Beta by SM Reine Read Free Book Online Page A

won’t.”
    Niamh headed off to No Capes, leaving Deirdre alone on the sidewalk.
    Deirdre didn’t head down to the gun store, though.
    She turned around and went back into CVS.
    Disposable cell phones were on sale behind the counter. She pointed at the cheapest of them. “I’ll take that and twenty minutes,” Deirdre said. Twenty minutes was nothing—only enough for a single phone call—but she didn’t think she could afford more.
    “How are you paying? Cash? Credit?” asked the clerk, unlocking the case.
    Deirdre wiggled her thumb. “Credit.”
    The clerk pushed the fingerprint reader toward her. Deirdre glanced over her shoulder at the street before pressing her thumb to the pad.
    She wasn’t sure she’d still have any money left on her benefits card, since she hadn’t checked in with the office since leaving Montreal. But it scanned, considered her thumbprint, and took the payment.
    The clerk handed the phone to her. Deirdre headed across the street to the skate park before activating it.
    She had taken care to memorize Rylie’s phone number instead of writing it down. Stark had found the page she’d stolen from him in her bedroom, so obviously he was doing searches whenever he felt like it. Deirdre couldn’t have anything physical that might betray her loyalties.
    She chewed on the inside of her cheek as the phone rang.
    Finally, it connected.
    “Deirdre?” Rylie sounded weirdly hopeful, considering their last contact had been when Deirdre told her that Gage was dead.
    “Yeah, it’s me. Just checking in.” Deirdre scanned the surrounding crowd. All unfamiliar faces, mostly teenagers, and few shifters.
    “What happened last night?”
    “Stark released someone from solitary confinement. A member of his pack.”
    “So it wasn’t meant to make a statement this time?” Rylie asked.
    Deirdre gave a dry laugh. “He’s always making a statement. But that wasn’t the sole reason, no. He was rescuing someone named Vidya. Do you know who she is?”
    “I can look her up.”
    It seemed unfair that Rylie didn’t recognize Vidya’s name. The woman was dangerous enough that she had been locked into a closet, dwelling in her own filth, yet not important enough to be a blip on the Alpha’s radar.
    “What’s up with the news channels?” Deirdre asked.
    “You mean the fact you’re not on them? That’s us,” Rylie said.
    Hearing it confirmed didn’t make Deirdre feel any better. She shut her eyes, leaning back on the park bench. “You shouldn’t have that power.”
    Rylie sounded distracted. “We can’t have Stark causing pandemonium by unleashing convicts and bragging about it on the news. We’ve got standing takedown notices with all the usual social media sites to keep his videos from getting out, and—”
    “A lot of those convicts were non-violent drug offenders. Did you know that? People who were arrested for possession of lethe. Or people who stole from the gas station down the street three times and ended up getting put away for life.”
    The silence from the other side of the line wasn’t exactly inspirational.
    Deirdre pushed on.
    “I don’t think it’s fair to destroy lives for petty crimes,” she said. She wished she could have seen Rylie’s expression. “Do you think that’s fair?”
    “It’s not my law,” Rylie said softly.
    “No, it’s the law of your best friends at the Office of Preternatural Affairs.”
    “Secretary Friederling has reasons for setting things up the way he did. The statistics surrounding violent offenses performed by preternatural drug users—”
    “But that’s not what got them put away,” Deirdre said. “A lot of it’s possession, not assault or whatever.”
    “I’m sorry. I know the glacial pace of legislation must be incredibly frustrating, but there’s nothing we can do at the moment that we aren’t already working on.” Rylie’s tone became gently cajoling. “That’s also not exactly an emergency.”
    Deirdre shut her eyes, took