by Em Ashcroft
Finding a quiet corner, he called his breedmate telepathically. Where are you, buddy?
Still at the house.
Stay there. Rapidly, he outlined the problem.
Brennan’s instant response was, I’m coming in.
Don’t. I’ll take care of her. I’ll bring her home with me.
Don’t let her go anywhere else.
Seth heard the warning in Brennan’s voice and heeded it. I won’t.
Seth didn’t believe she had anything to do with this turn of events. He had felt Reilly’s shock as if it was his own, arcing through him like a lightning bolt. She was more than shocked. The news had numbed her.
That in itself had surprised Seth. Hadn’t she been a nurse in an emergency room? Surely she was used to death. Maybe she was too used to it, or maybe she had seen one death too many.
Whatever, he was with her now, and he would take care of her. When she had said the room was next to hers, he’d frozen. It could be a coincidence, but Seth didn’t believe in coincidences. Somebody was targeting Reilly, or they were using her.
He listened to her tell Chris the details of her journey. She had flown to Houston from Chicago and picked up a hire car at the airport. She planned to return it today. Seth made a mental note to make sure that was done before she was charged overtime. She could use one of the cars he and Brennan kept at their place if she needed one. They had plenty. He wouldn’t let her go now. She could be in danger.
“My room at the motel is still okay?” she asked Chris. “I mean, I can go back there tonight, can’t I?”
Chris exchanged a startled glance with Seth. Then he looked back at Reilly. “It wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“But I have nowhere else to go.”
“Yes you do,” Seth said. He tried not to lean over her, or show her how much he wanted this. “Like I said before, we have plenty of space. You can stay at our place.” He glared at Chris, daring the police chief to oppose him.
Chris didn’t respond.
“No,” Reilly said firmly. “I can’t do that. It wouldn’t be fair. I need to find somewhere, but I’ll be okay.”
Seth’s heart broke a little when he saw the wavering smile she determinedly pinned to her lips. “No, honey, you won’t.” He didn’t want to give voice to his suspicion that she was being stalked or targeted in some way. He didn’t want to make her even more nervous than she was already.
“No,” she repeated, pressing her lips together when she’d done. Was she trying to hide the fine trembling? She was clasping her hands together tightly, too.
“See, here’s the thing,” Chris said. He watched her through deceptively sleepy eyes that hid a mind as sharp as a razor. The police chief leaned back, and rested his hands on the arms of his big, leather office chair. “You’re linked with these murders. At this stage we have three possibilities. It could be a coincidence that the murderer picked on the guy in the room next to yours and dumped the woman’s body in your store. Speaking for myself, I can’t believe that, but stranger things have happened in the world, and I’m not ready to discount it. In that case, the perp might be coming for you next, if he discovers the link for himself.”
“Which will put her in danger,” Seth said. That was what scared him, and it took a lot to scare him these days.
Chris’s dark brows rose slightly, and he turned his attention to Seth for a bare second, then he addressed Reilly again. That look had been a warning, that Chris wanted Reilly with someone else as much as Seth did. But for entirely different reasons. “Yeah,” he drawled, nice and slow. “The two other possibilities are unavoidable. First, that you might be targeted. You have to look deep inside yourself. Has anybody taken a lot of interest in you recently? Somebody like an ex-boyfriend, or a jealous girlfriend?”
Reilly was quick on the uptake. “Somebody emotionally connected?”
“Most likely. Or somebody connected with your job. As a nurse, especially in an ED, you’re going to see a lot of people in stressful situations. Is anybody invested enough to follow you all the way from Chicago?”
Reilly bit her lip and glanced away. “I can’t think of anybody.”
“Keep thinking.”
Reilly nodded. Her face had gone white, and her teeth sank into her lower lip. Seth wanted nothing more than to hold her, but this wasn’t the place. Later, it might be.
“Third,” said Chris, “it could be you all along.” Reilly opened her mouth to speak, but Chris carried on speaking, running over whatever she was going to say. “I can’t dismiss that possibility, and we both know it. In that case, I want somebody to keep an eye on you, somebody I trust.”
“I have an alibi for the night the traveler was killed.” She blushed in an adorable display of confusion. Odd, considering her profession and what she must have seen, but Seth wasn’t complaining. Maybe that explained why she’d shied off so much when she’d realized they were shifters. Had she ever shared a bed with two men before?
Fuck, talk about inappropriate. At the mere suggestion, Seth’s cock came to rampant life. He sat very, very still, praying nobody would notice, and forcing his mind back to the murders.
“If he died that night,” Chris said. “Time of death isn’t an exact science. If we can narrow it down to the time you were with Brennan, then you’re off the hook.”
“What if Brennan and I conspired to kill him?” she asked waspishly then closed her eyes when she’d realized what she’d said.
Chris chuckled. “I doubt that very much. You only met him that day. But don’t think we won’t investigate the possibility of that happening. I don’t take kindly to people using this town as a dumping ground for bodies.” He frowned. “I’ll need some inter-state communication. And some shape-shifter-human cooperation.”
“Is that difficult?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Officially, no, but in reality it depends who you’re dealing with.” He rubbed his hand over his chin as the door opened.
The transformation on Chris’s face was nothing short of remarkable. A curvy woman entered, dressed in a gorgeous green dress, her make-up and hair exquisite. Rather unusual for a town like this, unless she had something to do with the wedding ranch. Most people here that Reilly had seen were in some variation of jeans and shirt. The only thing elaborate about them was their cowboy boots. This woman was an exception.
Chris stood and embraced her, dropping a kiss on her lips. “Renata, you shouldn’t be here, darlin’. This is official business.”
That explained the outfit. Renata’s was the name of the high-end boutique that provided clothes for the guests at the ranch as well as passing trade for those who could afford her confections.
“Oh.” The woman glanced at Seth, who touched his fingers to his forehead in greeting. “Morning, Seth. Sorry to interrupt.”
“That’s perfectly fine, Renata. Always good to see you.”
She smiled. “Your assistant must have left her desk. It’s deserted out there. I just came to remind you we’re going out for dinner tonight. I’m on my way to remind Odell.”
She had bands on each wrist, so tight they looked as if they were growing there.
Of course they were. This was the first time Reilly had seen breed bands up close. These were beautiful, like living metal, gleaming and iridescent, a pearly white in color. She tried not to stare. They were part of Renata. As her husband—one of them—Chris would have a matching ring, but his was hidden by the cuff of his shirt. It would almost be worth becoming a breedmate to get one of those. Two, because the wife had one on each wrist. Her other husband would have another.
This was real and, for this place, normal. Every time she saw them, Reilly was reminded of her night with Brennan. How could she have thought he was human?
Because, like all the others here, he looked it and he behaved that way. To assume anything else bordered on objectivity. Oh, she knew all the words. They’d been part of her training for working in the Emergency Department of a big city hospital. She subs
cribed to them all, wanted discrimination to die, but deep down, where the secret part of her lived, fear lurked. Unreasoning, unnatural fear crept through her when she recalled that she’d spent the night with a shape-shifter.
That was why she couldn’t go home with Seth. Or maybe it was that she was afraid if she got too close to Brennan again it would have the same result. But if she fucked him again, would she wake up with a tiger in her bed? Or was he a leopard, or a jaguar, or even an eagle? No, with a surname like Blackfur, he was probably a big cat.
A very big cat.
Chris glanced at Reilly, resignation in his eyes. “Since you’re here, baby, let me introduce you to the new occupant of your store. Or the place where your store used to be.”
“Oh, hi!” Renata held out a hand, and Reilly shook it. “Welcome to Goldclaw. You’ll love it here, I promise.”
Chris slid his hand around Renata’s waist, and urged her to the door. “You can’t stay here, Renata. This is official business.”
Renata halted and twisted around so she could look at Reilly again. “Is there something wrong?”
Seth grimaced. “Plenty.”
“Baby, I’ll tell you later. For now, you’ve got to go.”
Grumbling, Renata let Chris take her out of his office.
“That wasn’t an accident.” Seth moved closer to Reilly. “Renata was dying to find out what’s going on.”
“And he let her?” She’d just barged into the office in the middle of official business.
“Not many people say no to Renata.” Seth grinned. “You’ll find out. And she’s Chris’s one weakness. She winds both her husbands around her dainty fingers.” He was so close, she could see the stubble on his chin. An urge took her to touch it, to feel the prickles against her palm. His voice lowered. “I can see why, now.”
That was low. He knew she was softening. Seth was a harder prospect than the easy-going Brennan. Reilly couldn’t deny she wanted him, but who wouldn’t want a man as well set up and gorgeous as Seth? Besides, she was on a man drought. Seth wasn’t doing her resolve to lay off men for a while any good. And she had already broken her drought with his breed partner.
She moved away. Chris came back into the office and took his seat behind the desk. “Sorry about that. My wife sees any closed door as a challenge. Also a personal insult.”
“She must be an asset when you’re looking to find things out,” Seth said with a grin.
Chris’s mouth took on a wry twist. “That’s one way of putting it,” he said.
“Any news?” Seth asked.
“Only that the Doc has moved on to the motel. I’ve had that entire row sealed off.”
“But my room is at the end of the row,” Reilly almost wailed. “All my clothes are in there.”
“As soon as you let us search them, you can have them back,” Chris said. “But you can’t stay there. Besides, that place is unsafe for a single woman. Especially that part of the row. It’s about as far away from the main office as you can get.”
“That’s what Brennan said,” Seth put in.
Riley could see the bars closing around her. “I guess I could stay at the hotel,” she said, although that would take a big bite out of her budget. She could minimize it by getting busy finding an apartment, and it looked as if she’d have more time to do that.
Another thought struck her. She had some of her adult stock in that room. “Who would go through my stuff?” she asked. “There are some personal things there.”
“We have some women officers. If it makes you feel better one of them can do it.”
At least she wouldn’t know any of them. “And she had to keep it confidential?”
That earned her a quizzical look from Seth. She could tell what they were both thinking, and she didn’t need telepathy to do it. They wondered why she was so antsy about her stuff. Why was she so nervous about things she had sold a hundred times before? Well, maybe not a hundred. Because men had never been involved before, and certainly not in such a cold-blooded way. She carried stock that was supposed to be fun, and provide a little amusement and sexy times. The idea of someone pulling over the stuff looking for incriminating evidence turned her blood to ice.
This just kept getting worse.
What other humiliations were in store for her? Maybe they wanted her to model her underwear? In public, maybe walking up and down Main Street so that everybody could see her. It wasn’t that she was ashamed, it was the circumstances that made her go cold.
“I can’t let you go off on your own,” Chris said.
Seth moved in his chair, the leather creaking under his big body. “How about you release her to me?”
Chris turned an interested look on to him. “That might work.”
“Are you kidding me?” Reilly asked indignantly. “I need a sitter now?”
“The alternative is to report in here twice a day until I can clear you. Otherwise the county would have my badge.”
“Do you really think I did it?”
“Not really. But you’re linked with both murders, and you are the only link I’ve got. What if you skipped town? What do I do then?” Chris leaned back, waiting for her to answer.
“Why would I buy all that stock if I meant to do that?”
“Maybe you didn’t. Maybe you were trying to get away from somebody, and he caught up with you. How do I know? Stranger things have happened.”
“I have worked as a deputy before. It won’t take a minute for you to check my credentials. I’m a reliable person, a man of substance who’s invested in the community.” Put like that, Seth sounded like a positive saint. “I’ll take responsibility for her. I’ll sign anything you want. A bond for her good behavior.”
Why would he do that for her? She fucked his breed partner, and that was about the only connection they had. He didn’t know any more than the police chief who put up a good case for keeping her close. Once they discovered the time of death for the guy in the next room, she had to be off the hook. She could report in twice a day until then.
Unless it went bad. Unless the guy had been lying there since she’d checked in. She didn’t kill him, but she couldn’t prove it. The woman under the floor didn’t have to be connected to the guy in the room next to hers. They might be two separate cases.
Seth caught her hand and held it firmly. “You’re thinking too much,” he said softly. “We’ll sort this out.”
Chapter Six
Chris made a couple of calls to verify Seth’s claims, and they both signed a mountain of papers. After that, they were both free to go. Reilly had to hand over the keys to her rental car, and her motel room. Her luggage was already unlocked. Chris promised to have it delivered once they had examined it. He took a cursory look through the shoulder bag she had with her and let her go.
Seth touched the small of her back to guide her in the direction of his car, which he had parked outside her store. He had a smart sedan, high end by the look of the leather interior and accessories. The dashboard looked like it belonged in a small airplane, with gadgets galore.
Reilly was bone tired. After her long drive, her excitement and starting her new life, then with Brennan and the shocks of today, she just wanted to collapse on to the nearest bed and go to sleep. She doubted even the sexy Brennan could tempt her so maybe she was safe after all. Not to mention Seth.
“Are you some kind of do-gooder?” Irritation entered her voice. She was too tired to be polite or even tactful.
Seth grinned. “Not many people would say that.”
He gunned the engine and took off in a controlled roar. Reilly didn’t know much about G forces, but she guessed he could accumulate a few in this thing. The luxury sedan had a tiger in its tank. Or maybe it was just the tiger driving it.
She might as well ask. “What kind of shape-shifter are you?”
He sent her an amused glance as they drove past a group of perfectly ordinary looking houses. “A tiger.”
Wow. She was right then. “Is tha
t why you moved here?”
“Partly. And where we were, there was no room for another construction company. There’s already one that operates in Goldclaw, but it concentrates on large projects. We want to build family homes. Erecting the stores was about as big as we want to get.”
Reilly forced her mind away from the one word in that sentence that interested her the most. “Why is that?” she asked. “Isn’t the real money in the big projects?”
Seth laughed. “It depends how you structure your business. The other construction company is based in Houston but is run by shape-shifters.”
Seth took a right and swung into a road that led to open country. They had barely gone a mile. Bluebonnets sprinkled the lush green grass of spring. The houses were more widely spaced apart here, with plenty of land between them. Horses grazed in the fields. She even saw a llama in a field with a few goats. “Do you keep livestock?”
Seth’s rich laugh echoed around the close confines of the car. “We are the livestock. There is a cat that thinks it belongs to us. We can’t find where it came from, so it probably does belong to us now. Some of the horses belong to people who don’t have the land to keep them. A few others just arrived and made more.”
He touched a button on the dashboard and a white painted gate swung open. He turned into it and drove into a garage which opened for him in a similar fashion. Reilly got the feeling that very few people said no to Seth Blackfur.
A light came on as the garage door closed. Reilly picked up her bag and opened the door to the car. Two pickups and another car on the far side stood next to it, as well as a motorcycle that looked pretty badass. Not that she knew much about motorcycles, about as much as she knew about shape-shifters.
She followed Seth through a side door into a small hallway and then through to the kitchen.
If she had expected a typical western style kitchen, she’d have been disappointed. This place had white painted furniture and looked more French than American. At least it did from the pictures in the magazines she had seen. She loved it.