Page 88 of An Unending Claim

“Xavier and I met once before. Twenty years ago.”

“After you helped Peyton disappear?”

“Correct. This piece of shit woke up to my claws at his throat and about to sever his balls. Wasn’t that what happened?” His eyes—the exact shade of Peyton’s, but without the gold flecks—glittered with malice. Xavier nodded and Léo went on. “I wanted to kill him. Fuck, it was so damn hard not to kill him. But if Peyton ever reemerged, I didn’t want any suspicion thrown on her. So I told him to forget all about her, or I’d come back and finish the job. Then I slipped past every bit of his security on the way out, just as I did on the way in. I could get to him anytime I wanted. Did you forget, Castile? Because framing her for multiple murders, kidnapping her, trying to arrange her banishment, none of those things sound like forgetting her. Wouldn’t you say, Nathan?”

“You forgot the wrong Dyer, Castile,” I snarled. “Because I’m tempted to hand you over to Léo and let him cut you into pieces for our amusement.” I’d secured Léo’s agreement on Peyton’s plan before we reached Castile territory, so he didn’t argue.

“You can’t prove any of that,” Xavier rasped. I’d loosened my grip just enough to allow him to speak, without making it easy for him to do so.

Before I could say anything else, my cell rang. I almost ignored it, but it could be Peyton if she managed to escape and find a phone.

I shoved Xavier at Léo, who had him on his knees with long, razor-sharp claws at his throat before I could blink. With no time to be impressed, I hurried to pull my phone from my pocket and hit the accept button. “Peyton?”

“Sorry, no,” said Scott.

“I can’t talk right now—”

“Nathan, I guarantee you want to hear what I have to say. It’s about Peyton.”

I froze. Was he calling to tell me that her body had been reported?

“I received a call a few minutes ago from the PD of a small town about ten minutes from Castile territory. They recovered three bodies who’d been sloppily tossed into the river. One had its throat ripped out, one had been stabbed with what they thought was multiple knives in the gut, but which I’m positive was actually claws. The third was shot between the eyes with a silver bullet.”

“What does this have to do with Peyton?” I growled impatiently.

“The one with the bullet hole matches the description of Bane Holmes. They are sending his prints and I’ll compare them with the set you got off the broken phone.”

My breath rushed out and I hadn’t realized I’d been holding it. Not only was it not Peyton’s body they’d found, but it was more than likely that Bane wasn’t with her, and I knew she was still alive.

My first thought was that she’d killed all three of them and escaped, but if that were the case, I would have felt it, or she would have found another way to contact me. But we were one bad guy down, making Peyton a little safer, so I was grateful to Scott.

“Thank you. You have no idea…”

“I have a mate, too, Nate. I’ll text you the name of the town and the cops who called it in.”

“Thanks.”

“Anytime.” Then he hung up.

The message came through less than thirty seconds later and I forwarded it to Ephraim. Then I contacted him through the pack link to let him know what I’d learned.

Already headed in that direction,he replied.

I’ll let you know if I find out anything else.

Roger that.

Finally, I turned back to face the other two men in the room.

“Who killed Bane?” I asked Xavier.

He looked as though he might not talk, but he was as vain as he was cocky and I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist bragging. “I shot the little weasel. You’re welcome.”

“Excuse me?” I said, my voice tight with the restraint it was taking not to rip his head off. I was inches away from giving in to my wolf’s demands.

“I kept him from making your mate his next victim.”

“Where is she?” Léo demanded as he pressed his claws a little harder into Xavier’s jugular, forcing him to raise his chin and arch his back. Then Léo put his knee against the Alpha’s spine and leaned on it.