Free The Awakening: Liam (Entangled Covet) by Abby Niles Page B

get out.” Detective Calhoun flipped the notepad closed. “They
    won’t buy it, especially with the bruises around your neck, but as long as you stick to the story they will be
    forced to close the case.”
    Ava barely heard the last part. Two days. It had seemed like so much longer. Weeks. Months. But two
    damn days was all that had passed.
    “Now I need to know how you’re alive, Miss Michaels. Britton followed Liam to your place after he felt
    you die, which was where he was taken. We’ve assumed this entire time we were only looking for him.
    You came as somewhat of a shock.”
    That was how Liam had been captured? Because he’d sought her out after feeling her death? What had
    he found? Had she been in the room, lifeless? Covered in blood?
    My team cleaned it up. Detective Calhoun’s words came back to her, and she covered her mouth with
    her hand. This entire time she’d been worried about Emma seeing all that blood. Never had she imagined
    that Liam had been the one to see it.
    “Miss Michaels, are you okay?”
    Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up. “H-he saw the room.”
    The detective’s brows knitted together as she studied Ava.
    “Liam,” Ava added. “The blood.”
    The expression softened as understanding lit the other woman’s eyes. “Yes. He did.”
    “How bad?”
    “You’re alive. That’s all that matters.”
    She’d dodged the question which, in and of itself, gave Ava her answer, but she needed to know. “ How
    bad?”
    The other woman glanced away. “We thought you’d been drained. I’ve never seen that much blood.”
    Ava stared straight ahead, stared at nothing. “Was I—”
    Oh, God, she must have been. Blood had been all over Liam when she’d first seen him. Had he picked
    up her body and held it?
    “We don’t know for certain. But for him to be unaware that someone was in the room, he had to be
    very distracted. So we are assuming that your body was, indeed, there.”
    Oh, Liam. What had he felt staring down at her bloodied body, believing she’d been murdered
    ruthlessly? To live with that for hours before realizing she wasn’t dead, that some sicko had just wanted
    him to think she was.
    “Miss Michaels, how did your attacker make it seem like you died?”
    “He injected me with something. Doctor Bradley said it was some sort of combination of an anti-
    arrhythmic and anesthesia.”
    The only reaction the detective gave was a furrowing of her brows as she reopened the notebook and
    jotted down Ava’s comment. “Did you get a good look at him?” the other woman asked.
    “No. He wore a werewolf mask.”
    “Did you get a look at any distinctive features? Eye color? A tattoo?”
    “He wore special contacts and was dressed head to toe in a black jumpsuit. I’m not even sure of the
    color of his skin. He did have an accent, Cajun, I think.” She paused. “Where did he take us?”
    “It was an abandoned mental hospital.”
    How ironic. It was supposed to be a place to help the mentally unstable, not help bring on madness.
    Would she and Liam ever recover mentally from what they’d experienced?
    Detective Calhoun stepped forward. “As soon as we deal with the cops, we’ll move you and Liam to a
    safe location. You two are going to need time to recover.”
    “What about my sister?”
    “What about her?”
    “She’ll come with us to the safe house, won’t she?”
    “No. I’m sorry, she is an unmarked human. She does not fall under the protection of SPAC.”
    At a loss for words, the only way she could think to respond was, “You would leave a fifteen year old
    child unprotected?”
    Color crept into the woman’s cheeks. “This isn’t a matter of leaving someone unprotected, Miss
    Michaels. When a case involves shifters, my ultimate goal is to protect the existence of our kind. Placing
    your human sister in a safe house poses too much of a risk to the shifter community. With her around
    twenty-four-seven, the potential she will see or overhear