Now that I’d decided my course, I didn’t waste any time. “We need to talk.”
She looked up, dismissed me, looked away. “What do you want?”
“I want nothing from you. But you owe Connor a favor. I intend to see he collects.”
She snorted. “I give exactly what I’m obliged to give. Loyalty to the Pack. Period.”
“Do you?” I asked, cocking my head at her. “That’s not what I’ve heard.”
She stood up. “If you have something to say, then say it and get out.”
“You’re impatient, Miranda. That’s part of your problem. The other part? Levi remembered you.”
“Who the fuck is Levi?”
“He’s a vampire. He’s the member of the Compliance Bureau who took your call the night you ratted out your prince to a group of vampires.”
For the first time in our acquaintance, she actually looked concerned about something I’d said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You do. You told him I turned Carlie.”
She was quiet for a moment, probably rethinking her moves, her steps, then narrowed her eyes at me. “You have nothing. I hear he’s as crazy as they come.”
“He’s disturbed,” I agreed. “But his memory is intact. And I bet you used your own screen to call him, Miranda. The Ombudsman has Levi’s screen now, and they’re working on getting his records.”
Her mouth firmed into a hard line, and her eyes narrowed into fulminating slits. “So what if I told. You broke the rules. You deserve to get punished.”
“Maybe. But I wasn’t the only one involved. I saved Carlie from the Pack. I saved Carlie because of the Pack. You reported me—and therefore the Pack—to the AAM. You nearly cost the prince his life. That’s not very loyal.”
She snorted, all bravado now, and not very convincing. “What do you know about loyalty? You don’t even have a House.”
“I don’t need a House. I’m loyal to people who are worthy of my trust, which does not include you. Doesn’t Gabriel need to know you aren’t trustworthy? That you turned on the Pack? On his son?”
All the color drained from her face. She knew what I had now, and what I intended to do with it. Or what I wanted her to believe I intended . . .
She turned her arm, showed me the wound she still hadn’t shifted to heal.
“Oh, I know you were cut. But Levi didn’t do it.”
“Then it was some other vampire.”
“No, it wasn’t.” I tilted my head, made a point of looking at the laceration. “I’d bet, if we have a doctor examine it, they’ll be able to tell us the angle of the wound. Prove that you’re the one who used the knife on yourself.”
She fumed in silence for a full minute. “What do you want? Money?”
“No.” I thought of the salary I’d just agreed to.
“Then what?”
“Loyalty to Connor. He’ll be Apex one day. We all know it. So stop working against him, and start supporting him. And if you don’t, I’ll have to tell everyone what I know. And what you did.”
Miranda looked at me for a long, quiet moment. “I don’t like you. And I don’t like you with Connor. He’s not even immortal.”
Those four words were sharp as a slap, a reminder of a very important difference between shifters and vampires. A reminder that, no matter how great our love, his life would be far shorter than mine. And I might live an eternity without him.
I winced and watched the flare of knowledge in her eyes. And knew I’d given her new ammunition to use against me.
She cocked a hip against the counter, confidence renewed. “I also don’t like that you get away with shit because of who you are. But the Pack is my family. So fine. I’ll support him.”
I wasn’t sure I believed her. But that had to be enough for now.
“Good,” I said. “You do anything that undermines his claim to the Pack, his rise to Apex, and every shifter in the country will know what you did. You’ll have nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.”
She took a step forward. “You fuck the Pack, and you’ll have nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.”
“Understood,” I said.
A stiff nod, and she turned away. We weren’t going to be friends, Miranda and me. But I didn’t need to be friends with her. I just needed her to do her part.
I left her to her work and went back outside, found Connor waiting by the SUV, eyebrow quirked. “Business?” he asked.
It was only because of the question that I finally