Page 63 of Scarred Resolve

“You wanted to meet me. Why?” Heath paid attention to what he was smelling. They were both afraid. Very afraid, but he had a suspicion they didn’t know who all was in the room. They were afraid of something, but it wasn’t him, either. The fear in their scents was deep, saturated in a way that made him think it had been there for some time now. Not hours, not even days.

They’ve been afraid for weeks, if not months…

“I’m Ronny Stainton, Gerry Stainton’s brother. This is Norman Lane.” Gordon gestured to each of them, covering his fear rather well. Heath couldn’t help but give credit to the man for how stable his hand was and how even his words were.

“I’m Marilyn’s brother,” he said, his voice shaky. Norman’s fear was getting to him.

Heath said nothing as they stared at him until he felt like playing along.

“Alpha Heath Everson,” he finally said, sighing. “Why did you want to speak to me?”

“Why did werewolves kill Gordon and Marilyn?” Gerry asked immediately, leaning close to whisper, probably believing no one else would hear him. “We don’t work with werewolves. Why would they do that?”

“Gordon and Marilyn were killed by a bear while camping in Alaska,” Heath said simply, knowing the humans couldn’t smell the lie. He didn’t care if the werewolves could smell his lie or if anyone knew he was lying. All supernaturals knew why the lie existed, and no amount of internal werewolf or other supernatural drama would cross that line if they wanted to enjoy the immortality they had for very long.

“Don’t bullshit us, please. Supernaturals had to have killed them, but we don’t understand why it was werewolves. We don’t work with werewolves, Mister Everson.”

“Alpha Everson,” Heath corrected. Frank was a human who didn’t work in the supernatural world. These two did. They would respect his position. He was curious now. Gordon and Marilyn were killed by something supernatural, but it was a random incident, and while unfortunate, that was all it was. It could have been a bear attack, and it was better to keep calling it that.

“Alpha Everson. I’m sorry,” Gordon gave a somewhat unstable chuckle. “You have to understand?—”

“They were killed by a bear while camping in Alaska,” Heath repeated.

“They couldn’t have been!” Gordon snapped, hitting the table. It was fortunate that he was keeping his voice down, but he wasn’t as in control as Heath initially credited him. If there were other humans in the café, this would have become a problem.

Heath leaned forward, not at all curious, but he knew he needed to give Gerry what he wanted. A chance to say whatever he wanted to say. Heath just needed to ask the right question, and it was an obvious one.

“Why? Tell me the entire truth about why you believe that. Don’t leave anything out.”

“Our families are financial consultants, accountants, and that sort among the…” Gerry’s voice was as quiet a whisper as a human could do. “Thehiddensupernaturals. Gordon and Marilyn are in charge now since the retirement of our parents. They merged our family companies into one with their marriage. Well, there were some audits a few months ago…”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. When will humans learn?

“They stole from clients, huh?” Heath aimlessly spun his coffee on the table slowly, fiddling with it because this was a song and dance he had seen before. He’d dealt with it a couple of times personally.

“Just skimmed a little off the top, you know? I mean, supernaturals are rich. Look at you, giving away hundreds of thousands without even blinking, without publicizing it or anything.” Gerry said, making that face that implicated him in all of it. There was no guilt in his scent either, telling Heath more of the story than Gerry probably wanted him to know. Norman looked down and away, the shame and guilt rising up in his scent to match the fear, proof he was involved as well.

Heath pulled out his phone, letting Gerry’s words linger while he texted Jabari again. He still had no response, but it was important to note this. The victims were involved with the supernatural and a very short explanation about how, but a Last Change werecat wasn’t going to care about any of this. The victims were still in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“What are you doing?” Norman finally asked.

“Letting my lawyer know we should probably cancel the donation,” Heath lied, but it was only a half-life. He was debating it now.

“No, no, please don’t,” Norman said desperately. “We need to pay back what we stole. We need that money. Gordon and Marilyn hid all the rest or spent it.”

“And gave a lot of it to you two, which you then spent, so you need as much cash on hand to fix it, right?” Heath asked, smiling a little. “None of this is my problem. I was here to help a family through a difficult time. They were killed by a bear. It was tragic, but that’s all. Whatever problems you have with your clients isn’t something I can get involved in, and there is very little you can say to even get me to consider it.”

“But—”

“Who did you steal from?” Heath was talking louder now. He had a problem with all of this now. He fucking hated this nonsense. They were two clearly well-off men. Working finances for the supernatural world was a great way to get rich. They were right about how much money many supernaturals had, invested in different ways, but supernaturals often weren’t greedy for money. It was a necessity in some ways. Heath could be generous, like most werewolf Alphas. He wanted to see the young supernaturals around him educated. He wanted everyone housed, fed, and taken care of. He needed a lot of money to do that. He needed a lot of money to move all of them if things were too dangerous where the pack was located. He overpaid everyone, sometimes doubling the income other companies were willing to offer for similar positions.

That was just him as a werewolf Alpha, but these humans were working with the supernaturals who still hid from humanity. That made this much, much worse.

“Who did you steal from?” Heath asked again, leaning back.

“We can’t… Why are you talking so loud?”

“Because you two are the only humans in the café,” Heath answered simply. “There’s really no one here to reveal secrets to.”

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