Page 118 of Her Wolf

“Yeah. Look.” Kane used the pen to wedge open the corpse’s jaw. Then he shone a flashlight inside the boy’s mouth. “See?”

Finn’s mouth twisted in disgust, but he crouched a little lower so he could look past the row of surprisingly even teeth.

“Tongue’s gone.” Kane wiped his pen on the bedspread as he got to his feet. “He probably fed it to one of his dogs.”

Finn’s fingers tightened around the cellphone until the casing dug into his palm. Kane shrugged, slipped the pen back in his pocket, and made his way out of the room with a quiet, “Wonder how big this property is?”

Those even teeth were bugging the hell out of Finn. He looked back at the body, trying to see past the decomposition to the bone structure below.

High, defined cheekbones. Sharp nose. Square jaw.

Angel. Which was impossible, because Miguel had—

Miguel was dead in the trunk of the car parked outside. Had he brought Angel back here to show to Zachary? Had Miguel been a traitor?

He’d been the falcon. The one Javier had sent to bring Cora to his compound.

Finn went to a crouch, his arm on the bedspread.

If he and Lars hadn’t been with Cora the day he’d brought her to the compound, she might have wound up at Zachary’s side more than a month ago. But something had told Finn to take her all the way to Javier—something he regretted to this day after the shit Javier had pulled…but maybe it had been better than what had been waiting for her here.

Except…Zachary had still gotten exactly what he wanted.

He had Cora.

We failed her. We failed her. We failed her. We—

Finn swayed forward as he squeezed his eyes shut against the sudden yapping litany in his head.

To steady himself, he pressed his fingers to the bright Zapotec mat under him. When he’d urged calm onto his mind a second later, he became aware of something hard under his fingertips.

Finn looked down.

There, on the carpet, lay a dark bracelet. He picked it up and laid it in his palm to inspect it.

The clasp had broken off.

He stood, turning to the door as Kane came back inside the room.

Kane’s eyes went to the jewelry, and a touch of darkness seeped into the man’s eyes.

“He must have realized it was a tracker.” Kane’s voice was sullen. When their eyes met, Finn felt a pull toward the man. Something inexplicable, like the gravity of a black hole—felt, but not seen.

“Guess he wanted to make damn sure we’d never find her.”

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