He shrugged. "Nothing."
"I could take her off your hands. Keep her locked away and occupied."
The thought of his father going anywhere near Neva made his veins boil. She was his to deal with, and no one was going to touch her except him.
"I'll take care of her." Despite his best effort to remain calm, the hint of steel was evident in his voice.
Zeke raised an eyebrow. "Be wary of the bait, Son. It might just turn around and snag you."
"I know what I'm doing."
Zeke leaned a shoulder against the wall and regarded him with amusement. "So, what are you going to do with her — besides the obvious?"
"I'm going to force her to stay here for the next five days." He took another drink of whisky. "Then I'll push her, and keep pushing her, until she runs back to whoever it was who set her on me."
"The sort of wolf who's willing to profit from the dance is not one who would easily break."
"This one's new to the game. She'll break." And hopefully soon. He had no taste for the game he was about to play.
"And in the meantime?"
He raised his hand, refusing his father's offer to top-off his drink. "I'll start talking to people. See what I can dig up." If this was some sort of revenge killing aimed at his brothers, then someone, somewhere, had to know why. As his father had said, a tribe this size held no real secrets. "Did anything unusual happen before the first murder?"
"Not that I can remember. Of course, it's hard to keep a finger on every pulse."
Duncan snorted softly. The day his father didn't know exactly what was going on would be the day death claimed him. And the fact he truly had no idea why these murders were happening only made them all the more mystifying. "You've talked to my brothers?"
"As have you. I dare say the responses we got were the same."
They were — he'd surreptitiously listened in. René's shields were not as strong as they should be. "Will you be able to get a copy of the autopsy report? We'll see if Mariata's varies any from the previous three."
Zeke nodded. "You do realize you may also be in their sights?"
"If that were the case, why put a watch on me? The mere fact that they have suggests they consider me some danger."
Zeke snorted softly. "Even the most insane wolf alive would consider you a danger."
He raised an eyebrow, a smile touching his lips. "And here I was thinking I've calmed down since my wild days."
"You have," his father said. "But it makes no difference, because what you do now you do with a clear head."
He thought of Neva, of the reproach in her beautiful eyes. "I do what I have to do," he said, with a trace of bitterness.
"I know. And that's precisely why you're considered so dangerous by just about everyone who knows you."
Duncan finished the last of his whisky. It did little to erase the sour taste in his mouth. "When do you think you'll be able to get your hands on that autopsy report?"
Zeke shrugged. "Tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. I don't want to push my source too hard, or he'll start getting a little jumpy."
"Then I'll be back here tomorrow afternoon."
He strode from the room and made his way through the shadow-filled house. But when he reached the pavilion, he wasn't surprised to discover Neva had fled.
Chapter Three
Neva rose with the dawn and took a long, hot, scented bath, hoping to erase any scent of Duncan that might linger on her skin.
But she couldn't so easily erase the throbbing in her body, the needy ache that flicked fire through her veins. She wouldn't be surprised if his ears were burning right now, because she'd cursed him long and loud during the night as she'd tossed and turned, trying to find sleep.