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CHAPTER4
Iwoke on cue at fivein the morning. My internal clock had adjusted to my work schedule. There was no such thing as a short day for a small business owner. I looked at the chair where Billy Bob slept. Irrationally, I was relieved and irritated. I’d told him I didn’t need a watch-dog, or in this case a watch-wolf. I didn’t want to admit, even to myself, that the only reason I could sleep was because he was in the room with me. I hated my treacherous emotions for making me feel safe when he was near.
He’d worn blue-striped pajama bottoms to sleep in and no shirt. His arms were crossed as if he was still on watch, but his eyes were closed. I studied the hard planes of his face, his wide cheekbones, his almond-shaped eyes, and his full, wide lips. Christ on a hot plate, why did he have to be so fucking handsome? His grandfather had been a shaman for their pack. He’d told me that once when I’d first moved to Peculiar. Now he was the shaman for a town full of therianthropes.
At the time, I’d been searching for Judah, and Billy Bob had been one of the few people who believed his disappearance might be foul play. I’d even told him about Sunny. About her psychic gifts. He hadn’t thought I was crazy. Though, like my brother, Babel, he’d tried to talk me out of bringing her here. I knew he didn’t feel that way now. They’d both fallen hard for Sunny, and why wouldn’t they, she was easy to love.
The throw blanket slid down Billy Bob’s chest, and I sighed. Happily.Damn it, hormones!Rodin might as well have sculpted his broad shoulders and wide chest. I knew he was at least fifty, maybe even older, but he looked like someone in the prime of their late twenties, early thirties. His silvery gray hair always made him seem older. I wondered if it had been that color his whole life or if it had turned that way over the years.
I swallowed the lump in my throat.I will not stare. I will not stare. I couldn’t stop myself, though. No amount of mantra was going to drag my gaze from his super yummy body. I needed to focus elsewhere, but the other stuff on my mind was just too grisly and awful.
I focused my thoughts on other tasks than the hunky werewolf in the room. Billy Bob had told me that he still needed the dental records from a dentist in Lake Ozarks to compare against the victim’s, but he’d been mostly certain that the man killed was my friend Ruth Thompson’s gentle and sweet husband Ed. When I had gone up to my apartment to change and shower, they’d removed the body. Underneath the corpse, the killer had left Ed’s driver’s license. The height and weight had been right. Billy Bob had typed the victim’s blood, and that had matched as well.
I squeezed my eyes shut trying to block out the vision of murder. When I opened them, Billy Bob was staring at me. Turnabout, and all that.
“What is it?”
“What?”
“You’re crying.”
“No, I’m not.” I scrubbed at the wetness on my cheeks.
“Okay.” He rose from the chair. “You’re safe, Chavvah. I promise I won’t let anyone or anything hurt you.” I could hear the implied,not again.
I tried not to read too much into his declaration. He was a good man. Sunny had told me that more than once, along with Ruth. Just about everyone in town loved the doctor. It grated on my nerves. No one was that perfect. How a lycan had managed to ingratiate himself into a town full of therianthropes was completely beyond me.
“How did you end up in Peculiar?” I asked Billy Bob.
“Long story.”
“I have a few minutes.”
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. His gorgeous gray gaze held a pain that made me ache to comfort him. Stop it, I told myself. The doc had women throwing themselves at him all the time, council member Bethany included. Damn it. I’d almost managed to forget about the snide little fox.
“Chav…”
“If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to.” I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and rolled over to face the opposite wall. I couldn’t look at him. I don’t know why his reluctance to share his past hurt, but it did. “I need a few minutes. I need to call Jo Jo and Sunny to let them know what happened. I don’t want them showing up this morning and stumbling on that awful bloody pool out back.”
“Especially not Sunny,” Billy Bob said.
The skin on my face tightened. “Yeah, especially Sunny.” Sunny’s gift had been out of whack since Jude’s birth so she might not get any visions, but there was no sense in taking a chance. Besides, she’d never been good with blood. It usually made her pass out.
“I’ll get coffee on.” Billy Bob didn’t bother to put on a shirt. He just walked to the closed door. “Do you want any breakfast?”
My brain chose that moment to flash an image of the skinned corpse splayed in the dirt. Nausea roiled. “No, thanks.” How on earth could I cook today with that memory replaying in my mind?
He nodded. “Come to the kitchen when you’re ready.”
“You got it, doc.”
After he had left, I called Sunny.
“Hello,” she said after two rings.
“Hi, sorry. I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“No worries, Chav. Baby Jude beat you to the punch.”
