Austin slid his jaw to the side, looking at him pensively. “There and back.”

I turned my head toward Wheeler standing behind me. He briefly lifted one of my curls and let it slip through his fingers. It seemed like such a peculiar gesture that I kept watching him as he walked to the door and lifted his keys from a nail positioned above the letter W.

“Be careful,” Austin said.

As Wheeler opened the door, he glanced at me over his shoulder. I’m not sure why that left my panther unsettled, but she paced feverishly.

Chapter 19

When Wheeler received a phone call from Ben, he knew he’d gone back to Club Sin to play another game with higher stakes. What Wheeler wasn’t prepared for was Delgado on the other end of the line.

“When I got wind one of my girls was a panther, I needed proof,” Delgado said. “I’m not a man who believes hearsay, so I ordered one of my men to make her shift onstage to get a better look. That would get her fired, and no one would notice if she went missing. I’ve had my sights on acquiring a panther for a long time.”

“What do you want?” Wheeler said tersely from the hall outside the kitchen.

Delgado sucked in long and satisfied breath, adding a hint of amusement to his voice. “Before Naya’s dance, I was playing a game of poker with a Shifter. Funny, I sat there staring at your brother and couldn’t believe it. The same face of a man I’d watched fight off a panther with his bare hands when I was in my twenties. You see, I’m not a stranger in your world. I’ve been in it for a long time, working my way up and learning where the fast money is. Sometimes I lied and said I was a Relic; no one could tell. After acquiring a few clubs, I got all the protection I needed. In my early days, I used to bet on the panther pits. That’s where the big money was.”

Wheeler’s stomach turned when he realized where this was going.

“You were legendary,” Delgado said with admiration. “The stakes were always higher when you fought in human form, so you can thank yourself for lending a hand in my wealth. I sat there staring at your brother for a long time—I’ll never forget that face. After a little conversation, he mentioned that he had a twin. Your reputation precedes you, Mr. Cole.”

“Where’s Ben?”

“Let’s make this quick and to the point. I’m quite curious if your identical twin would be as savage as you once were in a match, but I’d prefer to have a sure thing. Either way I’ll have someone to fill a sudden vacancy for the panther. Make a choice: you or your brother. One of you is going to be my bitch, so who will it be? Ticktock, Mr. Cole. Ticktock.”