Chapter 90

"Let's look at what we have so far," Liam suggests. Daisy, Liam, Emmett, Jeanette, Marcus, and I all sitting around the living room of my suite, drinking hot, sweet mugs of tea and trying to figure out where to go from here.

"Do we have enough for the human police yet?" Daisy asks. "With my testimony and the recording of Charles's confession, surely that should be enough to get him locked away for good?"

"And it should be enough for the Werewolf Council when it comes to Joel's involvement, too," Marcus adds. "I say we have enough to present to Jack Darlington, at this point."

"What happens if it's not enough for the human court system?" I ask. "A good defense lawyer might still be able to poke enough holes to get Charles acquitted, after all."

"Do you think so?" Liam asks with a frown.

"I'm not a lawyer, of course, but I think it's certainly possible," I say. "They could make Daisy look like a jilted, jealous wife, for example, and it might be easy to get the confession discredited and thrown out of evidence."

"She's probably right," Marcus says. "We can't rely on the human court system to handle this for us, not definitively, anyway. We need to discuss what will happen to Charles if the human system lets us down. How will we keep him away, keep ourselves safe?"

"It is a problem," the Alpha muses, rubbing his chin. "Especially as he's a human himself. We don't have true jurisdiction over him, not as we would with one of our own. We can try him at the Werewolf Council, of course, and get him excommunicated from our community…"

"...but we can't actually force him out of the city, or imprison him ourselves," Liam finishes. "Yes, it's a problem. If Charles goes to trial on the evidence that we have and gets let off, he can't be retried for any of the crimes."

"Which leaves us all vulnerable to another attack," I say. "Hell, it might not even go to trial. They may decline to prosecute, or he may get let out on bail and come after us for revenge."

Everyone around me nods thoughtfully.

"It's a gamble," Jeanette says after a long pause. "So, we need to decide what to do next, what the safest course of action is going to be."

"Remind me of our options?" I ask.

"Broadly speaking, we have three choices," Liam says. "We can take what we have on Charles, Joel, and Amos to the Werewolf Council, which will almost positively result in a conviction. Charles will be thrown out of our community. Joel will be excommunicated and banished from the country.

"Amos will be re-excommunicated and banished from the country, though the fact that he's currently excommunicated and banished and yet is still here causing mayhem doesn't speak well to the efficiency of that particular method."

"That fact has not been lost on me, I promise you," the Alpha says drily. "It's making me wonder how useful our excommunication laws actually are, to tell you the truth. And how useful it's going to be for us in our current situation."

Liam nods, then continues: "We can also take what we have to the human police, which may or may not result in legal action taken against Charles. It's unlikely anything will be done about Amos through those channels; we'd still have to handle him ourselves."

"And if the humans won't deal with Charles, I'm afraid things will only get worse," Daisy chips in. "I know my husband," she wrinkles her nose at the term, "and he's like a weasel when he's cornered. He'll recklessly blast at everyone in his path, consequences be damned."

I have to refrain from nodding my head in agreement, since I'm not supposed to know Charles intimately, but she's right. Daisy is absolutely right.

"Or, we can do nothing," Jeanette concludes. "We can wait until we get more definitive proof, something we know that the human authorities won't be able to ignore. Something that will perhaps be more of a guarantee for us."

"All of these options continue to leave us open to risk," the Alpha says. "I'm frustrated to admit it, but it's true."

"I'm tired of sitting around and waiting to be attacked," Marcus growls in frustration. "I'm even more tired of Evelyn being caught in this crossfire. She's a sitting duck with us, and it's not even her fight."

I put my hand on his arm, trying to soothe him. "I want to be here, Marcus. There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

He shoots me a soft smile. "I know that, carina, and I do love you for it. But it doesn't change the fact that you're in danger because of me, and that is growing intolerable."

Marcus and I have not yet had time to discuss the soulmate business that the Alpha brought up to me in the hospital, but I wonder if this is part of it. Oh, how I wish all of this could be over. There's so much for Marcus and I to talk about, and so little opportunity.

"I think it's best if we adjourn for now," Jeanette says at last. "Let us sleep on it, and make a decision in the morning. We are well protected here; one more night of contemplation cannot hurt."

"I agree," the Alpha says, and the rest of us nod.

"Meeting adjourned," Liam says, marking in his notebook. "I'll see you folks in the morning. I'm going to retire back to my room, order room service, and conk out for the evening. It's been a long few days."

"I suggest we all do the same," Jeanette says, and everyone rises to leave. Marcus and I see them to the door, then turn to each other and sigh.

"What a mess," I say, going back to the living room couch and flopping over.

"Let's not talk any more about it tonight," Marcus says, joining me on the couch and reaching for the room service menu on the coffee table. "Let's order some wonderful, overpriced food, a bottle of champagne, and a truly decadent dessert."

"That sounds perfect," I say, holding out my hand for the menu. "I'll choose the dessert if you pick the movie?"

"I like the way you think," Marcus grins at me. He grabs the remote and starts flipping as I pick up the phone and place our room service order.

Halfway through our movie - a romantic comedy that I know Marcus probably wasn't truly interested in but knows I've been wanting to see for a while - Marcus frowns and glances at his watch.

"What time did you order that room service?" he asks. "It's been almost an hour, hasn't it? That's funny; they're usually a little more prompt than this. And I'm getting hungry."

"It's been over an hour, come to think of it," I say. "Do you want to call down to the front desk and ask if something's wrong?"

"No need!" a voice shouts through our door before knocking loudly. "Open up, kids. It's me."

"Liam," Marcus says, sounding puzzled. He quickly goes to the door and opens it. Liam ducks inside, buzzing with a weird energy that I can't place. He looks both elated and grim at the same time.

"Well, my friends, you're never going to believe what's happened," he says, shifting from foot to foot as if he can't stay still a moment longer. Marcus and I exchange baffled looks before looking back to Liam expectantly.

"Your parents are downstairs with the police right now," Liam says with satisfaction. "And all of our problems are about to be solved. Old Charles was just caught in the kitchens, trying some bizarre Old Hollywood noir trick in a final attempt to kill us all."

"What?" Marcus and I exclaim together.

"Yes. Old boy got desperate and was apparently starting to feel cornered. It's just like Daisy said - he'll recklessly fight when he feels he's got no way out. He was going to actually rig bombs to our room service carts. God knows how he thought he'd get away with that, but he did."

"Oh, my god," I say, swaying on my feet. Marcus puts an arm around me for support.

"He's been caught red-handed," Liam says, his eyes bright. "We won't have to have that decision meeting tomorrow, after all. With our other evidence, this should be enough. Now we just have to decide how to tie up some loose ends, and this can all be over."

"Thank god," Marcus breathes, hugging me tight. Then he starts to laugh. "Thank god!" He picks me up and whirls me around. I shriek with laughter, swatting at him. Liam laughs, too.

"This is perfect!" Marcus says. "He's finally shot himself in the foot, Evelyn. We'll be able to live our own lives at last. We'll be able to –"

"Marcus," I interrupt him, suddenly resolved. "There's one thing I have to tell you first."

"What is it?" he asks.

"I've wanted to tell you this for so long, but it wasn't safe until now. It wasn't the right time. I hope you'll understand. I love you so much, and I never wanted to lie to you. Please believe that everything I did, I did to keep us all safe," I begin.

"Evelyn, you're scaring me a little," Marcus says, looking bewildered. "Carina, just tell me. What is it?"

"That's just it," I say. "My name isn't Evelyn Prism.

"It's Nicole Hardy."