Page 12 of Bonded and Betrayed
She nods at Silas and takes a staggered breath, understanding passing between them.
“As you saw, Zeke was there on the night he was murdered.” She squares her shoulders, that impenetrable mask from earlier snapping over her features. “I was given the first video just after the memorial, and I just got the second one back today from a friend in New York.”
She shifts her attention back to me. Her eyes, once full of care and … love, now hold nothing but skepticism and incredulity. I deserve it, though. I can’t blame her if she doesn’t trust me, not when she must have been staring at my face the last few days, thinking I killed her father.
“This is your chance to tell us the full story, Zeke. Did you know your mark was my father? Who hired you?” She snaps her mouth shut, cutting off the million questions I know she must still have.
“I’ll tell you everything, Sky. Every detail that I can remember so we can catch the person who did this.” My pulse pounds in my ears. “I don’t know who hired me, he chose to remain anonymous, and I can see why now, but I can give you all the info I have on him.
“He came to me the same way most of my clients do,” I continue hurriedly. I shake my head and close my eyes, trying to piece together the events in my mind. “He reached out to me through my secure email address, untraceable both for the sender and me. He asked that I call him Mr. Incredible, and that’s all I knew him as. It’s not the first time someone has used a name like that. People seem to think themselves invincible, especially when they’re having someone taken care of.”
“Zeke,” Everett snaps, breaking me out of the tangent I was about to go down.
“He told me the mark was Elijah Adler.”
Skylar bares her teeth, and growls reverberate off of the walls at the mention of that name.
“Elijah is the leader of the Adler pride of lions from New Jersey. They specialize in a different sort of trafficking, making them the most hated among our kind,” I explain at Zayn’s questioning look. The Adler pride is known across the country by most shifters, especially those who have any connection to the illegal side of our world.
“I jumped at the chance to take him out and didn’t question which brave soul actually put the hit out on him. I’ve had the opportunity a few times, but the client was always killed before I had the chance, and I couldn’t let blowback be on the Whitlock pack’s hands,” I add. Everett’s jaw ticks at the mention of the pack and a conversation we’ve had plenty of times before. “So when I got the call of where the mark would be and that the client would lure him out to the alley with a phone call, I didn’t ask any questions. But when I was lined up, ready to take that shot, something didn’t add up. It seemed too easy that events lined up the way they had, and when I heard a snippet of the conversation—”
“What did he say?” Skylar blurts, her hands clenched at her sides as if she’s fighting back the urge to shake me.
“I couldn’t make out the voice since it was muffled by the mask, but I heard something about his wife, and as soon as I heard that, I pulled the shot.”
“Why would that—” Zayn asks, but Arsenio cuts him off.
“Because no woman would touch Elijah with a ten-foot pole, let alone marry a man like that.”
A shiver runs up my spine at just the thought of some poor soul being tethered to that vile man. I shake my head, attempting to clear my thoughts of the infamous lion shifter and focus back on that day. “Have you checked your father’s phone records? It sounded like he knew the client well.”
“The number was unlisted, to a burner phone I suspect.” Skylar purses her lips, her eyes going distant for a moment. “I might have my friend go over that as well. It seems the source I’ve been using might not be as reliable as I thought.”
I rake a hand back through my black hair, my heart easing slightly at the lowering of that barrier between us.
“I never knew the mark was your father, Sky,” I say, sweat beading in my palms. “I only accept hits on the worst of our kind. Hell, despite the animosity between our packs before, I would have never betrayed another Endcliffe pack like that, especially not when we were in the midst of—ah—brokering a deal with your father.” I clear my throat uncomfortably, not wanting to remind her that her father had attempted to barter away her hand in marriage before he was killed. Judging by the slight narrowing of her eyes, that’s exactly where her mind has gone.
Silence stretches between us, the tension filling the air, sending my pulse ratcheting back up. My eyes flash to the mark on her neck, the silver scars like a beacon. My own claiming mark burns in answer, a reminder of just a few days earlier when I thought nothing could come between us.
“I believe you,” she sighs after a moment, her shoulders slumping slightly. “There’s still a lot we need to discuss, but I believe that you didn’t know it was my father.”
A cool wave of relief washes over me, but I can tell that despite her willingness to believe me, there is still so much we need to work through to get back to where we were. My mate is not one to trust easily, and having the burden of this doubt on her shoulders won’t be something she can easily let go of. Hope flickers in my chest as her fingers soothe over the mark on her neck. Not all is lost. I just need to show her I’m with her every step of the way and that my past won’t stand in the way of our future.
I glance back down at the screen, the frozen image of my bullet lodged in the red brick, unearthing a question from the back of my mind
“How did you get this video, though?” I ask hesitantly. “I swept the area ahead of time and looped all the cameras. This shouldn’t exist.”
Her lips turn down, and she turns the screen back to face her. My stomach churns as I search her expression, hoping she doesn’t pull her walls back up. When she looks at me, I see acceptance and determination in her gaze.
“Monte gave it to me,” she says reluctantly. The admission elicits a growl from Everett, his hands fisted at his sides as though he’s barely holding himself back from tracking down that beta of hers and ending him once and for all.
“I think we should give them a moment,” Arsenio murmurs, his red hair flashing in my periphery as he clasps Everett’s shoulder.
“It’s my office,” Everett argues. He looks between Skylar and me, his jaw ticking. To my surprise, he actually relents, letting Arsenio lead him out into the hallway.
“We’ll wait for you outside, Alpha,” Silas says, clearing his throat before he exits.
“Let us know if you need anything.” Seline casts me a wary look and follows her father out into the hall.