The Tracker's Secret: Sunderverse (Mate Tracker Book 2) by Ingrid Seymour (the gingerbread man read aloud .txt) 📗

TOM AND I LEFT THE room and walked down the hall in silence. Before exiting into the lobby, we stopped.

“Do you think Blake’s alive, Tom?” I asked.

“No,” he said without a doubt. “I think Ulfen believes it, but I saw the man’s body, and he was quite dead.”

“Could magic have been involved in making another body look like Blake’s?”

Tom shook his head. The medical examiners work in teams. Both Stales and Skews do autopsies in tandem. There are procedures to tease out that type of subterfuge. Spells are used to ensure that what lies on the table is a body and nothing else. No glamours. No spells. Nothing of that nature.”

I had known this in the general sense, but hearing it from Tom seemed to put the nail in the coffin of Ulfen’s theory.

“Still, I could try to track him,” I said uncertainly. “Ulfen isn’t a stupid man. What if he’s right?”

Tom frowned disapprovingly but said nothing.

“I wouldn’t take his money, though,” I added quickly, fearing his judgment. “I don’t want his dirt on my hands.”

“That’s up to you, kiddo,” he said. “You know well how I feel about it, but I’m not gonna tell you what to do, and I won’t judge you either.”  His tone was fatherly, and his brown eyes full of understanding.

I smiled, a warm feeling in my heart toward this tough man who could also be so gentle when he needed to be.

“Your opinion will weigh heavily on my decision. I appreciate it,” I said. “If I find out anything of importance, I’ll let you know.”

“Be careful.”

“I will be.”

“At least Jake’s with you. He’ll protect you.” He chuckled as he walked away back to his office.

I shook my head and smiled sadly. Jake had tried to stay out of sight, but Tom still knew he was here. The walls in this place surely had eyes and ears and even noses.

A minute later, I met Jake back outside. He was reclining on the wall, one boot propped up on the brick. He pushed away and met me by the door.

Just then, a black car screeched to a stop in front of the building and Stephen Erickson jumped out. He rushed in our direction, barely registering our presence.

“Toni. Jake,” he said, blinking in surprise. He looked disheveled as if he’d rushed here without first taking a look in the mirror. “What are you guys doing here?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but Stephen cut me off.

“Actually,” his eyes darted toward the door, “I can’t talk right now. I’ll see you all later.” He hurried inside, a frantic quality to his rushed steps.

For a long moment, Jake and I stood staring at the door after it closed behind Stephen.

“Do you think we should go with him?” Jake asked, sounding doubtful.

I shook my head. “I don’t think we can be of any help.”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go somewhere,” I said. “I need a drink. Badly.”

Chapter 22

JAKE TOOK ME TO A PUB called The Cat’s Fiddle. He ordered a whiskey sour and a draft beer for himself. We sat at the farthest booth away from the bar. He watched me closely as I took several sips from my drink.

I licked my lips, enjoying the tartness. I knew there would be no buzz, but at least it tasted good. When I was ready, I told Jake everything Ulfen had said. He listened without interruption until the end and pondered for a long moment before speaking.

“I wonder if Stephen knows about Blake,” he said, rubbing his index finger against his closely trimmed beard.

“No, Ulfen warned me not to tell anyone, especially Stephen. Of course, I already told you so...”

“I won’t tell anyone. Don’t worry.”

I didn’t trust Jake with my heart, but I definitely trusted him with this. He wouldn’t put me in danger. On the contrary, like Tom had said, he would protect me—even if it meant cramping my style everywhere I went.

“Let’s assume that Blake is really alive,” Jake said.

I liked playing this game. Jake always looked at things from every angle no matter how crazy. He was great at thinking outside the box. “Even stupid ideas can give birth to genius,” he’d once told me, and I agreed.

I straightened and pushed my drink aside. “All right, let’s assume.”

“You’re first.”

“Hmm, okay. So Ulfen thinks that if we find Blake we’ll find the real culprit, the one who kidnapped Stephen and hired Jenson Boyle.”

“Which would mean Blake faked his death. Very successfully, I might add.”

I nodded. “So successfully that he fooled the medical examiners.”

Jake thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up. “Maybe he didn’t fool them.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean maybe it was a lot easier than that. Maybe he paid them off.”

I gasped. Why hadn’t I thought of that? With all the spells and magic and glamours in existence, people tended to forget there were far simpler ways to accomplish things. The good ol’ American dollar could work its own magic.

“Yes,” I agreed. “That would have been very easy to do.”

“Now, the question is why? Blake was, or is, loyal to the Ericksons. He’s worked for them for years.”

“Since Stephen was little, I’m sure.”

“Why would he turn on them?” he asked.

“Money?”

He shrugged indifferently. “Yes, that’s always a possibility, but I don’t think so. Blake wouldn’t risk becoming Ulfen’s enemy just for money. There must be something else.”

“Extortion? Maybe someone has something on Blake. Or maybe they threatened his family if he didn’t do it.”

“Could be.”

“Does he even have a family?”

“Dunno.”

“Or maybe the Ericksons pissed him off.”

Jake shrugged and rubbed his forehead, looking at a loss. “Also a possibility. And if he’s working with someone, could that be Fiore? Would a well-respected werewolf align himself with a vampire?” He didn’t seem to expect any answers to these questions. He just seemed to be talking out loud, which was a good thing because I had no clue, and I was starting to get a headache thinking about