Blood of the Pride (14 page)

Letting Jess kill him would be Pride justice.

But it wouldn’t bring Ruth back and it wouldn’t give me what I needed to find out who killed Janey Winters. What Davis knew would die with him. Jess couldn’t or wouldn’t care right now, deep in her blood lust.

Pride justice had turned me out onto the streets decades ago.

Now I had to use it to find Janey’s killer.

“I will.” I moved forward into the clearing, leaving Bran’s warmth and support behind.

Jess looked at me. “Rebecca, this is not the place for your childish prattle.” A trace of sadness crept into her words. “You are here as a visitor, not even as a full member.”

A murmur began to rise and fall as others recognized me, the discussion of my exile being brought up again. The Pride had been divided in deciding what to do. In the end it had fallen to the Board and no one had objected to their decision.

“I beg the Board’s indulgence to present the argument.” My mind raced to form the words and present them in as formal language as I could. I pointed at the man on the ground. “This man did what he thought was necessary to protect the Pride. That, in and of itself, is no crime. In fact it is expected and demanded of each and every one of us.” I spotted a few furred heads bobbing in agreement. “The death of one of our most beloved members was, by his own words, an accident. He only intended to scare her into returning to the trail of complete secrecy, one of our most sacred rules.” A few more members began to mumble.

I raised my voice. “If a cub injures another one while playing, we do not strip him of his hide. We allow him to atone and make restitution as best as he can. If we believe in this, then how can you take the life of a member who has declared his actions to be an accident—a horrible, unfortunate accident involving one of our most beloved members, but still…an accident.” I spread my arms, hoping the submissive pose would win more over to my side. “Put aside the name of Ruth, adored as she was by all of us, and see this as it was—an accident—and punish him for that crime. Punish him but do not kill him.” I took a deep breath. “Mercy is not a weakness.”

Jess looked over and around me, her nose twitching as she tried to take an accounting of the Felis surrounding us.

Bran stepped up behind me, his pulse racing and fear radiating off of his body along with a certain amount of arousal. His hand landed on the small of my back, pressing into the damp fabric with a sudden tenderness that brought tears to my eyes.

Dennis approached us, still unchanged. He put one hand on Davis’s shoulder and looked up at Jess. “We have lost too much already, Jess. Let’s not add another body to the count.”

Jess arched back and roared again into the sky, her hands outstretched and claws at the ready. She grabbed Davis by the throat and lifted him off the ground, shrugging Dennis’s grip off.

“You have been judged and found guilty of a crime, of causing malicious injury to another member of the Pride.” Her free hand lashed out, claws finding vulnerable skin. “You are thereby stripped of your membership and banished from this Pride. Seek your home elsewhere. Maybe there is another group that would take in your wretched, pitiful soul.”

Davis dropped to the ground, his face a bloody mess. Jess spun around and advanced on me. She stopped when our noses touched, one furry and one not. I could smell the morning’s bacon and eggs on her breath.

“Do not push your luck anymore. Leave.” It wasn’t a request.

I backed away. Bran walked beside me as we made our way through the crowd. A young male snarled at me, his lips rolling back to expose bare teeth. A mother snatched her curious young out of our way.

“You have his scent on you.” One senior jumped out in our wake and spat on the ground as she pointed at me. “You whore.”

“Get the Taser out,” I whispered to Bran as we continued our retreat out of the crowd. “Be ready to use it.”

He didn’t say anything.

We were on clear ground, the entire group now behind us. I could hear bare feet pawing at the grass, digging up clumps in their eagerness for a kill. The blood lust had started and Davis wasn’t the only possible target.

“Keep moving. And don’t turn around.” I kept pushing Bran backwards along the trail until the wrought-iron gates passed in front of us. No one looked toward us, no one attempted to follow.

Another mighty roar came from the crowd, probably Jess trying to regain control.

“That. Was. Intense.” Bran wiped his forehead with the back of his hand as I finally spun and faced forward.

“We’re not out of here yet.” I grabbed his hand and broke into a jog, glancing over my shoulder every few seconds. “You’re driving.”

It was only after the car doors slammed behind us that I dared to breathe, watching Brandon start up the engine and back us out of the small space. I could catch the eagerness on the air, the hunting instinct rising and falling with every breeze.

Maybe I hadn’t saved Davis after all.

“Just gun it.” I pointed down the gravel road. “Don’t even think about the speed limit until we hit the highway.” He followed my instructions without question, spitting gravel over the other cars as we raced down the lane and away from the farm.

“So…is every party like that one?” Bran joked as he slid the Jeep into traffic. A tractor-trailer zoomed by, honking angrily at our invasion of his space. “Idiot.” Bran flipped him the bird. “Don’t piss me off, not today,” he yelled through the closed window.

“Smooth move.” I puffed out short breaths through my mouth, inhaling through my nose. It was the best way of cleansing my senses of the overflow. “Just get us back to your place in one piece, please.” I closed my eyes and forced my fear back into the darkness in my mind’s eye, the nightmarish images of being torn apart by my own family no longer front and center.

“Roger that.” He paused for a minute before speaking. “Think they killed him anyway?”

“I…I don’t know.” I looked out the window at the passing farmland. “Davis thought he was doing the right thing, disciplining Ruth for making the decision to give me Pride files on her own.”

“Except that if she hadn’t, you’d be further away from grabbing this killer than ever.” He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “So is Davis related to the murder? And if so, how?”

“I’m not sure. He was looking at someone in the crowd. I didn’t see who, but it’s enough for me to wonder how much he really knows.” The traffic was slowing now as we approached Toronto, the Gardiner Expressway a tangle of trucks, commuting cars and lost tourists who had picked the wrong time to visit the city.

“Is there any way for you to find out who was in the group?”

“Not a chance. People would have come from all over to pay homage to Ruth, maybe even from other Prides. Even if I dared to ask for a list I don’t think anyone would have taken an accounting of who was there.”

“Damn.” Bran expertly wove from lane to lane, squeezing the Jeep between monster trucks spewing diesel fumes.

“Jess’ll probably let him live because I gave her a chance to catch her breath and realize we need what Davis knows.” I rubbed the edge of my nose, banishing the last of the overlapping scents. “Gave her a chance to save face and put the responsibility for her reversing the decision on me.” I shrugged. “They’ll be angry, but more at me than Jess. I’m a better target than a Board member.”

The Jeep moved into the right-hand lane, preparing to take the exit that would bring us back to Bran’s condo. “I might not have your heightened senses but I was getting a whole lot of hostility from those men and women. And not just because you’re the cutest one there.”

“It’s pretty complicated. I’m not really sure if I get it myself.” The cars around us slowed to a crawl. “I’m a bit of an anomaly in the system. So they don’t really know how to deal with me.”

Bran turned the wheel, maneuvering us into the underground parking lot. “But that still doesn’t solve the problem of who killed Janey.”

“Exactly.” I unbuckled the belt as we came to a stop. “Langley isn’t the killer—he’s too old and he couldn’t have traveled down here in time for all the events. He also doesn’t have a motive, as far as we know.”

The car door opened. Bran took my hand and pulled me out, snapping my reverie. “Well, let’s take a short break and catch our breath. If what you’re saying is true, then we’re getting closer to the actual killer.” He gave me a sad smile. “Otherwise he wouldn’t have trashed your place. He must have really thought you had the files there and that they were important to revealing his identity.”

We waited only a minute for the elevator and got in, turning to face the finely polished doors. I winced at our distorted reflections. The warped images echoed the confusion in my mind.

The doorman touched the brim of his cap. “Mr. Hanover.” He smiled at me, his eyes sparkling over the thick moustache. “Good day.” He held out a small envelope. “Your key, miss. They said that it’s all sealed up just fine.”

Bran nodded. “No one comes up to see me without you calling for permission. No one.” His stern voice snapped the veteran to attention. “Let’s just say that it’s a precarious situation right now.”

Dan nodded, his bushy moustache bobbing. “Affirmative, sir. No one gets through.”

“You realize that’s not exactly reassuring to me,” I murmured to Bran as the doors shut again and the elevator began to ascend to his floor. “The guy who dropped off your photograph got up here, no problem.”

“Gotta do something. I don’t like all this danger getting closer and closer to you.”

Jazz looked up from her position on the leather couch as we walked in. The white cat mewed her annoyance when I sat down beside her. She moved to curl up on my lap.

Brandon picked up the Langley file. “Let me try again to get hold of my Mountie contact.”

“He won’t have anything on this guy.” I shook my head. “It’s unlikely Langley has done anything illegal other than maybe a parking ticket or two. We tend to try and keep a low profile.” A pounding began behind my eyes as I let out a deep sigh. “Them, me, we… I keep getting confused. I thought I had left all of this crap behind me.”

He dropped the folder on the table and sat down beside me. Jazz took the opportunity to stretch out across both laps, getting a two-for-one deal on petting. Bran began to stroke my hair with one hand, the other running through Jazz’s white fur.

“Look, how about we hit the showers and then grab a nap. I’ll set my dogs on Langley and see what they can turn up. You’ve got to be exhausted.”

“I’m pretty wiped,” I admitted. My head was still spinning from my sudden show of bravery in facing down Jess and a whole pack of angry Felis.

He got up, curled Jazz into a ball and placed her in the warm spot he had just vacated. “You stand watch while I take your mistress away for a bit.”

The white cat looked up at him with disdain. I got up on my own, chuckling.

Bran glanced from me to the cat and back, a sudden look of concern on his face. “You’re not related or anything, right? This isn’t some freaky mutation thing, is it?”

I laughed, feeling a bit of tension lift from my shoulders. “Not a chance. She’s an ugly street cat that wandered into the house one day and decided to stay.” I leaned down and scratched her behind the ears. She responded by closing her eyes and purring in that ragged, disjointed way I had come to love. “We’re about as related as you humans are to spider monkeys. Or something like that.”

“Okay. Just checking.” Bran grinned. “Didn’t want to offend your great-grandmother or something like that.” He put one hand around my waist and pointed toward the bathroom. “Let me put the tracers out and I’ll join you in a few minutes.”

I hesitated. “Bran, I’m not sure I’ll feel like… I mean…” The burning in my face revealed my embarrassment.

“Hey,” the tall man put up his hands and laughed softly, “believe it or not, not all men are wild sex machines.” He looked at me, his eyes deep and soft. “You’ve had one helluva day. The last thing on my mind is making love to you.” A naughty sparkle appeared. “At least right now.” He strutted toward the computer desk, picking up the portable phone en route. “I’ll see you in there. And don’t laugh when you see the peppermint body wash. It’s one of those aromatherapy things I read about once.”

Jazz meowed after me as I stepped into the bathroom and stripped off the smelly clothing that had covered me for way too long. The shirt went into the far corner of the room atop the jeans and underwear, the sports bra dangling over the heap. “Gonna have to burn those.” My nose wrinkled up at the intensity of the odors. At times I didn’t relish having such a wonderful sense of smell.

The hot water was exactly that—hot and plentiful. I stepped under it and started to scrub every inch of my skin with the washcloth plucked from the small inset shelf. It’s bad enough when you have to wear a shirt for more than one day, but mix in the rush of aromas from a pack of angry Felis, and I ended up with a creation that almost made me nauseous again.

The shampoo was a standard bland generic blue liquid, almost fluorescent. As I rubbed it into my long hair I began the dissection of the morning’s events. Too much didn’t match.

Davis had been a Board member for decades, chosen after a long and arduous process that had every eligible member of the Pride chomping at the bit to prove him or herself worthy. Openings didn’t come too often and it was a job that held such a high level of responsibility that Board members didn’t work—they had too much to do. But Davis threw it all away… For what? What would make him risk everything he had to threaten Ruth?

“Who what?” Bran began to rub my back, spreading out a new layer of soapy bubbles. The smell of peppermint rose up to cover our bodies. “You were thinking out loud.”

I shifted my muscles, wincing as they protested. It had been a rough few days. “Davis. I don’t know why he went after Ruth.”

He moved to massage my shoulders and neck, rubbing the heated skin. “He was pissed that she gave you the files. He’s somehow involved with the killer.”

“Somehow. It’d take a helluva lot to pull Davis into this mess.” I closed my eyes as the steam drifted up and over us. “But it’s not Davis. The scent, it’s not the same. Not even close.”

“So what’s the connection between Langley, Davis and your mysterious killer?” Bran said in my right ear.

“I don’t know. But it’s there.” I put my hands on the tiled walls and let out a sigh as the rubbing continued down my back. Bran’s fingers paused for a second at the scars and then proceeded to lightly brush across the puckered and injured skin. “This okay?”

“Yes. Feels great.” I sighed my appreciation as he continued his gentle touching. “It’s a relative of Langley’s, somehow. Imagine one of those shows where they show the DNA readings and say that it’s a brother or son or something.”