Dark Wolf Rising (Heart of the Shifter) (8 page)

Cash let out his breath in frustration. She was right. So what now? "You can't testify against Jace. You can't put him away, Bryn."

She stood up. "Neither of us has any way of knowing if Damien really made him do it. I don't know that Jace is blameless. What if he's not? What if Damien's presence means nothing, other than that he was deferring to his alpha? Jace killed a woman. I saw him do it. How can I let her death just go?"

Frustration rolled through Cash. "I know Jace is innocent. Isn't that enough for you?"

"Isn't it enough?" She stared at him as she repeated his question. "How can you ask me that? I haven't seen you in thirteen years. I have no idea where your loyalties lie, but I know that when you decide to believe in someone, it's forever. I know that, because you're willing to go against your pack to keep me safe, but that also means you'd do the same for anyone who makes your short list. Jace saved your life. Don't you owe him? Won't you owe him forever?"

"Yes, I owe him, but that wouldn't include freeing him if he's a cold-blooded murderer. He's not. I know he isn't." But as he spoke, Cash replayed Bryn's words in his mind. Doubt flickered through him. She was right that his loyalty to Jace was absolute. What if she was right? What if he wanted Jace to be innocent so badly that he was willing to delude himself so he could justify freeing him?

"Do you really know it?" She walked over to him and set her hands on his hips, forcing him to look at her.

Her eyes were as blue as they'd been so long ago, framed with long, dark lashes. She stared at him, her gaze searching his, as if she could see the truths in his soul that he couldn't see for himself. "Do you have any evidence at all that Damien can influence other wolves, especially those as strong as Jace, to do something so against their nature?"

He gritted his jaw. "No. But it makes sense. I've heard of wolves who can do it. Jace never would have attacked anyone, and he would have killed his own pack member rather than let them kill. Damien was present both times when wolves acted against their nature, and he didn't stop it. That has to be what was going on."

"In your heart, or in real life?" Her voice was soft and non-judgmental, which made it impossible for him to defend against. Her fingers tightened on his waistband. "Cash, you're such a good man. You've always been so loyal. You give your heart to so few, but when you do, it's forever. You have to see with your eyes this time, and not your heart."

He searched her face. "My heart tells me that what you saw with your eyes is not the real story. I believe in him, Bryn. I know he's blameless." He slid his hands into her hair, framing her face. "You know me, Bryn. You know me better than anyone. Do you think my heart could be wrong?"

She bit her lip, searching his face for so long that he felt a part of his heart crack. He realized then that the reason he'd hunted her down was because he'd needed
her
. He'd been doubting Jace's guilt the entire time, and he needed someone to tell him whether he was right, or just being naive. She was right that once someone gained his loyalty, it was theirs forever. Was he being blind in this situation?

She was the person he needed. Bryn was savvy, smart, and a survivor. She's seen the hell of the attack, but she also knew him in a way that no one else did, not even himself. Bryn would see the truth within him. He knew that if she told him he was wrong, he would doubt himself. Bryn was his anchor, and he needed her to believe in him.

"Bryn?" His fingers tightened in her hair. "You were there. You saw it. You know me. What does your heart say? Am I wrong? Am I just being stupid and fucked up? You know. Tell me."

CASH'S GRIP ON her hair was too tight, too desperate, showing Bryn exactly how on edge he was. He doubted himself. He doubted his instincts. Every question she'd raised about Jace's innocence was one he'd already thought of. There was no logical reason to believe his story, but at the same time, she could feel his conviction in his heart. Every piece of his soul believed in Jace's innocence. He believed in so little in this world, so the fact he'd chosen Jace to believe in meant something.

"Bryn?"

She closed her eyes and, after weeks of fighting off the memories, she allowed her mind to return to that night. She succumbed to the horrible images that she'd worked so hard to keep at bay. She put herself back in that moment, when she'd walked out of her office at three in the morning, hating her accounting job, hating her life, hating the empty condo she had to return to. She'd felt so broken, so empty, so sad, still barely surviving in the shadows of her mother's death.

She felt Cash's finger on her cheek, brushing away a tear, and she rested her head on his chest, using him as an anchor while she opened herself up to the pain of that night, the pain she'd tried so hard to ignore. "I wanted to take a short cut to the garage," she said softly. "I knew the alley was going to be abandoned that late at night, but I didn't care. I was tired of being afraid, tired of feeling dead even though I was alive. I knew it was a safe area, and I wanted to be brave enough to walk down a stupid street."

His hands trailed through her hair, and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "What were you scared of?"

"My life. Me. How empty I felt. I knew I had to change something, but I didn't know what." She hooked her hands over the waistband of his jeans, letting her knuckles press against the bare skin of his stomach. "I was halfway down the alley when I felt someone's presence, like I was being hunted."

His fingers tightened in her hair, but he said nothing, letting her continue.

"I looked around, but I didn't see anyone." Her heart started to pound again, that cold, dry taste of true fear that had consumed her in that moment. "The streetlight above my head went out. One by one, all the lights in the alley blinked out." Her skin had started to crawl then, and fear had wrapped itself around her spine, terror crawling into her muscles. "I bolted for the nearest door, but it was locked. I knew I had to get out of there, but when I turned to run, I saw the silhouette of a man..."

The image appeared in her mind, and suddenly it became clearer. "No, not
a
man." God, how had she not remembered until now? It was so clear there had been two men, but the second one had completely vanished from her memory. "There were two, one behind the other, walking toward me. I ducked behind a dumpster, and waited, praying that they hadn't seen me. I didn't remember the second man until now, but he was definitely there."

"Tell me the details." Cash's voice was low. "Sounds. Smells. Temperature."

She pressed her forehead against the solid wall of his chest, trying desperately to remember. For the first time, she wanted to remember, because she wanted to be able to give Cash the information he needed to understand where his loyalties should lie. "It was hot. I was sweating. Humid."

"Wolves rise in temperature before they shift. It can affect the environment sometimes."

She breathed deeply. "It smelled like the deep woods, like fresh earth, even though we were in an alley. I remember thinking that it smelled good." And then... She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to bring the image into her mind. "I heard a woman singing. Her window was open. It was a beautiful song, almost angelic. The man coming toward me paused and looked. He stopped in the light from her window, and that's when I saw his face. I recognized him as Jace Donovan. He's in the paper so much that I knew who he was."

"She was singing?" Cash's fingers continued to work through her hair. "Did you recognize the song?"

"No, but it was beautiful. As she sang, I saw Jace's face began to change. It was his eyes first. They changed from brown to gold." She breathed deeply, opening her mind to that night. "Then his face began to change. He looked wild and feral. His face became more angular, his jaw more defined. It was so fast, the change, that I almost couldn't process it. One second he was a man, and the next moment, he was a wolf, teeth bared, sprinting for the fire escape that led to her apartment, growling. He'd barely shifted and he was already on the move." She squeezed her eyes shut, using Cash's strength to ground herself. "He leapt through the window. The glass shattered, falling all around me, and in my hair. She screamed and leapt out the window, racing down the fire escape to get away from him. He caught her just as she landed in front of me." Her fingers tightened on his jeans. "They were less than a yard from me, Cash. I could see the look on her face when he crushed her throat. It was so ruthless, so brutal, so...
God."

She pulled back, looking up at him. "Why, Cash? Why would someone do that?"

"He didn't do it," Cash said quietly. "There's more you're not seeing. Look away from the scene in front of you. What did you hear? What did you see? What was the other man doing?"

"I don't know!" She pushed away, her hands shaking as she relived the woman's horrific death. "He killed her and then shifted again, taking his human form again. He stood over her, staring down at her as he reclaimed his form, just staring at her like—" She stopped, suddenly, recalling the look on his face.

"Like what?"

She looked at Cash. "He looked shocked. He kept looking at the woman, and then his hands, and then back at her, like he was trying to figure out what had happened."

Cash nodded. "Memory lapse can happen during an uncontrolled shift, like when I was younger. What happened next?"

"He ran over to his pants, dug out his phone and called 9-1-1." She sat down on the bed and pulled her knees to her chest. "Then he turned sharply, as if he'd heard something. He looked right at the doorway where the other man had been, but he was gone. He looked up, like he was searching the rooftops, but before he could move, the police cars flooded into the alley. There were five of them, trapping him before he could go anywhere...except he did. He grabbed his clothes, and then went right up the side of the building and disappeared over the roofline."

Cash walked over and knelt beside the bed. "How long did the attack last?"

"Seconds. It was over so fast."

"And yet the cops were there almost instantly. They were already on their way when he called, weren't they? They had to have been."

She frowned, replaying the timing of the events in her mind. "Yes, they were there within a few seconds after he hung up."

"So someone else called before he did. Long enough for five squad cars to get there."

"It could have been anyone," she said, but even as she said it, her mind isolated a click, and a low murmur that she'd heard a split second before Jace had shifted, when only his eyes had changed. "Wait." She sat up, replaying it in her head. "I heard someone call, before Jace shifted. It was a man..." She closed her eyes, willing her mind to recall. "He was reporting a murder," she whispered. She opened her eyes to look at Cash. "A murder that hadn't happened yet."

He swore under his breath and pulled out his phone. He switched to his voice messages and hit play. "Was this his voice?"

A man's voice filled the room, echoing from Cash's phone. "We're going in tonight. Be there at seven." His voice slithered over her skin, the cold dangerous tones that she immediately recognized. It was the same one she'd heard in the hotel, when Cash had taken her out.

She sat up. "That's it. That's the voice I heard. Damien?"

He nodded, hope dancing in his eyes. "Damien reported the woman's murder
before
Jace had even shifted. What does that tell you?"

"He knew it was going to happen, and he didn't want to stop it. He wanted Jace to do it, and to get caught." She met Cash's gaze. "I think you're right, Cash."

He sank down on the bed next to her, pressing his face to his hands as he rested his elbows on his quads. "Son of a bitch," he said softly. "I thought I was making shit up." His shoulders started to shake. "He's innocent. Jace is innocent."

Bryn wrapped her arm around him and rested her head on his shoulder, just like they had so many times before. Cash was a badass, deadly, and lethal, but he still cared so deeply for those few who mattered to him. She decided that she wanted to meet Jace someday, because he had to be quite extraordinary for Cash to believe in him so strongly. "So, what do we do now?" she asked. She knew her testimony would damn Jace, and it wouldn't be enough to implicate Damien. But they had to find an answer by Thursday. It was Christmas Eve day now, and she was on the docket for the day after Christmas.

He palmed her thigh, spreading his fingers across her leg. "I'll have Drake track down the wolves from today. If one of them will testify that Damien forced the others to attack, it's proof he can do it."

"You think they're going to testify that they killed or attacked someone? Never."

He swore under his breath. "They will. To save Jace."

"At the risk of being outed as a murderous werewolf?"

He looked at her. "I would."

Her heart softened, and she ran her hand over his shoulder. "I know
you
would, Cash. But not everyone is you. And it wouldn't prove he did it this time, either. We need a confession. That's all that will work."

He swore. "We'll never get one. He's smart, Bryn. Extremely smart." He stood up and walked across the room, pacing restlessly. "I believe he knows you were still alive in that comforter. He got too close to me, and he's too fucking good at what he does." He turned to face her. "So what was his plan? Why did he let me take you out of there?"

She knew the answer as soon as he asked it, and she saw from the look on his face that he'd just realized it too. "Because you're the real leader of the pack, not him," she said. "He took Jace out, and you're next. You both have to be gone for him to be the alpha. Those wolves deferred to you at the hotel, not him. If you'd killed me, he would have ended it right then, and implicated you. But since you didn't, he let you go. He's planning something, Cash, something to take you down."