“Decomp,” he replied. “My senses are better than yours. At least my nose is.”
“There’s a fresh body here?”
“More than one,” he replied grimly. “Though only one is really fresh.”
Despite his protests, I headed up the hill. When I got to the top, I searched around and there it was. In the far back, I could see where the ground had been disturbed. He’d tried to pat it down, but nothing could fully cover it up.
“Here,” I said, standing over it. “We dig here.”
Gray already had his cell phone in hand. “This is Lieutenant Sloane for Nicole Ward. Hey, I got a weird one for you.” He gave this Nicole person our present address. “Bring along whatever you have for soup. Yeah, one partial and several decomposed wolves. Thanks.” He shoved his phone in his back pocket. “The forensic specialist will be here in fifteen minutes. Don’t touch anything. She’s an expert with supernatural cases.”
“I’ll try not to damage your evidence with my fumbling, Sloane,” I said acerbically as I forced myself to be content with looking around. There was another place that looked like it had been recently disturbed.
“I don’t deserve that, either,” he said in a gruff voice. “Where the hell is this coming from, Kelsey? You’re acting like a scorned woman, but I haven’t scorned you, quite the opposite. I love you. I’ve already told you I fully intend to marry you, so what’s up with the hell hath no fury act?”
“You have a funny way of showing your affection, Sloane.”
“My name is Gray,” he insisted. “You can’t go back to last names just because you’ve decided you’re pissed with me and you can’t lie about working for Quinn because you want to set me off.”
“I can do whatever I want, Sloane. You want to shove me off at my brother, fine, but don’t expect me to walk away like some obedient little woman. It ain’t happening. And I’m not lying about Quinn. I have a lovely check for twenty-five grand that I intend to cash at my earliest convenience.” I walked a couple of yards to the other pile of earth. It was well trampled down and little shoots of grass were starting to come up.
“What the hell did you do for twenty-five thousand dollars?” The question was ground out of Gray’s mouth, and I could see his eyes getting dark. He clenched his fists at his sides.
“Nothing, yet.” I have to admit I enjoyed the fact that I could have some sort of effect on him. I was mad. Shouldn’t he be, too? “Tonight, I’m going to the vampire club with Marcus to talk to the original gangsta himself. Quinn is letting me into the club so I can interview the vamp who claims to be Jack the Ripper. Then I’m supposed to check in with my new boss tomorrow.”
“You aren’t going anywhere, Kelsey.” His hands shook. Strangely, it didn’t make me any less reckless. I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. Well, he wouldn’t physically hurt me. “If you don’t want to stay at home with Jamie then you can hole up at my place, but you are off this case. You will not be going into that club. I forbid it.”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not dangerous, Sloane. No one’s going to bother me. Marcus explained it all and he set up our cover. After last night, everyone thinks I’m his mistress so they’ll back off.”
The tree next me sort of exploded as Gray shoved his fist through it. I managed to hold my ground and when he looked at me with red-tinged eyes, I shook my head. “I thought we weren’t contaminating the scene.”
“Fuck the scene,” he snarled and got into my space. “What did you do with that vampire?”
“I walked around with him and I talked to him,” I explained. I didn’t let the halfling back me up a single inch. “He introduced me to some people and they drew incorrect conclusions. He treated me like I had a brain in my head. I liked him.”
“Yeah, you like him? Get to know him fast because I swear I’m gonna kill him,” Gray said. “I’ll rip his heart out and then we’ll see how he feels about sniffing around another man’s woman.”
“Nice, Sloane,” I shot back. “Very caveman-like. I don’t get the righteous indignation. You’re shoving me to the side. Am I not allowed to have a life after Grayson Sloane is done with me?”
He enunciated his words carefully. I got the feeling he was rapidly reaching the end of his patience with me. “I am not done with you. You are the most frustrating woman I have ever met. You’re going to make me pull out every piece of hair I have and damn it, woman, I won’t look good bald. Let me make this plain to you. You’re mine. I’m trying to protect what’s mine. He killed again last night and this morning I got a letter saying you’re next.”