Page 87 of Hart's Redemption

“Would you perchance be referring to the compulsion magic you used to break your son’s will to your own?”

“Some children need a stronger hand. What sort of mother would I be if I didn’t give it to him?”

Josh jerked in his seat, and several gasps went up around the room. The wolf inside gnashed his teeth, and it took every ounce of control I had to keep him from forcing a shift and tearing that woman apart limb by limb.

Lombardi merely nodded at the awful implication and moved on. “If you would permit me a moment. Among DetectiveHart’s many crimes is also the use of a biological weapon intended to induce Mein Zeke in lycanthropes that have not previously displayed symptoms. It is my understanding that you were instrumental in creating this groundbreaking toxin. Is that true?”

Beatrice Harker practically glowed. “It is the culmination of my life’s work. Imagine a world where these creatures kill each other, and all that’s left is to clean up the mess. It was a masterful plan. Or it would have been if my disappointment of an heir hadn’t ruined everything.”

“Oh?” Lombardi’s affected surprise was a far cry from genuine. “Records show he did in fact infect two separate lycanthropes with the virus, resulting in the death of both.”

“If he had done his job properly, then I wouldn’t have had to intervene. Fortunately, the Klamath Pack was still an ideal target despite his ineptitude.”

“Are you saying that you took matters into your own hands and attacked the Klamath pack yourself?”

“Naturally. If Joshua hadn’t killed my creation in protection of his pet, then that mutated werewolf would have annihilated the entire pack before they could mount a defense. As it was, I was left with no choice but to shoot him myself in order to prevent further disruption.”

“Shoot who?”

“Joshua, of course.”

“You shot your own son?”

She gave Lombardi a withering look. “If you’re just going to repeat everything, then I have nothing more to say.”

“You mentioned his ‘pet’, could you be more precise?”

Beatrice Harker rolled her eyes. “The wolf sitting behind him. Though I can’t say I’m surprised. Joshua has cavorted with lycanthropes for the better part of his life. It’s a disgusting habit that he no doubt believed I knew nothing about, and I might nothave if thatboyhadn’t come sniffing around the house. My hope that dispatching him would eliminate the problem proved in vain, however.” She flapped her hands dismissively. “At any rate, it was still one less flea-bitten mongrel to pollute the world.”

Josh jerked in his chair, causing a horrible screech to fill the room. At the sound, Beatrice Harker’s attention snapped to him. Her malicious gaze bored into him as she gave a sinister smile.

“You should have heard him scream. He actually thought you’d save him. But you didn’t. In fact, you killed his parents the very next week.”

I felt as much as saw all the blood leave Josh’s face. While my attention remained focused on him, Beatrice Harker’s evil cackle filled the room. Shouts rose. The gavel struck home again and again, adding to the cacophony. At last, a soldier wrapped a hand around Josh’s arm and yanked him to his feet. He went without resistance, looking more like a zombie than a living person. The soldier was joined by others as Josh was forcibly removed from the courtroom to the backdrop of his mother’s sickening laughter.

Josh

I hung my head in my hands and struggled to breathe. The holding cell wasn’t the beacon of solitude I needed, though, and I couldn’t afford to break down in front of so many people. Despite that fact, my mind continued to spin around on its demented merry-go-round.

Zach was dead, and it was all my fault. I hadn’t stabbed him in the back myself, but I might as well have. It was my selfishness, my lack of foresight, my lack of planning… And his parents…

I smothered a groan of soul-deep guilt. I hadn’t known who they were, just that my mother wanted them dead. Everything about the hunt was fuzzy. I didn’t even remember what they looked like. The more I tried, the more the memory of Zach’s sweet smile and kind eyes resurfaced. He hadn’t deserved to die; none of them had.

The cell door opened with a clang of metal, and I looked up, hoping to see Elijah. I needed him. Needed to know that what had been done to Zach could never be done to him, that somehow he would magically stay out of my mother’s clutches. Except it wasn’t Elijah standing before me.

“What are you doing here, Lombardi? Where is Elijah?” I couldn’t seem to shake the irrational fear that left unattended, Elijah would end up just as dead as Zach.

How different would things have turned out if I’d taken him up on his offer to date? Would he still have come to the house? Would he have eventually lost interest and safely moved on? Too many ifs spun around in my mind, keeping me untethered. The pain in my heart spoke of a truth I’d been too scared to acknowledge at the time—Zach had been my first love. And my love had gotten him killed, just like it would Elijah.

Without warning, I leaned over the side of the bench and retched. The bile coming out of my body did nothing to purge my heart of the bile that had left my mother’s mouth. A tiny, desperate part of me wanted to believe that none of it was true. That if I asked Lombardi to track down Zach and his family, he’d find them safely sequestered in some mountaintop oasis. But I knew better. Zach was dead, his family was dead, and I was responsible.

A kerchief appeared in my line of vision. I absently accepted the outdated square and wiped my mouth.

“While your husband insisted on joining me, I felt it was for the best that he not be here.” Lombardi’s response was calm and calculated as ever.

“Where is he? Is he okay?”

“He is not alone, if that is what you are concerned about. You are not the only one who keeps interesting companions. I doubt he is even aware that he is being watched.”