Daisy barked, a loud, deep sound. Liar! He lies!
“Fine!” Chaz, a wild gleam in his eyes, shrugged. “I admit it—I killed her.”
The lawyer choked. “Chaz, I advise you to stop right—”
Chaz scoffed, ignoring the legal advice. “Who cares? I’m rich and powerful and popular—what jury is going to convict me for killing a shifter?”
My stomach turned, as though filled with ice water.
Chaz sneered, his face contorted and red. “I knew a dead wife would garner me tons of sympathy among voters. Plus, I’d look like a friend to shifters without the horror of being married to one.” He shuddered. “Disgusting. What else could I do? She trapped me! By the time that liar told me what she was, I either had to break it off and risk the stain to my reputation once word got out or pretend to embrace it. At least a dead shifter wife would earn me some points in the polls, even if it cost me some social clout among peers.”
I couldn’t listen anymore. I jabbed a finger at him. “Letty Jones deserved a thousand times better than a monster like you!”
Chaz curled his lip and looked me up and down. “Ew. What are you—one of them?”
“Ugh.” His mother made a face, and the others recoiled from me.
My chest grew heavy. These people were more disgusted by me possibly being a shifter than by their son murdering an innocent girl who’d trusted him to love her forever.
Peter stepped forward, face red and jaw tight. “Hey!”
Chaz looked up, startled.
Peter pointed a trembling finger at me. “Show some respect. She’s brilliant, determined, and has more charm in her pinkie nail than you’ll ever have.” Peter jerked his head at the officers by the door. “Arrest him.”
It was like some icy thing between Peter and me melted away, and I felt a rush of warmth.
As Mrs. Harrington dissolved into sobs and the cops arrested the struggling Chaz Harrington, I looked over at Peter and mouthed, “Thank you.”
25
A CONFESSION
Peter and Daisy sat across from me in the same booth at the same diner we’d hit up the other night. Rain pattered the awnings outside the window at my back, and the griddle sizzled, the whole place smelling of burgers and fried food. My kind of place.
As we waited for our orders of fish and chips to come out, Peter cleared his throat, then looked earnestly at me across the chipped table. He laced his fingers together, rolling his thumbs one over the other. “Look, I need to be clear about something.”
He darted a look around the half-full diner, then leaned forward and lowered his voice. “My issue with you being a—a shifter, isn’t because I think you’re gross or less than, like that creep did.” He rolled his shoulders. “For me, it’s about trust.”
I nodded and kicked my feet, ankles crossed. “I get that… now.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “I’m having to work to trust you too, you know.” I raised my brows at him. “Shifters don’t have the best view of cops. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen officers fail to look into robberies, murders, and more. If it happens to someone in the Darkmoon District, it’s treated like business as usual.” I shrugged. “And even worse for shifters. If the cops get word that you are one—it’s just a matter of time before they pin something on you.”
Peter’s throat bobbed, and he let out a heavy sigh. “Yeah. I get that. I’ve run into my fair share of corruption within the department, so I know firsthand that it happens.” He lifted his blue eyes to mine. “We’re not all like that though.”
“I know.” I winked. “You’re one of the good ones.”
His cheeks flushed pink. “Jolene, as a cop, I’m putting my life and the lives of those I’ve sworn to protect on the line. If I have any doubts about trusting someone I’m working with…” He splayed his hands, brows pinched together. “I just don’t know how to do that.”
I licked my lips, thinking this over. If Peter had experienced betrayal from within his department and had had experiences with shifters lying to protect their own… no wonder it had devastated him to find out I’d been keeping big secrets from him.
A warm hand closed around mine, and I looked up. Peter reached his other hand across the table and cupped mine in both of his. “Could we work on rebuilding trust together?
A happy tingle shot up my arm and down my back. I grinned. “Yeah. I’d like that.” I gulped, throat tight. Well… it was now or never. “Which is why, in the interest of being totally transparent… I have one more thing I need to tell you.”
Peter’s thick brows pinched together. “I might need to order a beer, huh?”
I winced. “Yeah, probably a couple wouldn’t hurt.”
Peter glanced toward our waitress, who bustled behind the tall counter.
Daisy, eyes worried, looked between us and whined. Are you holding hands or is he arresting you?
I whined back at her. We’re thumb wrestling. If I lose, he arrests me.
She glared at me and sniffed. Har har.
Peter spun back to face me. “I’ll catch her in a minute.” He took a deep breath. “Alright. I’m ready.”
I winced again. “We’ll see about that. It’s uh, kind of a doozy.”
I explained about Ludolf and the whole underground shifter society. Peter paled, and the whites shone all around his eyes, but he didn’t interrupt as I explained how Ludolf had threatened to hurt him to get me to fall in line and the way the mob boss manipulated all of us with threats and favors that amounted to blackmail—why shifters tended to stick together.
I lifted a palm. “You saw how the Harringtons reacted earlier tonight. You know what we’re up against out there. And within our own society, there’s this huge pressure to conform.”
He shook his head. “That’s a lot.”
I nodded. “And even worse—I recently learned that Ludolf
