Blood of the Pride (16 page)

I nodded. “I had that.
Had
being the operative word. Keep talking.”

“When Jess told me about your request I knew that Frank had the streak down his face—it’s been there as long as I’ve known him. But he’s too old to have been the guy who attacked you. I called him and asked what was going on. I mean, there’s only so many Felis out there with that particular marking scheme.”

“No kidding.” I caught Bran’s questioning look. “It’s not a common trait. We all have different markings. It’s like fingerprints.”

“Exactly. There were three men on that list but I just felt that Frank had something to do with it. Call it a hunch or something.”

“Animal instinct?” Bran flinched as we both glared at him. At least I did, I wasn’t sure if Davis did.

“I knew it wasn’t Frank.” The bandaged man let out a sigh. “When Jess told me that we were giving you the list I was pissed.”

“Enough to kill Ruth?” I said.

“No.” He shook his head. “I never wanted to kill her. I just wanted to remind her of her loyalty to the family first.”

“You called Frank. Told him about the investigation, about Ruth giving me the files.”

Davis nodded. “He thanked me and said he’d appreciate anything I could do to keep it quiet. Said he didn’t need anyone butting in on his business.”

I covered my eyes with the palms of both hands and couldn’t respond for a minute. “His ‘business’? We’re talking about the death of a woman.”

“He didn’t know about the barn. I didn’t tell him anything about that. You can’t hold that against him.” A whine crept into his voice.

“Okay. Let’s leave that for a second.” I took a deep breath, quelling my rage. “What business?”

Davis picked at a loose thread on the blanket. “I’m not sure.”

“Look, you bastard.” I leaned in with both hands on each side of his bandaged head and grabbed where I thought his ears would be. The squeal told me I was right. “You spill what you have or I start taking those bandages off.” I showed him my hands again. “Thread by thread.”

He lowered his voice to a whisper, so low that I could barely catch it. “He said that it was his son. I don’t know more than that.”

“But he doesn’t have any children with his current wife.” I glanced at Bran, then back. “He’s got a mistress? Someone in the Pride he’s been nailing on the side?”

Davis dropped his head. “You’ll have to ask him, I didn’t get all the details.”

“But you got enough to risk your standing for him.” I moved away from the bed. “I hope he appreciates it.”

“Reb,” Davis called me back as I opened the door, “it’s family. You know how that works.”

I swallowed back the foul taste in my throat. “Yes, I know how that works.”

Bran followed me out into the hallway. I waved Jess over with a nod of my head, the blond guard moving farther down the corridor, almost out of earshot.

“I don’t get it.” I shook my head, crossing my arms in front of me. “Davis is saying that Frank’s got some sort of son, someone’s who’s off the radar. That’s who we’re looking for.”

“It can’t be.” Jess’s jaw clenched, sending a ripple along the scar. “There’s no children that are unaccounted for. Not one.”

“Are you sure?” Bran asked.

Jess stared at him.

Bran continued. “Listen, I get the idea that you control all the information about the group and all that. But what if someone gets knocked up and doesn’t tell you who the father is?”

“Never happen.” Jess shook her head. “You don’t know anything about us. Keeping a secret like that would be impossible.” She glanced at the floor for a second as if working to find the right words. “We don’t get upset about unmarried women having children. All we ask is that they register them so we keep the bloodlines straight. There’s no shame—just an obligation to do right by the kit by keeping the records straight, which means putting down a father.”

She looked at me. “I’ve never see Frank Langley registered as a father for any kits. Ever. And every record comes across my desk at some point.”

It felt like I had sand behind my eyes, grinding my thoughts to bits. “You’ll have to contact the other Prides, see if he’s in their records.”

“Gone you one better.” Jess smiled, a predatory grin. “I’ve sent someone to retrieve Frank and Kelly Langley from the farm. They came down for Ruth’s funeral. They should be here in a matter of hours.” Her eyes went to Brandon’s, locking steel on steel. “We’ll figure this out.”

I rubbed my forehead with my right hand. “This still isn’t making sense. Who would want to kill Janey Winters? Why? What does she have to do with Frank Langley?” A low throbbing began behind my left eye. “This isn’t connecting.”

The youngster down the hall shuffled his feet, tucking both hands behind his back. I looked at the closed door. “He seems sorry enough.”

“Don’t make what he did right,” Jess said.

“I didn’t say that.” I tapped the tip of my nose with one finger. “But I can tell you that it had to be something pretty close to Davis’s heart to have him threaten and assault Ruth. You don’t just go tossing your weight around that woman.” I caught myself thinking and speaking in the present tense, as if she were still alive. My chest ached with the truth.

“True.” Jess nodded.

“Why did you wait until the funeral to call him out?” I kept talking before my nerve gave out. “You could have done this upstairs, kept it internal.”

Jess looked at the closed door. “I wanted him to have to answer in front of the whole Pride, not just in a private meeting.”

“Public humiliation.” I felt the tension twist down my spine. “I know how important that is to you.”

Jess didn’t flinch. “You were tougher than he was.”

I pushed the flash of anger away before it could consume me. “What made him think he could pull this off?”

“Hubris. Humans don’t have a monopoly on pride,” Jess snapped. “Damned fool figured being on the Board means you can fix everything. It don’t.”

The older woman opened her mouth to say something else and then stopped. Her eyes went wide. I caught the smell a microsecond after she did. So did the guard down the hall, who barreled through us as we stood there, stupid, and barged into the room. Jess followed with the two of us bringing up the rear.

The smell was of fear, feces and of death.

“Damn,” Jess swore under her breath, jumping over the bed toward the window.

Davis had undone some of the bandages and tied them to the top of the metal bars covering the window before climbing up on the small chair provided for all guests. His face, half covered with bandages, was emotionless as he hung from the makeshift gallows. Crisscrossing stitches ran across his exposed skin like a railway switching yard.

“Call the doctors,” Jess barked at the kid as she grabbed the lifeless legs and leaped on the stool. “Reb, get him loose.”

I fished in my pocket for my penknife, my hands shaking too much to get a grip.

Jess snarled and reached up, extending her claws.

Bran caught the unconscious body as the nails slid through the used bandages with ease and lowered him to the bed just as the nurses burst into the room.

Jess spun around, retracting her claws before anyone could see. The corridor filled with yelled commands and pounding feet.

The door flew open and a half-dozen medical personnel rushed in. One man grabbed Davis’s body away from Bran. The others moved between us and the unconscious man, forming a barrier.

“Out, everyone!” The doctor waved his arms as they ripped open Davis’s shirt, piling on like a football scrimmage. “Out!”

I shepherded the kid out, giving Jess a few more seconds before she followed with Bran. The blond kid fell to his knees in the hallway, retching and coughing on an empty stomach. I patted him on the back. “It’s okay. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Jess towered over the two of us, her face scarlet. “Want to explain to me what just happened here?”

I lifted myself up to all five-foot-four inches. “Looks to me like he just tried to kill himself. What do you think?”

“I think it has something to do with the investigation. What did he tell you?” Her eyes narrowed. “What did he say?”

“I’ve told you everything.” Out of the corner of my eye I saw another nurse push a cartful of equipment into the room. “Guess he didn’t want to face you or the Pride again. Get smacked up for hiding his connection to Frank Langley.”

“Don’t start to presume that you know what the Pride would or wouldn’t do!” There was a flash of anger in her face, the eyes threatening to go Felis. She clenched her fists, shaking where she stood.

“Don’t go there.” Brandon stepped between us, so much inside Jess’s personal space I took a step back. He stared directly into the older woman’s eyes. “Don’t blame Rebecca for your own mistakes.” He pointed to one side, to the kid still slouched against the wall. “Don’t blame him and don’t blame her. And you can’t blame Davis for keeping with your stupid traditions and then feeling torn between family and your damned secrets!”

Jess’s right hand snapped up and grabbed Bran by the throat. “Don’t presume to talk to me as an equal, human!” The claws began to come out again, far too close to Brandon’s neck for safety. At that range they could easily pierce the jugular.

The blond kid jumped up beside me, ready to charge in.

I swung my arm up and blocked him. “No.” A strong shake of my head brought the situation home to the kit. I bit down hard on my lower lip. If the kid got into it I’d have to follow and we’d all lose in the end.

This wasn’t something I could fix.

It was all on Bran’s shoulders.

“I don’t think you want to do that.” Bran spoke calmly as if we were placing another order for Chinese. He looked down. “Your decision.”

I spotted his right hand pressed up against Jess’s chest. I had assumed it was to fend her off, but upon closer inspection I saw my Taser—pressed right up against the shirt right at her heart.

Jess grunted.

Bran smiled, his neck flexing against the claws. They weren’t razor-sharp but she could easily swipe across his throat and rip him open like a fish.

I had no idea if the small electrical charge generated by the Taser would just shock Jess or stop her heart.

Jess stared at Bran for a long minute, one edge of her mouth twitching. Finally she smiled, letting loose with a deep laugh I hadn’t heard for years.

She lowered the reporter and released her grip, pulling the claws in quickly. No one around us was paying attention, everyone dealing with the health crisis in the room beside us.

“Well played.” She looked at the kid. “You could learn something from this human, Rick.” Jess took a step back and turned to me. “I’ll bring Frank and Kelly to you.”

“Bring them to my place.” Brandon glanced around us. “I’m tired of driving out to that farm and I think it’s good for us to get into a neutral spot, put Langley off his game, so to speak.”

Jess nodded. “Agreed.” A pointed look directed at Bran. “I already have the address, thank you very much.” She looked at the closed hospital room door. “We have to sort this out before anyone else gets hurt or killed.”

A doctor opened the door and slipped out, closing it behind him before we could see anything. “Mr. Konnerburg’s family?”

Jess drew herself up to her full height. “Davis has no family. I’m the designated next of kin in the paperwork.”

The young blond man looked around the small circle at the rest of us before continuing. “He’s alive. He might have cut off his airway long enough to cause brain damage but we don’t know right now, not until we do some tests.” He looked to the floor before continuing. “Do you have any idea why he would have tried to kill himself?”

Jess silenced us all with a look before speaking. “No idea. He didn’t say anything other than how stupid he felt falling into that hay baler.”

“Well, he’ll be moved to a more secure ward to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We’re not sure if he’ll ever regain full consciousness at this point, but we have to do everything we can to protect him from himself.” The doctor scribbled some notes on the clipboard he held in one hand. “We’ll be in touch as soon as we have anything else to report.”

“Thank you, doctor.” Jess shook his hand, crushing the delicate fingers. As the doctor moved off, shaking the numbness from his hand, Jess turned back to us. “I’ll have them there soon enough.” With a brusque nod to Bran and me, she hustled the kid down the corridor and out of sight.

“That was pretty interesting.” Bran leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath.

“You think?” I reached over and plucked the Taser from his fingers. “I’m taking this back.”

“But I like it.” He chuckled. “It’s such a cool toy.”

I glared at him, putting my hands on my hips. “Do you know how close you were to dying there?”

“Pretty much.” He kissed me lightly on the lips. “I’m not totally oblivious to what’s going on around here. Jess is pissed off ’cause you’ve got me involved and I’ve got to play big man to keep her from swatting me around like a flea. And she’s even more pissed because you’ve also got me in bed and I’m such a hot commodity that she can’t stand it.”

I smiled, stepping back and crossing my arms. “Not too sure about the last point. But you might actually be catching on to all this…” My hands waved in the air. “Politics. I was never all that into them.”

“Well, now might be a good time to start.” He nodded toward the hospital room. “Because this is becoming a bigger and stranger jigsaw puzzle by the minute.”

The nurse at the counter watched us warily when we walked past her station toward the elevator. Obviously she hadn’t been impressed by our family reunion.

“Frank isn’t going to be happy, I can tell you that.” I sat in the passenger seat of my own car once again, leaning my elbow on the window while I tried to clear my mind. Driving wasn’t the best way to do that and Brandon seemed to like taking over the wheel. “We have anything to eat at the apartment?”

“Plenty of munchies.” He arched one eyebrow, a half-smirk on his face. “Any special kitty treats I should order up?”

I smacked him in the arm, hard. “Don’t push it. You may have been able to face Jess down once or twice, but this sort of power game doesn’t stop.” I looked out the window and watched businessmen walk briskly up and down the streets, racing into one building and out of another in a hunt that never ended. “With Davis becoming…incapacitated, there’s now an opening on the board. The last time that happened there was a hell of a lot of challengers, a lot of fights and more than a little blood spilled.” I shook my head. “Right now there’s probably a near-riot on the farm while they start jockeying for position.”

“You could run. Take a spot on the Board.” The Jeep slipped into the underground parking lot with the attendant waving at Bran again.

“Like they’d accept me.” I rolled my eyes.

He pulled into the parking spot. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re a pretty tough broad. They could do a lot worse than put you in charge of this crew.” Bran moved around the car to open my door. “You’ve got a chance here to bridge the old and the new. That’s the sort of crap that got you into this trouble in the first place, right?”

The elevator was empty when we stepped inside. I clenched my teeth, forcing down the sudden rage threatening to overwhelm me. “There’s a lot about this society that you don’t know and that you’ll never know. So please don’t go thinking that because you stared down an alpha and got all snuggly with me that suddenly you’re an expert on me, my family and the Felis.” Unbidden a growl broke loose from my throat, a warning I hadn’t meant to send out.

His jaw dropped. He looked away and studied the elevator buttons, the leather sleeves of his duster flapping loose as the numbers flashed by on the screen.

The anger disappeared, replaced by an overwhelming sense of guilt. I reached out and touched his elbow. “Bran, I didn’t mean…” I didn’t know what to say. There was no way I could explain it to him, the devotion I still had to the Felis, despite their treatment of me. Even if I couldn’t Change I was still family.

Now I had gone and screwed up a perfectly decent relationship because I was an idiot. Never let it be said that I was the brightest of the litter.

The elevator doors slid open. Brandon walked out without a word and stepped toward his front door without glancing back.

“Brandon!” A quick jog brought me beside him as he fumbled with the keys. “I’m not trying to be insulting. I’m just telling you that you can’t use me as a window into Felis society.” I slammed my hand onto the door, just above the handle. “I’m not part of it. I stopped being a part of it when they threw me out.”

The key slid into the lock. He pushed the door open but remained standing outside with me.

“They threw me out when I was fifteen.” I stood behind him. “They threw me out into a world I had only read about. I knew nothing about what was out here. All I knew was that I was a misfit, a genetic throwback and I wasn’t good enough for them.”

The words caught in my throat. “I’ve spent twenty years trying to forget that, all of it. So don’t think that I’m holding anything back or that I just don’t want to tell you. I’m caught in the middle here and I don’t know anything other than that right now I would rather be anyplace else doing anything else. But I can’t.”

He didn’t look at me. “Are you trying to convince me or convince yourself?”

“I don’t know.” My shoulders sagged with the sudden weight that had somehow dropped onto them. “All I know is that you’re here and I’m here and I’d rather be anyplace else dealing with anything else with you.” A weak smile appeared on my lips. “Sort of schizo, I guess.”

“No.” Bran turned around to face me. His eyes flashed caramel for a second then warmed to dark chocolate brown. “I know a bit of what you’re experiencing. Been there done that. But you can’t let them define who and what you are.” He pointed at himself. “And you can’t let me do that either, otherwise it’s not going to work between us. You have to form your own family within the Felis, even if it’s just you and me.” His head tilted to one side. “Is any of this making sense?”

“Yes. And no.” I let out a heavy sigh. “I’ll do my best, but just understand that some of this isn’t easy and it’s not going to be, ever.” I stretched my fingers to their full length then curled back into a fist. “Nothing is ever what it seems with the Felis. Nothing.”

Jazz appeared, weaving her way in and out between our legs with her usual loud and ugly purr. Bran reached down and picked her up, cradling her in his arms. “As long as you don’t tell me that I have to call her ‘Auntie.’ That’d be just a wee bit too much for me to handle.”

I chuckled and scratched Jazz behind the ears. “Not as far as I know. However, she does act like an old lady with attitude.”

The white cat let out an annoying meow as if to admonish the two of us and then arched back out of Bran’s grip, making him lower her to the ground carefully.

“I’m going to go back online and see what I can get about Langley again.” I walked to the computer and began the start-up sequence. “There might be some sort of link somewhere that the family hasn’t documented or something they haven’t been able to keep under wraps.”

“Can’t hurt to try.” Bran said from behind me. “I’ll work the phone lines again. I’ve got some connections at the cop shop—let’s see if Langley rings a bell with anyone.”

“He doesn’t have anything on his record.”

“Nothing that’s documented.” He touched his index finger to the side of his nose. “But who knows, maybe he’s been caught and warned away from some place or someone or something.” A lewd grin and wink accompanied his statement. “Never know when a cop’s gonna give a man a break ’cause he’s sympathetic to the perp. Especially when a woman’s involved.”

I rolled my eyes and spun around in the chair. “Spare me.”

“Not a chance.” The low laugh came from behind me. “Not a chance, Reb.”

An hour later the phone rang, a short two ring sequence. Bran picked it up and waved to me where I sat at the computer desk. “Thanks, Dave. Please send them up.” He tossed the phone onto the table. “Jess’s here along with Frank and Kelly.”

I walked into the kitchen and stared at the complex machinery. “Can you start up a pot of coffee and a pot of tea? I think we’ll all need at least that much.”

“No problem. I don’t have any scones, however.” Bran grinned as I scowled a response. “Don’t get all kitty-PMS with me.”