Page 77 of Warrior Unraveled

Wes shook his head in stunned disbelief. “Wow, that’s wild. Does that work the other way around too?”

Logan chuckled. “You mean when the Stealth Guardian is a female?”

Wes cleared his throat. “Yes, just, you know, out of interest.”

“I’ll leave that for Virginia to explain to you.” He smirked.

“Come on, be a friend.”

“Hey, not my place,” Logan said, lifting his hands. “If she wants you to know what happens to a guy if and when she does it, she’ll tell you.” He turned and walked back to the kitchen island.

Wes sighed. Now that he knew about this particular Stealth Guardian practice, he couldn’t wait to be alone with Virginia to ask her about it. Alas, the occasion didn’t present itself right away. Leila was asking for pancakes, and the rest of the gang wanted seconds, too. So for the next half hour he was glued to the stove, filling orders as if he were a short-order cook at a busy diner.

And just as everybody finished breakfast, and Manus and Tessa volunteered to clean up, somebody switched on the sound on the TV, drawing everybody’s attention to the news report that was unfolding on the screen. The reporter from the previous night spoke into the camera, while a red banner reading Breaking News scrolled along the bottom of the screen.

“Police have arrested two suspects during a raid in West Baltimore last night. They are being held in connection with the brutal murder of Baltimore businessman Anton Faldo, who was found bludgeoned to death yesterday.”

The screen split, and the mugshots of two thugs appeared on one side, while the reporter continued, “Michael Brown and James Brown are the nephews of Carol Jefferson, Mr. Faldo’s housekeeper. The police found items belonging to Mr. Faldo in the suspects’ apartment, as well as forensic evidence that may directly link the two to Mr. Faldo’s death. A police source also confirmed that Mrs. Jefferson, whom we interviewed on this program yesterday, has become a person of interest, and it hasn’t been ruled out that she may have given her nephews access to the house. Police are currently waiting for DNA evidence to be analyzed, but a source close to the investigation has told us that both suspects will be charged with murder and an array of other crimes.”

Somebody muted the TV.

Wes looked at the assembled. He’d been witness to plenty of criminal cases and worked with the San Francisco Police Department enough times to understand what the Baltimore police must have in terms of evidence. “If the police are willing to leak that they’ll be charging those two with murder, then they have enough evidence even without the DNA results to make a case. Once they have that, it’ll be a slam dunk.”

Virginia met his gaze. “I agree. So that’s a dead end for us. The demons didn’t get to Faldo, a bunch of thugs did.”

“So what now?” Wesley asked.

“We’ll have to wait for Deirdre to make a move,” Virginia said.

“Sit around and wait?” He didn’t like that at all. “We’ve gotta do something.”

“Virginia is right,” Hamish said. “We need to wait. In the meantime, we’ll check in with the other compounds. See if they have any news for us. Everybody’s got their eyes and ears open.”

Though Wes nodded to agree with Hamish, he knew he couldn’t just sit around. He had to think of what else there could be done. Maybe it was time to convince the Stealth Guardians that they didn’t have to fight this battle alone.