What This Wolf Wants(37)
Pulling out her phone, she dialed her own number, because how embarrassing was it to pretend to be talking on the phone when it rang. Okay. It had happened to Jackie. Once. She wasn’t about to shoot for a second time.
Trying hard to appear as an unwary lone female, Jackie left a message on voice mail and used the fob on her keychain to unlock her truck. A good thing too as her phone beeped to announce an incoming call.
Not bothering to check the display, she answered on a breathy, “Hello?”
“It’s Joe. You’re clear. But you are being watched.”
Jackie continued walking with barely a hitch in her stride. “And you would know this how?”
“Because we’re watching the watchers.”
“Why?”
A pause. “Because they’re bad men, Doc. Real bad.”
Juggling purse, phone, keys, and door, she hoisted herself into the cab and locked herself in. “Okay. Who’s we, where are you, and why am I being watched?”
“First start the truck like nothing’s wrong.”
“I know that.” Muttering, she cranked the engine, lowered the radio, and put on her seat belt. “Start talking.”
As she put the truck into gear, Joe said, “Scott and I are on the roof.”
She drove slowly through the lot to get a better look but saw nothing. “Why?”
“Told you. To watch the bad guys.”
Jackie hissed at him. “I swear I’m going to reach through this phone and choke you.”
Joe snorted. “Head to your Alpha’s house and we’ll explain everything.”
“And if he follows?”
Low, with a dark thread of anticipation he replied, “We want him to follow you.”
Well. Didn’t that make her all warm and fuzzy. He hung up before Jackie could respond and immediately her phone rang again. This time from Dean. “We’ve got a situation. I need you to come to my house, ASAP.” Then he hung up.
She tossed the phone on top of her purse, deciding there and then that all dominant male shifters needed a course in phone etiquette.
On the main road she was conscience of car lights following her. Several actually until she turned right on Lidden Street. Then there was only one. Between the dark of the night and the distance the other driver maintained, she couldn’t tell the make of the vehicle other than it was a car and not a truck. It could be Joe and Scott or one of the other locals who lived off this street.
Or not.
Her palms were damp with nerves by the time she turned into the long dirt driveway leading to Dean and Kaylie’s home. She slowed, eyes trained on the rear view mirror, and watched as a nondescript sedan crept by.
A greasy ball of fear tightened in her gut. How could anyone find all this sneaking and intrigue enjoyable? She wanted to throw up.
Reaching the large clearing in front of the two-story home, Jackie parked next to Kaylie’s truck, noting Dean’s vehicle and a third unknown one. She sat a moment, drawing air deep into her lungs.
After Kaylie’s sister, Tess, hooked up with Woodcliff’s sheriff and her mom moved out to marry the owner of Dolen’s Cafe, Dean had moved into Kaylie’s home. As Alpha, a rich one, he could easily afford to build a grand house or even buy the huge Kolter place. Instead, he chose to remain in his mate’s childhood home. Kaylie loved the house and therefore, Dean loved it.
Would Zan come to love Woodcliff as much as Jackie did?
Ack! She had some weirdo tailing her and she was sitting there thinking about a never-going-to-happen future with Zan.
Unclenching her hands from the steering wheel, she eased out of the truck, scanning her surroundings at the same time. As she headed up the steps to the porch deck, the front door opened.
She gulped at the man who, only hours before, had been inside her, giving her pleasure unlike anything she’d encountered before.
Don’t go there, she admonished herself. Act like nothing happened. Except...
“You have something that belongs to me,” she accused.
Zan didn’t smile, didn’t even show a hint of interest or understanding, other than the gleam of desire and possessiveness that darkened his eyes into flaming emeralds. “As do you.”
Racking her brain and coming up empty, she frowned at him. “I don’t have anything of yours.”
He closed the distance she purposefully left between them until she could feel the heat from his body wrapping around her in a warm embrace. The nasty knot in her belly eased and she was left with an odd feeling of safety. Deep down she knew somehow that nothing would hurt her while this man lived. It was eerie. It was unwanted. It was...wonderful.
She bit back an embarrassing whimper when he traced her lips with a fingertip, down her throat and under the high neck of her shirt. He caressed the sensitive mark he left on her mere hours ago. “This says differently.”