Page 69 of Beastly Armory

“I’m sorry, Miss Von Dovish. Like I said, he isn’t here.”

“Let me by.” Shoving past Fritz’s large shoulder, I pummel into the Freidenberg’s coffin-like foyer, terror causing my throat to constrict. “Where’s Arianna?” Managing to choke out the question, my eyes dart around the large front hallway.

“Miss Arianna is out. If you would like for me to?—”

Spinning on my heeled boot, I head toward the dark wood staircase before he can finish. After the scene at the front door yesterday, Max was surrounded by his team of men. All of them shoved me out of the way and carried his collapsed body inside. But not before one of them thrust a finger in my face and told me to return to my fox lair. Only to help my brother with Von Dovish security did I obey. Once things seemed calm, I tried to call my lion, but there was no answer.

Until ten minutes ago, when Arianna called in apanic about her brother. Too hysterical to tell me any details, I rushed over and almost had to cap one of his new gate security just to get inside. Now Fritz is trying to block me from getting to him.

Intending to inspect the residence myself, I push into Max’s room. Empty glass whiskey bottles line the floor near his bed. Shattered glass shards lie underneath a picture frame along one wall and, as my eyes travel upwards, I notice a large, wet stain as if he’d thrown the bottle there in a fit of rage. The bed sheets appear to have been mauled. Most worrisome is a box of bullets spilled on the dresser. The entire area looks like a den of despair.

Markus stands in the center living room as I descend the stairs slowly, trying to contemplate my next move. His gray hairs spike out in every direction, as if he’s been rubbing hands through it repeatedly. There’s always a hint of exhaustion behind his eyes, but now he looks haggard and completely hopeless. His glasses have fallen down his nose, and he pushes them up as he waits for me. When I approach, his mouth remains closed, as if he’s lost the will to speak.

“Just tell me where he is,” I plead.

“Miss Von Dovish?—”

“Stop it, Markus. You know me. Call me Livia. Where is Max? My spies haven’t spotted him, or…” They won’t tell me. Echoes refuses, saying it isn’t part of her work mission and I’m crossing a “dangerous boundary.” Aries is under Calum’s thrall, and he’s instructed them both to stop giving me intel.

Things around the Freidenberg manor are as still asthe air before a devastating tornado, the halls feeling like a morbid tomb. Workers are nowhere to be seen, other than the groundskeeper digging a gravesite in the family’s cemetery for our beloved tank. I don’t know if anyone will return here after what happened.

Right after Max stood from his grieving at the front door, he pulled out his gun and shot his old gatekeeper square in the head, blaming him for not doing his duty. The agonizing look on my lion’s face was torturous to see, but I was thrust away before I could reach out to him.

Markus is reluctant to tell me where he is. It’s understandable the bears don’t trust me fully, but I must find Max before he does something stupid like get himself killed while drunk. Arianna is forbidden from leaving the compound, which has me worried about where she headed, or worse, what has happened to her.

“Livia, he’s stepped out.”

Begging with my eyes, I try again. “Where’s Ari?”

Markus’s withered hand raises to pull his glasses off and clean them with a soft cloth from his shirt pocket. “We bears are trying to recover from our security breach. Given everything that’s happened, I suggest you stick to your side of town right now. I'm not at liberty to discuss my master’s whereabouts or his sister’s. No matter how much you?—"

Before he finishes saying it, my legs dash to the foyer. The heavy wood deafens me briefly when I slam the front door. So, I’m back to being a full-blown enemy. Do they think I had something to do with Derichs’s death? Hopefully Master Freidenberg doesn’t believe that.

If Max is gone, then Arianna must have taken the opportunity to sneak away. There’s only one place I know she’d escape to. Well, one person…Wyatt. Her fascination with the mechanic is bordering on obsession, and I fear the feelings go both ways. Despite their attraction, these types of matches never end well in Gnarled Pine Hollow.

The commercial district on the east side appears livelier than the eerie calmness inside the estate fences. Clean and bright signs advertise new businesses while bars and restaurants showcase their goods on sandwich boards lining the swept sidewalks. Asphalt smoothly paves the roads along the main strip. Less zombie-like people roam about or stand on deserted street corners, filled with the drugs Strauss’s men so willingly give out for the small price of a soul.

Before I reach the motorcycle shop, an ominous pillar of black smoke rises above a line of pines that has yet to die. Slowing as if it’s afraid to behold what my eyes are seeing, my SUV creeps around the corner. Bright orange and red flames engulf the establishment. Heat waves make the scene difficult to assess, but clusters of men stand around in leather, motorcycles parked around in a circle. All faces peer up at the firestorm as if it’s a hole to Hell opening before them.

Her long dark hair is visible before anything else as her face is hidden, tucked into the protective, corded arm of her secret lover. Gently, his hand caresses circles on her back as I approach.

Clearing my throat, I stand with the crowd, in awe of the destruction before me. “Ari.”

Lifting her head, her chocolate brown eyes sparkle with tears, and despite me being an ally for the two of them, Wyatt instinctively turns his body into hers as if to shield her away. It’s not going to work. Her lithe arm reaches toward me, and I embrace her. Sobs wail in my ears as I hold her shaking body against mine.

Pulling her back, I grasp her face in both of my hands. “Arianna, who did this?” Wyatt has not let go of her hand.

“We don’t know,” he answers for her. “But, if I had to guess, it was Strauss. Just like with Derichs and a few of our men.”

“Not Ace? Or… anyone else?” We have so many enemies now. It could have been anyone.

“Nah. Rogue had some trouble with one of Strauss’s guys here yesterday. He thinks he must have planted something and then detonated it this morning. We just got here to open up shop and were greeted with this.” He nods at the roaring flames, narrow eyes becoming almost invisible as he squints in the heat.

“Wyatt, man, they’re reviewing the footage.” One of the workers calls him over, and he kisses Arianna’s temple briefly. “I’ll be right back, vix.”

Arianna reluctantly lets go of his hand, their fingers extending toward each other by some invisible force, but her tiny hand still has mine in a tense grasp.

“Vix?”

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