Dead in the Water (Gemini: A Black Dog Series Book 1) Read online

  “You aren’t on trial here, Camille,” Vause soothed. “Despite his methods, I can’t argue with the results. The two of you managed to do what we could not. You brought down Charybdis and saved a girl’s life.” Her voice remained cool. “If you are satisfied with your treatment, then we won’t press charges against Mr. Graeson or the Chandler pack.”

  “I appreciate your generous offer, and I accept. I am satisfied on that front.” I mounted my next argument. “But the kelpie was not Charybdis. The evidence supports magical tampering with the crime scenes, as well as the odd behavior of the beast itself. I posit that Charybdis is a separate entity. We killed a vassal, a thrall, something, but the man behind the murders is still free and killed two more fae today, long after the kelpie’s witnessed time of death.”

  “A full investigation is underway,” she assured me.

  “What about Harlow?” I still had no answers. “Have they found her?”

  “The changeling has not been located, no.”

  My spine went stiff at the mention of Harlow’s heritage.

  “I see you were aware of the circumstances of the girl’s birth. For your sake I hope that is a recent development.” Her lips formed a moue of disappointment. “After Wink—” ice formed on her next words, “—we couldn’t afford to be ignorant of her deficits. We had her tested and her background thoroughly researched beyond the superficial probing she and other minor contractors receive.”

  “What Harlow is—or isn’t—doesn’t concern me. It doesn’t change to fact she’s one of ours, and she deserves our help.” I scooted to the edge of my seat. “I would like to return to Abbeville and provide support for the team.”

  “That’s not possible.” Vause lifted a pen and then discarded it. “Your involvement with the warg has been called into question. Your defense of him, of his actions, even now, is too impassioned to believe you’re ambivalent toward him. Even if I could defend you against those accusations, you were close to Harlow. You can’t be circumspect.” She softened her voice. “Given your past history, it was foolish of me to recruit you for this case.”

  Bitterness coiled in my chest. “You’re taking Charybdis from me.”

  “Go home. Rest. You’ve been granted two weeks of leave time. Paid, of course.” She stood and smoothed imagined wrinkles from her skirt. “I will forward any updates on your friend that I receive.”

  Two weeks. The pronouncement hit me with the force of a backhand. Paid or not, being shut out hurt. Aunt Dot would be thrilled about the forced vacation, but the idea of sitting at home that long made my skin itch. Foolish or not, Vause had recruited me to unmask Charybdis, and after witnessing his carnage, I had no intentions of leaving his capture up to the conclave. Maybe I would take Graeson up on his offer of cooperation after all.

  Vause waited until my hand was on the doorknob and my back was to her before extending an olive branch. “A few months ago a death goddess, the Morrigan, attempted to escape Faerie and take up residence in the mortal realm.”

  A zing shot down my spine. The Morrigan. That was the name Thierry had danced around in Wink. I had summoned the goddess once, back when I was still a marshal. The Morrigan had access to the mortal realm. Why press to make residence here permanent when she had the best of both worlds? I hesitated, waiting to see if Vause enlightened me.

  “Some believe she encouraged the cutting of the tethers connecting this realm with the fae realm in order to prevent extradition.” Vause turned introspective. “You might ask yourself what a death goddess fears enough to jump realms and burn the bridges after her. You might also ask yourself who offered her the match.”

  “The boy’s death in Wink wasn’t related to Charybdis.” I slowly faced Vause. “You knew that before you sent me to Texas, didn’t you?” I leaned back against the door. “You wanted me to know about the portal.” Another thought occurred to me. “You wanted me to meet Thierry.”

  “The kraken had to be dealt with sooner or later.” A speck of a smile teased her lips. “I chose sooner.”

  “Why not tell me that outright? I could have flown out and grabbed a cup of coffee with her without all the pretense.” I squeezed the knob until it squeaked. “A good man might not be dead—his wife incarcerated and his children parentless—if I hadn’t intervened.”

  “It was necessary for you to visit Wink in more ways than one.” Her mood darkened. “There were restrictions placed on me meant to curb my involvement. A few of the more cumbersome vows had to be lifted before this conversation could occur.”

  “You mean the blood oath I pledged to Thierry.” I thumped my head against the flat of the door. “Did you bribe her to initiate me?”

  Our chat, the baring of our souls, couldn’t have been scripted, right? Who was I kidding? Vause lived to dig deep into the tender heart of people to discover what weaknesses she might use against them.

  “No.” She laughed, actually laughed, out loud. As startled as she was, I had to wonder when the last time was that something had tickled her funny bone. I knew the feeling. Coaxing laughter out of the reserved subset we belonged to tended to require herculean effort few made. “Thierry would do the opposite of what I asked to spite me. She believes in the conclave as an institution, but she has no love for magistrates.”

  Unexpected relief spiraled through me. I liked the no-nonsense marshal, and I fully intended to make good on her offer to dial her up if I needed help. Due to my current circumstances, I had to hope her rebellious spirit lent itself to helping out those of us about to lose access to restricted information, including sending me a copy of the portal breach video.

  Another pressure wave popped my ears. While I was vacillating, Vause had killed the privacy spell.

  “An escort has been arranged to bring you to the airport.” Vause held her hands clasped in front of her. “Your belongings were retrieved from Abbeville, and your flight home has already been booked.”

  I accepted our meeting was over. “If you hear anything about Harlow…”

  “You will be the first person I contact,” she assured me.

  I exited her borrowed office and dumped the chai I hadn’t touched in the trash. It didn’t hit me until then that my lips had tingled more than once since Thierry bound me when I spoke to Vause. The magistrate knew so much…and yet… I must hold a piece of the puzzle she had yet to learn. There was only one thing for it. I had to speak to Thierry again.

  I located the fae who had escorted me to Vause’s dressing down. “I’m ready to go.”

  The man shoved onto his feet with a donut clenched between his teeth and a cup of coffee wrapped in one fist. He set off toward the parking lot, and I trailed him. Music on the ride to the airport was as twangy as the soundtrack to Falco had been. He pulled next to the curb and popped the hatch. I took the hint, climbed out with Harlow’s bag tucked under my arm and grabbed my carry-on from the trunk. The second the latch caught, the SUV’s tires spun, burning rubber toward Abbeville.

  Rooting through the pockets of my overnight bag, I touched a slice of heavy plastic. My cell? I hadn’t spotted it since I woke at the Rebec home. I powered it up as I strolled through the lobby of the airport and checked my messages. My thumb was hovering over the first digit of Aunt Dot’s number when the screen went dark.

  “Dead battery,” I grumbled. “Perfect.”

  In the age of cellular supremacy, phone booths were long extinct. I had no idea if my charger had survived Graeson’s and then the conclave’s packing efforts, and I was too tired to dig through my belongings to figure it out. That meant waiting in line at the customer service kiosk, which was slightly less painful than visiting a dentist when in a major airport. I blessed this bucolic Alabama town as I walked right up to the counter.

  “My battery died.” I pasted on a smile that didn’t come close to matching the brunette behind the counter’s megawatt grin and dropped the bags at my feet. “Do you have somewhere I can make a call?”

  “Sure, hon.” The attendant set a
light blue phone with a dark blue cord on the edge of her desk. “Instructions for dialing out are printed on the handset.”

  “Great.” I dialed Aunt Dot, my fingers foreign on the raised square buttons. “I appreciate it.”

  “No problem.” She stepped away and gave me a modicum of privacy.

  “Pumpkin,” Aunt Dot boomed in my ear. “Did you get my message?”

  “No. Sorry. My phone died.” The sound of her voice was a balm to my nerves after the last twenty-four hours. “I just wanted to call and let you know I’m at the airport. I should be home in time for dinner.”

  “Home?” She cackled merrily. “Honey, have you spoken to Cord lately?”

  “Yes. Wait— What?” My heart shriveled to the size of a raisin. “How do you know Graeson?”

  “He called first thing this morning and explained everything.” She sounded peppier than she had in months. “He told me how you met and fell in love working a case together. He sounds like a doll. He’s so smitten with you, it’s precious. I can’t believe you didn’t mention him to me. How tall is he? Does he have a lot of muscles? He sounds gorgeous. Do you have a picture you can email Isaac? No. Don’t do that. I’ll wait. I want to be surprised.”

  Me? In love with Cord Graeson? “How did he get your number?” I answered my own question. “He copied my contacts while he had possession of my phone.” Her indulgent laughter didn’t help my mood. “What do you mean you’ll wait? Wait for what?”

  “You really don’t know?” She clucked her tongue with budding fondness. “That boy promised he would clear things up with you.”

  “Things? What things?” My shrill voice kept rising. “What are you talking about?”

  “Cord said you two are getting close, and he wants to meet the family before things get serious.” A sigh blasted my ear. Clearly, I was ruining her fun. “He owns acreage in Georgia. Did you know that? He invited the whole family to drive down so we could spend the week getting to know each other.”

  My fingers clenched around the phone until the plastic shell creaked. Vause must not be the only one keeping tabs on me. What would Graeson have done if Vause hadn’t suspended me? I don’t want to know. I was learning he was a warg with a plan for every possible contingency and that he had no qualms taking what—or who—he wanted. The thing was, with Charybdis still at large and my ties to the conclave temporarily severed, I didn’t mind the idea of having backup when it came to protecting my family. Getting Aunt Dot and my cousins out of Tennessee until Charybdis reared his head again relaxed the part of me that had been fretting over the killer’s apparent fascination with my current home state.

  Had Graeson mentioned this plan, I might not have laughed in his face. Now we would never know, because he did what he always did, which was hatch a scheme, assume his way was best, and expect everyone else to fall in line behind his hairy beta warg ass.

  “You don’t sound thrilled.” A horn blasted in the background, and Aunt Dot swore revenge against the driver of a red Jetta, telling me the caravan was on the move. “It’s not too late. Should we pass on his invitation?”

  “No.” I massaged my forehead. “I just didn’t expect Graeson to tell you about us.” I clenched my teeth. “He must have wanted to surprise me.” Shock was a good word for it. I’d had no idea there was an us. Let alone that we had gotten so serious as to involve our families in our relationship. “I have to exchange my ticket, but I’ll get there as soon as I can.”

  Accepting Graeson’s hospitality felt a whole lot like strolling into a wolf’s den while modeling a Kobe beef necklace, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who would be waiting to collect me at the other end of the flight with warm hazel eyes and a smug grin.

  Cord Graeson. Wolf with a taste for vengeance. Man with an agenda. And, apparently, my new boyfriend.

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  About the Author

  A cupcake enthusiast and funky sock lover possessed of an overactive imagination, Hailey lives in Alabama with her handcuff-carrying hubby, her fluty-tooting daughter and their herd of dachshunds.

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