Colin bristled and went for the limo door. That was more than enough of that. “You lure me in here using my estranged mother and then accuse my friend of being scum with no evidence? What exactly is going on, agents?”
“My pup has some fire to him, even if he is an unranked skinny little wimp,” said his mother with something like pride.
Colin decided that he hated her. Not that he’d been far away to start with, but still.
It hardly mattered because she immediately lost interest. “Risa, is my nose shiny? It feels shiny.”
Risa passed Lexi a small mirror. Lexi held it to examine her face and hair. Like she was in a 1950s commercial.
“You have Patrick Inis with you now, at your pack house?” Agent Lenis was not about to let things ride.
Colin nodded. He wasn’t revealing anything. The SBI could source Trick’s location soon enough if they looked at Kettil’s report. “Yeah, and we set a guard while he’s working at the cafe, plus the local deputies said they’d drop by to check on the regular.”
“You think the selkie will try again?”
“They seemed very eager.”
“What did they say to him? You were there.”
Again something they could read in Kettil’s report, although Colin supposed the sheriff’s department wasn’t noted for its speedy filing of paperwork, or its general eagerness to cooperate with the feds.
Was this what they were after? Contacting Colin for information on the local selkie mob? “They wanted a lot of money off him. Or they thought he was hiding a lot of their money from them. Or goods or something. Which is crap, because poor Trick has been scraping to make ends meet the whole time I’ve known him. Clearly he’s not sitting on thousands of dollars! I wish he’d told me how bad it was for him. I would have asked him to stay sooner.”
The two SBI agents exchanged meaningful looks.
“Are you the reason she hired Heavy Lifting for her events while she’s here?” Colin asked them, referring to his mother as if she weren’t still sitting in front of him.
Lexi Blanc did not like to be ignored, so she answered. “Certainly not! I have some kind of creepy stalker following me around, stealing my stuff. I wanted extra security, and any firm employing my son must be a good one. Kevin is an excellent enforcer. I’m sure he’ll make a remarkably good bodyguard.”
“You know nothing at all about him,” snapped back Colin.
She shrugged, like that hardly mattered. “He’s my pup, of course I know him.”
Colin saw some measure of discomfort on the two agents’ faces at that. So they hadn’t known about bodyguard werewolves incoming. Mother was playing them, too. Colin narrowed his eyes at the feds. “You did know that she hired Heavy Lifting to provide extra security while she’s in town? Our pack is going to be all up in her, and apparently your, business.” He turned back to ask the question that had bought him into the car in the first place. “Why are you messing with him, mother?”
“Who, dear?”
“Kevin. You leave him the fuck alone. Just like you always have.”
“Sweetie, how adorable, are you trying to be protective? Don’t bother, it’s not in your nature. Are you two actually close brothers? That’s nice. I did good, then.”
Abruptly, Colin had had more than enough. He didn’t need to ask her why she’d left Kevin behind, she didn’t care for anyone but herself. She had wanted a career and they’d been in the way. Kevin being the perfect son didn’t change that fact.
Colin turned back to the SBI. “Are we done here?”
“Tell us more about your friend, Trick,” insisted Agent Lenis, iron in her voice. Not quite a command, but close.
Colin wanted to show his neck. The act of resisting made him grimace. So he ended up baring his teeth at the Alpha. Not a wise move.
She rumbled out a warning at him and her eyes flashed yellow.
Colin swallowed and tried to find a backbone somewhere. “You wanna question me, you come at it through my Alpha like a proper shifter should, or you run it up official channels and arrest me, like a proper fed should. This skulking limo action isn’t right, and you know it.” They could probably make him talk. Every shifter in that car was a higher rank and a heavier hitter than he was. Not that he had anything more to say. Not that he was hiding anything.