Adam and Sierra got into his SUV and then drove back to the bureau so she could get busy with other work and he could get the witness sketches out to the public. He hoped they would get something from that soon.
At the bureau, he was surprised to see Ethan. What was the special agent from the DEA doing there?
Tori smiled at Adam. “He needs to borrow Sierra—to do a witness sketch.”
Sierra patted Adam’s chest and smiled at him, and he realized he was scowling. He managed a small smile. “But she works for us.”
“I’ll be sure to have her back at a decent hour.” Ethan cast him a wolfish grin and escorted Sierra out of the building.
Chapter 13
“Adam, you know Sierra’s done witness sketches for the DEA before, and they always return her to us safe and sound,” the chief said, coming out of his office to check on things. “Has her status changed somehow? You know she has an out-of-state boyfriend.”
“She ditched the boyfriend,” Tori said, smiling. “So all bets are off.”
The chief laughed. “Good to know.”
Adam thought Tori was enjoying this a little too much. He planned to ask Sierra to have dinner with him and then go with him to Forest Park to run as wolves tonight after the park closed at ten. He hoped Ethan wouldn’t ask her out on a date first. But he didn’t want to mention any of his plans to Sierra in front of Tori. Hell, he thought he’d have no problem making plans with her tonight since she was staying overnight with him. Then Ethan showed up on the scene.
If Sierra did go running with Adam tonight, she was free to share that bit of news with Tori, but he didn’t want Sierra to turn him down in front of Tori, if she had a mind to.
Even though Sierra said she wasn’t worried about being Dover’s target, he found himself watching for danger, seeing if they were being followed anywhere that he and she went together. He needed to let Ethan know to keep an eye out too, if he wasn’t already thinking along those lines.
* * *
Sierra knew it was imperative that she speak with witnesses and victims right away because their memories of people’s appearances degraded so quickly with the passing hours that they could remember the perps totally wrong by the time she did a sketch. She’d done one sketch of a perp based on two eyewitness descriptions that were so inaccurate, it didn’t matter how good Sierra’s drawing was. The witnesses had stated the assailant had blond hair instead of dark. Blue eyes instead of brown. Even those details, she figured a witness couldn’t have gotten wrong. But because of the time she got there and the trauma they had experienced, they had it all wrong. Luckily, detectives still caught the guy, but not based on her sketch.
Even when Sierra journaled about her experiences, if she tried to recall the more minute details days, weeks, months later, it was amazing how blurry the recollections had become.
On the way to Ethan’s SUV, he was reading a text from someone and texted the person back. She figured it was work-related. Then he and Sierra drove to a park to speak to a couple of witnesses about a drug deal that had gone bad. “So has Adam asked you out on a date yet? I mean a real date, not just lunch with him during working hours.”
She laughed as they were driving to the city park. “He’s working up to asking. We haven’t scheduled a date per se.”
“He’s only working up to it?”
Smiling, she realized she should have known Ethan would be thinking about that and not about his case. Like Adam, he was always really focused on his work, except now that she was available to date. He had always joked with her about the lucky guy who was dating her, so she knew he wanted to date her too, if she ever ditched the other guy.
“Just so you know and don’t hear it from someone else and wonder what’s up, I’m staying with Adam at his place tonight.” She ran her hand over her sketch pad on her lap.
Ethan glanced at her, raised his brows, and smiled. At least he didn’t seem annoyed about it. “For your protection.”
“No, because my house is the secondary crime scene in the kidnapping case. And I have to have my laundry room window replaced.”
“Adam told me you have no security on the house.” Ethan glanced at his rearview mirror.
“It’s an older home so it didn’t come with it, and I haven’t had any trouble in the time I’ve been here. Anyway, I’m staying at Adam’s place only overnight.”
Ethan frowned at her. “This sounds serious. Though I can understand why, after Adam told me all that had happened. You could stay with Josh and his mate.”
“Adam already mentioned that.”
“Really? I’m surprised.” Ethan smiled at her. “You could stay with me.”
Sierra smiled back. “Adam didn’t mention that.”
Ethan laughed. “Of course he didn’t. He only offered Josh as protection because he’s got a mate.”
“Staying at Adam’s house is not for protection, and it’s only for tonight.”
“Those guys mean business regarding you. They wouldn’t have gone to those lengths if they didn’t mean to cause you more grief. I’m sure of it. None of us want to see you hurt. And you don’t want to change into your wolf when you’re home alone, with the thought you can scare them off this time.” He looked at his rearview mirror again.
“I know. Adam already told me that too. You guys sure think alike.”
“We’re just worried about you is all.”
“Well, I appreciate. Really I do.”
When he looked at his rearview mirror again, she asked, “What are you watching for? Is someone following us?”
“It comes with the business I’m in.”
“DEA, sure.” She frowned at him. “And watching out for me?”
“Yeah, you know it.”
“Adam put you up to it. The text message you got and replied to.”
Ethan chuckled. “You’re good. Truth is, yes, he texted me to watch out for you, but I would have anyway, and I do keep an eye out on suspicious movement because of my work.”
“Okay, good. I wouldn’t want to think you weren’t watching out for me.”
Ethan laughed.
They finally arrived at the park where the crime scene was taped off. Two women were sitting together at a picnic bench, and Sierra joined them to start drawing their descriptions of the four men, one of whom had been a shooter. She wasn’t sure they would be able to do a good job of it because they had ducked down behind a car to protect themselves when the shooting started, and she sure didn’t blame them for that.