Longing so fierce pierced his heart—one of the few feelings he allowed himself to sink into anymore. But then the deep, mournful sorrow followed, sounding just like the wolves howling to each other from across the lake and feeling like forever, and Jaime didn’t want to think about him anymore.
So he turned away from the moon, and went to sleep.
Part Three
Waxing
Chapter 4
Finn
9 MONTHS LATER
“Hey, did you see the updates that came out this morning on that murder trial down in Monroe?”
Finn grunted, and didn’t look up from his computer screen. He needed to finalize the security recommendations for a sporting goods store before it was sent for client approval, and he really didn’t want to bullshit about the local news with Silas.
Private Security Solutions, Inc. had been quiet all morning. Their latest hands-on assignment concluded last week—security detail for a politician campaigning for Senator. He’d finally left the Silver Rapids area and another team would be taking over his permanent detail.
Thank God.
The contract paid well, but Finn was happy to see the end of it. He hated the crowds and non-stop travel that came along with jobs like that, even if they were a distraction from the monotony of his life in Silver Rapids.
He preferred the local contracts. Consulting on home and commercial security risk management plans, mostly, and stepping in as additional body security only when needed or if a high profile client came into the area and their whole team was contracted for the job.
Finn had an eye for assessing security threats; sensing the what, when, and where to build effective risk management scenarios, whereas Silas was the best body security guy in the business. A veritable tank, he stood at least a few inches taller than Finn’s 6’1”, and while they were both broad-shouldered and solidly built for two thirty-two year olds, Silas’s thighs looked more like tree trunks than anything human ever did.
Well, human-ish.
Apparently, Silas took his grunt to meango on,instead ofgo away. “You know what I’m talking about, right? The wife of that Salt Creek wolf who was killed about a year back? And then they arrested one of the low-ranking Salt Creek shifters for it?”
Finn gave up on his ambitions to have the paperwork done by noon, and looked up at where Silas sat in the desk across from him, feet kicked up.
Yes, Finn did remember that murder. He had never met the woman, but he knew of her. She was the sole heiress to her late father’s development firm and substantial holdings, and it was widely speculated that Jeffrey Dugan, a high-ranking shifter in the Salt Creek pack, had married her for that connection, to benefit himself and Salt Creek’s financial interests.
It was all over the Silver Rapids gossip mill that Jeffrey was good for her murder, not only because‘it’s always the husband,’but because her money and voting power for the development firm would absorb into Salt Creek’s assets. But then they had arrested Jackson Bishop, a low-level Salt Creek shifter, and Jeffrey Dugan was still walking around a free man.
Finn knew that Silas kept a close eye on the case because of the Salt Creek connection, but it had also hit the national news cycle and turned into an online sensation overnight.
A beautiful, rich woman married to a slightly less-rich surgeon was killed in her own home under mysterious circumstances, and her husband had a rock-solid alibi.
Toss in how tight-lipped law enforcement was about everything, including the mysterious connection between her and the guy they had finally charged for her murder, and it became the hottest topic in the true crime community for the last year, never-mind that the general public was missing half the paranormally-inclined story.
Finn’s chair creaked in protest as he leaned back, racking his brain for the details he could remember. “There was a witness to the murder, right? But that’s not who’s on trial?”
Silas’s brow creased. “Yeah, that’s the thing. They’ve kept everything so close to the vest with this case, even our contacts in Monroe PD have been tight-lipped about it. They didn’t even release the identity of the witness when they arrested and charged Bishop.”
Finn didn’t have a ton of knowledge on criminal law or the way the trial system worked, but he had been adjacent to a few cases where a client of the security firm was involved. “They didn’t make the witness testify during the preliminary hearing? How?”
Silas shook his head. “There was no preliminary hearing. They indicted Bishop with a grand jury and sealed the proceedings. The witness didn’t even have to testify, they had a law enforcement officer read the witness statement.”
Finn raised his eyebrows. “There must be more that the witness saw, then. More than just identifying Bishop as the murderer. Why else would the police protect their identity like that? Do they suspect the husband was involved at all?”
Silas shrugged a shoulder. “No one will tell me for sure, but reading between the lines, they must. There are enough shifters in Monroe PD for them to know of the Salt Creek connection between Bishop and Dugan, even if they have to go about proving it in some other paranormal-free way. But I’m sure the bastards from Salt Creek that are on the force are doing everything they can to bury the connection. My bet is that the witness is the key.”
He leaned forward, dropping his feet from the desk and flipping his phone around, and indicated to an article he had pulled up. “Which brings me back to what just happened this morning.”
Finn raised his eyebrows at Silas again, and glanced down. His breath caught, heart stopping. He snatched the phone out of Silas’s hand, everything else falling away at the name he saw in the article byline—the face that was staring back at him from just underneath.
