“I just pay more attention to details, listen carefully, watch for movement, breathe in different smells. Like for instance, you ate a hamburger in the car a couple of days ago, you used a pine air freshener, you’re wearing cologne, someone spilled milk in the car a few days ago, and a dog has been in the back seat. Oh, and you had ketchup on your french fries that probably came with the fast-food hamburger.”
“Hell, you’re good. You must have a really great sense of smell.”
“I just really pay attention to the smells around me.”
“Okay.” But Roland didn’t sound like he believed Adam.
Adam didn’t blame him. If he were Roland, he would think it was unbelievable that Josh and he could find people like that.
“So what do you think they were shooting at?” Roland asked.
“Deer, elk, coyote, maybe.” Adam should have mentioned to Tori that the woman who had come after them had been in on the kidnapping. Adam hadn’t known that until he’d been chasing the woman’s and man’s scents, and it would have been difficult to suddenly come up with an explanation that he and Sierra had seen the culprit and she looked just like the sketch Sierra had done. It would have been great to have tied the kidnapper in with the shooter, but he didn’t want to get tangled up in a fabrication with the police.
They would have asked him why he hadn’t told the officers right away that he and Sierra had seen the men who were shooting off the weapons.
When Roland pulled into Adam’s driveway, he thanked him.
“You’re welcome. Good working with you.” Then Roland drove off and Adam headed into his house, using his spare key.
Tori had her gun readied until she saw it was just Adam, then put it away. “Sierra wanted to wait up for you, but I told her there was no sense in both of us being up while waiting for you to return.”
“Thanks, Tori. You’re right about that and I’m glad she’s getting some sleep. One of the shooters who fired at us was actually the woman involved in the kidnapping earlier today.”
“But you didn’t tell the police that, did you?”
“No. I told them Sierra and I were having a drink on Carver’s back patio when we heard the shots fired. If anyone asks, we went to Carver’s house to check on the place while he and his family are away on vacation.”
“Okay, gotcha. I’m out of here, but if you have any trouble tonight, just call me. I’ll be over in a jiffy.”
“Thanks.” Adam let Tori out and watched her get into her car and drive off. Then he locked up and walked past the guest bedroom. He wanted in the worst way to check on Sierra, to see that she was fine, but he didn’t want to disturb her if she was a really light sleeper like he was. He retired to his bedroom to take a shower in the master bath and was soon in bed, gun sitting on his bedside table. He was worried about Sierra being alone tomorrow when she returned to her own home without anyone to watch out for her. Maybe, once he told her one of the shooters had been Melissa’s kidnapper and in Sierra’s home, she would change her mind about returning home, if she still had it in mind to do that.
He closed his eyes and was thinking about the day’s events when he sensed someone in the room. He opened his eyes, looked over at the doorway, and saw Sierra standing there in a pair of aqua shorty pajamas. “Sierra?”
Chapter 15
“Did you catch the shooters?” Sierra had heard Adam’s shower run, then quit. She’d drifted off, then woke when everything was quiet and was trying to go back to sleep, but she had to know if Adam and the other police officers had caught the shooters and then she could really sleep. When she peered into Adam’s bedroom, she worried he might be sound asleep and she didn’t want to wake him unnecessarily, especially if they had some problems tonight and they were both up again.
He opened his eyes and stared at her standing in the dark, woke enough to realize she was watching him, and called out her name in question. He sat up in bed, his chest bare, nicely sculpted as he turned on the bedside table lamp. “No, unfortunately not. But we did find some shell casings and a bullet at the park. Are you okay?”
“I woke and had to know, though I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s no problem.” He explained everything to her.
She frowned. “So they must have known we were there.”
“I don’t know. It seems unlikely that the woman involved in stealing your car and kidnapping Melissa and taking her to your house just ended up in Forest Park when we did. They must have followed us to Carver’s place, found a place to park, heard us leaving through the back gate, and then tried to follow us. But instead of discovering us as humans, they saw the two of us as red wolves and figured one of us was the dog that had guarded your hotel room. That’s all I can figure.”
She frowned. “And they still aimed to kill ‘my’ dog.”
“Right. I don’t know what they had in mind to do if they saw us in our human forms instead.” He motioned to his bed. “Did…you want to join me?”
She smiled. “Thanks. But no.” At least not tonight. “Well, I’m disappointed you weren’t able to arrest them, and it’s too bad we couldn’t add a charge of them shooting at us too.”
“Yeah, and if we caught them and ended up convicting them, at least the one for the kidnapping of the girl, can you imagine what would have happened?”
“Yep. Dover’s cohort was caught shooting at the same phantom dog in my hotel room.” She smiled. “I would have loved for that to happen.” Then she frowned. “But only for the first time he shot at us. Not for it to happen again. Thanks for the protection and trying to locate these guys. It’s way past time to go to bed. Good night.”
“What about tomorrow? Where will you stay?”
Sierra knew he wanted her to stay with him longer because the woman who had been to her house had been shooting at them tonight, and she had said she would stay with Adam if they learned the shooters were Dover’s people.
She gave a reluctant sigh. “Okay, I’ll stay here. I’ll have to pack a couple of bags at my house after work.” She really had wanted to stay at her own home and not be a burden to anyone. She did consider how other bachelor males would view this, if things didn’t work out between her and Adam, but she didn’t want to drive in from the ranch if she stayed out there to have more protection. And she didn’t want to impose on Josh and Brooke who were newly mated, though Josh could offer her protection too.
“Okay, that will work. ’Night, Sierra.”
She smiled and headed back down the hall to her cozy guest bedroom. But when she settled down to sleep, all she could think about when she closed her eyes and tucked the blue comforter up to her chin was the sound of gunfire, the smell of the pristine woods, and the knowledge that men were chasing them with the intent to kill. She didn’t think it would end there either, unless Adam got lucky, arrested the shooters, and sent them to jail.