by Lynn Hagen
“Are you hurt?” Maverick asked.
Orlando shook his head. “Is Newt safe?”
Maverick nodded. “He’s outside with his parents. Kota is keeping an eye on him.”
Orlando looked at the fallen officers, and his chest ached with grief. Myers, along with Deputy Payton, was dead. Orlando had to figure out what was going on before anyone else got hurt.
He stormed to his office and opened the cabinet, relieved when he saw the box where he’d stored the jewelry. It was safe. Orlando wanted it appraised and out of his station.
But if this had been a heist, the third guy had had time to steal the box from Orlando’s office in the erupting chaos. So why hadn’t he?
Chapter Nine
“This is not how I wanted to meet you.” Orlando shook Mr. Bradley’s hand.
“It wasn’t your fault,” Mr. Bradley said.
“Orlando Werth, this is my mom and dad,” Newt said, “Karen and Chris Bradley.”
Newt still clung to his mate, uncaring how he looked hugging the sheriff, but Newt was still shaken over what had happened, and when he got Orlando home, he was kicking his mate’s ass for pushing him out of the station and staying behind.
He was still trying to get his heart rate back under control.
“I’m just glad you both are okay.” Newt’s mom tried to pry Newt away from Orlando, obviously to give him a hug, but a crowbar couldn’t have wedged him free.
“I’m fine, Mom.” Newt complained when she kept pulling on his arm.
“Can’t a mother give her son a hug after the fright I’ve suffered?”
Orlando set Newt aside, giving him a quick kiss before he coaxed Newt to his mother.
She damn near broke him in half squeezing him so tightly. He was afraid she’d crack a rib or two. “Can’t breathe.”
“Drama king,” she said before releasing him. “Stop being extra.”
Newt blinked at his mother. “Did you just use the word extra in a sentence?”
She smiled. “I learned it from your cousin Claire, and I’ve fallen in love with the word.”
“She uses it every chance she gets,” his father said.
Newt rolled his eyes. Claire was Doug’s younger sister, and Newt wondered if she knew just how rotten her brother was. Probably. It seemed Newt had been the only one left out of the loop as far as Doug was concerned.
“Just as long as you don’t start saying jelly,” Newt said. His mom was in her late forties. She’d had Newt went she was eighteen. But that hadn’t stopped her from going to college and pursuing her career as a nurse. Newt had always been proud of her and the struggles she and his father had gone through in order to make a better life for him.
His dad had been a construction foreman for over twenty years until he’d hurt his back and was forced to retire.
Even after all these years, his parents were still so in love that they sometimes embarrassed Newt with the way his father smacked his wife’s ass or the nauseating sexual innuendos they constantly threw at each other. They kissed all the time, held hands, and they still went on date night, although Newt was grown and out of the house.
But as sappy as they were, Newt had always wished for a partner who treated him the way his dad treated his mom.
Newt looked to his right when a sedan pulled up and a tall, geeky-looking guy got out. The stranger hesitated as he looked around.
“I think he’s our appraiser,” Orlando said. “If you’ll excuse me.”
Newt watched Orlando approach the guy.
“Dating a sheriff?” His mom smiled. “Quite the catch, Newton.”
“Is he treating you right?” his dad asked. “Because if he isn’t, I’ll go have a talk with him.”
Orlando was built like a bull. Newt’s dad was tall, but lean. Orlando was also a shifter and would wipe the streets with his dad. “He’s been the perfect gentleman, Dad.”
His father nodded as he puffed his scrawny chest out. “He better be. I wouldn’t want to embarrass him in front of everyone by knocking him on his ass.”
Newt almost laughed at the image that popped into his head—his dad slugging Orlando. Orlando not being affected by the punch. The deputies dog-piling his dad to arrest him for hitting the sheriff as Newt’s mother power-drove the deputies for touching her husband.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” His mom squeezed his hand, shaking Newt from his comical thoughts.
Newt nodded. “I’m just shaken from what happened.”
She glared at something over Newt’s shoulder. “For a moment I thought I’d have to tackle that big guy to get to you.”
Newt looked where her glare was pointed, and his brows shot up. His mom had been going to tackle Maverick? Now that would have been something Newt would’ve paid to see.
Orlando returned to Newt’s side, the lanky stranger with him. “This is Mr. Carver. He’s the appraiser.”
“Are you sure it’s safe to go inside?” Mr. Carver asked.
“Actually, I’m going to go get the box and bring it out here,” Orlando said.
The police station was now a crime scene.
“Do you think that’s safe?” Newt asked. He didn’t want Orlando to bring the box outside and then more gunmen showed up to try and take it. If that’s what this was about. Newt still had his doubts.
Orlando waved a hand to encompass the area surrounding them outside the station. “Maverick and his men are here, as well as deputies. They won’t let anything happen.”
Everyone grew quiet when the deputies that had been killed were wheeled outside in black body bags. The moment was somber as the deputies and Werth saluted the fallen men before they were loaded into the coroner van.
Newt’s eyes misted as he mother hugged him. They hadn’t known the two deputies, but that hadn’t made their deaths any less tragic.
Tears filled Orlando’s as he excused himself and headed inside the station. Newt looked Mr. Carver over. Up-close he saw the man had very thick glasses, suffered from acne, and when he gave Newt a tight smile, one side of his mouth hadn’t curved. Newt’s Aunt Pearl had the same kind of smile. She suffered from a stroke.
“What the…” Newt’s jaw dropped when he spotted a German shepherd heading his way. Was that…was that Max?
Mr. Carver squeaked and backed away.
“He won’t hurt you,” Newt said. It was ironic that Newt was reassuring someone that a dog was safe.
“You’re not afraid of him?” His mother furrowed her brows. “But you’ve always been afraid of dogs.”
“This one is different.” In more ways than one. Newt was still convinced that Max had to be a shifter, but Orlando had said Max was pure animal. Something didn’t add up. Max had too much intelligence in his greenish-yellow eyes, as well as in his actions.
“Who the hell brought Max here?” Orlando boomed when he stepped from the station.
“He came on his own.” Newt petted Max’s head. “I think he was worried about us.”
Orlando snorted. “He was at home. How would he even know something was going on?”
Newt looked at Max. “Dog’s intuition?”
Max barked.
Newt narrowed his eyes. Was Max really thanking him for the save? Newt made a peace sign with his fingers then waved them at his eyes and then Max’s. “I’m watching you,” he mouthed.
Max took off running, heading into the station. Newt heard the distant bark, then the dog ran outside, glancing around as if he was looking for something.
“Over here.” Orlando nodded toward the back of a cruiser. Newt knew this wasn’t the ideal place to appraise anything that might be of value, but it was the only place they had.
Newt stood there with his arms crossed, watching Mr. Carver work. The guy used a small magnifying glass that he held to his eye as he examined the jewelry. He kept saying, “Hmm. Hmm.”
The sound was beginning to get irritating. Newt’s nerves were already wound tight. He’d just survived an act of violence…aga
in, and the wait to see if the jewelry was the cause of all this had Newt ready to shout at the guy to tell him already.
Finally, after a million-year wait, Mr. Carver closed the box and tucked the tiny magnifying glass into his pocket. “Your grandmother had good taste,” he said to Newt. “Exquisite pieces, even if they aren’t of any great value.”
Newt’s stomach dropped. Not because he’d been hoping to get rich, but because they were back at square one. Newt couldn’t think of any other reason men were coming after him. “Thank you for taking your time for this,” he said to Mr. Carver.
“A few pieces could fetch you a few hundred dollars if you were hoping to sell them,” he said. “The rose brooch and the pearl earrings, but the rest has no value.”
“Thank you for your time.” Orlando shook Mr. Carver’s hand. Clearly he hadn’t explained why he wanted the guy to come here today, so Newt didn’t bother explaining that he’d never been interested in selling his nana’s jewelry.
“You’re welcome.” Mr. Carver gave a tight smile before leaving.
“Well, that was a bust,” his mom said. “Anticlimactic. With all this mess going on, I was expecting him to say you were sitting on millions.”
So had Newt. He looked at Orlando. “Now what?”
“Now we keep working the case,” Orlando said. “We don’t give up until we have all our answers.”
He waved for Jacoby to join them before he turned to Newt’s parents. “I’m gonna have one of my deputies take you to my home. I have to finish up here and then go check on Deputy Sloan, who was rushed to the medical center after being shot.”
Newt prayed Dillon was okay. The guy had taken a bullet to the chest. Orlando pulled Newt to the side. “I have to stay.”
“I know.”
“When you get home, stay put. I don’t want you outside. Deputy Jacoby is gonna stay with you, and I’ll have some of Maverick’s wolves keep an eye on things, too.”
“What about Dillon?”
“He’s not really at the medical center. I put him in one of the cells so he could shift. In his wolf form, the bullet will work its way out and his body will repair itself. Pat’s with him to keep an eye on him.”
Newt’s brows shot up. “Shifters can do that?”
“There’re a lot of things we can do.” Orlando pulled Newt into his arms and hugged him.
“I’m sorry about your guys,” Newt said. “I don’t know why those men are after me, but I’m so sorry two of your deputies were killed.”
Orlando gave him a quick kiss, but Newt saw in his eyes that Orlando was mourning their loss. “Go with your parents, and make sure you take Max with you.”
“And you stay safe out here.” Newt gave him another peck on the lips before he walked over to his mom and dad.
* * * *
Max waited until no one was looking and hurried to the back of the station. He’d heard what Orlando had said about Dillon, and Max wanted to see for his own eyes that his mate was safe.
Making sure no one was around, he shifted and opened the door then quickly shifted back into his dog form. There was a redhead seated in a folding chair outside the cell, sipping on coffee and reading something on his cell phone.
This must be Pat.
Pat snapped his head up and looked at Max. “How’d you get in here?” He got up and set his things on the chair, but Max hurried past him and went into the cell.
“You can’t be in there,” Pat said. “Shoo, doggy.”
A black panther lay on the cot, his breathing a bit unsteady. Max whimpered as he licked the cat’s face.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Pat said from behind him. “Do you know Dillon?”
All Max wanted to see were Dillon’s pretty blue eyes. He wanted to know for sure that his mate was okay. The cat yowled gently in his sleep. Max licked his neck and muzzle.
For a brief moment, the panther opened his eyes. The stare he gave Max was intense, as if he knew exactly who Max was to him, and then he closed his eyes.
Max desperately wanted to stay, wanted to be there when Dillon woke, but he’d run out of the house so fast that he’d forgotten to take his scent-masking potion and what was in his system would be wearing off soon.
Trotting to the back door, Max barked.
“You are a very strange dog.”
Pat opened the back door, and Max hurried around the building just as Newt called out for him. The human was even more suspicious of him now. Max had to be extra, extra careful around the guy.
He didn’t need his secret discovered. Max had run into Taren several times over the twenty-year span that he’d been hiding from the demon, barely escaping the encounter two years ago when he’d spotted Taren in Pride Pack Valley.
Max needed to get home and stay put, no matter how badly he wanted to stick around the station to be with his mate.
* * * *
Orlando had Newt hemmed up against the kitchen island, his nose in his mate’s neck, simply breathing him in. After the day he’d had, Orlando needed to feel grounded.
He’d started to go straight to bed when he’d gotten home but had found his mate in the kitchen looking for a snack. Newt’s parents were in the guest bedroom and, at three in the morning, more than likely sound asleep.
The touch was comforting when Newt slid his hands down Orlando’s back. Not that he’d wanted anyone to die today, but Orlando was glad Myers and Payton hadn’t been mated. Still, he’d gone to their families to deliver the news, and that had been downright heartbreaking.
Orlando never wanted to do that again but knew it was part of his job.
“Better?” Newt hugged him tightly.
“I’ll feel better once the last guy is caught,” Orlando said. What worried him was the fact that one of the men had gotten away when Newt’s house had been broken into. Was that guy one of the men from the attempted heist, or was he someone different? Just how many hired gunman were involved? Were there more out there? If the jewelry wasn’t what they were after, then why were they hell-bent on getting their hands on Newt?
Orlando was getting a migraine from all the questions circling inside his head.
Newt rubbed the pad of his thumb between Orlando’s brows. “You need a hot shower and a good night’s rest.”
“What I need is to be buried inside you.” Orlando kissed a path along Newt’s jaw. He reached between them and squeezed Newt’s pajama-covered cock, smiling when his mate sucked in a deep breath.
Then he swatted Orlando’s hand away. “My parents are here,” Newt said in a loud whisper. “We can’t fool around in the kitchen.”
“They’re asleep.” Orlando shoved his hand down the front of Newt’s pants and curled his fingers around his mate’s cock. “They’ll never know.”
Orlando jerked his hand back when he heard Mrs. Bradley scream. Still in his uniform, Orlando pulled his gun from its holster as he raced to the bedroom. Without knocking, he rushed the room, his gun in front of him as he looked around.
“Your dog!” Mrs. Bradley was standing on the opposite side of the room, her husband at her side, and both were staring wide-eyed at the closet.
Orlando spun, and his jaw dropped. Newt shoved Orlando’s arm up just as Orlando fired off a shot. The bullet hit the upper wall as the naked stranger ducked. The guy had short, spiky black hair and greenish-yellow eyes.
“Who the fuck are you?” Orlando demanded. He noticed the collar around the stranger’s neck. “What the fuck did you do with my dog?” If this guy had done anything to Max, Orlando would tear him apart with his bare hands.
“I am your dog,” the guy said as he slowly straightened, his hands up in a gesture of surrender.
“I knew it!” Newt looked too damn pleased. He had a wide grin as he pumped his arm and did a little dance.
“What does he mean he’s your dog?” Mr. Bradley demanded. “Just what in the hell is going on here?”
“You better start talking,” Orlando snarled. “What the hell do you mean you
’re my dog?”
The stranger started talking bullet-fast as he lowered his hands. “I’m in hiding from a very lethal demon who wants me dead in the worst sort of way. I was hiding out in your backyard when you found me, and—”
“You thought you’d let me adopt you?” Orlando glared at him. “I fucking rubbed your belly and let you lick my face, you bastard!” He raised his gun again, ready to put Max—if that was his real name—out of his misery.
“No!” Newt jumped in front of Max. “You can’t just kill him.”
“Why not?” Orlando snapped. “The little prick pretended to be a lost dog. He’s been enjoying himself in my house for two years. Two fucking years!”
“I would’ve left,” Max said as he peeked around Newt. They were the same size and same build. “But you’d grown attached to me, and to be honest, I’ve grown very attached to you.”
Orlando bared his canines. “Do you know how wrong that sounds? And how many times did you see me naked when I got out of the shower or was getting dressed or when I just free-balled around the house? You could’ve told me what was going on from the beginning, and I would’ve still helped you.”
“I was scared,” Max cried out.
“What were you doing in here?” Newt asked.
Orlando didn’t give two shits what Max had been doing in the guest bedroom. He was going to put a bullet between the fucker’s eyes.
“I have a scent-masking potion.” Max moved slowly from behind Newt, keeping an eye on Orlando as he went to the closet and removed the floorboard. He pulled out a small dark bottle and held it up for Orlando to see. “Every few months I go to this guy who sells me another bottle.”
Newt cocked his head. “How do you pay for it if you’re pretending to be a dog?”
“I’m not pretending,” Max said. “I really am a dog shifter, and I’d rather not say in front of mixed company how I pay for it.”
The mention of mixed company made Orlando look at Newt’s parents. They appeared more intrigued than frightened. Mrs. Bradley’s gaze kept straying to Max’s groin before she looked away and blushed, only to look again.
