by HK Savage
The edge of panic he saw behind her fatigue dissolved his nerve on sight. He couldn’t confess his love after her request, and she didn’t look like she was in any shape to handle an emotional outpouring anyway. Silently cursing his timing, he smiled and crossed the room.
She pushed up expectantly and he kissed her gently on the lips before reaching behind her to pull back the covers.
“Get some rest, we’ve got nothing going until tonight.”
All too willing, she laid down at his gentle guidance. “Are you sure? If you need to tell me something, you can.”
Leaning down to pull the blankets over her and kiss her again, Ryan gave her a small smile. “No, it can wait.”
“Thanks Ryan,” she mumbled, already heading off to sleep.
He sat on the edge of the bed once she was down and tortured himself by listening to the restless tossing and muttering that began shortly after her breathing regulated. There it was, the name she spoke only rarely at home. He’d heard it at least ten times yesterday after she’d gone to sleep. She’d cried out so loud the one time she’d actually roused him from a dead sleep in a panic, thinking someone was in the room.
“No Luc, please.” Her whimper tore out his heart, the tears he saw wetting her cheeks stomped on it until there was nothing left.
Chapter 14
Michael’s hand on her arm held her firmly in place while Becca stared at her feet. Her erratic behavior since breakfast was maddening. If she wasn’t going to talk to him soon he was going to have to get it out of Ryan. He had a slight speed advantage over the wolf, but that didn’t mean the fight wouldn’t hurt like hell.
“You can’t keep avoiding me,” he growled.
“What?” Large, tear filled eyes flew up to his face.
The distress so plainly written on her face tore at him and his vampire flared within him. “What did Ryan say to you? I’ll tear him apart.”
“You’re mad at Ryan?” She took a step back, jerking her arm loose. “Ryan has nothing to do with this.”
“Then what has you so upset?” He watched her features twist into a scowl. “Is it the vision you had yesterday? You can talk it through with me, we can try to understand it together.” They’d talked through a few confusing ones in the past. He was willing to help her again if she would let him. There was a slight hesitation before she answered and Michael knew there was something there, though that wasn’t what she wanted to fight about.
Becca ducked her head, hiding her eyes. “I said some things last night.” Her voice was choked. “I was upset and freaking out and then you called me a, that. And then I said some stuff I shouldn’t have. Stuff I didn’t mean.” She rushed through the words. “I wanted to tell you it’s okay if we need to…” Her voice broke before she could finish.
The metallic taste of blood littered his tongue and filled his nose as his fangs pierced his lower lip. “What did you say that you didn’t mean Becca?” Her acceptance of him, her knowledge of Black’s hold and her professed love regardless had liberated him from the prison that had held him hostage for decades. If not for the mission they were on he would have holed up in their room for days showing her how he felt in return. Was she saying that her declarations, any of them, had been untrue? His nature threatened to take him to a dark place. A place where he would lose all hints of his humanity, at least for a short while. The damage she would take would be much more than the occasional love nip she’d suffered. Not her. He warned the vampire. Never her.
She heard the change in his tone and shrank back, her eyes beginning to dart. Her sight was warning her of danger; he recognized the signs. It sobered him at once and inwardly he roared in frustration. He was the danger and he knew it. Michael fought back his beast with a Herculean effort.
Reaching for her again, he hid his agony at her flinch. “Becca,” he let his hand fall and called softly to her.
Again she let her eyes seek his, studying them to gauge his beast. When she took a half step toward him, he knew that he had won for the present. The vampire would let the man rule this time. Tentatively, he reached out again. She allowed it and his hand slid under her arm to wrap around her waist. Fangs were willed back and a quick flick of the tongue sealed the holes in his lip.
“Becca, you’re special to me,” He watched her breath catch, preparing herself. “You affected me the first time I saw you.” Michael’s own chest hurt, phantom pains of what it would be like to feel his heart stop, he was sure. He started again. “What you said last night.” He paused when he saw her flush, fearful she would repeat those fateful words and he would lose all hope again. Girding himself to face a more frightening enemy than any he’d opposed in battle, her disapproval, Michael stepped closer and took strength in her nearness. “You can’t know what that meant to me.” Even saying the words took all of his will, to admit his weakness to this woman who meant more than she could comprehend. “I’ve feared the day you might see the admiral’s influence. Even more, I’ve feared that you wouldn’t. That you would think me a coward for not standing against him.” Blue eyes searched hers desperately. Any care he had for hiding his emotions was gone. Here he was, vulnerable at her feet, jugular exposed. From habit, he swallowed and licked his lips. “That you would love me, knowing that I’m his,” he shook his head still disbelieving, “you’ve given back my life. How could I not love you for that alone?”
Anxiously he waited for her response. Carefully studying her expression as it went from pained to jubilant. “You do?”
Michael, capable of figuring out the most intricate of double crosses, privy to ploys for power at the highest levels, and witness to some of the worst manipulations the admiral had maneuvered, realized how dense he’d been. His jaw dropped. “You thought I didn’t? That’s what was upsetting you?” Relief that it was so simple poured through him and Michael’s chest rumbled with laughter.
Pulling back, Becca hit him on the pectoral. “Don’t laugh at me. It’s not every day I put that out there.” Her lip was sticking out in an adorable pout. “I didn’t know what was supposed to happen after I said it.” The corner of her mouth twisted. “I guess fainting wasn’t really in the plan, either.”
The desire to consume her built and Michael had to settle for pulling her in to wrap himself around her and cover her mouth with his. Needing to do much more than taste her, he groaned when her lips opened to his tongue. She whimpered, stretching his already strained tethers on his nature. Reason tried to surface. They were visible from the road should anyone look. It was winter and she would be cold with her back on the snow. With his periphery, he scanned for a thicker cluster of trees where he could legitimize what he wanted to do to her as being out of sight and maybe give them a vertical surface since the horizontal was frozen. Becca pushed her body into him and his responded.
Her hand had snuck lower and was working to take away the last of his restraint when his phone rang. Neither stopped. Seconds later, hers echoed from the inside pocket in her running jacket. Reluctantly, he pulled away and was pleased to see his frustration mirrored in her flushed cheeks and heavy lids. For a second he was tempted to crush the phones and take her right there. She was all too willing by the look of her and the way her hand lingered on his hip.
“Rossi.” His phone was in his hand before he could think too hard about it.
Becca was fishing hers out, answering a moment later. “Captain Sauter.”
Michael’s hearing picked up both voices. His eyes narrowed when he caught Salvo’s voice in Becca’s ear. Their police chief had called him.
“We’ve got another body.” He sighed, heavy with the burden of his office.
“Where?” Becca and Michael asked simultaneously.
He felt his passion receding as sense of duty took precedence.
“It’s not far from you. You at the motel?” The sound of his hand running across his face was audible before it muffled his words. “Detective Salvo’s already on his way to the scene. He can pick you up on the way.”<
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“We were out for a run. We can be back in a few minutes.” He bristled at the voice on the other phone asking Becca if she needed to shower first when she told him of their run. It wasn’t okay for the prick to even have a mental glimpse of her naked. Logic told him the man was being polite.
Chief Kowski sighed again. “Great, I’ll let Detective Salvo know.”
Michael informed him tightly. “Captain Sauter can tell him. He’s on the phone with her now.”
She smiled and the love he saw in her eyes instantly put him at ease. “We’ll be ready in about twenty.” Nodding, she said a quick good bye and hung up.
The chief grumbled something about Salvo being on top of things and he was gone.
“We’d better get back,” she suggested.
Michael nodded, refraining from touching her. Duty wouldn’t keep him from having her if they started again. She bit her lip, clearly thinking the same thing.
“We should go.” The first step was hard, the rest got easier and soon they were running. Becca was going to need a shower at the speeds they were going. Michael averted his thoughts and kept his eyes to the ice patches in front of him, cold thoughts not nearly as effective as a cold shower.
Chapter 15
Detective Salvo was knocking on their door as Becca emerged with a still damp ponytail and clad in jeans and light green sweater.
“I wish we could wear our fatigues,” she told him, leaning over to grab her boots where she’d left them by the foot of the bed. “Out here, who knows if we’re going to be in the woods or crawling around a field. It would be nice to feel prepared.”
Grinning, Michael crossed the room to answer the door. “Get used to them, don’t you? Imagine spending a lifetime or two in them.”
She laughed her agreement as he opened the door.
“Come in. Becca’s just finishing getting ready.” Michael stepped back to allow him entry.
That he was so blatantly showing the detective their joint sleeping arrangements, only one bed clearly having been used, had her smiling at her boots while she laced them. Michael was obviously making his claim known, the hell with their professionalism. Surprisingly, it didn’t bother her. Either way, there wasn’t time for worrying about it and it would have been rude to slam the door in his face. What was, was.
“Uncle Sam’s tightening his belt too, huh?” he joked uncomfortably, keeping his eyes from touching Becca. “Can’t spring for two rooms?”
“Oh, they paid for two rooms,” Michael told him. “We aren’t here alone.”
Detective Salvo glanced over at Becca then and opened his mouth to speak just as the door rattled again. Boots tied, Becca stood as Michael opened the door and huge shoulders blocked the light right on cue.
“Detective, meet Captains Ryan Hallbeck and Gabrielle Brion.” He waved them in, Gabrielle invisible behind Ryan’s hulking form.
Michael filed through the tight quarters to Becca’s side by the farther bed, leaving the other three to hover by the door. Ryan and Gabrielle idled, relaxing by the door while Detective Salvo maneuvered his back to the wall. His eyes raced from one side to the other where he was flanked by two pairs of what he believed to be federal agents infringing upon his investigation. His reaction was understandable.
“What the hell?” he fumed. “Where did these two come from and why didn’t I know about them?”
Ryan grinned. “We handle the behind the scenes stuff.” He nodded his head at his unit members across the room. “The whole ‘office niceties’ thing isn’t our deal.”
Gabrielle stood quietly beside him. Becca couldn’t help noticing how tired and distracted she looked. They’d been running hard the past two nights. She felt a guilty nudge at having slept so well last night. While she’d been snuggled up in a warm bed, they’d been out running half the state by the look of Gabrielle’s pasty complexion. A tiny scrape marred her cheek, though that would be gone the next time she changed forms. Changing helped them to heal faster.
Furious dark eyes glared at Michael and Becca. “So what, while we work our asses off you bring in your own team to run your own investigation?” Singling Becca out, he knifed a thumb at the newcomers. “When were you going to tell me? Were you planning on sharing any of this?”
Unmoved by the detective’s outburst, Michael met his gaze evenly. “These two have been trained for jungle fighting, guerilla warfare, and any other secret-type shit normal police don’t handle.” He raised his voice over Salvo’s forthcoming objection. “No offense, those are merely the facts. They go to ground, they see what they can track, and then we see if we can find where the killer’s holing up. The fewer who see them, the better.” Seeing the detective wasn’t going to immediately hit the roof, he lowered his voice. “Meanwhile, the rest of us work together to follow the clues and see if we can find him that way.”
The room was quiet while the detective absorbed all that. Showing a level head unusual for someone his age, Salvo gave a single bob of his head and thumbed at the other two. “As long as they share, I’m cool.” His demeanor had eased, though not the heat coming off of him.
Becca could sense that he was not as okay as he said, but if he was willing to accept and work with this new dynamic, then how could they complain if he was a little pissed off? As far as he could tell, she’d done exactly what she’d said she wouldn’t. “Absolutely, Detective.” She smiled.
He cut her a look that told her how much he valued her input at that point.
“Well, now that we’re all friends,” Ryan ran a big hand over his shirtfront, “let’s go check out a fresh crime scene.” He turned and walked out, waving over his head at the room he was leaving behind. “We’ll be waiting in the truck.”
Wordless, Gabrielle gave a last searching look and nodded, bidding her adieu as well. She closed the door softly behind her.
“Maybe he’s right, niceties aren’t their thing,” Salvo said to the door. Then, shaking himself, he stepped away from the wall and moved toward the door. “You two ready? We got a scene to get to.”
It wasn’t a surprise that the scene hadn’t been discovered right away. The young man had been out walking his dog in the early hours of the morning when he’d been attacked. The remains of the dog were strewn all over. Its black, fur-covered parts were thrown in a hateful pique as far as forty yards from its human companion. A section of intestine hung from a low hanging, leaf barren branch. Trees lined the small clearing only a few yards from the road, wheat colored grass hip high on the tallest of the men stood between the road and the clearing. Blood and meat covered snow had been trampled in the area immediately surrounding the bodies while only a few feet away, unmarred snow led to the bases of the naked mature tree line. Those trees marked the beginnings of a wild area that would have been impassable in the height of summer. At present, they hunkered and watched stoically over the tragedy at their feet while a storm brewed above.
Becca held her finger under her nose and stifled the urge to retch. The stench of opened stomach and bowel was overpowering and her eyes watered.
“Breathe through your sleeve,” Michael, one of the few who could understand what her powerful nose was picking up, whispered as he stepped away from her to explore the scene. If this was hard for her, it had to be terrible for the other members of her unit. Their sense of smell was even stronger than hers.
Brown canvas-jacketed sheriffs and blue parka-clad local police were working to process the scene. Darkening skies, heavy with snow-filled clouds, urged them to be quick. One young officer leaned against a tree trunk on the perimeter heaving out his breakfast, a camera hung by its strap from the hand not propping him up.
Unashamed to have anyone else think she was near vomiting herself, Becca pulled her hand inside her wool sleeve and held the end to her nose and mouth, trunk-like. Several gulps of warm air allowed her head to clear. Blinking away the reactionary dampness that had formed in her eyes when she was gagging, Becca pretended to be searching the ground for tracks and ot
her clues while she watched the scene out of the corner of her eye. Her skin itched from the tension coming off the blue and brown coats littering the scene.
Ryan took long strides past her, heading straight for the bodies. Circling first the human, then the dog, he came in close. Odd considering the attention everyone was paying to the human. Sensing her gaze, he looked up and winked.
That was the moment Gabrielle happened to stop beside her. “They’re all stomping around the human, the dog is relatively untainted.” She informed her flatly. “Better scents there.”
Although she knew what the woman meant, Becca would have strongly disagreed with the quality of the sniffs surrounding the dog’s various parts.
