Page 40 of Bright Dark Curses

Key touched my arm. “We’ll be more useful here.”

They were right. “You think they called his family already?”

“I called them myself,” Shane said.

“You’re a good egg,” I told him. “Like Ian.”

He grinned at that. “But like one of those black eggs that’s been buried for centuries, huh?”

“An egg is still an egg,” I assured him.

Key laughed.

It felt strange to laugh while Brett was in the hospital, but I doubted the UNSUB meant to murder anyone. Sabotaging was one thing. Murder meant heavy time in the bounty hunters’ cells, or worse.

Still…

I opened my mouth but hesitated.

“What?” Key urged.

“Maybe we should bring in Officer Brooks. The UNSUB is clearly escalating.”

“If they run tests on Brett and find human poison, they’ll involve the police anyway,” Shane said.

“Brett didn’t want to get in trouble with Hutton,” Key reminded me. “If we call Officer Brooks, we’ll have to tell her why we’re here, and he’ll be admonished for not telling them about the magic sabotage earlier.”

As far as reasons not to call the police, that was extremely thin and easily dismissed.

Key truly had learned a lot from me. It made me want to weep with pride.

However, it was one thing for me to choose not to report a murder, and another for the strays not to do it. In my case, the person had already been dead. Here, there was a chance for more harm to come.

On the other hand, this was Key’s case and her decision. If I brought in Officer Brooks, she might never forgive me.

What would Ian do—for real this time? Would he trust his strays or interfere? He had always allowed me to make the decisions, even when he didn’t fully agree. He would abide by the strays’ wishes. For the time being, at least.

Shane interrupted my conundrum by taking out his phone and speaking quietly into it. Once he was done, he turned back to us with a slight curve to his lips. “They moved Brett to the clinic. They say he’s probably going to be fine, but they’re keeping him overnight for observation.”

The clinic? “Not the hospital?”

“It’s a private place run by the Pack for paranormals,” Shane explained. “In case.”

How had I not known about this before now? Me and Hutton were going to have a long chat after this was over. “So he’s not gravely ill?”

“Didn’t sound like it.”

A huge weight slid off my shoulders. And with it went the rational part of me that said we should bring in the police. “If we find anything incriminatory or it looks like the UNSUB is going to strike again, we’re calling Officer Brooks.”

Shane glanced at Key.

Key made a face but agreed reluctantly. “Okay.”

“Better safe than sorry,” I told her gently.

Shane snorted.

“What?”

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