The sound of a pin dropping would’ve rang through the room like a gunshot, as the three of them stared at Willa’s drawing. Because Drake was dead right.

They were looking at a drawing of Jesus Christ.

With fangs.

Etienne tapped his fingers restlessly on his thigh and tried to think of what he could possibly say to diffuse the situation as he shot eye daggers at a defensive-looking Willa.

He cleared his throat and nodded thoughtfully, still studying the sketch as if he was an art critic. “Interesting. Well, you got some of it right. The long hair, the nose is dead on, but the eyes are off.” He barely managed to keep from adding, “And you forgot the crown of thorns.”

Drake exercised no such restraint, though. “Did you happen to witness him turn any water into wine, Ms. Briarcroft?”

Willa’s hand snapped out so fast, it was probably imperceptible to the human eye, but the sound of her slapping Drake right in the forehead definitely wasn’t, and Taya turned her puzzled gaze from the picture to the Laurel and Hardy routine going on next to it.

“I’m sorry…I’m just…I’d hoped for a closer likeness, and…”

Etienne could hear the break in her disappointed voice and it sent a hot bolt of rage through him. She’d cried too many tears over these cocksuckers, and he couldn’t stand the thought of her crying more. Especially because it was his fault she was dealing with these two clowns in the first place. There had to be something he could do to make her feel better.

“Please, Ms. Briarcroft,” Willa said, clearly distraught. “Let me get back to the station, get access to my cray-pas and whatnot, re-read the notes, do some fine detailing.” She set the picture aside and reached out to pat Taya’s hand gently. “I think you’ll be surprised by the final result. This is all preliminary, just getting face shape down and the like. If it’s not right, we’ll sit you down with my supervisor and do it again off Detective Blackbourne’s notes and you can come in for some fine-tuning. I promise, we won’t rest until we have a very strong likeness of the assailant, all right?”

Etienne watched Taya’s reaction closely, and the knot in his stomach unfurled as she looked in his direction, seeming a little more at ease than she had a moment ago. “What do you think?”

Etienne glared at Willa once last time, before turning to Taya and lifting one shoulder in a shrug. “I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt and see how it turns out when it’s complete. In the interim, let the APB description and the patrolmen do their job and try to locate these guys. Their size alone should make them easier to find, if they’re still in the area.”

He tamped down the prickle of guilt, but it wasn’t easy. Each lie created two more and he hated being untruthful. She didn’t deserve it, but the only way he could really protect her was to handle this his way. Shifters didn’t do jail. These rabid dogs needed to be put down for good.

Drake took the reins, and began to pepper Taya with some more questions that seemed to work well enough as a continued diversion, and by the time they wrapped up, she seemed to be holding together like a champ.

“Thank you again for coming out, I really appreciate it,” she said, leading them to the door.

“Thank you, Miss Briarcroft. And please, if you have any questions, just call me direct at this number,” Drake said as he jotted on a piece of notebook paper and tore it off.

She stood by the door and took the sheet before waving to them as they exited.

Etienne stayed put as his friends headed down the driveway, knowing he should be right behind them, but something compelling him to stay put.

He turned to her and she gave him a shy smile that didn’t quite reach her wary eyes.

“I’m sure you probably have a life to get back to as well,” she murmured, toying with the doorknob.

“Actually, I don’t,” he found himself replying.

Where the hell had that come from? Hadn’t he already decided that getting more involved with her would only complicate things further? From the second they’d met, he’d done nothing but lie. And still…as he looked into her pretty face, the flow of words wouldn’t be stopped.

“Would you like to go out to eat with me?”

She gazed up at him, her apparent surprise making her mouth into a sexy little “o”.

“Um…like tonight?”

He nodded, his hands itching to reach out and swipe back the thick lock of chestnut hair that had fallen forward to cover one eye.

“Yes. Now, in fact,” he said with a curt nod. “I’m starving and you’ve probably been too distraught to think about a proper meal. Come on, it will be good to get your mind off things for a while.”

She lit up at the idea of it but then blew out a long sigh and shrugged. “I feel like you’ve already wasted so much of your weekend on this whole mess. Surely you have better things to do than spend your afternoon babysitting me.”

She’d offered him an out. An easy get out of jail free card, and he should take it. Get back up the mountain, talk over strategy with Drake and Willa and get the ball rolling.

Then again, he always did hunt best at night and the odds of finding the men who hurt Taya in broad daylight were slim. Waiting until Willa got the perps descriptions out to her packmates and was able to do some sniffing around was probably best in any case. Flying blind was no better than not flying at all.

Plus, as tough as Taya had been through this whole thing—and he had to admit, she’d been plenty tough—he could see in her face that she was starting to fray at the edges. A break from the intensity of this all could only benefit her.

He looked down into her hopeful face and a surge of need so strong that it made his muscles quiver blasted through him.

Who was he kidding? This was as much about him as it was about her. He just didn’t want to leave her. Not yet.

The urge to pull her into the circle of his arms swamped him, but he tamped it down fast. Lunch or no lunch, he wasn’t in the market for a new pet, especially one of the garden human variety, and he certainly didn’t have time to play long-term friend and hero to this damsel in distress. He already had what Drake sardonically referred to as a harem, and was knee deep in running a commodities empire. Not to mention he and Drake had been working hard at solidifying the dragon shifter presence in Montana.

No, once he took care of Taya’s vermin problem and made sure she was safe, he needed to move on. There was no point in making that harder than it needed to be. Especially on her. She’d suffered enough.

But maybe one friendly meal wouldn’t hurt…

He’d make sure he didn’t mislead her, and use the time to comfort her and give her confidence that the men who had attacked her would face justice.

And they would. Because justice was his middle name.

“I didn’t have anything planned other than coming here today, so you’re not keeping me from anything. And we’ve both got to eat anyway. What do you say?”

She nodded, her cheeks flushing with pleasure. “Sure, if you really don’t mind. I could use the company.”

“Great. Why don’t you get your purse, go put a little makeup on your chin so people don’t think I beat you up, and then we’ll go over to Sassy’s Bar and Grille. It’s low key, they have great burgers and sandwiches, and we can have a game of darts when we’re done.”

She popped off a snappy salute and made for the stairs. “I’ll be ten minutes or less. Feel free to turn on the television while you wait.”

As a man who juggled no less than eight women in his life at any given time, he was very aware of what ten minutes meant in woman-speak, so when he’d barely gotten comfortable on the couch and she appeared with a breathless smile, he was stunned.

And when he took in her appearance, he was even more stunned.

She’d managed to change again, taking her hair down, and replacing the slouchy jeans and already sexy shirt that had shown off her beautiful neckline for something even more compelling. He’d known he liked the way she felt against him, all packed with those dangerous curves, but in the wake of the attack, he’d been too concerned with her emotional state to really notice exactly how fine she was.

There was no question he noticed it now. Hot blood pulsed through him, heading straight to his cock as he took in the view. Her long hair hung in soft waves over her shoulder, the very ends brushing the swell of her ample bosom. She wore a peach colored cotton sweater that was so plain that it should’ve been invisible, but on her with those luscious breasts, it called to him like a siren’s song. He let his gaze travel lower to take in the second-skin jeans that were clearly meant for comfort and not their many benefits as they clung to her hips and thighs in a way that made his hand clench with the need to touch.

“Etienne? Are you okay?” she asked, her husky voice tinged with concern.

He could only imagine his expression was one of pain, because damned if that wasn’t how he felt. Like he was being strung up and tortured in the best worst way by all that bounty he could never sample.

Off limits.

He swallowed hard and dragged his eyes past her freshly glossed lips to meet her gaze. “Fine, yeah. I was just thinking that you should probably bring a light jacket in case the wind picks up again.“

Her furrowed brow smoothed and she nodded, bustling over to the coat closet. “Good idea.”

Turned out it was a stellar idea, because once she wrapped all that real estate in a lightweight trench, he could finally think straight again.

Excellent.

Now if he could convince her to stay that way all night, he’d be good. If not?

It was going to be a very long, very hard night.