Page 37 of Butterfly Assassin
“Whatever.” Aaron could still hear Harry’s laughter until he closed his door, shutting out everything.
Leaning against it for a second, Aaron attempted to absorb everything that had happened that morning and not get overwhelmed by it. He concentrated on the relief at not being arrested, and not the way both he and his wolf were seemingly drawn to an SCTF detective.
Blowing out a breath, he gave himself a little pep talk.One step at a time, Aaron.
First, meet his new unit—a splash of normalcy in their suddenly chaotic lives.
Second, get past Thursday. It would kill him not being able to accompany Harry, but Isaac was probably a far better option. He and Harry couldn’t be seen together by Smith’s men.
And after that? Who knew?
He’d be taking it one fight at a time and praying someone in that inner circle was a talker.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Wednesday morning, Michael trooped into his boss’s office with Frank hot on his heels.
“What have you got for me?” Arlington barely waited for them to sit down.
“Harper agreed to carry on fighting,” Michael answered, getting straight to the point like his boss. He went on to explain about the money they needed for Harry’s membership and how they planned to proceed.
Arlington listened to all of it without comment, and Michael might have thought it was a bad sign if he wasn’t used to his boss’s way of working.
When Michael was done explaining and Frank had outlined their plans for getting into the fight venues, Arlington sat back in his chair and regarded them both. “You have a month to see how this pans out. After that, we need to re-evaluate the situation.”
Pretty much in line with what they’d told Alpha Thomas and his pack. “Yes, sir.”
“And I want a written report after every fight.”
“Yes, sir.”
Arlington rested his forearms on his desk. “I hope your instincts are right on this one. We need to catch this shifter before things escalate further.”
Taking that as their dismissal, Michael stood, but Arlington’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Oh, and just so you know, I’ve had to inform the alpha council.”
Damn it.At least he sounded as pissed off about it as Michael now felt.
“We’ve held off for too long as it is. With solid evidence that a shifter’s committed three murders in the city, they needed to be notified. As it was, Alpha Wallace wasn’t exactly pleased we’d waited so long to let them know. But,” he added, and his voice was a little lighter, giving Michael hope that it wasn’t all bad news. “After I detailed our proposed plans for the investigation, they agreed to give us two weeks’ grace before they come to London and start to question the packs. But that will all change if another body turns up.”
Michael suppressed a groan. “Of course.”
With nothing else to say, he and Frank left Arlington’s office and returned to their desks.
“Fuck.” Michael leaned back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head. “You know once the council starts throwing their weight around, it could scare our shifter off.”
“Or, it might force someone to come forward and tell us the truth,” Frank countered. “We can threaten them all we like with the prospect of a short stint in Krillick Hall or reporting them to the council, but they all know that lying to the council will result in a punishment of the council’s choosing—up to and including death. I think when that’s on the table, someone’s more likely to talk.”
“You think we should’ve called them in sooner?”
Frank hummed. “Maybe?” At Michael’s raised eyebrow, he added, “We’re getting nowhere. Three people are dead, and we have no leads. Well, we didn’t until Crossford. But maybe we should’ve asked them to lean on the pack alphas a little, ensure they were telling the truth.”
“That’s assuming the alphas know anything. As much as some would like to believe they’re omnipotent, they don’t know every single thing that their pack members get up to. And there’s only twelve members of the council. It’d be a big ask to expect them to interrogate each and every member of all the packs. And again, we’re assuming the shifter we’re looking for is a member of one of the London packs. They could just as well have come here from elsewhere.”
“Aren’t they supposed to ask permission to come into another pack’s territory?”
“They are. But if they can murder three humans, I think it’s safe to believe they’re willing to ignore pack etiquette too. And there are parts of London that aren’t covered by any pack.” God, his head hurt just thinking about all the possibilities. Rubbing at his temples, Michael sighed. “Let’s not dwell on what we should or shouldn’t have done. The council will be here in two weeks. In the meantime, we have a plan. Let’s stick to it and see what happens.”
