Priceless

stupor.
    He stared blankly at me.
    I stepped closer and touched his arm, the chill of his skin evident even through the shirt. “Where’s your partner?”
    “Dead. I don’t . . .” He shook his head. “How did this happen?”
    I wasn’t entirely sure what he was talking about. “Milly, what happened?”
    “I knew you were in trouble, could feel the vibrations stronger than anything ever before.” She pushed a long strand of dark brown hair off her forehead to reveal eyes that at times could be a soft green, and when she was pissed deepened to an almost neon green that flashed. Right now they were as soft and gentle as I’d seen them in a long time.
    She went on. “I came out to the house, but they had already trapped you. O’Shea and his partner showed up—”
    “Those people attacked us, we shot at them and . . . .” O’Shea stared at me as if I was going to have the answers. Oh, this was not going to be good. “Our bullets
swerved,
came back and hit Martins, right in the forehead.”
    “Was it your bullet that swerved back?” My mind already caught on to the implications.
    O’Shea frowned. “What does it matter? He’s been killed in an impossible situation.”
    The sirens were almost here. “Listen, there isn’t a lot of time. Think, O’Shea. You’re going to tell people the bullets did whatever the fuck they wanted, swerved back and shot your partner with YOUR bullet? You’re about to be implicated for murder.”
    His face paled. “They won’t believe me.” He put a hand to his head. “I wouldn’t believe me.”
    I couldn’t help it. “Just like you won’t believe me when it comes to Berget.”
    Again, he just stared, his eyelids twitching as I watched emotions run across his face. Anger, fear, disbelief.
    “Come on,” I said. “We can’t be here if you want to stay out of jail tonight.”
    “I’m not going with you. That’ll only prove I’m guilty,” he said. “When you run, it shows your guilt more than anything.”
    Well if that wasn’t a dig at me, I didn’t know what was. I laughed; I couldn’t help it. Milly, standing beside me in her fashion-forward bright white pantsuit, was shaking her head.
    “Rylee is right, Agent O’Shea. You can’t prove your innocence. There aren’t even any of the perpetrators here to point fingers at. Unless you did manage to shoot one of them?”
    He shook his head. “No, but you’re innocent until proven guilty. You should know that, Adamson.” Already the shock was wearing off and he was sliding back into this usually difficult self.
    Shrugging, I turned my back. “Come on, Milly, if he wants to spend the rest of his life in jail for a murder he didn’t commit, then let him.”
    We started to walk away, but it was Alex who stopped us with words he shouldn’t have been able to utter. “Man with gun. He come with.”
    I spun in time to see O’Shea stumble backwards, eyes wide at really
seeing
Alex. He pulled his gun on the werewolf. I bolted toward them, but it wasn’t me that got to O’Shea first. It was Milly.
    She slammed him with a knock-out spell that rolled his eyes back into his head and dropped him to the ground.
    “Good shot,” I said.
    “Thanks.” She gave me a smile.
    Grabbing Alex by the collar, the three of us ran around the side of the house as the fire trucks and police cars screamed into the yard. We pointed around the back of the house and they sped off in that direction.
    As I shoved Alex into the Jeep, a black unmarked pulled in. “Damn.”
    Three hours later, we—Milly and I—were still explaining the same story over and over. I had been trapped in the cellar, Milly had showed up and heard gunshots, but neither of us had seen anything. Now it was up to O’Shea as to whether or not he dug his own grave.
    We were released just as they brought O’Shea out of the house. In handcuffs.
    I was surprised to feel a pang of guilt hit me. What the hell was that about? I tried to push it away, but it overrode any attempt I made to shrug it off. O’Shea hounded me for years; with him locked up, I wouldn’t have to worry about who was following me around anymore. I let out a sigh. “You know this complicates things.”
    Milly touched my arm. “Your life would be easier without him in it.”
    “And yours would be easier without me in it,” I said.
    She ducked her head, shame flushing her face. “You’re family, you and Giselle. The Coven gave me leave to help you on this case.”
    “Why?”
    She