Page 59 of Short, Lethal & Claimed

“No, and they’re not human descendants of the Pack either,” Gray said, taking him by surprise.

“They have unmarked humans living among them?” Logan asked, glancing at the shifter. Marking the humans would have forced the Sentinels to destroy the Pack and drew the attentionof the other Packs, but allowing unmarked humans to live among them…

It put them all at risk.

Nodding, Gray said, “They’re using them to hide their scent.”

“How many of them have been turned?” Logan asked as he returned his attention to the brownstone across the street.

“From what I can tell, none of them have,” Gray said, leaving Logan to wonder why a Pack would keep unmarked humans around without the promise of changing them unless…

“Are the humans aware that they’re living among a Pack?” Logan asked since it wasn’t unheard of for shifters to live among humans to hide their scent, but he’d never heard of an entire Pack taking that risk.

“They wouldn’t be able to hide it for long,” Gray murmured, sounding lost in thought. “Not without an Alpha to keep them in check.”

“Which brings up an interesting question, why is Pierce leaving his Pack unprotected?” Logan drawled as he took in the humans and shifters unpacking the van before his gaze shifted to the neighboring brownstones.

After Izzy gave him the address for the brownstone, he’d looked into the property and found that it was owned by Samuel Clemmons along with the adjoining brownstones. For the past four hundred years, every sixty years, like clockwork, the property was transferred to another “Clemmons,” ensuring that the property was kept in the Pack and that it didn’t draw attention from humans.

At one point, the Pack owned two square miles in Manhattan, but over the years, they’d sold off the rest of the land until only three plots remained. They sold their land to humans, two corporations, and a church. He’d looked into the corporations, ensuring that the Pack didn’t own them before he focused on thehumans. When he didn’t find anything that led back to Pierce, he focused on the three brownstones that remained.

He’d looked into the original land grant given by New Amsterdam to the Pack and followed it until the English seized the territory in 1664 and they were forced to re-register the deeds. He read through the tax records, the blueprints the Pack registered in the mid-nineteenth century when they tore down the original dwellings on the property and replaced them with brownstones. He looked through the Wills and deed transfers, the city blueprints when water and sewer lines were added along with electricity in the twentieth century, phone lines, and finally, the internet a little over two decades ago.

The only thing that he couldn’t find were permits or alterations to the blueprints, which meant that he had no idea what to expect behind that front door. They could have altered the brownstone in a hundred different ways including knocking down the walls and connected the other two brownstones, which meant…

“Were your men able to find any evidence of tunnels in the area?” Logan asked as his gaze flickered from the brownstones to the van before shifting to the road that separated them.

“The only thing that we found were old coal chutes,” Gray said as Logan’s gaze landed on the sidewalk below his window and took in the old iron cover that resembled a manhole cover before shifting his attention to the one across the street.

Absently nodding, Logan ran his gaze from the coal chute covers prominently displayed in front of the brownstone to the set of cast iron doors set flush against the sidewalk fifteen feet away and absently murmured, “Why would they need a coal cellar door if they have a coal chute?”

“What?” Gray asked as Logan’s gaze shifted to the sidewalk below his window and found the matching coal cellar doors set directly across from the ones across the street.

“Send ten of your men to the original property line and have them work their way in, looking for the other end of that tunnel,” Logan said as he stepped away from the window and made his way back through the parlor and headed into what had once been the dining room.

“And the rest?” Gray asked, following close behind.

“Unless they have an Alpha or a demon hidden behind those doors, we have time to find the tunnel,” Logan said as he made his way through the backdoor, knowing the shifter would do everything within his power to find the tunnel.

It wouldn’t end this, but it would bring him one step closer, Logan thought as a slight vibration had him pulling his phone out of his pocket and let him know that the asshole survived his transition. For a moment, he considered ignoring the phone call, but…

Fuck it.

“How’s Paris?”came the bored drawl that had Logan chuckling as he made his way down the alleyway.

“You tell me,” Logan murmured as he reached over and ran his fingertips along the bricks as long-ago memories slowly began to surface.

“I’m curious about something,”Kale said as Logan stepped in a puddle, sending a rippling effect throughout the water that brought him back to that night so long ago and-

He never should have let her go to London.

He never should have let her out of his sight once they reached the tavern, Logan thought, grinding his jaw as his thoughts turned to the moment that her knees hit the ground only it wasn’t Elizabeth’s terrified expression that left him struggling not to lose his fucking mind.

“What’s that?” Logan asked, determined to gain some semblance of control over this hold that his angel had over him.

“How did you manage to trick Tattletale?”Kale asked, giving Logan the distraction that he needed.

“Having a difficult time finding me?” Logan asked as he dropped his hand away from the brick wall.

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