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“It’s over, right, Richard?” Wilkes said. “Take the cuffs off. They won’t give us any more trouble.”

Maiden didn’t look as convinced as Wilkes seemed to be, but he did what he was told. He took the cuffs off.

Richard rubbed his wrists but didn’t bother grabbing at the fallen towel. Without clothes, Richard was nude, not naked. He was comfortable. Most lycanthropes were.

Maiden followed Wilkes to the door, but he kept an eye on both of us, as if still expecting trouble. A good cop never turns his back completely.

Thompson was the last to move towards the door. He said, “Lover’s thing is almost as big as you are.”

Nothing else he’d done had made me blush, but that did. I hated it but couldn’t stop it.

He laughed. “I hope you don’t leave town. I hope you stay, because I really do want another chance to be alone together.”

“My new goal in life, Thompson, is to never be alone with you.”

He laughed again. He laughed while he walked out the door. The deputy that kept complaining about the crowd left. Only Maiden waited in the door for Wilkes.

The sheriff said, “I hope we never meet again, Blake.”

“Ditto, Sheriff,” I said.

“Mr. Zeeman.” He gave a nod as if he’d just pulled us over for a traffic stop and let us go with a warning. His entire body language changed as he moved through the door. Just a good ol’ boy talking to some strangers about that disturbance last night.

When the door closed behind them, Richard crawled to me. He started to touch my face, then stopped, fingers hovering helplessly around my face. “Are you hurt?”

“A little.”

He hugged me, pulling me gently in against his body. “Go home, Anita. Go back to Saint Louis.”

I pulled away enough to meet his eyes. “Oh, no. If you stay, I stay.”

He cradled my face in his hands. “They’ll hurt you.”

“Not if they think we really left. Can Verne’s people hide us?”

“Who do you think is outside in the crowd?”

I looked up into his open face. “Did they kill the other man? Did Verne’s people kill Terry after they left?”

“I don’t know, Anita.” He hugged me again. “I don’t know.”

“I promised him he’d live if he told us what he knew.”

He pulled back, holding my face in his hands. “You could have killed him during the fight last night and not blinked, but because you promised him safety, you’re upset.”

I pulled away from Richard, standing, tugging the sheet out from under his knees. “If I give my word, it means something. I gave my word that he’d live. If he’s dead now, I want to know why.”

“The cops are on the other side. Don’t piss Verne and his pack off, Anita. They’re all we have.”

I knelt by the suitcase on the other side of the bed and started getting out clothes. “No, Richard, we have each other and we have Shang-Da and Jason and Asher and everyone we brought with us. If Verne’s people went behind my back last night and killed Terry, we don’t have them. They have us. Because we need them, and they know it.”

I stood with an armful of clothes and shuffled towards the bathroom with the sheet still around me. For some reason, I just didn’t want to be naked in front of anyone right now, not even Richard. I made one stop on the way. I got the Browning out from under my pillow and piled it on top of the clothes. No more going unarmed for the rest of the trip. If someone didn’t like it, they could lump it. That included my nearest and dearest. Though, to Richard’s credit, he didn’t say a word about the gun or anything else as I closed the door.

30

I WANTED A long, hot shower. I settled for a brief, hot shower. I’d called Dolph back first to let him know I wasn’t dead. But all I managed to do was leave a message. I was hoping to give him the name Franklin Niley and see if there was any criminal connection. Dolph didn’t usually share police info with me unless we were involved in a case together, but I was hoping he’d make an exception. Dirty cops are one of Dolph’s least favorite things. He might help just to spite Wilkes.

I put on white jogging socks, blue jeans, and a royal blue tank top. I’d put a short-sleeved dress shirt over the tank top to camouflage