“I just have to stick this out six months…”
“You won’t make it six weeks before your enemies find you,” he bit out. “The change in hair color is a nice touch. The makeup is nice. But you’ll be found, Harmony. Eventually.”
“Not if I’m careful.” And she did know how to be careful.
Dane grunted as he watched her closely.
“We can get you out, Harmony. In a matter of months we can figure out how to hack the Bureau’s computers and delete your files…”
“Jonas won’t let me go that easily. It’s better to play this game out and have it done with.”
“He’s set you up to fail, sweetheart…”
As though she weren’t very well aware of that.
“I don’t have time for this.” She shook her head quickly. “I have to head back to the department and get that stupid GPS fixed. I can’t run this time, Dane. If I stick it out, then he’ll wipe the records.”
“You’re fooling yourself, Harmony.” His smile was knowing. “He’s trapped you. I can get you out of it.”
She took another step back. For years he had always been there, pulling her ass out of the fire. He had rescued her, saved her life more than once, and always seemed to know exactly where she was, and what she was doing at any given time.
And she had never known why. She had never really questioned why until lately.
Suddenly the haze of hormones, hunger for Lance and confusion cleared from her mind. She stared around the deserted area, the hairs at the back of her neck lifting before her gaze returned to him.
“You know I’m being watched,” she said, certain of that fact.
“Of course.” His smile was supremely confident. “But not at the moment. Go on, little girl, run back to your sheriff. I’ll hang around awhile and watch your back. Just like I always have.” It sounded like a threat.
“I’d prefer you leave.” She had a feeling things were about to get a hell of a lot more complicated.
“I’m sure you would, baby.” He smiled again as he swung into the SUV. “I’m sure you would. Unfortunately, I think my curiosity has been aroused.”
With that, he closed the door, engaged the engine and drove away.
Not for the first time in the past week, Harmony cursed.
CHAPTER 10
Davy wouldn’t let her touch the Raider.
Harmony strode briskly from the department’s garage, along the sidewalk that led to the Sheriff’s Department, as irritation began to surge inside her.
The aging excuse for a mechanic was a prime candidate for an ass-kicking with his smarmy smart-assed comments and smug smiles. She had a feeling he was deliberately screwing with the GPS, and if she found out he was, she was going to clean that excuse for a garage with his ponytailed head.
Dumb twit.
She was at the edge of her patience for the day and she knew it. Dane’s arrival was a complication she could ill afford, and the implications of it were worrisome. Dane could cause problems. And she couldn’t figure out why he was there.
She turned the corner and strode quickly to the steps that led to the single-story adobe building that housed Lance’s offices. She took the steps two at a time, ignoring the looks she received from several bystanders. It was the uniform. All black, with her holster lying low on her thigh and the Bureau of Breed Affairs insignia on the sleeve, it was guaranteed to draw attention. Attention she really didn’t need.
She strode through the lobby, waving at Lenny Blanchard as he shot her a smile; then she moved purposefully for Lance’s office.
She gripped the doorknob and pushed her way inside.
“Lance, that excuse for a mechanic of yours is going to get on my last nerve,” she snapped as she directed a fierce glare across his desk at him. “And the next time he calls me kitty, he’s going to be missing a ponytail.”
The new scent hit her then. It took a minute, because Lance’s scent seemed to overwhelm everything else at first.
Her hand fell to her weapon as she turned, facing Jonas as he lounged against the wall, his eyes narrowed on her, his hands shoved into the pockets of his silk slacks.
“I see your disposition hasn’t changed,” he remarked as Lance came to his feet, moving around the desk and nearing Harmony.
“I can come back later.” She tossed Lance a furious look. He could have warned her before she came stomping in here.
“He just arrived.” Lance stopped when he was within several feet of her, obviously placing himself to intercede if she decided to confront Jonas.
“Fine. When you’re finished with him, let me know. I need a cup of coffee anyway.”
“Coffee makes the symptoms of the mating heat worse, Harmony,” Jonas announced as she turned for the door. “You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
Pasting a smile on her face, she turned back to him as she gave Lance a sultry look.
“Does that mean we’ll get to leave early?” she whispered to Lance.
Lance’s lips twitched. “Maybe.”
“Hmm, maybe I’ll have several cups of coffee then. Let me know when you’re done.”
She would go into caffeine withdrawal before touching another cup of coffee now. She was just managing to get a handle on the needs clawing inside her and wreaking havoc on her control. She wasn’t about to make it worse.
“Harmony, you haven’t been told you could leave the meeting,” Jonas announced as she turned to leave again.
She inhaled slowly, refusing to turn back to him as she gripped the door handle and turned it quickly.
“There was a murder last night in Pinon,” Jonas said softly. “A bartender suspected of kidnapping and raping several young women in the area. His throat was slit.”
She turned back to him slowly.
“Is that why you showed up here?” Lance snapped before she could say anything.
Harmony looked up at him in surprise. He was furious. His eyes were narrowed on Jonas, his body tense as his fingers wrapped around her wrist to pull her to him.
“It has her M.O.” Jonas shrugged, his gaze sharpening on Lance’s hold. “He was killed behind the bar after closing and left for his employer to find the next day. If fits her previous kills.”
“Suspected kills,” she reminded him sweetly. “You have no proof and I denied the charges.”
“So you did.” He inclined his head mockingly. “But we both know the truth. Where were you last night?”
“With me,” Lance snapped. “All night.”
“He knows that, Lance,” Harmony murmured softly. “He has a tail on me, and I’m betting they’re watching the house at night as well.”
Amusement gleamed in Jonas’s gray eyes. “And we both know how good you are at slipping away.” He straightened from the wall, though he kept his hands in his pockets.
Who said Jonas couldn’t be smart when the need was there?
“Get the hell out of my office, Jonas,” Lance growled then. “You have no proof Harmony wasn’t with me last night, and I have all the proof I need that she was there. You no longer have any jurisdiction over her.”
“Have you been to the crime scene?” she asked Jonas.
Jonas nodded abruptly.
“Was my scent there?”
His lips tightened. She had him there and he knew it. Unfortunately, though, her scent hadn’t been at several of her kills in the past, and he was aware of that as well. Death had been amazingly adept in hiding herself.
“No. Your scent wasn’t there,” he admitted, his voice darkening in anger.
“Then you have no right to accuse me.” She smiled back in triumph. “Looks like you need to find your killer elsewhere.”
Jonas’s gaze slid to Lance then, his eyes mocking as his lips quirked with sardonic amusement.