for having time to stop by the hotel before going to see Hunter.
“So, why am I showing you where I saw the wolves?” Eliza asked as Newman pulled out onto the street.
He glanced at her. “Because the attacks on those hikers took place in the woods not too far from that area. It’s possible the wolves could live around there. I’m hoping you’ll be able to give us a clue where that might be.”
Eliza’s brow furrowed at that. According to Hunter, a pack wouldn’t make its den so close to people. Then again, two wolves probably didn’t really comprise a pack. So, what did it make them, then? Rivals, maybe?
It was almost dark by the time she and Detective Newman got to the warehouse area, and it took her awhile to get her bearings. It didn’t help that all the buildings looked the same to her, but as they drove up and down the streets, several of them were starting to look familiar.
“This looks like…” Eliza started to say, but the rest of the words trailed off as she spotted two huge wolves fighting each other at the far end of the street. Even in the dim light, she could tell they were the same ones she’d seen the night before.
Beside her, Newman swore under his breath as he stopped the car. Putting it into park, he glanced at her. “Stay here,” he ordered.
Eliza watched in amazement as the detective opened his door and got out of the car. What the heck is he doing? Then her eyes widened in realization as she saw him take his gun from his holster. Oh God, he was going to shoot the wolves! For some reason, that idea both shocked and upset her, and she held her breath as he slowly approached the wolves.
Even as the wolves fought, she swore she could see the gray wolf turn his head to look in Newman’s direction. Eliza felt her pulse skip a beat as the animal’s yellow eyes caught the light. For a moment, she was transported back to last night, and the wolf was standing in front of her as she lay on the ground trembling. She didn’t know why, but that gray wolf had saved her life. If Detective Newman shot at them, it was just as likely that he could hit the gray wolf as easily as the black one. She couldn’t let that happen. Before she realized what she was even doing, Eliza reached for the door handle.
Just then, a shot rang out.
Eliza jumped, startled not as much by the sound of the gunshot as she was by the howl of pain that accompanied it. Frozen, she watched in horror as the two wolves broke apart and ran off. Oh God, which one of them had Newman hit?
For a moment, she was half afraid that the detective would try to go after them on foot, and she let out a sigh of relief when he shoved his gun into its holster and headed back to the car.
“Were those the two wolves you saw last night?” he asked as he got in.
Still too stunned by what she had just seen, Eliza could only nod her head. All she could think about was whether the gray wolf had been hit.
“Well, I clipped one of them, at least, which means we’ve finally got a trail to follow,” Newman said. “I’ll get you back to the station, then get some hounds up here and see if we can’t track the bastards down.”
Eliza said nothing. God, she hoped it wasn’t the gray wolf that had gotten shot. The animal had saved her life last night. Surely, that meant he wasn’t a threat. She wondered if she should mention that to Detective Newman, but then decided he probably wouldn’t listen anyway. Suddenly, she needed to talk to Hunter, and she was glad when the detective finally pulled into the parking lot of the police station.
Mumbling something she hoped sounded intelligible to Newman, Eliza hurried over to her car and got in. The drive to Hunter’s place seemed to take hours and when she got there, she was relieved to see the garage door open and his SUV inside. Grabbing her purse off the seat beside her, she practically ran into the garage, only to slow when something on the floor caught her attention.
For a moment, Eliza
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