Page 78 of New Blood

“He’s not. I was on him like white on rice from the moment he left your bedroom last night. He was on a bender all night.”

“You followed me?” Byron cried out, glaring at Wendell. “What the fuck, man! I don’t need a fucking babysitter!”

“Yeah, well,” Wendell replied dryly, “you needed one last night. Or how do you think you got home when you were too fucking drunk to even remember where you’d parked your car?”

“I took a fucking Uber!” Byron yelled.

“Yeah, well, I was the Uber,” Wendell grunted. “And you’re paying to have the car cleaned.”

Jude stood there looking at Wendell, stunned by the revelation. But he knew he could trust Wendell with his life.

“Are you sure?” he asked, looking at his team member. “He could have tampered with it this morning. Danielle didn’t use the car until ten.”

Wendell shook his head. “We got back around eight, and he was passed out. I checked on him a couple of times. There’s no way he could have done anything to the car this morning.”

“There you have it!” Byron said triumphantly. “I didn’t do it. Just like I said.” He huffed indignantly and marched out of the kitchen, leaving his hangover smoothie untouched.

When he was outside and out of hearing range, Jude took a breath and ran his hand through his hair. His heart was racing, and his hand was trembling.

He looked back at Wendell. “So if he didn’t do it, then who?”

Wendell shrugged. “Beats me. But if only Danielle was the target, then we know that whoever did this had to do it after finding out that the two of you are mated. Before that, nobody had a motive for getting rid of Danielle.”

He’d come to the same conclusion. “It has to be somebody from the family.”

“The motive is easy,” Wendell claimed. “You’ve offended the entire Gallagher family by mating with Danielle, though every family member may have a slightly different motivation. What’s harder to figure out is who had the means and opportunity. But as I said, Byron is clean, even though he would have made the perfect scapegoat.”

“Damn,” Jude cursed. Now every member of the Gallagher family was a suspect. “Who has the most to gain from Danielle’s death?”

“That’s an easy question.”

“Eve.”

But was Eve capable?

“However, I don’t see her fiddling with a car,” Wendell added. “Might wanna check with Ransom. He’s been keeping tabs on her.”

“Thanks, I’ll talk to him.” He turned halfway. “Oh, and don’t mention anything to Danielle. She doesn’t know yet that this wasn’t an accident. I don’t want her to worry. She’s in the middle of moving all her things into the master. I’ll talk to her about it tonight.”

“She won’t hear it from me.”

43

Ransom shook his head. “I can’t say. My room is on the third floor, so I have no idea if Eve snuck out in the middle of the night to sabotage Danielle’s car.

Jude sighed in frustration. “Damn it.”

“You should ask Grant and Parker. Didn’t they guard the master right after your fight with Byron? Maybe they saw something. Eve’s room is only three doors down from yours.”

Jude wanted to slap himself for not thinking of this earlier. As if his brain was scrambled. And maybe it was. The knowledge that he could have lost Danielle still sat deep in his bones. And the danger wasn’t over, not until they’d found the culprit.

“Of course! Thanks, Ransom. You’re the best.”

He found Grant in the library. He sat in a comfy armchair, his legs resting on a footstool, appearing to take a nap. It wasn’t a surprise: Grant had been on duty half the night.

“I’m not sleeping. Just resting my eyes,” Grant suddenly said.

He opened his eyes and looked up.