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The moment I’m close enough, she practically throws herself at me, crying harder into my neck. “What is wrong with people? Why would they leave a body by the omega wing for me to find?” Her words are hard to make out between the sobbing, and I have to fill a few in to make sense of it.
Finished with inspecting the body, Emmett comes up beside me and holds out a pack of travel size tissues for me to take. I remove one and hand it to Rosey, murmuring calming phrases to her, trying to pacify her, but nothing seems to work. Emmett once more reaches into his med bag and draws out a vial and syringe.
“Rosey, I’m going to help you relax now,” he tells her in a soothing voice, before pushing the needle into her arm. He catches her as she passes out. “She was too hysterical. I’ll take her to the med wing.”
“While you’re going that way, would you mind letting Mrs. Violet know about what happened?” Andrik asks.
“Not a problem.” Emmett leans in for a kiss and then carries Rosey out. A slight glint catches my eye, and I find her red glitter decorating my arms.
“We should probably follow the trail. I’d assume it leads to the murder location,” Jedrik supplies, running a hand through his hair and letting out an exhausted sigh. “Thank god the storms dissipated last night. I’m sick of having our hands tied behind our backs on figuring out who this fucker is. All the evidence we’ve collected will make it easy to figure out who it is when we test the DNA left under Chad’s fingernails.”
“Agreed. I’m ready for this to be over. I’ve never been more stressed in my life,” Andrik replies. “I’ve guarded the last two bodies. This one is on you.”
“Fair enough.” Jedrik nods his head, adding to his agreement.
“Actually, if it’ll help to have both of you searching for evidence, I can stay with the body,” Kyle offers. His face loses color right away, like he regrets the offer immediately.
“You sure?” Jedrik questions skeptically.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” Kyle leans against the wall like he’s purposefully making sure nobody can sneak up behind him.
“I’ll stay with Kyle,” Ryland offers, and my bearded alpha seems to gain some color back.
“Thanks, man.”
“Don’t mention it.” Ry reaches for his necklace and rubs a thumb over his coin. It’s like they’re assuming I’ll go with the twins.
“Okay, let’s go. The sooner we get all the evidence, the faster we can come back.” Jedrik holds out his hand for me to take. “Come on, Trouble. We won’t be able to fight our nature if we don’t have you close.”
It feels like I’m being torn in two, but when I glance at Kyle, he doesn’t seem upset. “Go, Peardrop. They’re enforcers. You’ll be safer with them.”
I take Jedrik’s hand and the strength of it seems to calm some of the frantic emotions overtaking me since I saw the body. We follow the trail of blood all the way to the other side of the mansion, finding the end in the billiard room. Sure enough, there’s a bloody dagger on the floor, confirming my suspicions.
We also find an overturned chair like Charles realized he was about to be attacked and tried to escape. He made his way to the pool cue and managed to remove one from the rack, but it’s on the floor, seeming to be unblemished. The killer probably stabbed him before he was able to wield it properly.
The twins gather their evidence, and I wait nearby in a daze. This isn’t how today was supposed to go. Not even close.
By the time we make it back to the omega wing entrance, Karen and Mrs. Violet rush into view from another hallway. After one glance at the body, Mrs. Violet blanches and turns around holding her stomach with one hand and the other presses against her mouth. Karen holds herself together better, but not by much. She grabs her chest and adverts her eyes.
“Karen, my phone,” Mrs. Violet orders, holding her hand out for the device. Karen jumps into motion, grabbing it from her pocket and dropping the red pen in the process. The councilwoman doesn’t pay her assistant any mind and immediately dials a number.
The mumbled sounds of someone answering come through. “There was another murder,” Mrs. Violet says, her voice close to hysterical. After a pause, she continues. “I don’t care what plans you had, you all need to get to the airstrip and over here as soon as it’s ready for takeoff. We need to shut this down. I can’t keep covering it up for the viewers.”
She must get their consent because she hangs up shortly after without saying anything else. Turning to the twins, she pins them with her no nonsense stare. “Gather your evidence. I want you ready to present it to the council when they arrive. We need to get to the bottom of this. Now.”
Having given her command, she turns and walks away.
Wow. It only took three murders for her to give up the ruse of everything being okay.
Karen cuts off my view of watching Mrs. Violet walking away. “I’m so sorry, Verity. With everything that happened, we’re canceling today’s plans. The council members should be here within a few hours and we won’t be resuming the show until after the killer is found.”
Honestly, I’m not that disappointed. Having to fake my way through the day while being on camera sounds like the worst. “It’s okay, Karen. Finding out who the murderer is and getting him behind bars sounds like the greatest gift at this point.”
Before she can respond, her phone goes off and she steps away to answer. In a split second, Ry is next to me again. “Don’t worry, Ver Bear. We’ll still find a way to make your birthday special. Whoever this fucker is won’t ruin your day if it’s the last thing I do. Speaking of, happy birthday, beautiful.”
I lean in to kiss him, but before we get too close, Kyle interrupts. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did I just hear that correctly? It’s your birthday? And you didn’t tell us?” His outrage draws the attention of everyone in the room.
Hanging up the phone, Karen is the first one to respond. “You weren’t supposed to know. It was part of today’s challenge.” She waves her hand to brush off the details. “Doesn’t matter now that it’s been canceled.”
