Page 49 of Bitter Discord

“You handle that. I’ll handle the door. If someone comes in with hostility, I can defend myself more effectively. Go hang out with those who have already arrived. Don’t tell them anything except that we’ve had a situation. They’ll understand we want to brief everyone at the same time.”

“I haven’t had the chance to talk to Heath,” I reminded her. “I was busy driving, and you were on the phone with them.”

“I know. Once everyone is here, I’ll take over with the werecats, and you’ll have a chance to talk to your werewolves,” she said, pushing me along. “Go.”

I checked my phone as I went down the stairs. Heath would be up any minute, and I was hoping he would see my text. I sent him another, telling him simply there was an emergency in Dallas, trying to make it lighthearted. It was hard to be funny when I had to ask him to verify that all of his werewolves were accounted for, but I tried.

Once I was in the meeting room with Everett, Marnar, and Chao, I waved with my free hand, not putting the phone away because I would need it for the breakfast order.

“Thank you all for coming early. We’re waiting on everyone to get here so we can talk about a situation.”

“We can smell a lot on you and your sister,” Chao said, looking at his water bottle as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. “It tells a story.”

“I bet it does. Look, I’m going to rush order something for breakfast for everyone. Again, thank you for coming early.”

I searched online for anyone who would deliver a large order ASAP. I got on the phone with one place and offered to pay triple their catering rate, and they promised food within the hour. While I did that, more werecats came in. By the time breakfast arrived, we were only missing one werecat sans Mason.

“Where’s Marcia?” I asked Zuri as she sat down next to me. Everyone else was eating in tense silence.

“Taking her damn time,” Zuri growled softly. “She showered, stopped for coffee, and got her own breakfast at a sit-down café. She’ll be here any minute.”

“Well, your call was cryptic,” Abraham pointed out.

“When Zuri is cryptic, youknowthere’s a problem,” Roland countered. “Marcia is old enough to know certain topics are always cryptic over the phone.”

Zuri ate for ten minutes before her phone went off, and she went to let Marcia in. The bitch breezed into the room, sneered at breakfast, then sat down with her expensive to-go coffee from whatever little café she had found.

“I love that we’re rushed to get here, but you and Jacky couldn’t bother to take showers,” she taunted. “She’s really doing a number on your reputation, Zuri.”

“My reputation will be fine,” Zuri said blandly, sitting beside me again. “Mason was murdered last night.”

Everyone slowly put their utensils down.

“No way,” Everett said softly.

“Bet it was the fucking werewolves,” Lonan snarled.

“It doesn’t seem very smart to make the werecat protecting you look bad,” Marnar countered. “I’m assuming you either have or will verify if the werewolves were involved.” She turned that last part on me.

“We will be verifying. We wanted to bring everyone here for their safety first,” Zuri answered for me. “We can only do this one step at a time and remain safe ourselves. Clearly, this ends all of our other discussions. Someone murdered Mason, son of Amanatori, and we’re now investigating it.”

“And making sure no one else dies,” Andon said. He and I hadn’t had a chance to talk much, but he seemed easy-going. He didn’t even seem particularly upset with the news of Mason’s death.

“Yes.”

“Did either of you do it?” Hannah asked, cutting straight to the most important question.

“No,” we answered simultaneously. I saw nostrils flare, all trying to catch the possible lie.

“Did you mention Mason’s connection to Mikkel and the traitors to the werewolves?” Abraham asked. It was a question I knew was coming, and it was easy to answer truthfully.

“No,” I answered alone this time. Abraham, the smart man, looked at Zuri.

“I did not. Nor did we mention it to any of the family.” Zuri leaned back in her seat. I nodded when she looked at me to verify that part. “We haven’t had the chance to verify with the pack yet, but if one of them acted, they would have done so alone. Here’s what we do know…” Zuri launched into the explanation. From the BSA mole we knew we had, the cause of death, what we could learn from the crime scene, and most importantly, what we couldn’t learn from the crime scene. Every werecat in the room listened carefully, but I could see some didn’t trust what Zuri was saying.

“We should leave,” Marcia said simply. “We should leave before we become the next target. Did Hasan do this? Are you being left in the dark on a hit he put out?”

“You know I can’t answer that honestly yet,” Zuri said, staring the other woman down. “Possibilities can turn into accidental lies. Until anything is verified, Jacky and I can’t do anything more than accept whatever theories you may have and offer what we know.”

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