by Anya Nowlan
In a moment of quiet, she took a breath, and forced herself to not look away from Sawyer’s dark, glittering eyes.
“Sawyer,” she started, clearly stalling. “Why aren’t you a cop anymore?”
He just let out a sigh, looking tired all of the sudden.
“I knew you’d get to that eventually,” he said. “I’m not sure it’s a story you actually want to hear.”
“I want to hear anything you’re willing to tell me,” she replied.
He mulled that over, while Naomi fidgeted with the edge of her blanket. Leaving the force had obviously been a huge change in his life. He could have been a completely different person back then, for all she knew.
Sawyer opened his mouth, and she would have been on the edge of her seat, if they weren’t both lying down.
“All right,” he finally said, leaving her hanging off every word that followed.
Twenty-Six
Sawyer
Looking into Naomi’s eyes, Sawyer knew he had to tell her the truth. They had already shared so much with each other. It couldn’t have been easy for her to tell him about the life-altering event of her parents’ murder. He couldn’t keep the thing that changed the course of his life from her.
“I had only made detective a couple of years ago. I had been assigned to the robbery unit, where I also got paired up with a partner. His name was Ted, but everyone called him Bear,” he said, grinning at the memory of everyone always giving him teddy bears for his birthday.
It was a tired gag, but Bear took it in good spirits.
“He wasn’t a shifter, and I hadn’t told anyone that I was one, so imagine my surprise when I’m suddenly sharing a ride with a guy named Bear,” he added, and Naomi smiled at him.
“And you were good friends?” she asked.
“Pretty much,” he replied. “It was impossible not to be friends with him. He was burly as all hell, built like a tank. But he cared about making a difference. He made me a better cop, showed me how much compassion matters. He always had my back and I had his.”
“In a job like that, that’s gotta be important,” Naomi remarked.
“It is,” Sawyer nodded. “He quickly became like a brother to me.”
Naomi had to be thinking where this story was going. But he wanted to start from the beginning, so she could really understand. And he was glad that she could get to know Bear even a little bit, through his words.
“Even though he was human, and I had the genetic benefits of being a shifter, Ted kept me on my toes. He was obsessed with being the best version of himself. But then, you saw him with his girlfriend, and he was a different man. A real teddy bear,” he said.
“We were busy hustling, trying to make a name in robbery. Both of us had our sights set on homicide. Around that time, there was a spree of home invasions, and we were determined to get to the bottom of it.
“We had just pulled a double one night, and I had to be in court to testify about another case early in the morning. But Ted wanted to go check out the latest crime scene once more, to see if he might have missed something. I told him I’d go with him. But he insisted I go home and get to sleep to be ready for my testimony,” he added, replaying that night in his head.
Sawyer still remembered the scent of the car as he stepped outside, after Ted drove him home. Fast food and stale black coffee. That’s what their car always smelled like. Outside, the air had been cool, and the sky unusually clear.
If I would have just gone with him…
Naomi must have seen he was struggling, as she reached out, flattening her palm against his cheek. Her touch was soft and warm, and instantly reassuring.
“He dropped me off at home, and I got into bed. A phone call woke me up a couple of hours later. Ted had gone to the crime scene like he had planned. But someone had surprised him there. It was likely he never even saw it coming. He was shot in the back. Paramedics pronounced him dead on the scene,” Sawyer finished his story.
“Oh my god,” Naomi murmured, her eyes getting shiny. “I’m so sorry.”
The sincerity in her voice was hard to miss. He had no doubt she could easily relate to his loss.
“I know it doesn’t compare to what you’ve been through…” he started, but she cut him off.
“Let’s not play the game of who has lost more,” she said. “Your friend was taken from you, and that’s terrible. You don’t need to apologize to me for your grief. I’m here to listen.”
Struck by her compassion, Sawyer wondered – if he had opened up to someone before, would things have been different? After Ted’s death, his instinct had been to shut himself off. He thought talking about things would only tear open old wounds. But having Naomi there to listen did the opposite.
It helped him remember his friend as he had been when he was still alive. There was so much more to Ted than the way he had died. But looking at the woman next to him, maybe Naomi coming into his life was what had made him see things in a different light.
Knowing she could relate made things easier. And enough time had passed since Ted’s death that the rawness of it all had faded. There was still a healthy dose of guilt. And he knew Naomi still felt like she could have done more on the night her parents were killed.
He had told her it was foolish to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders. Yet he couldn’t take his own advice.
“I stayed on the force long enough to see Ted’s murder case solved,” he said. “Turned out, one of the robbers had gotten worried he might have left some evidence behind, and snuck back to the crime scene. They later found a canister of gasoline and some rags in his trunk. Detectives assumed the man intended to burn the whole place down to cover his tracks. But Ted was in the way.
“I still don’t know why the guy felt the need to shoot him. But the gunshot attracted too much attention. The robber panicked and ran, leaving Ted to die on the living room floor.”
“But they did catch the shooter? He confessed?” Naomi asked.
“Yes. He got life in prison. And before that, I always though solving a crime brought closure to the families and loved ones of the victim. There was a sense of relief that scumbag was off the street, that he was going to pay, don’t get me wrong. But closure doesn’t come from the outside. It’s something you have to find. And I couldn’t find it,” Sawyer replied.
“And that’s when you left?” Naomi said.
“I couldn’t do it anymore,” he replied. “I guess I lost faith in it all for a while. When I got called in, the crime had already been committed. I started thinking, was I really helping anyone? Then, there was the thought of being assigned a new partner… I needed some distance. So yeah, I left. The force, and New York. I drifted along for a while before I settled in Tempe.”
“But you couldn’t stay away from helping people, could you?” Naomi smiled. “Why else would you have become a private investigator.”
“I think you see me better than I am,” Sawyer chuckled. “I’ve never been that good at sitting on my hands. And I was running low on my savings. So, I had to think of a new angle to use the skills I already had.”
“I don’t think that’s it,” she narrowed her eyes at him. “When you told me that story earlier, about Jillian… It was clear you really cared. You sympathized with her. You even broke into a man’s house, for Pete’s sake. You can’t tell me you became a PI because you were bored and you couldn’t find anything better to do.”
Sawyer had to admit, she had a point there. Whether he had acknowledged it at the time or not, his decisions had still been affected by that same thing that first set him on the path to the police academy.
“So you know me better than I know myself, huh,” he teased, snaking his arm around Naomi’s waist and pulling her closer.
“No,” she laughed. “I just think people are harder on themselves than they are on others.”
Now that was the truth if I’ve ever heard it.
His wolf let out a content little growl. A part of him ne
ver wanted to leave that bed. There was still so much more to know about Naomi, and he was looking forward to discovering more of her.
But, life didn’t stop just because he had found his mate. He still had that statue tucked away in his safe. And it was only a matter of time before Verin came looking for it…
Twenty-Seven
Naomi
As the midday sun shone in through the bedroom curtains, Sawyer went to shower, leaving Naomi in bed. She stretched out on the sheets, a content smile on her face as she listened to him turn on the water.
In a matter of one night, she had learned more about what kind of a man Sawyer was than she had with guys she had dated for months. There was no pretense with him – what you saw was what you got.
There was no putting your best foot forward or creating an image you wanted to project, like there was with dating. They had already seen each other in the most pressure-filled, stressful situations one could imagine.
And there was no doubt in Naomi’s mind she could count on Sawyer completely.
Yet, she was still hesitant to tell him exactly why she took stopping Verin from completing whatever plan the demon was cooking up so personally. Now that Sawyer had been so honest about his past, and what had happened to Ted, she was beginning to feel even worse about it.
But how could she just come out with that kind of bombshell now? And she was still convinced Verin showing up in Tempe had just been a coincidence. With that thought niggling in the back of her head, Naomi reluctantly got up, swinging her feet over the edge of the bed.
With the memory of her parents’ murder now more relevant than ever, and knowing Verin had a pattern of using violence to get what he wanted…
What did that creature want with my dad?
One therapist after another had told her to stop obsessing over the ravings of a madman. Because that was what people had believed Verin to be – a random, insane killer that broke in, probably looking for something to steal, and getting caught in the act by her mom.
And while Naomi could agree Verin had to be unhinged, he was definitely no random robber. There had to be a reason he came into their house that night… Had the demon been after another artifact of some sort?
Naomi tried to think back, if there was an item in her childhood home that could have been valuable. An heirloom of some sort? She was pretty sure the most ancient thing in that place had been a Howe sewing machine, passed on to her mother from her grandmother and so on for generations.
But unless Verin was into tailoring his own clothes, that didn’t seem like a likely target. And the demon had been insistent about a snake… Naomi tried her hardest, but couldn’t recall a single snake-shaped object in her former house.
Against her better judgment, she snuck into the guest bedroom, grabbed her laptop from one of the bags, and took it into the living room. It had been years since she had looked at anything regarding her parents’ murder. But with its recent relevance, she couldn’t help herself.
This never ends well, she thought, biting her lip as she sat down at the kitchen table, opening up her laptop.
The computer quickly came to life, and she typed in her password, her leg jiggling under the table. It took a moment for her to be able to type in her father’s name, as she braced herself for the search results.
There were so many things her father had accomplished in his life. He had a great career, was loved by his students, and was an excellent husband and father. But his murder overshadowed all of it. Now, his name was associated with violence and horror, at least online.
Skipping over the sensationalized articles about murder in suburbia, Naomi focused on what her dad had accomplished before his life had been taken. There were old syllabuses and some of his lectures still floating around, and a piece or two published by the college newspaper about him and his classes.
With a knot in her gut, Naomi clicked over to the staff page of the college where her dad had worked, wondering if his name was still on the list. Would they have an In Memoriam page up for him? Would it have a picture of him?
Scrolling through the list, her heart started to race when she found a J. Moore on there. She had tried to keep her parents in her memory as they had been, before Verin ripped them away from her. Still, it was difficult not to think of the pool of blood beneath her mother’s head, or the fear on her dad’s face when he had told her to run.
Clicking on her father’s name, Naomi took in a deep breath. But when the introductory page popped up, her brows creased together in confusion. The picture in the top left-hand corner was definitely not of her dad.
Jakob Moore? What the…
The silver-haired man that shared her last name didn’t seem to have any connection to her family whatsoever. Looking through the short biography provided for the man, Naomi could feel herself tensing up.
Professor of Anthropology…
Her heart now beating twice as fast, Naomi started looking up anything and everything that pertained to Jakob Moore. As far as she could tell, the man was still alive. So he probably hadn’t gotten a visit from Verin, because those usually ended in someone’s death.
But it couldn’t be a coincidence that a man with a very similar name, working at the same college as her dad, and in a field that gave him access to different artifacts wasn’t somehow involved in it all.
Could it be that… Verin came for the wrong Moore that night?
That raised another question that Naomi didn’t want to particularly ponder – had her father died for nothing? Burying her face in her hands, Naomi tried to keep her mind from reeling.
It all made sense now. Verin was collecting artifacts for whatever reason, and he didn’t care what he had to do to get them. The demon had killed David to find out where that weird statue was. And he had come for her father, thinking he was an anthropology professor, and looking for some snake-like object.
With his family in danger, Jack Moore would have told Verin everything he knew. But there had been nothing to tell. Verin had thought her dad was holding out on him, and that just wouldn’t do.
Naomi was stunned, unable to even process how she should react. Hysterical laughter bubbled up in her chest, at the thought of a powerful shapeshifting demon killing her family over a case of mistaken identity.
She barely heard the water stop in the bathroom, but she reacted nonetheless, quickly closing all the tabs she had opened. Sawyer already didn’t want her involved in anything dangerous. If he learned that Verin actually had a connection to her…
He’d never let me keep working on finding Verin.
Sawyer had shown a strong protective streak already, and if he thought that Verin had some beef with her in particular, she was almost sure he would bring up her leaving town again. And this time, she might not be able to talk him out of it.
Now that they had the statue, he definitely didn’t need her help to get around the university. But there was no way Naomi could let this go. Verin killed her parents. Somehow, someway, she would have her revenge.
You have gotten away with it for far too long, Verin. Time for you to suffer for once.
Twenty-Eight
Sawyer
Strolling into the kitchen, Sawyer already knew he would find Naomi there. Her heartbeat always told him where she’d be. She was sitting behind the kitchen table, wearing his t-shirt and little else, with one leg pulled up onto the chair.
In front of her, there was a laptop, which she looked up from as soon as he walked into the room.
“Hello, there,” she smiled.
“I thought you would be asleep,” he replied, walking over to plant a kiss on her cheek.
“I was checking my e-mails,” she said. “The dean is giving everyone a couple of days off to process David’s death. And I’ve scanned some news sites. If they’ve discovered the statue is gone, they’re not announcing it.”
“Well, yeah,” Sawyer shrugged. “It’s a major embarrassment for the university if it gets out. They’re probably ho
ping to get it back before anyone’s the wiser.”
“Should we be expecting Detective Hill at the door?” she asked, looking down at herself. “Because I might need to change.”
“Relax,” he chuckled, strolling over to the counter and putting on a pot of coffee. “We were as careful as we could have been under the circumstances. And I don’t think a longtime employee like you and a former cop are on the top of the list when it comes to suspects.”
“You’re probably right,” Naomi sighed, stretching her arms above her head. “So, what do we do now?”
“I left Dakota another message, saying we have the statue and aren’t sure what to do with it,” he replied. “Hopefully she gets back to us. I’d rather get rid of that thing as soon as possible.”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “Just knowing it’s here is enough to give me the creeps.”
“Well, for now all we can do is wait. Breakfast?” he asked.
“I thought you’d never ask,” she grinned.
With their stomachs full of eggs and bacon, Naomi and Sawyer made short work of cleaning up the kitchen, with her still in his shirt, and his eyes glued to the outlines of her curves. Standing by the sink, Naomi cleaned off the last of their plates, having insisted she should do the dishes since he cooked.
Sawyer was right by her side, a towel in his hands.
“That’s not very stealthy,” Naomi remarked, throwing him an impish grin.
“What?” he asked.
“The way you keep checking me out,” she replied.
“It’s not meant to be,” he shrugged. “It’s no secret I think you’re hot as hell.”
“I guess it’s not,” she conceded, a slight blush on her cheeks.
