Seth and was hurt, wasn’t he?” I reached down to pet the retriever, who’d decided to snuggle up to me. “He showed me what happened.”
Mrs. Johnson pressed her hand to her chest. “The news didn’t report that! No one but the police knew about Kelsey’s injuries.” She shot an anxious glance at Kelsey.
I’ll stay and entertain them with my animal stories. I messaged Zane the coin’s location. Whatever this creature is, he prefers wicker containers, I added. Maybe it was a fluke; maybe not.
After Zane’s phony search was completed, close to an hour later, we excused ourselves with the promise of keeping them apprised of anything new, if they in turn agreed to keep our impromptu visit to themselves. I made a point to play on our mutual dislike of Agent Green.
It worked.
They shared a laundry list of reasons why the out-of-town agent was incompetent and uncaring. I listened, careful to affirm their observations. Knowing the agent was spreading his suspicions about me to anyone who’d listen; it seemed fair I return the favor.
Another twenty minutes later, and we were back in the car, with Zane behind the wheel, brooding. I had my first opportunity to examine the coins. They hummed in my hands, and were warm, hot even. Adding to the mystery, the engraved symbols didn’t make any sense. Hopefully, someone sympathetic to our cause could decipher them.
We still had to meet with Alcuin and the M’s back at Zane’s before returning to the trailer park and checking out Will’s place. If the pattern persisted, we’d have two more coins to add to our collection.
Zane broke the silence. “I need to talk with Logan. He needs to know about the mutants. Their ability to shift without a full moon changes everything. Our pack’s protection policy is built around a now faulty belief system. Where there’s a fault line, you can expect an earthquake. The earthquake is already shaking our foundation.”
His words sent a spike of fear through my chest. It was hard for me to remain confident when Zane, a werewolf enforcer, was troubled.
“What about the coins? They represent something important. They have to. Why else would everyone want them? I think someone is trying to tell us something.”
“Maybe they’re for the police? Serial killers often have their own signatures.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond. What he said made sense. Why us and not the police or the mutants?
“Promise you won’t laugh,” I paused.
“Chloe, you’re a trooper and you’re damn smart. Laughing at you isn’t in my best interest. I’m still trying to get on your good side, remember?” He patted my thigh.
Just the casual touch sent a familiar wave of longing crashing over me, while in the same moment providing enough assurance to finish explaining my theory.
“Keep in mind, I’m speculating, but I keep thinking that the coins, if we could figure out what’s engraved on them, will provide a road map of some sort. Directions. Clues. I don’t know. Maybe I’m just desperate for answers and have seen too many mystery movies.”
“You’re not the only one feeling desperate. I’ve got a bad feeling about all this. It’s going to get worse …”
“Before it gets better,” I finished.
Chapter 2414
Back at Zane’s, we explained our discoveries to Alcuin, Mack, and Michael. The three sat in rapt attention, all uncharacteristically quiet. Alcuin was taking what appeared to be detailed notes.
Seeing a vampire with such a studious demeanor almost undid the tight knots in my stomach. Zane’s intense expression kept me from laughing. His brows were so furrowed I could picture them meeting in the middle. An awful thought, because in my book, men with uni-brows were major turnoffs.
In Zane’s case, turning off my intense feelings was the most difficult task I faced. Well, maybe not the most difficult. I still needed a full-proof plan, if I was going to get my personal meeting with Joshua Smart, in Portland.
For some inexplicable reason, my thoughts were plagued by visions of the Smart boy locked away in a dreary psychiatric facility, far from his home and family. Did his mother even bother to visit? Was his condition improving?
Joshua Smart was a young boy who might very well have vital information locked away in his troubled mind. Information we desperately needed.
Getting to The City of Roses for a brief visit on my own would be nearly impossible with my protective alpha male watching my every move. Zane would accompany me if I asked. But what I wanted, and probably needed for my own sanity,