“You do that, and please, come home in one piece.”
Rex wasn’t sure he could promise that he would, but he’d try.He hadn’t been planning on getting hurt, and now that he and Harmon had something going on, he wanted to have time to enjoy it.He wouldn’t if he allowed the dragons to hurt him.
He might not have a choice.
By the time he was finally able to hang up, Harmon was already half dressed.Rex groaned and flopped back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling.He’d known the situation would be a mess when he’d volunteered to come, but he hadn’t expected a murder.
“Everything okay?”Harmon asked, appearing in Rex’s line of sight.
Rex pushed himself back into a sitting position.“My family is ready to storm the place.”
“It’s good to know we have people who will run to help if we need them to.”
“I hope we won’t.”
“We all do.”
Rex didn’t feel any better by the time they left the room.The hallway was empty, and Rex wondered if the others were still in their rooms.They’d find out soon enough.
They made their way to the conference room.Rex wasn’t surprised to see that Merrick was already sitting at the table, staring at his phone, but hewassurprised to see that Jacob was there, too.He was clutching a cup of coffee with both hands and staring at Merrick as if he expected him to jump onto the table and grab him.Knowing Merrick, it was a possibility.
Merrick looked up when he heard them.“Arlen and Mallory?”he asked.
“We haven’t seen them,” Rex told him.
He grunted and turned his attention back to his phone.Rex wouldn’t be surprised to find out that he was texting Arlen to ask him where the fuck he was.Arlen knew Merrick, so he wouldn’t be offended.He was probably distracted in the way Rex wished he and Harmon could have been.
But they had work to do.Once that was done and they were able to go home, they could spend as much time as they wanted together.First, though, they needed to find the killer and a new leader for the dragon clan.
Piece of cake.
“I’m not sure what you expect me to do,” Jacob suddenly said.
Rex frowned at him.“I thought it was obvious.”
“It’s not, so if you could please tell me.”
“We’re going to need to talk to you about that list you wrote for us.We also need to talk to all the people on that list.”
“They won’t be happy.”
“I don’t think anyone here cares how they’ll feel about it.If they want us to find who killed Brian, they’ll have to cooperate.”
“You’re vampires.”
“We could be purple cows with wings, and it wouldn’t change anything.”Rex leaned over the table.He wished he had a coffee, too.He was pretty sure that Jacob would give him his if he asked, especially if he showed a little fang, but he couldn’t afford to freak Jacob out more than he already was.“Look, there aren’t a thousand solutions to this mess.Your clan can’t afford to continue making an enemy out of the pack, and the pack doesn’twantto be your enemy.We want peace.We want to be left alone to live our lives, which is something that Martin messed up.I know that some of you still idolize him, but he was an asshole, and he doesn’t deserve any kind of devotion.He especially doesn’t deserve for people to die for him.”
Jacob’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything.Rex wasn’t sure there was anything to say.Jacob was aware of the reason they were here and that they wouldn’t leave until they got what they wanted.
“Let us help you choose a new leader, find the murderer, and once we’re done, you’ll never see us again,” he promised.
He hoped he wouldn’t have to break that promise.He didn’t care what Jacob thought of him, but he never wanted to come back here.He’d hoped that leaving the pack for a bit would help him gain perspective about what he should do next, but considering everything, he doubted he’d have time to think about anything that wasn’t who had killed Brian and choosing the new clan leader.
So much for going home with his decision made.
* * * *
SINCE THEY WERE STILLwaiting for Arlen and Mallory, Harmon decided he might as well call Brad.He hoped that this way, he would avoid Brad calling him while they were talking to people who might be murderers.
