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In a flash, Brooks grabbed her arainst him "Cara?"

She shook her head, unable to speak No, no, she had to be wrong They had to be wrong

"Damn it, she’s ice cold!" His voice exploded like a shot

His hands ran up and down her ar her, and she wanted to lean into him To follow that warainst the crook of his neck The tea to confuse her Pretending to be the good cop one instant, and the bad guy the next He wanted to trip her up, and she’d alreadyanother

Gathering her strength, Cara pulled away froaze held hers Eer Worry Lust

Sing, she lifted her chin "I’ood citizen Let them haul her to this crappy station Sat and waited on their slow asses Then she’d let them accuse her

No more

Brooks stepped away froaze flew froht For the record, let est that you both listen very, very well" Cause she sure as hell wasn’t going to repeat herself

"I kn-knew--" She staed to collect herself, and continued, "Michael House But I haven’t seen hi to do with his death, and like I’ve told you twice already, I was ho wind up at the crime scene?"

Her lips twisted "Hell if I know" But that fact worried her "Soo I’ve already got new ID No, I didn’t report the theft, there wasn’t anything of enough value to worry about in the purse" She pointed her finger at the infuriating human’s chest "You’re the cop Run a check with the DMV--or whoever those people are--you’ll see that I got a new driver’s license last Monday"

"Oh, baby, you can count onthe check"

His voice had dropped when he called her "baby" Gotten husky, intimate

Cara balled her hands into fists Her heart thundered like crazy, and she knew that her pheroht to hold the scent in check--she’d learned how to control the fragrance when she’d been a teen She’d momentarily lost control back at her hoet the hell out of the station, she’d do it again

"If you’re not charging "

She waited Held Brooks’s stare, and tried to hold back the growing tide of hunger that rose in her body

Damn it--why him? Why did she feel this attraction for a ht she was a crihten and need quicken her blood?

"I hope you’re not planning on going too far," he said, the words a threat

Her gaze narrowed "I’ll go as fucking far as I want" No, she didn’t have any plans to leave town, but she wasn’t about to tell the too-handso detective that fact "I didn’t kill Michael, and the way I figure it, if you actually had any kind of real evidence that linked me to the cri her play the waiting game

His jaw clenched and she knew she’d scored a hit with her last words Giving a hard nod in the direction of the shifter, Cara headed for the door

"You didn’t look at all the pictures…" Brooks said softly

His words froze her "I saw all I needed to see"

"Did you?" This caht next to the still-closed door

She shot hilanced back over her shoulder at Brooks "Look, Detective, I don’t exactly knohat gets you off" But you’d like to knoouldn’t you? A sly voice whispered in her er that seeer "But I don’t particularly enjoy staring at pictures of dead friends"

His brows rose "Oh? So the other men were your friends, too?"

"What other men?"

His nostrils flared as he stepped toward her, that damn manila file in his hands She could see the pulse point on his neck beating furiously Her pheromones were in the air

He licked his lips "The ones we found in the other hotel rooms, tied to the beds, just like Michael House" Then he lifted a glossy photo sheet, showing her the picture of another man--shoulders, neck, and head, eyes closed, lips parted

"I have no idea who that is" And she didn’t The , was still handso bones

Sensuous lips But she’d never seen hiood looks and death’s kiss on his lips

"Never Seen Hiaze away as fast as she could

"All three men were killed in the same way All three were stripped Bound Then, their hearts…stopped"

But that didn’t make any sense Her kind had never needed to bind prey The seduction was bind enough "When?" She didn’t have an alibi for Michael Da about hiht the tears "When were these men killed?" Please, please let it be a time she could account for--

"Travis Walters," he lifted the second photo he’d shown her She refused to glance at it again "Killed last Friday night Just like Michael, it was between eight and ten, and--"

Relief swept through her, nearly ," she whispered

"What?"

She ran a hand through her hair, frustrated, tired What ti at Paradise Found Go ask the bartenders, the waitresses," she told hie all night, so I couldn’t have killed that hth?" This ca" The reply was autoh Saturday, at the club She’d started working there only a little over twoThe pleasure of the stage It was alood as sex Almost "Go to the bar, it’s on Tyners Ave--"

"We know the place," Gyth cut in, sounding less than thrilled

Well, good Then they could confirm her alibi and this whole terrible mess would be over "I hope you find the person who did this," she told Brooks, and"But you need to stop looking at me, because I didn’t kill thoseleft to say The closed door waited before her She reached out and yanked the knob to the left

A few uniformed cops milled around in the small hallway They stepped forhen they saw her She knew the move wasn’t because she was a threat to them No, all the unifor device

"Exit," she snapped, and they all pointed to the right She brushed by theet her scent under control as quickly as possible