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She groaned, thumping her fist against the grass. “Fine. I’m Ava-Rose Olsen,Boston Examiner. Okay?”
“You’re the one who took those pictures of us at Morrow Manor,” I said, recalling the leaked images. While our hearts were breaking, she’d profited off our pain.
“Guilty.” She lifted a shoulder as she sat up and had the audacity to look a little smug. “Although, if you do take me to court, just know I’ll be thoroughly denying it. Look, you have my memory card. The pictures I took tonight are all on there, okay? So, give me back my camera, and I’ll be out of your hair.”
She got onto her hands and knees, then reached for the camera. Xander yanked it away before her fingers could latch on.
“Not quite yet,” he said. “How did you get onto the grounds of the Morrow estate? We never managed to figure it out.”
She rose to her knees, reaching for the camera again. “I don’t have to tell you a damn thing.”
She dived for the camera. Xander jerked it away at the last minute, sending her tumbling forward. She ended up face-down, sprawled out on the lawn, spitting curses at him.
Xander chuckled. It seemed he hadn’t lost all his edge. After the way this woman had invaded our suffering, making a story out of it, I didn’t even feel bad for her.
“Be careful with that!” she yelped, staring up at her camera in horror as it swung violently from its strap. “It’s expensive! As if I didn’t already lose enough money paying for the tip on your location—”
Xander’s eyes narrowed and sharpened. “Who sold you that?”
Before she could protest again, he stretched his arm out and let the strap dangle from his fingers like he meant to drop it.
“Just some woman,” Ava-Rose said quickly, scrambling to her feet. “Pink hair, works at the grocery store here in town. I don’t know her name, just—”
“Lexi,” I groaned, putting a hand to my head. “I ran into her when I was getting groceries the other day. Of course, she sold us out.”
And after I’d been so certain she was turning over a new leaf, too. My cheeks flamed. I was so fucking stupid. I’d told her enough that we’d be lucky if Ava-Rose was the only reporter we’d have sniffing around the lodge now.
“Look,” Xander said, lowering the camera. “One of our sons is still missing. We know where to find him, but to get him back, we need to know how to get past the security of a place like Morrow Manor.”
“Can’t the FBI do it?” Ava-Rose asked. “They’re supposed to handle stuff like this, right?”
“They’ve been instructed to give the old packs of the East Coast a wide berth. It would take someone pretty high up the food chain to give an order like that,” Xander mused. “Might even be a story for you there—unless you plan on playing paparazzi for a gossip rag for the rest of your career?”
Ava-Rose perked up a little. “I don’t, in fact. Would you be willing to go on record saying that?”
“You scratch our back, we scratch yours.”
She licked her lips, then struck out her hand. “Okay. Deal.”
“How did you breach Morrow Manor’s security?” I asked as she and Xander shook on it.
She snorted. “It was too easy. My great-grandmother used to work as a maid on one of those big shifter estates, way back when you were all constantly battling each other for territory. Places like the one in Portersmith, they’re all built on top of catacombs, with a secret path off the estate just in case the alpha and his family needed to make a quick, quiet getaway during a battle or whatever.”
“Would Clinton know about something like that?” I asked Xander.
He shrugged. “Maybe not if Samuel didn’t tell him, which wouldn’t be a surprise. I was down in the dungeons for a little while, though. They looked like they could possibly be attached to a greater network.”
“Most of them are forgotten about, honestly,” Ava-Rose professed. “I explore them sometimes, just seeing if I can dig up any new shifter dirt. Humans love that stuff, you know? Some are under water now, or half collapsed. Morrow Manor’s weren’t all that bad, though. The hatch was already open and everything. I just had to crawl inside.”
I glanced at Xander. “Do you think that could be how Samuel escaped when the feds came for him?”
Xander scowled. “I’d put money on it.”
“Ooh. Juicy.” Ava-Rose shifted from foot to foot impatiently, rubbing her hands together. “You know, since I have you here, maybe you’d be willing to give an interview? We could do a sort of mash-up kind of thing. A profile piece, even. Grandson of a serial killer, father of missing twins, his hot human mate, fighting together against the powers-that-be to track down their babies where the FBI has failed? People would eat it up.”
“Or you get the fuck off my property before I break your expensive little camera,” Xander suggested. “We’re not your fucking story.”
“You know what? I actually have somewhere to be.” Ava-Rose grabbed for the camera again. This time, Xander let her take it. “I’ll be in touch about that FBI corruption thing, though. You did give me your word.”
