I opened my mouth, but Evie stepped in. “No, you don’t. Why would you? We took evidence that you wanted to be left at the crime scene. You don’t need to kiss our asses to be invited to share our toys, Nelson.”
He stared at us for a moment and then threw his head back and laughed.
“I like you guys. God knows why. I understand this is personal,” he glanced at Evie, “but in the future, I politelyrequestthat you allow us into the crime scene before you remove evidence.”
I nodded. “Fair enough.”
He scanned my face. “You’ve done good work to get this far.”
“I couldn’t have done it without the demons.”
He nodded. “According to my sources, you’re getting quite the reputation as an investigator.”
“I wouldn’t go that far. Let me know if we can get you anything, detective. Evie, you good here?”
She nodded, studying a blood-smeared handcuff. Likely, she was picturing it wrapped around our mom’s wrist. I was attempting not to do the same.
I made my way over to Samael. He glanced at me, and I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Are you okay?”
“Of course. I only visited to check that everything was being processed according to my orders. I have a meeting I need to get to.”
My eyes squinted further. “Are you… lying to me?”
Confusion wrestled with the tiniest glimmer of hurt. Samael likely felt it, because he cursed, taking my arm and pulling me out onto the balcony. A quick flight later, and we were stepping through the doors to his penthouse.
He let me go and I took a few steps back. My phone vibrated and I gritted my teeth, pulling it out.
“I’m sorry. I have to take this.”
“Kyla. What’s up?”
“It’s Riona.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. But listen, before I headed out of town, I had a thought. I figured I’d show her a few pictures of as many local black witches as I could to see if she recognized any of them.”
“That’s a good thought. I should’ve had it.”
Kyla laughed. “You’ve had a lot going on.”
I closed my eyes. “It’s Hannah, isn’t it?”
“No. It’s Gloria.”
My eyes popped open and I hissed. “And Troy Burker?”
“Gloria’s cousin’s great nephew. The cousin is dead, Burker’s mom wants nothing to do with black witches, but her kid was apparently obsessed with power. I talked to his mom. He disappeared and she’s convinced Gloria killed him.”
“Shit. Thanks Kyla.”
I hung up. Across the room, Samael was very still, but there was no mistaking the wrath which radiated from him. Good. If he hadn’t given a shit that Gloria had kidnapped and mentally tortured Riona… I didn’t think we could come back from that.
Fury spread from his end of the bond. A deep, dark fury so encompassing that it scared the shit out of me, and I knew without doubt that he’d never hurt me.
“I will find her,” he vowed. “Give me a few moments to alert my people.”
