“So you crave the spotlight?” That didn’t fit with what he’d seen from her. Hell, it had taken him forever to figure out her name. And from everything he’d heard about her, she worked hard to stay in the shadows.
Her jaw tightened, and he could tell she was fighting herself. Wolves didn’t talk to outsiders, but she wasn’t a typical werewolf. Eventually, she spoke, her words clipped and angry. “I want people to listen to me. I need it.” She lifted her chin. “So will you listen?”
“Of course.”
“Arrest my brother, Raoul Wolf. He’s the one poisoning the city.”
He felt rather than saw Simon stiffen, but the words were clear enough. “You’re Emory Wolf’s daughter?”
Her gaze shifted to Simon and Ryan felt his insides clench. He didn’t like her looking at anyone else. “I am, and I’m trying to stop this.”
“You’re the ones who started this!” Vic said stepping around Simon to glare at Frankie. “You may have picked becoming a hybrid, but I sure as hell didn’t.” He squatted down. Not close enough to hurt her, but so that he could look her in the eye. “I had a perfectly sane life before.” He nodded. “That’s right. I’m a hybrid just like you. Only I didn’t shoot it into my veins on purpose.”
“Neither did I,” she growled. She was getting movement back into her body, shifting her legs as she straightened off the wall.
“You wolves sure as hell are doing it now! You want us to arrest your brother? Great. Tell us where he is, and I’ll go—”
Ryan interrupted. “Not your job.” It was his. He was the cop here, but everything was jumbled. His priority was to the people of Detroit. He’d sworn that oath and he lived by it. But right now, everything in him was trying to protect Frankie and everyone else be damned. That wasn’t him, and he didn’t like the conflicting loyalties, but he couldn’t deny that she came first.
“Can you stand?” he asked. He didn’t like her sitting half naked on the floor while Simon and Vic grilled her.
She shook her head. “Not yet, but soon.”
Meanwhile, Simon was focused on the larger picture. “Why not arrest Emory? Isn’t he your alpha?”
“He is, but he’s not thinking right. I’m pretty sure my brother has poisoned him. If you take Raoul out of the picture, then I can get my father clean and thinking clearly. I can also get you enough proof to lock up my brother.” Her gaze returned to his, her green eyes cutting right through him. “Please.”
It was on the tip of his tongue to agree. The urge was powerfully strong, but he recognized how irrational that was. He couldn’t just arrest someone without charges on her say so. Truthfully, he’d wanted to take in the whole damn pack two days ago when the Griz had raided the wolf lab and discovered the poison, but Simon had talked him out of it on a purely logistical basis. More than half the cops were out with the Flu. The rest wouldn’t be able to handle werewolves hopped up on poison.
This was a shifter problem. The best thing to do was find and destroy the wolves’ stash of poison, then make the ones responsible pay. That’s what his original plan had been when he’d started tailing the two werewolves through the sewer system. He saw no reason to change tactics. At least he didn’t until he looked into her eyes and saw the crystal clear purpose in her. She believed her way was the best, and part of him agreed with whatever she wanted.
“Where are you keeping the poison?” he asked. “And how are you getting it into the water?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I was trying to find that out when you got shot.”
“Not good enough,” Simon snapped.
She rounded on him, her teeth flashing. “What would you have me do? I’m telling you who is responsible. Go get Raoul! I’ll find out the rest.”
“How?” Ryan asked.
She swallowed. “There are people I can talk to. People who aren’t addicted.”
“Like the ones in the sewers? Like the guy who shot me?”
She lifted a hand in a helpless gesture. “He didn’t kill you, and he was under orders.” Her gaze went to Simon. “Tell your people to travel in groups. The wolves will kill them if they can.”
“And let the dogs run wild? I don’t think so.”
“I’m trying to save lives!”
“You’re doing a piss-poor job of it.”
Ryan saw the impact of those words on her. She covered quickly, but the flinch told him it was a true hit. She really was trying to help, but people were still dying. “I’m giving up my brother,” she said, fury in her clenched jaw and narrowed expression.
He held up his hand to stop the argument, and though his body moved closer to Frankie’s, his gaze connected with his alpha. “Can you have Alyssa get whatever information she can on Raoul? Frankie and I will go talk to her people. Find her brother’s stash of poison.”
Simon nodded, a quick slash of his chin, but he clearly wasn’t on board with trusting Frankie. “I don’t want you going alone,” he said but Frankie cut him off.
