Her Lone Wolf Read online

  But she didn’t say any of those things.

  “You don’t have a clue what the DCO does or what it thinks about shifters like you and me. To most of the people there, we’re nothing more than useful animals—like two-legged K-9 sniff dogs.”

  Her sister snorted. “If it’s so bad, why are you still there?”

  “Because I don’t have a choice, dammit!”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  Ivy didn’t answer. What could she say? That a pair of mad genetic scientists had stolen her DNA to make monsters and that she couldn’t leave the DCO until she found them?

  Layla shook her head. “I don’t even know why I bothered asking you. Wait, I know. Because you’re my sister. I thought you’d want to help me out.”

  Eyes still gleaming, she turned and strode into the living room to grab her purse. Ivy went after her.

  “Layla, wait!”

  “Forget it!”

  Her sister jerked open the door so violently it nearly bounced against the wall. She probably would have slammed it shut just as hard if Landon hadn’t been on his way in with a bag of groceries in each arm. Layla stormed past him without a word and disappeared down the hall.

  “What was that about?” he asked as he closed the door.

  Ivy followed him into the kitchen. “She wants a job at the DCO.”

  Landon pulled out a half gallon of milk from one of the bags. “So, what’s the problem?”

  She loved him, but sometimes he could be so dense. “She’s a shifter, that’s the problem.”

  He put the milk away and closed the fridge. “Yeah, but she has a degree in psychology, not criminology.”

  “And Declan was an engineer turned forest ranger, but they turned him into an operative, didn’t they?”

  Landon frowned. “Okay, I see your point.”

  Ivy grabbed a box of cereal and started for the pantry, but her husband took it and set it down on the counter, then pulled her into his arms. She rested her head on his chest, surrounding herself with his warmth.

  “Layla wants to join the DCO because she wants to follow in the footsteps of her big sister,” he said. “With a résumé like hers, she’s going to have so many job offers she’ll forget all about the DCO soon enough.”

  “I hope so.”

  He kissed the top of her head. “I know so.”

  Ivy prayed he was right. Because if Layla got a job at the DCO, she’d be so worried about her sister she might never sleep again.

  * * *

  Clayne took one hand off the wheel to dig in his pocket for his cell phone. “Can you call John for me? I want to see if the DCO has a lead on this asshole yet.”

  Danica scrolled through his list of contacts. Her finger faltered when she saw he still had her number among them. Giving herself a mental shake, she continued scrolling until she got to John’s number, then put him on speaker. Clayne didn’t waste time with pleasantries when his boss answered, but simply asked if the man had any information for them yet.

  “Unfortunately, not yet,” John said. “There’s no record of a shifter who even comes close to meeting the profile of the killer anywhere in our database, or even the older hard copy records. We’ve been searching for a link, but there’s nothing. I think it’s time I sent some backup.”

  “We don’t need backup,” Clayne growled. “We need a lead on who the hell this guy is.”

  “We’re working on it,” John said calmly. “But you’re still going to need someone to help with cleanup.”

  The muscle in Clayne’s jaw flexed. “Because you assume I’m just going to kill this bastard, right?”

  Danica frowned. What the heck was that about? But if John noticed the anger in Clayne’s voice, he didn’t mention it.

  “I’m assuming you’re going to take him down however you have to. Dead or alive, the team will be there to help you clean up just like they always do.”

  Clayne muttered something unintelligible in reply as he pulled her car into the FBI parking lot. Danica hung up and handed him the phone.

  “What was that about?”

  “What do you mean?” Clayne asked.

  “You got upset when John implied you might have to kill this guy,” she said. “Since when do you have a problem with doing that? If there’s one person who needs a bullet through the head, it’s this sicko.”

  Clayne jerked the key out of the ignition. “Let’s just forget about it, okay?”

  She grabbed his arm as he started to get out of the car. “No, I’m not going to forget about it. Something’s bothering you and we’re not getting out of this car until we talk about it.”

  He shook his head, a hint of a smile on his lips. “I forgot how stubborn you could be sometimes.”

  She arched a brow. “Talk about the pot and the kettle. Seriously, what’s bothering you?”

  “If I hadn’t been quick to kill those guys in Buffalo, both our lives could have been completely different.” When she opened her mouth, he shushed her. “Just let me say this, okay?”

  Danica sat back and waited.

  Clayne was quiet for a while before he continued. “When John implied I was going to kill this guy, it made me wonder if maybe I’m too quick to pull the trigger sometimes.”

  She shook her head. “That’s crazy. We were partners a long time, and I never saw you kill anyone who didn’t deserve it. And as far as what happened in Buffalo, those jerks deserved it more than most.”

  “But by killing them, I gave Dick the leverage he needed to break us up. What if I do something like that again because I shoot first and ask questions later?”

  “Dick is a…well, a dick,” she said. “If he hadn’t been able to use that against us, he would have found something else. And as for doing something like that again, it’s not going to happen. You’re too smart for that.”

  Clayne was silent as he thought about that. She waited for him to argue, but then he smiled. “Thanks. You always know what to say to keep me straight.”

  “That’s what I’m here for,” she said.

  “You’re here for a hell of a lot more than that.” He leaned over and gave her a hard kiss. “Come on. Let’s go make sure this son of a bitch doesn’t kill anyone else.”

  Tony and the rest of the task force were in the command center trying every angle to find the serial killer. While they’d been gone, someone had replaced the phone Clayne had ruined with a new one.

  Tony did a double take when they walked in. “I thought you’d be passed out somewhere,” he said to Clayne.

  “We just talked,” Danica told him.

  Tony lifted a brow. “Huh. Must have been some talk.” He studied Clayne appraisingly. “I haven’t seen you this chill since you got here.”

  Danica leaned over to look at the computer screen, pretending to be interested in whatever Tony’d been working on before they came in. Her partner was more perceptive than most men, but she didn’t think he could tell she and Clayne had slept together simply by looking at them. Not that she cared if he knew, but still…

  Thankfully, Clayne changed the subject. “What do we have on Joshua Vender? Any link to the previous victims?”

  Tony shook his head. “Not that we can find.” He glanced at where Carhart was standing in the front of the room, then lowered his voice. “Carhart hasn’t officially come out and said he supports the idea of looking for the Hunter’s potential victims, but he sent out some field agents as well as detectives and uniforms from Sacramento PD with the list we came up with. If they’re lucky, they’ll stumble on the killer when he tries to grab his next victim.”

  Danica saw Clayne’s mouth tighten and immediately knew what he was thinking. It wouldn’t be lucky for anyone involved if ordinary, everyday cops tried taking down a shifter. But instead of suggesting they go out and join the search, Clayne surprised her by saying they should try a new tack and focus on how and where the killer had grabbed his victims.

  “I know it’s a long shot,” he said. “Bu
t right now, I’m willing to try anything.”

  Clayne tossed his pen down on the table with a muttered oath. “That asshole is going to grab someone in the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours and I’m sitting here wasting time.”

  He got up and walked over to stare out the window, not even bothering to suppress a growl. Danica cringed, but luckily no one noticed it. Or if they did, they probably figured it was Clayne just being Clayne. They had the resources of the FBI, as well as state and local law enforcement. How the hell could they have nothing to go on? Of course, the FBI didn’t know about the shifter angle. But the DCO did, and they hadn’t come up with anything, either.

  Danica had just turned back to the file in front of her when movement in the doorway caught her attention. She looked up to see Beth standing in the hallway, a smile on her face and a huge paper bag bearing the logo of her catering company in her hand. Danica’s stomach growled as the aroma of Italian food hit her. Over by the window, Clayne turned, his nostrils flaring appreciatively. Danica nudged Tony and jerked her chin toward the door.

  He turned, his eyes widening when he saw his wife. Jumping to his feet, he went out to meet her. Danica couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she hoped it had something to do with the bag of food in Beth’s hand. Tony came back a few minutes later, a sheepish look on his face.

  “Beth figured we’d forget to eat, so she brought lunch,” he said. “Do you and Clayne want to take a break?”

  Danica grinned. “You know I never pass up Beth’s cooking.” She glanced at Clayne, who nodded.

  “Sounds good to me. I could use something to eat.”

  At the appraising look Beth gave Clayne when they walked into the hallway, Danica suspected dinner might have been an excuse to get a peek at him. She knew it for sure when her friend turned to her after she made the introductions and silently mouthed the word wow.

  “I think there’s an empty conference room around here somewhere,” Tony said.

  He started to lead the way but his wife stopped him. “Let’s eat outside instead. The weather’s beautiful.” When Tony frowned, she added, “Come on. I think it would do all of you good to get out of this building and away from the case, if only for a little while.”

  Beth was right, Danica thought as they walked over to the picnic area behind the building where a lot of agents, including her, ate lunch. It was nice outside. The fresh air would do them good.

  As Beth set everything out on the table, a few of the other agents on the task force who knew her—and her famous cooking—came by to say hello and help themselves to her lasagna and homemade garlic bread.

  Danica couldn’t help but smile as she greeted each of them with a warm hug. It wasn’t difficult to see why everyone loved Beth. She was like a ray of sunshine in the middle of this brutal case. Everyone had a bounce in their step to go with the plate of food in their hand when they left.

  As Clayne got up to get a second helping, Beth sat down beside Danica. “I take it that things have worked out between the two of you?”

  Danica looked at her in surprise. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

  Her friend grinned. “Honey, you’ve been walking around with a forced smile on your face since you moved to Sacramento. The one you’re wearing now is the real deal. Plus, you have a blush to your cheeks that only comes from the sun—or really great sex. And since you spent the whole day inside, I’m betting it isn’t the sun.”

  Danica laughed, her face coloring. She should have known Beth would figure it out.

  Beth nibbled on a piece of garlic bread. “What’s going on with the investigation? Any closer to catching this psycho?”

  Danica took a sip of water. “Unfortunately, we’re stuck waiting around until the guy makes a mistake that’ll lead us to him. Until then, more innocent people are going to end up dead.”

  Beth frowned. “How long before he makes a mistake?”

  “It’s impossible to say,” Clayne answered. “The smarter they are, the longer it takes. And this guy is damn clever. He’s killed six people in the span of a month, and we don’t have a clue who he is, who he’s going to grab next, or when.”

  Beth took another bite of garlic bread and chewed slowly. “How does someone just wake up one day and start killing people?”

  Good question, Danica thought.

  “They don’t,” Clayne said.

  Tony paused, a forkful of lasagna halfway to his mouth. “They don’t?”

  Clayne shook his head. “I can’t believe we didn’t think of this before. Beth, you’re a genius.”

  “I am?”

  Beside her, Tony frowned. “Clayne, I’m not following you.”

  “We know this psycho didn’t start killing this neatly and cleanly last week, right? The bastard’s done this before.”

  “Yeah, the profilers already thought of that,” Tony said. “They looked for similar cases after the fourth murder, then again after the fifth. They didn’t find anything. These murders don’t match any others.”

  Clayne grinned. “That’s because they didn’t know what to look for.”

  Danica returned his smile. But the DCO did.

  * * *

  Clayne knew it was crazy, but he actually felt a little guilty about leaving Tony out of the loop. But since he couldn’t tell the fed about the DCO or what the hell a shifter was, he didn’t have much choice. Tony’d given him a bewildered look when Clayne said he and Danica needed to check something out, but he hadn’t asked any questions. He simply told them he’d cover for them with Carhart, and get police protection on the potential prey. Since they’d had to go back and add targets they’d originally thought weren’t challenging enough, the list of men who had AB blood now had more than fifty names on it. Clayne didn’t like the idea of abandoning that lead, but they just couldn’t wait around any longer and hope to catch the Hunter the next time he went after a target. The shifter had already shown he was willing to adjust his target set to avoid fitting a pattern. They just had to hope the DCO would come through with a name.

  Clayne considered heading to Danica’s place to wait for the DCO to call, but decided that would probably be a bad idea. Two minutes after walking in the door, they’d be in bed for another round of hot, sweaty makeup sex. And while he wouldn’t mind that one damn bit, they needed to focus on the case. Which was why he was sitting across the table from her with a hard-on at the Starbucks down the street instead. Crap, the woman even made drinking her nonfat latte sexy.

  He checked his watch to give himself something else to do besides fantasize about Danica taking off an article of clothing every time she took a sip.

  “It’s only been a couple hours since you talked to John,” she said.

  “I know.” He picked up his coffee and took a swallow. “I should have had the DCO look into the animal-attack angle before, dammit. If I had, maybe Vender would be alive instead of lying on a slab in the morgue right now.”

  “Maybe,” Danica agreed. “Or maybe not.” When he scowled, she added, “It’s one thing to look for a shifter who’s blatantly killing people. It’s another to dig through every animal attack in the country to see if they were really murders instead. No one at the DCO thought of it, either. We were all looking for murders with this exact MO, not a shifter mauling his victims as he learned how to hone his technique. This isn’t your fault.”

  It was his fault, but since he didn’t want to get into an argument about it, he didn’t say anything. He felt so damn stupid. Thank God Beth had said what she had or he’d still be thinking like a cop chasing a serial killer rather than a shifter going after another shifter. Instead of scouring old case files looking for murders where the killer had hunted his victims, then ripped out their throats and took their teeth for trophies, they should have been looking for animal attacks.

  His phone rang, interrupting his mental ass kicking. He checked the call display, then thumbed the answer button. “Tell me you got something for us, John.”

  “I just sent
you some files,” his boss said.

  Clayne looked around the coffee shop. The place was empty and the teenaged barista had her iPod blaring in her ears so loud even Danica could probably hear it across the room, so it wasn’t like anyone was going to hear. He and Danica could have sex right there on the floor and the girl probably wouldn’t have noticed, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

  “Hang on while Danica and I go someplace more private,” he said to John.

  The only place private was Danica’s car. When they were both seated inside, he grabbed his laptop from the backseat and handed it to Danica. He’d never been good with computers and downloading stuff, especially from the DCO’s website. The thing was a maze of passwords, folders, and acronyms.

  “John sent us some files.”

  “What’s your password?” she asked.

  “Your name,” he told her.

  She blinked. “You never changed it in two years?”

  “I haven’t used the site since…well, you know.”

  Since she’d left. He couldn’t say the words. He didn’t want to remember that time in his life ever again.

  Danica shook her head, her fingers dancing over the keys. A moment later, she had the files downloaded and open. The first several were newspaper articles about a series of animal attacks in Colorado two years ago. Clayne took the phone off mute and put it on speaker so Danica could hear. “Go ahead, John. We’re looking at the newspaper articles.”

  “Intel came up with over a hundred major animal attacks in the United States over the past ten years. After eliminating the obvious ones, they were left with three deaths in Colorado,” John said. “The DCO looked into them when they first happened, but dismissed them because they looked like obvious animal attacks. The victims were completely mauled, and there was even a witness to one of them. It didn’t look like a shifter kill the first time around.”