Page 60 of Her Forbidden Shifters
I continued to search for clues as Noah searched for the jewelry box that was supposed to hold the heirloom. There was only one common denominator that had been around the entirety of this case. And that one thing was Noah. He had been incredibly silent since he mentioned the possibility of his sister somehow being involved with the fire trap. His lack of chatter was unusual and only worked to ground my suspicions about him being involved even more. I growled as my anger took control of me and then spun around to face Noah.
My hands clutched the front of his shirt as I pushed him against the wall. “I know there is more you haven’t shared with me. Now is the time to let it out before someone I care about gets killed.”
Noah stared down at me. I ignored the sadness in his eyes. He didn’t seem inclined to start talking. But I had ways around his silence if he continued to push me in that direction.
“You’ve already lost your sister. Did you want to lose Savannah too? Because if not I highly suggest you start providing whatever information you’ve been keeping to yourself.”
Tears welled up in his green eyes, staining the whites of them red. He sighed and nodded.
“Spit it out,” I snapped.
“A couple of weeks ago, someone came to me with a proposition. He was a regular sort of guy. Nothing about him stood out to me.”
“Yeah, and?” I spat out.
Noah attempted to shrug but the movement didn’t work well for him since I still had him pinned against the wall. “He wanted to collaborate on some new and strange technology. It took me a little time to figure this out, but the device was designed to cripple shifters and render witches useless. Though it wasn’t described like that initially.”
“How are you so sure about that?” I asked, staring him in the eyes, but I could find no tells he was lying so far.
“I could tell by the overly technical explanations used to describe the device and its uses within the business model. Naturally, I wanted nothing to do with the project and turned the guy down. He wasn’t happy about it, but he didn’t make any threats either.”
“And you didn’t think to tell anyone this until now?” I growled out.
“I didn’t make the connection until now,” he said, growing defensive. “Not until the apparent dragon fire. Look, I get you and Jacob don’t particularly care of me, but I would never, ever let someone I love to be put in danger.”
As much as I didn’t want to believe him, but it was hard not to. The man showed all the signs of telling the truth. A tear trickled down his cheek. I watched the drop fall from his jaw and huffed a sigh, releasing him from my grip.
“Sorry,” I said, my voice coming out a little softer. “This case has me on edge.”
“Don’t be. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have done the same if the roles were reversed,” he said.
I nodded. “I can work with this.”
As he adjusted his clothes, he met my gaze and nodded once. He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed.
“Where does your sister keep the heirloom?” I asked.
“In her jewelry box inside her nightstand,” he said and headed toward the spot. He pulled open the door and frowned. “What the hell?”
“What now?” I asked.
“The jewelry box isn’t here. She always kept it here,” he said.
I groaned inwardly. Nothing in this case could come easy for once. Everything had to be a struggle. And I was learning that was by design now. The people behind Avery’s disappearance and the other missing witches didn’t want to be caught or found. They were working covertly to remove shifters and witches from the world… at least, that was my new theory.
“Let’s look around, maybe she moved where she kept the box and never told you about it…” I suggested.
“That’s not very likely, but okay,” Noah said then shrugged and started searching.
I joined him, looking in the less obvious places someone might place a jewelry box. And now that the trap had time to settle, I figured we might find a clue. The dust wasn’t a clue. It was a purposeful move to make the whole fire thing look sloppy.
After several minutes I gave up and asked, “Any luck?”
“No. I still can’t find it,” Noah said.
I nodded. “Then I think it is safe to say the heirloom is lost. We don’t want to hang around here forever and risk bumping into more trouble with that group again. We need to leave soon.”
Noah searched the floor a couple more times and nodded. “Yeah. You’re right.”
