.
“The amulet on its own is enough to link Gray’s disappearance with the Landes murder,” he went on, “but there’s also Landes’ van. They got it on camera when the hunter nabbed the incubus and the other witch, right? As far as we know, Landes himself is clean. And why else would hunters and fae be popping up in the RC if not to orchestrate something like this? We haven’t had issues with them in a long time.”
Everyone looked to Hobb, who finally blew out a breath and nodded.
“Yeah, alright,” he said. “You guys have a point.”
He didn’t seem too thrilled about that fact, but I was ecstatic. After wasting the entire morning arguing and trying to make our case, it seemed we’d finally gotten everyone on the same page.
“Good.” I tapped on the table, anxious to move forward. “Good. So let’s start with the commonalities. If we can find the obvious connecting points, we might be able to fill in some of the gaps, see where—”
“It isn’tgood, Emilio.” Elena’s face paled, the lines around her mouth deepening. Standing there still clutching the coffee pot, her brow furrowed, she looked so much like our mother my heart stalled out.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
