After hours spent examining amputated body parts and a second run-in with Hugh and Nadia, Sam had been pulled into yet another task force meeting. The lead detective had once again insisted on slogging through every piece of evidence they’d collected in the Butcher case. But other than the fact that there were now two suspects and a pretty good idea of what kind of vehicle they were using, they’d discussed very little of interest. Nobody on the task force had a clue how to deal with Samantha’s theory that the killer was attempting to reattach the parts he’d cut off, so they all ignored it. The only worthwhile outcome of the meeting was a task force decision to put surveillance teams on every landfill in the county and a good number of the parks in the hopes of catching the killers if they tried to dump another body. The city was going to freak out over the cost, but there was very little else they could do.
Just when Samantha thought she might get out of the institute at a half-decent time, Louis had pulled her into an office staff call, where the assistant MEs were expected to lay out the cases they’d been working on over the past few weeks. This was something they did once a month, under the theory that the MEs could learn from each other’s efforts, but mostly it was simply a chance for Hugh and Nadia to try to one up each other when it came to clearing cases. After the day Samantha’d had, looking at endless photos of suicides, overdoses, and murder victims was hard to deal with.
To pound the final nail in the coffin of exhaustion, the staff meeting had been followed by a private one with Louis, where he’d asked her to rehash everything the task force had talked about earlier. Samantha appreciated her boss’s willingness to help her find things she might have missed, but by that point she’d been done for the day.
When falling asleep standing up under the spray of water started to become a real concern, Samantha finally forced herself to step out of the shower, toweling her hair dry and finger combing it to save time. Fortunately, her hair was straight enough that she could get away with that because she definitely didn’t feel like getting out the iron and spending the next fifteen minutes in front of the mirror.
Padding over to the walk-in closet off her bedroom, Samantha slipped into one of her fancier bras and panties before turning her attention to what she was going to wear for her date with Trey. She gave the issue about five seconds of thought before grabbing a pair of sleep shorts and an Alaskan tourism T-shirt she’d picked up the last time she was in Homer. Tonight was about being relaxed and hanging out. A pair of shorts and a soft tee were the definition of relaxed and casual as far as she was concerned.
Still barefoot, Samantha moved around the apartment, cleaning up a little and forcing herself to think about anything other than body parts, task force politics, and coworkers. Of course, the first thing that popped into her head was Trey and what the hell she was going to do about everything her sister had told her. She’d had no choice but to push those issues aside while at the office because there was no way she could do her job and think about the impossibilities the DNA had revealed at the same time. But now that Trey was on his way over, it was hard to think about anything else.
The man she was falling for like a ton of bricks had wolf DNA blended in with his human genetic material. And not just any wolf—an extinct, prehistoric wolf. Because if you’re gonna go wolf, go hard.
How the hell was she supposed to handle this? Seriously, there was no way to act like this wasn’t a big deal. Even if she could somehow overlook the whole wolf-DNA thing and convince herself it was as inconsequential as being born with a cleft chin or dimples, there was still the fact that Trey’s DNA had been found in the wounds of two men who’d had their throats ripped out.
It wasn’t like those traces of DNA could be explained away with a hangnail or a paper cut. No, his DNA had ended up on those men because he was the one who’d done the damage with something sharp and savage enough to cause those kinds of wounds. And when you putwolf,sharp, andsavagetogether in a single sentence, it was surprisingly easy to come up with a very disturbing visual of Trey with really big fangs.
That entire train of thought should have had her laughing her butt off, but she wasn’t laughing at all. She’d known for a while that the SWAT team was hiding some kind of enormously big secret. Could this be it?
If Samantha had two functioning brain cells in her head, she would have dumped all of this on Louis’s desk right this very minute and let someone above her pay grade deal with it. But the mere thought of doing something like that twisted her stomach so violently, she thought she might pass out. Betraying Trey like that felt beyond wrong. But what else was she supposed to do?
Maybe she should simply talk to him.
As logical as that idea sounded, Samantha wasn’t sure if she could do it. There were so many different ways that conversation could go wrong.
Samantha was still lost in thought when the doorbell rang fifteen minutes later. Putting on her game face, she headed that way, her heart starting to beat faster. It was funny how merely thinking about Trey being close to her could do that. Nothing compared to what it was like when he kissed her, of course. Today at the institute, she’d been damn close to jumping him right there in her office.
“Hope you like Indian food,” Trey said, holding up two oversized takeout bags in his hand. “There was a place on the way I’ve been wanting to try out, but if you aren’t a fan, we can call for something else.”
Samantha held the door open wider, noting the way his gaze caressed her legs as he walked in. She had no doubt it was a trick of the lights, but damn, it seemed like his eyes lit up from within when he saw all that skin. Yup, definitely a leg man.
“IloveIndian food,” she said, taking in the jeans that showed off those muscular thighs and the T-shirt stretched tight across his broad chest. She patted herself on the back for her decision to go casual. It had been the right call. “I haven’t had any in forever, but I definitely love it.”
“Good.” He motioned toward the kitchen with the bags. “Want me to set everything out on the table?”
“Let’s hang out on the couch instead.” She smiled. “Just between you and me, that’s where I eat most of the time anyway.”
Trey chucked, admitting he did the same thing, and Samantha felt something loosen in her chest. Yes, there was a truckload of baggage to deal with when it came to being with him, but when he smiled at her like that, none of it seemed that important. What was a little wolf DNA if it came with dimples like that?
While Trey unpacked the bags of takeout, Samantha grabbed a bottle of beer for him and poured herself a glass of wine. By the time she walked back into the living room, her big, hunky cop had all the cardboard boxes out of the bags and spread around the coffee table. As she’d expected, there was way more food than necessary. That made her smile.
“I wasn’t sure what you liked to eat, so I got a little bit of everything,” he said.
Trey’s idea of a little bit of everything included four different entrées—chicken tikka masala, pork vindaloo, lamb rogan josh, and a vegetarian saag paneer—plus a family-size box of naan bread.
“I’m pretty sure your definition of alittle bitis somewhat different than mine,” she said with a laugh. “There’s enough food here for five or six people with leftovers.”
She thought it possible that Trey actually blushed a little at that, and Samantha wondered if he could hear the thud when her heart hit the floor all over again. A guy as big and tough as Trey getting embarrassed over buying too much takeout? Could there be a better man on the planet? That prehistoric wolf DNA was looking less and less important by the minute.
They sat there together on the couch, her bare feet tucked under her as they passed the takeout containers back and forth, oohing and aahing over the food as they talked about their respective days. Samantha definitely liked the masala, but the vindaloo, while delicious, was way too spicy for her taste. The soul-warming rogan josh was so tender it fell apart on her fork, so she used the naan flatbread to scoop it up. Since she didn’t want to eat too much, she only ate the cheese out of the saag paneer, figuring she’d be nice and leave the spinach for Trey. That was her story and she was sticking to it.
He didn’t complain, letting her have first pick of everything. But even with ridiculous amount of food Trey inhaled, Samantha knew she was going to have leftovers for days. Then again, maybe she’d invite him over tomorrow night to eat the rest. The idea of that made her damn near giddy. And she definitely wasn’t normally the giddy type.
In addition to talking about work, they also talked about family, friends, and things they enjoyed doing. When Trey asked her about the property her grandparents had left her up in Homer, Samantha ended up spending the next hour describing everything about the place.
“Being up there must make you feel close to your grandparents,” he said softly.
With those few words, she realized Trey got her better than the entire rest of her family. Most of them assumed the property was nothing more than a long-term investment. Samantha almost started tearing up when she told him about the old chair in the living room she would spend hours sitting in every time she went up there. It was a silly thing to talk about, but with Trey, it didn’t seem to matter. It was easy to talk about anything with him.
