A Tangled Web - R.G. Alexander Page 0,50
money or not, so now he will learn. No one will come looking for him. No one will miss him. And when we’re through with him, he will understand his crimes. It may take a long time. But I am Istaqa. I have all the time in the world.
With that, Stax winked at Kaya, then disappeared around the corner.
He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. This man had come into his house. Advised him. Shared Dani’s body. Who—what was he?
Dani beat him to it. “Istaqa? What does that mean?”
“Coyote spirit.” Kaya’s voice was shaken. Liam noticed Jace take a step closer to her in response. “He brings messages and knowledge. And occasionally he delivers the guilty for judgment. I knew there was something about him.” She turned to Jace. “Does Nick know about him? What he is?”
Jace held up his hands. “No idea.”
Kaya glared but he held firm. “What? You tell me I don’t know anything all the time. This time it’s true. I literally know nothing. But I’m damn sure finding out as soon as possible.”
Liam ran a hand through his hair looking back into the darkness where Stax had disappeared. “This can’t really be happening. Things like this don’t really happen.”
But if Stax was right, that Sal was planning on killing Dani tonight? A hundred years of torture was nothing compared to what he would have done if he’d taken Dani away from him.
“Well, I need to get drunk. What do you say we forget about Dani putting her life in danger and Liam being a lying Richie Rich for the moment so we can head over to their place for some hard drinking? Who’s with me?” Bailey sounded thoroughly shaken. Liam didn’t blame her at all.
“Best plan I’ve heard all night.” Jace bent down and patted Liam on the back in commiseration. “Don’t try to understand this one, buddy. Believe me, it’s a bitch.”
Chapter Eleven
Dani sat by the pool, her feet in the water as she watched the sunrise. Jace, Bailey and Kaya were all passed out somewhere inside the house, waiting for Liam to make breakfast.
They’d talked all night long about what they’d seen. Kaya told them what she knew from her grandfather’s stories. Bailey shared her theories pertaining to hallucinogens in the water. And they’d all wondered why they’d stood there, rooted to the spot, as Stax and the wolf that had joined him carried “Sal the shitbag murderer” away.
Stax wasn’t a magician or a hypnotist, he was a legend that shouldn’t exist. One that she’d shared a night of passion with. And because of their connection, he’d taken Sal somewhere he could never reach her again.
She still wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She believed in justice, not vengeance. She was a healer who protected the living. But Will had told her the coyote spirit would protect her, and it had. It had done what judges and lawyers and all the sealed records in the world couldn’t manage after three years. It had saved her life.
Her heart was another matter.
She and Liam had been avoiding eye contact all night, agreeing that, for the moment, the supernatural took precedence. But she couldn’t forget that he’d lied to her.
Even about the house. It didn’t belong to a friend. It was his. It had always been his.
She tried to see it from his perspective. When she’d first met him, he’d been different, more guarded. But as soon as he introduced himself, she’d known she could trust him. They’d talked for hours about favorite movies and foods, nothing too deep. Noisy parties and crowded cafes weren’t the best place to bare your soul, and that was where they’d spent the first half of their relationship.
If he’d told her then, she would have been intimidated, she knew that. Dani had struggled with money her whole life. She’d been bussed around from one poor, friend-of-a-cousin’s relative to another; working to pay her own way by the time she was fourteen. She would have assumed they had nothing in common.
She would have been wrong.
Sal, on the other hand, had looked so good on paper. Online he’d been her perfect match. He’d told her he had a master’s degree, a job as an engineer, a loving family that couldn’t wait to meet her. He’d told her he loved her and wanted to treat her like a queen. But he’d lied about everything, and those lies had almost destroyed her.
“Lion tamer?”
She blinked over at the gate. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised