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  “You think the Council had something to do with it,” I said. This screwed with my chi almost as much as the Hank situation from a year ago. I had finally done something on my own and it might turn out I hadn’t earned any of it.

  “I’m not sayin’ nothing like that,” Granny admonished harshly. “And neither should you. You could get killed.”

  She was partially correct, but I was the one they sent to kill people who broke Council laws. However, speaking against the Council wasn’t breaking the law. The living room had grown too small for my need to move and I prowled the rest of the house with Granny and Dwayne on my heels. I stopped short and gaped at my empty bedroom.

  “Where in the hell is my furniture?”

  “You moved all your stuff to Hank’s and he won’t give it back,” Granny informed me.

  An intense thrill shot through my body, but I tamped it down immediately. I was done with him and he was surely done with me. No one humiliated an alpha and got a second chance. Besides, I didn’t want one… Dwayne’s snicker earned him a glare that made him hide behind Granny in fear.

  “Did you even try to get my stuff back?” I demanded.

  “Of course I did,” she huffed. “That was your mamma’s set from when she was a child. I expected you’d use it for your own daughter someday.”

  My mamma…My beautiful mamma who’d been murdered along with my daddy. The possibility that the Council had been involved was gnawing at my insides in a bad way.

  “I have to compartmentalize this for a minute or at least a couple of weeks,” I said as I stood in the middle of my empty bedroom. “I have to do what I was sent here for. But when I’m done, I’ll get answers and vengeance.”

  “Does that mean no vacation?” Dwayne asked.

  I stared at Dwayne like he’d grown three heads. He was getting terribly good at rendering me mute.

  “That was a good question, Dwayne.” Granny patted him on the head like a dog and he preened. “Essie, your mamma and daddy would want you to have a vacation before you get killed finding out what happened to them.”

  “Can we go to Jamaica?” Dwayne asked.

  “Ohhh, I’ve never been to Jamaica,” Granny volunteered.

  They were both batshit crazy, but Jamaica did sound kind of nice…

  “Fine, but you’re paying,” I told Dwayne. He was richer than Midas. He’d made outstanding investments in his three hundred years.

  “Yayayayayayay!” he squealed.

  “I’ll call the travel agent,” Granny said. “How long do you need to get the bad guy?”

  “A week. Give me a week.”

  Chapter 4

  “Well, great balls of fire ain’t you a sight for sore eyes!” Junior shouted, came out from behind his desk and trapped me in a hug that made breathing difficult. “Damn girl, if you ain’t prettier! What do they put in the water up there in Chicago?”

  Junior, aka Jacob only to his mother, was the Deputy Sheriff of Hung Island and the Beta of our Pack. He was also Hank’s older brother. Hence, I wasn’t sure what my reception would be. If the jaws-of-life hug was anything to go by, everything would be just fine. Junior actually should have become Alpha when his dad retired, but he was just a lazy good ol’ boy, so the honor went to his younger brother Hank the Cheater.

  Junior was every bit as good looking as his brother, but he never did it for me. However, he apparently did it for most of the women within a fifty mile radius.

  “I tell you what,” he drawled. “I am happy to see you. My baby brother has been in a mood since you left.”

  “He’s been in a mood for a year?” I snorted in disbelief and again tamped down the excited butterflies in my stomach. “I was sure he’d moved on by now.”

  “Gimme a break, sugar. He’s got it so bad for you, it ain’t funny.”

  “Well, he sure had a funny way of showing it,” I muttered. Confusion didn’t even begin to cover what I was feeling.

  “That’s interesting,” a deep, sexier than hell voice added from behind me. “I could say the same about you.”

  The air in the room shifted and the seductive power of his voice made me weak. Everything in my body tensed and stood at attention, including my traitorous nipples. Thank god my bra had a little padding—although the padding was useless. Weres could tell everything by scent and there was very little mistaking the cinnamon-laced scent of lust wafting through the room. His and mine. Crap.

  Holding my breath, I turned around to face my foe and had to grab onto Junior for purchase so my butt didn’t hit the floor…forget about my jaw. Damn it, why could Hank have gotten bald, fat and ugly? He was more beautiful than I remembered. Six foot four of absolute perfection. Dark brown just a little bit too long hair, full lips, cheekbones that could cut glass and an ass that could stop traffic. The only consolation I had was his sharp intake of breath and the way his eyes turned from crystal green to icy blue. That was what happened to wolves when they couldn’t mask their desire.

  I quickly lowered my eyes, not out of respect. I simply prayed my hazel green eyes hadn’t turned blue in response.

  “My office. Now,” he snapped. “Junior, hold my calls and don’t step foot in my office unless you hear gunshots. You understand?”

  “You got it, little bro-bro.” Junior was grinning from ear to ear and gave me a shove toward Hank’s office. I discreetly made sure my gun was still strapped to my inner thigh. I’d worn a sundress to conceal my weapon, not because I knew Hank loved them. Wait. Was he planning on shooting me? He so had another thing coming if he tried.

  I made my way into the familiar office and bit back every nasty thing I wanted to say. As the door shut behind me I casually took a seat in front of the massive desk we’d had sex on countless times. Crapcrapcrap. Being alone with him was a very bad idea. Where the hell was my self-respect? I did not need a man who wanted me and half the town. I was better than that.

  “You’ve got some explaining to do.” He sat down behind his desk in the chair we’d nicknamed the BJ Mobile and crossed his stupidly muscled arms over his stupidly muscled chest.

  “No,” I said as I regained my confidence and professionalism that had deserted me in the lobby. “I don’t. You need to get me up to speed on the case and I need to do what I’ve been trained to do. Period.”

  He watched me through narrowed eyes and his jaw worked angrily. Whatever. He had huge balls to think I had explaining to do.

  “You left in the middle of the damn night. It took me a week of harassing your granny and massive detective work to find you.”

  “You knew where I was?” I was shocked. I figured he was so pissed and horny for all the other gals he’d been seeing he’d have been happy I left.

  “I know where you live, your patterns, your friends, your grocery, your place of business and where you order takeout from.”

  “Oookay, that’s just creepy.” I rolled my eyes and wondered who he’d sent to watch me. It couldn’t have been Junior. I would have busted his butt in a minute flat. “Who’d you have on me?”

  “I was on you, princess. And when I wasn’t, I had a chatty friend who was all too willing to talk about you till the cows came home.” He smiled and I wanted to slap the dimple off of his left cheek.

  “You paid someone to watch me?” I shouted. I refused to acknowledge that he’d been in Chicago spying on me. And why in the hell did that turn me on?

  “Nope. Didn’t have to.”

  “That makes no sense whatsoever,” I snapped. “No one would watch someone for free.”

  “If they didn’t know they were watching you they would.”

  “When did you go all James Bond?”

  “A man does what a man has to do,” he replied.

  “Yeah, well most men don’t become the town vacuum cleaner,” I shot back and then slapped my hand over my mouth. Damn it, I wasn’t going to go there.

  “What the hell does that mean?” He stood up and was in front of me in a flash.

  His scent was
making me dizzy and I had the worst urge to jump him, but I gripped the arms of the chair like a vise and maintained my dignity by a thread.

  “Nothing. Ancient history. Now that we’ve reminisced, we need to get down to business,” I said coldly, met his gaze and refused to back down.

  “Fine. You win round one. On to round two,” he said easily—way too easily. “I don’t want you here. I don’t want you on this case.”

  “Tough. I am more than capable and you don’t have any say, buster boy.”

  “You did not just call me buster boy.”

  I bit back my grin and nodded my head. “I did. Now, do you have files for me?”

  “Ester…” he said in that tone. Fine. We were going there? I hated my name and he knew it, but two could play that game…

  “Yes, Henry?”

  “Listen to me, Essie.” He blew out a frustrated sigh and ran his hands through his thick dark hair. “Female Weres are disappearing…possibly dying. I don’t want you anywhere near this.”

  Part of me melted, but a bigger part took offense. “Look, Hank, I’m not the same naïve girl I was a year ago. I’m trained and I’m very good at what I do. It will give me great pleasure to destroy whoever is doing this and you need me. I’m here whether you want me here or not. So if you don’t want me going in blind, hand over what you’ve got.”

  He gave me a calculated stare and I met it head on. “You’ve changed. You’re hard.”

  “Girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do,” I said. He was so wrong about me I wanted to cry, but it was better he thought poorly of me. It would make everything much easier when I left again.

  “We’ve kept it out of the papers,” he said in a clipped business-like tone. “Only the Pack knows what’s going on. As far as anyone knowing what you’re really doing here, it’s just me and Junior. I figured you’d be safer that way.”

  “I agree. Do you really think the girls are dead?”

  “Don’t know,” he admitted. “None of those gals are the kind to pick up and disappear. It all seems connected to the modeling agency.”

  “Yep. The town thinks I’m flighty anyway, so no one will be surprised that I’ve come home to be a model.”

  “No one thinks you’re flighty except me. The whole town thinks you’re the best thing since sliced bread. The modeling thing wasn’t the best cover for you, so I told the Pack you’ve come back so we could work on our issues,” he replied casually.

  “You did what?” I yelled. “You had no right to tell anyone that kind of crap-assed lie.”

  “It’s a solid cover and it’s already done. You can’t tell me you haven’t had to do a little acting during your undercover stints. This should be a breeze for someone as skilled as you,” he said smoothly.

  I closed my eyes for a moment and sucked in some air. I was a big girl. The fact that people were missing was far larger than the small fact that I would have to pretend to be Hank the Skank’s girlfriend again. I could do this. It was a job. He was a job. He meant nothing to me…and I was not going to bang him.

  “No problem.” I smiled and lied. “It will be fun.”

  His eyes narrowed again and he watched me closely. “Fun?”

  “Yep, but won’t it be embarrassing for you when I leave again?” I asked sweetly.

  “We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it,” he answered just as sweetly.

  Wait. Did he say if? Crap, I didn’t want to ask him to clarify because if I was wrong, I would look like an idiot and if I was right…OMG. Enough. I had a mission and he would not make me lose focus.

  “Files?” I held my hand out and waited.

  He gave me a sexy half smirk and my stomach flip-flopped. “You’ll get the files after I see you shoot.”

  “Would you like me to shoot you in your office?” I inquired politely.

  “That won’t be necessary. Junior would be in charge if you killed me and I don’t think he’s up to it at the moment.” He chuckled and sat on the edge of his desk of sin. “Meet me at six at the range. It’ll be closed. I don’t want anyone to know you’re packing.”

  “No one will know I’m packing, Hank. I carry my gun between my thighs.” With that little nugget I got up and left his office before he could respond. The look on his face was priceless, but I was playing with fire. He knew it and I knew it.

  ***

  “What in the Sam Hill was that?” Junior shouted. “She hit every kill zone twice, then blew his balls to Kingdom Come.”

  “Guns down,” Hank said tersely. He walked to the target and examined it. He dropped his head back onto his shoulders and did some deep breathing. He wanted to blow a gasket, but he couldn’t. I’d proved him wrong. “Do it again.”

  “Fine,” I said. “Move.”

  “That’s right, boy,” Junior yelled. “If you want to keep your nuts, you better haul ass out of there.”

  I slipped my ear protectors back on and did a repeat performance. Almost. I hit all the kill zones twice and then I completely obliterated the target’s testicles.

  “I’m having a visceral reaction to that shit,” Junior grunted and bent at the waist. “Ease up on the man junk, Essie.”

  If I wasn’t mistaken, and I wasn’t, Hank was leaning forward too.

  “I’m satisfied,” Junior said as he packed up his weapons. “She could shoot the teats off a cow in the next county. You two wanna come to the diner and get a bite?”

  “No,” we said loudly and quickly at the same time.

  “Have it your way,” Junior said as he moseyed over to the exit. “I’m lockin’ the door behind me just in case you two wanna…”

  “We don’t want to do anything,” I said, hoping that came out stronger than it sounded to my own ears. “I have to get home to my granny and my…um, friend Dwayne.”

  Junior froze and shot his brother a concerned look. Hank barely responded to my possible involvement with another man. Wait. Had me telling him no really worked? I found that hard to believe, and alarmingly I found it depressing. Junior shrugged his massive shoulders and left.

  “We have a few more things to go through and then you can get back to your friend,” Hank said politely.

  “Um…okay. I proved I could shoot, which by the way was ridiculous. What else do I have to do to convince you?” I put my gun back into my bag, slapped my hands on my hips and gave him a look.

  “Hand to hand.” He smirked as he put his gun away.

  He was smoking crack if he thought we were going to wrestle. It was all I could do to keep my inner wolf from jumping his bones and flushing my self-respect down the toilet. If I had to actually touch him, I was toast.

  “Nope. You already know I can fight. You taught me how to fight. I will not go hand-to- hand with you. Period. Plus, I didn’t bring the right clothes,” I said, indicating my jeans and boots with great relief.

  Without looking at me he tossed me some scraps of material.

  “Put them on,” he said as he removed his shirt and pulled on a t-shirt. My eyes almost popped out of my head. No one had a right to look like him. The light sprinkling of dark hair on his perfectly tanned chest veed down to the waistband of his jeans in the sexiest way imaginable and made my knees knock. Quickly looking away, I cursed him out viciously inside my head.

  The ball of material in my hands looked vaguely familiar. Hell to the no. They looked familiar because they were mine. It was the outfit I worked out in the afternoon I left him. I must have thrown it in the laundry and forgotten about it. There was no way in hell I was going to put on booty shorts and a sports bra.

  “I can’t wear these,” I mumbled.

  “Suit yourself. We’ll go hand to hand in what you have on.”

  “Is this your last test?” I demanded.

  “For the moment.” He grinned and shrugged.

  He sucked so bad I wanted to smack him. He would have an advantage if I were in boots and jeans. The simple fact that I was far more competitive than rational had not served me well in l
ife and I was about to prove that point again.

  “Fine. Turn around.”

  “Has living in the big city made you self-conscious?” he asked, standing his ground and watching me intently.

  “No,” I insisted quickly. Nudity meant nothing to Werewolves. A body was a body. We stripped to shift in large groups—it was natural. I wasn’t at all self-conscious about my body…it was him. No, it was me. I didn’t trust myself and that infuriated me. He meant nothing. So what if I was still attracted to him? He was pretty and built like a Greek god, but he was a cheating loser and I was better off without him. He wanted me to strip? Then I was gonna strip. Slowly.

  Turning sideways so I could avoid his eyes, I eased my jeans off my hips and then down my long legs, slipping my cowboy boots off as I went. The air in the gun range was cool and tiny chill bumps covered my body. What was my problem? Well, my inner wolf was one of them. She wanted me to bang him and was making no bones about it. I shoved her down and she pouted. I quickly shed the rest of my clothes. A striptease was going to backfire in a big bad way. I knew his eyes were on me and I yanked on the obscene booty shorts and bra. My fury at myself and him built to a point that I was ready to kick some ass—his, to be more specific.

  “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

  I was delighted he found the need to adjust himself in his sweats. His erection would be a disadvantage and even though I didn’t care, it meant I still affected him. Considering he was the deadliest fighter I’d ever seen and had at least a hundred pounds on me, I’d take any advantage I could get.

  “This isn’t going to work,” he muttered and stared at the ceiling.

  “You chicken?” I taunted.

  He was on me so fast I didn’t see him coming. Pinned underneath him on the floor, my inner wolf hooker was ecstatic. His hard body pressed against my softer one brought back memories that needed to stay buried. His scent mingled with mine and I closed my eyes and tried to think about the time my third grade teacher threw up in the lunchroom. Oh my hell, that didn’t even work. The need to taste him was overwhelming. I was not going to bang him. I was not going to bang him. I was not…