Ripper Read online

  “No,” Gil replied, shaking his long beard. “But the fact that you have to ask whether a fat ass guy with a tattoo of a naked chick on his forearm is gay or not is a testament to your inability to make proper choices.”

  I laughed long and hard because it struck me as funny. I liked this place. It was nice. Oh, sure, it was followed by vomiting and a horrible headache, but for now it was a little like heaven. I was only thinking of pleasant things. I texted Liv and told her how much I loved her. If I’d had anyone else to call, I totally would have called them to express my love and appreciation, but I didn’t have phone numbers for my World of Warcraft guild. I would have called Crozier and told him to meet me at the tavern for a drink or two. Oh, he was a shaman in a MMORPG game, but he was the closest thing I had to a crush on an actual human being. He was a nice guy and not related to me, so I sort of fantasized about him. If he’d been there, I would have jumped all over that and I had zero idea what he looked like. My shot at getting a little something was low this evening.

  “How about it, Gil?” The bartender was safe to flirt with. “I’ve been coming in here for almost a year. When are we going to stop fighting this attraction we have?”

  Gil threw back his thickly bearded head and laughed. I was too drunk to be insulted so I joined him. “Darlin’, if I was thirty years younger you would still be too much woman for me to handle. I would take one look at you, think about how amazing the sex would be, and run the other way.”

  “Is that your polite way of calling me a hot mess?” I played with the shot glass that apparently hadn’t held anything vaguely resembling liquor for a while. I needed to give apple juice another try. It was good. There was a little drop at the bottom of the glass and I licked the glass not wanting it to go to waste.

  Gil shook his head. “Hot doesn’t begin to cover it.”

  A good song came on the radio and I let Gil’s comment go, preferring to sway to the music. Then I decided swaying wasn’t a good idea and staying on my barstool was.

  “Wow, that was fast.” Gil’s eyes stared past me toward the door. “I thought you were in Dallas.”

  I started to try to turn, but then my head kind of hit my folded hands and it was really comfortable so I didn’t feel like moving. I laid my head down and started to drift off to a blissful sleep.

  “I had my friend bring me out. He’s faster than a speeding bullet.” Ah, my brother Nate was here.

  “I like to think so,” a deeply sexy voice said.

  That got my head to move from its comfy place. I turned and saw a really gorgeous blond guy standing in the doorway, looking out over the bar. He was sexy as hell in a leather jacket, and my hopes of getting well laid shot up. He was roughly six foot two, with big broad shoulders and the kind of straight jaw you only saw on movie stars. So very nice. Unfortunately, he was standing there with my brother, who looked really disapproving.

  “Jeez, Kelsey, what the fuck happened to you?” Nathan asked as he approached me.

  “Life,” I replied with a little smile because I was still looking at hot blond guy. Wow, he was a hunk of masculinity. He stood there in his Green Lantern T-shirt and tight jeans and I knew he could rock my world. Sure, he looked like he was all of twenty years old, but it was a confident twenty. Looking at him, I could tell he was a dangerous boy. “Hello,” I said with a boozy grin. I tried to thrust my chest out appealingly. They’re small, but well rounded.

  I saw Nathan go bright red. “Stop it, Kelsey. Leave him alone. He’s married with three kids.”

  I stared at hot, young blond guy again and wondered if I had lost count of my shots. “Seriously? He looks too young to have three kids.”

  “Two boys and a girl,” Hottie said in that deep Texas drawl that made my insides clench. I sighed as he smiled, slightly embarrassed at my attempts to hit on him. “And my wife is going to be pissed that I left Evan with Justin and Blake. We have to get your sister home so we can head back to Dallas.”

  Nate frowned at me. He was only eleven months older than me, but he could seriously play the big-brother card from time to time. “Let’s go, Kels. Give me your keys so I can get you home.”

  I was so not ready to go. Unless hottie with three kiddos wanted to drive me somewhere. “Don’t worry about me, Nate. Gil shouldn’t have called you. I’m perfectly fine. I didn’t mean to disrupt your game night. Were you playing D&D?”

  He sighed. “No, we were in the middle of a game of Shogun. We probably won’t be able to finish.”

  “Dave.” I snapped my fingers as I figured out that Hottie McHotterson must be Nate’s friend Dave. My brother had played with the same group of guys for about ten years. They got together almost every week to run D&D campaigns or play board games. It was strictly guy time because at least two of the men were married and needed time away, although apparently Dave brought his son along.

  Dave laughed out loud. “Yes, I’m Dave. And you’re Kelsey Atwood. I’ve heard an awful lot about you over the years. It’s nice to finally make your acquaintance since we’ve played online together for the last six months.”

  My eyes got wide. “Oh, tell me you’re Crozier.”

  He nodded and his deep blue eyes sparkled. There was something about those eyes and I wondered if Dave was completely human. They caught the light in a way that made me question him. “At your service. You might recognize my voice if you ever put on your headset and talked to the rest of us.”

  I didn’t do that for numerous reasons, but my mind was racing. There was something about Dave that had me sobering up mighty fast. Every instinct I had was on high alert. Dave wasn’t simply hot. He was supernatural. “You aren’t human. What are you?”

  My question was curious. I wasn’t really afraid of him, but something deep inside said I should be.

  Dave’s smile vanished and I could hear Gil chuckle.

  “Damn, girl, you’ll be seeing UFOs next,” he muttered.

  “Time to go.” Nate hauled me off the barstool.

  I felt bad. It was an unstated rule of our world that we kept quiet around humans who didn’t know about the supernatural. I’d been horribly rude to Dave, but Nate didn’t give me a chance to apologize. He tossed me over his shoulder. Gil slid my keys across the bar and I wondered when he’d taken them from me.

  The world was dangerously upside down and my stomach revolted at the change of perspective.

  “I’ll try to make sure she doesn’t do it again.” I heard the sheepish embarrassment in Nate’s voice. It did more to sober me up than anything else. I hated the fact that Nate was ashamed of me.

  He hauled me out of the bar and the brisk night air hit me. Nate’s sneakers crunched against the gravel as he stalked toward my Jeep. He set me down against the Jeep as he got the door open. The world sort of tilted, but I managed to keep it together. I looked at Dave, whose eyes glittered in the dark, and I knew exactly what he was now that he was in his natural element. The night suited him.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to the vampire.

  He seemed more curious than angry at almost being outed. He regarded me seriously. “How did you know? I’m pretty good at blending in.”

  “She always knows.” Nate opened the back door to my Jeep. He was less than gentle as he hustled me into the backseat. “If you decide to puke, do it out the window.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t be so hard on her,” I heard Dave say.

  “You don’t know how many times I’ve had to cart her ass out of a damn bar because she’s just got to find the bottom of a tequila bottle. I don’t like to think about the times I didn’t get a call.” Nate opened the driver’s side and angrily started the car. Dave got in on the other side and Nate took off.

  I watched the dark trees pass by as Nate drove toward my house. This part of Hurst was undeveloped mostly because it tended to flood during heavy rains. The trees were thick on either side of the darkened road. I stared into those woods and knew there were creatures out there. I could see their eyes reflecting off the
lights from the Jeep.

  “Has she always had good instincts?” Dave asked, his voice quiet.

  “It was like growing up with Scooby-Doo,” Nate replied. “She always solved the mystery. If I lost something, Kels could find it in no time flat. She used to be a big old bundle of potential and then my dad took her on one of his little trips and she started pulling this shit. She was sixteen.”

  “I’d like to meet your father someday,” Dave muttered, his voice dark.

  “Well, if he ever shows up in town, I’ll be sure to make the introduction,” Nate replied.

  And then it hit me. What I had missed before. “Why would a wolf be following a doe?”

  Nate turned down Highway 10 and then made a left into my quiet neighborhood. The houses were all older here and many had been converted to rentals. “Probably hungry I bet.”

  Dave turned and looked at me, but now I wasn’t so sure his name was Dave. Dean? Dale? Something with a D. “You talking about a were?”

  I probably shouldn’t be talking at all, but my defenses were down. “Yeah. I’m working this missing person case. She’s a shifter, turns into a doe. The only lead I have is this werewolf, but don’t wolves date other wolves?”

  “For the most part.” Dave was serious as he thought about it. “Wolves tend to be almost exclusively attracted to other wolves, especially the males. It’s why they make such damn good bodyguards for the rest of us. They don’t tend to have any interest in our women.”

  “This guy was interested.” I wished the world would stop spinning. It was kind of moving to and fro as the car kept speeding on. I concentrated on my line of thought. “I don’t know if I would call it love, but he definitely feels something for her. And why couldn’t he track her?”

  “Maybe he’s a weak wolf.” Dave watched me carefully, and I got the feeling I was being sized up.

  “Nah.” I wished Nate would slow down. It was really getting to my gut. “He was a baby alpha. He didn’t have great control, but he was strong. He should have been able to track her. She hid her scent from him.”

  She’d masked her scent so Darren wouldn’t know what she’d been doing. She was either afraid of him or worried he’d tell her family.

  Nate pulled into the driveway. He stopped the Jeep with an angry jerk. “Well, that explains it. You said you were going to stay out of the underworld. You’re supposed to be pulling police reports for insurance companies, not trying to track down missing shifters.”

  “I had to take the case.” I was getting sleepy and my stomach was still really upset.

  “No, you didn’t,” Nate complained. “You couldn’t resist. You couldn’t stay away.”

  “It sounds like she’s trying to help someone.” Dave was the voice of reason.

  Unfortunately, my brother wasn’t big on reason. “No. She’s trying to self-destruct.”

  “You hang out with vampires,” I complained because he was being a little hypocritical.

  Nate’s eyes were hard, his mouth a flat line when he turned on me. “Yeah, well, I never tried to off myself because I couldn’t handle my father’s chosen profession.”

  Tears sprang to my eyes because Nathan couldn’t have humiliated me more if he’d tried. I opened the door to the car. “Fuck you, Nate. The next time you get a call about me, pretend it’s a wrong number.”

  I slammed the door behind me and heard Nathan cursing. I would have to find another way to spend my free time because I sure wasn’t going to hang out with Nate and his friends online anymore. That shouldn’t hurt so much, but it did. I wasn’t good at making my own friends. I kind of sucked at it. Olivia was the only friend I’d made and she didn’t have time for me anymore. God, I was so pathetic. I stumbled to the front door and then remembered I didn’t have my keys.

  “Shit.” I wiped my eyes, wishing I wasn’t so emotional. I didn’t leave a spare key with anyone because I didn’t trust anyone enough to give them the key to my house.

  “Here.” Dave held my arm to help me steady myself. He had the key in his hand and opened the door for me.

  “Thanks,” I muttered, not wanting the confident man who probably never had a single self-doubt even once in his preternaturally long life to see me crying.

  “Nate’s taking a breather.” The vampire followed me into the small living room.

  I sank down on the couch and closed my eyes, hoping he would take the hint. “I’m fine. I promise not to touch another drop of tequila and to switch bars the next time I feel the need to drink. I’ll leave my cell phone at home so there’s no chance of ever disrupting Nathan’s game night ever again.”

  “I don’t think that’s what he wants.” Dave’s voice was quiet, but it filled the room. “Okay, I’m going to get back home. It’s getting late and my wife really will kick my ass for keeping baby girl out so long. We’re going into the dungeons on Sunday night. See you there?”

  “I think I’m going to take a break for a while.”

  He sighed. “Yeah, I thought you might say that. I wish you wouldn’t, but I understand the instinct to push people away. I hope you find someone who won’t let you. Good night.”

  I sat up and watched the vampire turn and start out the door. “Dave?”

  He turned with a sweet grin on his face. He had adorable dimples when he smiled. “It’s Dan, Kelsey.”

  Dan. Daniel, right. “Sorry. It’ll bug me forever if you don’t tell me.” I was at least self-aware enough to know I had to ask. “How the hell does a vampire end up with three kids?”

  Daniel’s smile was radiant and I knew he loved someone very much. “He opens himself up to possibilities.”

  And then he was off. I let my head hit the soft cushion on the side of the couch and the world slipped away from me.

  * * * *

  I woke up to the horrible urge to get to a toilet as soon as I possibly could. I threw back the covers, not bothering to wonder how I’d made it to bed, and stumbled to the bathroom, slammed the door, and made it to my knees just as everything in my stomach decided to make a repeat appearance.

  After I’d finished the business of getting rid of the toxins left in my gut, I sat on the cold tile of the tiny bathroom listening to the argument going on in the living room. It didn’t help the shakes I had.

  “Give her a fucking break, man,” I heard Jamie say.

  “How about you give me a break, Jamie,” Nathan shot back. “You’re not the one who has to scrape her off the floor and haul her ass home every time she pulls this crap. You don’t have to see her like that.”

  My oldest brother’s voice was serious, and I wondered how long they’d been at this fight. “She hasn’t pulled anything like this in almost a year. What the hell happened?”

  I could see Nathan’s hazel eyes roll. “She took a missing person case. The person is a shifter.”

  “Damn it,” Jamie cursed. “Who the hell thought that was a good idea?”

  “Me,” I whispered because they couldn’t hear me and probably wouldn’t listen even if they could.

  “Probably Liv.” Nathan sounded exasperated and I wondered if he’d slept on the couch last night. “I already left a message on her cell giving her my opinion.”

  “Maybe it’s a good idea.” Jamie sighed. “She can’t hide forever.”

  “Why not?” Nate asked. “Ninety-five percent of the world is normal. Why can’t she ignore the five percent that’s weird? She can’t handle it.”

  “What do you mean she can’t handle it? Trust me, Kelsey can handle just about anything out there. I would take her in as backup any day of the week. She’s a badass. The only reason I didn’t offer her a job with me was you talked me out of it. You were the one who thought she should come out here and bury her head in the suburbs.”

  It was nice to know my brothers didn’t think I could make a single decision on my own. I’d worked damn hard, well, somewhat hard, to build my business, but for Jamie it came down to letting me bury my head in the sand. I turned on the cold water
in my shower and thought about crawling back into bed. I could pull the covers over my head and let the boys fight it out. Instead, I shucked last night’s clothes and nearly screamed as the cold water hit my body. Crawling back into bed wasn’t going to help Joanne Taylor. It was Friday and I had a full day planned. I needed to talk to Professor Peter Hamilton and then tonight I was going to check out those addresses in her book. It wasn’t Joanne’s or Helen’s fault that I got my ass roasted last night and felt like shit.

  After I was vaguely clean, I turned off the water and wrapped a towel around my body. I brushed my teeth and decided to let my hair dry on its own. I was thinking I could sneak out, stop by Sonic for breakfast, and be in Dallas before noon. Before I’d gone on my bender, I’d managed to check into Joanne’s e-mail accounts, with her mother’s help. I’d found nothing there. I’d also looked up her class schedule. There was only one that really interested me. Professor Peter Hamilton’s office hours were from one to three on Fridays. I just needed to get past the arguing boys. They didn’t need me to decide how my life should go. The truth was I was feeling a little better. No matter what Nathan said, I was trying to help someone and that felt good.

  I swung the door open and ran into the middle of a hunk of nicely made masculine flesh. I caught my breath because I hadn’t sensed him there at all and that was definitely a different experience for me. Usually I could tell when someone or something was close to me. It was all a part of having great hunter instincts. I was aware of my surroundings. This guy had been completely off my radar. I looked up and into the most seriously blue eyes I’d ever seen. They were so dark they were almost purple.

  Again, not human, but I couldn’t tell for the life of me what this man was besides gorgeous. He made my breath catch.

  “If you’re done with the physical parts of your hangover, might I tempt you with some coffee?” His generous lips cracked into a lopsided smile. His Texas accent was slow, but there was nothing at all uneducated about it. If I had to place a bet on his voice and the way he carried himself, I would say he’d been raised by wealthy parents.