In the Company of Wolves(15)

Cooper motioned to the helmet strapped to the backseat as Becker climbed off his Harley. “Why do you carry that if you never wear it?”

Becker shrugged. “Never know when you’re going to meet a safety-conscious hottie looking for a ride.”

“If she was safety conscious, wouldn’t she want you to wear a helmet too?”

“Huh. Never really thought about it that way.”

“Yeah, I figured you hadn’t,” Cooper said drily. “And as long as you’re thinking about it, you might want to consider that a safety-conscious hottie probably wouldn’t want to ride on a motorcycle anyway. There’s a reason doctors call them ‘organ donor vehicles.’”

“I guess I’m just looking for a regular hottie then,” Becker said. “Forget the safety-conscious part.”

Cooper just shook his head and fell into step beside Becker. The crime scene techs were done processing the warehouse, but the young patrol officer left on duty still signed them into the logbook before letting them go inside.

“Were you guys part of the SWAT team that took down that crew this morning?” the patrolman asked. Then he hurried on enthusiastically, “I got a look inside. It was like a combat zone. Must have been crazy, huh?”

Becker nodded but didn’t say anything.

“World Cargo had its insurance people in here a little while ago,” the officer continued. “I heard them say the suspects who got away made it out with something like fifty of those platinum medallions. That’s a pretty big haul, right?”

Becker headed into the warehouse, leaving Cooper to deal with the overeager patrolman. Guarding an inactive crime scene had to be boring as hell, and any other time, he would have chatted with the guy, but right now, he had some urgent crap to take care of.

He headed straight for the crate where he’d told the female werewolf to hide but stopped midstride when he picked up her scent by a big trash can. He dug through papers and cardboard until he came up with her lightweight tactical vest and black sweater. Smart girl. She’d dumped them so she wouldn’t look suspicious. He checked them for anything he could use to track her, but the stuff was clean.

He could have followed her scent out of the warehouse, but he knew that wouldn’t lead anywhere but a dead end wherever she’d gotten into a vehicle. No werewolf’s nose was good enough to follow her beyond that.

He continued on to the crate and was just climbing inside to look around when Cooper showed up.

“What are you looking for?” his friend asked. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t leave her phone number in there for you.”

“Probably not,” Becker agreed. “I’m hoping I can find something that might give me a clue about who she is.”

Cooper rested his forearm on the edge of the crate. “You know, this would have been a lot easier if you’d remembered to get her name.”

“Yeah, well, I was a little distracted at the time.”

Becker hunkered down in the tight confines of the box, envisioning the beautiful female werewolf doing the same thing as he breathed in her incredible scent. Despite the perfume permeating the wood, he could still smell her.

“So what was it?” Cooper asked as Becker rummaged through the packing material in the bottom of the crate.

Becker glanced up at his friend. “What do you mean?”

“What was it about her that got to you? Was it her face? Her scent? The way she talked?”

Becker stopped what he was doing to lean back and consider the question. “I’m not sure,” he finally admitted. “I’ve been asking myself the same thing all day and still haven’t come up with the answer.”

He let his butt slide down until he was sitting in the same cramped space where the female werewolf had sat, except she’d done it with the lid closed and cops wandering around just outside the thin wooden walls. The thought of her being trapped and scared in here suddenly made him want to growl and tear into something—violently. He resisted the urge and instead forced himself to take a deep breath and focus on the question Cooper had asked.

“She was beautiful,” he finally said. “You know when people say someone has the face of an angel? Well, that was her. It completely took my breath away. She smelled amazing too. Like a cherry lollipop. And her voice…her voice was soft and just a little bit husky. She was so perfect, I swore my heart was about to explode.” He shook his head. “It was more than all that though. I can’t explain it, but something inside me knew she was special. Something told me I could spend the rest of my life looking and never find another woman like this one.”