Boone tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he glanced toward the house.Come on, Neumus, hurry the hell up. Boone’s gut was telling him that Jackie was in true danger. He just didn’t know where that danger was coming from.
Boone raised his hand to hit the horn, but then he saw the front door open and Neumus step out. He growled at the man when he climbed into the truck. “Took you long enough,” he said as he peeled out, stomping on the gas until the tires caught traction and the truck shot forward.
“Well, excuse me for sleeping in the middle of the night.”
Boone’s eyebrows rose when he heard a giggle come through the phone. “Neumus, I want you to meet Jackie Lee, the owner of—”
“JJ’s Crafts.” Neumus nodded. “We met yesterday when Kye took in some quilts.”
“You’re that Neumus?” Jackie’s voice rose a little bit.
“Not too many of us out there.”
Jackie giggled again.
It really was an odd sound. Boone wasn’t sure how he felt about the tingle that formed in his gut every time he heard it.
“So, what’s going on?” Neumus asked, pulling Boone away from his deep thoughts.
“Jackie had some vandalism at the shop earlier this week. I’m still waiting on tests to come back from the lab on the paint chips I took.”
“Paint chips?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Boone said. “Right now, we’re headed to Jackie’s place. It’s about halfway between our place and town. There’s some noise outside and Jackie wants us to investigate.”
Neumus raised his eyebrows at Boone. “And you needed me for that?”
“I needed your…skills.”
“My…skills?”
Boone rolled his eyes before pointing to his nose. “Your special skills.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
When Boone heard a crash come through the phone, he jerked the wheel and the truck swerved. “Jackie?”
“They’re inside.” Jackie’s voice was a mere whisper. “You need to hurry. I don’t want to hurt these guys if it’s just a bunch of kids.”
Boone thought that was an interesting statement considering Jackie looked as if a stiff wind would blow him…her…over.
“Hide, Jackie,” Boone said as he stepped on the gas. “Hide somewhere. I’ll find you.”
Boone didn’t like it when the line went dead.
It was a good thing he was the sheriff in the area because he was breaking every speed law there was. He would be going in with sirens blaring if he didn’t think that would cause more problems. He wanted to catch whoever was terrorizing Jackie, and then he wanted to make them pay.
Boone knew that wasn’t a very good thing for a sheriff to think, but he was also a lion. Shifter law was more absolute. Punishments for crimes were severe. They had to be when dealing with an entire species of wild animal, and shifters might walk on two legs like humans, but theywerestill wild animals.
Boone made the twenty-minute drive in ten. As he reached Jackie’s house, he slowed the truck down and turned into the driveway. When he pulled to a stop in front of the house and his headlights lit up the porch, Boone just sat there staring.
“I thought this was a rescue mission,” Neumus said.
“I did, too,” Boone replied.
He certainly didn’t expect to find Jackie pacing back and forth behind three teenage boys, all of whom were kneeling on the porch with their hands locked behind their heads. They were shaking and pale.
“Well, we’d better go rescue them before they pee themselves.”
