Alpha Beast (The Alpha Shifter Collection Book 10)(17)
Author: Sam Crescent

 

“No. She disappeared after everything went dark. Did I hit the ground?”

 

“I got to you,” he said. “You didn’t touch anything but my arms.”

 

She offered him a smile. “You’re my shining knight.” She touched his arm. “You’ve got to find out who her mother is.”

 

“Baby, I have nowhere to start.”

 

“You know what that building was for. You’ve got a starting point.”

 

He shook his head. “We use that building as a cover to help distribute drugs and some other crap my father wants to sell, but I promise you, Jenny, on the night of the fire, that building was supposed to be fucking empty. No one was supposed to be there. All of our men are accounted for. The bodies that have been identified, we’ve had to run some kind of … interference, to show we still have control. We don’t know who it was, or how it burned down.”

 

Jenny sat back, shocked. “You don’t know who caused it?”

 

“No. We don’t.” He stood up and walked a few steps, then back. She watched him. His rock-hard body on full, tempting display.

 

“We don’t know who could have been in the fire, or why. There is no reason for anyone to be there,” he said. “They were, but why?”

 

Jenny looked at her husband. The little girl’s comments came back to her. “Wait a minute. The little girl. She must have passed due to the smoke inhalation because she told me she screamed for her mother but she didn’t stop. Her mother got out of the fire and into the car with suited men. Nice suits. The kind that if she sees, she has to be quiet. I know it’s not a lot to go on, but it’s something, right?”

 

Liam looked at her. She saw his mind working, and she smiled at him.

 

“The cameras,” he said.

 

“What?”

 

“The cameras on the building have all been wiped. We do it for our own protection, but what about across the street?” he asked.

 

“Do you think someone might have proof of what happened that night?” she asked.

 

“It’s worth a shot.”

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Seven

 

 

 

 

The following day, Liam arrived back at the scene and glanced at his passenger, Jenny.

 

“You didn’t have to come with me, you know. I can navigate this all by myself.”

 

“I know and I trust you.”

 

“But?” he asked.

 

“But nothing, I’m just… I have to be here with you. I don’t understand it myself, but I feel like I have to be here. It makes no sense. I know that.” She climbed out of the car and he did the same, looking over the car roof at the building.

 

“Are you getting anything?” he asked.

 

“No. It even looks different in the morning. Strange.”

 

No, to him, it was strange that dead people could zap his wife’s energy. That fucking terrified him, and not in a good way.

 

He tapped his fingers on the roof of the car and looked at the building, trying to figure everything out. There was one story going out to the press, another to his men, and the truth he told Jenny last night.

 

“What about over there?” Jenny asked.

 

He followed the direction where she was pointing and saw it was another angle of the street. There were three other businesses, all of them with cameras pointing in opposite directions of his building.

 

“I guess we better start going to look.” He slammed his door closed.

 

“Did you bring your checkbook?” she asked.

 

“I did.”

 

“You’re going to need it,” she said.

 

The first property was a florist. The woman gave him an angry glare until he pulled out said checkbook and wiped out half of her debt with the stroke of his pen. He handed her the piece of paper and she took him toward the back room where she held the tapes of the past week.

 

It wasn’t too hard to find the one he needed. The times were on the top right-hand corner.

 

The woman stayed with them as the footage played, but it didn’t give anything away. The shadows on the ground gave an indication of when the fire got out of control. There was also a fire crew at some point, but that was it.

 

“Do you want your check back?” the woman asked.

 

He declined and followed Jenny out of the florist. “Even with that money, she will never recover.”

 

“Don’t be that way. Without your seedy business here, she might find a way of bringing in new customers.”

 

“My seedy business?” he asked.

 

“Yes. Do you think that eyesore didn’t cost a lot of people in the long run, not to mention your reputation?”

 

“There is nothing wrong with my reputation.”

 

Jenny turned toward him with a shake of her head. “Seriously, you want to play that game?”

 

“I’m not playing any game, just stating a fact.”

 

She rolled her eyes. “They don’t even know that you’re a wolf. That at the height of the full moon, you give in to your blood lust.”

 

He wrapped his arm around her. “The only lust I feel is getting you naked and riding your sexy pussy on my dick.”

 

She chuckled. “Soon, but we have got to do this.”

 

“You’re in a chipper mood,” he said, taking hold of her hand as they crossed the street. “Do you care to tell me why?”

 

“Sure. I don’t believe in allowing stuff like this to completely suck with my day.”

 

He glanced at her. Her smile was so serene. She looked beautiful. Her hair did seem whiter than before, if that was even possible. He didn’t know if it was or not.

 

Lifting her hand to his lips, he kissed her knuckles. “Have I told you lately how beautiful I think you are?”

 

“No. You don’t tell me nearly enough times.” They had stopped in the street and Jenny’s gaze moved toward the main building.

 

“Do you see something?” he asked.

 

“No, nothing. It’s like nothing and no one is home, but I feel something.” She licked her lips and her hand trembled in his. “I don’t like this.”