by Jory Strong
His skin pebbled despite the warm night, despite seeing Dane Moira and not the dog. He fought against reaching for the gun.
"He's mine," Mallory said.
To kill?
To keep?
"You guys leave."
Dane's eyes flared red and Caleb stopped pretending that he'd only imagined seeing it before.
Mallory reached out, touched Dane's arm. "This is my choice. Take the Jeep."
She peeled away from her brothers, came toward him and a firebomb exploded in his chest. He wanted her. There was no rational explanation, but he did, and it didn't have anything to do with the job.
Reaching him, she said, "The dog tag?"
"Yeah."
She didn't resist when he pulled her against him, hands travelling down her back, stopping at encountering what he'd bet was the Colt M1911 that should be in police custody, hell, that shouldn't even exist.
"LAPD? FBI? Homeland Security? What flavor of cop are you?"
"The second."
"And the girl who was taken? More than the sister of a guy you knew in the Army?"
"My sister."
"She's okay?"
"A little spooked, but that's all."
"I'm glad. Is that why you're here alone? Giving us a free pass?"
"No." He nuzzled her neck, breathed in her scent, mysterious forests and wild waterfalls. "I'm here because I want you. I want an us."
"That's a dangerous choice."
He nipped her neck, soothed the bite with the stroke of his tongue. Fire coursed through his bloodstream with the tremble of her body. "I've been in dangerous situations before."
"Not like this one. We're all killers. If you betray me, you'll end up dead, your soul in the possession of a demon lord, a Reaper Lord, the being who sired me."
He kissed upward, lips feathering across her ear. His hand moved from waist to arm, his palm covering the brand "I'll protect you, not betray you. A special unit swooped in and took over the investigation. They were the ones who fed it to my unit in the first place. They didn't go to all this trouble because they want to arrest you. They want to use you. You're going to need someone on the inside."
"And you'll be that guy on the inside?"
"I'll be your man, inside and out." His mouth left her ear, his eyes meeting hers. "You killed the man who took Grace?"
"Yes."
"Why leave the body?"
"Because we hunt in prison too. Because the Reaper Lord doesn't consider it a sacrifice if one of his sons ends up there. I'm his only daughter. I don't know what that means, only that my being with you—being with a human—suits his purposes."
His fingertips brushed the gun. "You should get rid of this thing."
"It's not that easy, Matthew."
"Caleb," he said, kissing her lightly, briefly, wanting everything in the open before they left the clearing. "Matthew is my middle name. Caleb Matthew North."
Her hand slid up to cover his heart. She murmured his name and he liked the sound of it on her lips.
"My father has a boat. We'll wipe the prints from the gun and dump it in the ocean."
"It'll only come back to me. But you already know that."
Her eyes held hints of red, warning him against lying.
"Think I know. Strongly suspect. That's closer to the truth. For this to work, you've got to let me in, all the way in, Mallory."
Warmth spread through Mallory, tangled with desire. Caleb's scent told her everything she needed to know. It was rich loam and home.
"No more secrets," she said, her lips joining with his in a wet slide, tongues delving, delivering ultimatum and promise and pleasure beneath a Hunter's Moon.
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