She lifted a brow and stared right back.
“I-I had to find you. Cartwright told me you were leaving.” A heavy pause. “I went to Katherine LaShaun’s house.”
Erin blinked. “What?” The last thing she’d expected.
“I had to go! When I heard about the body”—his nostrils flared—“I needed to see for myself what was happening out there.”
Yeah, she’d wanted to see the scene, too. But she hadn’t been allowed on sight.
Harper’s eyes darted to Jude, then back to her. “Erin, can we talk, privately?”
“No.” The instant answer came from Jude and from Erin.
Harper’s lips thinned and he dragged a shaking hand through his already tousled hair. “You and Greer have to understand.
Trent’s death wasn’t my fault.”
Oh, what? Was it hers?
“The wife recanted, she—”
“Even without her testimony, there was more than enough evidence to convict.” Flat, cold. “We both know that Trent was abusing her. The guy was guilty as the devil, and we had the chance to stop him.” But he’d walked.
Then, well, died.
“We did.” The judge rocked back on his heels, and for a moment, he didn’t look as strong or as fit as he’d appeared in the past. He looked…tired. “I guess he’s stopped now, though, isn’t he?”
“I guess he is,” Jude said, voice like a cool breeze.
Death had a nice way of stopping folks.
Harper flinched. “I didn’t know this would happen. I just—I just made the only judgment I could.”
Erin didn’t know what to say to the judge. After a moment, he turned away from her and shuffled back to his car.
Erin watched him, aware of Jude’s strong presence at her back. Harper felt guilty. She could see it, feel it. Guilty enough to seek her out.
And he’d come—to what? Neither one of them could go back and change the past. Too many ifs in the world. If he’d convicted Trent…if she’d worked harder to prove the bastard’s guilt…if Sylvia hadn’t faltered…
You couldn’t go back.
The judge knew that and so did she.
Harper stopped at his car. He glanced back at her. “I know what they say about me.”
On the take. So many criminals walked right out of his courtroom with barely a slap on his wrist. “Do you?” She murmured, but Erin knew he heard her.
“I want those bastards who break the law to pay,” he told her. “Just like you do.”
Then why didn’t they? Why did so many ease past him?
He pulled open the driver’s side door. “I do the best I can, Jerome. Guess it’s not always good enough.” His eyes narrowed. “Don’t you ever have regrets?”
Too many. Erin gave a grudging nod.
“Is the bastard ever gonna leave?” Jude murmured in her ear and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
A ghost of a smile curved Harper’s lips. “I thought you might.” Then he climbed into his car.
Erin leaned against Jude. Damn but the man felt solid.
Harper drove away with a soft purr of his engine.
“You ready to get the hell out of this town?” Jude asked after a moment of silence. The thick, uncomfortable kind of silence that made her want to squirm.
“More than ready.” Before she had any more unwanted visitors from her past. Like a certain detective she’d prefer to avoid. Talk about regrets. Erin swallowed and tried to shove the past away. “We didn’t get any closer to finding the bastard, did we?”
He turned her toward him. “We’re gonna catch him, sweetheart.” Absolute certainty there.
But when? Before or after he killed someone else?
“We will catch him,” Jude repeated.
And, once again, Erin forced herself to nod.
Once they were in Baton Rouge, Erin tried to get back into her routine as fast as possible. But, her routine had an unexpected addition.
She’d been given a babysitter. Okay, not a babysitter so much as a six-foot-two, two hundred pound, pissy demon who tailed her every move.
Erin looked up from her files and stared at said pissy demon.
Zane raised his brows and stared right back at her.
He was five feet away. Slouched in her ratty spare chair.
And the man wasn’t going anywhere.
When she and Jude had returned to Baton Rouge, Jude had dropped his little protection bombshell on her.
Until the wolf was caught, she’d have twenty-four seven protection. One of the Night Watch hunters during the day—while Jude was out digging up leads. And at night, Jude would be with her.
Now, she was all about the Jude at night part. Yeah, that worked for her. More than worked.
But Zane, and the irritating humming the guy kept doing under his breath, well, he wasn’t so much her thing.
Jude even had the human woman scheduled to take a shift with her. A human.
For protection?
That was just insulting.
One of the assistants came bustling in. “Erin, here’s the transcript from the Parsons trial—”
A long, loud whistle.
Amy jumped and dropped the folder. Her hand flew to her chest as her head jerked to the right and Erin saw her spy the lurking demon.
He smiled at her. “Hi there.”
Erin growled.
He kept smiling at the assistant.
Don’t need this. Don’t. Need. This.
“Thanks, Amy, I’ll review it later today.” A dismissal. Probably too curt, but damn if Amy wasn’t starting to smile right back at the demon now. Great.
Erin cleared her throat. Twice. Amy finally darted out of the office, but not before she gave one long, last look at Zane.
“You’re an ass.” Erin told him, meaning it.
He blinked. “Ah, you’re just mad ’cause I’m not flirting with you.” He shook his head. “But I don’t flirt with women who can fry my brain.”
Well, at least she was in his safe zone. Erin bared her teeth. She really didn’t like the reminder of that vicious encounter.
“Didn’t we already go over this? Demon versus wolf? Why did Jude send you to watch me?”
A lazy shrug. “’Cause he trusts me.” A pause. “And he knows I’d fight like hell to protect you.”
Her eyes widened. That was new. The guy sounded like he meant those words, too. “You don’t even like me.”
“Sure I do.” A slow stretch. “Would even want to f**k you, if Jude hadn’t already claimed you.”