Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 637(@200wpm)___ 510(@250wpm)___ 425(@300wpm)
Maya felt unsettled. Edgy. Moody. Very unlike her. She made decisions with logic. She was decisive. She would never have agreed to meet with Theo if she’d been herself, but she was all over the place. Her body burned on and off as if she had a fever. She never got sick, and yet she felt as though she were coming down with some terrible flu.
“I should never have agreed to meet with him,” she muttered aloud as she paced the length of the basement. Fortunately, the area was very long and gave her enough space to relieve some of her pent-up energy.
We were burning up with fever, Wraith excused.
As always, Wraith excused anything Maya felt she’d done wrong. That was sweet and made Maya feel loved, but it didn’t help her learn from the mistakes she made. Mistakes could get them killed. They couldn’t afford mistakes.
Theo insisted on meeting her in this building, a sprawling one-story monstrosity of new modern design. The building was located in a town in the swamp just on the coast. Even Maya knew most residences and businesses were built high on stilts to avoid the flooding, especially those close to the water. They certainly didn’t have basements. This basement was below water level, so one little leak and it would flood easily.
The building was too new, and that was her first red flag. Theo sweated; his gaze, instead of shifting to the windows and doors, continually swept along the upper trim of wood as they walked down the hall. She could understand his nerves when he’d said he was in trouble, but he looked as if he were sweeping for cameras. Why choose a building and risk being caught on camera rather than meeting out in the swamp?
“Don’t give me drama, Theo. I don’t have much time.” She’d been curt. Her gut told her to get out of there. The farther they moved away from the main entrance, the more her alarms were going off.
Wraith had gone quiet, very watchful. She made it plain she didn’t like or trust Theo. At the same time, it was difficult to think straight, to push down the unfamiliar feelings of burning inside, of needing to rub her skin along every surface and then rake her fingernails like claws down Theo’s face each time he got too close. Those feelings would rise abruptly and, just as fast, leave her.
“I took a job at one of the businesses in town.” Theo’s gaze met hers and then slid away. Another red flag. She should have taken him out right then and left, but he was already talking, and she was listening. “There was so much cash coming in. I’m good with numbers. Really good. I realized each of the businesses, under one premise or another, paid a certain amount to the one I worked under. Small bits of cash were disappearing, and I traced the flow back to three men. They were siphoning money steadily from three different sources and had been for a while.”
He hesitated and then corrected himself. “I couldn’t find the exact identities of the men, just where each of them was working and stealing from.”
The long hallway ended abruptly at an open doorway. To stay a distance from Theo, Maya found herself standing in the doorway. A cool draft came from inside the darkened interior. There was no scent of anyone waiting inside to ambush her, and she welcomed the cool air on her overheated body. She tried to make sense of what he was saying over the strange roaring in her ears and the intense fire building in her body that came and went in waves.
“I swear I was going to report the money disappearing, but before I could, one of the men visited me late in the evening. He stayed in the shadows. Even with my superior vision, I couldn’t make him out. My leopard couldn’t smell him.”
That alarmed Maya. Theo seemed to be telling the truth. Wraith?
He is telling the truth. His leopard confirms his story. His leopard is weak, Maya, very weak. Sick. He is not taking care of him. I suspect that is the reason he could not scent the other male.
“He made me an offer. He told me how corrupt the leader of the local lair was and that they were siphoning the money to help human trafficking victims of this lair.”
She heard that lie as plain as day, and her head snapped up. She glared at him. “You know better than to lie to me, Theo.”
“Everything was going fine.” He ignored her warning. “Then the leader of the territory died—was murdered—and a new pakhan took over. He demanded an accounting from every one of his men and their businesses. I knew he would discover the missing money. When I reached out to the others, they were gone. I knew they’d set me up to take the fall.”