“Listen, Peter, I’ve been thinking. I just don’t think this job is what I signed on for.”

“Signed on for, huh?” Peter said, his breath coming out in big puffs of steam like Smaug sitting in his mountain keep. “Knew you were signing on for private security work.”

I’d realized as I was standing there explaining to Frost how I found the victim in the trunk of the car, that there’d been a feeling creeping below the surface of my life for the last few months or so. Just an annoying little sensation that seemed to be coming to a head, like all the problems I had with my life were just about to surface.

“Maybe I didn’t word that right. What I mean is, I thought we were going to be doing different kinds of work, Cap. Come on, I left homicide in LA for this. All I did there was solve murders—try to, at least. Here, though, what do I do? Investigate the occasional break-in? Interview employees for loss prevention cases? Do a little fraud investigation?”

“You defend people, Jake. You helped us with Frank’s girl’s case just a few months ago. If you hadn’t spotted where that guy would have been camped out, we’d have had no idea who he was when we were trying to save her.”

I shook my head. “That’s still not the kind of case I used to handle. I used to deliver justice to victims. Would you look at this shit? At Glick fumbling all over the crime scene with his dick in his hands? Trying to blame Elise for this shit?”

Peter shook his head. “Maybe you should join the sheriff’s office, then?”

I almost burst out laughing. “And catch an interesting case once every two years?”

“This why you want the vacation time? To help Elise?”

“Would’ve made a good detective, Cap.”

He didn’t smile.

“Seriously, yeah. That’s the major reason. She needs help. I mean, I’m not exactly the best in the business at tracking people down, but I can follow a clue like a bloodhound. And, besides, I’d like to find the guys that did this.”

“To your guy in the trunk, you mean?”

“Think anyone else is going to? Got a feeling the only one who’s going to miss him is Granny in there.”

Peter looked down at the icy street. “What are you thinking after this? You coming back?”

I sighed. “I dunno.”

“The pack, though?”

I paused, and thought about all the guys. They were like my brothers, even after such a short amount of time.

Back when I was a soldier, you got closer to your buddies than anyone else in the world. Getting shot at, getting blown up. You fought for the guy next to you even if you couldn’t stand him. Because he was your comrade. That was it. Only they understood what you were going through, and only you understood what they were going through. You were in it together.

Afterwards, when I was a cop, you had the badge. You had the brotherhood. Backing the blue, turning an eye to what sometimes needed to be done to get the job done. It was us versus the scum, the people who wanted to make a life by stealing the lives of others. When it came down to it, they were your brothers, too.

But my pack mates? Frank, Richard, Matt, Peter, and even Mary?

God, I’d never had anyone like them before. They were something different. Like both fraternities of my life rolled into one. Soldiers, investigators, shifters. Nothing like my earlier pack, either. They were family.

Just thinking about them, and the thought of maybe leaving them, made my stomach bottom out and hit the slush.

“Jake?” Peter asked. “You alright?”

I shook my head. “I dunno, Peter. What I do know, though, is that I need to carry through on this one. I need to take the time off and help her find her sister. And I gotta find out who killed this kid and see justice done.”

“That important to you?”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

Peter nodded. “Alright. Take the time off. We’re pretty clear since it’s just after the holidays. Probably won’t pick up till after Valentine’s Day.”

We shook hands. “Thanks, Cap.”

“You care about her already, don’t you?”

“Who?”

“Girl in your truck. Elise.”

I glanced back at the beautiful woman sitting in the cab of my old truck, just staring out the window as Deputy Glick finished cordoning off the crime scene. I watched as she brushed a long curl from her face, finally getting frustrated enough to just stick it up below her beanie.

“She’s just a girl who needs help, Cap. That’s all.”

Peter gave me a brief smile and a nod. “Sure, Jake. Request for leave is granted. Why don’t you get her out of here so she doesn’t have to see the corpse again when the coroner arrives?”

“Probably a good idea.”

“And, hey, Jake,” Peter called to my back as I was walking to my truck, “don’t worry. Whatever you decide, we’ll understand.”

I turned back to Peter and gave him a nod.

What were those old lyrics? Something about staying, or going?

“Guess you can just call me Joe,” I mumbled as I climbed into the cab.