“Are you sure both of you were?”

“Um, yes. I got a message, and I saw his.”

“And he absolutely couldn’t have sent yours?”

I stared at her. “Oh, no. Don’t you dare even suggest—”

“If you know what I’m going to suggest, that’s because you already suspect it.”

“No, it’s because I can follow a trail of leading questions.”

“I had a visitor who told me that Gabriel Walsh murdered your fiancé. Beyond any doubt.”

“Then your visitor has an agenda—”

“He also has proof.”

“I don’t give a damn, because you could show me a video of Gabriel murdering James and I still wouldn’t believe it.”

“James came to see me last week.”

“What?”

“He was desperate to figure out what hold Gabriel had over you. He thought, since I’ve worked with the man, I might know. We discussed our mutual concerns. Now, having someone tell me that Gabriel murdered James—”

“He did not. Which I know because I was in his condo that night. All night. And no, not in the same bed. I was there because James had tried to have me kidnapped.”

“Gabriel convinced you that James was a threat and persuaded you to stay in his apartment?”

“Didn’t you hear me? James was a threat. Look, I’m not getting into this—”

“You need to get into this, Olivia. You need to take a cold hard look at Gabriel’s behavior. He keeps you from your family. He turns you against James. I hear he even took you away from your job so you could work for him. Now you’re staying in his apartment? Don’t you see how he’s controlling you?”

I wanted to laugh, but her expression was dead serious.

I pushed my chair back. “This isn’t about James’s murder. It’s about distracting me from asking questions, while planting seeds of doubt about Gabriel, for whatever ridiculous reason—”

“For whatever ridiculous reason?” Pamela gripped the edge of the table. “To protect you, Eden. You may not like being called that, but to me you are Eden Larsen, my daughter, and I will do whatever it takes to protect you. I know you want answers, and you think I’m holding back. I’m protecting you. Nothing could make me happier than if you’d lived your life without ever knowing any of this.”

“Maybe, but it has nothing to do with Gabriel.”

“It has everything to do with Gabriel. Everything you want to ask me about? He’s part of it. James was a threat, so he murdered him. If your new boyfriend becomes a threat, he’ll do the same to him. If you don’t toe the line and give Cainsville what it wants, Gabriel will turn on you. They’ll make him turn on you.”

“If the Cwn Annwn are telling you this—”

“They don’t need to.” She leaned forward, her hands still on the table. “I can’t help you from in here, baby. All I can do is give you the most sincere piece of advice possible. Run. Get someplace they can’t find you.”

I got up and walked out.

—

Gabriel was waiting in the hall. As I came out, he caught my expression and said, “She told you something?”

“Yes. You’re evil.”

His brows shot up. “That’s news?”

I smiled as he fell in step beside me. “Sadly, that was the gist of the entire conversation. She wouldn’t talk about the hounds and the omens, because it was far more important to warn me against you.”

I’d decided I wouldn’t mention the ridiculous murder accusation, because even to put it into words seemed as if I gave it some credence.

I continued. “Pamela’s bloodline might be fae, but she has a connection with the Huntsmen. They seem to be warning her about you, just like they warned me. The question now is the nature of that connection. Edgar Chandler was involved in the murders of Peter Evans and Jan Gunderson and he was involved with the Cwn Annwn. Does that mean the rest of the murders could have been connected, too?”

We walked through a set of doors.

“Then there’s the significance of what was done to James,” I said. “We haven’t discussed that.”

“That’s what I was thinking about while I waited. Some aspects of the earlier crimes weren’t released to the general public. The court records are open, which means anyone could duplicate the crimes, but the way he was murdered does open a strategy for freeing Pamela.”

“Even if she hates your guts?”

“If I failed to give my best defense to every client who hated me, I’d have a very poor record indeed.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The rest of Friday was quiet. Ricky and I went to a movie in the city. Big, loud, and action-packed, it was the perfect mental vacation. Afterward, I had to visit the police station with Gabriel for a follow-up on James’s case. The case was now being handled by the CPD. Gabriel explained why, but . . . let’s just say that as soon as I had a moment to relax with a book, I’d be eschewing novels for a few basic legal and law enforcement texts.

Saturday morning, Ricky gave me a lift to my parents’ house so I could find something appropriate to wear to the funeral. Gabriel picked me up at the house. He had his new car now, having retrieved it that morning. About five minutes before we arrived, Ricky texted that he’d found a shaded spot for us to stand, a couple of hundred feet from the grave site.