Page 46 of New Blood (Werewolf Alliance #1)

R ansom shook his head. “I can’t say. My room is on the third floor, so I have no idea if Eve snuck out in the middle of the night to sabotage Danielle’s car.

Jude sighed in frustration. “Damn it.”

“You should ask Grant and Parker. Didn’t they guard the master right after your fight with Byron? Maybe they saw something. Eve’s room is only three doors down from yours.”

Jude wanted to slap himself for not thinking of this earlier. As if his brain was scrambled. And maybe it was. The knowledge that he could have lost Danielle still sat deep in his bones. And the danger wasn’t over, not until they’d found the culprit.

“Of course! Thanks, Ransom. You’re the best.”

He found Grant in the library. He sat in a comfy armchair, his legs resting on a footstool, appearing to take a nap. It wasn’t a surprise: Grant had been on duty half the night.

“I’m not sleeping. Just resting my eyes,” Grant suddenly said.

He opened his eyes and looked up.

“Good. Cause I need to know if you saw Eve leave her room while you were guarding the master bedroom. She’s three doors down from it.”

“I know where her room is. After she disappeared into her room, I didn’t see her come out. Have you checked with Parker? He relieved me around 3am.”

“Not yet. Do you know where he is?”

“Perhaps taking a nap somewhere?” Grant guessed. “Why don’t you call him?”

Jude pulled his cell from his pocket and navigated to Parker’s number. He let it ring, but it instantly went to voicemail. He disconnected the call.

“His phone is switched off.”

“Or out of range,” Grant said. “I noticed that in some areas of the estate, you don’t get a cell phone signal.”

“I’ll check his room,” Jude replied and left the library.

Recalling the floor plan Parker had made, he headed to the new wing of the mansion. After a quick knock at the door, he entered Parker’s room. The curtains were drawn, and the room was dark. The sound of running water came from the ensuite bathroom.

“Parker?” Jude called out and closed the door behind him, stepping farther into the room.

A moment later, the water was turned off.

“Parker? It’s Jude.”

“What?” came Parker’s reply.

A second later, he exited the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his lower body, his skin and hair still dripping with water.

“Sorry to disturb, but it’s important,” Jude started.

“Shoot!”

“When you were guarding my bedroom, did you see Eve leave her room?”

“Eve? No. Not her.”

“What do you mean by not her ? Did somebody else leave?”

Parker wiped water off his forehead. “Well, I saw Violet. But I couldn’t see where she went. I only saw a glimpse of her on the stairs. You know, her room isn’t on the same floor as yours, so I don’t know for sure where she was coming from. But I definitely saw her going downstairs.”

“What time was that?”

“About five in the morning. I figured she probably went for an early morning run.” He shrugged.

“Thanks, Parker.”

Jude turned away, contemplating his words. Why had Violet left her room at 5am? Was she an early riser? Or had she used the time to sneak to Danielle’s car to tamper with the brakes?

Danielle would probably be able to answer the first question, but he didn’t want to worry her. She was still shaken about the accident, and he didn’t want to contribute to her anxiety.

However, there was one other person who could tell him about the habits of the Gallagher family members: Priscilla.

As a servant—how much he hated that word—she was one of the first to be awake to get breakfast started.

If anybody knew whether Violet was an early riser, and leaving her room at 5am was nothing unusual, it was Priscilla.

He searched the house for quite a while, because he didn’t want to ask anybody about her whereabouts, so as not to make the Gallaghers aware of the fact that he suspected that one of them was responsible for the so-called accident.

Since searching the house was a bust, he strolled to the cottages Danielle had shown him previously.

He passed the burnt-out cottage, then reached the second one.

He knocked at the door and called out Priscilla’s name at the same time.

The door was ripped open within seconds, and Priscilla stared at him, a book in her hand, clearly startled.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I just needed an hour to rest. And there wasn’t anything urgent to do in the house. But I can come back right now. I’m sorry.”

She couldn’t stop talking, clearly intimidated—and possibly scared. He suspected instinctively that Flora probably didn’t approve of Priscilla taking breaks.

“No, no, I’m the one who should be sorry,” he said, lifting his hand apologetically. “I didn’t mean to disturb you during your break. I just wanted to ask you a question.”

“Oh. Okay?”

“Can you tell me if Violet is an early riser? I mean, does she get up early to maybe run in the woods or work out?”

“Violet?” Priscilla shook her head. “I never see her before eight. She always sleeps in.”

Jude let the words sink in. This definitely cast suspicion on Violet.

“Is this about Violet coming out of the garage this morning?”

Jude’s heart skipped a beat. Had he heard correctly? “She was in the garage this morning?”

Priscilla nodded eagerly. “Heath and I ran into her when we walked up to the house this morning.”

“What time was that?”

“Around seven.”

“Did she say anything to you or Heath about why she was in the garage?”

“No. Just good morning.” She leaned in and lowered her voice. “This is about the accident, right?”

He hesitated, and she quickly withdrew.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to be nosy, but when you asked my brother to check out the car, I just figured… I mean, it’s none of my business, but I care about Danielle…”

“Thank you, Priscilla. Can I trust you to keep this conversation between us?”

“Of course.”

“Thank you.”

He turned on his heel and headed back to the house.

With every step, his suspicion deepened.

Both Heath and Flora had mentioned before the oath ceremony that Violet was quite handy with fixing a car.

In fact, Flora had been proud of her daughter’s skills.

This gave her the means. The opportunity was clear now, too: as per Parker, she’d left the house around 5am, and Priscilla and Heath had seen her come from the garage at 7am.

That gave her plenty of time to tamper with the brakes.

But what about a motive? Did Violet have a strong enough motive to kill Danielle?

His thoughts went back to his first morning at the Gallagher estate.

He’d come out of his ensuite bathroom, dressed only in a towel, when Violet had surprised him.

She’d claimed to want to supply him with fresh towels, when she had to know that Danielle had done that the night before.

Besides, why would Violet do servant work?

Had she done it so that she could get close to him?

Had she assumed—or perhaps even known—that Eve wasn’t keen on mating with him?

Had she, too, overheard Eve and Byron talking?

Had this given Violet the idea that she would be his choice, knowing that Eve wanted to reject him as her mate?

And with him mating with Danielle, he’d thwarted Violet’s plans.

He should have seen this, but he’d never thought that Violet presented any kind of risk to him, Danielle, or his men.

She was too nice on the surface, congenial, sweet, and friendly.

It was the perfect cover, he realized that now.

Violet was much more dangerous than she looked.

But he wasn’t fooled any longer. She would pay for what she’d done.

His cell phone rang and pulled him out of his thoughts. Without looking at the display, he pressed answer and put it to his ear.

“Jude Beaumont.”

“Jude, it’s Hendrick.”

Jude stopped in his tracks.

Fuck! The Werewolf Alliance. He hadn’t expected them to call. Not yet anyway. Normally they left it up to the team leader to report on the progress of the mission. Besides, he’d spoken to the elders during the video conference only yesterday.

“We need to talk.”

Jude swallowed the lump in his throat. Conversations starting with those four words were rarely ever about something positive.