Scott thought about it for a moment. “I’ll be okay. I don’t want to put anyone else at risk.”
“I’ll be home in a little over an hour,” Justin promised. “Sit tight. I love you.”
“Love you too,” Scott echoed.
He ended the call and sat on the couch, absently turning on the television for background noise. Scott took several deep breaths, willing his hands to stop shaking and hoping he didn’t throw up.
The bad guys are in jail. They can’t hurt me. Justin was right. I should have stayed home. Am I safe now? Or will the bad guys’ bosses just send someone new?
He hadn’t completely pulled himself out of his thoughts when Justin got home. “I was so worried.” Justin folded Scott into his arms and held him tightly. “Are you sure you’re not hurt? Sherri said you were a badass coyote.”
Scott managed a bleak chuckle. “Surprised the hell out of those guys. Tore them up some, too.”
“Maybe you should get shots if you bit them,” Justin said. “You don’t know where they’ve been.”
Scott’s phone rang, and he put Armel on speaker. “Sheriff?”
“We’ve gotten statements from Petrovic and Rossi that sound absolutely bonkers,” Armel answered. “Coyote appears out of nowhere in a locked bathroom and attacks them. But we’ve got them dead to rights on planning to attack you, illegal weapons, outstanding warrants for a slew of charges…I called an FBI contact I trust, and he’s coming personally to take them into custody. Thought you and Justin would want to know.”
“Thank you.” Scott let out a shaky breath. “Did you get any sense of a bigger plot? Do they have friends who will just pick up where they left off?”
“We’re digging into their connections now,” Armel said. “I don’t know. They were tight-lipped about their associates, but we did get a link between them and a guy named Santoro who’s got ties to organized crime and a witch on speed dial. We’re still digging.”
“Sheriff, thanks for having his back,” Justin jumped in. “Sorry for the trouble.”
“All in a day’s work, I guess,” Armel grumbled. “I’ll let you know what we find out, and if we need you to make a statement. I’m trying to figure out how to work around the coyote part.”
Armel ended the call, and Scott leaned on Justin. “I think we need to call Amy and Becca,” he said. “Because I don’t think it’s over yet.”
Ghosts make our fur stand on end,his coyote complained.They make me nervous.
Amy and Becca might be able to help. That’s worth ruffling our fur,Scott pointed out. His coyote huffed and then retreated in his mind, but Scott knew his other side would come around to the idea after a good night’s sleep.
The next day,Scott and Justin met with Amy, Becca, and Liam in the back room of the library. The three had already heard the grapevine version of events, but they listened soberly as Scott gave them his version of the attack at the café and confessed his fear that there would be new attackers.
Scott knew that Justin could read his fears clearly through his psychic abilities. He picked up on Justin’s apprehension with his own heightened coyote senses and knew they were both stressed and anxious. Amy worked protective spells while Becca closed her eyes and listened for the ghosts. After she had been silent for a while, she looked up at them.
“The ghosts want revenge,” Becca told them. “And it sounds like you’d like a piece of Santoro’s hide as well. Maybe that can be arranged.”
“What did you have in mind?” Justin asked. “I get wanting to punish someone who seems to be above the law, but I’m worried about additional risk.”
“We’re going to take down everything the ghosts are telling me,” Becca replied. “We can turn that over to Brent for him to confirm independently through other channels. That’s our ace in the hole.”
“How do we use that to bring down Santoro and his witch?” Liam asked.
“We could stake everything on what Brent can find out based on the ghosts’ testimony.” Becca exchanged a look with Amy. “Or we could go fishing and see what we catch.”
“Meaning what?” Justin sounded worried.
“Set a trap,” Becca said. “Let Scott draw out the witch and any new henchmen, nab them, and let them rat out Santoro. Or maybe Santoro himself shows up, and we nail him to the wall.”
“You want to use Scott as bait?” Justin’s eyes widened. “No!”
Scott laid a hand on his arm. “Let’s hear the whole thing before we decide.”
Justin turned to him, alarmed. “You are not expendable. I’d rather all the mobsters in the world go free if you’d have to get hurt to catch them.”
“They killed Mike and Bill,” Scott reminded him, grief clear in his voice.
