She searched his face.“Please don’t break my heart again.”
“I won’t.Trust me.”
“What have you done for me to trust you?”She couldn’t help the slight bitterness that entered her tone.“Trust is earned.”
“Fair enough.Have a late lunch with me tomorrow.After the coffee shop closes.”
I’m a fool.“All right.”
He took her hand and kissed the knuckles.“Thank you, Mairi.I’ll see you tomorrow.”
With her skin tingling from his touch, she exited the bathroom.Good Lord, what had she just agreed to?Rhodes waited at the end of the hallway.Taking a deep breath, she joined him.
“Would you like to go home?”Rhodes asked.
“Nae.I want us to have a wonderful date.”
He grinned.“Me too.”
“I can’t offer you more, Rhodes.It’s not fair to you.Or to me.Or Tavish.”
“Hey,” he said, lifting her chin.“Let me worry about myself.Tonight, we’re just having a delicious meal together.”
She nodded, accepting those terms.At their table, he held out her chair as she sat.Glancing over her shoulder, she locked gazes with Tavish.Underneath the tumult and uncertainty lurking in his eyes lay determination.A shiver slid down her spine.For some reason, she had the notion she might have just dangled a tasty morsel in front of a hungry wolf.
****
“What’s the conclusion, Doc?”Jericho asked through his mask.
Doctor Rosedale raised brows.“Are you squeamish?”
“I’m a wolf,” Jericho reminded him.“I create squeamish situations.”
When the cover was pulled back on Ezra’s corpse, Jericho understood why the doctor warned him.The torso had collapsed.Bones and organs completely dissolved, although there wasn’t any blood.Instead, little red beads coated the remaining flesh.
Jericho moved his hand closer, intending to wipe the red beads.“What is this stuff?”
“Don’t touch it!”Doc warned.“It’s blood, but it’s been mutated.I tested it against my human blood and it didn’t react to anything.Then I used shifter blood and it was like a magnet.The bead immediately rolled to it, and the blood practically exploded before it turned into another bead.”
“A bioweapon?”
Doc shrugged.“That I can’t answer, but I think you should use caution when dealing with this.I’m going to call a colleague to see if they’ve ever heard of something like this.For now, I’ll quarantine the body and keep you informed.”
“Thank you.”
As soon as Jericho stepped out of the coroner’s room, he took off his mask.The woman behind the desk bowed her head in deference, and he acknowledged her silent respect with a nod.Then he left, because he had to know if whatever Ezra Parsons had affected his family.
He drove out to the Parsons’ plot of land, which hugged the border of Sheridan Pack territory.When he arrived, he pulled on a new mask and stepped out of his truck.The Parsons lived in a run-down trailer, perched up on concrete cinderblocks.Various mechanical things, like a washing machine and a dishwasher were in various stages of disrepair.Tall weeds had sprung up between the patches of rust.The whole area had a clichéd neglective feel.
The screen door opened and Jericho recognized Juniper immediately, although the last time he’d seen her she’d been a little girl in pigtails.She looked healthy, and relief surged through him.
“Hello, Alpha,” she greeted with a bow.
“Hello, Juni,” he replied.“May I come in?”
She stepped back and invited him in.The trailer might be run-down on the outside but the inside didn’t have a speck of dust or dirt anywhere.“Have you found my father?”
He wanted to stall, finding it difficult to break her heart.“Where’s your sister?”
