Page 23 of Wind with a Chance of Wolfsbane

“If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck…” added Reggie, earning a round of nods from the other Van Helsings.

All eyes came to him.

He sat up more in his chair.

“Boss, what are your thoughts?” asked Leo as he poured himself a cup of coffee. “I know you’ve not thought it was a shifter attack from the start. A number of us thought you might be, well, covering for them.”

“Covering for them?” asked Jonathan as he stood.

The men around him tensed, looking as if they were ready for trouble.

Jonathan snorted. “If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead already.”

Reggie lifted a brow. “Oddly, I believe him. Comes off as kind of geeky and nonthreatening, but there’s no way he’s as high as he is in our organization and not a badass.”

“I wouldn’t be in this spot if I spent my life covering for shifter-related incidents,” stated Jonathan, ignoring the badass comment. “I’m positive I’ve killed more shifters in my life than the whole of you combined. I have no problem condemning my own kind to death if they’re the guilty party. What I’m not willing to do is jump to conclusions. The facts aren’t all in yet. We can’t blame shifters, and we can’t blame the Murrays. Not until we have more information. Not without more facts.”

“The worst of the activity stopped two weeks ago,” said Leo as he stepped closer to Jonathan. “And my informant tells me Helen and her crew split town in the middle of the night then. That they caught flights out of here. Seems suspect to me.”

Reggie let out a low whistle. “About the same time that you said one of these coins turned up at an incident near the airport?”

“Shit,” said Leo. “Yes.”

“Didn’t you say something about two girls and the coin?” asked Reggie.

Leo nodded.

Jonathan snarled, his wolf wanting to break free and go at Reggie for daring to associate the two young women who’d been attacked with the Murray mess.

Reggie lifted his hands, his eyes widening. “Uh, don’t eat me.”

“Then don’t suggest the young women had anything to do with this,” warned Jonathan.

Leo observed him closely. “Are we sure they didn’t?”

“Do you really believe two young women, who were what? Not even twenty yet? Could have possibly been behind the attacks here?” demanded Jonathan, a low growl at the ready deep in his chest.

Leo shook his head. “No. Of course I’m not suggesting they were behind what happened to our people. What I am saying is that the girls were attacked that night, Jonathan. I’m not so sure those men wanted to just kidnap them. I got the feeling they wanted the one girl dead, or are you forgetting the van driver nearly ran her down?”

Jonathan’s breath caught. Forget? He’d been seeing the moment in his head over and over since then, each time feeling the same blind panic he’d felt that night. Even now, simply thinking about it again left him touching his chest and swallowing hard.

“Uh, he looks like he might vomit,” Reggie said as he finally lowered his hands.

Jonathan met Leo’s questioning gaze. “Even if that was the case—that the attackers wanted them dead, not just to take them—what makes you think it has anything to do with the Murray line and what we’ve been dealing with? And don’t tell me the coin is key. That could have been on the street for weeks or years before I found it.”

“Yeah, but what are the odds someone wouldn’t notice a big shiny coin lying there? Hell, it was right in front of a bus stop, Jonathan. A place people gather on the regular,” stressed Leo. He then took a long breath. “But setting aside the coin, everything in me is saying that incident is related to what we have going on.”

Reggie tapped the conference room table lightly. “Uh, Leo mentioned the men who attacked the girls were human, but he never said anything about the girls. Were they human?”

“Yes,” said Jonathan so fast and loudly that everyone was left staring at him. He cleared his throat. “Uh, yes. They were human. They didn’t smell like anything to me.”

“So they didn’t smell like hunters to you either?” inquired Reggie.

Jonathan snorted. “They weren’t hunters.”

“Are you sure?” asked Reggie. “What if they were hunters in training? Part of Helen’s crew? What if they were a diversion or something? What if that van was aiming at Jonathan? Not the girl he saved? Could that have been another attempt on our organization?”

Jonathan lifted a hand and claws emerged from his fingertips. He snarled as he pointed at Reggie. “If you ever suggest she is a traitor or tried to kill me again, this location will be down another Van Helsing, but this time, by my hand. Am I clear?”

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