I opened the door and Sasha already had her gun aimed at my chest. I put my hands up.
Rolling her eyes, she lowered her weapon. “Sorry. You surprised me.” She holstered the Glock and got up from the chair. “What did Adam say? Is Nadya all right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but he’s concerned about her.”
“Concerned?” She frowned. “Why? What’s wrong?”
I sat on the edge of the bed trying to think of some subtle way to ease into the subject. “Any chance your sister is psychic?”
Apparently I wasn’t feeling very subtle after all.
“What?” Sasha crossed her arms, with her brow arched up, staring at me like I just called her sister a sea monster. “Why would she be psychic?”
I shrugged and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my legs. “Adam and Lana have noticed a few things, and he seems pretty sure Nadya is figuring out they’re connected to animals. She may not have figured out how yet, but somehow she knows. It appears she senses things she shouldn’t know anything about.”
Sasha stared at the floor. “My mother told me stories once about some of the women in our family having gifts. She described it as mothering instincts, though, that they could tell when someone was hurt, or lying, or sad.” Her chin lifted so our eyes met. “I’ve never been able to sense any of those things. I thought they were just stories to convince me that if I lied to my mom she’d be able to tell. If Nadya has some sort of psychic ability, I don’t know about it. She’s never said anything to me.”
“Do you think someone told her to keep it a secret?”
Sasha rubbed her forehead. “Maybe? She’s ten years younger than me. By the time she started school, I was busy in high school.”
“Adam wants us at the ranch tonight to talk to her about it.”
She dropped her hands to her sides. “Didn’t we already decide it was a bad idea for me to see Nadya right now? What if we lead Fonthill right to her and the Pack?”
“Adam thinks the ranch is the only place where he has the backup to keep everyone safe. We won’t stay long, and he already has the property surrounded.”
“While your Packmates are outside guarding, we’re going to sneak me in. That’s what you’re saying.”
I nodded. “Adam doesn’t want the Pack to find out Nadya is your sister. This is the only way.”
“The dangerous way.” She started pacing again. “Has Adam said anything to my sister yet?”
“I don’t think so. He was checking with me first to see if I knew about her being psychic.”
“And he invited me to come along too?” she asked. I nodded, wondering where her train of thought was headed. “Adam and Lana are allowing me into their home with their babies?”
“Yes.” I opened my hands, trying not to show my frustration. “Sash, they’ve got your sister. I’m sure they don’t think you’d hurt them or the babies in front of Nadya. This isn’t some sort of ambush.”
Her pacing continued, and I waited, watching. Gradually her steps slowed and she stopped. “Sorry about the third degree. I’m always cautious when accepting invitations from people that don’t like me much… Habit.”
“Maybe when all this is over they’ll feel differently about you.”
She started to smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Maybe.”
Before I said a word, she spun on her heel and started showing me all the information she’d dredged up about Fonthill.
Apparently we were finished discussing family.
I picked up her notes while she shared the background she found on him. He was definitely a Green Beret. He’d joined the police force after he’d received an other-than-honorable discharge from Special Forces.
“This doesn’t say anything about any Lycan Squad… And what the hell does ‘other-than-honorable’ mean?”
“Since no one believes werewolves exist, I’m guessing the ‘Lycan Squad’ is something that very few people know about.” Her voice softened. “I didn’t realize werewolves existed until…” She paused a beat, then went on. “Fonthill was always strong and moody, had tendencies toward violence, and was possessive. His discharge was probably related to that.”
“A werewolf doesn’t do well without a pack.”
She rubbed her forehead, closing her eyes for a second. “I hadn’t been converted then, so I wouldn’t have noticed his scent. I had no idea I’d been working with a werewolf.”
“A Special-Forces-trained werewolf.”
“Exactly.” Sasha tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as she paced. “Typically an other-than-honorable discharge means you didn’t commit a crime, but you also weren’t able to do your job any longer. I wish I could find out exactly why he was kicked out, but it wasn’t listed anywhere I had access.”
I snapped the plunger on the pen a few times. “Don’t the police do background checks before they hire officers?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “And usually an O-T-H is an automatic disqualification for the NYPD, but he had an in. I remember during his review after he’d attacked Nancy, the mayor and a general of some sort were sitting in on the proceeding. Someone must’ve pulled strings to get him the job.”
“And he let them down.” I glanced back at the notepad and frowned. “After he lost his badge, he went to jail?”
“He got nailed for assault with a deadly weapon, but after he was paroled, he disappeared.”
“So he’s been living under the radar for the past five years?”
“Looks that way,” she replied. “There’s nothing on him. No bank accounts, phone numbers, nothing. It’s like he dropped off the face of the earth.”
“I’m guessing Nero had a way to reach him.” I set the notepad aside.
She traced her fingertip across the leather band she always wore on her left wrist. “I’m sure they did. Once Severino has you in his database of ‘paranormals’ he never forgets, and you can never really get away. He regards jaguars as the top of the paranormal food chain, but he keeps a record of every paranormal he comes across.”
My brow furrowed. “Does he keep our Pack in his database too?”
“He does now.” She sighed and shook her head. “You weren’t on his radar until he started hunting for Lana. When Sebastian didn’t complete the mission, he sent me to finish the job…and I reported back.”
“Sounds like Sebastian is lucky he’s related to the head honcho after the major clusterfuck at Lake Tahoe.”
She sat down beside me. “Sebastian is very lucky to be Severino’s eldest son. He won’t be quick to kill his heir. Not that it means much in their family. Nero comes first. If Severino found out Sebastian was at Lake Tahoe that night and not fighting for the ‘right team’…” Her voice trailed off for a second. “Sebastian is a master at keeping himself out of trouble. Nero’s goons probably didn’t even realize he was at the lake that night.”
“Or that he was helping Adam stop you.”
Sasha’s hand slid into mine, and our fingers twined together. “I wish I could go back and do things differently. The moment Severino promised me an antidote to stop being a jaguar, I was blind to everything else. I played right into his hand.”
I gave her a squeeze. “I wasn’t trying to nail you all over again. I was just pointing out that for some reason Sebastian did help Adam. Adam thinks it was because Sebastian still wants Lana for himself, but I doubt it’s that simple.”
“Nothing about Sebastian is simple.” She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath. “I have no idea why he’d risk so much to help your brother. At the time, I figured he just wanted to continue fucking up my chances for a normal life. If he kept me a jaguar shifter, then he’d still have me in his pathetic excuse for a life. But after Lake Tahoe, when he started helping me stay a jump ahead of Nero from the inside, my theory didn’t really hold water anymore.”