Page 88

“Good evening, Ms. Valens,” Dubois said.

“Hi.”

“Your apartment complex has been deemed a locale of special interest.”

“Fantastic. Why don’t you let the owners know? I’m sure they’llwant to add that to their marketing materials.”

“It’s for sale? I suppose that doesn’t surprise me.”

“Yeah, strangely the owners aren’t delighted by the increased crime in the area.” Inthisarea specifically.

Dubois frowned. “We are attempting to address that, but we only have so many officers, and, as you’ve observed, our presence here isn’t always enough to deter criminals.”

“Yeah.” I braced myself, waiting for her to bring up my werewolfness. There was no way shehadn’tfigured that out.

“I lost my partner last night,” she said grimly. “We weren’t expecting such an organized attack. That was a mistake.”

“They were more than I expected too.” I didn’t mention the glowing purple weapon that had been like daggers to the brain.

Dubois met my gaze. Here it came…

“I believe you saved my life,” she said.

I didn’t answer, expecting her to say that it didn’t matter. She knew I’d been responsible for the deaths weeks before. She knew what I was and would arrest me.

After a few silent moments, Dubois raised her eyebrows. “Thatwasyou, wasn’t it? There were two, ah, wolves, but the black one… had your eyes.”

“Huh.” I didn’t see a recording device, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have one active in her pocket. My gut told me not to admit anything.

“From what I saw, I no longer believe your tenant is training attack wolves.” Dubois waved toward Rue.

“I told youthatfrom the beginning,” Rue muttered. “As if my famil— mycatwould have allowed that. She gets huffy even when one of those two has been in the apartment.” She pointed at me and at Duncan.

So much for my attempt not to admit anything.

“I can imagine,” Dubois murmured. “Anyway, I came to let youknow that we’ll increase the number of officers on patrol around this area, and that I’m not… arresting your tenant.”

“Or anyone else here?” I asked warily.

She looked toward Duncan and then me. “Not at this time.”

“Oh.”

Dubois smirked and said, “You’re welcome,” before heading to her patrol car.

“Thanks,” I called after her.

Duncan had waited for our conversation to finish, but now he joined me. “Perhaps you were correct about her being drawn to your allure.”

I shook my head, having a feeling Dubois merely believed that she owed me one. “You’rethe one she saw naked.”

“And yet she comes back to visityou. Strange.”

“Indeed.” I looked at my phone to see if Austin had called or texted, but he hadn’t. There was, however, a message from Lorenzo.

A word of warning. The pack wise wolf, who is quite attuned to magic and the artifacts of our kind, believes the medallion you seek may be about in the world again.

Amused, I looked toward the cupholder in Duncan’s van. He’d been right. There was no way the family wouldn’t have learned that he had it.