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Kathlene didn’t wait for Jock to open the door for her, but he hadn’t really expected her to. She clearly didn’t want to rely on anyone behaving in a gentlemanly manner.
And somehow her independence only added to her attractiveness to him. To a point. Ignoring politeness was fine.
Ignoring danger was not.
She began walking along the paved path toward the cabin where Ralf and he were staying. “No,” Jock called. “This way.” He gestured toward the cabin next door. “Got the key, Ralf?”
“Sure do.”
His aide moved to the front of the group, holding the key card in his hand.
“You’ve rented this cabin, too?” Kathlene looked confused.
Why did he want to kiss that puzzled frown away...?
“I’d like you to meet Click,” Jock said, and nodded to Ralf.
Ralf pushed the door open and was nearly bowled over as Click leaped out, eagerly wagging his tail and greeting one of the humans who was his closest friend.
“You brought a dog?” Kathlene asked. She shook her head, then smiled. “The dog I saw last night? He’s not a wolf, then? He’s a pet?”
Instead of waiting for his answers, she dashed off toward where Click and Ralf were now roughhousing.
She obviously liked canines.
Couldn’t he find anything to dislike about this woman—except for her carelessness in the face of danger?
He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.
* * *
At first all Kathlene wanted to do was hug the obviously excited dog. He looked familiar—moderate sized, with shining, light brown eyes, pert ears and lots of tawny fur that looked almost silvery in the light. He clearly loved people, since he bounded from Ralf to her and back again in this cabin that looked nearly identical inside to the one where the men were staying. Click basked in the attention they both gave him and snugged his head against her for multiple pats.
“He’s so sweet!” she exclaimed, kneeling with one hand on the floor to keep her balance as the dog pushed at her for attention and made snuffling noises. She loved dogs. Meant to adopt a rescue someday when her work schedule was less crazy and more predictable. If it ever was. “Is Click yours, Ralf? Or Jock’s?”
Why did the men exchange glances about that? It was an easy question.
Wasn’t it? And if not...
“He’s mine,” Jock said, and he joined the excited doggy love fest, too.
But the hesitation before he knelt and roughhoused with Click had reminded Kathlene of all the mystery surrounding this dog. Why hadn’t they mentioned they had brought a pet along?
She asked them. “I can understand your wanting to have a dog with you. Is Click a trained search dog?” Or was there some other reason he’d been brought here—then hidden?
And why hide him from her?
“That’s right.” Jock stepped back. “He’s trained to do other things, too, like sniff out particular subjects we need to find and follow.”
“Is that why he was wandering around the ranch compound last night?”
Of course it had been Click. And yet there was something about the shape of his head, the length of his legs, the fullness of his coat, that didn’t look exactly the way Kathlene remembered. But she’d been stressed then. Her recollections might not be entirely accurate. Plus, she hadn’t been that close to the dog.
“Yes, that’s right,” Jock said. “He’s got some other skills we’re working on, too. He’s not fully trained, so we weren’t sure at first about bringing him, and when we decided to we just figured we’d keep him hidden, at least initially, until we decided how best to use him.”
Kathlene supposed that made sense—but she wasn’t fully convinced.
And yet why would they lie to her about that?
She stood, leaned down and stroked the soft fur around Click’s shoulders as she looked straight into Jock’s eyes.
The guy looked the picture of innocence, as if all he had told her was the absolute truth, even if it sounded somewhat contrived.
He clearly wasn’t going to give her any explanation of why he might be prevaricating.
“You look like a good friend of Click’s, too,” Kathlene said to Ralf. “Are either of you skilled trainers, or does someone else do that?”
“A little of both,” Ralf said. “I like to work with canines, tell them what to do, that kind of thing.” He gave a big grin that he aimed at Jock, whose return smile looked almost nasty.
What was the gist of their unspoken conversation?
They obviously weren’t going to tell her, any more than they’d explained Alpha Force or included her in their planning.
“Can we take him for a walk now?” she asked the men.
Another hesitation before Jock said, “Sure. There aren’t likely to be a lot of people around now, in the middle of the day when they’re off doing whatever they’re here to do.”
Which again didn’t make sense to Kathlene. They apparently didn’t want Click to be seen by many people. When did they walk him, then?
After dark, at least. That was the one obvious time. Early morning, before many people were up and about? That still wouldn’t allow Click to relieve himself in the middle of the day as well as other times, which might be hard on the poor dog.
She knew she wasn’t going to get answers now, so she didn’t bother asking.
“Great,” she said. “I’ll bet you’re glad to go for a walk now, aren’t you, Click?”
Hearing his name, the dog looked up at her expectantly. Did he understand the word walk? Probably. She had the sense that, as playful as he was, he was also a smart pooch.
“So are we all going?” Kathlene said after Ralf brought over Click’s leash.
“Just you, me and Click,” Jock said. Ralf just nodded, not appearing particularly unhappy about being left out.
It bothered Kathlene, though. She’d be more or less alone with the man who was driving her a bit nuts. His sexiness didn’t let her state of mind settle down in his presence. His secretiveness drove her nuts in other ways.
Well, she couldn’t—wouldn’t—do anything about the former. The latter she could get around. She could be sweet or professional or just darned pushy.
But one way or another she would find out what these men had planned to do to start their investigation.
* * *
“Here we go, boy.” Jock spoke to Click as he attached his leash inside the cabin. “You ready to join us?” he asked Kathlene.
“Definitely.” She smiled, although it faded quickly. “I can only stay here for another few minutes, though. I need to get back on duty.”
“We’ll make it short, then.” Jock gave a gentle tug on the leash and let Click lead them out of the cabin.
Jock was glad to have an opportunity to walk Click. Mostly, it was Ralf who figured out the best times to go out with the dog, when they were least likely to be seen.
On the other hand, he and his aide had talked often about potential timing for Jock to be the one to walk his cover dog. People seeing them together was generally a good thing. They would know there were two entities, Jock and the dog. They wouldn’t think Jock even slightly resembled the pet he had brought here. Or that he was, sometimes, a canine himself.
Not that most regular humans would even imagine the possibility.
And of those that might...well, there weren’t any people they needed to demonstrate anything to here, in this motel area.
Maybe not anywhere in this town. At least not yet.
Except for Kathlene.
He was both glad and sorry for the opportunity to take a walk with her. The best thing for his cover would be for them to stay as alone as possible here.
But that would be worst for his sense of self-control. He wanted this woman. He knew it, and being in her presence only kept his desires at the forefront of his thoughts.
As well as his physical reactions—which were uncomfortable at times, but definitely stimulating.
She was a bundle of contradictions, and that attracted him. A lot.
Maybe because he, too, wasn’t all that he appeared to be.
“Let’s take Click into the woods,” he told Kathlene once they were outside. He held Click’s leash. “He loves the scents there.”
“I noticed,” she said, then shrugged. “Fine with me.”
He chose to say nothing about the woods in this motel area being any different from what surrounded the compound that was the target of their observation. In many ways, it was the same.
Although he himself had detected a lot of differences in the smells around there from what was here.
Gunpowder and explosives, for example. If Click had really been there, Jock had no doubt he’d have scented them, too, despite how they seemed to be muted by distance or age. He’d also have some sense of urgency about them, since he was a trained military K9. But he’d have waited for orders to determine what to do about them.
Jock would need to figure that out for himself, although he would discuss it, if necessary, with his commanding officers, as well as Ralf.
The closest part of the woods began only a few feet away, behind the row of cabins. Jock pulled Click’s leash slightly to aim him between the rustic structures toward that direction.
“So tell me,” said Kathlene once they had gone beyond the narrow lawn area and beneath the trees. “What is our next plan of action? Did you learn anything by sending Click to the encampment of those supposed sportsmen last night?”
“Click’s presence there did give us some ideas,” Jock said. Rather, it was his own presence. And it certainly had triggered what he intended to be their next course of action.
In wolf form, he had looked for—and found—some portions of the surrounding chain-link fence that were less secure and more penetrable by a canine observer than the rest of it.
He intended to return tonight under cover of darkness, and in his wolfen form.
He’d not seen or heard enough to understand what was really going on there, let alone how best to deal with it.
“What do you smell, boy?” Kathlene was talking to Click, whose nose was all but buried in a stack of dead leaves.
Jock scented it, too, of course. His sense of smell was much more acute than any person’s besides other shifters, even when in human form. But he was hardly going to tell Kathlene that the dog was fascinated by the odor of a pile of pheasant droppings.
“Must be something interesting,” Jock said mildly. “But we’d better keep on the move.”
He nevertheless waited until Click lifted his leg to imbue the area with his own canine smell. And then they continued on.
“So what are those ideas you came up with?” Kathlene asked, walking directly behind him as they made their way through the towering trees that had a sweet, piney aroma.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t been fully distracted by Click and his reaction to the odors of the woods.
“We need more information about what’s going on inside the compound,” Jock said. “For one thing, we’ll want to know where the sportsmen hang out when they’re in town. If possible, we’ll act like we’re of the same hunting mind-set and also want to engage in target practice and have the fun of killing whatever game is in season.”
Even though that was contrary to his way of thinking. There were plenty of farm animals raised to be meat. He might feel sorry for them, but he was definitely carnivorous. He was a wolf in human form.
But in his opinion creatures that were wild, like wolves, should be permitted to stay that way. Survival of the fittest would allow them to feed on their own kinds of prey.
Humans did not need to kill or eat them.
“I can give you some information about that,” Kathlene said. “There are a couple of bars in town where the sheriff’s department has been called in because of some altercations between our townsfolk and some nonresidents. One’s a sports bar near our headquarters—Arnie’s. At least some of those who’ve gotten out of control came to town from that ranch.”
“Good. We’ll work that out soon, then.”
“But not tonight?” She sounded curious. Too curious.
He knew what was coming next.
“No, not tonight.”
“Then what are we doing tonight?” she asked.
We. Of course she would assume it would be we.
Which it was. But that we included only Ralf and him. Not her. Not for what he had planned tonight.
Click stopped to circle slightly before defecating. Good. That gave Jock an opportunity to stop, too, and turn and face Kathlene.
He drew himself up as much as possible and looked down on her slim, yet official-looking form in her deputy sheriff’s uniform.
But for this purpose, he was in charge, her job notwithstanding.
“Ralf and Click and I are going to do pretty much as we did last night,” he told her. “Observation and reconnaissance at the perimeter of the target facility. Just us.” He raised his hand to stop her as she opened her mouth to protest. “I know you’re part of our team. You won that right. But we can’t spend our time worrying about where you are and if you’re okay, especially when we’re just doing our preliminary examinations. You can work with us, participate in other aspects of what we’re doing—but only if you listen to what I’m telling you now.” And obey me, but he knew better than to say that.
She glared up at him. Damn, but that firm chin, that angry scowl on such a beautiful face...it turned him on. Even more than her presence already generated reactions inside—and outside—him that he’d never have imagined would occur with a woman in uniform, especially when that uniform was not one associated with Alpha Force.
“Then you promise that this will be the only time you’ll not include me in your plans from now on.” It wasn’t a question but a statement. Her voice was chilly, but not even that forced his body to lose interest.
