The door to Catalina’s swung open with a soft swoosh. Zane’s head appeared and his brows lifted. “Jude, you ready to—”
Footsteps. The slam of a car door.
Jude swore when he saw his ADA drive away. Running away. “Not finished, Erin.”
Not by one hell of a long shot.
By the time she got back to her office, her hands had stopped shaking and the ball in the pit of her throat, that weird tangle of fear and fury, had finally dislodged.
Erin managed to make it through the rest of the day in a semi-normal fashion. No snarling at the other lawyers. No flash of claws or teeth.
But Jude’s words kept echoing in her head.
And they twisted with her mother’s words, spoken so long ago. “Kill or be killed, that’s the only way we know.”
Her mother had been very, very good at killing.
She hadn’t wanted to be like her mother. But the freak on her trail was giving her no choice.
Hell, yes, she knew the prisons couldn’t hold some paranormals. She knew that. But the only other option—
Death.
She’d never taken a life before.
The bastard was wrenching her choices away. Because she knew—she knew he wanted her to kill.
So she’d be just like him.
Dammit, no.
Erin went to court at the end of the day. A last-minute trip. The demon had been right. She hadn’t been scheduled for a court appearance, but the cops needed her help, so she had to go. Erin needed a warrant to search a suspected drug dealer’s house on Grant Avenue, and the cops waiting in the wings didn’t have any more time to waste. They needed to get in that house before midnight.
At 6:09 p.m., the warrant was signed, the cops were ready, and Erin was so damned ready to get back to her house that she was all but growling. She headed across the middle of the big atrium of the courthouse, eager to—
A rich, musky scent teased her nostrils.
Erin froze.
Pine trees. Sweat. Animal.
Oh, hell.
Her heart slammed into her chest just as some guy with a too-large briefcase crashed into her back. He grunted an apology and stumbled away, but she didn’t even spare him a glance.
She closed her eyes for a moment and drank in that scent.
He was there. Close enough to smell.
The whiff of his scent was deliberate. She knew it. She’d learned that lesson the hard way. He could control his scent, disguise it. The bastard had told her about his little secret technique that fateful night. He’d bragged about it.
But now, he was baiting her with his smell. Letting her know that he was close. Watching.
Her hands curled and her claws dug into her palms. Her eyes opened and her head turned to the left. There. The door marked exit in bright red letters. The stairwell.
Erin was at the door before she had time to fully realize what the hell she was doing. She shoved it open, sucking in a hard breath, then she climbed down the steps. The jarring metal echoed with every move she made, and she followed that scent with her palms sweating and the hair on her nape rising.
Tired of running. Tired of the blood.
The killings had to stop.
The stairs ended at another door. Big and thick. Erin knew the parking garage was on the other side of that door. She’d mapped out the building before her first court date. Since she’d attracted the freak, learning all the exits in the buildings she frequented had become a priority for her.
Erin licked her lips. The guy’s scent hung in the stairwell. He’d been there, recently, and he could be waiting for her now, just on the other side of that door.
Her fingers lifted. Touched the cold metal.
Was she strong enough to take him?
Not if he shifted. No way she could handle him then, but if he was in human form, well, his ass was hers. Nice little side benefit from her mother’s side of the family.
Not that dear Mom had ever cared about how strong I was.
Erin exhaled. Run or fight? Her choice was simple, and she really was tired of running.
Her cell phone vibrated in her purse, the shaking followed immediately by a loud chime.
Dammit!
Erin grabbed the phone, yanking it out. Jude. She recognized his number now. She pressed the receive button on the screen and lifted the phone to her ear. “He’s here.” A whisper.
Static crackled in her ear. Stairwells were bad for cell phones, she knew that but—“Jude, the ass**le is here.” Waiting for her on the other side of that door.
“What?” A bark. “Where are you?”
“Courthouse.” She shouldn’t have been there. Another lawyer had been assigned to this case but he’d wanted to wait until morning for the court order and the cops had needed someone to move now. “Parking garage.” A quick breath. “I can smell him.” Almost feel him.
“Get the hell out of there! Don’t give him a chance to get close to you!”
“This time, I’m going to get close to him.” No more running. No more dead bodies or blood in her home.
“No! No, I’m coming. Shit, I’m on my way.”
“Then hurry,” she whispered, and ended the call. Hurry because I’m not going to run again.
He was too close. She couldn’t just stand there and let him get away. She couldn’t let him escape and attack someone else, for her.
Lee’s bloody face flashed before her eyes. The guy was in ICU, hooked to a dozen tubes and needles. Because of her stalker?
No one else could get hurt. She couldn’t stand by and let another person face the shifter’s fury.
The sick bastard needed to be stopped, and she’d do her damnedest to fight him.
Hurry, Jude.
And then the scent changed.
Fuck, f**k, f**k!
When Jude’s pickup screeched to a stop in the dim garage, his claws were out, his fangs barred, and he was ready to kick ass.
And he was scared—dammit, scared. When the hell was the last time he’d been scared of anything?
She’d better be all right. Better be completely safe. Completely unharmed. ’Cause if she had so much as a scratch on her, the freak would beg for death.
Beg.
He shoved open his door, jumped out, and ran across the parking area. His nostrils twitched as he caught the other shifter’s scent. He’d stalked her, tracked Erin here.
“He’s gone.” Erin’s voice. Quiet. Steady.
Jude whirled around and found her standing in front of an open door, a stairwell.
She was alone. Hell. “You should have gone for help.” The words blasted out of him, deeper than normal, because the beast was too close to the surface. She’d stayed there, come looking for the freak. Was the woman crazy?