She gave a very tired sigh. “No one can, Mr. Warden. Now please go.”

He nodded and walked out into the night and drove away.

* * * * *

Sitting in the rare April sunshine, Nina ate her sandwich. She tipped her face up to grab all the natural light she could before having to get back to work.

“Heard from Rey?”

She sighed heavily, opened her eyes and took in the gloriously male thighs that belonged to her shadow and nemesis, Lex Warden. Damn but the man was delicious.

“I thought we went over this, wolf boy. He hasn’t contacted me. I told you that I’d relay your message if he did. Anyway, let’s not pretend that you and your furry minions haven’t been watching my every move for the last two weeks.”

For a spinster she really was funny. For the hundredth time he found himself wanting to take her hair out of that ruthlessly tight bun and toss the glasses away. Wanting to know what she was like beneath the uptight veneer. Truth was, spinster or not, he liked her. More than that, he admired her. Okay, so it was more than that, he had to admit that he was sweet on her. Each time he saw her, watched her, caught her scent on the breeze, he wanted her a bit more.

“Furry minions?” He grinned at her, gave her his teeth and all of his charm and stilled for a moment. He scented her arousal. Her body warmed and he smelled her pu**y. It couldn’t be. She hated him.

She stood up, tossed her garbage into the bin and moved past him, back into her shop. “I’d say you’d be the first to know if he contacts me, but I’d be lying. Have a good day, wolf boy,” she tossed over her shoulder as she went back inside.

He stood there, stunned, for a few minutes and then growled as he stomped away, frustrated that his body wanted a woman like her instead of the very willing females at the Pack house.

* * * * *

A week later, Nina awoke from a deep sleep and sat straight up with a gasp. Someone was in her house. She grabbed her shotgun and crept out into the hallway and nearly shot her brother as he rummaged through her fridge.

“Jesus! Gabriel, I almost shot you,” she said in a hiss, hand over her frantic heart.

He turned to her and grinned. “Sorry, I was starving.”

“What in hell are you doing here? Gabriel, your Pack has been looking for you. Lex Warden has been here several times and he’s been following me. And when he isn’t stuck to my ass, one of his men, people, wolves…” She shook her head in confusion. “Anyway, I’m constantly being watched. He says he wants to help you. That others want to kill you. It’s time for you to tell me exactly what you saw.”

His grin faded and he took his food to the table and sat down heavily. “Nina, there’s some bad shit going on. I told you that I saw them kill my bud Tommie. It’s one of the Pack hierarchy, I know that much for sure. He was talking to them one minute and the next he was on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. I got the hell out of there but I’m pretty sure they saw me.”

“Ya think?” she said sarcastically. “You saw a murder, Gabriel. Damn it, listen to me for once and go to the cops!”

“Oh how naïve can you be? Come on, Nina! You may be living the straight life now but you know that we can’t go to them. One run of my record and they wouldn’t believe a damned thing I say. And you want them back in your life?”

“Of course I don’t! But that doesn’t change what happened. You saw a murder.” She broke off, frustrated with him, with the situation. Struggling for calm, she took a deep breath. “Why, Gabe? Why did they kill your friend?”

“I don’t know!” He threw his hands up in frustration. “He said he was on some business for Cade and had to talk to someone, someone big. He told me to keep it quiet. He’d met with these guys before but I could tell he was really nervous.”

“Do you know anything other than that? Anything that we can use to keep you alive? Find out who killed your friend and why?”

Gabriel nodded earnestly. “Yes! He had a laptop, left it in the car. It’s in our locker at the bus station. I don’t know how to get the information off it.”

She sighed, knowing what was next. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” She was so sick of his convoluted thinking. This had been going on for weeks and he had a big clue just sitting around? She took a calming breath. “Cade is Lex’s brother right? The Alpha? Can you trust him? If you can’t go to the cops, he’s the nearest thing isn’t he?”

“I don’t know how high this thing goes. Both Wardens seem to be pretty good guys, but the shooter is in the top Pack ranks, or he is according to what Tommie told me before he got capped. Until we see what’s on that laptop, how can I know who to trust?”

“Did you turn it on?”

He nodded. “Looks like some heavy security protocol shit, though. I left it alone, figured your expertise was needed.”

She sighed but couldn’t deny the thrill she felt. It had been a very long time since she’d done anything exciting or shady. “Let me get dressed and we’ll go.” She turned and walked into her bedroom and pulled on some jeans and a sweatshirt, gathering her hair into a tight ponytail and grabbing the glasses.

“What, no ugly clothes?” he cracked as she came back into the kitchen.

“It’s in between my disguise and my normal look. Not wearing a disguise is as good as wearing one. Everyone connected with your Pack knows me as the uptight matron with the granny clothes so the jeans and sweatshirt might fool them, but if my neighbors saw, they’d still see the hair pulled back and the glasses.”