Dreaming of the Wolf (Heart of the Wolf #8)(27)

For an hour, he scoped out Breckenridge. Not finding any sign of Alicia’s vehicle, he went back to the street where he was supposed to eat lunch with her. Three restaurants offered steak platters on Main Street, but none of the places was specifically called a steak restaurant, and he cursed himself for not learning the actual name. Lunchtime came and went, and after repeatedly checking all three restaurants while looking for her, Jake finally stood in the middle of the sidewalk, hoping she’d still make their engagement but knowing in his gut she wouldn’t.

After another hour of waiting and fuming with himself for not having kept her with him when he went to the gallery, he couldn’t quit worrying that she had followed the men she was tailing and was going to get herself killed if she hadn’t already.

He drove all over Breckenridge, looking for her car into the night, searching through lodges, rental-condo parking lots, and B and Bs. Anywhere that she might have stayed so she could continue to trail Mario.

He remained vigilant, searching all the next morning, returning to the inn and then the restaurant where he’d met her, and continuing to look for her until late that afternoon. Not finding any sign of her, he left word at the art gallery to call him if she dropped by looking to reconnect. Then hating to leave Breckenridge, dejected and miserable, fearing for her safety but not knowing what else to do, he headed for home.

He kept thinking about the trouble she might have gotten into with the men on whom she’d been conducting surveillance.

And how he could have protected her—and hadn’t.

***

Earlier that evening, Alicia had checked into a hotel in Denver and then searched for Mario’s trail, finally finding it but not where her informant had said he was. The bloodred moon dominated the black night like the harbinger of death as Alicia stalked her prey—Mario Constantino headed for the front steps of a redbrick townhouse. Just as she’d suspected, he hadn’t bothered to show up for his court date.

She’d lost track of Danny Massaro, so Mario was the first one she planned to arrest. And she was ready with the arrest warrant and firepower—pepper spray, a stun gun, and her pistol. She hadn’t told Jake that she had earned a black belt in jujitsu, but he probably would have dismissed that training as not enough, either. And leaving the scene promptly was better than tangling with an armed assailant. But she was confident she could do this.

Every minute she’d been driving to Denver from Breckenridge, she’d thought about Jake Silver and felt bad about giving him, her hero, the slip. About him worrying about her. She should have left word that she had to leave, to let him know she was all right.

But having no boyfriend meant having no dead boyfriend. And no matter how much she wanted to see more of him, no matter how much she had wanted what she was sure he would have continued to offer her, she couldn’t with a clear conscious allow him to get involved. Not after what had happened to her mother. These men meant business. They were ruthless.

She kept waffling about sending Jake word she was all right, but she knew that would involve lying to him, telling him she didn’t want to see him further. She thought he might not believe her, considering it was a lie, and might want to protect her and stop her from doing this. But she had to finish this. It was the right thing to do—not only for her mother’s memory, but for those Mario and his gang might hurt in the future.

She took a deep breath of the cool night air, trying to fortify her ragged nerves as she walked silently toward the townhouse.

On the other hand, she consoled herself with the notion that Jake was probably glad to be rid of her. Or even might have someone else in his life back home. The thought was a sour reminder that they had no future.

For now, this was her life. And as a loner, she was fine with it. She had no intention of risking anyone else’s life, but she owed it to her mom to keep her promise and put Mario and Danny behind bars for good.

Leaves crunched softly underfoot as she kept her distance, certain Mario didn’t hear her following him as far away as she was, hidden in the shadows and guided by the mellow brass street lamps lighting the way. But she should have known it was too easy tracking down the bastard, who had a rap sheet as long as she was tall. Why the judge had set bail for him, she still couldn’t fathom. Unless he had bribed the judge.

Maybe this was a wake-up call. She was used to getting her man, or woman, with the least amount of collateral damage—mainly because they usually weren’t all that intelligent and often were way too predictable. The job often depended on wit over brawn to subdue a perp. A little psychology could go a long way.

But this time it felt wrong. This was just too easy—as if she had been led into a trap.

The hair at the nape of her neck and on her arms stood on end as she watched Mario knock on the door of a brick townhouse. It silently opened to him. She couldn’t see anyone inside, as if it was one of those nightmarish haunted houses with automatically opening ghostly doors that drew the unwilling victim inside. He entered, then the door shut with a clunk.

Damn, he was supposed to have been alone.

The lamplight nearest her sputtered ominously and then flickered out, plunging her into darkness. Immediately, the setting seemed perfect for a blood-seeking vampire moving silently through the night beneath the hunter’s moon. Again, her thoughts shifted to her mother and how she’d introduced Alicia to her love of vampires when Alicia had been a teen and they’d watched handsome and sexy Count Dracula sweep the heroine off her feet in a college stage play. Alicia had wished she was the heroine the count intended to seduce.