by Paige Tyler
They worked in comfortable relative silence for the next three hours. After checking out nearly twenty dogs, including a few with minor injuries that needed tending, Lacey decided to call it a day. With Alex’s help, she’d seen more pooches in a single day than she would have normally seen in a week. And to tell the truth, she was beat.
She was also curious as hell. Working this close to him had been more fun than she would ever have thought possible, and she found herself wanting to ask him a hundred different questions. Where had he developed this knack for handling dogs? How could he be SWAT and a paramedic? Had he been in the Marines long, and how had he gotten from there to the Dallas police department?
Those weren’t things she could ask as they stood in the middle of an animal shelter, though. Questions like that demanded a good meal and a glass or two of wine. But that would mean going out on a date.
The funny thing was, after today, she was finding it hard to remember why she’d been so obstinately set against going out with him. He seemed like a genuinely amazing guy. How bad would it be to go on one, teensy-weensy date? Only an idiot would keep standing on silly principle at this point.
“Okay,” she said as they left the shelter and stepped out into the late-day heat. “You win. We can go out to dinner sometime.”
He looked at her with what she was sure was faux surprise. “Win? Do you think that the only reason I came out here on a Saturday was to get you to go on a date with me?”
She lifted a brow.
His mouth curved. “Maybe you’re right. But I don’t want you to go out with me because you feel you owe me something. I want you to do it because you think it would be fun and because you’re interested in me. If that’s not the case, just say so, and we can save each other any embarrassment later.”
Lacey mentally cringed. Crap, that sounded like something she would say. But he’d hit the nail right on the head—and called her out at the same time.
“I am interested in you,” she said. “But to be honest, I’m not looking for a relationship right now. I can’t make any promises that this date will lead anywhere, not even a second date.”
Alex regarded her in silence for so long that she suddenly wondered if she should have tempered her words a bit. She hadn’t needed to be so blunt about the whole thing. She wouldn’t be surprised if he bailed. Who wanted to go out with someone who essentially just declared that the date was going to suck before they even went on it?
She opened her mouth to apologize, but before she could get the words out, Alex spoke.
“Fair enough. I’ll pick you up tomorrow night around seven. It’s just dinner—no expectations beyond that.”
Lacey sighed with relief, glad that he hadn’t been offended. They exchanged numbers, and she gave him her address, then watched him get into his blue pickup truck. She smiled as she climbed in her SUV, actually looking forward to not only seeing Alex again, but going on a date. She hadn’t felt this kind of excitement about seeing a guy in a long time, if ever.
But the moment Alex pulled out of the parking lot and disappeared from view, it was like a glamour was lifted from her eyes, and tension gripped her. What he’d said about this simply being a dinner date with no expectations had sounded very mature, but something told her even a single date with Alex would lead to more. Her stomach clenched. She really hoped she’d done the right thing. Her life was going so smoothly right then, and getting tangled up with a man—even one as amazing as Alex—was a complication she didn’t need.
* * *
Lacey sat in her car a few blocks down from Bensen’s junkyard, tucked behind the side of a big brick building so no one would see her. She wasn’t sure what the hell she was doing there. If she was smart, she’d be at home in bed, getting her beauty sleep so she’d look gorgeous for her date with Alex tomorrow night. Instead, she was parked outside the fanciest junkyard she’d ever seen, trying hard to peer through the darkness and steady rain as she attempted to work up the courage to climb the fence and sneak inside.
This wasn’t the small junkyard they’d rescued the dogs from the other day. This place out on Interstate 20 just past Lawson was the heart of Bensen’s car-part empire. It was as much of a do-it-yourself car-repair depot as a junkyard, but this late at night, it was closed. She’d seen Bensen and his albino security chief walking around the place about an hour ago, so she knew they were still there.
While they probably weren’t planning to run a dogfighting event on this particular property anytime soon, she’d come hoping to see something—anything—she could give Wendy to help put some heat on this guy. She would have hired a PI if she had the money, but she didn’t. If she wanted to find something, she’d have to do the digging herself.
After leaving the shelter, Lacey had gone to the vet clinic to check on the three pit bulls they’d rescued from the junkyard. They’d survived their first round of surgeries but were still fighting for their lives and definitely looking at a long, difficult, uphill battle. Every time she thought about them, she wanted to hit something or someone. Preferably Bensen and his security goon Pendergraff. According to Wendy, the brass wasn’t interested in going after a man like Bensen for dogfighting without any slam-dunk evidence. Instead, the caretaker at the junkyard would be issued a citation, and the case would be closed.
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” she muttered to herself.
She wasn’t leaving until she had something on Bensen.
Of course, this had seemed like a good plan on the way over. But now, as she sat there in the darkness, it didn’t seem like such a great idea. The place was dark and creepy looking, with all the abandoned cars and racks upon racks of extra parts, and the rain only made it worse. It also didn’t help that the facility looked damn near impossible to get into, with its single entry gate and ten-foot-high fence.
Lacey was ready to admit she’d made a mistake coming when a car pulled up to the closed gates of the place and honked its horn. Silence reigned for a few long moments, but the car didn’t move or sound its horn again. The man behind the wheel sat there unmoving as well, eyes fixed on the building. A minute later, Pendergraff stepped outside and walked toward the gate, his hair practically glowing phosphorescent in the darkness.
The driver got out of his car as Pendergraff opened the gate. From where she was parked, Lacey couldn’t see the newcomer’s face or hear anything they were saying, but if she had to describe the meeting in a single word, it would be suspicious. The way both men looked around like they thought someone was watching them screamed out loud and clear that they were up to no good.
After a few minutes of conversation, the man opened the back door of the car, then reached inside and dragged out a good-sized cardboard box, handing it to Pendergraff.
Lacey sat up a little straighter, staring hard through the rain and trying to see what might be in that box. Dogs for fighting were normally transported in cages, but the box was certainly big enough to hold a dog. She couldn’t tell how heavy the box was, though. Was it sturdy enough to carry a dog? The albino didn’t seem to be straining under the weight, but then again, he was a big man.
The two men talked some more, then the mysterious stranger got back in his car and drove away. Pendergraff stood there for a moment in the rain, his pale eyes surveying the area as if he were worried someone had witnessed the exchange. When the man’s eyes swept over Lacey’s hiding place, she couldn’t help but scrunch down in her seat a little—even if there was no way the albino could possibly see her. Still, she sighed with relief when Pendergraff finally walked back into the building.
Lacey was out of the car and running for the fence before she realized what she was doing. She had to get in there and see what was inside that box. If it were a fighting dog, Wendy might be able to use that knowledge as probable cause for a search warrant or something.
She was soaking wet before she reached the chain-link
fence surrounding the place. It didn’t help that she was forced to follow the fence along the road, trying to find a place she’d be able to climb. Preferably a section that wasn’t rusty as hell.
The climb over the fence demonstrated that she was still as uncoordinated and unathletic as she’d been in high school. She’d been a klutz as long as she could remember and was lucky she didn’t fall off and kill herself.
When she finally dropped down on the other side of the fence, she ran through the maze that was the junkyard as fast as she could, eager to reach the main building where Pendergraff had taken the box in time to see what it contained. She made it there and saw that the big garage door on the side of the building was up, revealing a well-lit interior. She pushed her long, wet hair back and pressed close to the building, taking a quick peek inside. Pendergraff and Bensen were standing over the open cardboard box, talking.
Blinking water from her eyes, she moved a little farther to the left, trying to see what they were looking at—without them seeing her—and ended up behind a rack of mufflers that were dirty, rusty, and twisted into all kind of shapes. She was careful to stay well away from them. All she needed was to knock one down and bring Pendergraff running.
“Is this the best our supplier could do?” Bensen asked sharply.
Pendergraff nodded. “For the moment.”
Lacey stood up on tiptoes, trying to see what the two men were looking at. Was it a dog? That didn’t make sense. The animal would have been out of the box in a flash now that it was open. Unless the poor creature was drugged.
She glanced at the rack of mufflers, tempted to climb it so she could see into the box. But that was insane. She’d end up slipping on the wet metal, and they’d hear her for sure.
“It’s not good enough,” Bensen snapped. “I want more, and I want it now.”
The albino didn’t even blink. “There’s a lot of heat on us and our supplier. It might be best to back off and wait until things calm down a little.”
Bensen’s face turned red under his sickly yellow complexion. “I don’t have time to wait, and you know it. Contact our supplier and tell him that if this is the best he can give me, I’m going to feed his ass to the dogs!”
Turning, Bensen stormed off. Well, as much as a man that old and infirm could storm off. Pendergraff watched him go, then looked back at the box for a moment before walking away.
Lacey’s heart beat a little faster. This might be her only chance to get in there and snap a picture of what was in that box. It might be a sedated fighting dog or it might not, but it was sure as hell something shady.
She cautiously came out from behind the rack of mufflers, then hurried over to the building. That was when her plan fell apart, thanks to her lack of coordination and general klutzy nature. She didn’t even see the piece of gravel she kicked until it was already sailing through the air. For a split second, she thought it might fall harmlessly to the ground, but instead, it hit a corner of the parts rack, clanking like a little baby bell.
Lacey spun around and ran the other direction, knowing without looking that Pendergraff had heard that noise—there was no way he could have missed it. She weaved in and out of the rows of parts, finally darting behind an enormous metal storage box and ducking down.
Thank God she did, because a few seconds later, Pendergraff ran by, a pistol in his hand. But instead of continuing on his way, he stopped half a dozen feet away. Lacey held her breath, sure her heart was going to explode in her chest.
Pendergraff swept his disturbing eyes back and forth across the area, but after several long, tense moments, he turned and headed back the direction he’d come from.
Lacey breathed a sigh of relief. Should she hide here for a little while longer, then go back to see if she could get a peek at what was in the box, or escape while she had the chance? She desperately wanted to go back and see what was in the box, but the thought of getting caught by Pendergraff—and what the man would do to her—had her up and running for the perimeter fence.
She was shaking so badly that it took her three tries to get over the damn thing, but she finally managed, mostly because she pictured the pale-eyed albino right behind her, ready to kill her in some unspeakable manner if she fell back onto his boss’s property.
Once in her car, Lacey sat there, breathing deeply and berating herself for being an idiot, all while trying her best to stop trembling. By the time she started the SUV and pulled onto the road, her head was functioning clearly again. What had she stumbled onto back there?
Bensen and Pendergraff sure as hell hadn’t been talking about car parts. But it didn’t sound like they were talking about dogfighting, either.
As she merged onto the highway, she thought about calling Wendy and telling her what she’d seen, but then decided that was a bad idea. In reality, she hadn’t seen anything incriminating. However, she would definitely incriminate herself if she admitted to climbing that fence and trespassing on Bensen’s property. She knew Wendy wouldn’t arrest her, but her friend would sure as hell be furious, and Lacey wasn’t in any mood to get yelled at tonight. All she wanted was a warm bath and pleasant dreams about her date with Alex tomorrow night. Then she’d figure out a way to tie Bensen to dogfighting.
Chapter 5
Alex stood in the hallway outside Lacey’s apartment, staring at the door and taking deep breaths. He hadn’t been this nervous since he took Teri Sue Whitman to the junior prom. He needed to calm the hell down. That was easier said than done, of course. Regardless of what he’d said yesterday about there being no expectation for this date, he still wanted it to go well. Actually, he wanted it to go better than that. He wanted it to be amazing.
That wasn’t likely to happen if he couldn’t get his head screwed on right. He had to stop thinking about this as a date with a woman who might be his one-in-a-billion soul mate and focus on having a normal, old-fashioned, good time. If he didn’t, he was going to blow this for sure.
Up until a few hours ago, he hadn’t even thought about tonight’s date with Lacey. That was because he’d been preoccupied with what had happened at Texas Regional College the other day. Both the kid with the knife and the girl from the dorm were still in critical condition. While he was facing serious neurological damage, she might never come out of her coma.
At least the lab results had come back on the drugs they’d recovered from the dorm room. As expected, it had been fireball, though it appeared that now the hallucinogenic component of the mix was amped up to some degree. Considering how the kid on the roof had behaved, that wasn’t a surprise.
As much as Alex wished he could do something about it, he and his teammates were SWAT, not narcotics. They kicked in doors; they didn’t investigate. Rodriguez and the other cops on the task force would be the ones to track down whoever was selling this crap. Once they found out who it was, they’d call in SWAT. It was their job to be ready when narcotics called.
Deciding that standing out in the hallway was only going to make him more nervous, Alex took another deep breath, then knocked on the door. He heard the sound of whispered voices inside, followed by a soft laugh and the sound of high heels clacking on a hardwood floor. When the door opened, all he could do was stare.
Lacey’s long blond hair was done up fancier than he was used to seeing it, hanging in sexy waves around her face. Her makeup was a bit smokier and sultry than usual too, and she was wearing a little black dress, which shimmered in the light when she moved. Besides showing off her spectacular cleavage, the dress stopped a few inches above the knee, displaying enough leg to make his pants suddenly feel a bit too tight.
It wasn’t until Lacey arched one of her perfect brows that Alex realized he’d been staring a little too long.
“Are you going to come inside or just stand out there gawking all night?” she asked with a smile.
He chuckled and stepped into the foyer. “Can’t I do both?”
Alex let his gaze wander casually up and down her body. Damn, she looked good in that LBD.
Lacey must have known the effect she was having on him, because she blushed. He was so caught up in the intrigued expression in her blue eyes that he barely noticed the black lab mix standing in the living room studying him with blatant curiosity. The guy probably had a little beagle or dachshund in the bloodline somewhere, because he was definitely a lot smaller than a full-breed lab.
Alex moved closer and crouched down but didn’t say anything, instead letting the dog decide if he was in the mood for a formal meet-and-greet. The dog turned his head, regarding Alex with a confused look. Alex had dealt with enough animals to know that his werewolf scent baffled the heck out of them. Lacey’s dog was probably thinking that Alex looked like a human but didn’t smell like one. After a few seconds, the dog must have decided he was worth checking out, because he padded over and took a few extra sniffs, then licked Alex’s hand.
“This is Leonardo,” Lacey said, crouching down beside him. The move made her dress slide up a few inches higher, revealing even more leg.
“After the artist?”
Alex was surprised. Lacey struck him as more traditional when it came to dog names. He’d expected something more along the lines of Spot or Fido.
“No,” she said. “After the turtle.”
She had a turtle named Leonardo too? That made absolutely no sense, and all he could do was stare at her blankly.
“The Ninja Turtle,” she clarified.
That still didn’t help. Alex opened his mouth to admit total ignorance and ask if he could phone a friend or something when he heard footsteps. He looked up to see a younger version of Lacey standing there, her blond hair pulled up in a ponytail, her blue eyes unabashedly checking him out. He’d been so distracted by Lacey, he hadn’t even picked up on the girl’s scent.
“You didn’t mention Alex was so hot,” she said. “He’s smoking!”