“You’re awake.” Female voice. Tonya. The police officer she’d met before.
“Take it slow. You’ve had a rough go lately.” Mr. Obvious, aka Carl’s brother, Alan.
She swallowed and forced out the word. “Theo?”
“Still missing.” Officer Tonya. “But we’ve got people looking for him everywhere.”
“You had people looking before. What’s different now?”
“We’ve got more people looking. And these people have guns.”
Becca winced, not sure if that was a good thing or not. “I need to call home. Maybe he’s gone back there.”
“I just talked to Amy. He’s not there, and none of his friends have seen him.”
A warm mug was pressed into her hands. “It’s ginger tea,” said Alan gently. “It’ll settle your stomach and then we can work up to broth.”
“Thanks,” she said as she finally opened her eyes. Alan looked like shit. His face was pale, which didn’t do any favors to the lean cut of his jaw. He looked haggard, though his expression was kind.
Officer Gorgeous still looked gorgeous, even with her lips pressed tightly together. Becca looked away rather than feel unequal at a time when she needed all her resources. A glance outside showed early dawn and she frowned. “What time is it?”
“Almost five,” Alan answered. “You got hit by a tranquilizer dart. The doctor’s been here and will come back in an hour. But if you’re having any pain or discomfort, I can call him now.”
She processed that slowly as she sipped her ginger tea. Not bad. “Why aren’t I in a hospital?” That would be the usual procedure, right?
“Because you’re fine,” Bitch Officer said. “And because the paperwork is…inconvenient.”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass about your paperwork.”
“Fine, then tell me why guys on motorcycles snuck up on Carl.”
Becca frowned, then slowly turned her head to stare at the officer. Sure, the woman had looks, a badge, and attitude to spare, but that didn’t mean Becca had to take shit from her. “I don’t know. Maybe you could ask them.”
“I’m asking you.”
“They’re in the wind,” Alan answered.
Of course they were. Too much to ask that they had caught one of them. “How is the boy?” Becca asked. “Was that Justin? Marty’s son?”
“He’s fine,” said Alan as he brought over a box of Ritz crackers. “Just sleeping it off. That’s normal after a First Change.”
Becca nodded and ventured another sip of tea. “Where’s my cell? I need to call Theo.”
“Right here.” Alan handed it to her, then everyone waited in taut silence while she dialed. Straight to voice mail. She sighed, then flipped through her email and texts, hoping for some news. Nothing.
She sighed, then turned to the officer, forcing herself to give the woman some respect, if only because she carried a badge and seemed to have been awake all night, presumably looking for Theo. “Tell me what to do to help.”
The woman seemed to unbend a bit as she stepped forward. Then, as if consciously trying to force herself to be personable, she sat down on the coffee table so she could be more level with Becca. “Tell me what you remember, from the beginning.”
Becca nodded, closing her eyes as she forced herself to remember. She relayed everything as methodically as possible, but damn it, guys with motorcycles and guns had been shooting at her. It was like a bad Mad Max movie in a park. And when she finished, she gulped down the last of her tea and tried her best not to freak out.
“You’re doing fine,” said Alan.
She nodded, but knew the real critic was Officer Tonya. The woman sat rigidly straight as she studied Becca’s face. Then she slowly leaned forward.
“Let me explain some simple facts to you,” she said, each word crisply distinct. “Carl is our alpha. As Maximus, he’s our best warrior. He’s big, he’s smart, and he’s careful. You’re saying that the first you noticed Justin, he was lying on the ground. That’s not possible. Carl would have seen him walking up either in bear or human form. Plus, there’s the sound of motorcycles. Any shifter can tell the sound, especially since there’s no good reason for them to be in the park at that time of night. Carl would have heard it and called it in long before any attack.”
Becca frowned, thinking back. Oh, she remembered why Carl hadn’t seen Justin before or reacted to the motorcycles. She knew what they’d been doing, but she hadn’t thought it important for Officer Bitch to know. What she was trying to think of was when the sounds had first come into her awareness. Had they been there long before Carl went grizzly? She couldn’t remember. She’d been too absorbed in letting her hormones get their first fix in years.
