Some Gave All Read Free

him.”
    “Keep me posted.” Tess hung up. She was a good captain, just what the traumatized 125th needed, but Cat knew her best friend was feeling the pressure of her promotion at the worst time in the recent history of New York crime prevention. Tess didn’t need a serial-killer beast case on her plate right now.
    Or ever.
    Joining Vincent at the curb, Cat put her phone in her pocket and saw the anguish in his eyes. His gloved hands held a cherry-wood box with the desperation of a drowning man clasping the only piece of driftwood in a frozen sea.
    “I don’t know why I can’t track whatever is doing this.” Guilt and a misplaced sense of responsibility wafted in the air with the vapor from his breath.
    She placed her hand over his. “It’s okay, Vincent.”
    But it wasn’t. She, he, J.T., and Tess all knew that the situation would only worsen if NYPD had to rely on traditional methods of solving crimes to stop this thing. How many years had the four of them suppressed evidence to keep the world from knowing about the existence of beasts? They were on a collision course with not only the 125th but every law enforcement agency in New York, the FBI included. And FBI meant her biological father, Bob Reynolds, a major player in Muirfield, the code name for the beast-creation program. He had justified his criminal activities—killing beasts and innocent humans alike—as a necessary part of his plan to wipe all beasts from the face of the earth. Although he had sworn he would never go public because he wanted to protect Cat, there was always a possibility that in his sick logic, he would decide she would be safer if he revealed everything he knew. Then Vincent could kiss any semblance of a normal life goodbye forever.
    “J.T.’s barely slept in a week trying to figure out what’s going on.” Vincent sighed as if that were his fault.
    Anything beast-related, Vincent took on as if he, and not the government, was responsible. He carried a massive amount of guilt for agreeing to become part of Muirfield by serving as a test subject.
    “And I’m sure he’ll break the case,” she said, projecting a confidence she wasn’t currently feeling. For a cop, each new crime in a connected chain of previous crimes felt like a defeat.
    Together they faced a one-story house that, like them, had seen better days. Grubby white paint was peeling off the exterior walls and the porch had sunken in like a deflated soccer ball. A flag-shaped sign on the front door read T HE R ILEYS
G OD B LESS A MERICA !
in bleached red, white, and blue letters. The mailbox was flag-themed, too. Cat glanced at the box in Vincent’s grip.
    “Tess is going to the crime scene,” she said. “She can monitor the situation. We’ve finally got one in our jurisdiction, so she’s the captain in charge.”
    The New York Chief of Police had organized a task force comprised of special-crimes squads from the larger precincts, but most of the precinct captains seemed more interested in protecting their turf than in working together to solve the murders. Tess, as the newest captain, was fighting to hold her own. It frustrated her that she couldn’t reveal everything she knew—that this was undoubtedly beast-related—a situation made all the more irritating because no one seemed to give credence to the few details she
was
able to share. She was new and she was a woman. Ergo, she must not know what she was doing.
    He nodded. “That’s good. With Tess we’ll have direct access.” His face masked emotions he wasn’t sharing. She knew him so well, knew that he was keeping something back, and wished he would unburden himself. They had seen each other in their darkest hours… or so she had thought. But right then Vincent was in a bleak place he hadn’t told her about, and she wanted to join him there. Not because she needed more tragedy and pain, but because she knew that if he let her in, she would bring him light. Maybe just one small candle flame’s