Page 2 of Royal Ransom

“There are some people here to see you,” he started.

“Who?”

He shook his head. “I’ve never seen them before. Must be tourists. The lady with crazy pink hair looks pissed, though. I wanted to give you a heads-up, just in case you wanted to sneak out the back. You looked tired this morning. I’ll field the call if you don’t want to.”

If I weren’t a married woman, I might have kissed Roland for that. It had been a long time since I liked and trusted the people I worked with. Jonathan’s family had used their leverage on me to get whoever it was they wanted into my department. By the end of my time in Portland, the office had become nearly unbearable. I’d been willing to throw myself on Cain’s mercies for months before his accident gave me an excuse to relocate for a while. It would be a relief if my deputies could be informed about the Hollow’s secret. Even having them aware of things meant they had more defenses against what went bump in the night. If Cain had known the secret, there was a chance he might have survived the demon that attacked him.

Unfortunately, the one with the crazy hair was probably a monster. I vaguely remembered one of the refugees having hairthe color of cotton candy. It was an eye-catching shade, even for a shifter species. It made me wonder exactly who and what Fox had insisted I invite into my town.

But back to Roland and his offer to take the call, the only thing he could do was give them the run-around, delaying the inevitable.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I’ll handle this one. Send them in.”

Roland shrugged. “Alright. You’re the boss.”

“More than you know, buddy,” I muttered under my breath as he turned his back and shuffled away. “More than you know.”

Chapter Two

Taliyah

The women across from me looked like the before-and-after photos in the overblown PSAs about drug use in the mid-90s. They both appeared to be in their early-to-mid forties and on the paler side. That was where the similarities ended, and a vast chasm of difference yawned between them.

The blonde on the left had bundled up despite the balmy temperature in the Hollow. She was smaller and had borrowed one of Astrid’s logo tees and a thermal shirt. Only her small, calloused hands poked nervously from the fabric, looking abnormally pale against the dark material. She’d tugged her long hair into a ponytail, leaving her face bare. She was pretty in a wholesome girl-next-door kind of way.

Miss Crazy Pink Hair, as Roland dubbed her, looked like an Amazon in one of the athleisure sets Wanda had donated to the cause. I had to hand it to my friends in the Hollow; there weren’t many people I knew who could adapt readily to the winds of change. I was sure the prickly witch would dismiss the generosity as a reverse psychology marketing ploy to make them customers later, but I knew the truth. Wanda was nowhere near as heartless as she pretended to be.

There was also something about Pink Hair that made my police radar tingle. She had a toughness that the blonde lacked. If it came down to a fight, she was the one I needed to deal with first. Appearances could be deceiving when dealing with monsters, but I trusted my gut when it pointed to the stony-faced woman as the greater threat.

I forced a smile I didn’t feel and spread my arms gingerly, careful not to tip my precarious pile of paperwork. If these two were from the abandoned Hollow down south, they probably knew Fox. Informing them that an enemy had mailed me hisbody parts wouldn’t endear me to them.

“Hello, ladies.”

Pink Hair grimaced at me, like she didn’t appreciate being called a lady. Blondie just gave me a little smile.

I continued. “I’m Taliyah Morgan, Haven Hollow’s chief of police. I think: We weren’t properly introduced the other day, I believe. How can I help you?”

There. I’d managed not to snarl at them despite the fact that this case was already wearing on my nerves. Having them here was a reminder of the things I was trying desperately not to think about: Fox, tortured and possibly killed; Maverick in a similar position. For all I knew, the ominous warning Janara had issued could have referred to him. He was a prince, after all—my prince, my husband, my...

My what? What were we to each other? I thought we’d crossed into new territory, and then he was gone. He’d seemingly evaporated into thin air like a B-movie Dracula, and I had no idea where he’d gone off to. Had it been my fault? Was something else to blame? Someone else? The witches of Scapegrace couldn’t even scry his location. So, what chance did I have of tracking him down? Could I even afford to do that with so many other problems facing the Hollow?

The blonde stepped forward first, surprising me. I’d suspected the pink-haired one would do all the talking. Maybe she was just there as muscle, trying to back up the blonde. I’d seen that before, but it was usually male visitors who pulled that posturing right out of the gate.

“I’m Charlotte Rose. But my, uh, my friends call me Charlie. This is Marina. We’re from...” Charlie trailed off, her eyes flicking meaningfully to the door. It had recently been warded with some of the same protections as the cells, with a heavy emphasis on noise reduction, but they had no way of knowing that.

“The local coven usually wards vulnerable locations,” I told her. “My office is safe; just be careful talking about anything you wouldn’t want mundanes to hear outside this place. If you need to discuss anything elsewhere, maybe just say you’re from down south.”

“Oh,” Charlie said, her voice muted. She looked on the verge of tears from just that gentle reminder. I continued before she could break down.

“The less specific you are with the police, the better,” I continued. “One of our Council members owns a lot of property—I’m setting all of you up in those properties, so you’ll have a roof over your head. You’re welcome to stay as long as it takes you to get back on your feet. Any longer, and I assume you’ll be able to work out a rental agreement with Lorcan Rowe, the owner.”

I was hoping most of them would decide to move on, but I had a sinking feeling they wouldn’t. I mean, where else would they go? Hollows weren’t exactly commonplace and once you found one, you usually didn’t want to move on. But that was a pain in my ass because more supernaturals translated to more problems for me.

Marina crossed her arms over her chest. I thought I’d been pretty generous thus far, but she was eyeing me like she was figuring out how to shake me down for my last coin. I wasn’t used to getting that look outside of car dealerships. The determined glint in her eye might have been commendable if it weren’t directed at me.

“It’s not enough,” she said. Her voice was low and a little scratchy, as if she desperately needed a cough drop. But when someone had actually offered her one the other night, she’d turned it down.

My eyes narrowed. “I’d say we’ve done plenty, given the situation.”

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