Head Hunter (City Shifters the Pack #3) - Layla Nash Page 0,51

got out of the car before he could get his limbs to obey him through the shock of her responding to his touch. Dodge jumped out to close her door and escort her across the lawn up to the porch, just in case the goons who’d crept past in their dirty sedan meant to try something. Instead, the goons parked down the street and waited, not even being subtle about the fact that they watched the house.

Cricket sat in the front yard, washing his paw disdainfully, and only sauntered over when he saw Persephone. Dodge kept them moving, not even pausing for cat petting, to get to the front porch and the safety of a locked door between Persephone and the goons. Cricket hissed at him and bolted between his feet, almost tripping Dodge on his way.

Mercy beamed as she studied Persephone and would have launched forward for an enthusiastic greeting if Todd hadn’t caught her shoulder to keep her back. “So you’re the one they’ve been talking about!”

Dodge tensed. “We can talk inside.”

“What do you mean?” Persephone asked, her attention on Mercy. “Who’s talking? Who are you?”

Mercy blinked, glancing at him and Todd, then tilted her head toward the front door. “Yeah, we should talk inside. It’s not bad talk, Deirdre has been super excited about something you said and she’s mixing up stuff in the workroom like crazy and then a detective showed up and she asked about you and –“

“Wait.” Dodge kept a wary eye on Persephone, in case she started to panic again, but growled as he confronted the other wolf. “The detective, O’Brien? She’s here?”

“In the workroom with the boss and Deirdre. Evershaw won’t leave Deirdre’s side and she won’t stop mixing potions and shit, so they’re talking in there. We’re supposed to fetch them as soon as you arrive.” Todd didn’t look particularly interested in fetching anyone, so at least Dodge had a few minutes to collect his thoughts.

From the look on her face, Persephone needed a hell of a lot longer. She wobbled to the loveseat she’d occupied just the other morning and sank into it, staring blankly at Mercy. “I don’t understand.”

“Smith sent the detective over,” Todd said slowly. Something in his tone made Dodge’s hackles rise, though he couldn’t have said exactly what it was. The pack’s second-in-command sat in the chair across from Persephone, moving slow and easy like Persephone was liable to bolt if startled. “O’Brien was here waiting for us when we got back from the restaurant. Whatever Smith told her lit a fire under her ass, and she’s hell-bent on talking to you about what you saw.”

Persephone’s wide eyes found Dodge. “I don’t think I can –“

“There she is,” a voice boomed, and Persephone flinched in alarm.

Dodge immediately put himself between her and the noise-maker, growling a warning, and braced for a fight.

Chapter 19

Percy

All I wanted was a nap or at least find a quiet place to be by myself and sort through the tornado of problems that swirled around me. There was just too much to digest and process. I needed to be alone in my head for a while without anyone else offering opinions or plans or whatever.

I wouldn’t have minded Dodge’s company, since he could be quiet and still. And he was comfortingly competent, which was refreshing. I felt safer with him around. I shouldn’t have, maybe, since I’d known him about two whole days, but there was something about him... He’d seen a lot of really bad stuff, based on his calm in the face of danger, and he didn’t get freaked out about anything.

Although when he growled at Evershaw and the woman who appeared in the living room, my hair stood up and I wondered if I needed to jump out the window and hide with Cricket on the porch. Dodge’s shoulders seemed to grow as he clenched his arms and fists, staring down the people who’d entered.

Evershaw’s expression darkened. “Calm down. No one means her harm.”

An odd tension seized my insides. I’d figured that Dodge was surprised, just like I was, by the two people appearing out of nowhere. But Dodge hadn’t retreated from the threat. He’d faced it. He’d gotten between me and it and growled like he meant to fight whoever tried to get in. My mouth dried out. I couldn’t have spoken even if someone had asked me. Why would he do something like that?

The dark-haired woman standing next to Evershaw fixed her attention on me, and ignored