It sounded so corny once it came out her mouth, but Erica didn’t quite know what else to say. She’d never had to deal with the police, never been pulled over for a traffic ticket, and certainly never made her mother worry by showing up on her doorstep with one.
His lips minutely parted before he recovered and cleared his throat. “I’m looking for Dominic.”
She jerked her thumb down the hall. “He’s fixing my sink.”
There was something insanely familiar about the cop, but she couldn’t place it. He must have been a stunner in his younger years. Silver foxes, her mother called them. He had to be in his mid-to-late fifties and she could see a few peeping strands of gray in the brown hair around his ears. Despite his age, he was well built, and by the way he carried himself, he must have been in the force for a long time. Donuts certainly weren’t in his diet at all because there couldn’t have been a bit of fat on him underneath his clean, pressed uniform shirt. If her mom were there, she would have been making eyes at the cop and probably flirting.
“Sheriff Cole Spradley,” he introduced himself and offered out his thick hand.
She took it and, as habit dictated, shook it firmly enough so he would know she wasn’t a frail, helpless girl. “Erica Barrett.”
Dominic’s footsteps sounded down the hall as she saw the officer’s face go pale. Something compelled her to ask if he was all right, but she quickly thought better of it and kept her lips shut. Their hands dropped, and she turned to face Dominic as he joined them at the door.
“Thanks for the help,” she said to her neighbor.
Something had come over Dominic in the last two minutes. He was no longer the approachable man who was easy to talk to. A mask of severity fell into place, and he gave the officer a less-than-pleased look. Not only that, but a certain energy seemed to hum around him that made her shrink back a step.
In response to this sudden change in the chemistry between them, Erica threw up her emotional shield and tried not to feel wounded by his abrupt coldness. She fought the instinct to question herself in order to account for his behavior. This hadnothing to do with her, and she refused to believe otherwise. Erica’s gaze shifted from one man to the other, and she tried to make sense of it so her heart would stop screaming for a Band-Aid.
“Anytime,” Dominic replied curtly. “If it gives you any trouble, just let me know.”
Though it was unlikely she’d do it, she nodded, and the two men turned to leave. She would have called out anice to meet youto Officer Spradley, but by the way he looked just as they stepped off her porch, she knew the cop wasn’t too happy either. What the hell was that about?
She closed the front door and plunged into the silence of the big, empty house. It hadn’t been more than ten seconds, and she missed him already, regardless of the way he left.
Erica wouldn’t have thought it possible that she could feel so much for anyone ever again. The way he looked at her, the way he opened up to her, how vulnerable she had allowed herself to be in front of him, all of it pressed in, trying to tell her something, but she wouldn’t listen. He was just a friendly neighbor looking to give her a helping hand. If that was true, why did it hurt so much to see him walk away? Their conversation meant nothing. At least, she didn’t want it to mean anything.
Chapter Seven
By the timeDominic and Cole stepped over the threshold of his home, the massive knot of aggravation had diminished. Seeing the alpha and Erica together had sparked something akin to unfounded possessiveness, just like when Wyatt and Gage talked about her at the meeting. At least he had enough self-awareness to bank the fire that threatened to blaze up at the worst moment.
At first, Erica had seemed so obstinate and closed off to any help he was willing to give. Asking if she needed assistance with the sink was more of a formality because as soon as he smelled the spilled sink water from the porch steps, he knew what he was going to do. What he didn’t expect was to draw so close to the edge of his own control.
Seeing her in her work clothes, how the skin of her belly played peek-a-boo through the slight tear in her shirt, her face flushed with exertion, and then the way she sat beside him while he worked on the pipes, all of it drove him mad. As soon as he finished, he had planned to ask her to dinner, or to follow through on that offer to teach her how to cook, anything to spend more time with her and continue their conversation, no matter how dangerous it was.
What she revealed made so much more sense now. Each time they talked, a little more of the curtain drew back. He wanted the time to learn more about her to fill in the rest of the gaping holes in her story, while carefully avoiding the truth of his own. Cole’s interruption deprived him of that chance.
Dominic turned to the cop, a low fire burning in his eyes, and momentarily resented the old alpha. But the moment he took inthat troubled, introspective look, his own expression softened. His wolf told Dominic that something wasn’t right. Cole’s repressed pain seeped into Dominic’s bones, and he scorned the connection they shared. He wanted to be mad, but under the circumstances, it was impossible.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as they made their way to the living room.
The sheriff shook his head. “Nothing. I just came to let you know about Lincoln.”
Dominic blinked at the randomness. This couldn’t have anything to do with the young lone shifter who was taken into Cole’s pack three months ago. “What about him?”
As if one distress suddenly overshadowed another, Cole sobered and said, “He got fired again.”
Dominic rolled his eyes, annoyed that his time with Erica was cut short by a visit that could have been a text or phone call. He took a seat on the sofa and glanced at the book he had discarded earlier. “How’s he doing on rent?”
Cole leaned against the cased opening that led into the foyer. “It’s due next week, and he says he’s short a hundred bucks. I’ve already got him filling out applications, but he won’t get paid in time.”
Dominic nodded in understanding. Lincoln needed money or an extension on his rent, both of which the Prime Alpha could accommodate. “Tell Hank to take out what he needs from the account, but it’s a loan.”
“Customary fifteen percent?”
He nodded. Any loan offered to a shifter was given with the condition that it would be paid back with that interest compounded monthly, just as any bank would do. He hoped that Cole hadn’t heard the discount he had given Erica. She wasn’t a shifter, but to his wolf, she was worth more than any member of his pack, for better or worse.
“Also, I need you to get another booth spot open for the festival this weekend. We’re going to have one more vendor.”
