Bree handed out bottles of water as the warriors made one final weapons check. “I’m going to look into some old legends. If these things exist, there must be a record of them somewhere.”
Lach’s phone rang. Everyone stopped what they were doing. Any call this late must be related to the search. Cody felt hope rising. Someone had found her, or at least spotted something that would give them a location.
Cody was watching his brother and saw Lach’s face pale. He met Cody’s gaze and quickly looked away. “I see.”
“Who’s on the phone?” Cody demanded.
Lach nodded. “Okay. We’re on the way.”
“Who was that?” Cody’s voice sounded like it came from a barrel.
Lach’s jaw clenched. He met Cody’s gaze, but his eyes were flat.
Denial balled up in Cody’s throat, but he knew what was coming. “Spit it out.”
“Two of the buffers just found a body.”
Chapter 12
Cody’s chest ached; he tried to drag in a breath. “Where?” His voice cracked.
“Just below one of the scenic overlooks,” Lach said.
Cody walked a few paces before his legs gave out. The numbness faded, and he doubled over, unable to breathe. He leaned against a tree, staring at the path leading to the cabin, and remembered making love to Shay, holding her, learning about the baby. For nine years he had faced every sunrise not knowing that he’d lost a son, and now, before he could even wrap his head around it, he’d lost her too. He straightened with a wounded roar and punched the tree. The skin on his knuckles split, but the pain felt good, dulling the ache in his heart.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned.
Jamie stood there, his eyes as ravaged as Cody’s fist. “We need to go.”
Marcas drove them to the scene. “Let me do it,” he said as they reached the site where the two men waited.
Cody opened the car door. “No, I have to. I’d rather you waited here.” He didn’t include Jamie. Mate mark or not, he understood Jamie’s need to know.
Lach put his hand on Cody’s arm and squeezed.
“She’s just over there,” one of the buffers said, flashing his light toward a low mound. “She was covered by leaves. We tried not to touch anything.” Cody recognized him but didn’t know his name. He turned on his flashlight and climbed down toward the spot. He heard Jamie’s uneven breathing behind him.
Leaves had been piled over the body, but a foot was exposed. Cody jerked the light away, feeling the lump in his throat grow bigger. He remembered Shay sitting next to him at the lake, legs long and tanned, laughing as he buried her toes in the sand. Pink polish. She always wore pink. She wriggled them free before he finished, her eyes glistening with laughter, and he started all over again, while she tried to swat him away. Her eyes always glistened when she laughed. And when she cried. He made her cry too. Not that day, but later.
Jamie stood on the other side of the mound, his shoulders heavy with grief. He looked up and met Cody’s eyes, and a bond was forged between the two men. He held the light just off the body, because it felt intrusive to let it hit her full in the face. Jamie’s beam joined his. Steeling his jaw, Cody squatted and gently brushed aside the leaves, too numb to care that he was corrupting a crime scene. Blond hair.
“Cody. Get me out of here.”
The muscles in his legs felt like water. “Shay?” Cody’s flashlight dropped, thudding softly in the leaves. The static on the phone grew louder. Cody looked at it, then the lump, vaguely aware of Jamie staring at him. Was this the mind’s way of trying to cope?
“Cody? Can you hear me? I need you to get me out of here.”
“Where are you?” he rasped.
Jamie knocked aside the leaves, shining his light on the woman’s face. She could have been Shay’s sister, they were so alike, but it wasn’t Shay. Jamie dropped beside the mound, covering his face in his hands.
“Shay? Where are you?”
“I’ve been arrested. Renee’s dead.”
***
Shay froze as a shot fired over her head. A screech sounded above her, and a giant white owl, like the one she saw at the lake, swooped down, latching its claws into Ellis’s shoulders. He screamed and threw up his hands to protect his head. Shay turned and ran. Ellis charged after her, bellowing her name, even as the owl clawed at his head. He fired off two more shots that went wild. Shay glanced up, and the owl’s eyes—a startling shade of green —locked with hers and dug its claws deeper into Ellis’s skin. Ellis screamed, eyes wide with pain, and came at her again. He had lost his gun. Shay watched her hand moving as if in slow motion, stretching, reaching, the scalpel dragging across his throat, slicing his jugular vein, blood spraying, spattering her face and clothes with gore. The scalpel dropped from her fingers. Ellis gurgled, his mouth and eyes wide with shock.
Shay backed away, turned, and ran, her breath coming in painful gasps. The car. She stopped hard. It was Renee’s. Oh God. Was Renee in the cabin? Shay ran back, but it was empty. She hurried to the car, her legs starting to give. Open door. Get in. Keys. Please let there be keys. No. She gave a soft cry and looked back at Ellis lying on the ground. The owl was nowhere in sight, if it had even been there. Teeth clenched, she got out and ran to Ellis. She dropped beside the body, eyes avoiding the blood-stained ground and his gaping neck.
She dug in his pocket until her fingers touched metal. She pulled out the keys, ripping his pocket in the process, and stood. She looked down at the blood covering her feet, and her stomach heaved. She turned, spewing up the
