DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(27)

“And Detective Warren?”

He glanced at me. “What about her?”

“How did she get involved with Gray Wolf?”

He was quiet a moment, his eyes still shifting from the road to the rearview mirrors, and back again.

“We had a case when the company was still new. Only our second client. She was the lead detective on it. And when she came to interview the victim and Ash and I were already with him, she was pretty annoyed. But when the perp made an attempt on the vic and we were able to thwart it, she was pretty impressed. Then she crossed our path—or we crossed hers—on a couple more cases, and she finally conceded that we weren’t going away. I guess she just found it easier to work with us.”

“You’re friendly.”

He glanced at me. “I’m not having an affair with her. She’s a friend.”

I nodded. “I know. I figured that out when her husband came lumbering into the room.”

Donovan actually smiled for the first time in hours. “He’s something, isn’t he? But he’s a damn good cop.”

There was respect in his voice. And, for some reason, that too pushed the fear inside my head back a little more.

I was in good hands. If I’d ever doubted it, those doubts were gone now.





Chapter 13


Kate

The compound turned out to be a beautiful piece of property out in the middle of nowhere. It was surrounded by a wrought iron fence with a wide gate that had no adornment, no sign of who or what might live beyond it. It was all very deceptively benign. Donovan had to use his smartphone to get through the gate, so I was pretty sure it was all connected to this computer system that was also monitoring the cameras back at my house. There were probably cameras everywhere. And I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn there were some sort of weapons buried somewhere in the luscious lawn that flowed away from the drive on either side.

We drove nearly half a mile before we entered a small copse of trees that opened onto a rounded courtyard in front of a beautiful stone and wood home. It looked like one of those hunting lodges you always see on those television shows featuring the rich. Like the fence, it seemed benign. There was a lot of glass along the front of the house, windows that reached from floor to ceiling. They were tinted, so I couldn’t see inside, but it seemed an ill choice for a place that housed a highly trained security team. But I assumed the glass was bulletproof or something, something that would keep the bad guys out.

“Come on,” Donovan said, coming around to my side of the car and offering me a hand. “It’s safe here.”

I took his hand and let him lead me up the stone steps that stopped at the wide, double doors that served as the home’s main entrance. The doors opened onto a large, open living area that was filled with desks and computers and a long conference table with a few couches and loveseats scattered around the room. A woman who appeared to be just a little older than Detective Warren sat behind the first desk. She looked up, a phone pressed to her ear, her eyes narrowing as she studied Donovan.

“You okay?” she asked almost gruffly.

“In one piece.”

“Good. David has something he wants you to look at.”

Donovan nodded. “Thanks, Rose.”

“Who’s that?” I asked, as we passed her desk and headed toward the back of the house.

“Rose. She’s the office manager slash receptionist slash mother.”

“Mother?”

“You’ll understand if you spend much time here.”

“Are she and Ash…?”

He glanced at me. “Of course not!”

I shrugged. “You can’t blame me for being curious.”

“He’s her boss.”

I wanted to point out that that rule didn’t seem to fly much around here, considering what we’d been doing when Ash texted him a couple of hours ago. But I held my tongue. On that point, anyway.

Donovan pulled me across the room to an array of computers that were balanced somewhat precariously over a low desk. Tucked behind them was quite a surprise. When Donovan told me about this computer guy who created this program that monitored my house day and night, I’d imagined a caricature of a nerd. Someone small and wearing heavy glasses. Instead, I found myself looking at a slightly smaller version of Ash.

David had the same dark hair as Ash, but his was much longer, a tangle of curls that touched his collar and threatened to fall into his eyes. And those eyes…where did they get such gorgeous green eyes? Chiseled jaw, full lips, and those broad shoulders…lady killers, both of them. The fact that David was in a chair, fingerless gloves on his hands to help him get around on his own without the threat of blisters, was no detractor. Not to me. If not for Donovan, I might have seriously considered an offer from either of the Grayson brothers.

“Ash said you had something to show us?”

David didn’t even look away from his computer screens. He tapped something into his computer and, almost instantly, a picture filled all ten or twelve of the screens.

“That’s the best I could clean it up,” David said.

I wasn’t even sure what it was we were looking at. But then I began to see the vague outline of a human body, the curve of the head and the roundness of the shoulders. I moved closer behind David so I could see it more straight on.