Ours(12)
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me why you are in the same clothes as this morning. You look like someone took honey away from your bear.” She grinned at her own little joke.
Jake sighed, picked her up, and walked to a black Land Rover.
“Hey, I said I wasn’t going.”
Jake gripped her tighter, palming her arse. “I’ll sit in the back with you. I can’t tell you much as it’s police business, but…”
He trailed off but she knew the drill. Her father and brother said that about the fire station. Sandy nodded as he opened the car door and placed her inside. She smiled when he followed.
****
Jake felt very lucky as he glanced at Sandy before nodding to Zack that they were all in. She’d just met them, and already she was worried about him. The only other person who worried about him was his mother.
Today had been a hard one. They were looking for a shifter killer. Jake was usually pretty resilient, but today they’d found a pregnant shifter murdered while she’d been in her wolf form. It was the third killing in two months. Jake had never been so angry and frustrated with a case. The perp didn’t seem to have any rules bar only killing shifters. The three shifters had all been different—a tiger, a seal, and the last one a wolf. It was blatantly clear it was the same person due to the distinctive smell, and the name he carved into them— Animal.
Hugging Sandy as close to him as the seat belt would allow, Jake leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I’m a cop. Well, a detective like Zack’s big brother, Brock. We have a hard case at the moment, one that seems to really be getting to me. The perp is clever and he doesn’t follow much of a pattern. I would like to tell you more, but that’s all I’m allowed to say.”
She nodded against his chest and rubbed her hands over his body. “I’m sorry to hear that. If you need someone to talk to, I’m a good listener.”
He held her tighter knowing it was going to be easy to fall in love with this woman. He looked up to see Zack nod to him in the mirror. They’d gotten a good one.
****
Jake watched as Sandy looked around the restaurant for the hundredth time, gulped her wine down, and poured another. She moved away any time he or Zack tried to touch her. It was such a change from the way she cuddled him in the car. The waitress who’d been flirting all night brought the food out and winked at him then fawned all over Zack. Jake chuckled when this seemed to finally get Sandy’s attention.
She grabbed Zack’s hand and glared at the girl before she whispered, “Pass him your number or touch him again, and the hand you use will get broken.”
The woman turned her smile on him and his chuckle turned into a laugh as Sandy continued, “Don’t even think about it. He’s mine too.” She grabbed his hand and stared up at the shocked waitress.
Laughing harder than he had in days, he felt a hard kick in the knee from Sandy as she let go of their hands, drank her glass of wine, and snarled, “Shut it, both of you. I don’t see what’s so funny.”
He looked over to see Zack laughing. Pulling her hand up, Jake kissed it. “Oh, Little Red, you’ve made a bad day into a much better one. It’s nice to know you are already starting to feel we’re yours.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re not. Remember this is just one night. I had to agree to get Zack out of my room.”
Jake snorted at her lame excuse.
“Okay, fine, so maybe I want a repeat of last night and can’t be bothered to go out to a nightclub and pick up.”
“No more picking up for you. We are it for you.” Jake couldn’t help the growl that followed her statement.
Sandy shrugged, shoved food into her mouth, and downed another glass of wine. Jake turned to see a huge grin on Zack’s face.
“Susie never said what you do for a living. You haven’t mentioned anything either. You know I’m a cop and teach self-defense as a side project.” Jake watched as she poured more wine and stared at him like she was debating what to say.
She picked up her fork only to pause with the food halfway to her mouth. “I don’t know what Zack does.”
He saw Zack swallow what he was eating, put down his utensils, and take a deep breath. “What do you think I do?”
Sandy turned to Zack, swirled her glass of red, and then she looked at Jake and mouthed, “Help.” Jake shook his head. He wasn’t going to help, and Jake was interested to know what she thought his cousin did.
“Um, I didn’t even know you existed until the other night so you can’t work at the gym. Not that I go there, but Jane does. You don’t look like the cop type, but then neither does Jake.”