A blood-curdling scream woke me up.

I shot straight up out of bed, rubbing at my tired eyes. I winced against the bright ass sunlight as I took in the room. Nothing looked out of place. But when I noticed Everly didn't sleep beside me, I grabbed my gun and bolted downstairs.

Was that her scream? What happened? Was she in danger?

"Everly?" I called out, pressing my back against the wall as I made my way toward the living room. Just in case a killer crept through our house. I wanted to be on my guard this time, unlike the night at the aquarium. I wouldn't let the fucker get away again.

A cold draft greeted me. The front door remained wide open. As I made my way up there and propped the screen door open, I lowered my gun and stashed it in the waistband of my pants. I stepped out onto the porch, shivering against the snow flurries that pelted my face.

Everly crouched down in front of the porch where she built those cat beds. Her sobs echoed in the shrieking wind as I knelt down beside her in horror. Blood covered her hands and pink nightgown. The can of food she'd brought out laid beside her, unopened.

Droplets of red covered the snow in front of the plastic tubs and old blankets. The strays she always fed were dead. What could've slaughtered the poor cats like that? It wasn't until I spotted the bloody rock halfway buried under the blue blanket when I realized what happened.

I wrapped my arms around my girl as she cried against my chest. What kind of sick fucking monster would do this? Everly had been taking care of those cats before we even got together. I knew how much they meant to her and why she did her best to help keep them warm in the winter. She had the biggest heart ever, especially for animals.

Poor cats. They just wanted someplace safe to sleep and eat. Their fur was matted with blood and their little faces were caved in from being beaten to death with the rock. Only a psychopath could be capable of something like that.

"Honey, I'm so sorry."

"I'm gonna kill whoever did this," Everly whimpered.

We covered the dead cats up underneath their blankets. The ground was frozen solid under all the snow, so we couldn't bury them right away. The humane society might want to bury them out on their own property too. I wasn't sure. Animal abuse cases weren't something I'd ever handled while on the force, not even as a rookie.

I'd get a hold of my colleagues after we checked the video surveillance footage. Hopefully, it caught whoever did this. If it was that brat, James, he'd be receiving another unexpected visit from me.

I led Everly back inside as she shivered and sniffled. She curled up on the couch, and I brought her a blanket when I went to grab my laptop. I booted everything up and played last night's footage. Watching the same scene of our neighbor's houses got boring as hell, but when the time rolled over to a little after four in the morning, that's when a silhouette came into view.

Everly leaned close to me, observing the screen as the female figure approached the porch. She killed one of the orange cats wandering around by the front door. I winced when it happened. The scene brought Everly to tears. I wanted to shut it off right away. She didn't need to watch her precious cats be killed. But I knew she'd be pissed with me if I did. She wanted to know what happened to them.

The woman kept her face hidden. Upon closer inspection, I realized she wore a dark mask too and kept her face away from the cameras. She didn't want them to catch her face. Only her long black hair flowed in the wind. Her black trench coat concealed everything too.

"Could that be the witch the kid mentioned?" Everly asked.

"She sure looks a little like it," I said. "But who the hell is it? Do any of Emmett's drug clients look like her?"

Everly shook her head. "Not that I've dealt with."

"Why would she go through the trouble of doing that? I don't understand. How would she even know about the cats?" I asked.

"The photos." Everly wiped away her tears on her sleeve. "That's why she paid the freaking kid!"

"Son of a bitch."

Everly made an excellent point. I bet she paid the kid so she'd know almost every little detail about the house. She wanted to frighten us and leave a deadly warning. I couldn't understand what part James played in everything at first, but now I had an idea. The kid probably had no clue what he'd gotten himself involved with.

"You think it could be someone my brother ticked off?" Everly looked down at the bloodstains on her nightgown, where I assumed she'd picked the cats up to check on them.

"I've considered that since the night you were in the hospital," I admitted.

"Maybe I should start dealing for the rebels again. I could lure this woman out into their territory," Everly suggested. "I know it's not ideal for me to go back, but I need to. Emmett and Kaz can't handle all my clients either. They need me too."

I scratched at the stubble on my chin. "I don't know. I don't think that's a good idea, honey. You still need to rest-"

"What else am I supposed to do? If we don't find her soon, she'll kill me. You're gonna wake up one morning and find my bleeding body on the porch instead."

"Don't say that, Everly."

"It's the truth. I don't know why this person hates me so much, but I won't let her take anything else I love. I don't care what I have to do. I'll bash her head in with the same rock she killed my precious fur-babies with."

Everly had lost so much these past few days. First our baby, and now her precious cats. I understood why she sought justice so badly. I just didn't want her to throw herself into something she might not be ready for yet. She still needed to heal. I worried about her.

I thought she'd finally leave their gang after her dispute with her brother, but maybe not. She kicked him out of her hospital room for a good reason. He was a worthless piece of shit. He only cared about himself and his precious drugs.

"I thought the argument at the hospital meant you'd leave Emmett's drug business," I told her.

Everly sighed. "I can't abandon him. He needs me. You understand, don't you? Isn't that how you feel about Archie?"

Her response struck a nerve. I couldn't deny that I would pull out all the stops for my brother, no matter what kind of shit he got himself involved in. Like how I deleted his contact information off a dead meth head's cell phone. We enabled our brothers too much because we cared. Our so-called help only made them worse though.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I admitted. "Just promise me you'll be careful and call me when you need anything. Don't even hesitate. You can call me over a stomach ache or because you want a Whopper from Burger King. I'll come by right away."

"Don't worry, I will." She leaned over and kissed me.

Gut instinct told me letting Everly return to her brother's drug business was a bad idea. If only I'd tried harder to convince her not to go back to them.

💀

We didn't have many laws that protected animals in our jurisdiction. Calling the station proved to be a tremendous waste of time. Senior officer Chip Lowrey answered the phone, then advised me to try the local humane society instead because they weren't the "Pet Detectives" and had actual cases to solve. If I wouldn't lose my job, I'd go in and kick his ass.

Chip Lowrey's response pissed me off so much. I wanted to punch him in his ugly fucking face. I considered calling Sergeant, Davidson, but I knew he had a lot on his plate right now.

I couldn't dare tell my girl how many animal cruelty reports we ignored because of other violent cases. Rarely did officers get assigned to them. They just got documented and stashed away, never to be seen again. Her cats' deaths deserved to be properly investigated. So I called the one person who I knew without a doubt would help look into the matter. My partner, Chris Bailey.

He worked today too and had to be annoyed by all my calls. Anyone else at the station would've ignored me and gave insincere promises that they would look into everything. In reality, they wouldn't do jack shit. Not the senior officers, at least. They were too high and mighty for that. Damn pretentious jackasses.

The freckle-face arrived shortly after I call him. A knock sounded from the front door while I brewed some coffee. Lord knew I needed something a helluva lot stronger. Everly got up to open it for Chris as I stepped back into the living room, carrying two mugs of steaming coffee.

"I saw them out there in the tubs," Chris said to Everly, hugging her. "I'm so sorry."

The windchill reddened his cheeks. Chris removed his snow-covered boots and took a seat on the recliner. He pulled out that silly little notebook of his. He always carried one on him. The colors changed sometimes. I imagined he had a whole collection of them at his house, stowed away somewhere.

"Can you help us find out who did this?" Everly asked.

"I'm gonna try my best to, okay?" Chris told her. "Just tell me everything you know so far."

We couldn't give him much information, but at least we had the video surveillance. Chris agreed that the woman was probably the witch James mentioned to us, but that left more questions unanswered. Who was she and why did she want to hurt Everly?

"We need to catch her in the action somehow," I told him.

"You think she'll come back?" Chris asked. "That would be chancy for her. She's been careful so far."

I took a seat beside Everly, sipping on my coffee before saying, "Criminals always slip up. It's just a matter of when she will."

Chris rubbed his hands together, shivering. "Want me to go snoop around the Nelson's place?"

"Yeah, I think that would be a good idea," I said. "Just in case she reaches out to the kid again, or maybe even the mother."

"Care if I tag along?" Everly asked.

Detective Bailey turned to me, as if looking for my permission. I just shrugged. "You feeling okay?"

"I took all my medications already. So I should be fine." Everly rose from the couch. Determination sparked in her beautiful green eyes. "Let me get dressed and we'll head over there."

Everly walked off to the bedroom. Her long blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders. She wouldn't stop until we found this bitch. She was too stubborn to stay home and rest. She needed to be in the action. At least she'd be in the safety of our police car. She wouldn't strain herself either.

"You sure it's fine for her to come with us?" Chris asked. "Shouldn't she be resting?"

"I'll make sure she brings something to eat and drink. It's been a little over a week since the surgery, so I think it's okay for her to get out," I replied. "If she starts feeling bad, we can come back home. The Nelson's are just down the road. I'd rather her come with us instead of trying to go out and investigate on her own."

Detective Bailey replied, "I understand."

Somehow I got sandwiched in the police cruiser's backseat where we stuck criminals. Everly made herself comfortable in the passenger seat, nibbling on a granola bar. It went against all standard procedures for her to sit up front, but we wouldn't tell anybody. I used to let her do it all the time, actually, before Detective Bailey got assigned as my partner. It'd be our little secret.

The shotgun house came into view as Detective Bailey pulled onto the street. What a surprise that Mrs. Nelson came outside and climbed into her old four-door Honda Accord. Checking the time on my cell phone, I realized her son was probably already at school.

"Let's follow her," I suggested. "I know it's possible she won't lead us anywhere, but it's worth checking into."

"Yeah, I agree," Everly said.

Detective Bailey hesitated before tailing Mrs. Nelson's car. I advised him to pull back when he got too close to her. We didn't want to scare the woman. She might detour from her planned destination if she thought a cop was watching her.

Turns out Mrs. Nelson had some grocery shopping to do. We waited outside the supermarket for roughly fifteen minutes before she came out, carrying her groceries. Chris considered taking us back home after the next pit-stop at the post office. Good thing Everly convinced him not to though because Mrs. Nelson needed to buy more than groceries.

She led us down into Hell's Hollow. We passed by several old houses that needed to be torn down. Dirty snow covered the streets and nasty graffiti painted abandoned buildings. Someone ought to tell those self-proclaimed artists that their work was shit. Maybe they'd stop spreading their hateful messages with it and weird gang tags.

Mrs. Nelson pulled up into the parking lot of the Wallflower diner and circled around back. I had no doubt in my mind that she was heading in there for her fix. But I couldn't let my partner realize I already knew that. I promised Everly that I'd keep her secret safe. Even if that meant slightly deceiving my own colleague.

"What the heck is she doing?" Detective Bailey asked.

"She's buying drugs here from my brother," Everly replied, shocking me. She actually admitted that? Maybe she'd finally decided to trust my partner. He'd never go against our backs and rat her out for dealing drugs with Emmett.

Chris frowned. "Huh? How do you know that?"

"Emmett makes his clients park in the back and come through the old emergency exit. The alarm's been shut off," she explained to him. "They keep their supply down in the basement. The owner of this place helps him deal. It's part of the contract he signed with Emmett."

"Contract?" I questioned, pretending to be foolish.

"Emmett helped the owner when she went bankrupt," Everly replied. "In return, she had to agree to let my brother sell his drugs there. The owner gets a smidgen of the sales too. That's how Emmett's drug business is so big. He's extended it all over New Syracuse, to businesses that almost had to close forever. He does business with almost all of Hell's Hollow."

I had no idea Emmett's drug business extended that much through our town. Holy shit. Considering everything about the tweaked out asshole, it made sense. That was how his drug business flourished and how he had so many drug stash houses. He knew the right people to pick too, those who were desperate enough to do almost anything to keep their business running.

"That's insane," Chris murmured.

"We should go confront her," I suggested.

"No, I don't think that's a good idea," Everly said. "It'll spook her and Emmett. She won't open up to any of us about what she might know, and my brother will never let me around if I lead cops in there. He'd probably ban me from ever coming around."

"What do you reckon we do then?" I asked.

"We wait because I have a plan." Everly turned back to me, grinning.

Lord knew I couldn't argue with that mischievous grin of hers. When Everly set her mind to something, she didn't stop until she got what she wanted. I just worried about her well-being and how she'd cope being around those addicts again. Part of me wished I'd come up with another plan, but it was too late.