Page 35 of Miami Heat (Urban Heat 3)

For the first time since they arrived, Deveron sobered. “I’m prepared to tell you everything I know—well, almost everything.”

Adam flared his nostrils. “Everything.”

“You’ll be satisfied with what I share. I promise.”

Sakura stepped forward, sat down, and crossed one leg over the other. “I’ll be the judge of that. We know you and your people were in the hotel room where my mother died. I’m thinking you were there that very night.”

“I could have come to do my own investigation,” he suggested.

“Did you?” Adam demanded.

Deveron steepled his fingers on the desk, and before he lowered his gaze, Adam thought he saw frustration, anger, maybe anguish in

the depths. “No, we were there the night it happened, but I wasn’t there to kill her. I went there to kill your father.”

Sakura gaped. “You’re crazy if you thought that would happen.”

He shrugged. “I was more full of myself back then. I—for lack of a more accurate word—ruled Miami when it came to shifters. With my intelligence. I got full of myself. I had intel that your father came to town, and I intended to be the one to take him down by my own hands.”

“And what happened?” Adam asked.

“We were slaughtered. I was down to a few men, but at last I broke through his defense to where my information said he was. What I found…”

“What did you find?” Sakura insisted, leaning forward. Her pallor seemed too pale to Adam, but he knew to try to get her to calm down now would be futile. Besides, she wasn’t so fragile, and if she fell, he would catch her. He took a few steps closer to her and stood guard behind her chair.

“My friend,” Deveron said, and Adam heard raw pain. He drew a deep breath and blew it out. His gaze glassed over, and he spun to stare out the window, but Adam doubted he saw anything. Not because of the night, but because he recalled the past. “The humans were all drugged, asleep—the owner, her husband, a few guests. There weren’t many. However, the shifters—my people—were dead, their bodies yet to be cleaned up.

“Your father came out of the room on the second level, wild-eyed, manic. I didn’t stand a chance. If the two men I had left hadn’t come along to create a diversion, I would have died that day. As it was, I got away with my arms, legs, and my stomach cut. I think he got some kind of sick pleasure in slicing me with a sword.”

Sakura shut her eyes, head bowed. “A katana. Mama had a thing for all things Japanese for a while. Dad must have used her weapon.”

Deveron banged the desktop, and Sakura jumped, opening her eyes to look at him. Adam snarled, daring him with a look to try anything, but he settled back, his shoulders stooped. “I knew I had one friend left other than the two who helped me, but he was dying. I hid and waited. From my vantage point, I witnessed your father shout orders to others and call someone on the phone.”

“A cleanup crew,” Sakura supplied. “I can’t believe he had the presence of mind to do all of that after finding Mom.” Her voice held pride and pain.

Deveron looked at her in disgust. “You admire him?”

“Your people killed my mother. I don’t care if we slaughtered every one of you. It doesn’t equal her life.”

Deveron flattened his hands on the desktop and rose in degrees. Adam repositioned himself in front of Sakura. She stood and moved to his side, no doubt refusing to be cowed by the likes of the older fox shifter.

“Another car pulled up to the motel, and a woman got out. She spoke with your father a few minutes and then went inside the room. He left in another vehicle, along with his men. I was in no condition to attack the woman, not knowing her skill or that of the guards she had with her. Then she called in help, still another vehicle, this time a van. She didn’t wait for them or speak to them at all. She left, and the men from the van took my friend away. We followed. They dumped him in a place he would never be found by any human, but we were there. He was almost dead. Five shots to the chest, a slice across his eye.”

Sakura dropped to the chair she had vacated. Adam grasped her hand in his. “Savino. That’s who you’re talking about, isn’t it? That big dude who works for you, obedient like a servant?”

Deveron continued speaking as if she hadn’t said anything. “I knew the kind of man your father is, and I knew the truth. We withdrew from Miami. In fact, we completely left America. We traveled back to Italy, Savino’s homeland, and stayed there for four years. When he was strong enough and agreed, we returned.”

“With another plan,” Adam said. “To take down her dad.”

Deveron shook his head. “I don’t have to.”

Sakura surged to her feet. “Who gives a crap about your plan? I want one thing only. I want you to bring that no good son of a bitch Savino out here so I can kill him.”

“He’s suffered enough!”

“Not yet, he hasn’t.” She pulled her knife from its holder. “I’m going to carve out his other eye before I kill him.”

Adam spoke up. “Why did it take him so long to heal? I thought all shifters have a natural accelerated ability to recover.”

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