SIMON POV
Iwasn’t sure if I was welcome here since I hadn’t been invited. But there was such a strong part of me that wanted to check in on Cole, to make sure he was okay after the shooting incident, and I couldn’t relax until I did. He was home from the hospital now, which had to be a good sign, but until I saw him with my own eyes, I wouldn’t be able to let it go.
So, with a nervous, shaking hand, I worked up the courage to knock on the door. I wasn’t sure what response I would get, but I was about to find out.
“Oh, Simon.” Miranda looked stunned as she swung the door open, but not upset to see me. “Come in. It’s been a minute, hasn’t it? Come chat with us.”
Us. That meant the twins were here as well. Good. I followed her inside and into the kitchen where Ivan was sitting, clutching a mug of coffee.
“I thought Cole was out of the hospital now,” I said.
“Yeah, he is,” Miranda reassured me. “He’s doing much better now. He’s actually out on a bit of a mission, going to speak to a real estate agent about a home we think Brady might be staying in.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief. Cole had to be doing much better if he was out helping Miranda already. I bet he couldn’t wait to get back out there to do something productive after having to spend some time in the hospital.
“So, Ivan has been filling me in on some terrible things. More things than I thought I had to deal with,” Miranda said as she handed me a mug of coffee.
Now that I was looking at her a little closer, I could her eyes were swollen and red like she had been crying. What the hell was happening now?
“Oh no, I’m sorry, Miranda. That’s awful. Is there anything I can do to help you?”
“It’s just Brady,” she said with a helpless shrug. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep going with him being this way. With the evil that is deep within him.”
I swallowed hard. “What do you mean? What else has happened?”
She sighed loudly, sounding defeated. “Well, it turns out Brady was in the military before he met me. For a while anyway. Until he got caught being prejudice against shifters. Something that he has been acting on his whole life without me knowing. All of this is just racism and a bunch of fucked up family values. It’s horrible.
That made me feel sick to my stomach. What a bastard. I hated guys who thought they could just go through life doing what they wanted to whoever they wanted without worrying about the consequences.
“It’s worse,” Ivan said. “He didn’t realize Miranda was a she-wolf at first. Not until she was already pregnant. Which is why he killed other women.”
“He doesn’t see them as women,” Miranda cried out, agony rolling off her tongue. “He sees them as lesser beings. Not even human. It makes me ill to think that I was with him. That I thought I loved such a monster. What is wrong with me?”
Luckily, I brought a bottle of Miranda’s special calming tea with me. I pulled it out of my bag and handed it to her. She gulped it down like it was the air keeping her alive. Shit, this really was bad. I felt terrible for her. I wished there was something I could do.
“Don’t worry.” Ivan wrapped his arms around Miranda, which made me feel a bit better about everything. At least she had him to comfort her. “This isn’t your fault. You aren’t the monster, he is. He’s obviously good at charming people and tricking them. She-wolves are known for their smarts, yet he has managed to get lots of them on their own and with their guards down to be killed. So, there must be something about him.”
“I suppose so,” she murmured sadly. “But that doesn’t make me feel less foolish.”
“What are we going to do?” I couldn’t sit back and do nothing. I cared about Miranda, she was my friend, and I cared about the people in this town as well. No one deserved to be killed just because some sick fuck had an issue with she-wolves. “How can we stop him? Do you guys have a plan? Or do the police have a plan? We need to get this guy off the streets now.” Actually, it was something that should have been done years ago. No more time could be wasted.
“No, no, no.” Miranda held her hands up. “You aren’t getting mixed up in this, Simon, you can’t. I’m stressed out enough with everything going on, I don’t want to be worried about you as well. I have put you through enough.”
I shook my head. “I have made my decision, I know what I want to do. I am going to help with this no matter what. I know you might not want me to be in the middle of this, but I already am. I refuse to do nothing while danger comes for you. That isn’t what friends do for one another.”
It was almost a relief when there was a knock at Miranda’s front door, and that Cole was back. He shattered the building tension that could have exploded into an argument between Miranda and myself. Because I wouldn’t back down, and I sensed that she wanted to keep me safe. Even though it was absolutely my choice if I wanted to be kept safe or not.
“Hi, Simon.” Cole didn’t seem surprised that I was here, he simply accepted it easily. “I talked to Gemma and it seems like there is a guy staying in the cabin we went past. Someone rented it who matches the picture I showed her, but it wasn’t rented under his own name. I guess that’s why the cops haven’t tracked him down yet.”
“Fuck,” Miranda whispered. “So it really is him. He is here.”
“Yeah, but don’t worry,” Cole replied with a smile. “This means we know where to find him. We can plan around that.”
She was shaking, trembling all over, and Cole wrapped his arms around her to hold her close to his chest.
“We just need you to tell us everything about him,” Cole continued. “And I know that might be painful for you, Miranda, but it’s the only way we are going to be able to figure out his weaknesses.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, not looking too pleased, before she nodded. “Okay, I will go through everything with you guys, but I don’t know if he has any weaknesses. Clearly, he’s very manipulative. I suppose he’s great at killing since he does that all the time. I don’t know how we will manage to defeat him, even with all of us working together.”