Birds of Prey (12 page)

Aubrey was still in a good mood as she stepped inside the Cast house. She’d stopped by her place to change clothes and grab her messenger bag.

While she would have loved to have stayed in Cody’s shirt all day, she knew it wouldn’t have gone over well. The security team didn’t have a uniform or anything, but it still wouldn’t have been smart to show up in a man’s shirt.

And it was a good thing that she had changed since the first person she saw was Adrian.

He stood in the hallway talking with one of the single women from the Cast. Lorie? Laura? Aubrey didn’t remember her name. She’d only joined them about six months ago.

She’d moved to town to work at one of the elementary schools. Gregory had accepted her into their family after she had applied. But Aubrey hadn’t had the chance to speak with her much.

She backed out of view as Adrian ran his hand over the woman’s hair and stepped closer.

She waited for the jolt of jealousy that usually came and was surprised when she didn’t feel it. Adrian had been her first serious relationship after Cody. She’d been young enough to believe that they could make it work. The differences between the two of them should’ve keep things interesting.

Instead, it had torn them apart.

She still cared about Adrian. They’d been together for years, and although she could admit that she hadn’t been entirely fair to him, she did have a soft spot for him.

Adrian had always been driven. He’d moved up the ranks of the Cast quickly and had dedicated his entire life to eventually making it to Cast leader.

He
wanted
the job.

Aubrey had never felt the same way. While she did enjoy her position with the Cast, she preferred the more active role in security than the diplomatic one.

She’d never quite fit the mould of a high-powered person like Adrian. Her family’s long service to the Cast had made her a great partner for Adrian.

She’d let herself get swept away by him until he’d finally broken her trust.

The first time she’d found out he’d cheated on her, she’d been devastated. Adrian had been gone for six months and had met someone else. Once he’d finished the custom house building job, he’d returned and hadn’t told Aubrey about the affair.

Until his past had shown up at the Cast looking for him. Then Adrian hadn’t had a choice.

They’d broken up. For almost a year that first time. Then back together. Only to break back up later. And this had continued over and over.

But it had been the last time, almost fourteen months ago now, when Aubrey had promised never to rekindle the relationship with him ever again.

Things had been going well, probably too well, before everything had hit the shit fan. Adrian had proposed. And she had said yes.

The ring had only been on her finger for three months when she’d caught Adrian drunk and banging another woman under a canopy of trees.

She had been working and wasn’t supposed to make it for the Cast shift.

Mike had felt bad and, giving her a reprieve, had sent her off work early.

Instead of getting to shift with Adrian for the first time as an engaged couple, she’d found him with his dick buried deep inside another woman.

Aubrey often wondered if Mike had known about Adrian’s cheating when he’d let her off work early. It wasn’t anything that Mike had ever said, just a feeling she had.

She’d never asked him, though.

Mike was her best friend and if he
had
known, then he’d saved her from making the biggest mistake of her life. If she had mated with Adrian and found out that he was still sleeping around, she didn’t know how she would have handled that. She’d always planned on getting married, making a commitment that would last a lifetime.

But now, seeing him flirting with the newest member of the Cast, Aubrey didn’t get the overwhelming feeling to punch them both.

Instead, she backed out of the doorway to give them privacy.

She ran into a solid form and glanced over her shoulder. Mike stood in her way, grinning.

Aubrey rolled her eyes and turned to him.

He nodded towards the other room. “They still in there?”

“Yes.” She smiled so that he knew she wasn’t bothered.

“Let’s go up the back way, then,” he suggested.

There were two stairways that led to the second floor, the one in the front entrance and the other just outside the kitchen door. They took the second stairs so that they wouldn’t interrupt the couple in the foyer.

“How’d it go last night?” he asked.

Aubrey didn’t answer right away. She thought she should mention the fact that Cody had agreed to them working together so that Mike wouldn’t be as mad when he learned that she’d gone to a rough bar and had had to be rescued.

No, not rescued, damn it. Had just needed a little help. She would have figured out how to get out of it, eventually.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing. Well, not nothing, but it all ended okay anyway,” she said quickly.

Mike sighed deeply.

“I can explain,” she said, when he didn’t comment.

“Oh, you’re going to explain,” he said.

Shit! She had about two steps and a half of hall to figure out the best way to spin the events from the night before.

Mike stepped into the office and pointed to one of the chairs. “Sit and talk.”

So she did. She started with the good news that Cody wanted them to work together.

“And how did you get him to agree to that?” he asked suspiciously.

“Well… See, I sort of ran into him,” she said, with a smile she hoped was innocent.

He snorted.

So she told him the rest of the story. He blew up when she got to the part about going into the bar alone. She waved him back and finished her story.

“Then what happened?” he asked when she had paused.

Aubrey shifted in her seat. “Well, I kind of went home with him.”

“Went home?”

She blinked at him until comprehension dawned in his eyes.

“You went home with him,” he said slowly.

She nodded, his bark of laughter startling her.

“You went home with him?” he repeated again.

She frowned until he stopped laughing.

Finally, he wiped his eyes and got a hold of himself. “Well, I guess that covers my concern that you weren’t comfortable seeing him again. Now, I have some news for you that you can share with your man.”

“What?” she asked, moving to the edge of her seat.

He pulled out a copied picture he had in his desk. She didn’t remember him making his own print, but he obviously had.

“What about it?”

“I found someone who recognised him,” Mike informed her.

“Who? Where?” she asked excitedly.

“Bob Crawford, he runs the motel Blue Moon. The kid stayed there for a month. He hasn’t seen him in about two weeks, but he was sure this was the guy who rented a room.”

“That’s great! I have to talk to him. And check out the places around there. If he was renting a room then he had to have been out around the neighbourhood. Restaurants, stores, or somewhere. We have to see if anyone knows who he hung with.”

“Or you can give this to the Coalition.”

“I will,” she promised. “But we should be sure this intel is creditable.”

“I had a feeling you were going to say that.”

She stood, already planning where to start. She knew the Blue Moon. The small motel in the seedy part of town was owned by a rogue wolf shifter. “Can you get someone to cover my shift?”

“Already done. I’m going with you,” Mike declared.

“What?” She hadn’t been paying attention.

“Since I obviously can’t trust you to stay out of trouble, I am going with you.”

“I really wish people would stop saying I’m trouble,” she mumbled.

Mike just laughed.

She stalked out of the room and heard him following behind.

He insisted on taking his monster truck, complaining that he didn’t fit in her car. She let him drive.

She withdrew a notebook to add the new information she’d got that morning. Mike was right—she should probably call Cody and let him know about the update.

Although she really thought that they could wait on that part. She and Cody were supposed to meet later anyway. She would get as much information as she could find before turning it over to him.

It wasn’t as though she was hiding anything.

She just wanted to follow her lead.

And he shouldn’t be too mad about that.

Oh, who was she kidding? He was going to be pissed off. But since she was taking Mike, at least she wouldn’t find herself outnumbered by a bunch of rough men. That was something.

By the time she had finished making her notes and outlining her plan, Mike had pulled into the parking lot of the Blue Moon Motel.

She followed him inside the small, dirty motel office. The young man behind the desk couldn’t have been much older than eighteen.

“Sammy King?” Mike asked.

The kid shook his head. “That’s my dad. He ran to the store.”

Mike took out the photo he had. “Do you recognise this man?”

The clerk bit his lower lip and furrowed his brows. “Um, I think so.”

Mike pointed at the picture again.

“He stayed here for a month or so? I’m not sure. He had a single bed on the weekly rate. He was always calling for more towels.”

“Can you remember his name?” Aubrey asked.

“John, I think.”

“Did he pay with a credit card?” she pressed.

“Oh! I can look.”

Aubrey hid a smile as he pulled a big book from under the counter and started to flip through it.

“John Smith. He paid cash.”

She sighed. Of course. “Did you see him with anyone else?”

“Sure, he had a couple buddies with him every now and then. But I don’t know their names.”

“What about around the neighbourhood? Did he have any favourite hang outs?”

“Um, I ran into him one time at the convenience store one morning. I think maybe at Papa’s Pizza another time.”

That was good information. Just as she had suspected. If the guy had stayed there for a month, it made sense that he had hung around the neighbourhood.

She listened as Mike asked a few more questions, but he didn’t get anything else.

They thanked the young clerk and stepped outside.

“Walk?” she asked Mike.

“Walk,” he agreed.

They took off on foot to scour the neighbourhood. They received affirmations from the store, pizza parlour, liquor shop, and Laundromat.

No one knew him well enough to give them much more information, but it did verify that John Smith—yeah, like that was really his name—had been around for over a month, although he hadn’t been seen for a couple of weeks.

She and Mike made their way back towards the motel where they’d parked. She stopped anyone who passed them on the street and showed them the photo only to receive shakes of their heads.

People in this part of town minded their own business. They didn’t see anything, ever.

She was feeling disappointed as they reached the truck.

A slim, older man stepped out of the motel office and beckoned to them.

“You the one I talked to last night?” he asked, cigarette between his lips.

Aubrey didn’t see how the man could talk without removing it.

“Yes.” Mike offered his hand.

“My boy didn’t know, but that guy you were asking about showed up again last night.”

“He’s here?” Aubrey jumped forward.

The man shook his head. “He didn’t rent a room. Instead, he drove up with one of the other guests. Stayed about half an hour before taking off on foot”—he waved in the direction they’d come from—“that way.”

“Which room?” Mike questioned.

The old man narrowed his gaze before he spoke. “You sure I should be giving you this information?”

Aubrey wanted to smack him. Now he was questioning it? “We’re working with the Shifter Coalition trying to find him.”

The guy took the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it on the ground. Several older butts already littered the area. “Room two-ten-C. On the second floor.” He pointed up and to the left. “Guest in that room is a good kid. Not much older than my boy. Doesn’t give us any trouble and pays on time.”

Aubrey smiled. “We’ll just ask him a few questions.”

Then she would have to call Cody. If they spooked their witness, Cody would be pissed.

The motel owner shrugged. “Fine.”

He turned and went back inside.

“Maybe we should call your friend,” Mike suggested.

“Oh, come on,” Aubrey pleaded. “Let’s at least check to see if he’s there. I’ll call Cody and we can ask him some questions while we wait for him to get here.”

Mike stared at her for several seconds.

She knew she’d won.

“I’d better not regret this.”

She headed to the closest walkway to the stairs with Mike right behind her.

Room two-ten-C was the third door on the left. It faced the office and parking lot.

As she got closer, she started to smell something. She paused and looked over her shoulder at Mike.

“Fuck,” he swore.

She hurried forward and knocked on the door. There was no answer.

“I’ll get the key,” Mike told her, before jogging away.

She knocked harder, but didn’t expect anyone to answer. She tried peering through the window. The curtains were drawn tight.

A rush of feet told her that Mike was back.

She stood to the side as he put the card in the lock.

His gaze met hers before he pushed the door open.

The strong, bitter scent of blood was even more pronounced once the seal had been broken.

She gagged and put her arm over her nose. Mike did the same as he stepped inside. She followed close behind, making sure that she didn’t step on anything that might be evidence.

The body was lying across the bed. The young man’s neck had been slit open and blood stained both his shirt and the orange and red bedspread.

Aubrey squinted at his face.

“I’ve seen him before,” she told Mike.

Mike walked close to the bed and turned towards her. “Where?”

Aubrey’s stomach rolled. “At the bar last night.”

With a shake of his head, he bent to examine the body. “I think you had better call your man.”