Crowning Glory [The Royal Wolves 3] (Siren Publishing Allure) Read online

  “Sure thing, Demon,” he said as he continued to make verbal notes into the voice recorder.

  Striding down the alley and toward her Lexus, she stripped off her gloves and paused at her trunk to peel off the booties over her heeled boots and slipped into the car. Later she would go and check on Harker, but for now she would leave it because Harker’s lover would ask her questions that she didn’t have answers for right now, she knew one thing for sure, she would never, never have a cop for a boyfriend, or even lover.

  * * * *

  She knew that she wasn’t wrong. Every instinct she had told her that the killer was a local New Yorker, and that he was choosing his victims from locally owned bookstores. The question however was which store? Was the perp the store owner or someone that worked for them? There were so many questions, and not enough answers, and it was completely pissing her off.

  Chewing the hoagie slowly later that night, she sat with her back to the wall of the small café and thought through everything that had been happening lately.

  First, she gets the promotion, which made her do a happy dance inside. Second, her best friend nearly dies, not so much the happy dance there. Third, same friend finds her soul mate, Demon actually snorted at that one, as if there was such a thing. Fourth, Demon wanted to kill same friend’s soul mate, she really wouldn’t miss him, would she? And as if those weren’t enough, the local wolf population was suddenly popping up everywhere. Seemed that her friend’s soul mate was one of the lost Princes. Joy. And she was hunted. Double joy. And finally, she knew that as much as she hated it, really, really hated it, she was going to have to ask said asshole soul mate of her friend’s for help. She was going to have to ask for help for one simple reason, there was a leak in her department and she had a very, very bad feeling that the killer had a mouse in her house.

  When her iPhone pinged new mail, she opened it and nearly spat out the sandwich. All right, well forget asking Mr. Snarky Ass for help. Nope, she couldn’t ask him for help when his brother was Prime Suspect number one.

  Reading through the files as she drank her tea she felt ill, she had met Ben Farkas as she had interviewed shop owners, and of all of them, he was not even a blip on her radar, until now. Why had he lied to her? What did he think, that she would turn a blind eye when she found out that not only was he a wolf, but he had dated each and every one of the women? Add to it that they all had the same athletic build and flaming red hair, why had he lied?

  Tossing a twenty on the table, she walked out even as she pulled out her walkie and said, “Dispatch, this is Detective Franco. I need a search warrant for ‘A Step Back in Time’ and an arrest warrant for Benedek Farkas.”

  In her car she received the crackling communique back asking for the reasons and replied, “Homicide, first degree of four women.” She finished her dispatch call, assured the warrant was on its way to her in-car printer. Gotta love technology and whatever judge she had just awoken at 2 a.m. for a sign-off on the warrant. Off she went, toward the home of Benedek Farkas.

  She hated puzzles, with a passion she hated them, and that was why she was good at them. She hated them. However, that focused her intensity and made her want to complete them all the sooner. When she arrived at the house of Ben Farkas, his staff told her he had went to the store. She turned and headed back to town, but only after ensuring that there were cops by the gates, waiting.

  She finally made it back to the bookstore around 3:30 a.m. and saw the black-and-whites there waiting. “I need two of you around back, two here at the front,” she ordered the four men who looked like she had interrupted their naps. Receiving their nods, she tugged her gun out, cocked it, and banged on the door. “Benedek Farkas, this is Detective Franco. I need to speak to you now.”

  Unlatching the door, Ben peered out. “Detective, can I help you with something?” he asked as he took in the police cars and settled his eyes on the gun in her hand. “Uh, is there a problem?” She could see his instincts went on high alert.

  “Benedek Farkas, you are under arrest on four counts of murder,” she said as she forced her way in, the safety on her gun off. While it was lowered, she could have it up and him shot before he could breathe wrong. “Why did you lie to me, Ben?” she asked, and in that question there was a flash of something, regret, pain and disbelief as well as a wealth of hurting for having to arrest someone she had actually liked on first contact, something very, very rare for her.

  Blinking at her, he shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Des,” he said quietly before looking to the other cops who all looked ready to shoot first and ask questions never. Looking beyond them, he saw Mik, hands in his pockets and leaning back against his car. From his brother’s expression, some form of shit was about to hit the fan. “I won’t be as obvious to claim, well…the obvious, so you’d better read me my rights, Detective,” Ben said and put out his hands. “If they break anything in here, I will have my lawyers bury you all for this life, your children’s lives and their children’s.” He smiled pleasantly. “Just so you know.”

  “No one will break anything, Ben,” she promised and began to read him his rights. When she was finished she cuffed him loosely and then when she turned him around asked again, “Why didn’t you tell me that you knew all of them, Ben? You are not who I would have ever thought.” She hurt, she ached in the center of her chest because she had to arrest a friend, and that was killing her.

  “You never asked if I knew them, Des, you asked where I was on certain dates, I didn’t realize it was in relation to them,” he said softly, knowing Mik would have his balls for saying even that. Course, so would Laz and the lawyers, but Ben wasn’t a liar. “I told you where I was, Des, why didn’t you bother checking to confirm I was there instead of jumping on the easy bait. That’s all I am, I’m the bait for the trap to bring my brothers in for the kill, good job,” he murmured and then shut his mouth and looked at Mik who was eyeing him in disapproval. Shrugging slightly, he ignored Miklos shaking his head and mouthing nasty words his direction.

  Instead of putting him in a black and white, she put him into the front seat of her Lexus. “Don’t move,” she said and had that itch, the one on the back of her neck where she knew that shit was seriously about to hit the fan and it pissed her off even more. What the fuck, first a puzzle and now this feeling?

  She looked around, her eyes moving over the small crowd of people, and when she saw him, she knew. It wasn’t the imposing large man who was looking at her like he wanted to dismember her, nope, it was the weaselly little shit that tried to melt into the crowd that had the gleeful look on his face. Yep, that was more than she needed.

  Clicking the button to lock and arm the alarm on the car, she headed into the shadows. She knew that Ben was safe in the car, his cuffs were loose enough he could easily get out of them if he had to. Gun once more at her side, she raised it and had it before her as she moved through the alleys and toward the shadow racing away.

  “Shit! Fuck!” she yelled when she hit a dead end. “Son of a fucking bitch!” She was beyond angry, no two ways about it. Tapping the gun at her thigh, she walked back toward the car, trying to figure out why Wiley Willy was so interested in the arrest of Ben Farkas.

  Waiting for her when she came back out, Miklos lifted a brow. “Slipped away did he?” he asked softly before turning to look back at the crowd. “Considering who he’s helping it’s not a surprise, the fact that they showed their faces here is, though. Never a good sign when the packs start openly showing their faces around,” he murmured, tapping his fingers against his leg. Glancing back at her, Miklos grinned slowly. “By the way, you’ll soon get to meet our big brother, thought it only fair to warn you.” He laughed darkly and headed away. Tapping on the window of her Lexus, he gave Ben a thumbs-up and then climbed into his car and, backing out, headed for the precinct.

  She slid into the car and sat there for several minutes before saying, “We aren’t going to the station.” All right, so it wasn’
t the most brilliant of moves on her part, but there was no one she could trust and it was just not a good place to be in. “I would take you to FBI HQ, but I don’t want to have to put you through the booking shit there, believe me, they make the locals look like a cake walk.”

  “So what, we’re just going to drive around?” Benedek asked her, shaking his head. “You’re going to have to take me to the precinct sooner or later or the lawyers will have your ass in a sling.”

  Gun back on her hip, she pulled out and away from the store as she asked, “Talk to me, Ben, so you didn’t volunteer the information that you dated these women, why?” She turned and looked at him and sighed. “Someone is setting you up, why?” she asked, still frowning because puzzles drove her nuts and when she found who was fucking with her, she was going to skin them alive.

  “You know who my brothers and I are, Des, that gives you one hell of a list,” he pointed out. “Any of the packs would pay to have our heads served up on a platter. There are a few that are on the fence and some others that have our backs. But”—he looked out the window—“for this it’s definitely one of them that wants us dead.”

  Glancing back to her a moment later, he stared at her. “I didn’t feel the need to drag out the fact that I dated them and that each date was a roaring failure. We went for dinner and they were all more interested in my family than me, so it went nowhere fast. They left before dessert and I tried again. It was all through a friend that runs a dating service, she’s been trying to hitch me up for years and, as this has proven, she’s really got no sense for who I really am.”

  She was tapping the steering wheel and frowned. “I know later I will have to take you in, but not now. Right now I’m all about keeping you safe.” She pulled out the warrant and keys to the cuffs and handed them to him. “This is the true warrant. The one that I issued that was broadcast was a fake because I know something is up.” She knew he couldn’t be a killer. His brother? Hell yeah. But him? No.

  Lifting his brows, Benedek undid the cuffs and handed them back to her with the keys as he held the warrant. “Who’s this one for, then?” he asked, not opening it just in case. “And you do realize that when Laz finds out you falsely arrested me, he’s going to be pissed.” Understatement for sure there.

  She shrugged and tapped it. “That is for you, too, Ben, but it is a warrant to protect and serve and not arrest and detain. As for your brother…” Who cared, maybe if she was lucky he would try to kill her and put her out of her misery. “Here is my question, Ben, all of the women looked the same, all the same build, body type, hair color, so what is it that you are looking for?” She wanted to know if he would tell her what Harker told her about Miklos and her, that they had been fated.

  Frowning slightly, he shook his head at her as he let his mind wander. “The one,” he said softly.

  She rubbed the bridge of her nose and watched behind her, seeing the tail and starting to attempt to lose them. “You have packs that want you all dead, only this one is willing to kill any and all women that have a certain look to them as you date them, think they are looking for someone in particular to you?” Tell me if you met her, Ben, she silently said in her mind. Tell me if you met her so we can save her or she will be next.

  “They’ll want our mates dead, hopefully before we mate, or if not that, then before we change them,” he said quietly as he shifted in his seat. “Once they are Wolf as well, they’ll be nearly impossible to kill, before then they are still vulnerable, just as any human is.”

  “And have you…” She trailed off. She wanted him to talk to her, not the other way around. She needed to figure this out before she had to take him in to her superiors, but she was so limited on time.

  Looking to her, he watched her for a long moment. “When we meet our mate, dreams are how we get to know them. The Wolf pulls the one destined to be our mate into the dream. I was hoping to meet mine through dating, but so far it’s been a bust. Goes to show, never listen to a psychic of the Wolf race,” he said with a mocking laugh at himself. “Course, she likely just wanted me out of there so god only knows if she even gave me the right information. After all, to be seen meeting with one of us is a death sentence,” he murmured, shaking his head.

  “Maybe she has part of it right, just not the who part yet.” Which would explain why there were women with flaming red hair and athletic bodies that were coming up ripped to shreds. “Well, let’s hope that they will think that I am her.” Yeah right, yes she had the right build and hair coloring, but oh well.

  Glancing in the side mirror, he watched for a second. “You know, they’ll just keep tailing you until you stop at a light or somewhere with only a few witnesses and then they’ll kill us both.” Turning his head he stared at her. “Head for the precinct, Des, Mik and Laz are there, I’ll talk down my brother and you can tell them what you know and, if we’re really lucky, those pricks behind us will go with the idea that you’re trying to wheedle information out of me without my lawyer present.”

  She smiled sweetly and that should have been enough to let him know she was up to no good. “Believe me, Ben, I plan on going there but for the simple reason that whoever it is, they are the ones that have been leaking information from my case and out into the field.” Both hands on the wheel now she said in complete honesty, “As for your brother?” She shrugged. “I will shoot him.” Hopefully it was Miklos he was referring to because that would give her pleasure to do just that. First he goes and mates with her best friend, her only true friend, and drags her into the mess they were all living in. Hunted by the packs who all wanted the Wolf Princes dead, the line forever broken so that not a one of them could ever sit on the throne again.

  Blinking at her, he shook his head. “Why the hell would you shoot Laszlo? You haven’t even had the displeasure to meet him and you’re planning on killing him already. For shame on you, Desmonda, you shouldn’t be planning things like that with a witness around.” And then another thought hit him and he narrowed his eyes. “Unless you were actually hoping to shoot Mik. What has he done to you?” he asked with a heavy sigh. Knowing his brother, he’d gotten on her last nerve in a big way.

  “It was Mik I had hoped to shoot. I don’t know, he has rubbed me wrong from the first moment I met him. I think it was how high-handed and asshole-like he was with my best friend. She was hurt and then here he came swooping in and took her away.” The only other person she had trusted in an instant was Harker, and Benedek. “So, I don’t like him and he doesn’t like me. We are fine like that. Harker sends him away when she knows I’m coming over and I make myself scarce when he’s about to come home.”

  “Okay, you’re going to have to be a little more specific than that, Des. What about him rubs you the wrong way? The fact that he’s Harker’s mate and she’s all lovey dovey around him?” he asked softly. “Come on, tell me everything, I’m his brother, I might be able to help you lay some of your dislike or, if you prefer animosity, toward him to rest.”

  “I have no idea what it is about him other than he was in my face when we first met and I was in his.” She made another U-turn in the middle of the street. “We are heading in to the precinct, do not speak to anyone when we get in there. Not even your brothers, Ben. Not until they have you out of there, understand?” There was someone who was leaking information and the only way to find them was to leave bread crumbs of her choice.

  “All right,” he said with a shrug. “You going to put the cuffs back on me?” he asked with a grin. “Come on, you know you want to,” he teased her, hoping to get her to relax a little. Checking the mirror again, he focused on the driver. “They don’t look happy, I think they’ve clued in to where you’re heading.”

  “Nope, they are seriously fucked off and hoping they can get me to remain still enough for them to do some damage.” She looked down at him and grinned. “And you know I will cuff you back up, baby.” She winked at him and shook her head, if only he wasn’t a murder suspect, she would seriously see if he was
interested in more than friendship, because god knew she needed to get laid, and soon, or she would kill someone.

  Glancing at her sharply, he blinked. “I would never have guessed you were into the kinky stuff, Des,” he said with a slow grin and chuckle. “You’ll definitely make some man a very interesting partner in life,” he told her. Shifting in his seat, he put his back to the door to watch her. “Actually,” he said slowly, his eyes narrowing slightly, “you’ll make a Wolf a marvellous mate.”

  She snorted and shook her head. “No way in hell. Cops, agents, firemen and wolves are not on my list for potential bed partners.” Or so she said. Deep inside she wanted one, for one simple reason. “Because they are too forceful, too dominating, and too protective.” All things she wanted, no, needed in a man.

  “Well yeah,” Ben said with a chuckle as he relaxed. “Well, good news is, it’s not me, honey,” he pointed out. At her look he explained. “The dreams,” he said and continued when she just looked confused. “A Wolf pulls his or her mate into the dreams so that they can get to know one another. We’ve met a few times before this and if you were my mate we’d have already been in the dreams together.” But he was almost positive she’d be a mate to a Wolf, there was just something about her, something tangible.

  “Well that’s a good thing.” Because her dreams were not a place for anyone to get to know her. In her dreams she was not the bitch that she portrayed to the world. Stopping in front of the station, she quickly placed the cuffs back on. “Remember, head down and don’t say a word.” She patted his shoulder and slid out of her car, flipping off the vehicle that had been trailing her as they flew down the street.

  Opening his door, she put her hand on his head. “Watch your head, Ben.” She tugged him out and toward the front of the building.

  “You’re enjoying this,” he muttered softly to her as he hid his smile following behind her. Keeping his eyes moving, he spotted a couple of vaguely familiar faces but then they were hidden behind others. “They’re watching,” he said as she pushed him in front of her through the doors. Stepping inside, he saw Mik and Laz and shook his head once, scratching at his nose with a finger that he let fall past his lips in the signal for silence. He only hoped his big brother would listen and ignore the fact that Desmonda looked much too pleased with dragging his ass through the cop shop in cuffs.