Page 9 of Her Forbidden Shifters
“Shame that money of yours didn’t help you to learn manners,” he snapped.
“I have manners. Proper ones too. But I find more fun in living freely and without care,” I said. “But you didn’t answer my questions.”
“I don’t owe you any explanations or answers,” he said. “And before you get any ideas, you’re off-limits to her as well.”
“Does she know you have feelings for her?” I asked.
Detective Abadi growled. He was close to shifting and if he didn’t calm himself down, he would. “This arrangement can go one of two ways.”
“Oh, do tell me what my options are,” I said, cutting him off. Part of me was begging him to shift so we could put this show of who’s better behind us.
Because it was me, of course.
“You can either be tied up and gagged or not. The decision is up to you,” he finished. A flash of pain filtered through his eyes.
I shook my head. “There is a lot of history between Savvy and me. A lot of feelings as well. You might be threatened by it, but I don’t give a damn. My main concern is finding my sister.”
That wasn’t entirely true. I was being careful not to give away too much of my love for her, especially how every single reminder of what she meant to me came rushing to the surface the second my eyes laid on her for the first time in a few years.
She made my need to mate twist my nerves. It was nearly overwhelming.
“Then stop talking to me about my partner and start thinking about your long list of enemies.” He tossed me a pad of paper and a pen.
“Oh, gifts! I love gifts,” I said and settled myself against the head of the bed.
I thought about making funny doodles and tossing them to him, but I had pushed my luck enough... For now. He was right, though. I needed to focus on my sister and doing anything I could to help find her. Even if that meant opening old wounds.
“I wonder if they were able to find anything at Avery’s yet,” I said and stared at the page, trying to nail down suitable names. I didn’t have very many enemies. At least none who would go to the extreme of kidnapping my sister as retaliation for something I must have done to them.
But as I stared at the blank page, I was faced with frustration. Nothing was coming to me. And that made me wonder if I would somehow be responsible for my sister’s demise.
3
SAVANNAH
We arrived at Avery’s studio apartment and made our way to the door. I was surprised to find it locked. It didn’t make sense considering whoever had taken Avery shouldn’t have bothered with the locks. Locks were typically the last thing, if ever thought about, when a crime was committed. Especially a kidnapping that tended to be as violent as the one the group in question normally were responsible for.
“Does this seem right to you?” I asked Liam.
He shook his head as his lips were pressed into a thin line. “No.”
“What kidnapper would bother to lock the door on their way out?” I asked.
“None that I could think of. Or one who is very clever and good at covering their tracks,” he said.
“It doesn’t bode well for what we may find in there,” I said and pulled out my phone.
We called the super and had to wait for him to come unlock the door. We used the excuse of a wellness check to get in. Once the super unlocked the door, we stepped inside and asked that he give us privacy.
While inside, I first searched for the symbol. After not finding one, I was coming up with more questions than I had answers, which wasn’t exactly a great sign. The more questions I had, and the less answers for them, the longer this case was going to take, and that was something we were already short on.
“So how long have you known Noah?” Liam asked.
I glanced at him, slightly confused. “Um… a while. Years. About as long as I had known Avery. We were childhood friends and sort of grew up together.”
He nodded. “It appeared to me you had a romantic history with him.”
I sighed. “You could say that, I suppose.”
