Chapter 76

Zane POV

On the plane home, I was deeply regretting not having listened to Travis more attentively.

We had found Scott just where Alpha Malo had said he would be, at the hunting lodge about twenty miles from the summer palace. Scott had been reading something on his phone and sipping Scotch as I burst in with Travis, hoping to catch him on his haunches.

Instead, Scott looked up at us with an expression of joy and relief.

“Oh! I’m so pleased to see you!” he exclaimed, setting down his drink. I noticed a gamma standing by the window, ready to serve. “I’ve been so worried.”

“I doubt that,” I said, but already I could see how he was going to play this and how little I could do to stop him.

“But I gave you the heads-up about Sarah right under Rob’s nose,” he said, walking up like he was going to embrace me. “You were able to bust up the slavery ring.”

“And then you fled the territory,” Travis growled.

“You bet your life I did! I had no idea how far the corruption had spread and just what those in charge were going to do to Zane and his family.”

“We’re not family,” I said.

Scott looked faintly hurt. He was good at it.

“I couldn’t just say, ‘Hey, brother, Rob’s got a slavery ring going on here,’ could I? I’d infiltrated his operation by pretending to be his friend, and then I knew all I had to do was suggest to you that Sarah was in trouble, and you’d take it from there.”

“Sarah was more than ‘in trouble,’” I objected, making sure I didn’t think too much about what she’d looked like, a pillar of fire taunting an alpha who was determined to snap her neck and as soon as he recovered from her blow to his balls. She’d never seemed more magnificent, and I’d never been more terrified.

“But you saved her, right? And executed that pig Eslvier. And I heard about Rob, thank the goddess.”

“So why didn’t you return when you knew Rob Shanton was dead?” Travis asked.

Scott shrugged. “I was going to, but then I heard you were on your way. I told Malo to tell you I was here.”

“Did you now?”

“Of course! And look!” He spread his arms. “Here you are. Is Sarah with you?”

“You cannot possibly expect me to believe you were warning me about the slavery ring so I’d put a stop to it,” I told him, even though I smelled no hint of deception about him. I wished more than ever my Voice would work on him.

Now he looked incredulous. “What’s the alternative, exactly? That I was part of it all? Why would I have warned you about Sarah if that were true?”

“You wanted me to find her after Eslvier was done with her,” I said, but the words sounded weak, and everyone in the room, even the house servant, I’m sure, knew it.

“You know I’m interested in Sarah romantically,” he said. “I’ve made no secret of it. Why would I want her harmed, let alone killed?”

“Because you’re a psychopath.”

He just looked at me with wounded eyes.

I turned away. “You’re coming back with us.”

“I know, and I’m all packed.” Scott called to the gamma, “Fetch my bags, will you?”

“Yes, alpha,” the servant said with a little bow and left the room.

I just walked out.

Now on the plane, I sat next to Sarah to keep Scott away while my half-brother worked a crossword and betrayed not a hint of concern. He did look up from time to time to smile at us and make comments about how good it was going to be to get home and how wonderful Malo had been to put him up while all “the unpleasantness” was going on.

I informed Sarah of Scott’s strategy in low tones once we were in the air.

“And Travis says there’s no paper trail to Scott at all?” she confirmed.

“None. And the problem is that you really had to be in that room to know what Scott was really up to.”

“And the only other witness besides you is dead.”

“Right. And even if there were someone else, Scott could just claim he was acting.”

She said somewhat carefully, “I thought alphas could smell when a wolf is lying.”

I nodded. “Works for humans too, usually, but Scott’s able to suppress his scene. I can’t pick up anything from him at all other than his, well, basic identification.”

She frowned. “Is that like at Marshal Kim’s cottage, that ‘hollow smell you picked up?”

I nodded slowly, surprised at myself for not having connected those dots before. “It’s not the exact same skill, but it’s in the ballpark.”

“So, perhaps, well.”

“Yes?”

“Is there a way you can investigate whether you have enough to publically accuse him before you publically accuse him?”

I nodded. “Yes.” I thought about it. She was right.

“I can call for a private meeting of the legislative board.”

She looked surprised. “I thought they only met publically.”

“When they’re being official, that’s true, but I’m allowed to confer with them for advice.”

“Who’s on the board?” she asked, but I could tell she was asking herself and trying to remember.

“Three alphas,” I said anyway. “My beta is currently on maternity leave, so Thomas Wolridge, Anna Pfizer, and Bertrand Straus.”

“What are they like?” she asked.

I thought about that the next day as Travis and I sat down with the three alphas currently in charge of my territory’s legislative oversight: What are they like?

They were fair and honorable people who didn’t just tell me what I wanted to hear. That’s why I appointed them to their positions.

With deliberation, I laid out everything I had against Scott, which seemed even less than before as the three of them listened with great care, making the occasional note.

“And you’ve found no trace of financial involvement?” Bertrand asked.

Yes, that was what it kept coming down to: the money. Scott couldn’t have been doing business with the slavery ring, not and keep his hands so clean. So if he weren’t paying for slaves or getting money for them, what reason would he have to be involved at all?

“None,” Travis said.

“What was your impression of Scott Cavendish when you found him at the hunting lodge?” Thomas asked him.

Travis took a breath and didn’t look at me. I nodded just slightly anyway, wanting him to speak his mind.

“He seemed happy to see us, shocked and offended that Alpha Zane suspected him of wrongdoing, and offered easy explanations for all his actions.” Travis bowed his chin slightly. “A little too easy for my taste, but that’s just my gut.

“So you have nothing you could offer a court of law about Scott Cavendish’s involvement with the slavery ring?” Anna asked, and I heard the final nail in the coffin get hammered in.

“No, I do not.”

Anna looked at me. “Alpha Zane, to corroborate Agent Travis’s testimony, we could call in the gamma servant you have said was in the room with you. Do you wish us to do that?”

I shook my head.

“No, I do not.”