Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

withdrew.”
    â€œNot ‘someone,’ ” I said. “You. It makes sense. She didn’t want Heart killing you; she wanted to do it herself.”
    â€œNo.” It was Ben. “I was wrong to suggest a trophy hunter.
    This didn’t have that feel. It wasn’t personal. A woman out for blood—assuming fae females are like the rest of the cu—”
    â€œThere’s a lady present,” growled Adam. “Watch your language.”
    Ben grinned at me. “Fine. Assuming fae ladies are like other ladies , this one would have been excited, triumphant over the kill. And enraged when I came along and ruined her fun. She didn’t even hesitate when she spotted me. Dropped the gun and ran—no fuss, no bother.”
    â€œWell trained,” said Adam. “Or just a cool thinker.” He looked at me. “And while I admit it looks as though I was the target, it could as easily have been Zee or you. Heart had silver bullets—so the assassin used them, too. It doesn’t mean she was hunting werewolves, not when we know Heart was.”
    Tony opened the front door. “You okay, Mercy?”
    â€œFine,” I lied, but I didn’t expect anyone here to believe me anyway.
    Tony frowned at me, then turned his attention to Adam. “You have any enemies we should know about? Sounds like Heart’s producer wanted some more publicity—but we won’t know for certain until we run her down. He had the right paperwork, other than the small fact that it isn’t legitimate. There was a series of victim photos, too. We’ll look into how she got them when we talk to her.”
    â€œInternet,” said Ben. “There’s a website devoted to pictures of dead bodies.”
    We all looked at him, and he smirked. “Hey. Don’t look at me—it’s the job.” He saw Tony’s blank face and continued. “Information technologies, IT—you know, computers. At work, when we get bored, we issue challenges—like the person who can come up with the worst website gets taken out to lunch. I got the free lunch—the dead-bodies guy was the runner-up. When I chatted up the bounty hunter’s people, they showed me the photos of the bodies in the file. The dead-bodies website has a section devoted to animal kills. I recognized one of the photos from that.”
    â€œYou are a sick, sick man,” I told him.
    â€œThank you,” Ben replied, looking modest.
    â€œSomeone’s after you,” Tony told Adam.
    â€œSee,” I said. “Tony thinks you’re the target, too.”
    Adam shrugged. “I’ll be careful.”
    Werewolves are tough, and Adam tougher than most—but I’d seen a lot of them die.
    â€œYeah, well, you keep me on speed dial and don’t kill anyone if you can help it.” Tony looked at me again. “Hey, Mercy. Did you talk to Sylvia? She looked pretty upset when she left. Are they all right?” His heart was in his eyes. He was interested in her and had approached her once. She’d told him she didn’t date people she worked with—and that had been that, as far as she was concerned.
    â€œShe wasn’t happy about Heart pointing a gun at Maia,” I told him. “But I think she was madder at me than Heart. He didn’t bring in a werewolf for her kids to play with.”
    His face went police-officer blank. “What?”
    â€œYeah,” I said. “I don’t think she’ll be coming here to get her car fixed anymore. Gabriel’s not coming back either.”
    â€œYou did what ?”
    â€œCut it out,” growled Adam. He gestured at Sam. “This wolf would never harm a hair on a child’s head, and Mercy knew it.”
    â€œSpecial circumstances today,” I reminded Adam harshly—how could he have forgotten that we weren’t dealing with Samuel but with his wolf? “She was right to be angry. If I’d remembered Sylvia and the girls were going to be here, I wouldn’t have brought him.”
    â€œWere they in any danger?” asked Tony.
    â€œNo,” said Adam, and he meant it.
    â€œDid Mercy know that?”
    â€œYes,” Adam said right over the top of my “no.” “She’s just feeling guilty because she thinks she should have told Sylvia anyway.”
    Tony looked at me. “Sylvia’s not unreasonable.” He paused and gave me a little smile.