Page 82 of Broken Wolf

“You got something sent over?” Sander asked, sounding as wiped as I felt. They really needed to crash because they would undoubtedly be called out for something APOT-related soon.

“No,” I muttered, the vibe of the box off. Not dangerous, just… Off. “I’ve felt this before.” I took off the bow and wrapping before the cover and my blood went cold when I saw the note.

This was your present. Get a new head of security if this one is going to be so stupid. I won’t intervene again, and normally I only get involved for a high cost. Take this one gift as my appreciation of how many of my kind you’ve helped.

Be smarter if you want to live long.

I knew instantly what the note referred to. Months ago when I’d been dealing with a psychopath who was stuffing his murder victims in the trunks of cars, the supe who none of us could get a lock on visited me at work. None of us could sense him, but I could get images of him watching me. I’d left him my business card to contact me.

And he’d left me a “get out of jail free card.” Like from an actual Monopoly board game. I’d thought it was a sign he wasn’t a foe, maybe not an ally or friend, but saying he wasn’t the enemy and making a joke about my job.

Apparently not.

“Jesus Fucking Christ,” Sander hissed as I lifted out the note.

I dropped the box at the sight of the first photo.

It was me at the rooftop pool… Holding Topher.

“Sera? Sera, come on, stay with me,” Sander shouted.

Eva was standing there when the door opened, clearly having sensed what was going on with me. She looked from me to the box and picked it up. Her eyes went wide as she saw what was in there. “Bring her to her apartment.”

“I’m okay,” I lied, my voice a bit hollow.

“You won’t be when you see the rest,” Eva muttered. “Who sent this?”

“The supe we can’t sense that I’ve gotten images from watching me,” I mumbled. “That’s what I sensed. It’s like that card he left me. It’s a weird vibration of blank.”

“Your clairvoyant side senses him using his powers to block even on objects,” she surmised.

Sure, we could go with that.

I blinked, and I was sitting in my apartment at the kitchen table with a bottle of cold water in my hand. Sander filled Eva in on everything, and then she was sitting catty-corner from me so she could touch my knee and comfort me.

“You need to see the rest of this so we can decide how to handle this,” she told me.

I took a big swig and then set down the bottle before she handed me the other pictures. I swallowed loudly at the second picture of me on the rooftop, but then it was of a dead guy… With a sniper rifle all set up.

“So he stopped a hit on me?” I whispered, flipping through the pictures to show me exactly which building and the huge gap in our security we hadn’t thought of. “Is that what he’s trying to say with the gift?”

“I would assume so,” Eva muttered.

I flinched when the dead guy was in a hole somewhere. So this guy disposed of the body and was letting me know he’d cleaned up the mess even.

Could he tell me who ordered the fucking hit or like how he found out about it? That would have been pretty useful.

Apparently, I was greedy like that instead of just grateful.

“I don’t even know how to solve this,” I whispered. “We just never use the pool anymore? I mean… Right? But that doesn’t take out the threat. Someone who hired a shooter won’t just shrug that it didn’t work and not try again.”

People started showing up. There had been some confusion as to where I’d been heading when they’d felt my upset and they’d thought back to the office, so they’d gone to the lobby.

Dain reached me first. “What has happened, my love?”

“I’m a danger to our son,” I choked out as I handed him the picture. “I’m so sorry.” I was instantly in his arms.

He sat in my seat with me on his lap, whispering that the monster who tried to hurt me was to blame and no one else. That I was the love Topher needed in his life as I helped so many, not a danger.

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