Barking at the Moon
Page 21
Tomorrow, she would call Doc Vernon and explain to her the way of things. The medical examiner would be made to understand that the investigation into the female victim and the wolf found at the Ateeska River would go no further. All autopsy reports and evidence would be buried deep in as much bureaucratic obfuscation as possible, and the mutated, unidentified bodies of Aiden Thompson and Ruth Lassiter would be buried in the city’s potter’s field.
If the doctor refused to cooperate, refused to see that it wasn’t in her best interests to go around babbling about wolves with human blood—well, a woman who kept a bottle of whiskey in her desk drawer was vulnerable to pressure. Hard to hang onto such a public position, let alone remain a trusted expert witness in court with a reputation as a lush.
Her father would have done no differently, Annalee decided. He was a lawman but he had loved the wolves, too. He had lost his life trying to protect them.
It was three o’clock in the morning before she left the scene on Skybridge Mountain and caught a ride home with a state trooper. The radio’s volume was turned low, just hissing static and bursts of mostly unintelligible voices speaking in a code her tired mind refused to decipher. The sound washed her, as soothing as white noise.
She leaned her face against the cool window glass and dozed until the driver shook her awake. When she stumbled into the house, exhausted and stinking of smoke, she found Lunella curled up on the sofa with Mongo sitting on the pillow near her head.
Whatever the future held, she had this moment, and nothing could take it away.
Lunella’s nostrils flared. Her eyes fluttered open. They were brown ringed with gold and filled with a love that made Annalee’s chest ache sweetly.
“Come on,” Lunella said, her voice soft, “take me to bed, Annie.”
Annalee fell on her knees beside the sofa, rested her head on her mate’s breast, closed her eyes and finally let herself go.
Bella Books, Inc.
Women. Books. Even Better Together.
P.O. Box 10543
Tallahassee, FL 32302
Phone: 800-729-4992
www.BellaBooks.com
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
About the Author
Another Bella Book by Nene Adams
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Bella Books