“You left in the middle of the damn night. It took me a week of harassing your granny and massive detective work to find you.”
“You knew where I was?” I was shocked. I figured he was so pissed and horny for all the other gals he’d been seeing he’d have been happy I left.
“I know where you live, your patterns, your friends, your grocery, your place of business and where you order takeout from.”
“Oookay, that’s just creepy.” I rolled my eyes and wondered who he’d sent to watch me. It couldn’t have been Junior. I would have busted his butt in a minute flat. “Who’d you have on me?”
“I was on you, princess. And when I wasn’t, I had a chatty friend who was all too willing to talk about you till the cows came home.” He smiled and I wanted to slap the dimple off of his left cheek.
“You paid someone to watch me?” I shouted. I refused to acknowledge that he’d been in Chicago spying on me. And why in the hell did that turn me on?
“Nope. Didn’t have to.”
“That makes no sense whatsoever,” I snapped. “No one would watch someone for free.”
“If they didn’t know they were watching you they would.”
“When did you go all James Bond?”
“A man does what a man has to do,” he replied.
“Yeah, well most men don’t become the town vacuum cleaner,” I shot back and then slapped my hand over my mouth. Damn it, I wasn’t going to go there.
“What the hell does that mean?” He stood up and was in front of me in a flash.
His scent was making me dizzy and I had the worst urge to jump him, but I gripped the arms of the chair like a vise and maintained my dignity by a thread.
“Nothing. Ancient history. Now that we’ve reminisced, we need to get down to business,” I said coldly, met his gaze and refused to back down.
“Fine. You win round one. On to round two,” he said easily—way too easily. “I don’t want you here. I don’t want you on this case.”
“Tough. I am more than capable and you don’t have any say, buster boy.”
“You did not just call me buster boy.”
I bit back my grin and nodded my head. “I did. Now, do you have files for me?”
“Ester…” he said in that tone. Fine. We were going there? I hated my name and he knew it, but two could play that game…
“Yes, Henry?”
“Listen to me, Essie.” He blew out a frustrated sigh and ran his hands through his thick dark hair. “Female Weres are disappearing…possibly dying. I don’t want you anywhere near this.”
Part of me melted, but a bigger part took offense. “Look, Hank, I’m not the same naïve girl I was a year ago. I’m trained and I’m very good at what I do. It will give me great pleasure to destroy whoever is doing this and you need me. I’m here whether you want me here or not. So if you don’t want me going in blind, hand over what you’ve got.”
He gave me a calculated stare and I met it head on. “You’ve changed. You’re hard.”
“Girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do,” I said. He was so wrong about me I wanted to cry, but it was better he thought poorly of me. It would make everything much easier when I left again.
“We’ve kept it out of the papers,” he said in a clipped business-like tone. “Only the Pack knows what’s going on. As far as anyone knowing what you’re really doing here, it’s just me and Junior. I figured you’d be safer that way.”
“I agree. Do you really think the girls are dead?”
“Don’t know,” he admitted. “None of those gals are the kind to pick up and disappear. It all seems connected to the modeling agency.”
“Yep. The town thinks I’m flighty anyway, so no one will be surprised that I’ve come home to be a model.”
“No one thinks you’re flighty except me. The whole town thinks you’re the best thing since sliced bread. The modeling thing wasn’t the best cover for you, so I told the Pack you’ve come back so we could work on our issues,” he replied casually.
“You did what?” I yelled. “You had no right to tell anyone that kind of crap-assed lie.”
“It’s a solid cover and it’s already done. You can’t tell me you haven’t had to do a little acting during your undercover stints. This should be a breeze for someone as skilled as you,” he said smoothly.
I closed my eyes for a moment and sucked in some air. I was a big girl. The fact that people were missing was far larger than the small fact that I would have to pretend to be Hank the Skank’s girlfriend again. I could do this. It was a job. He was a job. He meant nothing to me…and I was not going to bang him.
“No problem.” I smiled and lied. “It will be fun.”
His eyes narrowed again and he watched me closely. “Fun?”
“Yep, but won’t it be embarrassing for you when I leave again?” I asked sweetly.
“We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it,” he answered just as sweetly.
Wait. Did he say if? Crap, I didn’t want to ask him to clarify because if I was wrong, I would look like an idiot and if I was right…OMG. Enough. I had a mission and he would not make me lose focus.
“Files?” I held my hand out and waited.
He gave me a sexy half smirk and my stomach flip-flopped. “You’ll get the files after I see you shoot.”