Dreaming of the Wolf (Heart of the Wolf #8)(71)

The man’s eyes narrowed. “If I see him, I’ll pass along the word. He likes dealing with a guy with steel balls. More of a challenge that way.”

Men rushed up the stairs, four officers and two paramedics. The place was swarming with people, and with the crowd in her small bedroom, Alicia went back downstairs since she hadn’t witnessed the shooting. Jake and Peter stayed to explain what had happened. Jake only hoped she wouldn’t falter when the police interrogated her about the connection between this incident and the one the night before. He would have given anything to keep her from having to deal with this again.

As soon as he could return to her, he headed back downstairs to see her sitting on the blue floral couch, her hands clasped tightly together in her lap as Tom stood beside the couch in protective mode. This time, she was armed with a glass of water.

Jake joined her on the couch and held her hand to fortify her before two of the officers came downstairs to take her statement. He felt her tense, her heart beating rapidly, as she barely breathed. He squeezed her hand to reassure her, hoping to hell this would be the last case of anything like this happening.

Tom looked just as tense, and Jake knew his brother was in protective wolf mode in the event anything went wrong with the police questioning.

Alicia swallowed hard and tried to settle her raw nerves. She was afraid she’d be in for even more of the third degree, considering her connection with the incident the night before. What were her ties to a mobster? She couldn’t let them know about her mother’s possessions in case she and Jake could uncover anything about what was going on.

One of the police detectives, a redhead with bright-green eyes and a stern look, said, “I’m Detective Hanover, and this is my partner, Detective Brumley.” Then they both showed their badges. Detective Hanover sat down on her wide-winged armchair and opened a notebook. “Okay, first can I see some ID from everyone?”

Alicia dug around in her purse and swore she needed to clean it out as her fingers searched for her wallet and instead ran into a tube of lipstick, a package of tissues, a ton of receipts for motel bills, a brush, a comb, keys, and nail scissors that she managed to stab herself with in her frantic search. Finally, she grasped her leather wallet and pulled it out. Searching each of the pockets she found: credit card, library card, car insurance card, health insurance card, dental insurance card, store-points cards…

She frowned as she went through every pocket of the wallet. Where was her driver’s license? She looked up to see the detective handing driver’s licenses back to Jake, Tom, and Peter. Then the detective focused his attention on her.

“Miss Greiston, your driver’s license?”

Chapter 16

Alicia felt hot with embarrassment mixed with concern as she faced the policemen grilling her while Jake and his brother and their own sheriff gave her moral support. Where in the world had her driver’s license gone? And when had she lost it?

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d noticed it. “I seem to have misplaced it.”

Detective Hanover nodded, as if that wasn’t important, that he already knew who she was. “Can you tell me in your own words why you returned to your apartment with three armed men from Silver Town, one being a sheriff of the same town, and what your relationship is to everyone, Miss Greiston?”

How did Alicia tell the detective she was “married” to Jake when she wasn’t? Not really. She had no paper proof. And not even his name to call her own. For the first time, she realized just how much that part bothered her. The rest of the pack must have grown up with the notion and it seemed perfectly fine to them, but being tied to someone as his life mate and yet unmarried seemed unthinkable to her. And despite thinking she never wanted to marry again, considering the way she felt about Jake and her need to be with him ever since they’d parted, she realized her only reason to swear off men was that she’d always picked the wrong sort.

She couldn’t have asked for a man who was more concerned for her, more protective, and wanted to make her happy in the worst way. She’d never had anyone care for her like that. How could she not want to be married to a man like that?

But what was she to say to humans in a situation like this?

She squeezed Jake’s hand. “Jake and I are engaged to be married.”

She focused on the detective’s eyes but sensed the tension in the room among Jake, Tom, and Peter. Worse, just as the words spilled from her lips, another two police officers escorted Mario’s henchman down the stairs, and she was sure he’d heard what she’d said. If he had a chance to speak to Mario, he’d tell him what she’d said. Then Mario would have even more of a reason to eliminate Jake: to hurt her.

She didn’t speak any further until the policemen had taken the man outside, followed by the paramedics, and then shut the door.

The officer glanced down at her hand, but Jake’s hand was covering hers and hiding any ring she might be wearing.

“Recent engagement?” the detective asked.

“Yes. We met a couple of months ago.”

His brows raised and he shifted his attention to Jake, who gave him a slight smile. She was sure the detective was thinking Jake had either been suckered into the relationship or was a really fast mover.

“Love at first sight,” she clarified, just in case the policeman needed the clarification.

He seemed slightly amused and probably unconvinced about such a thing.