Gabriel: I will x
I set my phone down with a sigh and drew on the last of my reserves. “Now what?”
“Who knows that you have history with victims three and four?” Max picked up a pencil and tapped it against his desk, a habit I’d noticed when he was agitated. If Max was worried, then we were definitely in trouble.
I swallowed, trying not to panic. “Tombs and his group for sure, but it’s also on record for anyone to look up.”
“Fuck.” Max threw the pencil across the room with enough force to shatter it. “Okay,” he said, shaking off his frustrations. “Let’s try a new angle. Who would go to this much trouble to set you up?”
I’d helped hunt my fair share of fugitives as a member of the Silver Arrows, but I knew with a scary certainty that there was only one person that hated me enough to plan such a fucking elaborate way to ruin my life
“Tombs.”
The answer was so obvious, I don’t know why it had taken me this long to think of it.
“I don’t think he ever forgave me for leaving like I did.”
Max frowned. “You said he wasn’t one to bait non-humans just for the fun of it.”
“He wasn’t.” For all his faults, he’d stuck to his own sort of code. The minute someone stepped over the line and committed a crime, they were fair game, but it was beneath him to fabricate a hunt just for the hell of it. “But maybe that’s changed?” I threw my hands up. “I don’t know what to tell you, but I feel it.” I clutched a hand to my chest. “It’s him. It has to be.”
Max looked at the board again, eyes tracking over the information we’d gathered. “Unfortunately, for once, we need more than gut instinct to pull Tombs in for questioning.”
“My gut instinct, you mean?” I wasn’t a shifter, so I didn’t have the automatic respect that came with it.
Max gave an apologetic smile, but it wasn’t his fault. “Do we even know where he is?”
I shrugged. I had no fucking idea.
“Okay. Let’s assume you’re right,” Max began, picking up another pencil.
Thathetrusted my gut instinct warmed me beyond words.
“Tombs would have to get hold of Blue Alhuirn and distribute it to his victims. I’m assuming he’s well known enough that non-humans wouldn’t let him anyway near them without good reason?”
“He is in our town, where the first two attacks took place. His reputation precedes him for sure, but I don’t know if his face is widely recognised.”
“What about his hunter group? Can he trust them all? Because I doubt he could pull this off without some of them suspecting he was up to something.”
I grimaced. “He’s not one for sharing. Dan Walsh would know for sure, they’ve been friends forever, but his group are used to following orders and not asking too many questions.”
“A different hunter group has carried out the hunt for each victim. Is that normal considering the first two were close to Tombs’ jurisdiction?”
I shrugged. “It was always first come, first served. Tombs would be pissed off not to get them, but it’s not unheard of.”
“And the other hunters wouldn’t question the sudden spate of feral non-humans?”
I huffed out a bitter laugh. “You know as well as I do that a lot of them don’t give a shit.”
Max scowled. “True.” He met my gaze, expression grave. “So basically, Tombs can do whatever the fuck he wants and no one would question him.”
“Pretty much.” It’s why I’d finally found the courage to leave his group in the first place.
We sat in silence.
Max with his eyes closed, me staring at the board like the solution to this would jump out and bite me.
“Should I tell Rys?” I asked, quietly.
