Proof of Life (The Potentate of Atlanta Book 4) Read online

  “Pretty sure the reason Claudia wanted to get Hadley alone was to talk about how good you are in bed.”

  A flash of heat singed his face and then drained away in a rush. “Are you serious?”

  “What do you think girls talk about when they’re alone?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “You have dwelled in the dark for too long. I’m willing to bet they’re talking measuring sticks right now.”

  Scrubbing his palms over his face, Midas wished he could hide behind his hands forever. “God.”

  “Come on.” Ford slapped him on the back. “Post assignments now, die of shame later.”

  Later couldn’t come fast enough for Midas.

  Four

  The bar Claudia selected had seen better days, probably, but not in my lifetime.

  The soles of my new sneakers made sucking noises against the flaking laminate floor when I walked, and dingy stuffing burst from the stools and the booths in the corner. The counter gleamed in the low light, buffed to a polish by the bored young man with nothing better to do and no motivation for extending his efforts to the rest of the place.

  “Shots for all my friends,” Claudia announced. “Line ’em up and keep ’em coming.”

  Forty-five minutes later…

  Gwyllgi can get drunk, for a few minutes, if they really dedicate themselves to the cause. Otherwise, the alcohol might as well be water. Me? I didn’t have a fantastic metabolism, so I had to be careful what and how much I drank in unfamiliar company. Given what had happened last night, I was sipping Coke. Just Coke. That didn’t stop Claudia from lining up shots for me too, but I had taken to nudging them her way.

  The fact she didn’t notice why her shot glass was bottomless said a lot about how deep she had climbed into the bottle. Under different circumstances, I might have been impressed with her single-minded dedication to chasing a buzz. Tonight, it worried me how desperate she was to escape her life, even for a few minutes.

  “To the rotten son of a bitch who sired me.” Claudia raised her glass. “May he burn in hell for eternity.”

  The others drank to that, but I didn’t know her father from Adam, so I wasn’t sure if I should sip or not.

  “He’s a waste of a shot,” Ares murmured in my ear, causing me to jump. “He was a bastard.”

  “What are you doing here?” I set my Coke on the counter. “Babysitting me?”

  “Did the diaper bag give it away?”

  “I need to get to HQ.” I hopped off my stool. “Be a pal and distract our hostess.”

  “I knew I should have stayed outside,” she grumbled, clearly not a Claudia fan. “I have to pee. Can you wait that long?”

  The stack of coffee cups in her hand earned her my sympathy. “Go on.”

  A vibration in my pocket gave me hope I was about to have an official reason to make my escape.

  >>I’m out of ABS.

  >What?

  >>Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene.

  >>Plastic. For the 3D printer. I’m out.

  >What do you expect me to do about it?

  >>Bring a few spools to HQ with you?

  Heaving a sigh, I figured this was as close to divine intervention as I was likely to get.

  >Where do I get them?

  Bishop had the address ready to copy/paste in seconds, no surprise, and I promised to play fetch.

  A 3D printer was all fun and games until enthusiasm outlasted the machine’s ability to keep pace with Bishop’s imagination.

  “Midas?”

  “Nah.” I glanced up to find Claudia leaning over my shoulder for a glimpse at the screen. “Work.”

  “You’re not so different from an alpha.” She took another shot. “The city’s not so different from a pack.”

  “You’re right.” The slight blurriness in her eyes concerned me. “I’m not, and it’s not.”

  “No wonder Midas settled on you.”

  The word settled pricked my ego, but I told myself that my insecurities were tainting her intent.

  For someone wanting to drill me about how to land a mate, she hadn’t asked me a single question.

  “I prefer to think I settled on Midas, but sure.”

  “Tisdale doesn’t like me much.” She claimed my empty seat. “I get why, I do, but…have you ever been so afraid of paying what you owe that your purse strings shrivel right up?”

  “Yeah.” An unexpected wave of kinship swept through me. “I have.”

  “I did have designs on Midas, but not for the reasons you might think.”

  A twist in my chest bumped my voice an octave. “Oh?”

  “I wanted out,” she explained. “He was my ticket to the good life.”

  Before I could tell her I didn’t exactly regret him not punching her ticket, she had another drink in hand.

  “I was a pack princess.” She lifted her glass to the light. “I stood by and watched my father ruin us. When I was a kid, I had an excuse. I couldn’t have taken him. You know how gwyllgi dominance fights go. They’re brutal.” Her lips trembled. “But I’ve been grown for a long time now and continued to do nothing.”

  “He was your father.” I met her gaze, which startled her, then held it. “Family makes it complicated.”

  “Truer words.” She set the still-full glass back on the counter. “I gave Midas a hard time earlier, it’s what he expects from me, but I have to bring new blood into my pack, and he would never leave Atlanta.” She flashed me a quick, almost shy grin. “Or you.”

  “Hey.” I had an idea. “Explain this mating business to me. Both fated and chosen.”

  “You mean you don’t know?” Her eyes widened. “He didn’t tell you?”

  “We’ve had our hands full lately.” I grimaced. “I get the broad strokes, but I want the nitty-gritty.”

  Absorbing that, she tilted her head in thought. “You know how the whole soul mate thing works?”

  “It’s a wargs-only club for the most part, right?”

  “Yes.” She chewed her bottom lip. “There are a few gwyllgi with warg bloodlines only a few generations back who experience it, but it’s rare. Incredibly rare. You’d know if you and Midas were one of the lucky ones.”

  Mood deflating, I had to ask, “How would I know?”

  “It creates a bond, a magical tether, that joins your soul to his.”

  Jaw dropping, I debated marching back to the Faraday and smacking Midas for his secret-keeping.

  Unless Claudia was wrong. Or lying. Either of those would make me happier than I was now.

  Like everyone else, she had wanted Midas for reasons that had nothing to do with who he was but who his mother was, and that was all kinds of messed up in my opinion. He deserved better. I loved him, for himself and only for himself, but he deserved better than me too.

  I had more baggage than Hartsfield-Jackson, and Atlanta’s airport was the busiest in the world.

  But he loved me.

  And I…I was so far past ever letting him go.

  “Otherwise, mating is marriage without the dress, rings, or cake.”

  Snorting out a laugh, I teased her, “None of the fun stuff?”

  “Basically.” She rolled her eyes in agreement. “I did see a guy go down on one knee once, but mostly the mating is assumed in more traditional packs. A couple sticks together long enough, and bam. Their scents entwine, their lives mingle, and the pack views them as a mated pair. End of story.”

  “Like a common-law marriage.”

  “The only exception to the rule is with alphas and future alphas. They’re expected to put on a show.”

  “Oh joy.”

  The ringmaster of our show would be Tisdale, I had no doubts on that score.

  Yet another tidbit Midas had neglected to share with me.

  Probably out of fear I would suddenly catch the flu.

  Again.

  Frak.

  “What did I miss?” Ares rejoined us. “Sorry it took so long. I fell asleep on the toilet.”

&
nbsp; “Thanks for sharing.” I offered her the shot on the counter before me. “Maybe this will help?”

  “Can’t hurt.” She tossed it back, and her eyes watered as she coughed out, “What the hell is that?”

  “Paint thinner,” Claudia told her with a wink for me. “You guys are heading out?”

  “Yeah.” I checked the time on my phone. “I have to get to work.”

  “Do you think…?” Claudia studied her hands. “Would you like to grab dinner one night?”

  The ache in her voice, the dip in her chin, the fact she couldn’t meet my eyes as she asked cemented an answer before I considered the ramifications. “Sure.”

  “We can make it a girls’ night.” Ares invited herself. “I’ll need a day or two to catch up on sleep first.”

  “That would be great.” Claudia jerked me into an impulsive hug. “Text me the time and place?”

  “Sure.” Passing over my phone, I let her enter her contact information. “See you later.”

  Once Ares and I cleared the bar and crossed the street, I gave her a bland look. “Girls’ night?”

  “Tisdale would murder me in my sleep if I left you alone with Claudia.”

  “She seems nice enough.”

  “Her dad was nice enough too, once upon a time.”

  “Sins of the father, really?”

  “Claudia was his beta. A lot of the blood on his hands is on hers too.”

  I had no room to talk. I had done terrible things. I had blood on my hands that would never wash out.

  But a wake-up call had saved me. My friends had saved me. When I least deserved their mercy.

  Claudia and I weren’t friends after a few drinks, but I could sympathize with her position. She struck me as a woman without many people to confide in, and she had chosen me. That didn’t indebt me to her, but it did sway me enough to hope that I could become a positive influence while she was here.

  We can’t know until we glance behind us who or what will alter the course of our lives forever. A kind word, a hug, even listening worked miracles. For someone who lacked the support system I had, I could afford to lend that word, give that hug, or sit and let my ears do all the work.

  “Who sent you to play I Spy?” I changed the topic. “Ford, Midas, or Tisdale?”

  Chuckling, she stretched her arms over her head. “Why pick one when I can blame all three?”

  “You’re wiped.” I shoved her, and she actually stumbled. “I’m going to work. You should go sleep.”

  “I can go home but...”

  “The baby?”

  “The baby,” she agreed. “Cutest little torture device you’ve ever seen.”

  “I can give you the keys to our place. You can nap wherever.”

  Her lips parted, and a yes poised there, but she shook her head. “It wouldn’t be fair.”

  “The offer stands, for either of you, if you need it.”

  “Thanks.” She fell back a step. “I’m out.”

  Once she had turned to begin the walk back to the Faraday, I got out my phone and began texting the string of code back and forth to locate HQ’s location for the day. As luck would have it, Bishop had set up shop across town from where I was, which meant I either had a lot of walking to do or a Swyft to call.

  About to try my luck with the rideshare app, I hesitated when a glint caught my eye.

  Having learned from past mistakes, I didn’t chase after it. I texted Bishop, and then I chased after it.

  Ambrose shot ahead of me, which was ten kinds of strange, as he was never one to volunteer for work, but he was invested in that glint too.

  All of which told me whatever caused it was magical in nature and probably wasn’t anything good.

  For a second, I thought I was seeing the fading trail of a Martian Roach and cursed under my breath. We had busted our butts to get rid of them, but roaches being roaches, I figured there were still one or two we had missed. Upon closer inspection, the sparkles weren’t quite right for that, thank the goddess.

  About the time I got near enough to track the origin, Ambrose glanced over his shoulder.

  Pivoting on my heel, I turned in time to watch the bar where I had left Claudia burst into flames.

  The raw force of the explosion punched me backward and threw me sliding across the asphalt.

  Once my ears stopped ringing, I rose on raw palms and abraded knees to survey the damage.

  Ambrose hovered beside me, hands on his hips, his head angled where the glimmer had been.

  “Thanks,” I muttered. “You couldn’t have helped?”

  A shrug rolled through his shoulders.

  “No chocolate for you,” I grunted as I stood and tested to make sure nothing was broken. “Jerk.”

  Big surprise, the shadow wasn’t paying attention to me. He had already returned his focus to where the glint had been, a distraction that might have saved my life. Any closer to the blast, and it would have roasted me like a marshmallow.

  Others hadn’t been so lucky, and I set off at a limping jog as I dialed Bishop. “I need you to—”

  “Already done.” Keys tapped in the background. “The fire department is on the way. Paramedics too.”

  “Midas?”

  “He was my second call.”

  “Thanks.” I had reached the epicenter, and the heat made my eyes water. “I have to go.”

  A string of impressive curses left his mouth before I ended the call, but they were in Faelic, or whatever obscure language he spoke, and I didn’t understand more than the gist.

  A wall of fire licked the sky, and the stench of black magic charred the air. The closer I inched, the higher the roaring flames burned until I retreated a safe distance to watch as the bar, and the bar alone, spouted plumes too thick for me to see more than a foot in front of me without retreating farther.

  Phone in hand, I did what protocol demanded and called Tisdale. “We have a problem.”

  “Claudia?”

  The immediate leap made my heart hurt for the untried alpha. “We went to a bar tonight.”

  “Oh, God.” Tisdale lost her cool. “Is it still standing?”

  “Not for much longer.” I exhaled a ragged breath when the sirens reached my ears. “It’s on fire.”

  “Is…?” She cleared her throat. “Is she…?”

  “I don’t know.” I had the urge to rub my upper arms, but sweat beaded on my forehead. I was nowhere near cold, yet I was chilled to the bone. “When I left for work, she was still there with her pack. Ares and I chatted for a while out on the sidewalk, but then she headed home. I was leaving for HQ as the bar exploded.”

  “Exploded?”

  “Yes,” I confirmed. “This wasn’t simple arson. This was a bomb.”

  Like the one that went off in my apartment.

  “Like the one that went off in your apartment,” she echoed my thoughts exactly.

  “The fire department is here, so I need to go.” I had other company too. “I just wanted to update you.”

  “Thanks, sweetheart.”

  With those words ringing in my ears, she ended the call. I was still staring at the screen, wondering if I misheard, when Midas yanked me into his arms and plastered me against his chest.

  “You’re all right,” he breathed into my hair. “Thank God.”

  “Claudia and her pack were in there.” I fisted his shirt. “I don’t know if…”

  “She’s okay.” He gave me enough slack to lean back and see around him. “One of her packmates got sick from the bar food they ordered, and she walked them back to their hotel. She must have left minutes after you.”

  Heady relief swirled through me, and I braced my forehead against his chest. “The others?”

  “She came in with five.” He stroked my head. “How many were with you?”

  “Twice that.” I hadn’t counted them, but they had filled the bar. “Goddess.”

  A scream too big to fit a human throat belted out behind us as Claudia hit her knees on the pave
ment.

  Shoving away from Midas, I ran to Claudia and dropped beside her, afraid to offer her comfort.

  Alphas weren’t supposed to show weakness. She might not have been alpha for long, but she had grown up under the direct rule of one. The tears in her eyes, the tremble in her body, the way she rocked back and forth, arms wrapped around her middle, might spell doom for her reign if her pack was as unstable as I had been led to believe.

  A pack used to cruelty ought to find her grief a balm, but maybe not if they had no souls left to soothe.

  “What happened?” Head bowed, too heavy to lift, she stared at nothing. “How did this happen?”

  “A bomb.” I might as well confess the rest. “A magical bomb.”

  “Who would do such a thing?” Voice a thready rasp, she asked the most damning question. “Why?”

  Officially, the fire at Choco-Loco was still under investigation. The cleaners hadn’t published their findings to their database, which meant all we had to go on was what Gray told us at the scene. It would be easy to omit that, to cast this incident in a better light, a less damning one, but word would get back to her. The line between what happened last night, and the pack’s interest thanks to Midas’s involvement, would get drawn quickly.

  I had a choice to make, and a split-second to earn an ally or an enemy.

  “A coven of witchborn fae have infiltrated our city.” I gazed into the flames. “This…was meant for me.”

  Once she started nodding, she didn’t stop, and when she finally did, the spark drained out of her.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  “I want in.” Sucking in a breath, she lifted her head and cleared her throat. “I want to help.”

  Right before my eyes, she transformed from a mourning, broken woman to a cold, determined alpha.

  “This slight will not go unpunished,” she growled, crimson rolling across her eyes as she stood.

  Midas joined us then, and so did Ford, but her own people kept back, cringing away from her fury.

  “We’ll help you get vengeance,” Midas vowed to Claudia, but his eyes were on me. “The coven has been a plague on Atlanta for too long.”

  “I’ll walk you to your hotel,” Ford offered, his voice polite, without a trace of the pity that might send her crashing back to her knees. “We’ll provide transportation for your pack.”