Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(100)

He stared at it for a moment, confused, and then he slowly raised his eyes to look at me. "Did you do that?"

I sighed as I nodded. "Yes, and now we are all going in the house so this can be explained to you."

I'm not sure if it was the Alpha in me that he sensed and obeyed or if he just realized that he wasn't going to leave Phoenix's residence with a pulse, but he turned on his heel and walked to the open garage door.





Chapter 50



Alex





One hour! They had one damn hour to convince him they shouldn't all go to jail or he was calling in SWAT. He had enough sense to know that the city police wouldn't be able to take them all in without someone dying, and even though Mena had said she'd been the one to murder Marc, he didn't want her to get hurt.

He'd meant what he'd said about loving her. It would kill him to put her in handcuffs, but he couldn't just let her walk. Could he?

The others kept their distance behind him as he made his way down the stairs to Phoenix's massive basement.

He'd wondered why the guy lived under the house the one other time he'd been here, but too much had been going on at the time to ponder it for too long.

As he walked down the long corridor, he noticed there was a door open to a room on the left. The light was on within. It must have been closed off the last time he was here, for he hadn't noticed it at all then.

He hadn't planned to be nosy, but after one glance in the room, his feet damn near tripped over themselves trying to stop. His jaw unhinged as he took a step inside what could only be identified as an artillery room. Over half the stuff was illegal to carry in the United States and the rest was illegal to have period.

Row after row after row of automatic handguns, semi-automatics, high-powered rifles, weird-looking shotguns, three cabinets labeled WMD, with smaller lettering of CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL and NUCLEAR written at the top of each one.

As he let his gaze move to the other side of the room, he felt the eyes of the others on his back, but he couldn't seem to stop looking at all the weapons or thinking what on earth the owner of a dance club would need them for. One thing was certain, Phoenix Mahoney was going to prison for a very long time.

His eyes roamed over a wall full of throwing knives, swords, shurikens, nunchuks, and he froze when a familiar, shiny six-inch dagger caught his attention.

He pointed at it. "The girl at Hellhound—"

"I didn't kill her, Rhodes," Phoenix replied. "The people who killed Katie were trying to frame Mena and me. Both our prints were on the missing dagger. I gave it to Mena for protection, and she lost it a few nights before that girl was murdered."

Alex pulled his hand back, but his mind was still reeling with scenarios. "But the murder weapon came up missing after the medical examiner left with the body."

"I sent Jaxon and a few others to get the knife before you could dust it for prints, but some others had the same idea. There was a scuffle and the murder weapon was taken by them. They still have it. If you haven't heard, the medical examiner has also come up missing. He is one of the people trying to hurt Mena."


"Why should I believe you?" Alex said.

"It doesn't matter to me if you do or not, but if your plan is to put any of us in prison, I can promise you that it's not going to happen; Brad wasn't lying to you; we're not human and neither are you… anymore. I'll be in my chamber when you're ready to discuss it," Phoenix said, then left him standing there.

There is no way any of this is true or even happening at all, for that matter. It has to be a dream, a nightmare, rather. Yeah, the dogs attacked me, and I am now unconscious in a hospital bed. The pain medicine they're giving me through the IV is what's causing this morbid dream. If it's not a dream, then it is definitely a prank. "This is a joke, right? Am I being punked?"

Mena slowly shook her head. "Come talk to us, Alex," she said, and then followed the rest of them.

"This is a mistake," he muttered to himself. "I should leave. I should transfer to another department and move away from here." He stared at the door a moment, then his feet began to move forward. "Guess it's a night for shouldn't haves."

They'd left the door of Phoenix's chamber open for him. Guess they didn't think he was going to leave after hearing what they'd told him thus far. If this wasn't some kind of sick joke, how the hell could he leave? They had told him he wasn't freakin' human anymore. When had that transition happened? Better yet, how had it happened?

"Have a seat, Rhodes," Phoenix said, his back to him as he poured Scotch into two glasses. "Want a drink? I'm pretty sure you're going to need it."

He noticed most of the others were standing. "No. I'm fine. And I think I'll stand. I'm ready to get to the bottom of this and get the hell out of here."

Phoenix shrugged as he walked to a chair closest to the fireplace and sat down. He looked at Mena. "Would you like me to tell him?"

Her eyes were on the floor as she shook her head, but, after a moment, she glanced up to meet Alex's curious stare. "No. I think it would mean more to him if it came from me."

"The floor is yours then, Lupacchiotto," Phoenix said.

Alex's fingers curled into fists as he glared at Phoenix. He had a pet name for her? Lupacchiotto? What the hell did that even mean? The guy had been lying to him all along about his relationship with Mena. Friends? No, and it pissed him off that he hadn't trusted his gut instinct before. If what Phoenix had said in his driveway was correct, she had been with the * only hours before screwing him. There was no happy ending to this story for him, and it made him sick to his stomach to admit that to himself. He somehow knew hearing the rest of what she had to say would only make everything worse, but he couldn't make himself leave.