Connecting Dots – 1

Sebastian’s POV

“Aurora would never do something like that,” Roman defended his sister. Despite being angry with her, at the end of the day, she was still his sister. He would do everything in his power to protect her.

“In my line of work, anything is possible,” Hawthorne said calmly. He pulled out his notebook and wrote something down. After a few minutes, he looked up at us.

“But seriously, Aurora wouldn’t hurt Thea. Maybe there’s a lot of bad blood between them, but she would never harm her,” Roman insisted while the others remained silent.

I wanted to believe Aurora wasn’t capable of this, but I wasn’t so sure anymore. The woman who came back a few months ago wasn’t the same woman who left years ago. She had so much anger and hatred toward Thea. She even threatened my pup and fabricated lies to frame Thea.

“I’m not saying she’s the perpetrator, just that she’s a suspect,” Hawthorne explained. “Hatred and anger are powerful motivations for murderous revenge. And the fact that Thea was shot less than a month after she exposed Aurora’s big secret isn’t a coincidence. Aurora tried her hardest to keep that secret hidden.”

On the surface, everything pointed to Aurora. She was the only one who’d recently had an intense conflict with Thea, and considering their tense relationship, Aurora might have hired hitmen to kill her.

I looked at Roman, who appeared as if he’d been struck by lightning. I could see regret in his eyes for potentially getting his sister into trouble.

“What about Graves?” I asked, remembering how he had targeted Thea before.

“Yes, I considered him, but for some strange reason, I don’t feel he’s behind this. His hatred was directed at you. Sure, he kidnapped Thea, but according to what his men told us when we caught them that day, he was just messing with you. He never planned to kill her. He explicitly told them not to harm Thea or he’d slit their throats.”

This information surprised me, but I didn’t show it.

“That’s strange,” I muttered, frowning.

“Indeed. What’s even stranger is that those thugs we caught trying to harm Thea all died mysteriously in prison,” he added. “Anyway, as I said, his target was you. Always has been. I believe if he truly wanted revenge, he’d either kill you or destroy your Pack.”

Damien and I snorted simultaneously. That bastard could try, but he wouldn’t succeed at either. My reputation as Alpha wasn’t built on my father’s name, and even the Kincaids failed when they tried to take me and my pack down. I’d eliminated countless enemies and rivals, and I wouldn’t mind adding him to the list.

“So you really don’t think it was him?” Iris asked softly.

“Yes. Whoever shot Thea harbors deep hatred for her. You can tell by the way they shot her. But Graves doesn’t have that kind of hatred for Thea, so he wouldn’t go after her the way this person or these people did.”

He confirmed what I’d already suspected. Whoever shot Thea wanted her dead. That’s why there were multiple shots. He or she didn’t want her to escape death.

“What about the car’s license plate?” Maximus looked like he’d aged years in these few hours.

“No leads. They removed the plates, so all we know is that it was a black vehicle. There could be thousands of black SUVs in the entire city.” Hawthorne sighed.

We fell silent for a moment. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts. There was so much going on in my head I could barely think straight.

I pushed all these thoughts to the back of my mind. What mattered was Thea’s health. I’d deal with whoever wanted her dead after she recovered.

“Well, I’ll take my leave and head back to the station,” Hawthorne broke the silence. “For now, I suggest you make sure not too many people know she’s alive. The last thing we need is someone coming to finish the job, though I’ll have two officers stationed outside her room with your men, just in case.”

I nodded, and Damien saw him out.

“I’ll call our people, and you contact yours,” Maximus said. “Make sure word doesn’t get out that she’s alive, at least until she’s out of danger.”

“Alright,” I agreed. I took out my phone and started making calls. This was definitely going to be a long night.

I woke up to someone tapping my shoulder. Damn, I’d fallen asleep at an uncomfortable angle, and now my back and neck were killing me. I opened my eyes to find that daylight had arrived. Looking up, I saw an older nurse smiling warmly at me.