That meant talking to our boss, who unnerved me just a teeny bit. Okay, she was as intimidating as fuck, and the thought of going in her office to ask her something—because all requests were done in person—wasn’t something I looked forward to. “You can do it.”
Max threw his head back and laughed. “I can’t believe you’re scared of her.” He pointed a finger at me. “You used to be a big, bad hunter. She’s a tiny kitten in comparison.”
I glanced at our closed door. Our offices were soundproofed to an extent, but I still lowered my voice to a whisper. “She is not like a fucking kitten.” Carissa Thornton was a Lynx shifter. She had a tendency to tap her nails on her desk as she spoke, and I couldn’t help but picture lethal claws every time she did it. “And I might’ve been a hunter, but I was never stupid enough to go one-on-one with a shifter.”
At least not in a fight.
The atmosphere in the room turned from playful to serious with Max’s next question. “Tell me if you’d rather not answer, but Tombs and his crew have a reputation for using lethal force all the time, right?” I nodded, not liking where this was going. “Does he have a thing against non-humans specifically?”
Do you?I heard even though he didn’t say it.
I bit my lip. This conversation had been inevitable. I was only surprised it had taken us four weeks to have it. “Tombs liked to hunt. He wasn’t overly fond of shifters or witches—” Max snorted but waved me to continue. “—but he wasn’t fanatical about hating them like some hunter groups. He didn’t care who the police sent him after, just about catching his prize and claiming the adulation from his minions that went with it. And yes, he liked to hunt to kill.” The bitterness in my voice didn’t surprise me, but Max looked more than a little curious.
“You want to know if I did too?”
“It had crossed my mind, not gonna lie.”
Max’s phone vibrated on his desk, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Saved by the bell.
He gave me a look as he picked it up and answered, and I got the feeling we’d be revisiting that conversation.
“Afternoon, Rys. What’s up?” He glanced at me as Rys answered him, and once again I wished I had enhanced senses like half the people in this place. As it was, I had to sit there and watch Max’s frown get more pronounced as he hummed in response and threw in the odd “okay” and “I see.”
They talked for a bit longer—well, Rys did most of the talking, much to my frustration—before Max sat back in his chair with a sigh. “I think it’d be better if we interviewed him here at the station.”
I sat up straighter. Interview who?
“I realise that,” Max said, voice calm and steady. “But in light of what you’ve told me, Axel just became a person of interest.”
I didn’t need super-hearing to catch Rys’s cursing, and Max closed his eyes, running a hand through his hair. “Rys, calm the fuck down.” Max listened some more, then ended the call with, “Bring him in tomorrow afternoon.” He set his phone on the table, then met my gaze. “We might just have our first lead as far as Callum’s concerned.”
“Oh?” I didn’t know whether to be excited at the prospect of finally catching a break or worried by the conflicted expression on Max’s face.
“Axel Molhieth was with Callum at the club on Saturday night. Says he saw him talk to a few people before leaving him there to go home.” Picking up his pen, he tapped it against the desk. It was his thinking pose. “I told Rys to bring him in for questioning, which he wasn’t too keen on.”
I smiled wryly. “I heard.”
“Not all that surprising, considering Axel is one of his.”
“He’s a shifter?” I asked, tidying my desk and putting my rubbish in the bin. It was getting on for five o’clock, and if we weren’t going to Midnight today, we might as well go home. Tomorrow sounded like it was going to be long. I looked up when I realised Max hadn’t answered. “What?”
“Axel isn’t a shifter.” He paused, and I gave him my full attention. “He’s fae.”
Ohh.
Thatwasinteresting.
* * *
Max didn’t pickup our conversation about Tombs until we were on our way to Midnight the following morning.
“So,” he began, glancing over at me from the driver’s seat. “Did you share Tombs’ penchant for killing people?”
I choked on the to-go coffee we’d picked up on the way. Max slapped me on the back, hard.
“Oh, that’s much better. Thanks.” I glared at him and he grinned. “And no. I wasn’t a huge fan of his ‘kill first, ask questions later’ attitude.” I’d hated it. “But he was the leader, and as long as he kept within the law, we did what he said.”
“Did you kill anyone?” he asked quietly.
