* * *
Kade parked his truck at the end of a long line of vehicles and stepped out into the night. Not much more of it left. The darkness that remained would give him an advantage that daylight wouldn’t.
The storage facility was brightly lit and crawling with the forensics team. They’d been at it for long enough that he should be able to do what he came to do.
“This is a crime scene, sir.” The young officer at the gate swayed from foot to foot as Kade fished out his ID.
In this form, Kade appeared as human as the next guy. Bigger than most, built like a bodybuilder on every supplement known to man, but still human.
Kade lightened his customary scowl—as much a part of him as his right arm—as the poor kid scanned his enormous frame. No police hold the kid had been taught was going to help much.
“Profiler,” Kade rumbled. He’d tried to work on his voice. It was difficult as it matched the rest of him. But striking terror into the hearts of every human he met wasn’t constructive.
The young officer’s eyes widened as Kade attempted a smile—actually more of a slight upward tilt of his lips—and handed him the ID. It was legit; the council was good at what it did. The officer peered at it in the dim light, looked back up at Kade, and raised the crime-scene tape for him to duck under.
There were Cryptids on the police force, but they hid among their human peers. And very few were Weres. Dire Weres were generally too emotional to pass the psych evaluations required by the police. Sabre Weres could do it. But there weren’t enough to spare as police officers.
The police did not know that Cryptids even existed. They viewed Kade as a criminal profiler who worked as a consultant for the department. Those that knew him better were cognizant of his private detective agency and the fact he spent a lot of time investigating insurance fraud. Both were cover stories that reassured them, so that they ignored Kade as he strolled along the fence line.
“Hey, Kade.”
He’d been aware of her falling in behind him. She’d emerged from the building just as he’d started to prowl the perimeter. His bad luck.
“Erica,” he acknowledged.
Erica was on the flip side of the coin. While many humans were afraid of him, she had a somewhat different reaction.
She jogged to catch up to him. He didn’t slow down. If you gave the woman an inch, she would take ten miles.
“How you been, Kade?”
“Alive,” he said. He needed her to go away. She was a crime-scene investigator, a pretty good one from what he’d seen. He ran into her often enough, but the woman wasn’t at every scene. Too bad she was at this one.
Erica moved up alongside him, raking him with her glance. Her scent changed immediately, and he sighed. Didn’t matter how short he was with her, she still panted after him like a dog.
She was nice enough, he supposed. But human. Many Weres cultivated humans as sexual partners. A side effect of bodies that fit into stereotypical hero models was that human women tended to approve.
Kade rarely frequented the typical pick-up spots. Even before he’d met Isa, casual sex wasn’t his thing. Liaisons, no matter how the rules are laid out ahead of time, came with strings. Always.
Just his bad luck that Erica believed she could reel him in by sheer persistence. Which led to Kade being even ruder than usual around her. At the moment, she noted he was evaluating the ground near the fence. “You think they went over? That’s seven feet if it’s an inch. With barbed security wire over the top.”
“Just checking,” Kade muttered. “You got any better ideas?”
“They were gone by the time the police got into the building. They got away somehow.” Erica’s eyes swept over the chain link and arrived, squarely, back at the middle of Kade’s chest. He’d yet to have the woman meet his eyes. Chest was rather higher than his expectations.
Without removing her eyes from Kade—they had eventually slipped lower, currently residing in the region of his hips—her arm gestured to the van parked in front of the building. “Truck’s still here. According to our witness, that was the only vehicle nearby.”
“Uh huh.” Kade continued along the perimeter. He had a pretty good idea of what he’d find. And he was right. He paused along the back line and looked at the divots in the hard-packed earth. Gauged the trajectory with a slight shrug, then gazed out across the open fields beyond.
Not possible, easily at least, for a human. Piece of cake for a Dire Were. Cara might have been right about this one. The council would not be pleased.
“Nothing but cropland for miles back there,” Erica mused, although she wasn’t looking at them. “If they did get over that, they’re long gone.”
“Yep.” He turned toward the building.
He was rescued when a man emerged and waved to Erica. Her boss.
“See you around, Kade.” Erica raked her gaze over him one last time before turning away.
