“Cameron?” I said, feeling an overwhelming sense of anger at the story we’d heard from Anita.
“Yeah?” She frowned as she studied my face.
“If that fucker had ever hurt you the way his old man hurt his mother…” I trailed off, shaking my head, unsure how to explain what was going through my mind. She waited, letting me gathermy words. When I spoke again, there was a hardness to my voice that I didn’t like but couldn’t suppress
“If he hurt you, I’d never stop hunting him. His days would be numbered. He would bleed. I would make him hurt. Badly. Do you understand?” I said, my entire body trembling.
Cameron stared into my eyes with a mixture of fear and wonder. “I do,” she whispered.
Unable to stop myself, I wrapped my fingers around the back of her neck and pulled her close. She let out a yelp the instant before my lips crashed against hers. The cry of surprise melted into a contented sigh as my tongue slid across her lips. Her scent and her taste drove all other thoughts from my mind.
A sound echoed up from the depths of my subconscious. My wolf, growling with satisfaction. He was just as elated by this kiss as I was. He also understood the anger pulsing through my blood. Hearing what Lincoln had done to Rick’s mother and seeing what Anita’s mate had done to her made me livid. I could barely keep myself from imagining Rick doing something similar to her.
I pulled away, looking into her eyes again. She looked drunk. To tell the truth, she looked how I felt. If time and location had allowed, I’d have torn her clothes off and taken her right then and there. Cameron licked her lower lip, and I could see the same thought reflected in her eyes.
She cleared her throat, swiping her thumb over her lips. “I guess we should get going?”
“Probably,” I grunted, and tried to get comfortable in the driver seat. My erection was straining painfully against my zipper.
As I started the car, I gave Cameron another long look, and she put her hand on my knee. I drove to the nearest hotel to check in. My travels had taken me many places and to far-flung outposts. Sometimes, I’d ride my bike for nearly ten hoursstraight. Yet, after the conversation with Anita, I was more road-weary than I could remember ever being. I needed rest, in the worst way.
Once we’d settled in, we sat on the couch. Neither of us had the energy to do more than turn on the TV for background noise. Cameron tugged her laptop from her bag and opened it on the small coffee table.
I put my hands on her shoulders and kneaded the tension out of her muscles. Cameron moaned as I dug into the knots.
“God, that feels good.”
“I love when you say things like that,” I said.
“Very funny,” she said, but rather than pull away, she reached back and rubbed my thigh while the computer booted up.
“What are you doing?” I asked, glancing over her shoulder at the computer.
“Getting some notes down before I forget what Anita said. Gotta start building the skeleton of the story I’m going to write about all this.”
As though summoned by saying Anita’s name, my phone buzzed with a text from her.
“Holy shit,” I muttered as I read.
“What?” Cameron spun around. “What did she send?”
“Lenny Nash’s last-known work address,” I said.
“We already know that. Keeble and Jax construction.”
I shook my head and turned the phone around for her to see. “No. It looks like he was working for a garage here in Detroit. The dates of employment are basically the same dates that his cousin Mitch said he went missing.”
“That’s weird,” Cameron said. “Why vanish only to go work at a garage?”
A second text came through, and when I saw what Anita sent, I chuckled ruefully. “Looks like that garage is run by one of the many shell companies Lincoln Masters owns.”
“Damn.” Cameron sat back, frowning in confusion. “What the hell would Lincoln have wanted Lenny to do there? How would that connect to the drugs?”
“No clue.” I tucked the phone away. “But I’m going to go take a look tonight.”
“Seriously?” Cameron’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Yeah.” I rubbed my face. “I need a nap, though. This day has sucked it out of me.”
