«You going in late?» he asked as he poured coffee for himself. She noted his slight limp and the barely perceptible wince when he lowered himself into a chair across from her.
«Nope. Not going in at all,» she said cheerfully. «I didn't fall asleep until about, oh-« she glanced at her watch, «-three hours ago. I lay there thinking, you know what? I had a hell of a weekend. Someone else can take depositions for a few days.»
«I think that's wise.» He stood to pull a key and a piece of paper from his pocket. He slid both of them across the table to her. «Here's the key, here's the code to the alarm system. I want you to check in with me every three hours.»
«What??» she exclaimed, appalled. «You're not serious.»
«Hell I'm not,» he said mildly, forcing her to drop her gaze by staring her in the eye.
Fucking arrogant alpha dominance bullshit.
«I can't get you full protection. But I can get an unmarked car to drive by here during the day, and I can make you stay in touch with me. Until we figure out who those assholes are, I'm keeping tabs on you.»
«But how would they even know I'm here?»
«How'd they know where you lived?» he asked quietly.
«I don't…I guess…» She trailed off, flustered.
«I don't know either, Lark, but they did. Did Eloise give them your full name?»
«I don't remember,» she whispered.
«Lark's not a common name. She may have told them y'all worked together, and I'm sure they knew where she worked. However they did it, they found you, and I'm not going to assume they can't find you again. So you're keeping in touch with me. Every three hours. You can call or you can text, it's up to you. And if you leave the house, you text me where you're going.»
«Well, shit,» she muttered, «why don't you just put a GPS locator on me?»
«Don't tempt me.» He smiled and rose to leave.
«Hey, what about the doctor?»
«What doctor?»
«You're going to the doctor about your leg, right? You're limping and wincing.»
He rolled his eyes. «Fine. I'll call the doctor. Every three hours, Lark, and I mean it.»
She followed him to the front door.
«Fine,» she said. «Come home with a doctor's note, or I'm telling Aunt Meg.»
He'd just opened the door, and now he turned to her with a look of amused amazement. «Are you fucking kidding me?» He laughed.
«I'm not,» she smiled, delighted. She hadn't seen him laugh like that in years. «I'm as serious as you are, werewolf. Get that leg looked at and don't come home till you do.»
He was still shaking his head as he got into his car and drove away.
CHAPTER 4
«Holy fuck, what happened to you?» Taran asked when the rookie beta walked into the squad room Wednesday afternoon.
Danny tried to grin, but it came out a grimace. «Bike. Took a turn doing ninety and planted my face in some gravel.»
The shiner on his right eye and cuts and scrapes on both cheeks made him look like he'd lost a fight, and not a close one. He winced, favoring his right side as he sat down at his desk across the aisle from Taran's.
«That's a shitty way to spend your day off. Think you broke anything?»
«Nah,» Denardo replied. «Just bruised all over and stiff as hell.»
Betas didn't heal as fast as alphas.
Denardo sat down at his desk and logged into his computer before continuing, «Hope it's gone by this weekend; I'm standing up in my buddy Luc's wedding, in Vegas. I leave tomorrow, come back Sunday. Unless you think I need to stick around for the case?»
«I don't see why. If anything breaks I'll call you, but I'm sure I can handle it. Hey, wait a minute.» Taran looked up from his computer. «Luc. He wouldn't be a French guy, would he?»
Denardo seemed startled. «Uh, yeah. French Canadian, actually. Why?»
«Huh. I showed Lark some pictures I found at Eloise Catrera's place, and she ID'd a French wolf named Luc Deviger. Said Eloise went to Vegas with him a few times.»
The beta frowned thoughtfully. «Yeah, that's him. Weird. I don't remember Luc ever mentioning her, but then he used to juggle three or four females at a time.»
Taran nodded. «Yeah, Lark said Eloise had a thing for wolves.» He paused for a minute, thinking, and then he shrugged. «Well. Ask Luc, see if he knew anything about a Czech wolf she was seeing.»
«A Czech wolf?» Denardo asked sharply. «What's that about?»
«I got prints back on the beta Monday. We might have a lead here.»
«Why didn't you call me?» The beta smelled distressed.
Taran laughed. «You spent all day Monday following Gossen and you were off yesterday. Relax, wolf. It could wait. Days off are important. Anyway. Take a look at your email and you'll see what I got.»
Neither the dead beta nor the comatose alpha carried any identification, and they'd been driving a stolen car. Taran had pinned all his hopes on fingerprints, and he got lucky. Maybe.
Denardo opened his email. «Stephan Navratil, Czech, expired visa, last known address Miami,» he read aloud.
«Yeah. And you know what they got in Miami.»
«Cubans?»
«And gambling, guns and girls. It's a great place for bringing women in and out of the States.
Navratil's got priors there. He worked as an enforcer for another Czech, a werewolf named Dominik Kuba. Kuba ran some big poker games in South Beach, attracted high rollers. Miami-Dade thinks he ran call girls down there, too, but he got spooked and left town just as they started to collect some good intel. They think a fed tipped him off. An agent in the office there has a gambling problem, looks like he was into Kuba for a lot of money and paid him off with tips. Miami-Dade sent us everything they've got on Kuba-including photos.»
«What's all that got to do with our case?» The rookie frowned.
«Lark says the werewolf Eloise met at Le Monde was named Dominik, and he was Czech.»
Taran leaned back in his chair and gave his trainee a triumphant grin.
«She remember anything else? Any of the other werewolves there?»
«No.» He sighed. «Says she can't remember faces or anything else, just El telling her Dominik was Czech.»
«That's not much to go on. Even if we have pictures of this Kuba guy, there are five million people in Houston.»
«Yeah, but only five hundred wolves. I've already sent his photo to Nick to get it out to everyone in the pack. And I'm hoping Dominik and his picture show up in one of the other women's photos or emails or something.»
«When?» Denardo asked shortly.
«Huh?» Taran replied as he looked over notes on another case.
«When did you send Kuba's pictures to Nick?»
«Monday, soon as I got them from Miami.»
«I see.»
They didn't speak for a while as each wolf attended to his own work. Then Denardo cleared his throat.
«How's Lark? Still at your place?»
«Yeah, at least for a few more days. She can't stay there forever, though, and if we don't get a break on this thing…» Actually, Lark could stay there forever, if only she wanted to. «The alpha's still in a coma and the doctors don't think he'll make it. Navratil's file is helpful, but I'd still rather have him to question. I should've left one of the assholes alive.»
«You were protecting your cousin. Any wolf would've done the same thing, especially after the beta pulled the knife on you.»
«I still should've kept my head.» If it had been anyone but Lark in danger, he wouldn't have let rage cloud his thinking.
His cell phone vibrated-Lark, checking in by text. He didn't read it-it'd be another still alive. l8r. Sometimes she included RME. He'd needed someone to explain that it meant «rolling my eyes».