I could think of a million reasons to ignore her—one being my now very alert wolf—but I sighed and obeyed the hunter’s command.
Deandre Hill was as I left him. Only this time, a scowl planted itself on his face. He maintained eye contact, unaware he risked not striking a match but the whole damn matchbook. It looked as if he had a million things he wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut.
Good.
Joanna pushed me aside, pulling the last bit of her t-shirt over her abdomen. “Hill,” she greeted with a winded voice. “Come in.”
I walked toward the couch as my wolf simmered beneath my skin.
The agent sauntered inside. “Thank you,” he replied briskly. “I know it’s early, but I wanted to address this face-to-face, given the situation.” He paused, nodding toward the kitchenette. “I’m sorry I interrupted your morning.”
Joanna’s head turned toward the island where breakfast awaited her. She whipped around to face me, her face scrunched up and her head cocked to the side in disbelief.
“The bacon smells delicious,” Hill continued. “Is it ham? Turkey?” He chuckled. “Next-door neighbor?”
Hilarious. I needed to put that one on a fucking t-shirt.
Joanna shook her head, unamused. “Hill, why are you here?”
Agent Hill sighed, shoving his hands into his pockets. “I’m sure you’ve heard the news. But I wanted to assure you, we had nothing to do with the attack on that werewolf club.”
Joanna drew in a sharp breath and looked as if she intended to slump against the door before thinking otherwise.
My chest tightened.
Last night, blood covered almost every inch of my clothes. Joanna listened, and she let me believe my kin were the only ones culpable. All the while, the possibility that humans had bombed Club Luna had worried her.
“By the time our agents arrived on the scene,” Hill continued, “most of the werewolves who’d survived the blasts were long gone. And there’s not much humans can give us when magical stamps are scrambling their brains.”
“Each of the werewolves said the same thing,” I began gruffly. “There were multiple blasts, and even with our heightened senses, no one could tell where they were coming from.”
Hill’s incredulous stare made me itch. “How do you know that?”
“Wait,” Joanna interjected. “I thought you wereatthe club when the attack happened.”
“I was at the club,” I answered with a sigh. “But I was lucky. I’d stepped outside for some fresh air before the bombs went off.”
The light in Joanna’s eyes dimmed, and her entire body tensed.
“Is there anything else you can tell me?” Hill asked, the cocky demeanor he’d harbored moments ago now nowhere to be found. “Anything you may have noticed yourself? We have the bartender’s statement. He believes members of the uprising are responsible.”
“The bartender and I saved who we could. That was a lot easier to do with shifters than with humans. And the rogues have cost the club a lot of business trying to recruit there. Shifters stopped going on principle. Humans, I’m pretty sure, only followed suit.”
Hill nodded. “Have you seen any of the rogues actively pursuing followers?”
“No.” All the rogues I’d met were now dead, except… “But Joanna’s…” I looked to Joanna for emphasis and paused.
She was a deer in headlights. Her heart thrummed faster in her chest, and I felt a shift in her aura as she panicked, in fear of my next words.
“But Joanna’s had more conversations with human club goers than I have,” I continued, satisfied once Joanna’s heart calmed. “I don’t normally go there for human companionship.”
Hill snorted. “Befriending them would make it hard to eat them later.”
I turned to Joanna. “Then I guess I’m lucky we weren’t friends back then, huh?” It took a few seconds for my words to register, but once they did, I licked my lips and winked at her despite her gasp of embarrassment.
“Why did you attend that club?” Hill asked Joanna, judgment heavy in his tone.
She stopped looking daggers at me to roll her eyes at Hill. “I already told you. I was following Ethan’s lead about my sister’s murder.”
