usually have a cruiser in the church up on the right.'
David slowed, a shaky hand on the wheel. The lot was empty, and he picked up speed.
'What do you mean the FIB has tapped your line?' I asked as we got on the interstate to cross the river from the Hollows to Cincinnati. 'They can't do that.'
'They did,' David said grimly. 'Officer Glenn thinks I'm responsible for the Were deaths. Not just the suicides, but all of them. Thinks I'm a Jack the Ripper meets Mr. Hyde.'
I made a scoffing bark of laughter, then tensed when he darted across the path of a semi. 'It's Trent,' I said in the fading adrenaline. 'He told me himself. And watch what you're doing. God! You're a worse driver than Ivy!'
David gave me a quick look. 'Trent Kalamack? What for?'
Jenks's wings were an odd shade of green. 'He's after the focus,' the ill pixy said. 'He found out this morning that Rachel has it.'
'Damn me back to my mother's bitch,' David swore softly. 'Do you have it? Is it safe?'
My head bobbed. 'I'm going to give it to Piscary to put it back into hiding.'
'Rachel!' David exclaimed, and I pointed to the truck stopped at the red light just off the bridge.
'I can't keep it safe,' I said as he hit the brakes. 'What am I supposed to do with it? I don't have enough magic to hide it once someone knows I've got it. At least Piscary has enough clout to keep people from drugging him into telling where it is.'
David's eyes were worried. 'But it belongs to the Weres.'
The light changed, and I held my breath until I was sure David wasn't going to dart around the truck ahead of us, but the usually uber-safety-conscious Were just fumed at the slow acceleration. 'Believe me,' I said softly, 'if there was a way I could give it to the Weres, I would, but it's demon-crafted, and all it's going to do is cause problems. Change is needed, but slow, not fast. Otherwise…' I thought of his girlfriend's pain.
'A Were should hide it, then,' he offered.
'Who, David?' I demanded, frustrated, and Jenks's wings shifted nervously. 'You? We tried that. Mr. Ray? Mrs. Sarong? How about Vincent? He had three packs bound to him, and they were savage. Every one of them channeling the power of an alpha but lacking the restraint that evolved with the alpha position.'
Silently his jaw clenched, and I continued. 'You don't become an alpha, you're born that way. They couldn't handle it. Change has to come slow. It's like your girlfriend trying to Were without the mental and physical cushion a thousand years of evolution gave you.'
David's grip on the wheel eased, and I relaxed. 'Maybe it's not time yet?' I said softly, bracing myself as he made a quick right into his apartment complex.
'Ah, that doesn't look good,' Jenks said, and David's face went empty of emotion. I followed their gazes to the parking lot, and my stomach sank. There were two I.S. cruisers, three from the FIB, and a multispecies ambulance.
'It's okay,' I said, reaching for my seat belt. 'I don't think they're at your apartment.'
Saying nothing, David pulled up as close as he could get, fumbling with his seat belt, swearing until it released. 'It's my apartment. My curtains were closed. They're open now. And Serena couldn't be awake yet.' Leaving the keys in the ignition, he lurched out of the car, steps crisp and intent as he headed for his door.
I slowly got out to stand wedged between the car and the open door, my arms on the roof. Jenks landed on my shoulder, and we said nothing when an I.S. officer stopped David on the threshold. They spoke briefly, and I felt sick as the man cuffed him. David looked broken but offered no resistance, knowing that to fight would give them a reason to throw him in a cell and forget about him to the limit of the law.
Someone moved past the upstairs window, and I gripped my bag tighter, glad I had the focus, since the I.S. was taking the opportunity to search David's apartment. His cat was watching me from a second window, and it skittered away before a dark figure passed by it. 'What are we going to do, Jenks?' I whispered.
Jenks's wings cooled my neck, and I squinted in the glare as they bundled David into a cruiser. 'Jenks?' I said, and the pitch of the pixy's wings shifted.
'See you back at the church,' he said, darting off to eavesdrop on them.
I held my breath as he hovered over the lot, dropping like a stone to dart inside the cruiser with David when no one was looking. I wished him well as the cruiser eased forward, hesitating briefly before pulling into traffic. '
My breath slipped from me, long and slow. Leaning into the car, I retrieved David's keys and dropped them in my bag. I'd find another way home, but I'd need his keys to get in to feed his cat. Damn it. I'd seen this before, and it hadn't ended well.
I shut David's car door with a thump, and my blood pressure spiked when I spotted Glenn's trim silhouette headed for me from across the lot. 'Well, at least I know now why you didn't show for our date at the morgue!' I shouted across the distance between us.
His pace was purposeful, but his head was bowed in what I hoped was guilt. 'I'm sorry Rachel,' the ex— military officer said as he halted beside me.
'Sorry!' I exclaimed, more than a little upset at Glenn's overzealous Boy Scout mentality. 'Whatever David's been arrested for, he didn't do it! I was with Trent this morning, and he flat-out told me he was the one murdering the Weres to find that stupid-ass statue.'
Glenn didn't look any happier, his stud earrings making an odd statement next to his otherwise eminently professional mien. 'I'm really glad to hear you say that,' he said, putting his hands behind his back and all but pinning me to the car with his too-close presence.
Taken aback, I felt my anger slow. 'So… you're going to let him go?'
Head shaking, he squinted to look worried. 'No, but if Mr. Kalamack can verify that you were with him this morning, I can keep the I.S. from arresting you right now.'
I felt myself pale. 'Me?' I stammered. 'What for?'
'For aiding and abetting the murder of Brett Markson.' His gaze went to my bag. 'You got anything in there I need to know about? '
Adrenaline surged, and I felt like I'd been kicked in the stomach. 'I've got my splat gun, but I don't need a permit for it. And this is crap, Glenn. I just told you Trent murdered them. All of them. The three Jane Wolves were accidents and have nothing to do with the murders.'
Glenn pulled himself straighter, his hands still laced behind his back. 'Rachel, could you step away from the car and come with me, please? And give me your purse.'
My mouth dropped open. 'Am I under arrest?' I said loudly, clutching my bag closer. Crap, I had the focus in there.
'No one is arresting you—yet,' he said, his expression pained. 'Please, Rachel. If you don't cooperate, the I.S. will handle your questioning. I'm trying to jump ahead of them here.'
That was all the encouragement I needed. Feeling very alone for the lack of Jenks, I handed him my bag. It looked funny in his grip, and he gestured with a free hand for me to accompany him. Shaking inside, I fell into step beside him. We were moving steadily to the FIB van—the one with the metal mesh in the windows. 'Talk to me, Glenn.'
'Mr. David Hue was seen talking to Mr. Markson last night,' he said unhappily. 'Today the victim was found dead in Mr. Hue's apartment Dumpster with your card in his wallet. Mr. Hue admits to having relations with the three Jane Wolves now in the morgue, and when officers came to question him, they found a heavily sedated Were woman showing signs of assault.'
My knees went watery. This looked really bad, and I was glad I'd told Glenn about the focus earlier. 'Serena was human, Glenn. The focus turned her. David was helping her to learn to control it before the full moon so she would know what was coming and be able to deal with it. He doped her up in bane so he could get me to help with her pain. That's all that it is!'
Glenn glared at me, his brown eyes full of warning. 'Lower your voice.'
Eyes dropping, I frowned, listening to the distinctive radio chatter. 'Sorry,' I said, then scuffed to a halt before we got much closer to that open van. 'David did not kill Brett,' I said firmly. 'The three women in the morgue were tragic accidents. Serena is trying to deal with what happened, and David is doing the best he can. You should be arresting Trent, not David.'
'Rachel, stop.'
