by Tegan Maher
My eyes began to feel heavy as I watched her cleaned up all the medical supplies.
"Kat?"
She glanced over her shoulder at me. "Yeah?"
"Sorry about ruining your date."
She chuckled. "Pht. Don't worry about him. He'll be back. I'd much rather dig splinters out of your butt, any day."
I smiled as my eyes flutter closed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I WOKE UP THE NEXT morning to pressure on my chest and a cold, wet nose nuzzling my cheek. When I opened my eyes, Chaos was staring at me nose-to-nose, her emerald eyes scolding me for sleeping past breakfast time. It seemed an empty belly trumped sympathy and compassion.
As if she read my mind, she licked me on the cheek and nuzzled her face against my cheek.
I laughed, scratching her behind her ears. "Okay, already. I'm awake, and I know you love me. I also know it's past breakfast time."
When I shifted my weight, she bound off the bed, landing with a soft thump on the hardwood floor. Her tail twitched, and she looked over her shoulder, making sure I didn't fall back in bed. I didn't, but it did take some maneuvering to get up.
For some reason, I hadn't expected to feel so bruised, but I guess it made sense. After all, I was hit with a flying projectile moving at about three thousand feet per second. I wasn't going to complain about a little tenderness. Much.
I winced as I put my weight on my bad hip, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. Once I took a few steps, it settled to a dull throb, so I made my way downstairs. After I popped a pod in the coffee maker and hit start, I rinsed out Chaos's bowl and mixed up her breakfast-dry kibble mixed with a can of tuna.
Once I sat it down, she no longer had any interest in me whatsoever. That was okay, because I was focused on getting as much caffeine in my system as quickly as possible.
Tires crunched on my gravel driveway and I peeked out the kitchen window to see who was there. An anxious-looking Alex was out of the car and heading toward the porch before I could even hobble over to open the door for him. He'd already pounded twice, calling my name at the same time, before I swung it open.
His gaze traveled over my face and body, and I felt bad that he looked so frantic.
I tilted my head. "What's up?"
He pushed past me into the foyer and through to the kitchen, and I limped along after him.
"What's up?" he said, his voice an octave higher than it usually was. "What's up is that I got a voicemail from you while I was in the shower last night, then when I tried to return your call, you didn't pick up. I came straight here, but you were gone."
He was pushing past worried and frantic to angry. "I'm sorry, Alex. I didn't realize you'd worry. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to go see if I could pick anything up. I figured you were asleep already."
"And you didn't think to call me when you got home?"
Scowling, I said, "No, it didn't. I had no idea you were my keeper."
Pulling in a deep breath, he closed his eyes and rolled his head, then focused on me again. "I'm sorry. You're right. It's just, I got a message last night from one of the guys in my network that Trackers were headed this direction, and when you didn't answer, I got worried."
I raised my brows and cringe-smiled. "Yeah, I kinda found out the hard way they were here," I said.
For the first time, he noticed that I was favoring my hip. "Holy crap, Cori. What happened?"
I ran through the story, ending with Kat patching me up.
"But you didn't see a face?"
Shaking my head, I said, "No, if I'd moved far enough out to see it, he would have seen me." I drained the last of my coffee and moved toward the machine. "Want a cup?"
He nodded, then jumped up. "You sit. I'll make it."
Biting my lip to hold back a smile, I said, "I'm not exactly feeling up to sitting right now."
It took him a second, but he laughed. I was glad to see the humor was back.
"Oh yeah," he said. "That must be a real pain in the ass."
Okay, so maybe I wasn't as glad as I'd thought.
"Yes, Mr. Smartypants, it is. So if you don't mind, I'll stand."
"Oh, it's a shame I can't tell anybody about this. Wait, I can tell Sam."
I frowned at him. "No, we're not going to tell Sam. He thinks of me as his daughter and he'd worry himself sick."
He sobered. "You're right. It's just a shame to have to keep such a golden opportunity to myself."
More tires crunched outside, but this time, Alex went to the window, then rolled his eyes. "You're admirer is here."
I scrunched my forehead. "My what?"
"Your admirer. Mr. McClure."
"Pht. He's no admirer. He's here on a job. That's it."
He arched a brow at me. "Trust me—he's an admirer."
"Well he can't know I'm hurt," I said, hobbling to the table. "How would I explain it?"
"You sit. I'll deal with him."
I scowled. "Don't be mean."
"There's somebody with him," he said, walking toward the door. "Sit!"
Though I didn't like it, I didn't have much choice.
The door opened and Alex said, "Mr. McClure."
"Mr ... I'm afraid I didn't catch your name yesterday." Zach sounded surprised and irked.
"That's because I didn't give it. I assume you're here to see Cori?"
Oh, for Pete's sake. I peered around the short span of wall that separated the kitchen from the foyer. "I'm in here, Zach. Please, come in."
Alex shot me a dirty look, but I returned it. It would be worse if he didn't let him in.
He stepped back and made a sweeping motion with his hand. "Ms. Sloane will apparently see you now."
Chaos hopped up onto my lap and I cringed as she circled, then laid down in my lap, peering up at me with sparkling eyes. I swear, sometimes that fox knew exactly what she was doing. Now I had a reason not to get up.
Zach stepped around Alex and made his way to the kitchen, followed by a tall man with dark hair. He looked familiar to me for some reason, but I couldn't place him.
"Mornin', Zach. I'd get up, but I'm currently being used as a pet bed."
He smiled and bent forward to pet Chaos, who was watching the new guy. She wasn't much for strangers but had taken to Zach the night we had pizza after he'd given her the tip of his pizza rather than the crust.
"This is my partner, Aaron Shepard. Shep, Cori Sloane and ..." he turned to Alex.
"Alex," he said, adding a blop of creamer to my fresh cup of coffee and handing it to me before making his own.
"Pleasure to meet both of you," Shep said, taking a closer look at Chaos. "What kind of animal is that?"
"She's a marble fox," I replied. "We rescued her when she as just a kit. Found her in the woods, nearly starved to death."
"I had no idea foxes were legal in Georgia," he said.
Alex saved me from replying. "So what can we do for you gentleman? Is this a social call, or a business one?"
Zach ran his tongue over his teeth, and I did my best to smooth the situation. "Would y'all like a cup of coffee?"
"No thanks," Zach said. "This is actually a business visit. We heard a wolf in the woods last night while we were out hunting."
My eyes snapped to him. "Where exactly were you hunting?"
He drew his brows together. "Near the murder scenes."
I set my cup down, and Chaos stirred, picking up on my irritation. "I closed that entire end of the park."
"We were unaware it applied to us," Shep said.
Alex raised a brow, his coffee cup halfway to his mouth. "Why would you think otherwise? The sign clearly says Authorized Personnel Only."
"Our licenses give us authorization," he replied, his back stiff. There was a pissing contest imminent, and I wasn't playing, especially when I knew for certain now that the murderer was still in those woods. The last thing I needed was for two boneheads who thought they knew what they were doing to get killed on my watch."
"I'm the only one who can give you authorization, and I didn't. I don't," I said, putting steel in my gaze and wondering why it was taking so long for Sean's favors to come through.
"We came here as a courtesy," Zach said, "To let you know the wolf was still out there."
"Thank you, but as it happens, we've already had a reports. Two actually. And neither of them were in that part of the woods." It wasn't a lie. I'd seen one behind my house, and heard another several miles away—the one that drew the Tracker's attention from me."
"Well we have it on good authority that a wolf was sighted near the murder scenes," Zach said, taking a deep breath, then looking me in the eye. "I just wanted to let you know, okay? Be careful."
For once, Alex was quiet, and I was thankful. This was my chance to end things on a good note.
"Thanks, Zach. I will be. You, too."
An awkward silence followed, then he cleared his throat. "I guess we'll be going then."
Alex surprised me when he held out his hand to Zach. "Mr. McClure, we have the same goals. Thank you for letting us know."
Zach cringed a little at his use of us, but shook his hand.
"Mr. Shepard," Alex said, holding out his hand again.
Shep looked at it like it was poison, but didn't have much choice but to take it or insult him. And Alex didn't look like a person anybody wanted to insult. "Alex," he said, following Zach toward the door.
Alex watched them leave with a troubled expression. "Have you ever met his partner?"
"No, though I felt like I'd seen him somewhere before," I said, sipping my coffee.
"He does not like you." The crunch of tires faded and he stepped away from the window.
So that was why he shook their hands. He wanted to read them. "It doesn't surprise me, I just drew a line in the sand, then kicked them out of the sandbox."
"True," he said. "I wonder what's taking Sean's people so long to come through. He strikes me as a man who gets things done."
"He is," I said as I heard the faint sound of my phone ringing upstairs. I started to push to my feet, but Alex was already halfway up the stairs. By the time he got to me, it had stopped. I whistled when I saw that I'd missed twelve calls. Ten of them were from Adam, though.
The other two were from Dani. I slid my finger across her name to return the call.
"Girl!" she said, picking up on the first ring. "I was just about to haul my bad self down there just so I could lay eyes on you. You didn't answer your phone and Sam says you haven't been to work yet."
"So?" I said, not understanding what the problem was. Sometimes it took us two or three days to return each other's calls if we were busy.
"So I got info back on your boy, and I was afraid you were shot somewhere," she said.
"You have no idea how close you are," I said, "but you're going to have to be more specific about which boy you're referring to. I have you looking at a couple of them." Hope flared that she'd found Billy Braxton.
She dispelled it in one fell swoop. "Nah, that boy's a ghost. There is no Billy Braxton. I'm talkin' about Zach McClure." Eight years ago, his father was killed on the job. Wanna take a stab at what he did for a living?"
I huffed out a breath. "Not really. When they lived here, he ran a hunting supply store. It's been a rough couple days. How bout you just tell me."
"He was a Tracker. With a capital T. And your boy is a chip right off the old block."
Dizziness overwhelmed me, and Alex snatched the phone from my hand. He'd heard everything she'd said thanks to his wolf hearing.
Dani, this is Alex Dixon. I'm here to help Cori."
"Babysit her, you mean." Dani had never been one to mince words.
"No, I mean help her," Alex snapped. "What can you tell us about his partner, Aaron Shepard?"
"Nothin' yet. This is the first I've heard of him. You need to know?"
"If you can."
"Of course I can. I'll get on it, and as soon as I know something, you'll know something."
"Sooner, if possible. Cori's sitting here with a bullet wound in her butt, and I'm pretty sure one of those two gave it to her."
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
I GOT DRESSED AS QUICKLY as I could, the called Sean to see what was taking so long on the forest changes. I also wanted to see where he was at on the poisoning. Alex was determined not to let me out of his sight.
"So," I said after we climbed in his car, "What have you reported back to my mom?" I shifted my weight to take the pressure off the wounds, but the exit wound made that practically impossible.
He stiffened in the driver's seat. "I've reported that you're utilizing every resource you have to find the killer."
"And?"
"And she's worried, but confident that we're doing everything we can."
"Well, I thought of something while we haven't done," I said, wincing when he hit a pothole.
"And what's that?"
"Two things, actually. First, Zach said that Shep was staying with friends. I want to know what friends."
"And the second?" he asked, flipping on the blinker to turn onto the main road.
"The second is that you haven't tried touching the victim's clothing."
He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "I've gotta admit—I'm a little embarrassed I didn't think of that before."
"Then let's stop at my office before we do anything else. We have their clothes in lock-up."
We drove for a few minutes in silence, both of us lost in thought.
"I've been giving a lot of thought to your idea that maybe we already have our killer," I said.
"It's a possibility, but I'm not banking on it until we find out who he is, at least."
I fired off a text to Sully, asking if he'd heard anything back about the victim. He hadn't, but said he hadn't heard back from everybody yet.
We were almost to the courthouse when my phone rang, and when I saw the caller ID, my heart stuttered a little. It was the internal number from the sheriff's office.
As soon as I answered, Ms. Ellen said started talking without preamble.
"There's a woman been here for the last half hour waitin' on you. Says she won't talk to nobody but you, and her knickers are all in a twist. She wanted your personal cell, but I told her you were on your way. You are on your way, right?"
"I am. Did she give you a name?"
"Nope. But she's insistent. Says she ain't leavin' til she sees you."
I chewed my lip. "What's she look like?"
Ms. Ellen huffed out a breath. "She looks like a woman. Middle-aged if I had to guess, mousy hair, average build. Clothes clean but old. Her shirt's been mended, and her shoes are from the Walmart."
I racked my brain, but she'd just described half the women in the county. "I'll be right there," I said. "We're only about three minutes away.
"Weird," I said.
Alex shook his head. "Not really. Remember, nothing happens in a vacuum. Somewhere, somebody knows both the latest victim and the killer, even if they don't know for sure he's a killer."
As promised, we pulled into the courthouse lot three minutes later and I jumped—or tried to jump—out of the seat of his car. As soon as I twisted around, I realized my mistake when pain shot through my hip. It wasn't as bad as it had been even that morning, but it still wasn't a tickle.
I sucked in a breath and Alex reached for my hand. I shook my head. I couldn't look weak. I'd popped a few Advil on our way there, and as fast as my metabolism was, it was already starting to kick in. Unfortunately, that same fast metabolism would also process it in a couple of hours and I'd be hurting again.
At any rate, I climbed out of the car, gritting my teeth to keep from grimacing, then walked gingerly up the steps to the back entrance, thankful there was nobody around to see the slight hitch in my gait.
Using my key card, I got us into the inner sanctum and through to my office. Once I was situated in my chair, I rang up and told Ms. Ellen I was there.
It wasn't fifteen secon
ds before a woman burst through my door, steaks of mascara running down her face. She swiped at tears, then pulled a baggie out of her purse and handed it to me, her hands shaking. She slid into the chair across from my desk and plucked at the lace on the bottom of her peasant's blouse. Realizing what she was doing, she folded her hands in her lap.
There were two items in the baggie. One was an expensive-looking gold necklace with the letter V swinging from it, and the other was a cell phone. When I hit the power button, nothing happened, but I'd lay money once we fired it up, it'd belong to Tabbie.
"I found those in my husband's truck, in the glovebox," she said.
"First things first," Alex said. "What's your name?"
"Maryellen," she said. "Maryellen James."
I drew my brows together, trying to put my finger on where I knew the name from. "James. You live on the other side of the lake, right? Moved here a year or so ago?"
She nodded, chewing on her lip. "That's right. From Kentucky. It was too hot. I still have family there, but Papa—" she cut herself off. "I'm ramblin'. What I'm tryin' to tell you is I found that stuff, and he ain't come home in two days. I heard somebody else was kilt yesterday, and I'm afraid ..." She looked at her lap, going silent.
"You're afraid it was him," I finished for her.
She nodded. "Or that he's the one that done the killin'." Her voice was barely above a whisper, and fresh tears started to flow. This time, she let them fall.
I glanced at Alex, who sat down beside her and placed his hand on her shoulder. She glanced sideways at him.
"Why would you think that?" he asked, his voice gentle.
Her voice hitched. "Cause he don't never not come home, and he's been actin' weird, agitated, for the the last week or so."
"Weird, how?" I asked.
She waved a hand. "Just, weird. I'll explain, but first I gotta say we're wolves."
Nodding, I said, "I know. You called and let me know you'd moved in."
"We did. But I didn't reckon you remembered me. I imagine you get a lot of calls."
I gave her a brief half-smile. "I do, but I try to remember names. I stopped out by your place to introduce myself a couple times, but you weren't home."