Midnight Moonrising (Moonrising #2)(16)

Alex's eyes widened in disbelief. "You? Why would you be in that part of town?"

She sighed. "I left Marc that night. I went—I went to a friend's house, and Marc knows I always drive that way to save time. I don't know why he stopped there, unless he thought I would stay there because he knew it would be the last place he would find me."

Alex waited for her to elaborate, and when she didn't, he said, "Why did you leave Marc, Mena?"

"I discovered he was having an affair and confronted him about it. He didn't deny it, but when he realized that I had intentions to leave him, he struck me. I packed up a few clothes and left my cell phone on the bedside table in my hurry to get away from him. There was only one missed call on my phone from him and no voice mail when I got back home after finding out about the murder. I assume he tried to call me once and realized that it was ringing from the bedroom and that I was no longer there. I didn't tell the press that in the release earlier. A lot of people think highly of Marc, and I don't want to ruin the memories they had of him by slandering his name. What he did to me has nothing to do with who he was to them."

Alex's fingers flexed and curled into a fist under the table as he ground his molars together. He had never liked Marc, and the guy hitting Mena only made him dislike the son of a bitch even more. He couldn't honestly say that he wouldn't have done the same thing to the guy after hearing he had laid his hands on Mena in that way.

"Alex?"

He inhaled deeply through his nostrils as he avoided her gaze. He hadn't been prepared to hear that come out of her mouth, and he wasn't quite sure what his next words would be if he opened his mouth now.

"I'm sorry," he said after another moment. "You were right to leave him. Do you happen to know who the other woman was?"

She shook her head when he finally looked back at her. "No. All the signs were there: the smell of perfume, the lipstick on his collar, phone calls to the house and nobody speaking when I answered. I put two and two together and asked him about it." She only shook her head, and Alex's chest closed up tight.

How could anybody treat Mena like that? Why would they even want to?

"Well, if you happen to get any strange calls or notice anyone following you, please don't hesitate to contact me. Your safety is important to me."

"It is?"

The question caught him off guard, and he realized exactly how he had worded the sentence. Shit! Well, it was too late to take it back, so he played it off the best he could. "Of course, it's my job to keep you safe."


She gazed at him from behind those dark sunglasses and he could have sworn there was humor in her eyes. "I thought you were a homicide detective, not a patrol officer. Don't you deal with the people after they are already dead?"

Damn! The girl seriously didn't miss anything. "I am a cop, Mena. It's my job to protect."

She looked down at her food and pushed it around the plate with the fork in her hand. "I apologize, Alex. Forgive me if I was rude. I was actually trying to make a joke. I'm quite aware that you are very serious about protecting the citizens of Montgomery."

He fought to keep from blurting out that he had no interest in protecting anyone in Montgomery except for her. Instead, he simply shrugged. "I do what I can."

She popped a crouton in her mouth and chewed. "Tell me something."

His brow rose in interest.

"Why aren't you married, with a houseful of children?"

He chuckled. "Well, that's a longer story than we have time for."

"Give me the short version," she said, then picked up her fork and stabbed a grape tomato.

He watched in anticipation as she raised the silverware and took the little red ball between her teeth. It disappeared behind her lips and she chewed.

Alex looked away and desperately tried not to fidget. Placing his elbows on the table and linking his fingers together, he decided to explain the shortest version he could come up with without saying too much. "None of my past relationships ever worked out. I guess I'm too involved with my job to give a woman the time and attention she deserves."

"Maybe the right one just never came along—the one who deserved to be put above your job," she said.

"Maybe the right one was already taken by another man who also put his job before his girl." So much for not saying too much, he thought, but before he could try to reword what he had said or try apologizing, Mena started talking again.

"Maybe that girl's no longer with that man."

Alex stared at her. She couldn't possibly be insinuating that she was interested in him; she'd just buried her husband! Yeah, the guy had been an * and cheated on her and hit her, but wasn't it still too soon? Hell, who was he kidding? There was no way she would want someone like him. Mena was out of his league on so many levels.

"Maybe," he heard himself say.





Chapter 10



Mena





Oh. My. God!

I have to get back in control or my wolf will have the detective in my bed before the sun goes down!

"Hey!" I shouted. "Give me back my body!"

"Be patient, Mena," a female voice said back. It sounded a lot like my own. "You have to trust me. This is what's best for us."