You know you didn’t think that until you met Liam…

Kim picked up the phone again and scrolled to where Liam had typed in his name and number. It looked so normal, the four letters of his name, then an area code and seven-digit phone number like everyone else had.

You call me, any time of the day or night.

Had he really meant that? Or was it a mere platitude? Call me, honey. Except when I’m busy, watching TV, out with my friends, or not interested in you right now.

Just to be a pain in the ass, Kim pressed the button to call the number. One ring, and then Liam’s warm voice filled her ear.

“Kim!” As though this was the best call he’d received all day. “You all right, love?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” Kim said, her entire body warming. “I was…”

“Checking to see if I’d answer?” Liam’s amusement came across loud and clear.

“Something like that. How’s Sandra doing?”

“Better. Sean talked to her. You’re not still working, are you?”

“I’m always working, Liam. Cases don’t keep a nine-to-five schedule.”

His chuckle sent a shiver down her spine. “You need to stop now and again, sweetheart. Take it from me. I know.”

Kim realized. “Oh, you’re at work now, aren’t you? At the bar. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have interrupted.”

“I told you, love. Anytime. You rest easy, now.”

Take that, Abel. “Thanks, Liam. You too.”

A pause. It stretched on.

“You still there?” she asked.

“Yes.” He sounded suddenly subdued. “Good night, Kim. Call me again tomorrow, all right?”

She promised to, clicked off the phone, and held it to her lips. Her own boyfriend might or might not remember to call her back, but this Shifter had sounded happy to hear from her, even if he was up to his butt in bar receipts. She wasn’t sure whether that made her feel good or lonelier than ever.

Chapter Four

Liam slid his phone into his belt as he mounted his Harley, waiting for Sean to join him. Kim’s voice touched the raw sexual being inside him, the one that had wanted to unfasten her straining blouse buttons in his office. Even more warming was the thought that she’d made the choice to call him.

He’d stopped himself from asking, What are you doing right now? What are you wearing? Or not wearing?

Liam thought again of the directions to Kim’s house he’d easily brought up on a computer search. Maybe after this takedown, he’d drive out there to check up on her. Maybe she’d let him in, and maybe he could persuade her up to her bedroom for another foot massage…

“Everything all right?” Sean asked as he straddled the bike behind Liam.

Liam shifted uncomfortably, willing his growing hard-on to calm down. “It’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Because that thing in your pants looks painful.”

Liam never found it easy to lie to his brother. “I was talking to Kim.”

Sean started to laugh. He moved the sword strapped to his back to a comfortable position, then slid his arms around Liam’s waist. “You have it bad, Liam. Give up the dream and go shag a pretty Shifter. Annie maybe.”

Liam started the bike. “She works at the bar now. I never get involved with the help.”

“I didn’t say get involved. I said shag her. She’s been happy to oblige you in the past.”

“It’s you she wants, Sean. I see her sweet gaze following your ass.”

“Can we get a move on? I’d like to make this kill and be done with it.”

Liam didn’t reply. He knew Sean needed to calm his nerves, and stirring up his big brother was his favorite method.

Liam glided the bike, a Harley he’d bought for next to nothing and restored, into the street, then turned the corner and drove out of Shiftertown. He headed through crowded streets to the highway that would take them east out of the city. In his rearview mirrors, the skyline of downtown Austin glowed against the dark sky, the lit-up dome of the capitol a yellow beacon.

They turned down an inky-black road past Bastrop and rode across open country. Fergus’s trackers had called right after Liam and Sean had finished their burgers, saying they’d followed the feral to some abandoned warehouses way east of town. The feral had made camp there, and the shit wasn’t going anywhere, so could Sean and Liam please bestir themselves and come do their jobs?

If the trackers ran true to form, Liam knew they wouldn’t show their asses if there was any kind of fight. They’d hightail it out of there as soon as Liam and Sean arrived. It was the trackers’ job only to point the way, after all.

Liam parked well down the road from the warehouse, he and Sean doing the last stretch on foot. A chain-link fence surrounded the property of the once-prosperous business, but the flimsy barrier had been sliced open in plenty of places, with one whole section of it knocked flat. Crickets chirped in loud profusion outside the fence, but once Liam and Sean stepped over the fallen chain link, all animal noises ceased.

Liam smelled the stench right after that. Even a human would notice it, but to a Shifter the smell was like a body blow. Liam felt his lips curl back, his teeth elongate into fangs.

He tried to suppress his killing instinct, but it wasn’t easy. Dylan seemed to think he and Sean would come out here and solve the problem in cool detachment. But Dylan hadn’t seen the Shifter woman’s body, hadn’t found her children. Liam wanted to savage, no offers of mercy. So did Sean, probably even more than Liam did.