Page 69 of Patrick’s Seduction

She nodded, but then another expression washed over her face. “I’ve never killed anybody. I don’t know that I can have that on my conscience.”

He took her hands and pulled her to him. “You won’t have to kill him. I will. Or one of my colleagues. He’s killed three people that we know of. He needs to be put down. There’s no other solution. He could never be in a prison. He would be a danger to the other inmates. He deserves to die.”

“That was never really a question, Fallon,” Amaury added. “Even if it’s only a rumor, it changes nothing about the fact that Cameron is a cold-blooded killer and needs to be eliminated before he kills more innocents.” He paused for a moment. “Patrick, what happened with the Gallaghers?”

“Kind of what I expected,” he replied. “His father claims that Cameron died two months ago and couldn’t have killed the jogger in the Presidio or hurt Fallon. He was lying. His other son, Byron, kind of gave it away. It was written all over his face. Cameron is alive, and his family is helping him cover up his crimes.”

Striker tipped his chin in Fallon’s direction. “Do they know what Cameron did to you?”

“Yes,” Fallon said, “I told them.”

He grunted. “Hmm. Bad move. Now they know there’s a werewolf without a pack running around. They’re not gonna like it. They’ll try to claim you as theirs. To strengthen their pack. You’re new blood; it’ll keep their bloodline strong.”

“I would never go with them,” Fallon gritted.

Striker tilted his head. “Yeah, well, you might not have a choice. They won’t give up so easily. I’m surprised they let you leave at all.”

“There were five of us, four hybrids and a witch.”

Striker nodded to himself. “That means there were only two or three werewolves close by. They probably didn’t like the odds, particularly with a witch in the mix.”

“That’s why I brought Wes,” Patrick said. “So, Striker, since you’re already up, wanna help us find Cameron?”

“I’m available for hire.”

“And I have my father’s checkbook. Let’s roll.”

34

The next hour passed in a flurry, and Fallon was glad for it. Patrick was busy with getting everybody organized in the search for Cameron. She watched him in fascination as he gave orders and answered questions. The Scanguards employees he worked with—all vampires and vampire hybrids—didn’t need many instructions as it turned out. They knew what to do. Like the cogs in a well-oiled machine, each used their unique skills to contribute to the mission.

She met the two gay vampires, Thomas and Eddie, who were in charge of anything to do with computers and technology. From what she gathered listening to their conversations, they were expert hackers who had no qualms about hacking into any system for the sake of justice. Several teams of hybrids were roaming the city and Marin County on surveillance missions, following any clue they received from traffic cameras. In addition, Thomas and Eddie fed them information they’d gathered from banking transactions linking to Cameron’s or his family’s credit and debit cards. Another group of IT geeks worked on mapping all properties and companies the Gallaghers owned, and where Cameron could possibly hide out.

Fallon sat on the sofa in Samson’s office, watching Patrick working the phones. She was glad to have a little while to herself to collect her thoughts. Striker’s claim that she and Patrick had unintentionally mated was something not easy to digest. For starters, she didn’t really know what it all meant. She’d always associated the word mating with, well, with making a baby. But it didn’t appear that Striker or Patrick had used that word in the same context. Patrick had said that he’d wanted to ask her after all this was over, so she could only assume it meant that he wanted to ask her to marry him. This would mean that mating was the same as getting married.

Her head was spinning, so many different emotions jumping around like in a kid’s bouncy castle. She tried to sort them so she could process them like she processed the results of her research studies. Oh God, she hadn’t even thought of work and her research projects in the last few days. She hadn’t missed it either, which was unusual for her. But who could blame her? Her entire world had upended in the last few days, and she had to figure out what this new world meant for her. What her future would look like. Which brought her back to Striker’s earlier words that she could become human again if Cameron died by the end of the full moon. It meant they had two nights left before her condition was permanent.

She should feel terrible about wanting somebody dead. But no such feeling rose in her. Instead, she felt that justice would only be done once Cameron was dead. Had the wolf inside her eradicated her humanity to the point where she couldn’t feel anything wrong with killing somebody?

“What’s wrong?”

Startled, Fallon looked up and saw Patrick standing only a couple of feet away from her. She met his eyes, and he sat down next to her.

“Does it make me evil to want Cameron dead?”

“No, Fallon! Don’t think that!” Patrick cupped her shoulders and drew her closer to him. “It’s not evil to want justice, even if that means killing somebody. He brought this on himself. We’ll take care of him, my colleagues and I.”

His voice sounded as if this was nothing new in his life.

“Have you ever killed somebody?”

He hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Yes, to save my family and friends from bad people.” He sighed. “I don’t like killing. But sometimes, it’s the only way to eliminate a threat for good.”

“I understand.” She put her arms around him. “Thank you for telling me the truth.”

“I’ll always tell you the truth,” he murmured.

“Then please tell me one more thing.” She had to be sure. “Are you really okay with us being mated? I know it wasn’t your choice.”