Apple of My Eye (Tiger's Eye Mystery #7) - Alyssa Day Page 0,8

Almost back to normal.

Until Jack stopped speaking in the middle of a sentence. His eyes locked on the back door, his body tensed, and he inhaled a long, deep breath.

I knew that reaction, and it didn't bode well. "What? The rifle is in the closet… I'll go—"

He shook his head, pushing his chair back and starting for the back door. "No. Not danger. Just… the wind shifted, and a breeze coming in the window smells like stranger."

I followed him, flinching at the thought of what might be on my back porch.

As I mentioned, it's been a challenging year.

When he opened the door, I caught myself hunching my shoulders, prepared for anything.

Anything but what was actually there: a small box wrapped in shiny white gift wrap and tied with an oversized red velvet bow.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Guess I'm not the only one bringing you gifts."

I shrugged. "I have no idea what this is about. Like I said, it's not my birthday until November, and nobody leaves things for me on my back porch."

He leaned out and sniffed and then flinched. Then he bent and picked up the box. "I'm no wolf, but I can smell enough to know there's blood in here."

I backed away. "Oh, no. Should we call Susan?"

"We should probably look inside first," he said, his face grim. "Or at least read the card."

He carried it into the kitchen and put it down on a counter. I reached out for the card, which was tied to the ribbon, and read it, growing more and more perplexed.

"What does this mean?"

to the apple of my eye

Jack's beautiful green eyes narrowed. "Apparently you have a secret admirer. Met anybody new recently?"

"I meet new people all the time, but they're usually in their seventies and wearing i went to orlando and all i got was this stupid t-shirt shirts." I grinned. "Actually, there was this guy who was completely besotted with me the other day, but he was three years old."

"Are you going to open it?"

"Why not? Maybe we'll get lucky. Maybe it's only a really rare steak." I untied the ribbon, making a note to save it for wrapping Christmas gifts, and lifted the lid to peek at what was inside.

It was a gold ring, with a large sapphire in a delicate filigree setting.

And it was still on the chopped-off finger of the woman who owned it.

Jack snarled and moved to put himself between me and the box, as if it were a bomb or a live snake, and I leaned my forehead against his back and blew out a long, shaky breath.

"Not again."

3

Susan and Deputy Andrew Kelly stood in my kitchen staring down at the finger.

"Only you, Tess," Susan said. "What is it with you and body parts? First the foot, and now this."

"That's not fair," I said hotly. "It's not like I invite this craziness into my life."

She raised an eyebrow and glanced at Jack, who leaned against one wall of the kitchen, arms folded.

"Are you calling me crazy, Sheriff, or are you insinuating that I'm the one bringing the craziness into Tess's life?"

Susan put her hands on her hips. "Who's insinuating? I'm pretty sure I came right out and said it."

Andy swiped his bright Irish-red hair away from his eyes, his freckles standing out on his reddened cheeks—a sure sign he was getting flustered. "Let's calm down, everybody. We need to check the back porch and surroundings, see if anybody left anything behind that could give us an idea of who left this."

"Maybe something labeled CLUE, Deputy?" Jack grinned at Andy.

Andy glanced up at Jack, who was almost a foot taller and twice his size in terms of muscle, and shook his head. Andy never backed down. He'd tried to 'save' me from Jack in the past and had also stood up to a murderous sheriff who'd been pointing a gun at me. "There's always a first time. And hey, why didn't you smell dead body part before you let Tess open this box, shifter boy?"

"That's shifter man to you my friend," Jack replied lightly, but he frowned. "I did smell it, but only a little. I didn't touch it, but from the look of the finger, it's frozen, which masks the smell. Also, the box smells like soap, which disguised the scent too."

"Lavender," Susan and I said together.

"Okay." Susan, wearing gloves, put the box into a large plastic evidence bag, sealed it, and wrote on the label. "That's handled. Now, Andy, Jack, will you two look around?