Page 90 of An Oath at Midnight

Brent grinned. “Newly mated?”

“Um...not yet.”

He nodded. “It’s hard to control at the beginning. Wait until you actually mate,” he said and gave me a pitying look.

Surely Bram couldn’t get worse than this?

Brent sat back. “Brother, you can relax. I’m mated. I’m not looking to take your female or hurt her.”

Bram did seem to relax a little then, at least the death grip he had on my neck loosened.

“Did you have any trouble from the witches council?” I asked.

Brent shook his head, a tight smile curling his lips. “No. They came in, cleaned up and left.”

I assumed the council would move in. But for them not to be able to see who did this or the previous murders, with their access to a whole lot of powerful witches, made it obvious there was dark magic involved, or they would have brought a seer in and Willow would be off the hook already. Whoever was behind this was wiping their tracks clean with the kinds of spells that had been forbidden for centuries. “Any camera footage? The cameras were already off inside when we got here, but what about the ones outside the club?”

“Disabled as well.” Brent’s chair creaked as he sat forward, his dark eyes on me. “Tell me, Magnolia. How easy was it for you to break into this place?”

My face heated. “Honestly? Even if someone hadn’t already disabled your alarm and cameras, it would’ve been a piece of cake.”

Brent’s jaw tightened. “Fuck.”

The door opened and a curvy brunette about my height and wearing a black leather corset and short pleated red skirt, walked in. “What’s got you cursing?” she said.

She rounded the desk and sat on the arm of her husband’s chair. Brent wrapped his arm around her waist, and when he looked up at her, his face softened. “Our security’s for shit.”

“Hey, Chaya,” I said.

Chaya ran her fingers through Brent’s disheveled hair, then turned to me. “Hey, Mags, it’s been a while.”

Thankfully, right now neither Brent nor Chaya seemed overly upset with me, but still, I’d broken into their place. “I really am sorry for breaking in like I did. If I’d known it was your club, or there’d been another way—”

“I’m not pissed about it anymore,” Brent said. “But I am pissed that you, and whoever got in before you, were able to do it so easily in the first place, and I’d like you to help me stop it from happening again.”

“You want me to ward the club?”

“Yes.”

Maybe I could use this to my advantage.

“And what does Magnolia get out of it?” Bram said before I could open my mouth. “She was able to break in, yeah. But like you say, someone did that before her, or they’d been able to hide out until everyone left. She found that guy before the attack turned into a murder. Honestly, you should be thanking her.”

Chaya’s lips twitched.

“Don’t push it,” Brent said to him.

“My wards are exceptional. No one will get past it,” I said before Bram and Brent started a pissing contest.

Brent’s eyes narrowed. “Fine, what do you want?”

“I need access to your client list and who was here last night. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

He shook his head. “My clients come here expecting privacy. It gets out that my security is that weak and I share private information, I lose my business.”

I leaned forward, resting my forearms on my knees. “I would never repeat or share any of the names on your list, but I need it. Willow’s in trouble. She’s been forced into hiding. The council wants to convict her for a bunch of murders she didn’t commit. My entire coven could lose everything, including our magic, if I don’t catch this fucker. And odds are good, you have a sadistic murderer on that list.”

They both stared at me for several long seconds, then Chaya pressed her mouth to Brent’s ear and said something I had no hope of hearing.