Page 45 of New Blood (Werewolf Alliance #1)

J ude, accompanied by his brother, walked around the garage to the covered area where the ATVs were located. Austin had arranged to have Danielle’s car towed there so that they could investigate why the brakes had failed.

Heath and Parker, who both knew their way around cars, had been checking out the car for the past hour, and finally called him to meet them to hear what they’d found.

The two acknowledged his and Austin’s arrival with a nod.

“Right,” Parker started. “It’s not a wonder the brakes failed. The fluid in the hydraulic system was completely drained.”

“It was full of water when we pulled the car out,” Heath interjected.

“What caused it?” Jude asked.

“A hole in the line,” Parker replied.

“Wear and tear?”

Parker shook his head. “Nope. Cut’s too clean. Somebody cut it at a strategic spot.” He bent over the engine and pointed to an area. Jude had never been interested in cars enough to recognize the different parts but trusted Parker’s expertise.

“Well, here’s the spot where somebody made an incision in the line, just enough so that the hydraulic fluid will start leaking the moment the car is in motion.

Then here—” He pointed to another spot. “—see that? The moment the brakes were engaged, the fluid drained even faster, so the more the driver hit the brake, the worse it got.”

Jude looked at Parker. “So you’re saying somebody did this on purpose.”

“Yeah, and it actually was pretty clever too, because had the person cut the line completely right away, the driver would have realized much earlier that the brakes weren’t working. Maybe even seen the fluid leaking.”

He pointed to the gravel path that led to the front of the mansion.

“Danielle would have still been on the flat part when realizing the brakes were dead, and would have had the chance to stop just by heading for the bushes. That alone would have stopped the car at that low a speed.”

“Parker is right,” Heath added. “Whoever did this was counting on the car losing its braking power when it was past the gate and going downhill.”

“Fuck!” Jude cursed. “Somebody wanted to kill Danielle. They couldn’t have known that I would be in the car with her.”

“Lucky for her,” Austin said. “If you hadn’t used the handbrake and steered her toward the pond, she’d be dead.”

Fury charged through him. He knew exactly who had done this.

“That fucking bastard. I’ll have his hide now. He’s gonna pay for this!”

Nobody hurt Danielle and got away with it. He should have expected this, should have realized that one beating wasn’t enough for the hotheaded pup who thought the world danced to his tune.

Jude marched back to the house and entered it via the back door that led through the mud room.

It was empty. He walked into the hallway and reached the door to the kitchen.

Lunch time was long over, and Priscilla had already cleaned up, and the dishwasher was running.

But that wasn’t the only scent he picked up.

He inhaled, and the hairs on the back of his neck rose.

He stepped into the kitchen and saw that only one person was present: the person he needed to deal with.

Byron tossed a raw egg into a blender, which was already filled with other food items. Jude charged toward him, just as Byron looked over his shoulder, alerted by the loud footsteps on the tile floor.

Byron’s eyes widened.

“You fucking jerk! You tried to kill Danielle! I’m gonna make mincemeat out of you.”

Jude landed his fist smack-dab in the middle of Byron’s face. The hotheaded spoiled wolf-pup hadn’t even seen it coming.

The scent of blood instantly filled the kitchen, while Byron, still clearly dumbfounded at having been found out so quickly, raised his arms to shield himself from more punches.

“What the fuck!?” Byron cried out, giving him his best attempt at looking confused and innocent. Well, it didn’t cut it. Not by a long shot.

“You cut the brake line in Danielle’s car. You nearly killed her!”

Jude landed another punch, this time an uppercut, which Byron didn’t get a chance to block.

“I didn’t do anything!”

Byron was able to block the next punch, but it didn’t matter. He wanted the asshole to fight back.

“You sabotaged her car! You fucking bastard! I’ll show you what happens to people who hurt the ones I love.”

He swung again, but this time, his fist didn’t connect with Byron’s face, because somebody from behind him had snatched his arm, jerking him back.

Furious, Jude whirled around, ready to beat whichever relative was defending Byron. To his utter surprise, it was Wendell who was stopping him from beating Byron to a pulp.

“What the fuck, Wendell? Let go of me, or you’re next.” With his other hand, he pointed back to Byron. “He cut the brake line in Danielle’s car to kill her!”

“Stop, Jude! Listen!” Wendell demanded.

“Damn it.” Jude jerked his wrist from Wendell’s grip, then glared back at Byron, ready to continue pummeling him.

“He sabotaged Danielle’s car last night after he found out that I’m mated to her.”

“That’s not possible,” Wendell protested.

“He did it.”

“I didn’t!” Byron piped up, puffing his chest out now.

“He’s telling the truth,” Wendell added.

“You believe him?” Jude asked in shock. “He’s lying!”

“He’s not. I was on him like white on rice from the moment he left your bedroom last night. He was on a bender all night.”

“You followed me?” Byron cried out, glaring at Wendell. “What the fuck, man! I don’t need a fucking babysitter!”

“Yeah, well,” Wendell replied dryly, “you needed one last night. Or how do you think you got home when you were too fucking drunk to even remember where you’d parked your car?”

“I took a fucking Uber!” Byron yelled.

“Yeah, well, I was the Uber,” Wendell grunted. “And you’re paying to have the car cleaned.”

Jude stood there looking at Wendell, stunned by the revelation. But he knew he could trust Wendell with his life.

“Are you sure?” he asked, looking at his team member. “He could have tampered with it this morning. Danielle didn’t use the car until ten.”

Wendell shook his head. “We got back around eight, and he was passed out. I checked on him a couple of times. There’s no way he could have done anything to the car this morning.”

“There you have it!” Byron said triumphantly. “I didn’t do it. Just like I said.” He huffed indignantly and marched out of the kitchen, leaving his hangover smoothie untouched.

When he was outside and out of hearing range, Jude took a breath and ran his hand through his hair. His heart was racing, and his hand was trembling.

He looked back at Wendell. “So if he didn’t do it, then who?”

Wendell shrugged. “Beats me. But if only Danielle was the target, then we know that whoever did this had to do it after finding out that the two of you are mated. Before that, nobody had a motive for getting rid of Danielle.”

He’d come to the same conclusion. “It has to be somebody from the family.”

“The motive is easy,” Wendell claimed. “You’ve offended the entire Gallagher family by mating with Danielle, though every family member may have a slightly different motivation.

What’s harder to figure out is who had the means and opportunity.

But as I said, Byron is clean, even though he would have made the perfect scapegoat. ”

“Damn,” Jude cursed. Now every member of the Gallagher family was a suspect. “Who has the most to gain from Danielle’s death?”

“That’s an easy question.”

“Eve.”

But was Eve capable?

“However, I don’t see her fiddling with a car,” Wendell added. “Might wanna check with Ransom. He’s been keeping tabs on her.”

“Thanks, I’ll talk to him.” He turned halfway. “Oh, and don’t mention anything to Danielle. She doesn’t know yet that this wasn’t an accident. I don’t want her to worry. She’s in the middle of moving all her things into the master. I’ll talk to her about it tonight.”

“She won’t hear it from me.”