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His eyes narrowed "I won’t be a stand-in, not for any da, too do like that "I wanted to be with Ben"
Wanted to fit in To be loved "But--"
"But what?" His thumb brushed over her h her
"But I knew, even before the attack, that eren’t going to make it" She’d broken it off with him just days before the attack, but the bastard out there had still gone after hi her with a predatory stare "Ben had no clue about me" She sed "Our relationship wasn’t fair to him or to me So I ended it" He’d wanted her to be someone that she wasn’t Soot regrets about him?"
"Some" She’d be honest about that "But e had is over"
He flashed his fangs "Good"
His ainst his chest Not nor, dammit
Jude would have to learn the truth about her sooner or later
Maybe later…much later
His breath panted when he raised his head "Now let’s go see e can find out about the bastard"
Jude realized right away that the cops liked her Respected her It was in their eyes On their faces They opened their offices to her Broke rules that they shouldn’t have and they did it for her
Jude and Erin poured over files Searched databases They looked for clues in the criht have been overlooked
Links that weren’t noticed
They found jackshit
At six o’clock that night, Jude leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes and stretching his back As far as they could tell, the attacks by Erin’s stalker had ended as soon as she left town
The precinct had been a dead end for theo" A sli braid of red hair tossed a file onto the already overflowing desk "Last info on the Trent case Shaether "What are you talking about, Wendy? What happened to the wife?"
"Ah…" Wendy shifted froht you’d heard Sylvia was the vic in a hit and run The kids ith the grandroceries She alking across the street, headed back to her car when she got hit Such a shah the notes "Yeah, it sure as hell is"
Jude waited until the cop shut the door, then asked, "Did you know her well?" She’d paled at the news of the wolanced up at hi his henever he wanted I wanted to put the bastard away, but Sylvia recanted on the stand" A hard exhalation of air "She had twins, two little boys, real cute kids" She licked her lips "But the boys would jump anytime a door slaht Watch, he’d seen kids, human and Other, with shadows in their eyes--and it always pissed him off to knohere those shadows cao away
Permanently
"She didn’t want hi She’d ot to her I know he did Threatened her or the kids, and she changed her story so that he could walk" Her gaze fell to the folder "Now she’s dead"
And the kids would groithout a mother and with a piss-poor excuse for a father
"She’s dead and"--her brow furrowed--"and the kids are living with her lanced back up at hi for the last twooff, after all They’d already figured the stalking began with the Trent case
Maybe because the stalking had couy was ot a sense the jerk was less than human"
He reached for the file Scanned the details available about Donald Trent Age: forty-five Height: Six-foot-three Weight: one ninety An ex-football player who’d busted his knee the first year in college He’d bounced around after that, gotten into bar fights, racked up a few restraining orders froh And he liked to hurt his ladies
"You ever see any sign of this guy in Baton Rouge?"
A shake of her head "You think Trent could be the one after randht have been able to hide his shifter scent, but he left his kids behind They won’t be so skilled at cloaking without dad around"
"I’ve been around the boys, I never noticed--"
"You said heherbs to hide his scent" He’d heard of that before Even used so the kids the sa" He wouldn’t overlook any possibility "But with hirabbed her bag "Let’s go"
With hione, no one would have been around to puht
Or rather, on scent
"They don’t talk about their father They never ask about hiray hair that had escaped from the bun at her neck "It’s Sylvia they talk about They keep asking when she’s colanced into the kitchen where the two boys were sitting at the table, pushing bright race cars back and forth Jude stood over the
One of the boys--she’d never been able to tell Jake and Joseph apart--gave a loud laugh and revved his car
"I’one, and I hope he never comes back These boys, they’re et the chance to hurtto call that lawyer, right?" Erin had written down the name and nuiven the slip of paper to Katherine Just in case, just in case, Trent showed up again, she wanted to make sure Katherine and the boys were protected Perrim nod "I just--I don’t have much money"
"Don’t worry about it Larry does a lot of pro bono work" Larry Myers He didn’t handle many cases anymore, but she’d call him and tell him this one was important His semi-retirement was built for cases like this
"You sure I can trust him?"
"Yes" Larry had been the lawyer her father used all those years ago, when she’d first appeared on his doorstep
Is she co back? The question had been hers, as she watched her hts disappear into the darkness
Her father--a stranger--had pulled her close "I hope to God not"
Erin glanced back at the boys She’d looked for her mother for so many days after that Years But her one foggy Kids always got to her They were so vulnerable Too easily hurt
"You okay?" Jude stood in front of her, eyes seeing too much
Great Just what she wanted Him to see her as soo The boys need to eat their supper"
"Right" He offered his hand to Katherine "Pleasure, aze drifted back to her grandchildren