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I gave him the condensed, CliffsNotes version of everything that had happened over the past twenty-four hours. God, had it only been a day? Felt more like a million years. Cain bobbed his head along in silent agreement with whatever I said, as though he’d been there and was verifying the truth of each statement.
When I finished, he was quiet for a long while, then said, “What is it I can help you with?”
“We need to find the Church. Hank doesn’t have a lot of time left, and we can’t just hope we luck into it. If they’re still in Louisiana, it’s a big state. Lots of rocks for maggots to crawl underneath.”
The music changed to something more up tempo, and the couples sprawled around the bar started to dance. The new activity was no less sexual than their kissing had been. It was more grinding than dancing, really. I stopped staring and looked back at Cain, hoping he would agree to help us.
“What makes you think I know where they are?”
Oh, good, we were going to play this game? Didn’t he understand me when I’d told him time was of the essence? I managed to keep from sighing audibly and in
stead gave him my best smile.
“You know why I came to you. You’re the best at what you do, the smartest man south of the Mason-Dixon, and quite frankly, there’s no one else I would trust to help me with this.”
Cain gave me an aw-shucks hand wave. Flattery was only the first half of the transaction.
“I’m willing to pay any price,” I announced. “We both know you know, because you know everything. And it’s worth it to me. So whatever it’ll take for me to get my missing pack mate back, I’ll pay it.”
Wilder blanched but wisely didn’t interrupt. It might have been his brother we were after, but this wasn’t the kiddie pool, and even with the aid of my warnings, he didn’t know how this game was played.
“It won’t be a matter of finance.”
So much for writing a check.
“I assumed it wouldn’t have a dollar sign attached.”
He grinned broadly. “You’re a smart girl, Genie. You’ll do that pack of yours proper justice one day if you decide to be queen. If they want what’s good for them.”
I bit my tongue. If I agreed with him, he’d know I’d been thinking about becoming queen. If I spoke on behalf of Ben’s claim, I would yield my own. It didn’t matter that Cain wasn’t a wolf. I didn’t need a mistake coming back to bite me later on down the road. I had no idea how things were going to play out, and I wanted my cards close to the chest where the pack was concerned.
“What’ll it be?” I asked.
Cain glanced towards Delphine, toying with the curls nearest her temple. His adoration for her was written all over his face. He loved her and didn’t care who knew it. For a minute it made me sad because not once in our year together had Cash ever looked at me that way, like I was something precious he couldn’t live without.
I knew what real love looked like. It was the way Cain stared at Delphine, or the blinding joy I saw whenever Secret’s husband watched her walk into a room. Some things like that couldn’t be faked.
“You be nice to her,” Delphine scolded, kissing him on the nose.
“I’m always nice,” Cain countered. “But nice and free ain’t exactly the same thing, are they?”
“That’s fine.” Once again I bit back the urge to ask him to hurry things up and get to the point. If Hank died while we sat here pre-negotiating, I was not going to be a happy werewolf princess.
“Life for a life,” he said finally. “If I give you the information to find your pack mate, and if you’re able to save him, I want the life of Timothy Deerling in return.”
“Wha—?”
“Done,” Wilder interrupted.
I shot him what I hoped was a menacing glare. This wasn’t his arrangement; he couldn’t agree to something like that on my behalf. Wilder didn’t look even remotely ashamed of himself.
“You want that son of a bitch dead, and so do I,” Wilder said.
Cain clucked his tongue. “You misunderstand me, son. I do want him dead. But I want to be there when it happens. You will bring him to me. Roughed up is fine. Bleeding is fine. But he needs to have a pulse so I can watch the flicker go out and see his last minutes of suffering for myself. Do you get what I’m saying?”
“Kidnap. Torture. But no murder.” I scrubbed my hands over my face, suddenly feeling exhausted beyond measure.
Now I had to find a way to keep this stupid bastard alive, when everyone around me wanted to see him dead.
