Dark Lies (Magic Side: Wolf Bound 3)

“The bikers passed another car trying to get you. The driver had to slam on his breaks to avoid running over one of them. He called the highway patrol and reported that a gang of cyclists had shot out one of your wheels. Your license plate already had a statewide flag on it, so the alert made it back to our system.”

A flag?

Jaxson had flagged my plate three weeks ago when I’d ditched him—as well as his truck keys—in Belmont. But I’d assumed he’d taken it off by now. Did that mean he was monitoring me every time I came and left Magic Side? I licked my suddenly dry lips as thoughts swirled in my head. “What’s it to you?”

The special agent took off her sunglasses and pulled her blonde hair over her shoulders. “I’m running a taskforce that’s investigating a crooked supernatural MC from Michigan. I was hoping you could tell me a little about your assailants.”

I shrugged and leaned against the doorframe. “I didn’t get a good look at the guys. I don’t even know what they wanted—just that they wanted me off the road.”

“Can you tell me anything about them?”

“Shifters, I think. They were big and burly with golden-yellow eyes. No helmets, but their faces were in shadow. Lots of tattoos.”

“Did any of the tattoos look like this?”

She held up her cell phone, which showed a sketch of a two-headed wolf tattoo. My sketch.

Memories of the night I was attacked at the Taphouse by Dane and that woman bombarded me. She’d had that same tattoo, and so had one of the shifters who’d attacked Casey and me at the Magic Moon motel. Kahanov’s goons, or rather, Dragan’s.

I swallowed, but the lump in my throat wouldn’t go down. “I don’t know. How do you have that?”

She pulled a notepad out of her back pocket. “We should talk. May I come in?”

“No, she cannot!” Casey shouted from the other room.

Did he have werewolf hearing, too?

“Sorry,” I said.

She opened her mouth, but Casey’s voice interjected from the back. “You can ask her if she wants a donut. They like donuts.”

I turned red and dragged my fingers through my hair. “I’m sorry. My cousin is—”

“Oh, I know.” Her lips drew a thin line across her face, and she narrowed her eyes. “We all know who he is.”

“I’m famous!” he shouted from the kitchen.

I stepped out onto the porch and pulled the door shut. “Let’s talk over by my car.”

Agent Blake glanced at my poor Gran Fury with its dangling bumper, bullet holes, and spare tire, and I instantly regretted my choice of location.

I strode in that direction as if the car’s condition were perfectly normal and leaned against the trunk. “Okay, let’s talk.”

She smiled. “We’ve been tracking a gang of bikers. This tattoo started showing up around the same time they started moving a drug called Scarlet. Ever heard of it?”

“Nope.”

“It’s a magical blood-based drug with powerful effects on shifters. It makes them faster, stronger, and angrier. It’s highly addictive and turns their eyes red for a time. Ring any bells?”

I remembered the first two werewolves I’d met—vicious, red-eyed, and capable of chasing down my car on the highway. Even Jaxson couldn’t do that. I hesitated, not sure what to say. “It sounds like bad shit.”

“The worst part is that the supply is drying up. Prices have quintupled. And shifters are going crazy trying to get their hands on it. People are getting hurt. Robberies have spiked.” She started chewing on her gum. Hard.

“What does this have to do with me?”

She flipped open her writing pad but didn’t look away. “Word on the street up in Wisconsin is that if they find the redhead, they can make more Scarlet.”

My hand inadvertently went to my hair. Fuuuuuuck.

Her eyes locked on to mine in an unwavering stare. “I think they mean you.”

There was no point in denying it. “I was abducted by a bunch of wolves who tried to drain my blood. I thought it was for blood sorcery, but…”

She nodded and responded, but I didn’t hear her words. They were drowned out as memories of the sanitarium flooded into my mind. I felt the leather straps around my wrists and the needle pressing into my veins. Had they turned my blood into a drug? My heart started racing as my skin turned cold. They’d wanted to taste me…

Don’t freak,my wolf interjected. You’re starting to freak. It’s okay. We made it out.

That was a miracle, I responded, trying to stop myself from shaking.

Not a miracle. We kicked their asses. And if those bastards come back, we’ll kick their asses again.

I bit my lip. “Do you think they’ll come for me again?”

“Perhaps. Any information you can provide might help us shut them down.” Agent Blake looked up and met my eyes. “For instance, what’s your relationship to Jaxson Laurent?”

I froze. That was one question I didn’t know the answer to. I licked my dry lips. “Just friends.”

She raised an eyebrow.

“When I was attacked by werewolves up in Belmont, he and his pack helped me find the people responsible and stop them. That’s it. We filed a report with the Order.”

“I’ve read it. I’ve read all the statements about your abduction, the sanatorium, the showdown at the cabin up in Wisconsin. There were a lot of bodies on both sides. Jaxson lost his brother-in-law, Billy. Your statement said he died trying to fight off one of the rogue wolves?” She flicked her eyes to mine.

My gut twisted. Billy, who’d pinned me down and tried to kill me. Who I’d killed instead by ripping his chest open with my claws and hurling him over a cliff.

I shuddered. “I was jumped by a bastard werewolf. Billy tried to save me.”

She watched my eyes. Intently. Man, I hoped she couldn’t smell lies.

“And what was your relationship with Billy?”

I cocked my head. “Didn’t know him well.”

“Yet he saved your life.”

“I was lucky. He wasn’t. It was the heat of battle.”

She shook her head and gave me a warm smile that made the hair on my neck stand on end. “It’s a funny thing. He had a well-known beef with your family, the LaSalles. There’ve been plenty of incidents before. And yet, he sacrifices himself to save a LaSalle. Pretty strange.”

“I’m not really a LaSalle, so he didn’t have a problem with me. I didn’t know much about his past, just that he was Jaxson’s brother-in-law. I’ve been through all this before.”

“Of course. I’m sorry. I wasn’t part of the original investigation. In fact, I had to go to an unused closet in the Archives to find the files, which was also pretty funny. And when I read through the statements, a lot just didn’t add up.”

I put my hands up in a helpless gesture. “I told them what I saw.”

She looked down as she reached into her jacket and started fishing around. It was an overtly casual gesture, but I could tell she was still watching me out of the corner of her eye. Her voice was even in a practiced way. “I understand. I was just wondering if maybe everything wasn’t so tidy. Maybe some pack members—like Billy, for instance—were involved with the rogue wolves who abducted you. Maybe Jaxson, well, convinced you to streamline the truth in your statement a bit.”

My heart began beating faster. That was exactly what had happened. If the Order could pin the abductions on members from the Dockside Pack, they could hold Jaxson responsible and use it as an excuse to go sticking their nose where it didn’t belong.

I shook my head and tried to swallow stealthily.