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

  Lon landed wrong on his next leap, turning an ankle, and he fell onto the asphalt, his sides heaving.

  “I can do this all night,” I warned him. “Are we done here?”

  Rather than answer, Lon closed his eyes and let rip a snore of epic proportions.

  “I don’t understand.” One of the two witnesses inched closer. “He’s…asleep?”

  “No, he’s an asshole.” I shrugged. “But yes, an unconscious one.”

  The second glanced at me then hit his knees and bowed his head. “Alpha.”

  Others I hadn’t noticed stepped into the light and joined in the chorus.

  “Alpha.”

  “Alpha.”

  “Alpha.”

  “Whoa.” I bent down to restrain Lon’s wrists with a sigil. “I’m not your alpha.”

  “You defeated him,” the first to speak reminded me. “You won his position.”

  “Goddess,” I breathed. “Just give me a minute, okay?” I turned to Bishop. “Milo?”

  “Safe,” he assured me. “He’s splitting off to patrol now that we have this under control.”

  Walking away from the pack, I pulled out my phone and called Tisdale, who was less likely to yell at me.

  “Why do I expect the worst every time your number flashes on my screen?”

  “You’re smart?”

  Amusement laced her voice. “What’s happened now?”

  “The asshat who murdered Claudia last night jumped me on the street and challenged me for beta.”

  A string of curses blistered my ear before Tisdale regained control of herself. “Are you all right?”

  “I won,” I assured her. “Midas is still beta.”

  “Don’t make me drive all the way into town to throttle you,” she growled. “Are you all right?”

  Motherly concern was just plain weird. “Yes?”

  “Yes or no.” She snapped her fingers. “Well?”

  Checking myself over, I confirmed what I already suspected. “I don’t have a scratch on me.”

  “You almost gave me a heart attack.” Metal jingled in the background. “I’m on my way.”

  “I said I was fine.” I shot Bishop a pleading glance. “You don’t have to—”

  “Call my son and tell him what you told me.”

  Kicking a rock, I mumbled, “Do I have to?”

  “You really don’t want me to do it for you, sweetheart.”

  Taking her at her word, I ended the call and prepared to take my medicine, dialing before I lost my courage.

  “Lon challenged me,” I blurted after Midas answered. “I won, I’m fine, and you’re still the beta. Your mom is on her way, and I’m not sure, but she sounded mad. The Knoxville pack keeps calling me alpha, and it’s freaking me the frak out.” I sucked in a breath and blasted out, “I need you. Please come save me.”

  For long moments, Midas didn’t say a word, but then he sighed. “I’ll be right there.”

  He ended the call, which hurt, and I would have gnawed on my thumbnail if my hands weren’t gunky.

  “A minor scuffle, and you’re coming unglued.” Bishop stepped up beside me. “This isn’t like you.”

  “I know, I know.” I pocketed my cell and started popping my knuckles. “Tisdale is coming.”

  “Wait.” He laughed. “Are you scared of her?”

  “Um…”

  “Technically, she’s your mother-in-law.”

  “And?”

  “That means she’s family, and she’s not going to bite you.”

  “Family?” A breath stuttered out of me into a shaky laugh. “Seriously?”

  Bishop waited for me to explain my tone or my words or my panic, but I didn’t talk about this.

  Ever.

  To anyone.

  You could share blood, a last name, or an address your whole life with the person or persons who brought you home from the hospital and it—you—mean nothing to them.

  It’s not like I expected Tisdale to love me, or even like me, because I was mated to her son. She was nice to me, but we hadn’t known each other long enough for me to guess how she reacted when members of her family disappointed her.

  Midas adored her, but then again, Boaz had loved our mother too. Until she, and Dad, disowned me.

  But it was the kind of falling out that might fall in again when he finally married Addie or they had kids. It wasn’t that he would forgive her what she had done to me so much as he had a big heart and holding a grudge was harder for him than most. I could picture him deciding one day that I had healed, that I was okay, and start to work mending what was broken in our family.

  In my humble opinion, there wasn’t enough super glue in the world.

  But how long would he hold out unless I gave him a good reason?

  I had plenty of them, but call me greedy, I didn’t want to share.

  A soft whine in the throat of the stringy gwyllgi on four knobby legs brought my head around as Midas turned onto the street where we waited and prowled toward me. He didn’t spare them a glance, and that dismissal left them cowering, huddled together and panting the way dogs did when they got nervous.

  Each step he took forward tempted me to take one back, but I couldn’t say why exactly. He would never hurt me. I wasn’t afraid of him. But…yeah. I had to force my feet from itching to turn and run.

  “Congratulations.” He swept his gaze over my face then down my body. “You’re all right?”

  Spinning in a quick circle, I proved I didn’t have guts hanging out my spine or anything. “I’m…weird.”

  One of my favorites from his arsenal of smiles kicked up the right corner of his mouth. “I’m aware.”

  “Jerk.” I shoved a palm against his chest. “This whole thing was…”

  “…weird.”

  “Anyone who doesn’t know Hadley will think she’s the weak link.” Bishop invited himself to join us. “Anyone who’s wanted to take a shot at Tisdale, or the Atlanta pack, will aim for her too.” He tagged Lon with his gaze. “Unless she gives a demonstration of why that’s a bad idea.”

  “This was enough.” Though Claudia deserved to be avenged, I shook my head. “I’m not killing him.”

  “They’ll target you even harder if they think you’re a bleeding heart and the weak link.” Bishop flattened his lips into a hard line. “Look where compassion got Claudia. Her own people killed her.”

  “You’re not going to goad me into lopping off his head while he’s asleep.” I tucked a wayward curl behind my ear. “Midas, you’re the expert here. What do we do with him? With them?”

  “Lon is outcast. He can no longer belong to the Knoxville pack. That’s the price of an alpha’s defeat.”

  Curious what that meant for Midas and Tisdale down the road, I decided the rules for an alpha stepping down must be different than an alpha defeated in a challenge. He would never boot his mother out of her home or ask her to live apart from the others.

  That was one helping off my plate. “And the others?”

  “We appoint a new alpha or consider integrating them into the Atlanta pack.”

  The way he said we gave me hope. “You’re alpha too, right?”

  “Yes.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I am.”

  Hands linked at my spine to keep from touching him, I rocked back on my heels. “Are you mad at me?”

  A chuckle was all the backup Bishop provided before making himself scarce.

  “Why would I be?” Midas dropped his arm. “Nothing that happened here is your fault.”

  “You didn’t sound all that happy on the phone, and you look ready to spit nails now.”

  “I want to shift and rip Lon open from throat to groin.”

  “Oh,” I said quietly. “You didn’t sound too happy with me earlier either.”

  And I had left him a love note promising him medium rare burgers with Old Bay fries for dinner too. That was simple enough to cook, even for me, and the classic meat and potatoes combo ought to suit everyone.r />
  “I only just introduced you to the pack.” He brushed his fingertips along my cheek until his hand slid behind my head to fist in my hair. “I worried Claudia’s death might change how you saw them, how you see me.” His fingers tightened but not painfully. “This doesn’t help with that.”

  “For two people who talk as often as we do, we don’t communicate well, do we?”

  “We need to work on it.” He drew me close. “Assuming you’re going to stick around?”

  “A whole bottle of acetone couldn’t dissolve the adhesive where I’m stuck to you at this point.”

  “Good.” He brought his head down to mine. “If glue hadn’t worked, I would have invested in chains.”

  I didn’t notice he wasn’t laughing at the joke with me until his mouth crushed mine in a bruising kiss that left me in real danger of drifting right off the pavement into the sky like an untethered balloon, and then I didn’t notice anything at all as his fingertips dug into my hips.

  “No wonder Abbott sent you home with a wholesale box of condoms.”

  A bucket of ice water in Bishop’s hands wouldn’t have been half as effective in shattering the moment.

  “How do you know about that?” I whisper-screamed. “Are you stalking me in the Faraday?”

  “You say stalk, I say surveil…” Mischief glinted in his eyes as he winked at me. “Don’t get your panties in a twist. I came by earlier to drop off a package from Reece for Abbott, and we got to talking. I was in the lab. I saw you in his office.”

  “You saw us, or you listened in and cackled gleefully to yourself?”

  “Hmm.” He pretended to give it real consideration. “I was holding it in until I saw you leave with enough rubber to retread half the tires in Atlanta.”

  Unable to look Midas in the eye, I pivoted on my heel and left him to handle the gwyllgi problem.

  Sadly, Bishop followed me, chuckling all the way.

  Seven

  Our worst suspicions were gaining meat on the bone by the time Bishop walked me back to the Faraday, pretending he had to pick up a bucket of extra crispy from nearby Ben’s Fried Chicken. We had managed to go a night without an explosion, but that could only be because I hadn’t had any particular destination or plans in mind.

  An idea forming, I glanced over at Bishop. “How do you feel about traps?”

  “I’m against walking into them.”

  Eyes rolling, I slowed to a halt several yards from Hank and the front door. “I meant setting one.”

  “I do enjoy a good game of Mouse Trap.”

  “I’m guessing that’s a game played in ye olden times.”

  “Kids these days,” he muttered. “Who are we trapping?”

  So many enemies, so little time. “The bomber.”

  “That would lead us to the coven.” Staring off into traffic, he mused, “How do you see it going down?”

  “Think about Choco-Loco.” I turned the idea over in my head. “Midas and I would have been alone with Chef Daaé. Another intimate setting would minimalize casualties. Why not recreate that atmosphere?”

  Due to their magical nature, the fires had struck true. Only targeted buildings had been consumed. That meant we didn’t have to rely on isolation to keep down the property damage. We just had to hope the pattern held and have Station Thirteen, as well as Aubrey, on standby if things went south.

  Bishop looked unconvinced. “Do you think they would fall for it twice?”

  “We can fuel the gossip for a day or so, really play up the idea of a makeup date night. The pack loves to gossip, especially about Midas and me. We’ll keep the details and the location to ourselves until the day of to limit the amount of time the bomber has to scope out the place.”

  “Advance warning means we can get cameras in place to catch what we miss,” he said, more convinced. “We can pull in backup from a few different sources so we’re set for whatever the coven hits us with next.”

  Whoever the bomber was wearing to soak up gossip might not be who they wore when they committed the crime, and that skin could be swapped out just as fast for one capable of spitting the magical fire we now knew could kill me and Ambrose both. The coven was not making this easy on us.

  “I’ll put out feelers,” Bishop said, taking a healthy step back, “see if I can find a place.”

  “Sounds good.” I frowned at his expression. “Let me know when you’re finished testing the team.”

  “Will do.”

  “Where are you…?”

  Easing into the shadows, he was gone before I finished asking the question.

  “Hadley.”

  Slowly, I turned my head toward the Faraday and spotted Tisdale striding down the sidewalk toward me.

  “Oh, hi.” I waved like an idiot. “How’s it going?”

  “Better now that I’ve seen you for myself.” Her strong, thin arms encircled me in a hug I expected to be ten levels of awkward but was actually kind of…nice. “Are you sure you’re not hurt?”

  “I handled it.” I withdrew from her embrace, spotted her scowl, and blurted, “And I’m A-okay. Not a scratch on me.”

  “We’ll see.” She took my hand and tucked it against her side, tugging me after her. “Abbott can be the judge of that.”

  “That’s okay. Really. I saw him yesterday.” I yanked, but she dragged me. “You know what they say. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

  “You’re worse than Lethe was as a girl.” Tisdale nodded to Hank, who smirked at me with his smirky face that needed punching for always having salt ready to apply to any open wound. “She would dream up any excuse to avoid the healer.”

  “I can’t imagine why.” I stumbled into the lobby. “Healers are so kind and gentle.”

  We drew stares as she hauled me into the elevator and mashed the down button.

  “We’re lucky to have someone as skilled as Abbott. He truly has a gift.”

  As often as he had patched me up, I could hardly argue with her there.

  “Did something happen to you when you were a child?”

  Whipping my head toward her, I had to search to find my voice. “What do you mean?”

  “To make you hate going to the doctor.”

  Sweet relief sluiced through me, and I missed whatever else she said over the roaring in my ears.

  Mother had refused to take me after the age of six or seven. I had too many scars, too many bruises, too many secrets. I took over-the-counter medication and prayed it did the job. Otherwise…well…I doubt the outcome would have bothered her too much. Especially after Macon was born.

  Fear kept me alive more than any gel capsule. Fear she would develop an interest in him. Fear she would age me out and decide there was an easier target under her roof.

  There was a reason why I stayed home to attend college, and plenty of reasons, aside from my own horror and heartbreak, that the disownment had terrified me.

  That one decision kicked me out of the Pritchard household for good.

  And since I had never told anyone anything, no one grasped why that was the worst-possible outcome.

  Clearing my throat, I kept my voice light. “Midas didn’t mention my childhood?”

  “Hadley,” she exhaled. “There is more to you than meets the eye.” She wrapped a lean arm around my shoulders. “More to your past and your present than you’ve told me.”

  “Midas knows” was what I said, but even he hadn’t seen the whole picture.

  “I don’t doubt that.” She rubbed my upper arm. “What I hope is that one day, you’ll confide in me too.”

  “There are things I haven’t told anyone.”

  “We all have those things, sweetheart, and for the most part a secret or two doesn’t hurt anyone.” She gave me a gentle squeeze. “Just remember, a secret loses its power when more people learn it.”

  For the barest moment, I rested my head on her shoulder and breathed in the scents of earth and sugar.

  I would have liked having a mom who smelled like he
r, like growing things and sprinkle cookies.

  “Thanks.”

  She kissed the side of my head. “Tell me that again after Abbott is through with you.”

  Groaning, I let her march me into his office. I ducked my head to look extra pitiful, but also so she wouldn’t see the silly grin tickling the edge of my mouth as she mothered me better than mine ever had.

  Only after Abbott pronounced me hale and hearty did Tisdale escort me to the lobby where my stomach dropped into the soles of my feet as if the elevator car had plummeted down the shaft with us in it. The wobble in my knees sent her into a tizzy, and she would have hauled me back to the infirmary if I hadn’t lied about tripping over the threshold.

  She was standing in the lobby dressed in a nice pantsuit.

  My mother.

  Annabeth Pritchard.

  Matron Pritchard.

  A sour expression puckered her lips, and her sharp eyes missed nothing. Including my stumble and the attention it drew to Tisdale and me. A quick assessment dismissed me as anyone of importance, and that was…relief…rushing through me to tingle in my fingertips.

  Part of me had always expected her to pierce my glamour with that cold stare upon our first meeting, to see down to the Amelie buried deep within the Hadley, and I had braced for her worst. But that was the little girl in me who wanted to cower behind Tisdale and hope I blended into the potted plants to avoid Mother’s notice. The future potentate couldn’t afford to show weakness, not in front of a predator.

  “Let me tell my babysitters where I’m going,” Tisdale said, “and then I’m taking you to your apartment.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  As I stood there, next to the elevators and sweet escape, Addie came around the bend with her father on her arm. No, that wasn’t right. Our father.

  Goddess, having two lives and two families got confusing when my past and present collided in person.

  “Hadley.” Addie’s bright greeting made me smile. “What are you doing down here?”

  Our father, who hadn’t recognized me, jolted at the sound of my name and spun toward me.

  A flash of hope that almost blinded me filled his hazy eyes, but then he saw me, and all that vanished.