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“He’s someplace. Let’s check out front.” When Ariel opened the door, Alex was not far off to the side.
He came over. “Is something wrong?”
“No. I wanted Tawny to meet you so she’ll know who you are.”
When Alex’s gaze moved to Tawny, it looked like he’d been hit by a truck. Sure, Tawny was beautiful, but both Alex and Liam had always acted so reserved around Ariel. The moment either man set eyes on her friend, it was as if she was the first woman they’d ever met. That was cute.
Tawny held out her hand. “I’m Tawny Granger. I run the Wildwood Rescue Center.”
“You’re Benson’s cousin.”
“Yes,” she said even though it wasn’t a question.
Since both of them were acting strangely, Ariel touched Tawny’s arm. “I should check on the animals.”
“Oh, of course. Let me show you who needs shots.”
* * *
Benson had arranged once more to visit Trent in prison. Whether Ariel’s brother would divulge any further information was anyone’s guess. On the trip over, Mason had emailed him a rather nice shot of Hammer Schmidt. His cousin had some serious sleuthing skills.
After going through the process of entering, Benson was escorted to see Trent. While Benson had been in this prison many times to interview someone, he didn’t recall anyone looking this bad. He wouldn’t tell Ariel that Trent wasn’t doing well in here. In his experience, innocent people—assuming he was innocent—often had a hard time coping.
“What do you want?” Trent asked with a hard edge to his voice.
“I came to tell you about Ariel.”
Trent straightened. “Is she okay?” he choked out.
“Yes, but there have been some incidences that imply someone is trying to stop your sister from investigating.”
“Fuck. What happened?”
Benson wanted Trent to be upset so he’d come clean. He gave as much detail as he felt comfortable divulging. “Because one of the photos was of Ariel coming out of your house and then one of her returning to her place, my roommate and I have asked her to stay with us until everything is cleared up.”
“Stay with you?”
Benson expected the push back. “Yes. My home is very secure. In fact, I’ve hired bodyguards to make sure that your sister remains safe while at work.”
“Does that mean she won’t be asking any more questions?”
“That’s what I’m hoping.”
Trent looked off to the side, clearly trying to come to grips with all of this. Benson pulled out his phone and showed him the image of Hammer Schmidt. “Do you know this man?”
As soon as Trent saw the man’s face, his jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. From his body language, that would be a yes. “Who is he?” Trent asked.
“Don’t play games with me if you want your sister to live. They just kidnapped the defense attorney’s niece this morning. In order to get Anna back, Dennis Ackerman has to pay ten grand—supposedly the same amount of money you owed him for your gambling debt.”
Trent bit down on his lip. “Hammer Schmidt is just the muscle. I owed Dave Franklin the money. It was his table I was at.”
Fuck. He would have to pick the brother of the head of the gambling cartel to mess with. And a werewolf no less. That just made things a lot more dangerous. “You owed him ten thousand?”
“Yeah.”
“Did Hammer or Dave threaten to harm Sam if you didn’t pay?”
“No! When Hammer roughed me up, I lied and said I’d get him the money somehow.”
