Feral Seduction (Feral Protectors 2) Page 14

  Stryde narrowed his eyes. “Why should we trust you? Your niece came to you for help and you didn’t believe her. How do we know that you’ll keep your word if we go with you to the police station? What would stop you from locking us up and charging us with Hugo’s murder?”

  The sheriff’s gaze switched from Stryde to Brandy. “As much as I hate to admit it, I can see why you don’t trust me. When you came to my house with the story about being stalked, there wasn’t any evidence to back up your claim. I didn’t believe you. I thought you were making up stories to get attention.”

  “But you believe me now? Why?” Brandy asked.

  “Call it cop instinct; call it whatever you want. The whole situation wasn’t sitting right in my gut. Something was off, so I went to your house yesterday afternoon. I wanted to talk to you. When I arrived, a knife had been staked to your front door with a note. It said, ‘You escaped for now, bitch. But you can’t run forever…’”

  Brandy blanched.

  “I put it in an evidence bag and took it to the local sheriff. He said he’d talk to you about it today. I waited at your house for a few hours, but when you didn’t show, I left. I drove into town this morning, hoping to find you at the house, but on the way over, I decided to stop here. The front door was open, so I called out a few times. When I didn’t get a response, I went in to check it out. I found Hugo on the bed.”

  In the distance, a police siren screamed.

  Sheriff Watkins said, “I called it in a few minutes ago. If you don’t have an alibi, they’ll take you in. I believe you, but I don’t know if they will. I could lose my badge for this, but you’re right to want to avoid the station. This isn’t my turf, so I might not be able to keep the local boys from charging you with Hugo’s murder. You’d better get out of here. Go to your house and wait for me there. But know this—if I get there and you’re gone, I’ll hunt you down myself.”

  Brandy nodded. “We’ll be there.”

  “Go out the gate in the back. It’s unlocked.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t mention it… to anyone,” he added.

  She nodded and raced toward the back door. Once outside, she and Stryde found the back gate and hurried along a long drainage ditch until they reached the barren land behind the houses. Once they were safely inside her house, she collapsed onto the threadbare sofa in the living room.

  Stryde perched on the edge of her father’s wingback chair. “What the hell is going on? Can you think of anyone else who wanted to hurt you?”

  She cringed. “Everyone in the courtroom when the verdict was read.”

  “How many people?”

  “At least a hundred.”

  “Dammit.” Stryde stood and paced the living room. When he reached her father’s desk, he grabbed a pen and paper. “Make a list of everyone who would want to hurt you.”

  Her hand trembled as she wrote a list of names. The more she wrote, the deeper her despair. There were so many people.

  She stopped writing and stared at Stryde. “I’ll never be safe.”

  He moved to sit beside her. “I won’t leave you until we catch whoever is doing this.”

  She leaned against his shoulder. She didn’t want him to ever leave. As fat tears rolled down her face, a sound coming from the back of the house made her heart stop.

  Someone was in the house.

  Chapter 15

  Stryde leapt to his feet. “Stay here.”

  He sprinted to the entrance to the hallway. With his back pressed against the wall, he inched along the ragged carpet.

  A heavy silence blanketed the house. As he approached the first bedroom, his already pounding heart beat harder. He considered shifting, but that would make him temporarily helpless. He couldn’t afford to take that chance. He took a lightning-fast peek around the corner of the door. The room was empty.

  Just to be sure, he slipped into the room. He checked under the bed. No one hid beneath it. As he approached the closet, his hands dampened. He brushed them against his pants. As he reached for the mirrored door, a small, black shadow darted down the hallway.

  In the living room, Brandy screamed.

  Stryde raced into the hall. He should have brought her with him. He shouldn’t have left her alone.

  He rushed into the living room. Brandy stood in the center of it. Her feet spread wide, elbows locked. She had a sleek black gun pointed directly at him.

  “Whoa.” He ducked.

  She gasped. “I almost shot you.”

  “No shit!”

  “I saw something go past the room.”

  She lowered the gun. “It was Muffin.”

  “What?”

  “My cat.”

  “Your cat?” He sagged against the nearest wall. “The damn thing almost gave me a heart attack.”

  “I didn’t know she was in the house. She disappeared last week. I thought a coyote got her.”

  A knock sounded at the front door. Brandy whipped the gun toward it. “Who’s there?”

  “Ben. Let me in.”

  Stryde said, “Hide the gun. He’ll suspect us of killing Hugo if he sees it.”

  He waited as she stuffed the gun under the couch. He opened the door to let Sheriff Watkins in.

  The sheriff said, “The locals are shoring up the crime scene. When I left, the medical examiner wasn’t there yet, but from the looks of the decomp, I’m sure he’s been dead longer than a week.”

  Stryde sat next to Brandy on the sofa while the sheriff took the wingback chair. “We need to find out who’s doing this. Where do we start?”

  The sheriff turned his full attention on Brandy, as if Stryde hadn’t even spoken. Figured as much. He knew Stryde was a werewolf and didn’t trust him. At least he believed Brandy.

  “I don’t know where to start,” she said.

  “Start with what happened after you left my house five nights ago.”

  She relayed the details about being shot, including being changed into a werewolf. As she spoke, Stryde watched her animated face. She was so beautiful and so brave. He’d never met another person so courageous in the face of death.

  “…so then I woke up in Stryde’s den. He saved my life.”

  The sheriff shot him a quick glance. “I guess I should thank you for saving her, even if you turned her into one of you.”

  Stryde flinched at the venom-infused statement. Brandy tensed beside him. If she hadn’t been there, he would have argued with the closed-minded man. But his ignorance was the least of their problems. He slipped a protective arm around her waist.

  Brandy said, “I thought it was over, that I was safe. But yesterday the stalker attacked us in the woods. He shot at us, but Stryde’s quick thinking saved us.”

  She lavished him with a warm smile filled with love. He wanted to kiss her so badly in that moment, but didn’t dare while under the watchful eyes of the sheriff.

  Sheriff Watkins stood and paced the length of the room. “It has to be someone related to your dad’s case. Did anyone approach you in the courtroom? Did anyone say anything unusual?”

  Brandy’s eyebrows furrowed. “No. Everyone in the room glared at me after the verdict was read, but no one in particular stands out.”

  The sheriff said, “I don’t like it. Two attempts on your life and continuous threats. You should come back to my house until we can conduct a thorough investigation.”

  Stryde noted that the sheriff hadn’t invited him. He hated the idea of leaving her with a man who hadn’t believed her in the first place. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “Why not?” the sheriff barked.

  “I’ll be frank. You had the chance to protect her, to keep her from being shot, but you didn’t. You didn’t believe her until it was too late. You blame me for turning her into a werewolf? Well, you could have prevented it.”

  The sheriff’s face blazed. “She didn’t have any evidence. How could I accuse a man without evidence? She wasn’t even right about who’s trying t
o kill her.”

  “At least I can protect her,” Stryde snapped as he stood up.

  The sheriff skewered Stryde with a deadly look. “You’d better watch your mouth, son.”

  Stryde took a step in the sheriff’s direction. How dare he spit out veiled threats!

  Brandy stood between them and put her arms out. “Stop it. We need to stop fighting and figure out a way to fix this.”

  For a moment, neither man moved. Stryde breathed hard. The wolf inside wanted to be unleashed, but Brandy was right. Fighting wouldn’t solve the bigger problem.

  She said, “Why don’t we set up a trap? Use me as bait.”

  The sheriff nodded slowly. “I could get my men down here along with the local boys. We could set up a perimeter around the house and when your stalker attempts to kill you, we’ll catch him.”

  Stryde shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. We can’t risk her life.”

  “Every second the killer is free, her life is in danger.”

  “True,” he grudgingly agreed.

  Brandy said, “All we have to do is let him know that I’ll be home tonight.”

  “Tonight?” Stryde shot her a look, trying to convey that attempting to capture her killer on the last night of her heat could be a disaster.

  She touched Stryde’s forearm. “I know why you’re concerned, but that won’t be a problem.”

  The sheriff narrowed his eyes as if trying to understand the underlying meaning. “I’ll call in the guys. We need to get the word out that you’re back in town. I suggest you spend time in town today. Maybe go to the diner tonight.”

  Brandy smiled. “If nothing else, the gossip squad will see me there and spread it to every corner of town.”

  The sheriff headed toward the door. “I’ll have my team in place by nightfall.”

  He opened the front door but turned before he walked out. He gave Stryde an appraising look. “I may not like you, or your kind, but I’ll admit, you’ve kept her alive this long. Don’t screw up tonight.”

  ***

  Brandy pushed a french fry around her plate. She couldn’t stop the nervous flutter in her stomach. The idea of stuffing the greasy fries into her mouth made her nauseous.

  “Not hungry?” Stryde asked.

  He sat across the table from her in the middle of the diner. Unlike her, he’d managed to wolf down a double cheeseburger, onion rings and a chocolate shake. He eyed her plate.

  She shoved it toward him. “I don’t think I’ll be able to stomach anything until this is over.”

  Stryde’s warm hand rested over hers. The reassuring look in his eyes helped calm her nerves enough to make her take a bite of her burger.

  She chewed the tasteless meat. Everything had a chemical smell to it which did nothing to entice her to eat. She longed for the sweet berries she’d picked with Stryde. Heck, she’d rather eat a fish out of the river instead of this processed junk.

  Across the restaurant, a woman screeched, “Brandy, is that you?”

  Her friend Marge shoved her bulk between two narrowly seated tables. Her ashy-blond hair sprung out of the thick bun centered on her head. In her mid-forties, her friend sported a few fine lines on her face, but she was still youthful enough to attract plenty of male customers to her section.

  Marge slid into the booth beside her. She flung her arms around her. “Where have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you. You are not going to believe what old man Dotson did last night.”

  Brandy couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s enthusiasm. “I had to take care of some things, but I’m back in town for now.”

  She glanced at Stryde, who sat with a bemused grin on his face. She couldn’t imagine not waking up to that smile. When all this was over, would she stay in town, or would she return to the forest with him? She was dying to know. But first, they had to make it through the night.

  Marge batted her false eyelashes at Stryde. “Well, aren’t you a handsome one?”

  Brandy groaned. “This is my… friend. Stryde.”

  “What an interesting name. Native American?”

  He responded, “I’m more of a mutt.”

  Brandy had chosen that moment to take a sip of her milkshake. She almost inhaled the shake as she snorted back a laugh.

  “What?” Marge asked.

  “Nothing. Anyway, tell me about old man Dotson.”

  As Marge launched into an animated retelling of the old man’s latest outrageous behavior, Brandy locked gazes with Stryde. She wondered what it would be like to have a normal dinner with him. She looked around the room at all the other couples seated close together, then sighed. She’d never thought she’d find someone that she’d want to spend the rest of her life with until Stryde. He’d promised that once this was over, they’d figure out what to do about their relationship. But she knew from countless letdowns, men didn’t always keep their promises.

  After finishing her story, Marge jumped up. “We’ll have to catch up some more later. I just saw Mrs. Eldridge walk in. She’s a great tipper.”

  As she ambled away, Stryde said, “She seems like a fun person.”

  Brandy swirled the straw in her milkshake. “She’s great.”

  “Maybe you should stay in town after this is over.”

  She looked up sharply. “What do you mean?”

  He fixed his gaze on a point over her shoulder. “Maybe the forest isn’t the right place for you. If you’re careful, no one has to know that you’re a wolf.”

  “I doubt I could keep it secret during the nights surrounding the full moon.”

  He shoved another fry in his mouth and chewed slowly. When he finished he said, “Are you ready to head out? I think we’ve spent enough time here.”

  She took the napkin out of her lap and pushed it into her uneaten burger. “I guess now’s as good a time as any.”

  Outside the restaurant, the sun hung low on the horizon. The fifth and final night of her heat would begin within the hour. She cast a sidelong glance at Stryde. He held his head high, so self-assured. She wished she could feel the same.

  ***

  Stryde checked the locks on all the windows and doors. Just because they were using Brandy as bait didn’t mean they should be reckless. If everything went as planned, her attacker would be caught well before breaching the perimeter of the house. But things didn’t always go as planned.

  Brandy had changed into an oversized white sweatshirt and sweatpants. Even with her body completely hidden from view, he still wanted her.

  “Do you think this will work?” she asked.

  “I hope so.” He had no idea whether or not the trap would work, but he didn’t want to scare her.

  She walked around the living room. He’d already closed all the blinds so no one could see into the house. They planned to turn off all the lights at ten p.m. and pretend they’d gone to sleep. He glanced at the clock. Only a few minutes to go.

  Brandy stopped pacing in front of the fireplace. She grabbed a framed photo off the mantel. The woman in the picture wore a long white lace dress. The man wore a tuxedo. He didn’t have to get any closer to know it was her parents’ wedding photo.

  “They look so in love,” she said in a wistful voice.

  “They probably were.”

  “Why do you think people fall out of love?”

  He leaned a hip against the wall. “It’s different for every couple.”

  “You said that you and Leah hadn’t been together for five years before she died. If it’s too personal, you don’t have to answer, but what happened between you?”

  Stryde sighed. “Ryker and I were fighting over who should become alpha of the Dark Moon Pack. Graydon, the previous alpha, had passed away and there wasn’t a clear successor. I don’t want that to happen with my pack.”

  “Was Leah angry that you were fighting?”

  “I was acting like an ass. I had formed a new pack and some of the wolves from the Silver Creek Pack followed me up the mountain. I was jealous th
at most of the pack chose to remain with Ryker. Leah wanted me to make peace with him, but I refused.”

  He laughed. “It took her murder to set me straight. Ryker and I made peace, but it was too late for me and Leah.”

  His heart ached, but not with the usual agony. He realized he hadn’t had a nightmare about her since he’d met Brandy.

  “I’m sorry you lost her. I know what it’s like to lose someone you love. I know it’s not the same. My parents are both still alive, as far as I know, but they may as well be dead.”

  Stryde crossed the room and stood next to her. “Maybe there’s still time for you to forgive your father.”

  “Maybe.”

  “One step at a time.”

  She offered him a slanted smile. “Sounds like an AA mantra. My dad could use a lesson in sobriety.”

  “Maybe prison will help him find his way.”

  “Maybe.”

  Stryde glanced at the clock. “It’s time.”

  “Everything’s locked up, right?”

  “Yep.”

  He clicked off the lamp in the living room and followed her into the lit hallway. As they entered her bedroom, he switched off the hall light. He shut and locked the door behind them.

  She sat on her bed with her back to the wall. He hated to see the worn look in her eyes. He turned off the bedroom light. Tonight her nightmare would finally be over.

  Chapter 16

  Brandy shivered as howling wind rattled the shutters. Gusts of air curled off the desert floor to create a sandstorm. Small grains of sand blasted the window and grated on her nerves.

  Stryde sat fully clothed in bed beside her. But even through the layers of clothing, she could feel his heat. She longed to curl up in his arms, but she didn’t want to disturb him. He faced the bedroom door, never taking his eyes off of it.

  She’d stared at the doorknob so long that she could have sworn it moved a few times. But it was only her frayed imagination.

  Her voice quivered as she asked, “What if this doesn’t work?”

  Stryde reached for her hand. “It will work.”

  “But what if the stalker spots the police?”