Death Wish (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #5)(9)

My cheeks burned with both embarrassment and fury. With my anger, my power flared. The lights dimmed in response. Not good. “I understand how that may look to you. I’ve spent the past year wishing I’d been the one to kill him. But, I don’t owe you an explanation.”

We stared intently at one another. I could feel her wolf staring out at me, sizing me up. I was torn, wanting to touch her to make sure she was real and to shake her for daring to judge me.

Juliet’s gaze dropped to the coffee stained tabletop. “This is hard for me, too. I’ve really missed you. You were supposed to be with me, all these years. By the time the FPA tracked you down, you were working for Shya.”

The FPA had clearly done their homework on me. She knew a lot. Too much. It didn’t sit well with me.

“What do you know about Shya?”

“A lot.” When Juliet looked up, there was a cold, calculating glint in her eyes. “He’s an FPA error that won’t disappear. He has his own agenda, which seems to involve manipulating anyone and anything with serious power to get what he wants. Including you.”

“You don’t have to tell me that Shya’s up to no good. He’s a demon. Why would the FPA ever expect anything else from him?”

“He was bound by a deal, one that he carefully constructed with a loophole. He got his hands on some classified information and went AWOL. We were keeping an eye on him, but our informant has gone missing. We assume he was murdered.”

The blood drained from my face. I hoped it wasn’t noticeable. The realization sunk in with a mind-numbing smack. Veryl, my jackass boss, had been that FPA informant. And, I had murdered him.

“Informant?” I tried to keep my tone light, unaffected. “I imagine that’s a job that comes with a pretty serious risk factor.”

She shrugged. “Sure. I doubt his link to the FPA killed him. He wasn’t one of our guys. Just someone that would slip us info every now and then.”

I wanted to kill Veryl all over again. He had to have known the FPA had my sister. He must have also known that they wanted me. And, he’d made sure to keep me for himself. At Shya’s command?

I took a deep breath and fought back the anger that threatened to overwhelm me. “If you’re talking about Veryl Armstrong, I killed him.”

Juliet paused, then nodded, short and curt. “Oh, I see. Why?”

“He was blackmailing someone. At least, that’s the official reason.” Wow did I ever wish I had a glass of whiskey. My nerves were shot.

“And unofficially?”

“I wanted to. Veryl kept a lot of secrets from me, like who’d attacked us. He had a bit of a God complex.”

“Hmm.” Amused understanding shone in her eyes. “That explains why we haven’t been able to reach him. Look, Lexi, I’m here because of an investigation. One of our agents was found dead a few weeks ago. Abigail Irving. The FPA thinks you might be involved.”

I was speechless. I stared at her, flustered, and tried for the best damn poker face I could muster. It took a minute to make my tongue work. “Who?”

I had known the night I killed her that Abigail Irving would haunt me. I never dreamed it would be like this. Veryl was one kill I’d proudly admit, but to anyone outside my inner circle, Abigail was “Speak no evil.”

Her gentle smile faded. “They’ve got you on a watch list, Alexa. They don’t trust you. Because of the power you have, you have the potential to be dangerous.”

I laughed then; I couldn’t stop it. Her statement wasn’t funny. Actually, it was downright threatening, shocking in that slap in the face kind of way. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“I’m not going to say anything about you being the one who killed Veryl.” Juliet reached into her pocket and withdrew a cell phone. She tapped the screen a few times and put it away. “Remember how I’d cover for you with Mom and Dad when you’d sneak out your bedroom window? And, then that one night you got caught. Climbed into your room, and Mom was sitting on your bed in the dark.”

“She scared the hell out of me. Grounded me for a month.”

“Me, too. For lying for you.”

The memory rose up like it was yesterday. We shared a laugh, giggling girlishly like the teenagers we used to be, before everything changed and our world was doused in blood. Tears flooded my eyes, and I blinked them back, fearful they would be crimson. I didn’t want Juliet to see that side of me.

“I missed you, Lexi.”

I laughed, but it was painful. “I missed you too, Jules.”

“I’m not accusing you of anything. I’d like to turn a blind eye to the whole thing. But, you work for an enemy. Be careful. I would hate to see us end up on opposing sides.” Juliet’s warning hung ominously between us.

The hits just kept coming this week. Since I was already screwed six ways from Sunday, I figured I’d ask the question dancing on the tip of my tongue. “Should I be worried?”

Juliet tapped her fingernails on the tabletop in an erratic pattern. With a stiff set to her shoulders and a bleak nod, she said, “If you killed Abigail Irving, then yes.”

Chapter Four

The band Crimson Sin was playing at The Wicked Kiss. The addition of live music had really improved the place, giving the club an edge that a DJ spinning top 40 songs couldn’t. Although, the vampire bar didn’t really need any extra edge.