Lacey’s heart beat a little faster. This might be her only chance to get in there and snap a picture of what was in that box. It might be a sedated fighting dog or it might not, but it was sure as hell something shady.
She cautiously came out from behind the rack of mufflers, then hurried over to the building. That was when her plan fell apart, thanks to her lack of coordination and general klutzy nature. She didn’t even see the piece of gravel she kicked until it was already sailing through the air. For a split second, she thought it might fall harmlessly to the ground, but instead, it hit a corner of the parts rack, clanking like a little baby bell.
Lacey spun around and ran the other direction, knowing without looking that Pendergraff had heard that noise—there was no way he could have missed it. She weaved in and out of the rows of parts, finally darting behind an enormous metal storage box and ducking down.
Thank God she did, because a few seconds later, Pendergraff ran by, a pistol in his hand. But instead of continuing on his way, he stopped half a dozen feet away. Lacey held her breath, sure her heart was going to explode in her chest.
Pendergraff swept his disturbing eyes back and forth across the area, but after several long, tense moments, he turned and headed back the direction he’d come from.
Lacey breathed a sigh of relief. Should she hide here for a little while longer, then go back to see if she could get a peek at what was in the box, or escape while she had the chance? She desperately wanted to go back and see what was in the box, but the thought of getting caught by Pendergraff—and what the man would do to her—had her up and running for the perimeter fence.
She was shaking so badly that it took her three tries to get over the damn thing, but she finally managed, mostly because she pictured the pale-eyed albino right behind her, ready to kill her in some unspeakable manner if she fell back onto his boss’s property.
Once in her car, Lacey sat there, breathing deeply and berating herself for being an idiot, all while trying her best to stop trembling. By the time she started the SUV and pulled onto the road, her head was functioning clearly again. What had she stumbled onto back there?
Bensen and Pendergraff sure as hell hadn’t been talking about car parts. But it didn’t sound like they were talking about dogfighting, either.
As she merged onto the highway, she thought about calling Wendy and telling her what she’d seen, but then decided that was a bad idea. In reality, she hadn’t seen anything incriminating. However, she would definitely incriminate herself if she admitted to climbing that fence and trespassing on Bensen’s property. She knew Wendy wouldn’t arrest her, but her friend would sure as hell be furious, and Lacey wasn’t in any mood to get yelled at tonight. All she wanted was a warm bath and pleasant dreams about her date with Alex tomorrow night. Then she’d figure out a way to tie Bensen to dogfighting.
Chapter 5
Alex stood in the hallway outside Lacey’s apartment, staring at the door and taking deep breaths. He hadn’t been this nervous since he took Teri Sue Whitman to the junior prom. He needed to calm the hell down. That was easier said than done, of course. Regardless of what he’d said yesterday about there being no expectation for this date, he still wanted it to go well. Actually, he wanted it to go better than that. He wanted it to be amazing.
That wasn’t likely to happen if he couldn’t get his head screwed on right. He had to stop thinking about this as a date with a woman who might be his one-in-a-billion soul mate and focus on having a normal, old-fashioned, good time. If he didn’t, he was going to blow this for sure.
Up until a few hours ago, he hadn’t even thought about tonight’s date with Lacey. That was because he’d been preoccupied with what had happened at Texas Regional College the other day. Both the kid with the knife and the girl from the dorm were still in critical condition. While he was facing serious neurological damage, she might never come out of her coma.
At least the lab results had come back on the drugs they’d recovered from the dorm room. As expected, it had been fireball, though it appeared that now the hallucinogenic component of the mix was amped up to some degree. Considering how the kid on the roof had behaved, that wasn’t a surprise.
As much as Alex wished he could do something about it, he and his teammates were SWAT, not narcotics. They kicked in doors; they didn’t investigate. Rodriguez and the other cops on the task force would be the ones to track down whoever was selling this crap. Once they found out who it was, they’d call in SWAT. It was their job to be ready when narcotics called.
Deciding that standing out in the hallway was only going to make him more nervous, Alex took another deep breath, then knocked on the door. He heard the sound of whispered voices inside, followed by a soft laugh and the sound of high heels clacking on a hardwood floor. When the door opened, all he could do was stare.
Lacey’s long blond hair was done up fancier than he was used to seeing it, hanging in sexy waves around her face. Her makeup was a bit smokier and sultry than usual too, and she was wearing a little black dress, which shimmered in the light when she moved. Besides showing off her spectacular cleavage, the dress stopped a few inches above the knee, displaying enough leg to make his pants suddenly feel a bit too tight.
It wasn’t until Lacey arched one of her perfect brows that Alex realized he’d been staring a little too long.
“Are you going to come inside or just stand out there gawking all night?” she asked with a smile.
He chuckled and stepped into the foyer. “Can’t I do both?”
Alex let his gaze wander casually up and down her body. Damn, she looked good in that LBD.
Lacey must have known the effect she was having on him, because she blushed. He was so caught up in the intrigued expression in her blue eyes that he barely noticed the black lab mix standing in the living room studying him with blatant curiosity. The guy probably had a little beagle or dachshund in the bloodline somewhere, because he was definitely a lot smaller than a full-breed lab.
Alex moved closer and crouched down but didn’t say anything, instead letting the dog decide if he was in the mood for a formal meet-and-greet. The dog turned his head, regarding Alex with a confused look. Alex had dealt with enough animals to know that his werewolf scent baffled the heck out of them. Lacey’s dog was probably thinking that Alex looked like a human but didn’t smell like one. After a few seconds, the dog must have decided he was worth checking out, because he padded over and took a few extra sniffs, then licked Alex’s hand.
“This is Leonardo,” Lacey said, crouching down beside him. The move made her dress slide up a few inches higher, revealing even more leg.
“After the artist?”
Alex was surprised. Lacey struck him as more traditional when it came to dog names. He’d expected something more along the lines of Spot or Fido.
“No,” she said. “After the turtle.”
She had a turtle named Leonardo too? That made absolutely no sense, and all he could do was stare at her blankly.
