She’d ended up chasing a group of four hunters as they fled toward the perimeter fence and their getaway vehicle. One of the men had been limping painfully from a bullet wound in his upper thigh and there’d been a lot of blood running down the leg of his jeans. It was obvious the guy’s femoral artery had been nicked and he had to be close to passing out from blood loss, but he’d moved quickly all the same.
Even so, no normal human was as fast as a werewolf, and Rachel had caught up with the group easily. Since the guy who was wounded had headed for the driver’s door, that meant he had the key, so she aimed her weapon at him. She knew if she took him down first, the other three would be easy to neutralize.
But then the man turned and locked eyes with her, and in that split second, she froze. Her mind had screamed at her to pull the trigger, but her body wouldn’t obey. All she could do was stand there and wait for him to put a bullet in her head. Instead, the hunter gazed at her for what seemed like an eternity, then joined his buddies already in the SUV and sped away.
Rachel was so focused on the memory she didn’t even realize the meeting had started until someone nudged her knee with theirs. Giving herself a mental shake, she glanced over to find Diego staring at her like he thought she was on drugs. Then he motioned with his chin toward the far side of the small conference table in Gage’s office. Crap, she didn’t even remember sitting down.
She looked around the table, hoping no one else was aware she’d zoned out, but everyone was focused on Chief Leclair and the collection of documents and photos spread out on the table. Rachel was relieved to see that none of them had anything to do with Rachel or her run-in with that damn hunter.
“Jennifer Lloyd is the best assistant district attorney in Dallas County,” Leclair said, spinning a photo around on the table so the rest of them could see it. “Which is why she was assigned as the prosecutor in the Alton Marshall trial.”
The picture showed a pretty woman in her mid-to-late forties with shoulder-length, brunette hair and a serious expression on her face. Leclair picked up a photo of a man Rachel recognized as Alton Marshall and placed it beside Jennifer Lloyd’s. He had calculating eyes and dark hair he wore slicked back from his face.
Rachel scanned the guy’s rap sheet that Leclair handed out while Gage and Mike discussed the man with the new chief. Apparently, Marshall had been a low-level lieutenant for a local crime boss named Walter Hardy, whom the SWAT team had taken down a year and a half ago when the man had kidnapped Gage’s wife.
“I read the reports on the hostage situation,” Leclair said, studying Gage thoughtfully. “I’m impressed you were able to wipe out an entire organized crime syndicate without any injuries on our side.”
“We were lucky,” Gage told her. “Unfortunately, Marshall was out of the country that night, or we would have taken him down too.”
Leclair nodded. “And with the connections he’d made there along with the muscle they were willing to loan him, Marshall was able to rebuild Hardy’s crime syndicate in a shockingly short period of time. Since his return to the country in September, he’s completely taken over the opiate drug trade in the southwestern part of the country and started making major inroads into human trafficking. As you can guess, Marshall has become a very rich man. But that money—and the speed at which he’s acquired it—has made him sloppy. The DPD arrested him a month ago, and Jennifer has put together a solid case against him. Marshall has his lawyers doing everything they can to slow down his trial while his goons work behind the scenes to make all the witnesses and evidence disappear.”
“And you want us to protect your witnesses,” Mike said.
When Leclair didn’t answer right away, Rachel looked up to see the chief regarding her tall, good-looking African American teammate with what could only be described as interest.
Crap. Was Leclair hot for Mike?
If the way the woman’s heart suddenly beat faster was anything to go on, Rachel suspected the answer was definitely yes. Unfortunately, the chief got her act together too quickly for Rachel to be sure.
“Not the witnesses—Jennifer Lloyd,” Leclair said. “Last night, someone put a bomb in her car while it was sitting at the courthouse. Jennifer was finishing up something and asked one of her investigators to bring her car around to the front of the building. The bomb got the investigator instead of her.”
Gage frowned. “So, you want us to keep Jennifer Lloyd safe until the trial is over?”
Leclair nodded. “I know this isn’t something your team normally gets involved in, and yes, I know the DA’s office has a whole squad of people for this kind of thing, but I want her to have more protection than that.” She sighed. “Jennifer and I went to college together. She’d hate the idea of me pulling strings on her behalf, and I know it’s wrong to use my position to ask your people to do something like this, but I can’t let her go this alone. I simply can’t.”
Gage shook his head. “You don’t ever have to apologize for wanting to protect your friends and family. It’s what any of us would do. If you need our help, you have it.”
Leclair visibly relaxed at that. “Thank you.”
“Corporal Kendrick will head up the security detail, working with Officers Bennett, Martinez, and Duncan. If you need additional personnel, don’t hesitate to reach out to Senior Corporal Taylor. He’ll get you anything you need.”
Rachel heard Leclair’s heart quicken at the mention of Mike’s name, but nothing showed on her face. “Thanks for the offer, Commander, but I don’t think it will be necessary to bring in more of your people. Jennifer’s husband, Conrad, is as terrified as I am about this trial and has hired an entire private security firm to watch over her. The people he’s employed are all prior military, and I have no doubt they’ll do a good job. I simply want some of my own people sticking close to Jennifer, just in case.”
Gage nodded, but Rachel could tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t a fan of working with a private security firm. Not that he had anything against private security or prior military. It was the fact that having people like them around increased the likelihood someone would see something they weren’t supposed to see—like glowing eyes, fangs, and claws.
The meeting wrapped up a little while later, after which Gage offered to take the chief over to the training building to meet the rest of the team.
“There might even be some donuts left,” he said with a laugh.
Rachel wasn’t too sure about that, though she hoped so. She was already craving another Boston cream.
“You okay?” Diego whispered as they followed everyone else out of the admin building and walked across the compound to the training one. “You seemed a million miles away for a while in there.”
She nodded. “Just thinking about other stuff I guess.”
Rachel could tell Diego wasn’t buying that, but before he could call her on it, the pungent smell of leather and gun oil made her stop midstep and jerk her head around to scan the perimeter fence and the collection of parking lots and warehouses beyond.
“What is it?” Diego asked.
