Come Out Swinging (Reach for the Moon Book 2), Sam Hall [leveled readers .TXT] 📗

“They aren’t allegations. The coroner is ruling death by foul play.”

“On what basis? We haven’t been briefed or kept in the loop on any of this, and then when the heir is attacked in the middle of the night…”

I watched her eyes begin to shine, her bottom lip starting to waver as her hand went to her mouth, and felt something I hadn’t expected to before I came home—suspicion. I knew my aunty was a bit of a drama queen and a perfumed steamroller, but to be sitting here, watching her reactions and trying to verify if they were real or pretend, was an odd sensation. My hands were pushed into my pockets, my fingers seeking the flash drive like a Christian would worry rosary beads, turning it over and over.

“I just wanted to see if you were OK,” Nance said finally, a picture of aggrieved concern.

She put her hands neatly in her lap, straightening her spine into the formal posture she’d always tried to get me to adopt.

“I haven’t spoken to anyone because I’ve been healing, Nance,” I said, biting off the words and liking the slight flinch in her. “Someone came into the house and fractured my skull, then left me for dead on the floor, so if I haven’t had a chance to meet with anyone about anything, you’ll understand. You and the rest of the family have been locked out because whoever did it was known to me. There were no unusual scents left, nothing to alert me that there was a stranger in the house.”

“So you assume your own family would…? You think…?”

If Nance was putting this on, she’d missed her calling as an actress. Her face was a picture of shock and disbelief.

“So… So, why haven’t you locked out these men?” Her jaw muscles flexed as her eyes sparked with anger. “They are the only others who live on the estate. If you’re looking for someone to point the finger at, why not them? They had motive, wanting to be the next alpha and seeing as you have…the gift you have, they have plenty of incentive to kill Adam and hurt you.”

“How do you work that out?” Mason asked with a frown.

“Killing Adam brought Paige back to town, made her gift flare to life, made her do what she’s been trying to avoid—choose. And you have, haven’t you?”

Nance looked over my pack with a scowl, as if every single one of them personally offended her. But it was Lorcan who became the focus of her ire.

“And what the hell are you doing, letting the spawn of an Engel into the estate when you’re keeping your own family out? If anyone’s—”

“Spare me.” Lorcan’s tone was like an idly flicked whip. “If you want to bitch about how shit my family is, get in line. I, however, arrived not long before Paige did. A little fast to be plotting the demise of an alpha I hadn’t seen since I was a kid, but don’t let the facts get in the way of your diatribe.”

“So why did you come back to town to claim the ‘family estate’?” Nance sneered. “Your father took you away, hoping to raise you outside of the Engel influence. Didn’t stop your mother from crawling back though, did it?”

“You don’t have to answer,” I said.

I wanted to know, wanted to know all of Lorcan’s secrets, but I cared enough not to want him spilling them under the beady eye of my aunt. He flinched when I reached out and took his hand, but when those dark green eyes swung my way, I saw a whole lot teeming within them—fear and anger, desire and need, pain, way too much pain, and something else. I frowned, searching his face, trying to identify what, but his gaze swivelled back to Nance.

“I’ll never hurt Paige. I can’t.” He turned back to me. “Seeing you on the floor, the blood, then the fucking hospital. You could claw your way through the skin and bone of my ribcage, break my bones and rip out my heart, and it wouldn’t hurt as much as that.” He took a long shuddering breath, then looked at Nance. “For me, it’s Paige, always her, and whatever causes her pain and irritation, I can’t stand. It’s taking everything I fucking have not to pick you up by the scruff of your neck and dropkick you over the fence.”

Low snarls from Declan and Micah showed my mate had support, but Mason stepped forward.

“Nancy is a Spehr and is due the respect the name carries,” he said in a low but firm voice. “But there’ll be no more accusations made, Nance. The men in here are Paige’s mates.” Her mouth dropped open at that, and she surveyed them with fresh eyes. “You had your own in Bryan. You know what that means.”

She did, if the pissed expression was anything to go by. We were right back where we started, with my aunt bristling.

“The only people we’ve allowed near Paige are her mates and the medical professionals at the hospital, for obvious reasons. The other enforcers have been restricted to outside the house itself.”

“I will be interviewing each one of them,” I said, “but let’s face it. The enforcers are the strongest, most dominant young men in town, collected together to work for the alpha and support his reign, but it’s not unheard of for them to turn against corrupt or problematic alphas. If the guys wanted to take out Dad, they could’ve done it through open challenge, had their push validated by the town, and that would’ve brought me back. Instead, someone tried to pass this off as a natural death, and I need to work out why.”

“So will any of the details be shared with the family, or will you continue to keep us in the dark?” Nance replied stiffly.

“Why would I give away anything when the police are still conducting an investigation? Everyone will be interviewed by them and me, and I’ll be pushing