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this situation. He was trying and she felt better about Riker staying if Blaine was here to talk him down or, God forbid, cover for him if he ended up shifting in that damned cage tonight.
    Blaine opened the interrogation room door for her, then pulled a ring of keys from his belt and opened the screeching metal door to Riker’s cell.
    “What are you doing?” Bryant asked from his desk up front.
    “Letting her say goodbye to her fiancé before she has to go back home without him,” Blaine said testily. “We did arrest the man on some high falutin’ city force’s whim and he didn’t resist arrest. It’s the right thing to do.”
    Bryant’s expression said he disagreed but Hannah was already through the bars and Riker rushed her and pulled her i nto a lung-squeezing hug.
    “Did you hear,” she whispered against his neck.
    “Yeah, most of it. You’ll be here at six?”
    “I’ll be here earlier, but you won’t be able to come home until then. You have to hold it together tonight, okay?”
    “I need…” His voice sounded strangled. “If I were with you, this would be easier. My bear side can’t seem to settle behind these bars.”
    Grinning into his neck, she said, “Riker, I don’t think these men would appreciate the sight of you fulfilling your needs with me.”
    A moment of silence passed, then another. Then a deep chuckle reverberated against her shoulder and he took a long breath near her hair. “Sorry. That sounded crazy and desperate.”
    “Sounded like a bear,” she breathed. His laugh had loosened something tight and choking within her and she sighed. “One night and then you’ll be back in Bear Valley and we’ll take whatever Murphy’s mystery proof is when it comes.”
    He pressed a remarkable erection against her belly and his lips crooked in a mischievous smile. “What if you don’t like me the same tomorrow? Prison changes a man.”
    She snorted and swatted at his hand, which was making impressive work at fond ling her bosom. “This isn’t prison. It’s more like a drunk tank for the local mountain moonshiners.”
    “Hannah,” Blaine said.
    Right, time to go. “Control your bear, Riker. Relax, sleep, and I’ll be here in the morning. I love you.”
    He pulled her hand against his chest, above his pounding heart, and rested his forehead against hers. “I love you , too.”
    As she sat in Riker’s truck outside the station, she cursed her tears back into place and hit the steering wheel with the palm of her hand. It would be her first full night away from him and the thought of sleeping in his cold bed alone hurt. She’d get about as much sleep tonight in his four-poster bed as he’d get on the cold bench in his cell.
    Murphy, that skunk faced little anus worm. He’d given away her safe houses, got Jimmy killed and had helped Stone ruin her life. And now, just as she found hope at getting her old self back, he was here to ruin everything again.
    If it was the last thing she did, Murphy was going to pay for his treachery.

Chapter Eight
    The council mem bers filed out of Riker’s house one by one, and Hannah waved to them from the front porch.
    “How are you holding up?” Cameron asked. After the meeting to update everyone about what she learned in town, Brody , Dillon and Cameron all seemed inclined to linger. Maybe they didn’t have mates to go home to, but she was grateful they seemed genuinely concerned. It made her feel like she was already part of the clan in a way.
    “I’ll be better when I know what Murphy is playing at. Here’s what bothers me about his claims. If he actually takes Riker to trial, there’s a huge risk of the court linking him to Dane and then to Stone. So why risk it?”
    “Because he’s desperate, like Blaine said,” Brody guessed. “You’ve slipped through his fingers for a year. I’ve known men like him. They live for the hunt and will stop at nothing to finish the game. He wouldn’t notice if he cut his own arm off, as long as he