“That still doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“I know. But that’s the way the law stands.” She gave Rose a contemplative look as they turned down the corridor toward the guest rooms. “Actually, all those laws have to be reworked now. Humans like you are, in a very real way, as valuable to the community as any tiger female. Looks like more debates are in order.”
“Oh, good,” Rose said, her sarcasm clear.
Alexis chuckled. “I know. I’m glad I’m not an elder. I would have tossed half of them through a wall by now.”
“We’ve gotten off track,” Vlad said.
He stopped by the door to the room he’d previously occupied, but Alexis waved them on.
“We’ve given you different rooms,” she said. “A suite this time. And for additional safety, the windows in the suite have had alarms added. The alarm is pitched to essentially disable any tiger nearby, which means it’ll hurt Zoe. That’s why we didn’t use them before. But we thought you’d prefer her ears ringing to another…attempt.”
“What will the sound do to me?” Rose asked.
“Nothing. You’ll be good. So you can keep Zoe safe until backup gets there.”
“Thanks,” Rose said. She hugged her daughter a little closer. “I didn’t want to be in the same room.”
“Back to Lei,” Vlad said as they continued to their new rooms.
“Outside of the argument over how to ‘name’ the crime, they’re also debating if Lei can be charged, period. He has lots of good excuses for his scent being in Jameson’s car, and plenty of ‘evidence’ that he didn’t have anything to do with Jameson’s decision or his own assistant’s part in the kidnapping. He claims he’s being framed.” She rolled her eyes. “Everyone knows he’s responsible, but proving it is…well, it’s impossible. Unless Zoe saw something useful?”
Rose shook her head. “We asked. She saw Jameson and a man with dark hair, but she never saw the second man’s face. She said she smelled them both. Will that help?”
“Given the excuses Lei’s come up with for his scent being there, and the fact that Zoe is so new to her shifter nature, I doubt it.”
“What does Zoe being new to her shifter nature have to do with it? Her sense of smell is excellent.”
“Lei will argue she doesn’t have the ability to parse out scent subtleties the way a non-hybrid shifter would. And because we know so little of hybrid biology, others will agree with this excuse. Still, it might be enough for them to dig more. Maybe.”
“You don’t sound very hopeful.”
Alexis shrugged. “Lei is smart and he set this up to protect himself from repercussions, creating enough plausible deniability to keep him safe.”
“How the hell did he set this up in such a short period of time? Without leaving a trail?” Vlad growled. “We weren’t even here a full day. He had to time it while Zoe’s status was still undefined. He had to have all his people in place to work fast. How could he do all that and still have alibies?”
Alexis stopped at a new set of doors. She frowned as she held the door open for them to enter the suit. “We’re wondering the same thing. The only possibility I can think of is that your brothers have something to do with it. We still don’t know where they are. Maybe they’ve been working with Lei, knowing you’d eventually have to bring Zoe here.”
Vlad stopped halfway into the room to stare at Alexis. Then he cursed. He cursed low and colorfully. Rose winced and looked at Zoe. Her eyes were wide and her lips pressed together in what looked suspiciously like a suppressed grin. Since it was the closest she’d come to a smile in the last twenty-four hours, Rose decided not to scold Vlad for his language.
After a solid minute of cursing, Vlad went silent and stared at the floor, his hands on his hips. He took a deep breath and looked up. “I should have known. I should have expected this. My brothers turning up after we thought they’d left Phoenix? They probably did that to drive us to the elders quicker. Sonofabitch, I knew getting here was too easy.”
“Vlad…” Rose wasn’t sure what to say.
He ran his hands through his hair and faced her. The anguish in his expression tore at her heart.
“I’m so sorry, Rose. I should have seen this. I should have anticipated. I know what they’re like, how they think.” He shook his head. “I thought I did. When they didn’t show up here after we did, I thought we were safe. I thought… It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry.”