Shadow of Doubt - Hailey Edwards Page 0,14
species, when those same laws failed them.
“Okay,” she breathed, barely a whisper.
Remembering the empty lot, I asked, “Did you take a Swyft?”
“I shifted and ran.” She plucked at her ruined dress. “I’m stronger that way.”
She was braver than she knew, reckless too, but I wasn’t about to kick her for it when it was obvious life had knocked her around enough.
“There’s a bench over there.” I pointed down the path winding back toward the parking lot. “How about you wait for us, and when we finish up, we’ll give you a lift wherever you need to go?”
Peeking up at me, she wet her lips. “You’re sure you don’t m-m-mind?”
“Not at all.” I winked at her. “It’s not my truck. It’s his.” I laughed at Ford’s pinched expression. “What’s a little mud between friends?”
“Friends?” she repeated with so much hope I didn’t have the heart to tell her she had misunderstood.
“Yeah. Friends.” I patted her bony shoulder awkwardly. “Sure. Why not?”
Bonnie was strong, ridiculously strong, as I learned when she hugged me until my head threatened to pop off like a cork stopping a bottle of shaken champagne. “Thank you.”
“Go on.” I pried her off me and shooed her in the right direction. “We won’t be long.”
With a quiver in her limbs, she padded to the bench where she sat facing us. The bright intensity of her stare made my spine prickle when I turned, giving the absurd impression she was watching my back when a strong breeze would knock her off her feet.
“You handled that well.” Ford toed off his boots, rolled his jeans up over his ankles, then stepped down into the shallows. I took the high road, keeping to the edge of the shore, and left him the wet one. “Her fear makes it tough to spend much time with her. Her timidity makes our submissives withdrawn, which draws out the protective streaks in our dominants, and you wouldn’t believe how fast those brawls turn ugly.”
Given her reaction to males of the species, I could imagine. “Who hurt her?”
“She won’t tell.” A low growl entered his voice. “Midas found her in one of the women’s shelters where he volunteers, recognized her as gwyllgi, and brought her home with him. It’s been a week, give or take, and you’re the first person she’s allowed to touch her.”
Abuse recognizes abuse was what I thought, but what I said was, “Let me know if I can help, in any way.”
“I’ll do that.” He slowed a dozen or so feet upstream from where Bonnie had been standing when we first arrived, and grimaced. “There.”
Kicking off my sneakers, I hiked the hem of my jeans up to my calves. About to wade in, I startled when Ford scooped me up in his arms with a wide grin that told me he thought he was quite gallant.
Though he might very well be, I was on the job, and I wasn’t about to explain to my boss how I solved a crime without my feet ever touching the ground. The Prince Charming routine only worked on girls with stars in their eyes, but all of mine had long since fallen, and no amount of twinkle from him would put them back.
Bracing a palm on his broad shoulders, I used him as leverage when I snapped my hips to execute a twist that flipped me out of his grip. I hit the water in a crouch, soggier than I would have been had he left well enough alone, but admiration sparked in his eyes that made the damp worthwhile.
I wasn’t interested in a boyfriend or a booty call. I had to focus on me, on proving myself a worthy successor, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate a handsome man sizing me up like he might consider both, or either.
“You’re quick,” he said, and it came out as a growl. “And flexible.”
“I run, and I do yoga.” I stood and splashed out to meet him in the ankle-high water. “Gotta have an edge.”
“I would pat you on the back for landing that move, but your edge is so sharp it might cut me.”
Rolling my eyes, I sloshed past him to what had drawn his interest before my moves distracted him.
Tangled in a tree limb was an arm chewed off at the shoulder, making it look as though the grasping hand had tried holding on until help came. We were here now, but we were too late.
“Scout the area,” I told my all-too-invested shadow quietly. “Tell me