time you answered my calls.” The voice was male with what sounded like a Northern accent. Maine, probably.
She shook her head, her gaze leveling Wolfe. “I didn’t mean to answer. Stop calling me, and definitely stop calling my parents to find me. We’re done. Got it?”
Wolfe cocked his head. When he’d met Dana, she’d been home covering a story about river guides. Hadn’t somebody mentioned that she was just out of a relationship with a guy she never should’ve dated? Was this the guy? If so, he didn’t seem to be getting the hint.
The guy sighed loudly through the phone, raising Wolfe’s hackles. “Listen to me. I’m sorry about what happened, and I really would like to apologize in person. Please forgive me.”
“You’re forgiven, Mike,” she said, shuffling the bloody towels to her other arm.
Wolfe sat back and crossed his arms. It was that easy? What the heck was happening, and what did good ol’ Mike do in the first place?
Even Mike seemed taken aback. “Well, okay. Thanks, then. When can we get together?”
Dana drew air in through her nose. “Never. You’re forgiven and all of that, but I’m not going back. So please move on and stop calling me.”
“Now that’s just silly,” Mike said, his voice turning charming. “I’m going to be at Sally’s wedding next weekend, and she wouldn’t have invited me if there wasn’t still a chance for us. Maybe I can finally meet your parents.”
Pink bloomed across Dana’s cheekbones. “Sally invited you because she doesn’t like me but loves drama. Don’t come.” At Wolfe’s raised eyebrows, her own rose. “Or come, if you want, but you have to know that I’m going to be busy and have no intention of going out with you again. Though I do wish you well.” The last was said on a rush.
Mike’s chuckle was like bone scraping bone. “Come on, Dana. You have to at least save me a dance.”
“No, she really doesn’t,” Wolfe said quietly. “Believe me. Her date won’t like it.”
Dana’s lips snapped together, and she whirled on him. “You just couldn’t be quiet, could you? Everything was going fine, and I was handling it, but you just couldn’t sit there.”
“Sorry,” Wolfe said, totally not sorry.
“Why do you do that?” She waved her free hand through the air. “You act like a boyfriend, but you’re not. You try to take over, but you know you shouldn’t.” The pink in her face blossomed into a lovely rose.
Wolfe uncrossed his arms and leaned forward, his own temper still barely banked. “I’m acting like a friend who doesn’t appreciate this asshat bugging you. Apparently, your attempts to ignore him haven’t worked, and I feel like taking a different tack. It’s a free world, you know.”
She sucked in air, her eyes widening. “My world is my world, and when I want your help, I’ll freakin’ ask for it.” Anger turned her stunning eyes a fascinating emerald.
“Um, excuse me?” Mike snapped through the phone line. “Who the hell is this?”
Wolfe and Dana both turned toward the phone on the table. Wolfe had forgotten the jerk for a moment. “Name is Wolfe and I’ll be Dana’s date for the wedding.” He knew he was pushing it, but no way would he leave Dana alone to fend off this guy. Plus, food at weddings was usually delicious and there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do for cake.
Dana sucked in air. “You’re crazy.”
“Probably,” he agreed. “Head injury makes a good excuse.”
Mike cleared his throat. “Uh, Dana? Are you in danger there with a guy with a head injury who thinks he’s a wolf? Should I call the police?”
Dana rolled her eyes so hard she had to have seen part of her brain. “I am not in danger and, yes, this guy is nuts, and frankly I believe he might be more wolf than man.” She tossed the bloody towels onto the table and lifted her chin. “I have not asked you to be my date.”
Wolfe stood then, gratified when she took a step back. “You don’t think I could get you to ask me?” His voice was grittier than he liked.
She visibly swallowed, tilting her head to meet his gaze. She was a good five-foot-eight, but he was over six-six, so there wasn’t much else the pretty woman could do. Except reach over and disengage the call, cutting Mike out of the equation completely. “If we’re going to have this fight, I don’t need a witness.”
“I like cake,” Wolfe returned.
Her chin lowered. “Don’t try to be cute with me, Clarence.”
He barely kept from wincing. The world had gotten way too out of control, and he couldn’t escape the sense of panic he’d felt when Malcolm had been injured. It had been Wolfe’s fault. Besides that, Dana’s orange blossom scent was too tempting in the small kitchen. “Okay. I need some alone time, and then we can argue about where you’re staying the night tonight.” Without waiting for a response, he strode into his office and shut the door, facing his whiteboard.
The dead stared back at him.
Chapter Ten
Dana finished typing more notes, sitting at Wolfe’s kitchen table and purposely ignoring the email from her cousin about the wedding. Why did the bridesmaids have to be ready for pictures five hours before the wedding? She looked, once again, toward the closed door of Wolfe’s office. He’d disappeared inside hours ago, obviously needing some time by himself, but darkness was beginning to fall, and she was hungry for dinner.
Should she just rummage in the fridge? After being ignored all day, searching through Wolfe’s stuff held little appeal.
He’d almost been shot—again. She’d been kidnapped, cut, and then right when life had started to normalize, she’d been shot at and chased by guys in a truck who’d wanted to hurt her. Life was too short to wait on the sidelines. She was done waiting.
Enough of this. Shutting her laptop, she stood and stretched her back, gathering her courage. Then she walked past the sofa. Kat looked up, blinked his eyes, and meowed softly as if in warning.
She frowned. That was odd. “I’m talking to him,” she said to the cat, feeling only a little silly as she moved forward and reached the office door. Her knock was more forceful than she’d intended, and she winced.
Nothing.
She pressed her ear to the door.
No sound.
Huh. Had Wolfe somehow left when she had been in the bathroom earlier? She twisted the knob and stepped inside, her steps faltering on the soft carpet.
Wolfe sat with his back to her, facing the whiteboard, his gaze seemingly directed at the photograph of the smiling young soldiers. His shoulders were rigid and his body unmoving. Tension cloaked him, erecting an invisible barrier that electrified the air around him.
Her mouth opened and closed. A chill slid down her back, and she hunched a little, her instincts blaring for her to run.
How
