“He knew you’d search the closet,” Nelson gritted out. “He decided it would be more prudent for paranormals to be the one to tell Nereus his girlfriend was scared for her life.”
I shook my head. Behind us, Kyla let out a low growl. “That piece of shit,” she muttered.
Nelson cleared his throat. But he didn’t disagree. “His superiors will be notified,” was all he said. From his tone, he didn’t think much would come of it. “I’ll send a couple of cops over to grab the bag.”
Kyla’s eyes sharpened, and she gestured to the gun. I shook my head, and Evie grinned.
“Sounds good,” Evie said. “We better get back to it.” She hung up and glanced at both of us.
“I assume we’re on the same page.”
“You’re damn right we are,” Kyla said. “Roberts is up to no good. We’ll be able to trace that gun faster than the police, without risking it goingmissing.”
I shook my head. “Why would Roberts decide to sit on evidence instead of bringing it to everyone’s attention? Top-notch police work right there.”
Evie sighed. “Roberts hates anything to do with paranormals, and he doesn’t play well with human women either. Basically, if you’re not a straight, white, human male, you’re the enemy. Hopefully his superiors will actually give him some consequences for this shit. Unfortunately, no one really cares when it comes to paranormal crimes. The crime rate is high enough for human-on-human crimes. I doubt anyone is going to care that Roberts is playing his own game.”
“Unless you let it leak to Finvarra,” I said darkly.
Kyla snorted and leveled me with a frank stare. “If you want to watch the cop die, then tell Finvarra. He’s not exactly the kind to give a human a slap on a wrist when a case concerns his people. Hisdeadpeople.”
I winced. But she was right. The fury I’d felt radiating from the dark fae king…
No, he wouldn’t let it slide. I was pretty sure “letting things slide” was a foreign concept to him.
Evie studied the gun. “I’m relatively certain I know where Ilayda got this, and I’d like to talk to the guy who sold it to her before it mysteriously disappears.”
I chewed on my lower lip. “You seriously think Roberts is a dirty cop?”
Evie shrugged. “If he’s not, then he’s incompetent, which is almost as bad. He clearly hates paranormals, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he’d purposefully slowed down this investigation. Let’s see what Nereus has to say.”
I walked out of the closet and found the closest guard. “Can you ask Nereus to come up here, please?”
He nodded, and within moments, Nereus appeared.
“What is it?” Dull hope shone in his eyes, and I barely restrained myself from wincing. Now, we’d have to be the ones to tell him his pregnant mate was so scared of something, she had a bag packed. And a gun.
Nereus followed me into the closet and then stopped, staring at the bag. “I don’t understand.”
“She was frightened of something or someone, Nereus. So frightened, she bought a gun.” Evie kept her voice low, soothing.
He stared at it, and the last of the light went out of his eyes. “No. She would have told me if she was that scared. She would have trusted me to protect her.”
Evie unzipped a side pocket of the suitcase, pulling out a handful of jewelry. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires…thousands of dollars’ worth of bling. From the way it was tangled together, Ilayda hadn’t planned to wear it. No, this was insurance, and she’d likely had a buyer lined up, just in case she needed to run.
“I need you to think carefully,” Evie murmured. “When Ilayda said she wanted to return to the light fae realm, did she ever seem scared? Did you get the impression she’d feel safer there?”
“No… She was nervous, of course. It’s her first pregnancy, and they’re so rare. When her king allied with Lucifer, she was worried there would be repercussions, but we hadn’t experienced anything yet.”
His face had turned gray. Behind him, Favir stepped into the room. He took one look at the suitcase, and his expression turned blank.
Kyla was watching every move Favir made, so I gestured toward the gun. “Do you mind if we take this?” It was a good idea for us to have it on record that Nereus knew we were taking it since Nelson wouldn’t be pleased.
Nereus shook his head. “No. Take anything.” He didn’t stumble as he walked out of the closet, but it was close. Favir lifted his hand and placed it on his shoulder, and Nereus shook it off. We all watched as Favir trailed after his boss.
We took photos of the rest of the items in the suitcase and headed back down the stairs.
Nereus was back in the same spot, still staring blankly at the flowers. I cleared my throat, and he glanced at me. If hewasn’tcompletely grief-stricken, he sure was doing a good job of acting.
