Page 34 of Elven Prince

At first, Jay seemed too shell-shocked to say anything. But then he took two steps backward and lifted both hands in front of him, as if Rebecca held him at gunpoint. “I…uh… I didn’t have anything to do with it, Knox. I fucking swear.”

“I know you didn’t,” she told him and felt like she spoke to a frightened toddler. “Which is why I’m telling you to go get help. We need to know who did this, but until we get Zida and Hannigan down here, that’s not gonna happen.”

It didn’t seem to get through.

“Hey!” Rebecca snapped her fingers in his face again, leaning forward to block his view of the trailer. “Do I need to do this myself, or can I count on you to get it done?”

“Want me to haul him up the stairs, boss?” Titus asked, his rumbling voice now taking on a threatening growl that almost rivaled one of Maxwell’s.

That broke Jay out of his stupor. He shuffled farther backward, his gaze darting between Rebecca, Titus, and the open back of the trailer. “No, no. I…I got it. I’m on it. I can do it. You just… I’ll…”

“Now!” Rebecca snapped.

The guy jumped, spun around, and bolted toward the stairwell to carry out her orders.

As the garage descended into tense silence again, Rebecca and Titus returned their attention to a beaten Archie lying unconscious in front of their supply shipment, his chest barely rising and falling.

He was in bad shape, obviously, but not bad enough that Rebecca felt compelled to use her Bloodshadow magic on him. Not down here in front of Titus. Archie would live and recover eventually. She didn’t want to physically move him until Zida got down here either and risk making it even worse.

Mostly, though, she didn’t want to touch anything else in the garage before the Security team had a chance to look things over. She’d already put her hands on too much of it just trying to figure out what was wrong.

But if she hadn’t opened the trailer, who knew when they would have found Archie?

Titus heaved a massive sigh, slid the crates down off his shoulder, and dropped them to the floor with an echoing thump. “Guess I’m on unloading duty now, huh?”

Rebecca extended a hand to stop him. “Maybe just wait on that too for now. Something tells me we’re looking at a crime scene. Nothing else gets touched until we know for sure.”

He snorted and turned toward her. “What, like right here in the garage? That’s kind of a long shot, Knox. You really think someone just walked in, attacked Archie like that, shoved them in the back, then just slipped out again without anyone noticing?”

“Itwouldbe a long shot,” she replied flatly. “And I have no idea whether or not that’s what actually happened. But that’s exactly what we need to find out.”

She wouldn’t stop until she had the answer.

No one liked to believe the headquarters compound, theirhome, could be so easily infiltrated by someone who wanted to do them harm. It had already happened once before, though, and if Rowan Blackmoon had broken into Shade, someone else could have done the same.

Someone else already had.

9

“Ididn’t ask for excuses or guesses. I want fucking answers!”

Maxwell’s bellowing from inside the Security office proceeded violent scraping and muffled thumps seconds before a plastic office chair came flying through the open door. It sailed across the hall, crashed against the opposite wall, and toppled to the floor.

Though Rebecca hadn’t quite reached the office, she stopped in the hallway and waited a bit longer, in case the shifter’s temper drove him to throw something else before he realized she was there.

This was already bad.

“That’s what we’redoing,” Whit replied in the office. “We’ve gone through everything three times, broken down into—”

“Then why is it so damn hard to give me a straight answer?” Maxwell roared.

More thumps echoed into the hall, giving Rebecca a very clear mental image of her Head of Security slamming both hands down onto a piece of furniture and looming over the unlucky bastard sitting closest to him.

That had been Rebecca, once or twice.

She didn’t envy any of the Security team their discomfort and frustration with the shifter’s temper tantrum. Still, this sounded like a gross overreaction on Maxwell’s part. She’d only ever heard him this pissed off around Rowan. Now that the Blackmoon Elf was gone, it seemed Maxwell could makeanyonehis next target.

As Rebecca moved again to approach the open door, the shifter’s furious snarl made her rethink that choice.

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