Kat stared down at the envelope for a moment, then looked back and forth between Gage and Connor. “Didn’t take as long to find who?”
Connor grinned and motioned at the envelope. “Open it.”
Even more curious now, Kat quickly lifted the flap and reached inside, pulling out a handful of photos of her parents and the twins. She gazed down at the pictures in shock, tears coming to her eyes. It had been so long since she’d seen her family that all she could do was stand there speechless.
Beside her, Connor stuck his hand in the envelope to pull out a sheet of paper with an address and phone numbers, handing it to her. She studied it for a moment, then lifted her tear-filled gaze to look at him and Gage.
“Connor told me what you had to do to protect your family and gave me all the information he had on them, which wasn’t much, other than what you told him,” Gage said softly. “He asked if I could use my contacts at STAT to get a location on them. Turns out they didn’t move all that far from Washington State. Right across the Idaho state line to Coeur d’Alene.”
Kat turned her gaze on Connor, wondering when the heck he’d had time to fit this request into his busy schedule. Neither one of them had time to do much of anything since the night of the ritual.
“I called Gage that night as soon as we found out that you weren’t going to turn back into a cat,” he said softly. “I didn’t want to mention it until we had something. I didn’t want to get your hopes up, you know?”
All Kat could do was stare. How had she gotten lucky enough to stumble across this man? Yeah, being turned into a cat for the better part of four years had sucked, but if the payoff was being with Connor, she was fine with that.
“Your leave form has already been approved,” Gage said to Connor. “You can take off whenever you want.”
Giving them a nod and a smile, Gage walked over to join his wife, where she was sitting at one of the picnic tables.
“I thought you might want to see your family right away,” Connor said softly. “Even if you don’t know a spell to return their memories of you yet, we can go to Idaho so you can see for yourself that they’re safe.”
Kat tried to stop the tears, but it did no good. They slowly rolled down her face as she went up on her toes to kiss him again. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”
“I have a pretty good idea.” He grinned, resting his forehead to hers. “So, you up for a trip to Idaho?”
Kat kissed him again, sure her heart was going to explode with happiness. “Definitely! And I already have a spell to restore their memories.”
“Then let’s get out of here and book a flight.”
She smiled. “Sounds good to me.”
Going back to the apartment to book their flight was only part of the reason Kat wanted to leave. The other part involved letting him know exactly how much she appreciated what he’d done for her.
But halfway across the compound, Connor stopped. “Crap! What about Jenna? She came to the cookout to hang with us.”
Kat glanced over at the grills, where Connor’s sister was still talking with Trevor, both of them eating burgers and laughing, clearly enjoying each other’s company.
She smiled at Connor. “Something tells me she won’t mind if we go. We’ll fill her in on what we’re doing before we leave.”
Connor regarded Jenna and Trevor for a moment, and she waited for him to scowl at them again, but instead, he gave her a quick kiss, then flashed her a sexy grin. “Okay, let’s talk to my sister, make the rounds, and then go home.”
Home.
Something warm and wonderful wrapped around Kat’s heart and her lips curved. Home sounded perfect to her.
Keep reading for a sneak peek of the next book in Paige Tyler’s thrilling SWAT series
The trail ended at a small, jagged hole in the floor a few hundred feet later. Trevor would have thought someone made it with a jackhammer if it weren’t for the claw marks gouged into the floor. Crap. The creature had dug this getaway hole through reinforced concrete. He knelt down and shoved his head through the hole in the floor, not sure how the creature had fit through it. But the strong smell of oily musk coming from the opening confirmed it had.
The passage below the sewer was narrow and roughly hewn out of stone, concrete, and dirt. Trevor would have fit but would have had to crawl on his hands and knees the whole time. Not the position he wanted to be in if that creature came at him again.
Knowing it would be stupid beyond measure to keep going after the creature in its own backyard, Trevor retracted his fangs and claws, then turned and headed back the way he’d come.
It took him a lot longer to get back to the alley off Winston Street than he would have liked. He hadn’t realized he’d chased the creature for so long, and by the time he picked up Jenna’s scent, it was surrounded by several others. Whoever they were, their presence made her heart beat faster. Trevor could almost feel her panic.
Adrenaline surging through his veins, he forced himself to keep his fangs and claws in check as he sprinted the rest of the way.
Four people were arrayed around Jenna as she knelt beside the injured woman. The new arrivals—two men and two women—were dressed like something out of aMad Maxmovie, right down to the biker boots, leather pants, and heavy dusters that hung down below their knees. They were hounding Jenna and the woman with questions about what they’d seen as one of the men pointed a video camera in their direction. The panic was clear on Jenna’s face, and she looked like she might start hyperventilating any minute.
