Savage Beast (Max Savage Book 1)

by Sloane Howell

  Bear climbed out of the truck along with the guy who’d been driving him around at the farm. He was the talker. Bear was the presence. I stared at the truck and couldn’t hear anything, but I could still make out the sound of it in my mind—the roar of the engine, smell of the diesel exhaust.

  The smaller guy talked to them. Starsky kept shaking his head and acted like he might walk off. Then he’d stare at the giant and stayed put.

  “Maybe he’s not dirty. Or he’s being forced,” said Shirley.

  “Being scared is no excuse. Would you stand out there?”

  “I guess not.” She sighed. “We can’t rule it out, though. Maybe they’ve threatened him or his family. Maybe Provost didn’t tell him they were coming.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind.” I meant it. I didn’t like Starsky, but I was a fair guy. Threatening loved ones was a strong motivator.

  Provost did a lot of nodding. The other guy did a lot of talking. Bear and the small guy got in the truck and left. Provost barked a few orders at Starsky and they went separate ways in their respected vehicles.

  I turned to Shirley. “Now we can use the internet.”

  30

  “MCMLIV IS 1954.” SHIRLEY LEANED back in the desk chair.

  We’d walked downstairs to the public computers and logged into the internet.

  “Antique 1954 windmill. What the hell does that mean?”

  I stared down at my piece of paper with the ad scrawled across it.

  FOR SALE!

  Multiple items. Antique MCMLiV windmill. Seven 1950s era dolls, all related.

  Build-a-bear. Assorted fake Ruby jewelry. Couch with Cushions, OK condition.

  $168. No less.

  SERIOUS INQUIRIES ONLY!

  SUSGOHRYAAESRV

  “Google windmills and 1954 windmill. See if anything makes sense.”

  Shirley nodded, and her fingers clacked away at the keys. She didn’t find anything that was much help.

  “Maybe I should look at things that happened in 1954. Like world events. I only say that because of the Ruby Ridge clue. Maybe something happened that year.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re the key to this. The message was meant for you. You have to think like Sean who was trying to think like you.”

  I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “What does any of this have to do with drugs? Is $168 a special price for them?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “DEA?”

  “Yeah, it’d be a question for them. I don’t catch many drug cases unless someone is killed over them. That rarely happens with marijuana.”

  The frustration boiled inside me. I wanted to be out there doing something, not sitting inside with a code to break and no answers.

  I glared down at the piece of paper again and stared laser beams at it. What the hell did the dolls mean? None of it made any damn sense. Shirley jumped when I beat my fist on the desk. “Damn it!” I growled. How were we going to figure it out? We were pissing in the wind.

  Shirley slid back in the chair and stood up. She put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll get it.”

  I didn’t say anything.

  Her hand slid to the back of my arm and she traced the back of my tricep with her index finger. Her eyes stayed fixed on mine from the side. “Maybe we should take a break.”

  I didn’t respond. My mind was going a million directions with Sean, Shirley, the clues, the murder charge. It was crammed so tight in my head there was no room to work it all out. I rolled my eyes over to Shirley.

  Her hair was still illuminated in the orange glow from outside, almost like an aura around her. I knew one thing I could do to clear some room in my brain. We had time. We weren’t going anywhere for a while.

  I turned and wrapped my fingers around the hips I’d admired the first time I met her at the precinct. I slid my hands up under her shirt, wanting to feel her skin on mine. Her nails dragged along my neck and her hands locked behind my head.

  I slanted my mouth over hers and kissed the hell out of her. A few seconds later my fingertips were digging into her waist and our tongues danced a slow rhythm. I yanked her in closer to me and my palms worked around to her ass. It was tight and firm. I pulled her up into me harder and groaned into her mouth.

  A light moan escaped her lips, and I swallowed it whole. I’d wanted her beneath me since the day I walked into the detective’s division. It was only a matter of time. Adrenaline surged through my veins as the fantasy came to fruition.

  I gripped her even harder, digging my fingers into her jeans. Her nails clawed into my neck and she let out a breathy exhale.

  “I knew you’d be naughty.”

  She grinned against my mouth and bit my bottom lip.

  “Gonna get yourself in trouble, detective.”

  She bit down harder and smiled. Her eyebrows quirked up.

  “Warned you.” I hoisted her up with both hands and hauled her over to a sofa. It sat under a window, like a small reading nook for people during the day. For the first time in my life, everything happened so fast I wasn’t sure how I got from point A to point B. It felt like we teleported. My mouth was locked onto her neck the entire distance.

  She had my shirt gripped at the hem and had pulled it halfway up my chest by the time I sat her down on her feet. I took over from there and slipped it the rest of the way over my head, then did the same with hers. We both stood there topless, her in nothing but her white lacy bra and jeans. I angled my gaze, raking it up and down her body from head to toe, admiring every curve of her body. “Damn.”

  We attacked each other full force, and I pinned her down on her back. I gripped her wrists and pushed them both over her head. “You’re gorgeous.”

  My lips crashed into hers before she could respond.

  Ten minutes later she was bent over the arm of the couch, and I collapsed onto her back, careful to steady myself so I didn’t crush her to death. We were still joined together with both pairs of our pants around our ankles. I brushed a few sweaty strands of hair from the side of her face and trailed kisses down her neck.

  She panted. We both did. Her bra had shifted off one shoulder somewhere in the process and the strap slid halfway down her arm. She craned her head back so that our eyes met. A devilish smile spread across her face. “Wow.”

  I nodded in agreement. “I was pretty amazing.”

  Her arm flailed backward like she was trying to smack me, but it just bumped up against my ribs and fell back limp toward the floor, like she’d given up halfway through.

  “Definitely cleared my head.” I grinned to let her know I was messing with her.

  She shoved her ass into me. It knocked me back a little, and I slipped out of her.

  She returned my grin and raised her eyebrows. “You finished?”

  I stretched my arms up over my head and faked a yawn. “Definitely finished.”

  She couldn’t do anything but shake her head. “You’re ridiculous.”

  I couldn’t keep a straight face any longer, so I gathered up some of her clothes to help her get dressed.

  She pulled her shirt back on and her jeans back up, buttoning them near her navel. She glared at me and then burst into a laugh. I pulled her in close after I’d gotten myself dressed and ran both palms along her cheeks and kissed her light on the lips. “That was fun.”

  “Yes it was.”

  I kissed her once more, a serious kiss this time. “I like you, Shirley.” It sounded kind of lame to me after I’d said it, but I didn’t regret it. I liked her, and I’d told her with my stare that every word of it was true.

  “I like you too, Savage.” She paused for a beat. “We need to get back to work.”

  “Agreed.”

  She started to walk away, but I grabbed her forearm and turned her back to me. “There’ll be more of that when this is all over.”

  She didn’t say anything in return, but her lips slightly curled into a smile.

  I’d never had sex in a library before
. I wanted to do it again already, but I had to force myself to focus. I glanced around. The bottom floor of the library was a larger area in square footage. There were racks and racks of books everywhere. One of them was right behind Shirley on the other side of the couch, though.

  I noticed a section with a sign that said UNITED STATES HISTORY. “I’ll be right back.” Something clicked in my head, right then.

  Shirley said something, but it was like I was underwater, and she was yelling at me from the edge of the pool. I rounded a corner, between two floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and my eyes locked onto the spine of a book. I took a step closer, pulled it from the shelf, and opened it, flipping through the pages. I stared for a few seconds, then came back around the corner, eyes wide. “It’s not drugs.”

  31

  IT HAD TO BE GETTING close to midnight.

  I walked right up to Shirley. “I need to go back out to the farm. Soon. Tonight, if possible.”

  “What is it?”

  “We don’t have a car. Can’t take a cab or Uber. Can’t take the bus. Everyone is looking for us.”

  “What is it?”

  I didn’t say anything. The shock hit me all at once, like a wave of ice water rushing through my veins.

  I shook my head. “It’s just a hypothesis right now. I need to confirm it before causing a panic. I don’t think we have much time.”

  “What is it, Savage?” She glared right at me.

  “I want to tell you what I think, I just can’t right now. I need to get to the farm.” I couldn’t tell her right then. If I was wrong, it’d cause hysteria, and she’d be forced to call it in and make a huge deal of it. Not to mention, if it was true, it was much bigger than I’d expected, and we wouldn’t know who to trust or what information was getting through.

  I needed her sharp and thinking—focused. My head was already spinning at the implications.

  She stared at me for what seemed like forever. “Is it that bad?”

  I nodded. That was saying something, because I’d seen some crazy things in my life. I’d expected her to be upset that I wasn’t sharing with her, especially after what we’d just done on the couch. I wanted her to trust I had my reasons, that I’d tell her as soon as possible, and it seemed like she did.

  “Well, we can’t walk out there. It would take a day.”

  “What about Peabody?”

  “Think he’d be up right now?”

  “I think so. He’ll be wired knowing something is going on.”

  “Okay.” Shirley didn’t hesitate. She picked up the phone, then dropped it on top of the receiver. It rattled around and rolled off the side of the desk. The spiral cord stretched toward the ground and it bobbed up and down about four inches from the tile. “He doesn’t have a phone.”

  “Damn it.”

  We both stood there and stared at each other, desperate for ideas. We spent a lot of time doing that, it seemed. This time was different though. It wasn’t two people attracted to each other. It was two people who knew shit was about to hit the fan.

  “I have an idea,” she said.

  32

  SHIRLEY STOOD THERE AND SEEMED to reconsider her words.

  “What’s the idea? If it can help, we need to do it,” I said.

  “I know someone I can call. He might have info on McCurdy and would give us a ride.”

  I knitted my brows together. “Call him. Why haven’t we called him already?”

  “Personal reasons.”

  I didn’t push the matter. An old friend might mean ex-boyfriend. It was the most logical thing I could come up with. That would be interesting. She hadn’t called him because she liked me this whole time and didn’t want things to be awkward.

  Her left hand snatched up the phone. Her right index finger jammed down on the button to hang it up, then it flew over the keys.

  “Surprised you remember his number.” There was a little extra bite in my words. I balled my hand into a fist at my side. If it could help, I needed to not screw it up over something petty like jealousy.

  She pressed the phone to her ear. “I always remember telephone numbers. Have since I was a kid.”

  “Who is he?”

  She held up a finger like he was about to answer. “Charles?” She paused.

  I couldn’t hear a thing. My face heated up.

  “Yeah, it’s Kristine. Uh huh. I know. Please don’t believe the news.” She sighed. “I need a favor.”

  She held the phone out from her ear. It looked like he was maybe hollering at her or complaining. I had to force myself not to jam my finger on the speaker button and let loose on him.

  “I need a ride.” She glanced up at me. “Yeah, with him. Yeah. I know it puts you in a seriously risky position. I wouldn’t have called if we had any other options. You know me better than to believe what’s on the news. Please.” Her face lit up a second later and her mouth turned up into a smile. “Thank you!”

  I wanted to rip Charles’s spinal cord out of his ass and jump rope with it.

  She hung up the phone. “He’ll be here in thirty minutes.”

  “Great.”

  She stared at me like she was figuring out how to tell me something. “Umm, he won’t like you.”

  My jaw flexed. This is about Sean. Stay focused. It was going to take a lot of willpower. “Don’t care. You did well.”

  The next thirty minutes were the slowest in history. And the quietest. The next forty after that would probably take even longer. We walked outside after about twenty-five minutes and stood in the shadow of the book statue and waited.

  “Did you bring the paper with the ad info on it?”

  I slapped a hand on my pocket, then pointed to my temple. “It’s up here too.”

  “Good. He can probably help with that if there’s anything left to figure out.” She stared at me like she wanted me to tell her what was going on, but she didn’t push it.

  That coupled with Charles on my mind; I couldn’t take it much longer. I really cared for this woman and we’d been through a lot together already. She trusted me. I needed to trust her—trust that she could handle the information.

  “I’ll tell you what I figured out back there, but you have to promise to keep your head on straight, and we cannot call it in.”

  Shirley looked up at the sky in contemplation, then lowered her gaze to mine. She didn’t say anything, just nodded.

  I leaned in her ear and told her what I’d seen in the book. When I leaned back, all the air had sucked out of her lungs.

  I kept quiet with my head angled to the ground. Casually, I stared around at the stars and some of the Porsches on the lot. For some reason, I couldn’t stop thinking about this Charles guy and how awkward it might be. I needed to accept any help he could offer. Knowing what I should do and actually doing it was the challenge. Make a plan. Execute the plan. That’s what Sean had always told me. So, I made the plan to accept Charles’ help, and execute that plan. Right when I was about to say something to Shirley, a pair of headlights wound around the street and approached the library.

  33

  AN ALL-BLACK CADILLAC ESCALADE PULLED in. The windows were blacked out too. It was brand new with giant chrome wheels that sparkled from the street lights. The SUV reminded me of the types of vehicles we’d use to protect high-value politicians in Delta. We were often called to aid in executive protection detail. The Secret Service handled the president and vice-president and those types, but sometimes we aided with political assets from other countries or members of congress. It was usually on an as-needed basis.

  “Come on.” Shirley motioned me to follow her.

  I walked around the passenger side and paused at the back door. I didn’t want to give this guy any reason to not help us out, but I didn’t want to look at him either. He seemed skittish judging by her reactions. I tried to just blend in. “You sure we can trust him?” I asked before either of us opened the doors.

  She nodded.

  I climbed in the back. Charles
was thin, a very small man. He was around five-eight, maybe a buck-fifty, tops. He definitely wasn’t an ex-boyfriend which caused me to relax in the seat a little. He looked like he was mid-fifties. If he was an ex his name would have to be Hugh. He had a receding hairline and titanium-framed glasses. He looked like he’d thrown himself together in a rush to get there, wearing a pair of sweatpants with a Harvard insignia on the right thigh and a tee shirt.

  He turned back and sneered at me, then did the same at Shirley. “What is wrong with you?”

  The guy had a long face. It was like an egg sitting up on its end that came down to a rounded point at his chin.

  “We need to go out by Claremore. A place next to McCurdy farms.” I decided to do the talking since he was obviously pissed at Shirley, and because it wasn’t her ex.

  “Not right now. I need to go back to my house first.”

  I glanced to Shirley. I had no idea where he lived or what kind of timeline that would be.

  “The news is not true.” She stared at him.

  He glared straight forward.

  “She’s telling the truth.” I straightened up in the back. “Callahan was my best friend. Why would I kill him?”

  He shook his head. “Don’t know. Don’t want to know anything.”

  “Sir, it’s vital that you take us to the farm first.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  “Why?” Shirley reached out for his forearm. It was her classic softening maneuver.

  He yanked his arm away. “I have an important day tomorrow. I need to be prepared. I will take you where you need to go when I’m damn good and ready. After that, we are finished.”

  “I wouldn’t have called you if I had another choice. What could be more important than this?” Her voice nearly cracked when she said the words. They had to be connected at a deep personal level.

  “I’m meeting the president.”