Page 50 of Bitter Discord

“Marcia, you know we can’t leave. Do you want to implicate yourself as the murderer?” Ysabel hissed, glaring at Marcia. “That’s how you do it. You find out one of our own is dead, you’re purposefully late when we’re called in, and you want to skip town. Sounds like what a stupid woman would do if she murdered someone to ruin the event to get back at Zuri for something. You’ve been awful the entire time you've been here.”

“I am not stupid nor a murderer,” Marcia snarled. There was no lie in her scent, but I was beginning to question whether it mattered anymore.

“I don’t know… The shoe seems to fit,” Ysabel taunted.

“Marcia should change her name to Cinderella.” Hannah’s mumble was too loud to miss. Ysabel’s laugh was more of a bark, and Marcia was launching herself at both women. Chao grabbed her while Hannah and Ysabel jumped away from the enraged ancient coming for them.

“That’s enough,” Chao snarled, pushing Marcia back to her spot. “We’re not here to fight. We came to Dallas to listen and discuss, as rational adults. We wanted to discuss current events and problems we believe we’re seeing in the ruling family. Let’s stay focused on that.”

“Thank you, Chao,” Zuri said, bowing her head respectfully.

“Don’t thank me,” he said, turning a hard stare on her and me. “A problem with the ruling family. You were expected to protect your guests. You failed.”

“We didn’t have him killed, neither Jacky nor I.”

“It doesn’t matter. If Hasan did, then he should have kept you both in the loop to announce the execution properly. It sounds like he could have had Hisao gun down the young man in the black of night. Or maybe it’s the potential human traitor you have in the BSA. Didn’t you think we needed to know about that possibility? Maybe it would have changed some of our minds on attending.”

“What would you like, Chao?” I asked, leaning forward, putting my elbows on the table. “If you have a suggestion—”

My phone started ringing. Everyone watched as I picked it up, turning it over so I could see the screen.

“Take it,” Zuri ordered. “Out there. I’ll talk to them about their… suggestions.”

I rushed out of the room as I hit the green answer button under Heath’s name.

“Heath, don’t say anything yet. I’m getting to a secure place.”

“Okay.” It wasn’t a relaxed and easy okay.

I went upstairs, all the way to my bedroom. Closing the door, I sat down on my bed.

“You saw my texts, I’m guessing?”

“What happened? I have concerning news, but I need to know what sort of situation the pack is about to be tied up in.”

More bad news. Just what we needed.

“One of our visitors was murdered last night.” I quickly explained it, and Heath cursed as he heard about the silver rounds. “It didn’t have to be one of the pack. We have a lot of theories right now.”

“I saw your texts and started reaching out to the pack and ordering them to come to Kick Shot for a headcount and talk about last night, just to make sure all our ducks were in a row. The entire pack didn’t make it to Kick Shot. Arlo disappeared last night while Teagan was asleep. There’s a firearm missing from their safe. Teagan has been searching for him since I called and woke him up. The pack is now working out in a circle to figure out where he is. We’re still looking. We have no idea where he went.”

I nearly dropped my phone.

“He’s seventeen,” I breathed out, unable to believe Arlo Black could do this. He was one of Carey’s friends. He was aboy. The skill of the murder… “There’s no way.”

“It doesn’t matter if he did, if he helped someone, or if he was kidnapped, and you know it. The moment any of those werecats hear a werewolf is unaccounted for, they’ll be out for blood.”

My hand was shaking as I tried to think of a way to explain this.

I couldn’t come up with one.

“I have to tell them, though. I can’t… hide this.” I wanted to, but there would be no way.

“Let me come and talk to them.”

“Heath, they might kill you. Or they’ll start hunting Arlo without listening to you. He could already be in danger, and we don’t know it.” I pushed my messy hair back. This was so bad. Zuri had said it was the worst-case scenario when she saw Mason’s body.

We hadn’t even scratched the surface.

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