Page 62 of In Plain Sight

“Ruby fill you in on what happened?” he asked.

“Yeah, for the most part. It’s crazy, right?”

“Patrick’s over at Kyle’s going through a few things. Thought I’d give him a fresh set of eyes. Want to tag along?” he asked.

The blood in my veins started to boil and I knew this was it. I solemnly agreed.

After dinner, he cleaned up Sara and grabbed a bag of her things. We dropped her off at the Alpha house with his parents before driving over to the cabin where Kyle and Kelsey preferred to live.

As we pulled up, I saw Wyatt hanging around outside and unease set in. I held back.

“You coming?” Liam asked.

“Be there in a minute,” I said, walking straight for Wyatt. “Hey Wyatt, what are you doing here?”

He shrugged. “Don’t rightly know. Patrick O’Connell called us all in first thing this morning for interrogations. Austin just came out and Conlin’s in there now. I think they believe one of us was somehow involved in Kelsey’s accident yesterday. It’s crazy.”

I let that drop for a moment. There was something more pressing I needed first.

“Hey, did you tell Ruby to pack my dagger for this trip?”

“Well, yeah. I told her the correct one, right?” he asked.

My blood continued to boil being this close to the witch, but also in a far more personal way as betrayal set in.

“How’d you know about that, Wyatt?” I asked.

Wyatt had been my first friend. I trusted the man even in a world where I knew I couldn’t afford to trust anyone. Maybe I should feel relieved that he had my back, that he was on my team, but I didn’t. I was disappointed and angry at him.

Wyatt scrunched up his face in frustration. “Look, I was only trying to help. Conlin told me you needed it for the trip and had forgotten to pack it. He told me what it looked like and where to find it and asked if I could remind Ruby to bring it. Sorry if it was a misunderstanding. I was only trying to help a friend,” he said in earnest.

“Conlin?” I asked.

“Yeah. He said you asked him to do it, but something came up and he didn’t have time to stop by your apartment, so I did it for him.”

Part of me breathed a sigh of relief. Wyatt might still be the stand-up guy I had come to know.

“Wyatt, you and Conlin, you’re close, right? You guys grew up together, that Six Pack stuff and all, right?” I asked.

“Conlin? Nah. Austin, sure, but not Conlin. He strolled into town looking for work about two or so years ago. I mean, yeah, we’re tight, but not like Six Pack tight or anything.”

I clapped my hand on his back and thanked him. Conlin walked out of the house and moved to speak with Austin in the opposite direction, though his eyes watched me. I nodded in his direction and let myself into the house.

The pain subsided for a moment, before increasing even worse than before. I was so close. All I had to do was walk into the next room and kill the witch and all the pain would end. There were only two people standing between me and that goal and I knew I could take them both easily.

As I turned in her direction, something caught my eye and distracted me. Patrick had a bunch of pictures spread out across the table. There were some from the scene of the crash, the stains where the lines were cut, and pictures of possible suspects. Mine wasn’t even amongst them.

“It has to be Wyatt,” Patrick said.

“I just have a hard time believing that. Wyatt is part of Thomas’s inner circle. He’s like a brother to him, Patrick. It doesn’t make sense. What’s his motive?”

“I don’t know, but he’s the only one of the three that had opportunity.”

“Walk me through the timeline again,” Liam suggested.

“We finished up processing and Wyatt excused himself to use the bathroom. He was gone for over half an hour. Cameras picked him up in the wrong part of the building. He says he got lost trying to find his way back. Austin never left the holding room, and Conlin only did for long enough to walk outside and call for Wyatt. The cameras are on him for all but about five minutes. It’s too short a window, but we lost Wyatt on the cameras for over twenty minutes. I don’t know how he did it, but it had to be Wyatt.”

My phone rang and I looked down to see a strange number similar to the one my Alpha had previously used. I froze. I didn’t want to answer it. Why would he be calling right now?

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