Fighting for Wolves (Shifter Country Wolves Book 3) Read Free

back?” she asked.
    He grinned.
    “I’m not arresting you,” he said. “Sit in the front.”
    In the car, she was mostly quiet, not that Dane could blame her. Even as a cop, he’d only seen a few dead bodies. In Rustvale, most of the deaths that he saw were elderly people who died in their own homes. After a day or two, a friend or neighbor would start to worry, and he’d get called in to break down the door.
    Sad, but not a crime.
    “You ever get into a high-speed chase?” she asked, her voice still soft.
    “Nah,” said Dane. “To be honest, this is probably the biggest case I’ve ever had.”
    “Sleepy town?” she asked.
    He shrugged, his mouth hitching up into half of a smile.
    Don’t smile, you weirdo , he told himself. She just found a dead body. Now is not the time .
    “Not quite sleepy, but not much happens here,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot of the police station.
    As they walked inside, Grey still half folded into herself, Dane found himself rushing to open doors for her, even pulling out her chair in the interview room. He’d started sweating just a little, the thought of being alone with her so alluring that it made him nervous.
    You’re asking her about finding a dead body , he kept reminding himself. Not romantic. Not sexy. Probably the least sexy thing that’s ever happened to her .
    “All right. First, I need you to state your name for the record.”
    Dane hit a button behind him, and the room’s recording equipment clicked to life.
    “Grace Patience Joy Macauley,” she said, enunciating each name clearly.
    Dane couldn’t help himself. He raised his eyebrows.
    “My parents were optimists,” she said. “Call me Grey.”
    A hint of a smile played around her lips, the first one that Dane had seen.
    He felt just a little bit melty inside.
    “All right, Miss Macauley,” he said. “Could you just tell me what happened tonight, in your own words?”
    She nodded, then swallowed and looked down at the scarred tabletop in front of her, taking a moment to collect herself.
    “I was walking home from a friend’s house. We’d had dinner and a drink or two, and that alley is a shortcut I’ve used sometimes,” she said, her perfect, melodious voice soft. “I mean, Rustvale is pretty safe, and even at night I never really thought twice about it, though maybe I should have.”
    Dane nodded.
    “I turned the corner there, and I saw a guy right next to the dumpster,” she went on. “I kind of jumped, because I’d gone a couple of steps without realizing that he was there, and, I mean, that’s not good, when you’re alone in a dark alley and you don’t realize there’s someone that close.”
    She swallowed, her eyes distant as she remembered.
    “But there was something really strange about him,” she said slowly, her brow furrowed. “Even though I jumped, he didn’t react, and he was just still. So still, it was weird, so I took a step toward him and asked if he was okay, and obviously he didn’t answer, but I still thought he was asleep, or... on drugs, I guess, or something,” she said with a little shrug. “I was actually just about to leave him alone, when a car turned into a driveway across the street and for a second, I could see this puddle of blood around him.”
    She shuddered, hugging her arms more tightly around herself.
    “So I screamed, and then I ran into the Chinese restaurant and called 911.”
    “You didn’t recognize him?”
    She shook her head.
    Dane nodded. From where he sat, he could smell her. She smelled like roses, just faintly, though there was something else, another scent that he could barely detect. It was something less pleasant than roses.
    Maybe her friend’s house smells weird , he thought.
    His eyes flicked up to hers and held them for just a moment, and then Grey looked away quickly.
    Dane’s stomach plummeted.
    She’s hiding something , he realized. He wasn’t sure — he didn’t know — but his gut was rarely wrong. There