Page 46 of Elven Prince

“A stink,” Maxwell growled.

Rebecca shot him a sidelong look, but he was either too distracted by the bodies or simply pretended not to notice. “Among other things.”

“So it wasn’t a mass murder with bullets or knives, it wasn’t poison, and nobody killed these poor bastards with a stinky spell,” Lerrick said, “what the hell else is there?”

“When I figure it out, I’ll let you know.” Rebecca found herself studying the layout of the warehouse floor as intently as Maxwell did, pondering all the possible unknowns of what looked like a sneak attack on Kash’s place of business and his crew. Even without any supporting evidence beyond a warehouse of corpses and no determinable cause of death. “But I have a feeling thehowisn’t nearly as important as the who or the why.”

That seemed to break Maxwell out of his contemplative scrutiny before he turned toward her. “You think the same people who beat Archie half to death and left them in the trailer did all this too?”

“It’s entirely possible,” she said. “This would’ve been the last place anyone else saw him until I found him. I’d say there’s a pretty good chance Archie was the last person to see any ofthiscrew alive too.”

“Sure, but why kill everyone here and not go all the way with Archie?” Tig asked.

“Maybe someone on this crew saw whoever kicked his ass and threw him in the truck,” Lerrick suggested. “Then the attacker figured he had to cover his tracks after that. If he couldn’t figure out who saw him, he could have taken out the whole warehouse instead and called it a day. Problem solved, right?”

Maxwell raised an eyebrow. “Without getting his hands dirty?”

“Sure. Whoever it was had no problem getting his hands dirty with Archie, but a warehouse full of working guys on the clock suddenly made him squeamish. None of these guys in here were even touched.”

“Not physically,” Maxwell grumbled.

“It’s a message,” Rebecca muttered.

The others turned toward her as one with matching expressions of confusion and curiosity.

Of course she would have to explain it to them. She was probably the only one of them who’d had any experience dealing in this kind of psychological warfare before.

Honestly, she should have recognized it sooner.

12

“This isn’t two separate attacks, one on Archie and another on Kash and his entire operation,” Rebecca explained. “It’s the same attack. Two parts of the same plan. Put them together, and it means something completely different.”

Maxwell and the others stared vacantly at her until she realized she had to spell it all out for them, beginning to end.

With a sigh, she swiped loose strands of hair away from her face. “That’s exactly what this is. I’ve seen it before.”

She didn’t have to tell them that once upon a time, Rebecca herself had been the one responsible for sending this exact kind of message. That had no bearing on what they faced now.

“Okay…” Lerrick scratched his head and looked to the others.

“And what’s the message?” Tig asked.

Rebecca tried to steel herself against all the implications of what she now knew waited for them. Of what all this meant for Shade. And for her.

“The message is they did all this to show they know who we are,” she said. “And who Shade has contracts with. Where we source our supplies. Where we get the fucking food Bor puts on our plates. They know who we network with to fund, feed, and resource the entire task force.

“They staged the attack on Archie, dumped him in his own truck, and left him in the garage at ourHeadquartersto make it clear they know whoweare, andwherewe are. They know where we all lay our heads at night.”

She looked up at Maxwell, who instantly met her gaze with his silver flashing eyes, and she swallowed. “They want us to know they could attack at any moment, whenever they want, on our home turf or someone else’s. They want us to know nowhere is safe anymore, and that if they wanted to do this again, we’d never see them coming.”

“And the messenger?” Maxwell asked. “Any idea who it might be?”

Rebecca almost laughed. “I have a whole list of ideas. They all fit the profile of someone who would want this.”

He nodded. “Harkennr, then.”

“Maybe. It could’ve been. Though all his methods are tied in one way or another to Xahar’áhsh, and this is definitelynotold-world warfare.”

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