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“That’s good,” I hummed, glancing over at Eli. “Could you grab my computer? I left it in the spare bedroom.”
“Sure,” Eli said, ambling off to go and fetch it.
I turned to Nic. “What about the financial aspect?”
Nic shook his head. “I haven’t been working on that.”
“That’s me,” Eli said as he returned, scooping up his laptop off the dining table before returning to the couch, balancing both computers carefully until I grabbed mine. “I’ve been trying to untangle shells from LLCs and so on since I got up this morning. Whoever they had working on it, they wereverygood at setting up all sorts of red tape and crisscrossing paths to cover their tracks.”
“Well, now that I’ve done my part with the list,” Nic said, nodding at the paper I was already looking over, “I can help you with that if you’d like. If nothing else, it will go twice as fast with two people, even if I can’t make it any easier.”
“That would be great,” Eli agreed.
I dipped my head to keep from smiling. It wasmuchmore comfortable when these two decided to get along instead of that terrible, unspoken tension from the other night. I tore my attention away from the list of names for a moment. “What about Ryan — and Catherine?” I bit the inside of my mouth. “Did Remus tell her yet?”
Nic’s expression fell, and he gave a solemn nod. “He was taking care of that this morning. I figured that was pack business.” Eli and I both nodded, agreeing with the sentiment. “He did say he’d try to get access to Ryan’s financial records from Catherine, but… who knows if that will be possible. Grief makes people do strange things.”
A strange look flickered over Eli’s face briefly before he chased it away, nodding again. “Well, if he can, that will be helpful,” he said, his voice gruff.
I watched him for a moment, wondering what that could have been — but now wasn’t the time to ask. Not with his father here, anyway. I pressed onward. “And what about Ryan’s murderer? Any more information on him? Or that tattoo?”
Nic’s expression didn’t change. “No. Well, I take that back. The bullet retrieved from Ryan’s body matched the gun Grant was holding, though that only confirms something we all strongly suspected. I assume that something Ryan said earlier tipped his employers off, and they sent their hired gun after him to solve the problem.” The man paused for a moment. “And that still doesn’t explain the gunman, either. Where did they get a lone wolf? Is there a pack involved that is an expert at hiding itself, or has this alpha been a loner so long he’s resorted to hunting his own kind to make money?”
“And then he just hung out long enough to see who Ryan was meeting with,” Eli added gravely, his face as dark as an incoming storm. “Silence the whole problem and wrap it up with a tidy little bow.” He snorted and shook his head.
I frowned. “If that’s the case, surely they’ve noticed their hired hitman didn’t return — and neither did Ryan.”
“That is indeed a problem,” Nic agreed, nodding. He rubbed his chin. “Unfortunately, there was no way to prevent that.”
He was right. There would be no letting the gunman go, even if he hadn’t shot Eli or tried to subdue us. The man had killed Ryan, and we’d never let that slide. I licked my lips, my next question started to make my heart flutter in anticipation. I didn’t want to ask these things — I wasn’t sure if I wanted the answers — and yet, Ihadto know. I couldn’t go on not knowing. “Is there any evidence from the Alaska shooting you could compare that gun to?”
I hated how far away my voice sounded.
“Maybe,” Nic said, his gaze focusing on me again. “That happened quite a while ago and in a different state. Remus is trying to go through the channels to get that information, but it’s… slow going. There’s also a strong possibility that whoever attacked your pack discarded their weapons afterward. It’s not uncommon behavior.”
“Right, of course,” I replied, trying not to sound breathless. I wasn’t sure if I was disappointed or relieved. Maybe both? Could I be both at the same time?
Eli watched me for a moment before clearing his throat. “I’ve also sent images of the tattoo and Grant’s face to our European contacts. If he’s a gun for hire, he could be a specialist in hunting other wolves — or he could have just been a damn good shot. Either way, we need to know. Hopefully, one of these—” He paused, waving his hand at my list and his father. “—options will turn up something useful.”
“Hopefully…” I said, leaning back into my couch. I laid my hands over my laptop and tried not to dwell on the thoughts, but I couldn’t ignore it. My family’s killers still ran free out there, somewhere. The case had gone cold years ago. No one was looking. Hell, that’s why I had become a private detective in the first place, and now that I finally had something that looked like new evidence…
I had no idea what to do with it.
I had thought this would feel like closure, but at the moment, all it felt like was opening old wounds all over again.
I gave myself a shake, picked up my list, and flipped open my laptop. “Well, I guess we’d better get to work.”
34
ELI
Eli’s Penthouse
Austin, Texas
Day turned into night, and then it turned into day again. Iris seemed to be doing better today, but we still had a lot of research to plow through — and a day on the couch had seemed to do her some good. While she slept in again, I made a quick trip to the financial office. Fortunately, I didn’t have any meetings scheduled this week, but it was good to check in with Amber personally, even if we communicated via text about various upcoming projects.
As crucial as this mystery was, I couldn’t let pack business fall to the side. A pack alpha had to be able to juggle things — sometimes, two very important things — and I could tell this was my first real test, even if no one had said as much. Even if they didn’t judge me,Iwould judge myself for letting my fledgling business fend for itself. It simply wasn’t an option.
