Chapter 53

I quickly shot up from the couch, while practically knocking Lorenzo off his knees to get to the door. My face was, no doubt, still horribly flushed from my previous engagement, which I prayed would go unnoticed.

I opened the door and graciously accepted the envelope from the maid. Muttering a quick ‘thank you’ under my breath, I closed the door and headed back over to the desk. Lorenzo failed to hide his annoyance as he crowded the side of the desk next to me.

“What is it?” he grumbled.

I quickly opened the envelope to take an ordinary-looking letter. Only the contents of said letter were anything but ordinary. In rough, nearly illegible handwriting was a bunch of words scrawled across the paper.

It read: ‘If you don’t drop this case and leave the past alone, I will make sure you regret ever wanting to get involved in this!’

I narrowed my eyes in bitter scrutiny while I read over the vulgar threat once more. My jaw clenched in anger as I gripped the piece of paper furiously in my hand.

“I should have known something like this was bound to happen,” I contended. I glanced at the letter to Lorenzo who’s reaction was far more reserved than mine.

He looked almost unbothered by the fact that I was being threatened, but beneath that closed-off exterior, I knew that wasn’t the case. Lorenzo was merely calculating. I could tell that the gears were turning rapidly in his mind.

“This has the Blue Moon pack written all over it,” he snarled.

I wasn’t surprised that he’d gone straight to that sort of conclusion. Lorenzo’s long-standing prejudice against Blue Moon as well as my personal unpleasant experiences with the pack, did make them a viable suspect. But it wasn’t enough to prove anything.

“We don’t know for certain,” I told him.

Lorenzo scoffed at my indifference. “It has to be them,” he pressed back.

“But why? There has never been a visible connection between the abductions and Blue Moon. It’s something my dad could never prove.”

He snatched the letter from my hand and tossed it to the desk.

“But what if he did?”

My eyes grew wide as he went on.

“What if he discovered that there was a connection? You remember that he wasn’t able to work the courtroom the first time with this case because he lacked viable evidence. What if the reason he tried bringing this to court for a second time is because he’d actually found something that would point the blame at the Blue Moon pack?”

I felt my breathing start to falter. Oh, God...

My gaze dropped to the letter while a terrible sensation of dread filled my stomach. If that were true and the Blue Moon pack knew of Dad’s knowledge and possible possession of this proof, did that mean that they were also involved in his disappearance too?

I took several long, deep breaths before clearing my mind. I couldn’t allow myself to get any further ahead.

“Lorenzo, you have no idea how much I wished your words were true, but the problem is this is all nothing but theory. Hell, this letter could have come from anyone. You recall, there were many people around when I made my request to the Lycan Luna.”

A long beat of silence passed between us before Lorenzo placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Sweetheart, that would mean that whoever was responsible for those kidnappings was at the Luna Festival the entire time,” Lorenzo said darkly.

My nausea returned with a harsh vengeance. Whoever this awful person was knew about my father’s work and knew about my granted request for having the whole issue reopened for investigation.

I folded my arms across my chest and tucked my chin down. “What about Cruz’s offer to help out on this?” I inquired.

I’ll be honest, there was a growing smudge of doubt that formed in the back of my mind when it came to gathering usable evidence on this issue. What if he was the only one who could provide anything tangible for us to use?

“No,” Lorenzo said. “I would rather turn to him as a last resort, should all else fail.”

[Third Person POV]

As the weeks went by, Eleanor had grown restless. Each day she sat in the study and worked on her continuously building file of notes on all four cases. She worked until her eyes would grow sore and tired, forcing her to shut the laptop and call it a day.

While Lorenzo juggled both his regular work and his pack responsibilities, he worried about Eleanor’s mentality.

He could tell that as the days pressed on, she was growing more and more desperate for any sort of break in the case. He’d caught her, at times, pacing the front entryway in case any sudden letters would arrive.

After she’d made the startling connection amongst the last four missing girls, Eleanor sent her findings to the Lycan Luna. She felt it was important to keep her in the loop as much as possible while the woman was so gracious enough to lend her own soldiers to keep up the search.

But, it seemed like the trail for this case was growing cold. With nothing new coming to light and not a word from anyone, Elearno’s hope was beginning to break.

He’d done everything in his power to keep reassuring her that something would eventually show up.

Unfortunately, he was right...

It was late in the evening when Lorenzo received a sudden call on his phone. He recognized the number as one of the Royal Family’s head guards and quickly answered it.

“Have you got anything?” he asked.

“I think so,” the guard said stiffly. “We’ve just uncovered a girl we believe to be under the file she’s sent to the Lycan Luna.”

Lorenzo’s chest filled with excited hope; however, he could sense that there was more to this man’s message. “So you’ve found her, is she at all coherent?”

“Note quite...She’s dead.”