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The phone rang several times before a voice answered, “Hello?”
Bailey licked her front teeth. “This is Amiri, I’m guessing?”
A long pause. “It is. And I recognize that voice. Bailey, yes?”
“Correct,” she said, still eerily cool. “Not gonna lie, you’re far from my favorite person right now.”
Another pause. “And that would be because?”
“I’m not a big fan of people tossing acid in my face.” The words were soft. Calm. Deadly.
Seconds of silence ticked by. “Excuse me?”
“Pretty sure you heard me just fine.”
“You were attacked?” He sounded genuinely stunned.
“You should know. You orchestrated it.”
“I assure you, my pack had no hand in it,” he swore—not with any sense of panic in what the consequences might be, but casually … as one would when informing someone that, yes, it was in fact raining outside. Well, little worried jackals.
“You expect me to believe that?” Bailey asked him with a snort, but Deke sensed that she wasn’t so doubtful.
“I can understand why you would be dubious. But truly, we have no actual wish to cause you harm. And what would we have to gain from it? We want your cooperation, not your anger. Angry mambas do nothing for no one.”
Well, that was true enough.
As Tate approached her, Bailey said, “My Alpha wants to talk to you, Amiri.”
“So,” began Tate, folding his arms, “you’re one of the jackals who thought to corner a member of my pride.”
“Not to threaten or harm her,” Amiri told him. “It is Roman we want. And I can assure you that we did not orchestrate what happened to her tonight. Such a thing would inevitably lead to war. If we wanted war with your pride, we would not declare it via a warning. We would simply come at you when you least expected.”
“Then you would die,” Tate stated, his voice a lethal blade. “Every last one of you.”
“We are not your enemy, Devereaux.”
“If that’s truly the case, her attacker will verify it—we have him in our custody.”
“He will verify it.” Amiri sounded positive of that.
“If you have any more questions regarding Roman in the future, you bring them to me, not to Bailey,” Tate stated, his tone non-negotiable. “If any of you go near her again, or anyone approaches her on behalf of your pack, I will take it as a declaration of war.”
Amiri paused. “I will make my Alpha aware of it.”
“Be sure that you do.” Tate gave Bailey a nod, and she ended the call.
Leaning back against the counter, Vinnie blew out a breath. “Personally, I believe the jackal. I don’t think his pack were behind this.”
“Then he’s right; the human will confirm it.” Tate turned to Deke. “Is he still out of it?”
“No,” replied Deke. “He was wide awake and squirming in his chair when I last checked on him.”
Bailey slowly pushed out of her seat. “Then let’s talk to him.”
“Maybe you should hang back for now,” Havana suggested.
Instead of snapping as Deke had expected, Bailey gave her a brittle smile and said, “Don’t worry, I won’t lose my temper. I’ll wait until he crumbles before I kill him.”
Havana hiked up a brow. “Can you say the same for your snake?”
Bailey nodded. “She went for the kill in the parking lot because she didn’t want him to escape. But he’s tied up now, so she doesn’t have that concern.”
Satisfied, Havana gently squeezed her shoulder. “All right, then we all go talk to him.”
The Alphas led the way as they headed for the makeshift interrogation room. Deke walked behind Bailey, needing to be close to her while protectiveness was an ache in his bones. His cat needed it, too; needed to feel he was close enough to intervene should another threat abruptly come her way.
Inside the interrogation room, they all fanned out, facing the human. He swept his gaze over them, panic flaring in his blue eyes for a mere second. But then the defiance was back, and he jutted out his chin.
Alex stepped forward. The wolverine was often called on when interrogations were necessary. He had a knack for making people talk. “Name?” he asked their captive, his voice containing little emotion.
The human clamped his lips tightly shut.
Alex gave an indifferent shrug. “We’ll have your ID soon enough.”
They would. Deke had snapped a photo of the human and sent it to River so the male could search the police database.
“You’re all shifters, aren’t you?” It was a guess on the human’s part.
“Clever boy.” Bailey slowly walked toward her attacker, who leaned back slightly. She didn’t stop in front of him, though. She moved to stand behind him, idly scraping a nail along his scalp.
He tensed. “I won’t tell you anything, no matter what you do to me.”
Alex scratched his temple. “I’ve heard that before. They all talk eventually.”
“Well, look at this,” Bailey drawled, her finger tugging the back of the human’s collar away from his body. “We have an extremist in our midst.”
