The tires of my pickup truck bit into the coarse gravel of the red dirt road. Driving through tall, stately pines and sprawling oaks, I couldn't get Aurie's questions about Darcy's motives out of my mind. Why would he call her back upstairs? I had a headache from pondering the evidence, but I was no closer to answers.

My good doggo Ajit sensed my mood. The black and white speckled mastiff in the passenger seat lifted his head. "I'm okay, boy," I lied, scratching behind his ear.

In reality, I was worried this case was too much of a guessing game. I thought of the sticky note left on my monitor at work yesterday evening. A reminder Mrs. Edison needed a callback. Neither Aurie's mother nor Mayfield seemed keen on taking time to solve the hit-and-run the right way.

I had always worked by the book, even if the process was slower. I gripped the steering wheel tightly and frowned. Working by the book meant following the evidence, and I didn't like where the clues were taking me lately. I wanted to trust my instincts.

Was Paulie guilty? He had motive and history; however, that would mean Cyprian's moves that night had been pure happenstance. Of all the impossibilities walking the streets of Overlay City, there was no such creature as Coincidence.

I had decided to spend the weekend figuring out how the pieces fit together—Aurie and Haley Edison, Paul Jameson, Darcy Cyprian—at the one place where I could free my mind.

The sun was higher in the late morning sky as I parked the truck at my destination. I had taken care not to be followed, the way I always did when I came to this place. The rustic cabin was exactly as I had left it a month ago. Standing on a wing and a prayer for over twenty years.

It was where my younger brothers and I had spent summers with our grandfather. After Baba Fazil's passing, I had inherited the cabin and surrounding one-hundred acres. Hazeem and Yazeed had always preferred the fast pace of New Orleans, but this was where I found peace.

"Baba used to say there's buried treasure on these grounds," I said teasingly to Ajit. The dog barked in response, not giving a shit about buried treasure unless it was a good ham bone.

We entered the cool interior of the cabin, and I tossed my keys on the oak table and my duffle in a corner. As I moved through the living room area, I shrugged out of my shirt and got rid of my shoes, the belt, the jeans. Bypassing the handcrafted bed, I went out the back door in my boxers to taste the day on the wind. Long, deep inhales carried the smell of freedom. I smiled, relaxing finally.

The wolf within me stirred to life. Come on out, I coaxed. Ajit whined some, but he had seen all this before. He scurried to the other side of the porch, waiting for the transformation to complete.

My canines extended, and I yipped excitedly. Fingers splayed, my nails became sharper than normal claws, and I doubled over in exhilaration as my muscles bulged and reformed. I dropped to my knees with an impatient bark. Finally, I shook out a thick black pelt that shined sleek and healthy in the sunlight, and it was done.

It was almost better than sex. Almost. (Fading man-thoughts of what had transpired in the restroom with Mys crossed my mind, and it couldn't quite top that.)

My wolf let out a howl that sent birds flapping through the trees. Preternatural senses pricked to attention. Each noise was like a beacon in the thicket. Ajit barked in anticipation, a tamed creature by comparison, but a kindred spirit. It had been forever since we last hunted. My dog and I took off for the woods. The civilized world was overrated.

Bright and early the next morning, sunlight warmed my face, but that wasn't what woke me. I crooked an arm over my forehead and stretched a leg from the blankets. I was caught in a dream of chasing deer under a starry sky. I had in earplugs to help me drown out noise and sleep. The case had been giving me insomnia.

But there it was again. The sound of someone on my property. Footsteps crunched the pea stone gravel out front. I shot up in bed and the orange foam in my ears plopped to the sheets.

My first thought was Cyprian, but he didn't know of this place, and I didn't smell vampires. It was probably a driver with a wrong turn. Bleary-eyed, I felt around for my clothes. Ajit snarled at the sound of knocking.

"It's me, Ravani. Don't shoot."

"Tegan?"

Arching a brow in surprise, I scrambled out of bed and tossed on my jeans. When I opened the door, Ajit dutifully circled my partner, sniffing a few times before moving to his basket and going back to sleep. My curiosity wasn't as quickly satisfied.

"Yeah, your brother told me where to find you," she said with a grin as she removed her Ray Bans. She stared at my bare chest while she hooked the sunglasses in her t-shirt. With the casual khaki shorts and trainers, she wasn't dressed like she was on official business.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"You're welcome for checking on your ass! I skipped volunteering in the church job center to come find you. I must've called you a hundred times last night. Nice place, by the way. How come you, uh, never brought me here?" She gave herself a tour of the great room.

I closed the front door and tried to process one of my siblings telling some unfamiliar person about this place. Hazeem Ravani might have been listed in my file as next-of-kin, but I hadn't seen or spoken to my brothers in a long time.

The breach of trust was enough to make me reach for my phone, ignoring the Council mandate banning communication between us. It was a big deal because this piece of property wasn't on their books. It was the only place I could call my own, ever since turning down the title of Alpha.

Tegan grabbed the cellphone from the table before I could get to it. When she saw the device was powered off, she gave me a look of annoyance and tossed it back.

"I'm sorry you worried," I stated mildly. "Next time at least let me be missing a full twenty-four hours. I might've been with a friend out here."

"You mean the one you ditched me for the other night?" Her cheeky grin hid the bite in her tone.

I had forgotten Tegan was there 'the other night.' My memory of the pub date centered on the restroom session with Mys and the embarrassing public scene I had caused afterward. "In my defense, you ditched me," I said.

"Eh, I took the hint." She crossed her arms and cocked her hip, grinning. "Anyway, I'm not merely here for your health. Mayfield wants us to move on Paulie. Apparently, Mrs. Edison will no longer take 'wait' for an answer."

I swore under my breath. "We don't have anything solid on him. Here, make yourself at home." I showed her to the kitchen table and put on coffee. My bare feet whispered over the planks of the cabin floor as I crossed to open the curtains and made the blankets neater on my bed.

"The district attorney thinks otherwise," she said behind me. "Paul Jameson has gone from a person of interest to prime suspect. Given his location the night of the accident, which I confirmed via cellphone tower triangulation, we can charge him with breaking his R.O."

"Isn't it our day off?" I complained.

I returned to the kitchen area, filled a dented camp mug, and handed it to my partner. Tegan dropped a hand on my upper arm when I sat next to her. She leaned in with a sympathetic smile. "I'm not any happier about it than you. It's paperwork. You know how much I hate paperwork."

"We need to stall them. I need more time, Tegan."

"For what?" she asked.

I drummed the table with my fingertips. "One more situation I want to take care of before we make a move," I murmured.

I couldn't let the councilmembers know Paul Jameson was our prime suspect on the human side. The minute they found out we had someone in custody, they would cancel any thought of an investigation into Darcy Cyprian.

I needed to request an emergency audience to convince them to stay the course. I had half a mind to recruit Tegan to help bolster the case. I also needed to make sure Haley's location was as secure as Aurie's before any wrongful arrest emboldened the vampire further.

"What's wrong?" I asked when I saw my partner's baffled frown.

"You clocked out for a second. I wish I knew what went on in that head of yours. I've put up with your shit these many years and still can't figure you out."

I grunted in amusement. "You don't want into my world, Tegan."

"Why not? Could it possibly be any worse than my abusive, alcoholic past?"

Scratching my neck, I casually asked, "Did you hear Haley before the fifty-one-fifty psychiatric hold? She said she thought she saw her dead father that night."

"Yeah, she also said she saw her sister get up and walk away from that hit-and-run. What about it? Haley is schizo," Tegan replied wryly. She met my gaze, and she raised a brow.

"Schizo because she sees dead people or because she expects people to believe her?" I raised a brow of my own. "We tell supernatural stories all the time, as entertaining fictions. What if I told you that I really see things other people can't? Things that help me solve cases like the missing boy I found a few months ago."

"What, you're the psychic?" Tegan detracted.

"Not exactly." I ran a hand over my face at her skepticism. She wouldn't be able to help with Darcy. She would never believe vampires existed. "I just—I know what happens to people who experience perception differently. It's not easy to explain, but that doesn't make it any less real. I trust my gut. It's never been wrong for me."

"Ravani, you don't have second-sight. You have good instincts. I believe in that," said Tegan, "but don't think too deeply into it. Don't be thinking you know when you have no idea." She chuckled.

And there was the crux. My partner's jive talk got to the root of what had been bothering me throughout the restless night. Did I know for certain Darcy Cyprian had been after Aurie? She said, herself, that both sisters had gotten into that event the night of the hit-and-run.

What if I had been holding onto the wrong Edison girl? More specifically, what if I had been holding onto Aurie Edison because I saw a pretty mouth and dazzling eyes that piqued my interest? And I wasn't ready to let her go.