When President Fleming told me he was going to give me a new partner, I was adamantly against it. I didn’t need someone else to go off on their own and mess with what Jack and I had already started.
Now, seeing her here standing in the alleyway with the werewolf — Tate — I was pissed all over again.
After everything we’d been through together. All the hunts. All the missions. Our recent night together. I’d thought we trusted one another and then she did something stupid like running off on her own and almost getting killed.
If we weren’t surrounded by other hunters and her godfather, I had half a mind to throw her over my lap and spank her ass red until she learned she didn’t have to do everything on her own.
By not telling me about the note, it felt like she didn’t trust me to have her back. Though, I knew that wasn’t true. Jack had her own issues the same way I had mine. Except her issues were going to get her killed. I couldn’t handle that.
Now, though, with the way she was looking at me, with such despair in her eyes, I just wanted to wrap her in my arms and never let her go.
“Durand,” President Fleming stepped forward, blocking her slightly from my view. “Glad to see you out of the house, even if it’s going against the rules of your suspension.”
I shifted to see her better, my eyes darting to Tate, who simply watched me from his place beside her. I gritted my teeth at the arm possessively wrapped around her shoulders.
Jack scowled, her nose wrinkling in that cute manner that it did sometimes. “Seeing as the rules are stupid, I don’t know how you expect me to follow them, anyway.”
“Jackie…” President Fleming sighed, his expression softening. “We’re just trying to protect you.”
Ignoring her godfather’s words, Jack turned to the scene behind her. “Caucasian female, vampire. Likely local. The body is too torn up to get an I.D. on her or to get any other forensics out here in the field.” Her tone was all business, her shoulders drawn back and stiff.
Even Tate noticed the mood shift and responded by dropping his arm and stepping to the side, as if he didn’t want to be in the line of fire of her ire.
The vampire’s blood stung my nose, overwhelming enough that it mostly covered up a faint underlying smell. A familiar smell.
My eyes narrowed on Tate.
They were hiding something.
The other hunters went about their business, pretending to secure the area while they activated a witch’s charm to dissuadeany humans from coming near the area. Any of them who happened to come through the barrier would get confused and find themselves walking the other way.
If there were any witnesses to the actual crime, then we’d have a much bigger issue on our hands.
“Did anyone see anything?” I asked, not waiting for President Fleming to start asking questions. If we didn’t move this along, we’d be here all night. President Fleming was great at his job, but his soft spot for Jack made it impossible to get anything done in a timely manner.
Jack shot an indiscernible look over her shoulder. “A human woman said she saw someone drag the vampire into the alley.”
Tate shifted nearby, his tongue pulling on his lip ring. When I glanced his way, he immediately stopped and shot me a wide-toothed grin, throwing a thumbs-up my way.
“Any description?” I pressed, noting the strange behavior of the werewolf.
They were definitely not telling the whole story.
“Nothing helpful.” She shrugged. “Pale. Dark hair. The usual generic features.”
I nodded my head toward the hunter next to me, who was taking notes on their phone.
“And what were you doing when the murder happened?” I inquired, glancing between the two of them.
Jack twisted around from the scene, her hands on her hips as she glared at me. “For your information, we were on a date.”
A date. Had Jack and I ever actually been out on a date before?
Not unless you counted teaming up for hunts before I became her commanding officer. Which I didn’t think she or anyone else would.
For not the first time, I was envious of the werewolf. So easily able to show his affection to Jack without letting anything else get in the way.
How had he just brushed past her almost dying on us? I couldn’t do it. Maybe it was because he thought this was normal for her? Part of her job.
