Free Bound to Shadows by Keri Arthur

and looked somewhat mollified. I’d learned some time ago that while Jack

could drink any sort of coffee—good or bad—it paid to get the good stuff from Beans when I was in

his bad books.
“You were supposed to send it in by five,” he said, slightly less loudly. “This one could get

nasty, Riley. We need to keep on top of it.”
“I know.” I gave Kade a grin of greeting as I handed him his coffee, then plucked my own free and

tossed the cardboard tray in the trash. “Did Cole come up with anything unusual in the

autopsy?”
“No. The body and the saw are clean.”
I frowned as I walked around my desk and sat down. “That almost suggests a professional

hit.”
“If we have three men beheaded in the same way, then yes, I do think we are dealing with

professionals.”
“So Henry Gateway’s death is connected to Haven’s?”
“You know, you could read the report and find out for yourself,” Jack noted dryly. “But yes,

Gateway was killed by the same method as Haven, although it wasn’t the same saw, and we haven’t

yet found the one that was used on Gateway.”
“It’s a particularly brutal way to murder someone,” Kade commented. “It seems to me that the

killers are intent on attracting attention more than merely killing.”
I glanced at him. The harsh fluorescent lighting gave his normally warm red-brown skin a sallow

look, and there were dark shadows under his eyes. Amusement bubbled through me. Several more

mares from his herd had given birth recently—meaning he now had a grand total of nine kids—but it

looked as if having that many youngsters in one household was beginning to take its

toll.
“If we’re dealing with a gang intent on stirring up trouble between the vampires and the humans,”

I said, “then it’s highly likely they do want attention.”
“Which is why I’ve put a lock on the press for the moment.” Jack took a sip of his coffee, then

added, “And why I want this murder solved as soon as possible.”
“Hard to track down a killer who leaves no clues,” I muttered, logging on to the computer and

leaning forward for the system to scan my retina. “I don’t suppose you’d know if there’s a

connection between the three murdered men?”
I glanced at him as I said it and saw the slight hesitation. Meaning there was a connection, all

right, but he wasn’t revealing it. Which made me wonder if the vampire council was somehow

involved. Jack might answer to his sister, but she answered to the

council. She was on it.
“We’re still checking into that possibility,” he said eventually. Meaning he was still getting

clearance to discuss it with the plebs.
“The sooner we know the better.”
If only because, if we knew the connection, we had a chance of stopping the next murder. But Jack

knew all that—he’d been at this game a lot longer than I.
Jack grunted. “Did you get anything useful from the witness?”
I restrained the urge to point out that it was in my report, and said, “Well, she wasn’t really a

witness, more a relayer of information. And the man who paid her to call was apparently

disguised, so that’s not much help.”
“Did you check the security recordings?” Kade asked. “They might show something.”
“Starke said he didn’t use electronic security.”
“Then the bastard is lying,” Jack said. “Clubs like that must have full-scale security by law.

Requisition the tapes.”
“Requisitioning them might not be wise,” Kade said. “If he wanted the Directorate to see them, he

would have mentioned them. Asking for them through official channels merely gives him time to

dispose of them.”
I gave Kade a somewhat dirty look, which only made him raise his eyebrows and look amused. I

suppose he wasn’t to know that confronting Starke—or rather, confronting his overt sexuality—was not something I wanted right now. Not after barely escaping his

presence the first time with my dignity