Page 43 of Sire

Happy Valley? I suspect it didn’t end that way for Wren.

“Those places are idyllic but remote as hell,” Loch adds.

“Why does that matter?”

I can’t think clearly. I can’t reason. I just see Wren as a little girl who needed to be held and loved. She wanted a family, but she was rejected from home to home, and made to feel bad that she believed in God.

And now, God, I want to burn the fucking world down for her.

“Because,” Loch answers, “that’s what makes those places perfect for drug trafficking. Rough terrain. Remote. Low population. You can get away with murder on those mountains. I would know.”

“I think that’s what happened.” Axel won’t let go of my arm, and I don’t want him to. He’s right. Someone needs to hold me back.

“I have a new paralegal: Ruby,” he adds. “She’s smart as hell with good instincts. She obtained Wren’s DCS file but dug a little deeper. She found out that one month before Wren turned eighteen, Nannette Banks died from a stroke, and she had left her home to Wren. But eight months later, Wren’s home was the site of the largest meth bust in the county. Two days after the bust, it went up in flames.”

“Who was busted?” I rage.

“Not Wren,” Axel huffs like the wicked side of him is amused. “Three men were taken into custody. One was an unidentified minor. He was released, but the other two died hours after their arrest.” Axel smirks. “They had been poisoned and?—”

“And the ringleader remains at large somewhere in those mountains,” Loch adds.

Now, my brain is working.

Now, I can see it.

Meth? Death and drug trafficking?Not Wren.Fire, poisoning, and vengeance?Oh, my Iron Angel.

I reason aloud, “Somehow those bastards turned Wren’s home into a meth lab, but she fought back. They underestimated her. She probably collected enough evidence to turn them in, but she poisoned them to be sure they wouldn’t be a threat, and then she set their operation on fire.”

Axel grins, impressed. “Like a fucking queen, she did.”

“And that’s why you’re here, right?” I turn to Loch. “Thank fuck you didn’t join the Marines, because I need a forest ranger who can help me hunt that ringleader down.”

Loch nods. “We will.”

“That ringleader?” Axel pulls away like I’m about to blow. “The one who probably sold Wren into that trafficking ring?”

“You mean the man whose head I’ll take?”

“Yeah,” Axel answers. “He’s Nannette Banks’s son.”

CHAPTER TEN

WREN

I can’t sleep.Growing up, I never really could. I guess the hole in my heart was too big.

But at least here, in Sire’s home,our home, my eyelids grow heavy. I can almost close them, but Sire’s still downstairs talking to his brother, Axel.

Is it the buzz from the best day ever, or something else that’s making me wait up for him?

Finally, I hear Sire open and close his front door. I listen to him set the shopping bags down before his footfalls thud over the wooden floors. I hear him close his bedroom door, and minutes later, he’s taking a shower.

But I don’t hear his erotic, muffled groans that do something to my body. I don’t hear anything until a soft knock on my door startles me.

“Wren? You awake?”

“Yeah.” I sit up and turn on the lamp beside my bed. “Come in.”