Ripper

by Lexi Blake

  I clutched the towel closer. “You’re tempting me with my own coffee? And who the hell are you?”

  I should have been worried about a massive hunk of nonhuman male accosting me outside my bedroom door, but I was too busy staring at him.

  “Well, sweetheart, I didn’t bring any of mine.” His eyes roamed the expanse of skin not hidden by the white towel.

  I forced myself to back away. The man in front of me was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He had well-worn cowboy boots on his feet. I would have pegged him as late twenties, no more than thirty. He was a big, broad man who stood almost a foot taller than me, which made him roughly six foot four. And he spent a lot of time in a gym.

  “I’m not your sweetheart.” I didn’t like the way he made my heart pound.

  “You can’t possibly know that,” the man said with a smile in his voice. I looked up, and that smile was on his face as well. His hair was a dark brown and cut way too short. I would bet it was thick and wavy when he grew it out, but his cut was almost military. “We just met so there’s absolutely no way for you to know if you’re my sweetheart or not.”

  I snorted, not a pretty sound. “I bet you say that to all the girls you accost coming out of the bathroom.”

  “Would it help if I told you there weren’t that many?” He backed off a little, giving me the tiniest bit of space. “Normally, I’m a right bastard with everyone I meet.”

  My hand was on the door to my bedroom. All I had to do was turn the knob and slip into the room. He wouldn’t follow me. I stood there, unwilling to leave him just yet. “What makes me so special?”

  “Well, you’re my best friend’s sister to start with,” he said.

  “You’re Grayson Sloane.” Well, that did it. Jamie’s best friend and part-time partner.

  His grin faltered for the first time. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “Jamie talks about you all the time.” I quickly relegated any fantasies I was already having to the scrap pile. I wasn’t about to start playing around with my brother’s bestie. I’d tried that with Dan last night and it had gotten me in hot water. “Nice to meet you, Sloane.”

  I slipped into the bedroom and shut the door behind me. And I quickly realized that I’d been wrong. He did follow me.

  “Dude, privacy.” My towel had been about to hit the floor. I clung to it.

  “Do not dude me, Kelsey. Get dressed and I’ll make you breakfast.” Gray was cool as he stood in the doorway, like he often found himself in a strange half naked woman’s bedroom.

  “I can find my own breakfast, thank you.” I could feel my face going stubborn.

  “Ten minutes, okay?”

  “Have you listened to anything I said? I’ll pick up something to eat on my way out.”

  “All right, then. Ten minutes.” He smiled like I had politely agreed with him. “See you then, Kelsey. Don’t try sneaking out. I’ll catch you. Do you like your eggs scrambled or fried?”

  “I like my eggs in between a biscuit and wrapped in foil so I can eat it while I drive.” No matter how hot he was, he was rapidly getting on my last nerve.

  “Scrambled sounds good to me, too,” he said as he closed the door behind him.

  I stared for a minute and wondered if the dude had been damaged. In his line of work, it could totally happen. I dressed quickly and used the towel to dry my hair as much as possible. Unfortunately I caught sight of myself in the mirror and then I was a little nauseous again. There was no doubt the girl in the mirror had a rough night. My eyes were bloodshot and there were dark circles under them. I was insane to think that whatever Grayson Sloane was up to had anything to do with wanting my glorious body. Because I looked rough. He was probably here to…oh, god. A really horrible thought hit me. I prayed he wasn’t here to do that. I wouldn’t be able to handle the mortification. I shoved my feet into my sneakers and stalked to the kitchen to confront the big guy.

  “Are you here to haul me into rehab?”

  Sloane stopped turning over the bacon he was frying and laughed. “No. I’m not here to drag you kicking and screaming into some twelve-step program. Jamie and I were practicing at the gun range when Nathan called. I asked Jamie if he minded if I came along. It was easier than dropping me back at my house.”

  “Are they planning an intervention?” The thought made me a little sick. I couldn’t imagine a whole bunch of people sitting around begging me not to drink myself to death and sending me to a place where a psychiatrist would ask me why I drink. I would say hey, doc, have you ever seen a werewolf cut down in the prime of life? Ever been responsible for multiple homicides?

  And then I would be placed on a 72-hour hold.

  No. I wasn’t heading to rehab.

  Sloane pulled two pieces of bacon out of the skillet and laid them on the plate that already had eggs and a couple of slices of toast. The smell should have sent me reeling, but my stomach was pretty strong and it grumbled at the thought of my stubbornness costing me the bacon. Healthy appetite doesn’t begin to cover what I have. Luckily, I’ve always had the metabolism to go with it.

  “Are they planning an intervention?” Sloane’s deep voice washed over me like a calm, warm rain. That voice was soothing. “Maybe. Nate seems a little freaked out. Jamie seems…encouraged, maybe. He thinks it’s a good thing you’re working again. According to him, you’re talented and you’re wasting your gifts working for insurance companies and angry divorcees.” He handed me the plate and I gave up the fight.

  I sat down at the kitchen table and dug in with gusto. “It’s not like I’ve been sitting on my ass.”

  Sloane set a cup of coffee in front of me and then settled his big body onto my dining table chair. The morning light was kind to him, softening the hard planes of his face and making what was almost certainly a tough man look a little gentle. “Jamie thinks you should start working with us.”

  I laughed. Sloane was the only person Jamie worked with on a regular basis and even then, it was only when Sloane brought him in. Grayson Sloane was a certified badass. That’s the only way to describe a real Texas Ranger. “Yeah, I bet I could pass whatever test your captain gives to contractors.”

  He shook his head, setting down his coffee. “Probably not, but then I’m given an enormous amount of latitude when it comes to who I work with. I answer to the B company captain, but that’s technical. He doesn’t want to know what I do. He wishes he didn’t have to deal with me at all. It’s why he doesn’t question the reqs I put in for Jamie’s services.”

  I took a long drink, the caffeine starting to work in my system. I supposed it was hard to be the Mulder of the Ranger world. Sloane handled all the “weird stuff,” meaning anything even vaguely supernatural. He was probably an outcast among his own peers. It made sense that he and Jamie were friends. They understood the same world.

  “Hey little sister,” Jamie said, walking into the kitchen. “I like the new paint in the living room. How are you feeling?”

  “Like shit,” I replied before polishing off the toast. Yeah, food had done wonders for me. “But I still have a job to do so I’ll suck it up. I’m sorry Nate felt like he had to call you. Last night was…a slipup. I ended up in a tense situation with a wolf and he apparently knew Dad.”

  Jamie let out a deep breath and slumped into the chair across from me. My thirty-two-year-old brother seemed so much older as he thought about our father. “I’m so sorry, Kels.”

  I sat back in my chair. “Do you run into many people who knew him?”

  “I do,” Jamie acknowledged. “The bastard cut a wide swath. There’s no getting around it. He hurt a lot of people, and they don’t forget that he’s still out there. But they get used to me and if they don’t, I kick their ass. I won’t lie to you. If you want to work in this world, you’re going to have to make them accept you. Believe it or not, Nate can help you more with that than even I can. Nate has some powerful friends.”

  I laughed at the thought. “Yeah, well, I probably won’t be
meeting them. I met one of his gamer geek friends last night and I’m sure he’ll run the next time he sees me. I kind of hit on him.”

  Jamie laughed but Sloane didn’t. He got up and poured himself another cup of coffee.

  “Tell me about this case of yours,” Jamie said.

  I shrugged, looking at the clock. I needed to get out of here soon if I was going to make it all the way to Dallas. “It’s a missing person case. She’s a shifter, lost her college scholarship and went on the game. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure she’s in trouble. I’ve got an appointment with one of her professors in two hours. It’s probably a dead end, but she’d been spending a lot of time with him according to her roommate.”

  “Hey, aren’t you working some missing person cases?” Jamie asked Sloane as he settled back down.

  “Yeah,” the Ranger replied. “We have some missing supes. It’s not a bunch, four cases, all young women, but considering how small the community is, I was asked to look into it.”

  “Were they hookers?” I asked, getting that tingle in the back of my skull that told me I was on to something.

  “Not exactly,” Sloane prevaricated. “Look it’s an open case. I really shouldn’t talk about it.”

  Something about the way he spoke had me sitting up tall again. He was hiding something. It was there in the way his eyes tightened. If not hiding something, he was definitely blowing me off when he shouldn’t be. If he was working missing persons, he should want to trade notes. “But if I could get a look at your files I could maybe see a pattern. Were the girls all in college? Were they all from Dallas? What do you mean not exactly? How do you not exactly prostitute yourself?”

  “Whoa, slow down, sweetheart.” Sloane turned to Jamie, his eyes wide.

  My brother chuckled. “I told you. She’s a bulldog when she’s on a case. She really might be able to see something you missed.”

  Sloane seemed to consider it for a moment and a little thrum of excitement rode through me at the thought of looking through Sloane’s files. The puzzle would be there, laid out for me to solve. Just for a second I thought I could do something, something important.

  He turned his blue eyes on me. “How about we make a deal? You promise to not get trashed again like you did last night and I’ll let you have a peek.”

  Humiliation swept over my body like a wave, and I watched Jamie tense. He was waiting for me to explode, but I was done wasting energy like that. Sloane wanted to be an asshole? Who was I to stop him? I certainly didn’t have to take it though. I stood up. “Keep your files, Sloane. I don’t need ’em. Lock up when you’re done, Jamie. I take it Nate’s looking for drugs?”

  I ignored Sloane’s stare and focused on Jamie, who relaxed a bit when he realized I wasn’t going to make a scene. “You know how he is. Someday promise me you’ll throw him a bone and leave a little bag of parsley or something hidden in your underwear drawer for him to find.”

  I leaned over and kissed my big brother’s cheek. Sloane didn’t matter. He didn’t mean a thing to me. He was one more hot guy who thought he was better than everyone else. “I promise. Now, I’m going. I can’t stand all the brotherly concern. Call you later.”

  I walked out without another glance at the gorgeous man I wasn’t going to be seeing again for various reasons. I heard Nathan going through the drawers in my bathroom. I should have yelled and screamed and told him to keep his hands out of my business, but I didn’t. Nathan had been the one to find me bleeding that day so long ago. If it hadn’t been for Liv, he would have been the one to hold me while I died. He deserved some leeway.

  “I hide my hardcore stuff in with the tampons, Nate,” I yelled and giggled a little at the thought of him pawing through feminine necessaries.

  Nathan’s head poked out from the bathroom door. “Don’t think I won’t look, Kels.”

  “I know you will.” Despite our fight the night before, I felt a great rush of love for him. He didn’t understand me the way Jamie did and I annoyed him greatly, but he never backed away. Dan was wrong. I already had a couple of people who wouldn’t let me push them away. “Your vigilance has kept me from becoming a heroin addict.”

  Nate’s face softened and he gave me a little smile. “That’s the plan.”

  I decided to needle him a little. He’s my brother. It’s my job. “Hey, and when you get to the little drawer in my nightstand, why don’t you go ahead and change out the batteries on the vibrator? They were low a couple of nights ago.”

  I heard his strangled scream. “Disgusting, Kels.”

  I was smiling as I turned and ran into the brick wall that seemed to be shadowing me that morning. I tried hard not to blush because it would have been nice to have not mentioned a vibrator around Sloane. “Excuse me.”

  “I’m sorry.” Sloane didn’t move an inch. “I didn’t have any right to make a dumbass statement like that. I was rude, but you threw me off a little when you mentioned meeting Nate’s friends. It’s a bad idea to be vulnerable around them. I don’t like the thought of some of them taking advantage of you, but I don’t have any right to judge. I wasn’t really doing that. I was thinking more along the lines of protecting you, and I get that I sounded like a judgmental douchebag. I’m sorry.”

  I shrugged, unwilling to think about why I got a warm, gooshy feeling when I thought about Sloane protecting me. He was so stinking gorgeous, from his perfectly square jaw to his broad shoulders. He was so not for me. “Not a problem, Lieutenant Sloane. I’ll keep my drunken affections away from my brother’s friends. Have a nice afternoon.”

  A big hand settled on my arm and pulled me around. Before I knew what was happening, I was really close to Grayson Sloane. He was taking up all the space, making me feel small. It takes a whole lot to make me feel small. “Let me make something plain to you, Kelsey. I’m not your brother, so don’t lump me in with them. I wanted to come here today because I’m interested in you and I have been for a long time. I’ve asked Jamie to set us up for a while now, but he thinks you’re too fragile to date. I think if you’re strong enough for meaningless one-night stands, then you can handle an honest to goodness date. Dinner tonight?”

  I was sure my eyes were wide as saucers and I realized Jamie was right. I wasn’t ready for this. No way. No how. Luckily, I had an excuse and it found its way out of my mouth. “I have to work tonight.”

  “You can take a couple of hours off,” Sloane said smoothly. “You have to eat, right? I’ll bring my files and we can talk about any similarities in our cases. We can call it a working dinner if date is too much for you.”

  But it wasn’t work. I stood there with big, gorgeous Sloane looming over me and knew this wouldn’t be professional. It would be personal and it wouldn’t end there. If I thought for a second I could take what I wanted from Grayson Sloane and happily send him on his way, I would have thrown down with him at the first given opportunity. But something told me he wouldn’t take his walking papers with aplomb.

  I smiled with a jauntiness I didn’t feel and pulled my arm out of his hand. “I think I’ll skip working with you, Sloane. I’m kind of a loner. How about I promise when I solve my case, I’ll let you know so you can close yours, too?”

  I winked at him and walked out the door, got in my Jeep and took off. I drove to Dallas like the devil was following me.

  Chapter Four

  I walked across the tree-lined, stately campus of Southern Methodist University. I had unhappily parked about a flipping mile off campus because, unlike Liv, I didn’t have a magical parking pass and I really needed to avoid tickets. I couldn’t afford them. I hated to think about what my drinking binge had cost me last night. My local bar might be a shit hole, but they still charged for drinks.

  I stopped and studied the map I’d picked up at the student center then took a quick left as my cell rang. I was prepared to ignore it as I had ignored all of the increasingly pissed-off texts from Liv. If she was escalating to actual calls, I might have to turn off the phone. I glanced dow
n at the number and a cold chill went through me. I ran my thumb across the screen because this person would never accept that I didn’t answer. She would call and call and leave message after message.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  “Kelsey, this is your mother,” she said in a too-loud voice.

  “I know, Mom. You don’t have to yell.”

  “I need you to call me, Kelsey” She carefully enunciated each word. “I talked to your brother and I’m worried.”

  “Mom, why should I call you? I’m talking to you now.” I was the one screaming because she always thought she was talking to a machine and this could seriously go on forever.

  “Oh, it is you, dear.” My mom sounded delighted. “It’s so refreshing for you to answer. You know how bad I am with these new tech things.”

  Yes, like cell phones, although my mother might have been talking about regular old telephones. It wasn’t that she was old. Her upbringing had been unusual, to say the least.

  “I’m fine, Mom. Nathan didn’t need to call you.” I read the name of the building I was standing in front of. Not the one I was looking for, so I kept walking.

  “Well, I’m glad he did, Kelsey Jean,” she said, her voice firming.

  I sighed. I was in trouble. “It was no big deal. I’m even up and working. I’m on a case, a paying case, so I should really…”

  Mom ignored me entirely. “Nathan believes that drugs might be involved.”

  I groaned and rolled my eyes as far back as they could go. “Nathan always thinks drugs are involved. Nathan is clinically insane. Talk to Jamie. He’ll tell you I’m fine.”

  “I already talked to Jamie and you’re obviously not fine since you turned down a date with that nice Grayson Sloane. Jamie said Gray was devastated.”

  I bet that’s what Jamie said. I was betting Jamie had said it while laughing his ass off at the thought of his sister turning down his superhot friend. “I think he’ll recover, Mom.”

  I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk as the hair on the back of my neck started to tingle. Eyes were on me. I wasn’t anonymous anymore. Someone, something was watching me.