I intensified my signature. “We’re on a bridge over Lake Michigan. The wind hits hard. No buildings to stop it.”
It was the best I could come up with in the moment. Also, the winds could be hell.
She nodded slowly, her mind finally submitting to my intentions. “I guess that’s why they call Chicago the Windy City.”
Wrong.
Savannah was unusually resistant to my power. It still worked, but not as well, and not nearly as long as it should have. Maybe it was her accursed bloodline.
I drowned the hatred in my chest and forced my claws to retract. I couldn’t let my disgust cloud my vision.
It wasn’t her fault my sister was dead. She hadn’t poisoned Stephanie with wolfsbane or caused the fire that burned her alive. Savannah wasn’t truly a LaSalle, just a woman related to the monsters. I couldn’t hold that against her.
She bit her lip in a way that made my heart miss a beat. “You looked like you knew my family. I don’t. Can you tell me anything about them?”
They’re murderers. Monsters and practitioners of the dark arts.
What was I going to do with this woman? Simple truths were best. “They’re dangerous.”
She turned forward and glared at the city ahead. “I’ve heard that. What does dangerous mean?”
“Do the names Dillinger or Capone mean anything to you?”
One eyebrow inched upward as she looked at me again. “You mean the gangsters?”
“That’s what the name LaSalle means around here.”
She swallowed. Trepidation, but not surprise. That was interesting.
Why Savannah was trying to get in touch with the LaSalles, if she already knew they were dangerous, was anyone’s guess. But I couldn’t let her meet with them—not before I’d had a chance to talk to her first. Not ever, if I could help it. They would twist her mind and turn her against my kind. They’d teach her hate and mistrust.
The moment Laurel LaSalle got her hooks in Savannah would be the moment she would never work with me again. She’d disappear into the Indies—the neighborhood the LaSalles controlled—and she’d be out of my reach for good.
I needed to convince Savannah to help me before she looked up her family. And I’d need leverage in case she refused.
“You have to be very careful here, Ms. Caine. Those people might be your relations, but you’re not their family. They’ll use you. Reaching out to them would put you in far more danger than you’re already in. They’re wrapped up in a very bad line of business.”
She studied my face, probably searching for any sign of a lie. She wouldn’t find one, because I believed every word I’d said.
It was possible that the werewolves were hunting her simply because they’d discovered she was a LaSalle. Every pack around the Great Lakes region hated the family. It didn’t explain the other abductions, but it could explain why she was targeted.
Savannah crossed her arms and slouched down in the seat. “Well, I’m not going back to Belmont. Not with those freaks running around hunting me.”
I nodded in assent. I’d given up that plan the moment she’d split town. Not many had the power to resist me like she had, and apparently, she was very invested in being in Magic Side. I shouldn’t be surprised. Magic Side was one of the largest supernatural cities in the world, and it called to its lost children with a siren song that few could resist. That might explain everything.
Maybe the fates wanted her here. With any luck, the wolves would come for her next, and I could spring a trap. I could control the entire situation. All I had to do was keep her in pack territory, out of the Indies, and away from her family.
The problem would be getting her to play along. So far, my power had worked on her when I pushed her in a direction she wanted to go. As a last resort, I could threaten to prosecute her for Dane?
??s death under pack law. But that would make everything public, and I’d cede control of the situation to the elders. That, and she’d never trust me again. Three things I couldn’t afford right now.
I leaned close to the window and drew her in with my eyes. “I have no intention of preventing you from being here, Ms. Caine, but it’s late. If you don’t know the LaSalles, you definitely don’t want to look in on them at night. A tow truck is already on the way. I’ll set you up with a good mechanic and a decent motel in a safe part of town. It’s a big city.”
She considered my words. Her eyes were weary, and I could sense her exhaustion. Finally, she nodded, submitting at last.
I’d put her up in the Full Moon Motel on pack land and send her car to the pack repair shop, Savage Body. The truck was already on the way.
I took my hands off the car and leaned back. “It’s been a hell of a day. How about I buy you dinner? You must be starving.”