If Liam had taken the time to cook, she wouldn’t have been able to see him now. His presence was enough to fill the empty, lonely void that had been placed in her heart.
“Do you want to tell me what happened at the building site?” he asked.
“Not really. I … I felt this need to go there. I don’t know why. It’s not like it did me any good.” The memory of the man, his beast, sent another spark of fear down her back.
Liam touched her and brought her back to reality. “You said your grandmother caused it.”
“I went there to see. I was told there were six deaths, but I’d seen three people. It wasn’t bad or anything. I had this feeling. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s like a compulsion. Something lured me toward that building. I needed to go see it for myself. When I got there, I saw the little girl.” She stopped and frowned. “I never got her name. Do you know it?”
Liam shook his head. “No children were supposed to be near that building, Jenny. I promise you. She wasn’t meant to be there.”
“She was, and so was her mother.” She took a deep breath. “I think she’s trapped there. I don’t know.” She moved her food around, thinking about her.
“Do you want to tell me what led up to you passing out?”
She licked her lips. “The girl called him the bad man. When I looked at him, though, he wasn’t a man. Did one of your wolves die in that building?”
Liam shook his head. “No, all of them were civilians as far as I’m aware.”
“That can’t be right. He wasn’t human, Liam. Is there any way someone could be lying to you? I swear, that man was part wolf. His body had been transformed into an ugly, more cynical version of a wolf. He was scary, like he was draining the energy of the house. He had power. The lights flickered. I felt his rage. He hated me just on sight. The girl was terrified. She said he was mean, but she wasn’t allowed to leave. That he would disappear. My grandmother, before he could do anything, she was there, but in order for her to fight him off, she had no choice but to take my energy from me.”
“You know this all sounds a little…”
“Farfetched?”
“Little bit.” He held his fingers up and she laughed.
“It feels it, believe me.” She ran fingers through her hair. “I’m sorry.” She pushed her food away.
“Can you see your grandmother?” he asked.
“No. She disappeared after everything went dark. Did I hit the ground?”
“I got to you,” he said. “You didn’t touch anything but my arms.”
She offered him a smile. “You’re my shining knight.” She touched his arm. “You’ve got to find out who her mother is.”
“Baby, I have nowhere to start.”
“You know what that building was for. You’ve got a starting point.”
He shook his head. “We use that building as a cover to help distribute drugs and some other crap my father wants to sell, but I promise you, Jenny, on the night of the fire, that building was supposed to be fucking empty. No one was supposed to be there. All of our men are accounted for. The bodies that have been identified, we’ve had to run some kind of … interference, to show we still have control. We don’t know who it was, or how it burned down.”
Jenny sat back, shocked. “You don’t know who caused it?”
“No. We don’t.” He stood up and walked a few steps, then back. She watched him. His rock-hard body on full, tempting display.
“We don’t know who could have been in the fire, or why. There is no reason for anyone to be there,” he said. “They were, but why?”
Jenny looked at her husband. The little girl’s comments came back to her. “Wait a minute. The little girl. She must have passed due to the smoke inhalation because she told me she screamed for her mother but she didn’t stop. Her mother got out of the fire and into the car with suited men. Nice suits. The kind that if she sees, she has to be quiet. I know it’s not a lot to go on, but it’s something, right?”
Liam looked at her. She saw his mind working, and she smiled at him.
“The cameras,” he said.
“What?”
“The cameras on the building have all been wiped. We do it for our own protection, but what about across the street?” he asked.
“Do you think someone might have proof of what happened that night?” she asked.
“It’s worth a shot.”
Chapter Seven
The following day, Liam arrived back at the scene and glanced at his passenger, Jenny.
“You didn’t have to come with me, you know. I can navigate this all by myself.”
“I know and I trust you.”