“He’s not,” Chapel interrupted, her nostrils flaring as her upper lip curled over her canines. “The little weasel is lying through his teeth.” Grinding Kiev’s cheek into the wood, she leaned over him and inhaled deeply. “I can smell it all over him.”
Sammy stopped struggling, his entire body going rigid as her words registered. How much had Kiev lied about, and more importantly, why?
It was also in that moment he noticed Kiev hadn’t reacted to the assault. He didn’t yell or fight back, both of which would have been normal.
The color had drained from his face, and his pupils bled to the outer edges of his irises, but his breath remained steady. He was afraid, but not paralyzed by it.
There was something beneath the fear, though, an emotion Sammy couldn’t identify, but it made him uneasy.
“Will someone please tell me what’s going on?”
Once he had stopped struggling, Dominic set him back on his feet, but he kept a restraining arm across his chest. “He’s lying.”
“I get that. About what?”
Dominic shrugged. “Valerie was here, and she has the locket. That’s probably the only truthful thing he’s said.” Then he snapped his head up, his eyes narrowing as they locked onto Kiev. “Knock it off with the siren shit. It won’t work on me.”
“I don’t know.” Chapel sounded quite casual, all things considered. “It kind of tickles. I like it.”
Dominic flexed the muscles in his arm, drawing Sammy back against his chest. “Valerie didn’t have the necklace when she arrived, did she? You did.”
Kiev didn’t answer, which spoke volumes. Well, it did to Sammy. Dominic, apparently, wanted to hear him say it.
“Yes!” Kiev screamed when Chapel tightened her grip, piercing the side of his neck with the tips of her dagger-like claws. “I had the locket.”
Sammy gasped. “What? How?”
“I took it,” Kiev responded through gritted teeth after moreencouragementfrom Chapel. “At the funeral.”
“You stole it off a dead man?” The female shook her head. “That’s cold.”
Sammy tensed, his entire body vibrating with anger. He had trusted the siren, and this whole time, Kiev had just been waiting for an opportunity to betray him.
“Why would you do that?” he demanded.
Kiev remained silent, but it didn’t matter. Deep down, he already knew the answer.
Greed. It was always greed.
“It was useless,” Kiev said a moment later, completely unprompted, bitterness bleeding through every syllable. “I couldn’t make it work.”
“So, you contacted Valerie,” Dominic prompted.
“No,” the siren hissed, but only after Chapel shook him like a rag doll. “She came here looking for Chandler.”
Dominic growled, the sound vibrating through his chest and into Sammy’s back. “This is taking too long.”
Though he had never interrogated anyone before, Sammy had to agree. Getting information from Kiev was like pulling teeth. He kept that thought to himself, not wanting to give the wolves any ideas.
“What do—”
The words died on his lips when Dominic suddenly appeared on the other side of the bar, directly behind Kiev. Chapel glanced at him, nodded, then extracted her claws.
“Damn it,” she muttered, inspecting her nails as she settled back down on the barstool. “What a waste of a perfectly good manicure.”
Sammy blinked at her. He had suspected the female might be a little crazy, and this solidified it. Not that he would say so to her face. Although, she would probably take it as a compliment.
Instead, he turned his attention back to Dominic. “What are you going to do?”