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“We don’t,” she admitted. “The guards at the gates have no record of her coming in. They didn’t see who knocked them out so she could make her escape.”
“What about that reporters, then?” I asked. “Have you figured out how they’re getting in?”
The guards had done their best to keep the swarms of news crews on the outside, but someone had broken through. The proof had been plastered all over the front page of theBoston Enquirer, plus a four-page spread on the inside: original crime-scene photos of the abduction site; shots of the empty graves in the garden where the bodies of Samuel’s victims had been exhumed; pictures of the Morrow Family mausoleum where Samuel’s murdered father had been laid to rest. The double abduction of two shifter newborns, the grandsons of a newly discovered shifter serial killer still on the run, all playing out across Samuel’s dumping grounds here at a mysterious, luxurious shifter estate.
It was a story worth trespassing for, I guessed.
There had even been shots of Xander and me standing on the balcony of our room. Those photos had been blurry, but not blurry enough to conceal the way we were both crying.
Moreno frowned. “I’m not here to upset you.”
So, that would be a no.
“What are you here for, then? You don’t need our permission to take down the roadblocks,” I pointed out.
“Ah… well, mostly, I’m here as a courtesy, Mrs. Miller.” She pursed her lips and blew a breath out her nose. “I regret to inform you that, because we no longer believe that Miss Houghton, Ryder, and Rylan are still in this county, my captain has ordered me to turn this case entirely over to the CARD. Special Agent Cordova will be your primary contact from here on out.” Her eyes met mine. “I am so sorry. Really, I am.”
I stared back at her, wishing I could hate her for it. I knew she’d done her best with what she had. I knew it was Captain Booker I really despised. There was every chance that despite Samuel’s absence, Booker was still in his pocket. That Booker was intentionally being useless just to hurt us. That he’d let Melony escape.
The CARD… I had a little more hope in them. The FBI’s Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team were trained for situations exactly like ours. We’d met with Special Agent Cordova several times but always with Captain Booker breathing down her neck. Cordova was professional and well-spoken. A lot like Moreno, in many ways—but unlike Moreno, she wasn’t stuck beneath Booker’s thumb.
Maybe it was good news. If the Portersmith PD was dirty, maybe this meant our case would be passed into cleaner, more capable hands.
But the time we’d already lost had been crucial. There was no getting it back.
I turned my gaze back down to my phone. “You know the way out.
Chapter3
Xander
Everyone gathered around the table while I sat at the head, waiting to hear their grievances and reports. The seat to my right remained empty.
It was where she should have been.
Felicity had yet to turn up. I’d asked the maids, who swore she was around somewhere. At least she hadn’t packed her shit and left. But it seemed to me that everyone in this fucking mansion wanted my ear today, save the one person I wanted to talk to.
I missed her. I missed her scent and her smile and the way my chest felt when she was near me. Like my heart was finally beating right.
Felicity was avoiding me. She had been since I broke the news.
“Go on, then,” I said with a sigh as I surveyed the faces at the table. “Who’s first?”
“The other East Coast packs are stonewalling us,” Clint piped up quickly. “No one’s seen anything, no one knows anything.”
“Some of them may actually be telling the truth,” Aubrey added.
“And the liars?”
“It’s proving difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.” Clint shook his head solemnly. “We could be looking for a needle in a haystack…”
“Or a needle in a needlestack.” I nodded, accepting it. This was a reality we’d already prepared to face, but the stakes had been far lower back then. “Right. Realistically, how many of these packs might have taken Melony in?”
“A better question would be, how many are loyal to my father?” Clint said. “You know I share your suspicions that he had something to do with this. Melony didn’t make her way onto the estate undetected without help.”
“There are three packs in the area that would help Samuel,” Aubrey supplied. “Old ones, all of them. Waning, like Portersmith was before Clinton took over, but rich in land, connections, and clout.”
“The Du Ponts are my grandmother’s people—Samuel’s mother came from that pack,” said Clint. “He’s been cozy with the Sterlings for decades, and the Laurents hate humans even more than Samuel does…”
