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Was that a thaw? Was she going to open back up to him? Last night had been heavy for her, he knew it, but he sure didn’t want her turning from him now.
No, now, she was supposed to turntohim.
“Uh, yeah, great. Whatever this is…” Dee’s hands fluttered between them. “Keep it in the bedroom, okay? I haven’t been laid in months and all this weird-ass tension in the air is making me jealous.”
Now Erin did smile, a slow stretch of her lips.
Jude’s heart kicked into his ribs.
“Ease up, Romeo.” Dee’s elbow rammed into his chest. “Back to business.”
Right.
“After law school, you did some work in different parishes. A few years later, you settled in Lillian. Started working for the DA’s office and got the reputation for being the bitch who went after the monsters.” A fast glance at Jude. “Not your kind. Rapists, domestic abusers. Those pigs that make me want to deliver a bit of my own abuse.”
“Dee, we’ve talked about your eye-for-eye punishments before,” he murmured.
“Yeah, we talked about howthey work.”
Phones rang in the background. Jude caught Zane’s voice, the demon was talking to Pak. “Cut through the crap. Did you find anything we can use on this guy?”
Dee’s mouth tightened, just a bit, and her focus shifted back to Erin. “I found out you were working the biggest case of your career and all of a sudden, you seemed to lose your nerve.”
“What?I sure as hell didn’t. I’ve never lost?—”
“Two missed court appearances. Five late arrivals. You didn’t have your witnesses ready, and when it came time to step up to the plate in the Trent case, you struck out.”
Dee could be a vicious fighter, one who went right for the jugular when a person least expected it.
Jude lifted his hand toward Erin because his lady looked?—
“You don’t know me,” she snapped at Dee. “You get on your computer and you sneak around and you think you’re looking into someone’s life and you’re learning about them. Well,you’re wrong.I worked my ass off on that case. I did everything I could, but Trent had an in with Judge Harper. Court times kept changing, withnonotice to me. Witnesses vanished, and even though I did my damned job, that bastard walked.”
Dee didn’t back down. He’d never seen the woman back down. “And when you were in the middle of this case, fighting to get that abuser locked up, that freak out there made first contact, didn’t he?”
“What?” Erin shook her head.
“I saw his pattern. The attacks on the people around you. When someone hurt you, pissed you off, or just got in your face, he attacked. This case was the deal breaker. You were fighting on your own, getting knocked around by the judgeandthe defense attorney—and that guy out there made his move...on you.”
Jude wrapped his fingers around Erin’s shoulder. “Is this when he made first contact?” Dee was the best research agent he’d ever met, and the best attacker he’d ever seen in a bar fight.
A nod. “Yes, yes. I-I was working three other cases at the same time, but the Trent case was the one eating me alive.” Echoes of frustration. Anger.
Dee tapped her chin. “He found you on that case.” Her gaze drifted to Jude as she eased into her chair and leaned back. Like the lady didn’t have a care. “Jude, I’d lay odds that if you went to that city, used your usualfinesse, you’d be able findhimthrough that case.”
The beast inside jerked on his leash.Hunt.“Oh, I’m sure I can finesse my way in Lillian.” Finesse had to be slang for biting and clawing his way to some answers. His shoulders rolled. “Looks like I’ll be taking a road trip.”
“You meanwewill.” Erin’s determined voice.
Dee’s eyes widened. “Uh, civilians don’t normally go on hunts.”
Erin flashed her perfect smile, then punched down at Dee’s desk. Her claws plunged into the wood. “Not your normal civilian.”
“Dammit!”The human glared at them, hands fisted on her hips. “New desk, Donovan, got that? I expect a new freaking desk! I will go to Pak with this, don’t think I won’t!”
Erin’s dainty hand lifted. The claws were gone. Nice control. “I’m going with you,” she told him.
Despite the little show she’d just given, he shook his head. Claws really weren’t going to do the trick on this one. “No.”
