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“Who is the detective on this?” Jude asked.
“Ben Greer. He’s coming in early to handle things.” Kent’s stare bored into her. “You know he’ll do this right.”
Yes, and she also knew he wouldn’t let her anywhere near the case, either. Erin gave a grudging nod.
Then the DA brushed by her. He caught the elevator Jude had kept for her and vanished behind the heavy metal doors.
Erin looked over her shoulder. The judge and Lacy were gone. They’d probably ducked into one of the nearby rooms for a “meeting.”
“They won’t have anything for hours anyway,” Jude said. “The cops will have to search the woods with dogs.”
He was right.
“Then it’ll take them time to dig up the body.”
Her eyes closed. “What will it do to the boys?” They’d already been through enough.
A brief hesitation, then, “Call Katherine. Tell her to get the boys out of there—and to keep them out until this mess is over.”
Erin’s lashes lifted. “But that’s against protocol—” She stopped. She didn’t work for the Lillian DA any more. He’d just said so himself.
“Call her,” Jude repeated, eyes intense. “Tell her to get the boys the hell out of there.”
The cops would be on their way over to her place now. There wouldn’t be much time.
“They don’t need to see their old man’s body dug up.”
No, and they didn’t need their only safe haven turned into hell right in front of their eyes.
Screw protocol. Not her case? Fuck it. Those boys were hers. She snatched out her phone. Dialed the number she’d memorized yesterday. When a woman’s soft voice answered, she said, “Katherine, it’s Erin Jerome. We don’t have much time, and I need you to listen carefully...”
* * *
A line of motorcycles blocked the entrance to Mort’s Bar. Pickups snaked and twisted, filling up the parking lot, and the blare of country music trembled in the air.
Erin slammed the door of Jude’s truck and stared at the bar. Night had fallen, bathing the city in darkness. The thick darkness hid the sagging sides and the dipping roof of Mort’s.
She’d been in this bar once before. A blind date that had gone to hell very fast.
Not her kind of place. Too loud. Too drunk. Too many men with free hands.
Gravel crunched beneath Jude’s shoes. She glanced at him when he rounded the front of the vehicle. “You think the vamp was telling the truth about this place?”
“She was.” He sounded absolutely certain.
Erin raised a brow.
“She knows that if she lied, I’ll just come back for her.” A baring of his fangs. Damn, he already had his fangs out. This wasn’t going to be a good night. “And if I do that, I won’t be so nice.”
Right. Because he’d been all goodness and light during that first showdown.
Her eyes darted back to the entrance. Smoke drifted lazily from the front door. Not a fire, just a shitload of folks with cigarettes, cigars, and who knew what else inside. Her hands balled into fists. “No sense standing around here all night. Let’s go.”
They started forward together. A loud wolf whistle split the air, and Jude froze. His gaze immediately tracked to the left, to the two men sitting on the back of a gray pickup truck. His growl vibrated in the air. “Don’t make me come over there and kick the shit out of you.”
The men jumped up and hurriedly ran into the shadows. Erin figured they weren’t in the mood to lose their shit.
Jude spared her a glance. “I don’t have time for assholes.”
