Page 67 of An Unending Claim

I wasn’t happy with the fact that he kept earning a little of my respect, although whether he lived remained to be seen. His explanation of how the hell he could put Peyton through her horrific childhood would decide his fate.

“All of this happened only a few weeks ago. I wasn’t even aware that you were pregnant.” He smiled, his eyes delighted when he added, “Congratulations,mon ange.”

“Um, thank you,” Peyton mumbled.

“Jude urged me to get in touch with you, but I didn’t want to come to you without something that would aid your situation. In the process of figuring out what to do, I stumbled onto emails written between Xavier and a man named Bane Holmes.”

“Recent emails?” Peyton asked.

She sounded confused, and I figured it was because she hadn’t come across the emails in her searching. Hacking email was child’s play and she would beat herself up endlessly if she’d missed something so obvious.

Léo shook his head and leaned a shoulder on the fireplace mantel next to him. “Almost three years ago.”

Peyton blanched, but I felt all of my emotion slip away, replaced by cold logic and strategic thought. For now, I couldn’t let what I felt for Peyton distract me. The only thing that mattered was keeping my mate and pup safe. If that meant tapping into the darker parts of myself, a ruthless killer who had no mercy for his targets, then I was confident that Peyton would understand my need to distance myself for now.

I will do whatever it takes to protect what’s mine.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR

PEYTON

Iwasn’t sure how to process everything Léo—my father, or dad, or whatever—had told me so far, especially knowing there was still more. My panther had felt the odd connection to his animal as well and didn’t know what to do with it, adding to my own turmoil.

Three fucking years?

“How? How could I have missed those?” It wasn’t possible. I couldn’t have missed it.

“You didn’t,” he answered, though the question hadn’t been directed at him. “I found them in Bane’s apartment. Xavier and Bane have a hacker on their payroll, but I haven’t figured out who it is yet. They are good, though. They scrubbed the internet trail completely clean.”

Relief flooded me. I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself for the others Bane had hurt if it had been due to my carelessness overlooking something as simple as emails.

“Has he known about Peyton that long?” Nathan asked.

His tone sounded strange and I looked up at him to discern what was going on in his head. There was nothing telling on his face–it was blank. So I tried to connect with his emotions. However, he’d dropped a wall between us.

My panther was confused and extremely irritated at Nathan’s sudden coldness. She paced inside me, growing more and more restless.

“No, it seems Xavier found out after Peyton’s first encounter with Bane” Léo replied.

“You’re telling me this is all one big fucking coincidence?” I asked in disbelief.

“No, only that night in the alley.”

“But…” Everything was swirling around in my mind and the file system I used to keep it all organized had been upended. My feline half was worked up, pushing me to run, to break free of the cage closing in around us. Now wasn’t the time so I tried to relax and soothe her.

“What was their connection prior to Bane becoming fixated on Peyton?” Nathan’s inquiry was on my mind, too, but I was distracted by his stiffness and lack of expression. I’d never seen him so… he reminded me of a high-value piece on an ivory chessboard. Hard, powerful, and waiting to strategically pounce on his enemies.

“Xavier’s hacker was feeding Bane his victims.”

“But they all fit his profile. What could Xavier possibly get out of that?”

My dad ran a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. I wasn’t sure why he looked so old since we generally stopped aging in our early-mid thirties, but I set it to the side to ask him about later.

“Bane’s loyalty. By supplying the victims, he became like a drug dealer to Bane. Xavier brought Bane’s fixes right to him, made it easy with no need for research, or stalking, only meticulous planning of how to commit the murder. Xavier even gave him their schedules and suggested the locations.”

“They were random?” Something didn’t feel right about that.

“A few, but I suspect it was to bury the others in a group that were seemingly unrelated. A few of them were from different boroughs’ packs.”