Chapter 4

“Make sure you take out the two guards the moment you step through the door.”

Liam gestured at the hand-drawn sketch of the drug lab that he, Kostandin, and Brandon had been going over for the last hour or so on the far side of the atrium. From the sounds of it, they’d be hitting the place in the next day or two. Jayna prayed they wouldn’t take anyone from her pack with them.

It was bad enough to hear Kos so casually talking about taking two people’s lives. But hearing her alpha talk about killing two people—people who had never done a damn thing to their pack and likely never would—made her feel ill.

She couldn’t sit around and listen to it anymore.

“Where are you going?” Liam asked when she pushed away from the wall and started for the door.

She gritted her teeth at the suspicion in his voice. “To Starbucks,” she said over her shoulder, not bothering to ask if he or anyone else wanted anything. That suspicion had been showing up more and more since they’d started working for the Albanians. It was like he knew how much she disapproved of what he was asking the pack to do. For all she knew, maybe an alpha could pick up on stuff like that.

Fortunately, she had a reputation as someone who couldn’t sit still for very long. Liam and the rest of her pack had known that for a long time, and the Albanians and omegas had figured it out pretty quick.

She could feel Liam’s gaze following her as she crossed the atrium, and she slid him a sidelong glance out of the corner of her eye. That was when she realized that Kos was watching her just as intently—only his gaze was way more disconcerting than Liam’s. He might have been thinking sexual thoughts about her, which was skeevy enough for sure, but he also might have been imagining what it would be like to cut off her fingers one by one. With him, there was no way to tell.

Outside, Jayna turned left and headed down the sidewalk. There was a Starbucks about six blocks in that direction where she liked to hang out and people watch while drinking her latte. It was a good place to get away from the crap going on in the loft.

She was a block from the coffee shop when she caught a familiar scent on the breeze. It can’t be.

Pulse skipping, she whirled around and saw the hunky, blue-eyed SWAT cop from the warehouse casually leaning against the corner of a building watching her.

Crap.

Where the hell had he materialized from? She’d just come from that direction and hadn’t seen—or smelled—him.

Jayna darted a glance left and right, expecting to see a million cops descending on her, but all she saw were normal, everyday people going about their business. Even more puzzling, she didn’t sense anything bad coming down on her. Ever since going through her change, she’d been able to feel when things were about to go sideways, like they had back in the warehouse. But right now she wasn’t getting that sensation, and it worried the hell out of her. Could an alpha like this SWAT cop somehow block her senses?

She looked back at him, expecting to see him coming toward her. She was surprised to find him still standing exactly where he’d been before, looking way too calm and casual for her taste. In a pair of faded jeans, black motorcycle boots, and a pullover hoodie, he looked good. Damn good. He was even grinning.

She had to admit he had a nice smile…for a cop. His scent was also a lot more interesting than she’d remembered. Had he smelled that delicious back in the warehouse?

Jayna took a small step back and almost fell off the curb. She caught herself, resisting the urge to look around to see how many people had seen her. There was no way she was going to take her eyes off him.

The smile slowly slipped from Officer Hunky’s face, and he took a step in her direction. Panic gripped her. She really liked it more when he smiled. It didn’t make him any less intimidating, but at least she could tell herself that he wasn’t measuring her for a prison jumpsuit.

She slowly edged to the right, but he angled to intercept her. She moved faster, still afraid to take her eyes off him. He moved with her, taking a longer stride, and she gulped at how much ground he was able to cover with those muscular legs of his. What the hell? Why was she thinking about how hot he was? He intended to arrest her and send her to prison for the rest of her life!

Maybe he saw the panic in her eyes or smelled it in the air. Whatever it was, he picked up the pace and in three strides nearly cut the distance between them in half.

The hell with this!

Jayna turned and took off running straight down the middle of the one-way road. She had to dodge around a few angry drivers, but it was better than trying to race through the crowd of people on the sidewalk. She crossed over the next street against the light, running even faster.

Boots thumped the pavement behind her, but she wasn’t too worried. No way in hell could a guy as big and muscular as Officer Hunky catch her. She’d been a fast runner before going through her change, but now she was a freaking gazelle.

Four blocks later, she darted through an alley, then sprinted down the sidewalk on the other side. She glanced over her shoulder and nearly screamed in surprise. The SWAT cop was only a few yards behind her, running with an easy stride and that same lazy grin on his face. With the wind in her face, she hadn’t been able to pick up his scent.

She dug deep and put on every shred of speed she had, not caring who saw. Liam had told her to never run this fast in public, but she doubted Liam had ever been chased by a mountainous werewolf cop who was apparently half-cheetah as well. Screw the rules.

The farther she ran, the more industrial the area became and the fewer people there were on the street. As a criminal running from a cop, that shouldn’t have bothered her, but as a female beta running from an alpha big enough to eat her, it terrified the crap out of her. If she couldn’t get away from him, maybe she should head back into a more crowded area.

She glanced over her shoulder again to see the blue-eyed SWAT cop in the exact same position he’d been in before.

“You’re pretty fast, but I’m faster,” he said. “And since I could do this all day, you might as well stop so I can talk to you.”

Stop so they could talk? He must think she was stupid.

Jayna should have called his bluff and kept running, but she was so pissed off, she stomped on the brakes, forcing him to dodge to the side to avoid crashing into her. She got some satisfaction from the fact that it took him five feet to bring himself to a full stop, and even then he still almost fell on his ass. But he quickly got it together and spun around to face her. She backpedaled as he came toward her.

He immediately stopped and held up his hands. “I’m not going to hurt you—or arrest you. I just want to talk.” He lifted the bottom of his hoodie. “See? No gun.”

There might not be a gun, but there was a mesmerizing expanse of muscles there. Thank God he lowered his shirt or she’d still be staring at them.

“Why aren’t you turning me over to your cop friends right now?” she demanded.

He shrugged. “To tell the truth, I have absolutely no idea. But let’s talk anyway.”

The answer was so unexpected—and so honest—that she couldn’t help but believe him. She knew it was stupid, yet something told her the big SWAT cop really wasn’t there to bust her. But just because she thought he wasn’t planning to slap cuffs on her in the next five seconds, that didn’t mean she was going to be friendly.

She folded her arms. “Okay. So talk.”

He looked around at the surrounding buildings with their broken windows and boarded-up doors, and she knew he was thinking this was a crappy place to talk. But it wasn’t like she could invite him back to the loft with her. That would go over so well with her alpha. And she was sure the Albanians would just be delighted.

This is one of the alpha SWAT cops I mentioned. He wants to chat, so could you give us some privacy?

Officer Hunky turned his blue eyes on her. “My bike is parked just a few blocks from here. I was hoping we could go for a ride and find another coffee shop.” When she didn’t answer, he added, “Just to talk, Jayna. I promise.”

Her heart stopped. “How do you know my name?”

He winced, as if realizing he’d let something out of the bag, then ran a hand through his dark blond hair. “Um, yeah. I know your name—at least the name on the debit card you use to buy your lattes. But no one else knows. Not even my pack.”

Again, she didn’t know why, but she believed him. Still, it freaked her out that a man she’d known for all of thirty seconds knew her name—and her debit card number. She was about to ask how the hell he knew when he interrupted her with that charming dimpled grin of his.

“By the way, my name is Eric Becker. And I can give you my credit card number if it makes you feel better.”

She suddenly found herself forgetting her anger and instead thinking about how nice his name was. He looked like an Eric—big, strong, and handsome. And let’s not forget that great smile. Suddenly, Jayna couldn’t remember what it was she’d been concerned about just a few moments earlier.

“So, you okay with the coffee shop idea?” he asked.

If she said no, then what? He obviously knew where she lived, so even if she could get away from him, he’d only go to the loft and wait for her to show up.

She nodded, gesturing for him to walk ahead of her, then followed as he turned and led her back in the direction they’d come. She kept her distance, still cautious he might try something, though she wasn’t sure what. And as fast as he could move, she wasn’t sure she could stop him if he did try something.

She was surprised when he turned in a public parking lot after a few blocks. But the bigger surprise came when they stopped in front of an expensive-looking red-and-black Harley. That’s when she remembered him saying something about having a bike. She’d been so freaked over him knowing her name, she must have missed that little detail.

He undid the chin straps on the helmet attached to the small square of leather-covered cushion that constituted a backseat. How did he expect her to sit on that? It would be like balancing her butt on a piece of two-by-four. She was just realizing the small seat probably meant she was going to have to put her arms around him if she wanted to stay on the bike when another thought popped into her head.

“Did you park here knowing I’d run this way or is it just coincidence?”

She hoped it was the latter. If this guy was so good that he could figure out which way she was going to run before she even decided herself, she was completely screwed.

He handed her the helmet, then got on the bike. “A little bit of both actually. I was hoping you wouldn’t run, but if you did, I figured it’d be down this way.”

“But how did you know I’d stop?” she asked.

He tilted the bike to the side and used his heel to shove up the kickstand, then turned that devastating smile on her. “Honestly, I expected you to get tired and stop well before we got here. But you’re in better shape than I gave you credit for, and a hell of a lot faster.” He motioned with his chin toward the back of the bike. “Get on. I promise not to bite—unless you ask nicely.”

As she eyed the small backseat, she realized she should have probably been insulted by that comment about being in better shape than he thought. But she got the feeling he was trying to give her a compliment. Strangely, she found herself liking the silly idea that he thought she was fast. But just because she appreciated his compliment, that didn’t mean she was ready to jump on the bike with him yet.

“How do I know you won’t just take me to the nearest police station?” she asked.

He pushed a switch, making the bike rumble and vibrate. She’d never been on a motorcycle before, hadn’t even stood this close to one while it was running. It felt powerful.

“I guess you’ll just have to trust me,” he said. “Besides, if I wanted to arrest you, I would have done it already.”

Jayna couldn’t argue with that. She put on the helmet, then cinched the chin strap and climbed on the bike.

“Why aren’t you wearing a helmet too?” she asked as she tried to figure out how to position her feet on the metal pegs below her and where to put her hands. She finally reached around and twisted her hands into the material of his hoodie, just above his hips. She couldn’t help but notice the rippling of his abs and hip flexors as he pushed the heavy bike backward out of the parking space.

He grinned at her over his shoulder. “I only have one helmet and I figure it’s more important to protect your pretty face than my ugly mug.”

She found herself smiling back at him. It had been a long time since any guy had thrown so many compliments her way, even ones so cheesy. But cheesy or not, she appreciated them.

Eric pulled the bike out onto the road, heading back toward Canton Street and the center of the city. She almost fell off as he sped up, and she had no choice but to lean in closer and wrap her arms more firmly around his waist. Not only did it press her breasts tightly against his muscular back, but it also put her hands really close to a part of his body she refused to let herself think about. She focused on his scent instead. He smelled even better than he had in the warehouse, and it wasn’t long before she had to lick her lips to keep from drooling. What was going on? She’d never felt like this around a guy before, not even another werewolf.

After a few minutes of zipping in and out of traffic, she had to admit this motorcycle thing was more fun than she’d expected. Being able to see the road racing by under her feet while the wind whipped across her face and through her hair was pretty cool. It was a lot like the sensation of freedom she felt when she got out in the country and could run as fast as she wanted. It made her feel like she could outrun all the problems waiting for her back at the loft.

She was almost disappointed when the bike slowed and Eric turned into the parking lot of another Starbucks. They were less than two miles from the loft, but it was far enough off the main road that there wasn’t much chance of anyone she knew stumbling on them.

By the time Eric ordered their drinks, she’d gotten most of his scent out of her nose and cleared her head enough to think straight. The ride had been nice, but there were some things she needed to know—now.

“So, Cop. How did you find me?” she asked the moment they sat down at a table in the corner.

He took a sip of his boring black coffee before answering. Why go to a Starbucks and order plain coffee? That was like going to a pizza place and ordering a cheese sandwich.

“Like I said, the name’s Eric,” he said as he set down his cup. “But my friends call me Becker.”

“Okay, how did you find me…Eric?”

He didn’t seem bothered by her snarky jab. Instead, he motioned toward her drink. “That.”

“My cinnamon dolce latte?”

“I found a partial Starbucks receipt with your scent on it in that crate at the warehouse. It had the name of that drink and a time stamp on it.”

She stared at him, trying to understand how he’d gotten from a scrap of paper with a few meaningless bits of data on it to actually sitting in front of her in a single day.

“You had a receipt with a time stamp and you found me just like that?”

He gave her what could only be a sheepish look. “Not exactly. It took a bit more work than that. First, I hacked into the credit card processing company that handles the Starbucks stores in the Dallas area, then dug through hundreds of card swipes until I came up with a list of stores that made a credit sale matching the cost of your drink and the time stamp. Then I slipped into the traffic and online security cameras around each of those stores and spent a few more hours watching grainy surveillance videos until I saw you walking down Canton Street a few minutes after buying your coffee.”

She couldn’t believe he’d spent all that time tracking her down just so he could talk to her. “But…how did you find out my name?”

He shrugged, looking slightly embarrassed. It was crazy seeing a guy as big as Eric looking like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Once I confirmed which Starbucks you went to, I was able to dig a little deeper into your credit history. It’s not hard to get a name when you do that. Though I had no way of knowing if it was fake or not. Is Jayna Winston your real name?”

She nodded. There was no reason to lie. He could obviously verify her name if he wanted to. He was good with a computer, and she’d never made an effort to hide her identity in the years since leaving Detroit. She hadn’t left much of a footprint before joining the pack, and afterward, they didn’t hang around any place long enough to leave an indelible mark.

“So you decided to come and hang around Starbucks until I showed up?” she asked.

“Pretty much.” He sipped his coffee. “I got to the area a couple hours ago and sniffed around a bit to make sure I was right. All the werewolf scents in the area told me I was, so I backed off and waited for you to make another coffee run. I figured I wouldn’t have to wait too long.” His mouth quirked. “You seem addicted to your lattes.”

“You did all that—hacking into computer systems, watching endless hours of video, hanging around a coffee shop half the morning—just to find me? Why?”

He stopped smiling, his blue eyes suddenly serious. “It seemed like you were in a lot of trouble back in that warehouse. I thought I should find you and try to help.”

Since going through her change almost five years ago, Jayna had gotten freaky good at figuring out when people were lying to her, and right now, those instincts were telling her that Eric wasn’t being completely honest. But those same instincts told her that she could trust him in spite of that. Whatever he was hiding, it didn’t involve arresting her.

“What makes you think I’m in trouble?” She broke off a piece of the coffee cake he’d bought her and nibbled on it. “Maybe I’m the kind of girl who robs warehouses all the time.”

His mouth curved into a half smile. “You’re a lot of amazing things, Jayna, but you’re not that kind of girl. Your heart was thumping a thousand miles an hour when you saw me in that warehouse, even more when you heard over my radio that the other members of your pack had abandoned you.”

She snorted. “Trust me, those guys aren’t my pack.”

“Then why were you running with them?”

Jayna didn’t know why she was hesitating, especially after the omegas had left her to fend for herself. She didn’t owe them anything.

“It’s not by choice,” she finally admitted. “They’re a group of omegas my alpha brought in to serve as muscle for the Albanian mobsters my real pack and I are stuck working for.”

His mouth twitched. “That sounds like something out of a James Bond movie, you know that, right?”

That was way funnier than it should have been given the situation, and she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. “I’ve never been a really big fan of James Bond movies.”

“Really? I’ll have to see what I can do to change your position on them, then.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “But right now, I’m more interested in what an omega is.”

Jayna almost choked on her latte. He was an alpha and he didn’t know what an omega was? “You don’t know?”

Eric shook his head.

He really didn’t. “An omega is a big, strong werewolf like an alpha, but they don’t have the natural pack instincts you do. That’s why those guys bolted and left me the moment the crap hit the fan at the warehouse. They don’t care about anyone but themselves.”

“Huh.” Eric took a swallow of coffee. “That explains why they didn’t fight as a team.”

“They’re more likely to throw each other to the wolves,” she said, then added, “No pun intended. That’s why werewolves like me don’t like to hang out with them. They don’t have any loyalty to anyone.”

Eric studied her for a long time, and she wondered if she’d said something wrong. Then he tilted his head to the side, a cute, quizzical look on his face.

“Okay, I’ll bite,” he said. “What do you mean, werewolves like you?”

She’d met her share of werewolves over the last five years and none of them had been this clueless. Eric must be even newer to this whole werewolf thing than she’d thought.

“Betas,” she said.

She’d hoped for a spark of recognition, but he just sat there with an interested look on his gorgeous face, obviously waiting for her to continue.

“You don’t know what a beta is either?” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Exactly how long have you been a werewolf?”

He flushed beneath his tan. “A little over two years, but I was in the police academy for some of that before I joined the Pack, so I’m still learning a lot about werewolves.”

Which meant he wasn’t much further along than Moe when it came to being a werewolf. But Eric seemed so mature and in charge, she’d assumed he was more experienced. He was an alpha, though, and if half of what Liam had told her about being an alpha was true, Eric had probably spent most of that first year after the change trying to figure out how to control his inner beast. And he had to do it while going through the police academy. When she looked at it that way, he had a good excuse for not knowing what a beta was.

“Sorry,” she said. “I thought you’d been a werewolf a lot longer than I have.”

He flashed her that megawatt smile. “No big deal. I don’t have a problem with you being smarter than I am. I find smart women to be very sexy.”

She was the one who blushed this time.

“So…a beta,” he continued. “I’m guessing that’s halfway between an alpha and an omega?”

She nodded. “Betas aren’t as strong and fast as alphas or omegas. But on the upside, we typically have fewer issues with control than you guys do.”

He gave her an appraising look. “You seem pretty fast to me. In fact, you could probably outrun most of my pack. And you look like you’re strong too.”

Jayna had no idea why his words made her feel so ridiculously good, but they did. “Maybe,” she conceded. “I’m a little faster and stronger than the other betas in my pack, but in general, a beta’s true strength isn’t in their muscles or their agility. It’s in their loyalty to each other. Our pack bonds are the strongest of the three types of werewolves because they’re the only thing that keeps us safe from rogue omegas. They know that whatever beta they come after, they’ll always have to face the whole pack. Betas are linked in a way alphas and omegas never can be.”

“Wow. I’ve never heard of any of that,” he said with something close to boyish wonder. “But then again, I didn’t know female werewolves even existed until about two months ago when Khaki joined the team. So apparently there’s a lot I don’t know about werewolves.”

Jayna didn’t have to ask who Khaki was. There couldn’t be two female alpha werewolves running around Dallas. “Yeah, well, if we’re being honest, I have to admit I didn’t know female alphas existed until I saw your pack mate in the warehouse. That threw me for a loop. I didn’t know women could be alphas. I also didn’t know alphas could form a pack.”

His eyes twinkled. “I guess there’s a lot of stuff we can learn from each other.”

She studied him over the rim of her cup, trying to figure out if he was playing her. Was he looking to trick her into giving up information about her pack? But every instinct she had told her that wasn’t what was going on here. Eric seemed like he was genuinely interested in talking to her. There was only one way to find out if he was toying with her: ask him a question that might pose a threat to his pack and see how he responded.

“How many alphas are in your pack?”

He didn’t even hesitate. “Seventeen now that Khaki joined the team. And every one of us would bleed and die for each other.”

Jayna’s eyes widened. Seventeen alphas all in one place bonding with each other? Liam had said that wasn’t even possible. Eric’s pack alpha must be one fierce beast to keep all of them in line.

Across from her, Eric leaned in a little closer. “Not counting the omegas, how many members are in your pack?”

She was so distracted by his scent that she almost didn’t hear the question. Why did he smell so different—and so much more delicious—than every other werewolf? She wanted to bury her nose in his neck and breathe in even more of him.

Jayna quickly sat back before she did.

She’d promised herself she wouldn’t tell him anything that would put her pack in danger, but telling him how many of them there were wouldn’t pose a threat. It wasn’t like he and his alpha buddies had anything to fear from five betas. Besides, he’d been so open with her. It seemed wrong not to answer him.

“There are four other betas besides me. And our alpha.”

“How long have you been with them?”

“Four years,” she said. “I changed about a year before that.”

She expected him to ask why she’d changed and what she’d done for that year on her own. But instead, he took the conversation in a totally different direction.

“How did you and your pack get mixed up with a gang of Albanian mobsters?”

When Jayna had gotten on the back of his bike, she hadn’t intended to tell Eric anything at all, but she’d already revealed how many members were in her pack and now she found herself confiding in him about things she shouldn’t be, including how her pack had been forced to steal stuff over the years just to survive.

“None of us liked stealing, but we didn’t have much of a choice. No matter how much we worked, we never seemed to have enough to buy food and keep a decent roof over our heads at the same time.” She broke off another piece of cake but didn’t eat it. “Then a few weeks ago, Liam—that’s our alpha—admitted he’d had to borrow money to help us through some rough patches. And it wasn’t from a bank.”

“I’m guessing this is where the Albanians come in,” Eric said.

She nodded. “For some reason, Liam told the Albanians about our pack. When they got their hands on all of his outstanding IOUs, we had no choice but to work for them to pay off that debt. Either that, or they’ll kill him.”

Eric frowned. “You know if you and your pack stay with these Albanians, you’re going to get yourselves killed, right?”

“I know. But there’s nothing I can do about it.”

Jayna popped the piece of cake in her mouth and chewed in frustration. She could have killed Liam for getting the pack into this mess.

“Why the hell not?” Eric demanded. “If you know this is dangerous, why don’t you and the rest of your pack just leave?”

“They won’t leave Liam. He’s the alpha, and they won’t walk away from him.”

“And you won’t walk away from them.”

“I can’t,” she said softly. “They need me.”

Eric didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he sighed. “Okay, I get that. What I don’t get is why Liam doesn’t stand up to the Albanians. I know they threatened his life, but he’s your alpha. Where I come from, an alpha does whatever he has to do to protect the Pack.”

She stared down at her cup. That’s what she thought an alpha was supposed to do too. But how could she admit that to Eric? Worse, how could she tell him she thought Liam had been lying to the pack all along?

When Liam had told them about the Albanians holding his IOUs, she’d thought something had been off. It wasn’t until they’d gotten to Dallas and she saw how at ease Liam was with them that she began to suspect he’d lied about everything. She had no proof, but it just seemed like Liam had manipulated the whole pack to get them to work for the Albanians.

“We can still take down the Albanians,” Eric was saying. “You just have to make sure you get your pack out of the loft before the raid.”

Jayna’s hand tightened around her coffee cup as she fought to keep her claws from coming out. She knew she shouldn’t have trusted a cop. “Raid? I thought you said you weren’t interested in arresting us.”

Okay, that was semantics. Actually, he’d said he wasn’t interested in arresting her. He didn’t say anything about her pack. But they were a package deal.

If Eric knew how close she was to shifting, he didn’t let it show. “I’m not. And as long as you and your pack are far away from the loft when my pack and I go in, no one else needs to know you were involved in the robbery at the warehouse.”

She relaxed a little at that. “The Albanians never let all of us leave at the same time. They know that if they always keep one of us there, the rest of us won’t ever try to run.”

The muscle in Eric’s jaw flexed. “Dammit. Tell me about the Albanians, then.”

“What do you want to know?”

“How many of them there are, who’s in charge, what their routine is like—anything you can think of.”

Jayna started with Frasheri, then moved on to Kostandin. Eric’s eyes flashed gold when she said Kos was half a chicken nugget away from being a serial killer. She was about to remind Eric where they were, afraid he might shift right there in Starbucks, but his eyes were back to their normal color before she could get the words out. Well, that was unexpected. All she’d done was mention she and her pack mates were wary of Kos, and Eric looked like he wanted to rip the Albanian to shreds. She wished Liam were as protective of their pack.

“Want another?” Eric asked as she drank the last of her latte.

Jayna was tempted to say yes simply so she could hang out with him a little while longer. Despite talking about the Albanians and the mess Liam had gotten them into, she was having fun with Eric, which was something she hadn’t done in a really long time. But she’d already been away from the loft too long.

“I can’t,” she said. “They’ll think something is wrong if I’m gone much longer.”

Eric looked as bummed as she felt, but didn’t say anything. He knew as well as she did why she had to go. She couldn’t leave her pack behind, and he wouldn’t ask her to.

“Will you be okay getting back?”

Jayna could only nod. That was the first time anyone other than her pack mates had ever shown concern for her. It felt…nice.

She was halfway out of her chair when she remembered something crazy important she needed to tell Eric. She sat back down. He did too.

“Damn, I almost forgot,” she said. “Kostandin is planning to take out your pack. He doesn’t care that you guys are cops. He wants all of you dead.”

She expected Eric to freak out, or at least immediately pull out his cell phone and call his alpha, but he simply nodded and said he’d let them know, like he was used to people trying to kill them all the time.

He stood when she did. “You’re going to need to wash off my scent before you go back, or they’ll smell me all over you.”

“Crap. You’re right.” She hadn’t even thought about that. “How am I going to get it off? I don’t think a sponge bath in the bathroom at Starbucks is going to do it.”

“You’re going to have to take a shower.”

That meant getting a hotel room. How the hell was she going to afford that?

Jayna was still wondering if she could somehow wash in Starbucks when Eric pulled out his wallet, yanked out all the cash he had in it, and held it out to her.

“Buy what you need and get a hotel room. It’d be best if you washed your clothes too, but I’m guessing you don’t have time for that, so spray a lot of perfume on them instead.”

To say she was stunned would be an understatement. Eric was a cop. He should have been arresting her instead of helping her.

“You might want to take the money now,” he said softly. “It’s starting to look like I’m offering to pay you for a sexual favor or something.”

That got her moving. She quickly reached for the money, shoving it in her pocket with a nod of thanks.

“Be careful,” he said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, but I promise I’ll come up with some way to get you and your pack mates out of this mess. Just try to stay alive long enough for me to do it, okay?”

Jayna nodded, a tiny part of her believing he really could help them. But she quickly dashed that hope. There was no simple way out of a crappy situation like this. That was one thing her life to this point had taught her.

She agreed to be as careful as she could—and to exchange phone numbers with him. She was embarrassed pulling out the cheap prepaid cell phone Liam had given her, but Eric didn’t say a word as he entered his name and phone number into the memory. Then she gave him her number and watched as he typed it into his fancy iPhone so fast she could barely see his fingers move.

“Don’t call me unless it’s important,” she said after he put his phone away. “The only people who have this number are my pack mates. If it rings when they’re all there, Liam will flip out.”

He nodded. “Can we meet again tomorrow? Around this same time? I should have some kind of plan by then.”

Even though she had no idea why, Jayna agreed. Meeting him twice in two days was beyond dangerous. She must have been insane. Clandestine dates with a cop who thought he could save her and her pack from a gang of vicious mobsters—what the hell was she thinking?

Eric opened his mouth, then closed it. She thought he was going to ask her to stay. For one crazy moment, she almost wished he would. But then the real world intruded and she remembered she’d been gone from the loft for a long time.

Giving Eric a small smile, she forced herself to turn and walk toward the door, pleased that she was able to keep herself from turning back to see if he was watching her…at least until she reached the door. Then she threw a brief glance his way. He was still standing where she’d left him, gazing at her with those beautiful blue eyes.

Why did that make her so happy?