Read Online Bear This Heat (A BBW Shifter Romance) (Last of the Shapeshifters) by A.E. Grace - Free Book Online Page B

something.
    He went first to the house on the left, and knocked on the door. There was no answer, and so he tried again, this time banging harder. The door’s hinges were old, and he could hear the screws rattling.
    “Coming,” he heard, followed by a raspy cough. The door opened, and he saw a woman standing there, in her nightie, with a cup of coffee in her hand that smelled strongly of whiskey. “Well, aren’t you dashing!”
    “I’m with the police,” Dylan said. “Actually, I just got off shift, but they’ve sent me down here to clarify your statement.”
    “Again?” the woman asked, tapping her feet. The smell of stale cigarette smoke wafted out from behind her.
    “I just wanted to clarify, you said that this morning you saw a…” Dylan let his voice trail off, hoping the woman would answer for him.
    “Yes?” she asked.
    “I mean, it’s just, the boys at the station were a little unclear,” Dylan continued, trying again. “You didn’t hear anything?”
    “No, I keep my windows shut up tight and locked.” She sniffed. “That woman detective this morning felt the need to remind me to do so.”
    “So you really saw-” Dylan had been about to say ‘nothing’ when she cut him off.
    “Yes, I did. Nobody believes me, but it’s the truth. It was huge. Bigger than any dog I’ve seen ever before. Then again, I’ve never seen a Great Dane.”
    A smile broke over Dylan’s face. “I understand. Thank you very much, ma’am.”
    “Would you like to come in for some coffee?”
    Dylan looked at her cup, and then shook his head. “No, that’s quite alright. We, uh, can’t-”
    “That’s right,” she said, cutting him off. “Can’t take anything.”
    “That’s right, ma’am. Thank you again, you’ve been very helpful.”
    “Tell you the truth,” the woman added. “It looked a bit like a wolf. Crazy, right? In the desert. Believe that?” She shut the door, and Dylan heard the sounds of three latches locking. Excitement thrilled through him. His instincts had been right.
    He turned his gaze onto the crime scene. Just what the hell had the wolf shapeshifter done?
    Dylan stepped back from the door, and walked back to the pavement. He looked up and down again, and shoved his hands into his pockets, thinking. The possibility that she had seen a shadow and then embellished her tale loomed. But that seemed unlikely, even after her whiskey-laced coffee. She didn’t strike him as someone dishonest or prone to embellishment. Anyway, if she did see a wolf, or ‘big dog’, it would fit with all the clues he’d had to go on so far.
    Making his way to the cordoned-off house, he didn’t know what he expected to find, but he did realize that a part of him was holding back, stalling, because he didn’t want to discover that the wolf, the shapeshifter, the only other one of his kind that he had managed to track – possibly the only other one in existence – had done something horribly, horribly wrong.
    Sighing, he ducked under the tape, and tested the front door’s knob, hand wrapped in the bottom of his t-shirt. It was unlocked. He opened it and stepped inside.
     
    *
     
    Sasha drove quickly to Charlie Kinnear’s house, hoping that her hunch would prove fruitful. She pulled into the driveway of a house a block away. She knew who lived there, and they wouldn’t be home for a few hours yet. She reclined her backrest so that she could see past the passenger-side seat, and pulled a pair of binoculars from the glove compartment. It was standard issue for every unmarked police car.
    Peering up at old man Charlie’s house, she could see the bright yellow tape flapping loosely in the light breeze that there was. But the breeze wasn’t enough to keep her from sweating. Seated inside the car in an unsheltered driveway, it was sweltering. But she’d have to brave it, ignore it, if she wanted to catch Dylan Macready.
    Taking a large sip from her water bottle, she wiped strands of straight almond hair