Zoe's Blockade (Destiny's Trinities Book 5) Read Free Page B

with all the nonsense inside five minutes, then he could toss the idiot, talk Zoe back to sense and get on with his day. He had a report to write about the campers they’d hauled to the medical center last night. Minor frost bite—they were lucky. It was only minus ten. By January it could drop to forty below at night around here and frost bite would be the least of their concerns.
    His mind already turning over the phrases he would need for the report and the information he would pass along to his captain that wouldn’t be in the report, Cole bounced down the steps and over to his truck.
    He came to a halt, the keys swinging on the end of his fingers, as he saw the battered Mustang next to it.
    Zoe and the man, Diego, were both on the verandah watching him. Zoe had pushed her feet into her boots, but wasn’t wearing a coat. She had her arms crossed over her chest for warmth.
    Cole gripped the keys to stop them swinging. Slowly, deliberately, he walked around the Mustang. His circuit complete, he examined the caved-in side and the ruined paintwork.
    His heart started working as if he was climbing the knees of mountains, only he was just standing there. He looked up, toward the bridge. He had seen that view thousands of times.
    There were shadows among the edges of the trees that weren’t normally there.
    Cole recognized the sour ache in his chest and the high singing in his mind. He remembered it from combat. The pre-action adrenaline rush. His gut was getting him ready while his mind was still trying to encompass that fighting was on the cards at all.
    Slowly, he climbed back up onto the verandah.
    Zoe lowered her arms, puzzled. “Cole…?”
    “Back into the house,” he said, his voice low. “Both of you.”
    Diego moved immediately. He understood.
    Zoe frowned. “I don’t get it.” It wasn’t often her small face wore that expression.
    Cole took her arm. “Come on,” he said, trying to make it sound gentle. “I need food and another gallon of coffee.”
    She bit her lip and let him draw her into the house.
    He locked the front door behind him. He had a feeling the lock would be useless. Anything that could do that to a car would simply throw itself against the windows and roll right in like a grenade, full of whatever fury had made it decide that Cole’s place was a good one to stake out.
    All three of them returned to the kitchen silently and sat back down, except Zoe. She leaned her hip against the counter, one foot crossed over the other, her arms crossed. He recognized the defensive posture.
    Diego was looking at him. “The marks, right?” he said.
    “I’ve done my share of hunting,” Cole said. “A deer or even a small moose could do that sort of damage to your car, only they don’t have claws. There were claw marks all along both sides of the car…and they weren’t bear claws. I’ve seen claw marks left by bears and these were too close together. The largest cat in British Columbia is the cougar and they’re rare these days. Cougar claws wouldn’t have dug in like that. The paneling on the car was peeled back as if it was orange skin.”
    Diego nodded. “They’re not natural creatures.”
    “No,” Cole agreed. “I get that.” He looked at Zoe. “I really do need more coffee,” he said. “Do you mind?”
    She shook her head and plucked the kettle from the range and turned to the sink. In the bright sunlight pouring in the window, her short red hair glowed and Cole’s heart shifted and warmth touched him, as it always did when he realized she was here in his life.
    Then he looked at Diego. The man—the vampire, Cole reminded himself—was watching him closely.
    “Start again,” he told Diego. “This time, I’ll listen.”

Chapter Three
    Zoe thought Diego might be happy to talk forever, especially as Cole just sat still, not interrupting, absorbing everything. There was a tiny furrow between Cole’s brows which said he was concentrating. It wasn’t the wholesale frown that