“What?” Connor demanded.
“I can’t start the vehicle because there’s nowhere to put the key,” he said. “The ignition is missing.”
Not sure what the hell that meant, Connor leaned over to look at the steering column to see there was, in fact, nowhere to put the key. Which was insane, because the ignition sure as hell had been there earlier, when they’d driven this same vehicle back from San Antonio.
Kat.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he growled.
Rachel sighed. “You might want to give up while you’re ahead. You could make her return the ignition, but it’s obvious she could come up with a hundred different ways to keep us from ever leaving this parking lot if she wants. Just let her come with us.”
“We can’t bring a civilian on a call,” he said firmly.
He knew he was being obstinate. He knew why, too, even if the reasoning was more than a little petty. But he couldn’t deny that he felt like he’d been used and lied to. He couldn’t say what he expected Kat to have done differently. It wasn’t like she could have played charades or something and let him know she was actually a witch trapped in a cat’s body. And if she had started typing stuff on his laptop, he probablywouldhave thought she was possessed. But logic wasn’t really in play here. He was pissed off, and he had every right to be, dammit.
“You used to bring a cat on the calls,” Trevor pointed out from the back seat. “You never even tried to explain it, either. Not even when IA complained.”
Connor was tempted to argue about how that was different, but he stopped himself. He knew this was a fight he couldn’t win. He’d never been able to keep Kat the cat from coming on one of their calls when she wanted to go. Trevor locking her in the arms room was a great example of that. Why the hell did he think it would be any easier now that she was walking around on two legs instead of four? Truthfully, it was probably more impossible now, especially since she could simply do magic with a wave of her hand. It was equally clear that his pack mates were more than ready to call him on the hypocrisy.
“Look,” Trevor said. “It’s your call, but if anyone asks, we can say she’s an observer from another police department here to review our procedures. No one will even think to question it.”
Connor blew out a breath. “Okay. Rachel, can you let her know she won without making it obvious that she did?”
“On it.”
The moment Rachel undid her seat belt and stepped out of the SUV, Kat strolled over, graceful as a feline. A few seconds later, she was sliding into the back seat and settling herself between Rachel and Trevor like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Do you think we could stop at Krispy Kreme on the way back from wherever we’re going?” she asked as she wiggled her fingers and made the ignition reappear. “It’s been a year since I had one, and I’m aching for a warm glazed donut. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to get someone to give you junk food when you’re a cat.”
Connor glanced at Hale as he started the SUV to see his pack mate’s mouth twitch. There were four Krispy Kreme shops that he knew of in the Dallas area, and none were on the way back from Addy Lloyd’s house. But from the way Hale exchanged looks with him, his pack mate thought Kat could make driving back to the compound more of an adventure than it needed to be if she didn’t get her way.
He guessed they were stopping for donuts.
Chapter 7
Connor got Kat up to speed on the case as they drove to the Lloyd family residence. ThenewLloyd residence from what Kat understood, since the original version had burned to the ground back in February, courtesy of a jerk of a husband, a crime boss, and a malicious spirit.
As Connor filled her in on everything, she realized she vaguely remembered some of the story. But since she was a cat at the time and, thus, easily distracted, she’d missed some of the details. The highlight that mostly stuck out to her was that Lloyd and Marshall were both looking at decades in prison. Meaningless revenge aside, she wasn’t sure what kidnapping two kids would do to change that, but it seemed likely that detectives from the Missing Persons Unit were already looking into it.
“Rachel, what about this malicious entity you tangled with?” Kat asked, remembering distinctly that when she’d been a cat, absolutely no one had talked about the subject after the fact. Other than to give thanks that the thing was dead. “It was a clown or something, right?”
“Yeah, it was a creature that feeds on its victim’s fear,” Rachel said quietly, the expression on her face suggesting she didn’t like talking about it. Kat couldn’t blame her. “It creates that fear by scaring the crap out of them, appearing to each victim as whatever terrifies them the most. In my case, it was a psycho clown.”
Kat nodded. “But you killed the creature, right? So there’s no way it could have come back to get revenge.”
Beside her, Rachel didn’t look very confident. “We’re pretty sure we killed the creature, but these kinds of things can get weird, you know? What if it simply went away for a while and now it’s back? If it wants to get revenge on me, hurting Addy and Ben would certainly be a way to do it.”
Kat couldn’t disagree. She was even more glad she’d pressed the issue to come with them. If the nachtmahr showed up, her magic might come in handy. Ever since meeting Connor, she’d felt this indescribable need to be with him and protect him, as irrational as that was considering he was a werewolf and practically indestructible.
The Lloyds’ driveway was packed with cop cars when they got there. Dozens of people, some in uniforms and others in suits, came and went from the main entrance of the brick two-story home. The young uniformed officer at the door took down the names of Connor and his pack mates, as well as their badge numbers, on a piece of paper attached to a clipboard before they went inside. He seemed a little lost as to what to do when he learned that Kat didn’t have a badge number, but after Connor told him she was a consultant, that seemed to satisfy the man.
The moment they walked into the spacious living room, Rachel hurried over to hug a dark-haired woman with red-rimmed eyes that could only be Addy’s mother. That meant the couple sitting on the leather couch, looking as exhausted as any two people Kat had ever seen, must have been Ben’s parents. His poor mother looked like she’d cried so much, there simply weren’t any tears left.
There were ten cops in the big room, with an even mix of uniformed officers and detectives in suits. None of them seemed happy to see Connor and his SWAT teammates. Trevor immediately approached one of the older detectives and shook his hand. After spending so much time as a cat that was ignored and frequently out of earshot of what people were talking about, Kat had gotten exceptionally good at reading body language. It was obvious Trevor was busy trying to soothe ruffled feathers. If the annoyed expression on the guy’s face was anything to go by, it didn’t seem to be working.
While Rachel and Trevor did their things, Connor made a subtle head motion toward the door that led out of the living room. A second later, he and Hale casually wandered in that direction. Kat followed, reaching them as they headed up the steps and into a big bedroom halfway down the hallway. A colorful combination of pink and purple with blue accents here and there, the room reminded Kat of her own when she was a teenager, right down to the four-poster bed and posters of teen heartthrobs.
She took in the schoolbooks sitting on the carpeted floor surrounded by notebooks, loose pieces of paper, pencils, and well-worn erasers. Math homework with the last few problems on one of the pages wasn’t finished. It seemed like the kids had left in a hurry.
