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Harley claimed his fingers, offering him the support most men would deny aloud even needing. “We could go there. Normally, I would worry about getting time off but with my residency being interrupted or…” She’d been about to say ruined. But she couldn’t be sure yet how it would all turn out. “I’ll have to finish my residency at a different hospital anyhow. I think we could manage the time to take a trip. Do you want to go back and check on them, let them know you’re alive?”
He scrubbed his hand over his short hair. “Yeah, that would be…good.”
It was kind of nice to have a goal to focus on after they left Vegas. In a way it made it easier, feeling more like a vacation than losing everything she’d worked hard to achieve. No, she wasn’t giving up. This was just the first step in adjusting to a whole new life. “But before anything else we have to arrange my death.”
Chapter Nineteen
D was parked in the lot across from the shitty little dive where Zeven and his target had gone to ground. He still couldn't imagine what the man was thinking. Wasn't he a paid killer? Wasn't the woman his current target? If so, then why were they acting like horny teenagers? At first, he'd considered that perhaps Zeven was a rapist as well as a murderer. Then he began to wonder if the doctor was trying to use her body to buy her way out of the contract.
He kept his eyes on the building but didn't get any answers.
Maybe the answers he'd been looking for had been on the other pages of the report that he'd seen in Quinn's office. His boss wasn't the kind to shirk the prep work on their missions.
Then again, this wasn't a mission.
At least not yet.
His best guess was that dealing with Zeven was going to be a future assignment. If Quinn had done his usual level of scouting, then he surely had recognized Zeven's identity. But what would he do with that bit of information? If Zeven were to be a future assignment, would he have willingly asked him to take the job?
Or would he have just dealt with it himself?
Yeah, Quinn might be badass in some pretty extreme ways, but when it came down to it, he was also a big softy. He'd almost certainly never have handed the job to him. Nor would he have passed it to another agency. No, he'd have made some kind of excuse and handled it himself.
Damn sentimental old fool.
Maybe they were both fools. Because he was sitting here with Zeven almost in his sights and he still wasn't sure what the next move should be.
His phone chirped. A glance at the ID showed "Hot Nerd".
"Yeah?"
Her soft voice bit over the line. "Have some manners you dang mutt."
He smiled. "Don't need them. What do you want, Tweety?" The girl would surely be calling with some useful intel, maybe even something that could sort out his next direction.
"I thought you might like to know a little more about the Coyote Clan situation. I've been looking into them and thought you could use the heads up."
He held back his disappointment. Of course, her call would be about the clan. That was his mission. Not dealing with Zeven. He really should be focusing better. "Go ahead."
"Thank you and you're welcome, jack ass."
"Uh-huh."
There was an audible sigh across the line. A few seconds ticked by while he imagined her staring at the ceiling and taking deep breaths to calm her irritation. "Okay, okay. Here's the important bits. The clan is a major trainwreck. The alpha there basically stole the position and has been abusing her authority over the others for the past several years. There were nearly three hundred in the clan just five years ago and now they are down to way less than two hundred. It's unclear just what has happened to them all. If any of them managed to escape, they haven't been able to speak up about the situation."
"Are you suggesting the current alpha has purged over a hundred members?"
"Yeah, maybe more."
"Maybe the clan split. That can happen."
"Not this time. My tentative count was one hundred and twenty-three missing members, assumed to be dead. I know we don't do wolf on wolf crime very often but that is where it gets interesting. The female alpha took up with a human male and he seems to be calling at least some of the shots. That makes this one of our cases, doesn't it?"
It still didn’t make much sense. "Maybe, maybe not. Valàfrn can choose human mates and even share their powers with them, essentially making them no longer human."
"Sounds interesting."
"What does?" The tone of her voice was oddly vague. "No, never mind. Got anything else for me?” He wasn’t going to ask straight out but what he wanted was some intel that would help him with the side job.
