My mind flooded with the possibilities. “That’s perfect. I can be bait. We set me up and let him come after me.”
He stared at me for a long moment with his mouth hanging open. It wasn’t the first time I had gotten that reaction from him. I wondered if a lot of things knocked the words out of him. Somehow I doubted it. I thought it was probably a reaction he only had to me.
“Are you going to kill another tree?” I asked after he was quiet for the longest time.
“No, Kelsey,” he said, a little breathless. “I think I’m gonna give you my gun and let you shoot me. It’ll be for the best. It’ll be a hell of a lot quicker than the heart attack I’ll have someday.” He took a deep breath. “That is the stupidest thing you’ve ever said.”
I shrugged. “Only because you haven’t been around me for very long.”
He shook his head and before I could move away, he grabbed me and kissed me senseless. “Okay, baby, I love you. Why is this so important? Why can’t you give it up? I would feel so much better if I knew you were safe.”
I leaned into him. I couldn’t resist this man when he touched me. I melted like butter when he said he loved me. If he really thought I was in danger, he would have come up with some stupid plan to protect me. “It’s important to me because I can do this, Gray. I can find this guy. I’m tired of hiding. You want me to come out of my shell, well, this is it. You can’t have it both ways. I can go to ground and hide and be the person I’ve always been afraid I really am or I can stop hiding and become who I want to be.”
I didn’t tell him that he was a big part of why I needed to do this. I needed to feel worthy of him.
I felt him nod against me. “All right, sweetheart. But I am not using you as bait.”
“I still need to get into the club.” I pressed my luck. “You can’t kill Marcus.”
“I find out he’s laid a hand on you and I promise I will,” Gray said.
It was time for me to live up to my previous words. It was time to be really brave. “I like Marcus, but I don’t love him. I love you, Gray.”
He drank the words down like a man dying of thirst. His mouth was on mine, tongue sweeping in with none of his former polish. He kissed me, pressing me against his body. “You won’t regret it, Kelsey. I’ll take care of you.”
“And I’ll take care of you,” I promised.
“Wow,” a surprised feminine voice said. “Big old manly love ’em and leave ’em Sloane has an honest to god girlfriend. Will wonders never cease?”
The faintest hint of a blush stained Gray’s cheeks as he smiled ruefully at the woman standing on the hill with a large case in her hand. “Hello, Nicole. Allow me to introduce my fiancée, Kelsey Atwood.”
He hadn’t actually asked me, but I didn’t mention that to the perky looking blonde with round glasses. Her eyebrows practically reached the sky. “Seriously? Chambers is going to win a bunch of money. The office pool had you never getting married. Wait. Atwood? As in superhot stud Jamie Atwood?”
“He’s my brother, but, wow, you have an entirely different notion of hot than I do,” I admitted.
The blonde grinned as she set down her enormously cumbersome pack. She looked almost too small to be able to carry it, but she did with an ease that spoke of long use. “We can’t all get someone as gloriously perfect as Sloane there. Besides, I like Jamie. He’s the right size for me, not too big, not too small. Sloane would crush me.”
Sloane did kind of crush me, but I liked the feeling.
“So where’s the site?” Nicole asked, looking eager to start working.
Gray pointed down and Nicole grimaced.
“This is about that serial case you’ve been working, isn’t it? Wolves, right?”
“This is where he’s dumping the bodies,” Gray confirmed.
Nicole surveyed the site and got to work. Gray started to explain what she was doing and how she was doing it. Forensics for supernatural cases tended to be a lot harder than a regular case. For the most part the evidence collected was meant to be a case for the Council rather than a court of law. While the general public believed that supernaturals were myths, the government had known about them for a long time. I knew the Army made use of them. Most law enforcement had carefully selected people who would liaise with the supernatural world. Gray had the hard job of having to deal with the full Council. Gray would produce his evidence against the accused to the full Council or a single member who would then take it to the Council and an order would be written. Sometimes it was for incarceration, but often it was an order of execution. If Gray took matters into his own hands, he was forced to stand before the Council and have his kill be declared “righteous.”