Her breath whispered out and her eyes closed.
“Oh, God!” From Dee. “Is she—”
Erin grabbed her arm. “Did you check on the other driver?”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s a guy. He’s fine, just has a little cut on his forehead.”
Her fingers tightened. “Do you have your gun?” She’d seen it earlier. Dee always carried her gun. Always.
Dee brushed back her shirt, revealing the butt of her weapon.
A twig snapped. Close. Too close.
Her mother had almost killed herself? Why?
Run.
The wolf—her mother—had headed straight for that other SUV. Attacked it.
To protect me.
The night was too quiet then. No crickets. No croaking frogs. Just silence, smothering her.
The fingers of Dee’s right hand hesitated over the gun butt. Erin held her stare and mouthed, Get. It. Out.
A growl—from the left.
They spun around. Dee brought up her gun.
Erin expected to see a wolf lunge at them.
Instead, she saw a man.
One she knew. What the hell?
Judge Lance Harper— the freaking judge! —walked from the brush, as calm as you please. Blood trickled down the side of his face. He smiled at her, revealing his fangs, and said, “Erin, beautiful Erin, I’m going to have to punish you.”
And he lifted his claws toward her.
“Shoot him!” she screamed at Dee.
His smile vanished, and he lunged for her.
Dee fired. Once. Twice.
The deafening shots echoed in Erin’s ears.
The judge froze. He looked down at his chest, at the blood soaking his shirt, and he shook his head. “Takes more than that to stop me.”
She knew that, oh, dammit, but she knew—
He attacked.
Chapter 20
Dee ran forward, her gun up, but the bastard moved too fast. His claws raked down her arm, then across her chest. The gun flew from her fingers and she screamed as his teeth caught her shoulder.
“No! ” Dee didn’t understand. Harper wasn’t like other shifters. He’s like me. In human form, he was nearly as strong as a fully transformed shifter.
And when he transformed—
Hello, hell.
“Let her go, ass**le!” Erin sank her own claws into his side, and twisted.
He howled in fury and pain, and he tossed Dee into the air. When she came down, Dee hit the ground with a thud, and she didn’t get up.
Dee!
His head turned, just a few inches, and Harper met Erin’s stare. His brown eyes were muddy, so dark, and the grin on his face chilled her. “Always knew you liked the blood. Just like me.”
“I’m nothing like you!” She jumped back, putting some frantic space between them.
She could really have used Jude right then! When Dee had called for backup, she’d called Night Watch and Antonio. Not Jude and Zane. Dee had thought they were in the middle of their trap. Thought they were catching the stalker.
But he’d come for her, instead.
Harper raised a hand to his side. His fingers touched the blood that pulsed and flowed so hotly. “Wanted to do this…in human form.”
Her claws were up, ready. “Do what?” Hot Harper? Lance Harper? His name blasted through her head over and over again. She’d been in his courtroom so many times, been so close to him, and never suspected.
He’d tried to rape her. He’d killed. Tortured.
The judge?
She shook her head. No, no, this didn’t make a bit of sense.
He watched her with those dark eyes, and his blood splattered on to the ground. He didn’t seem to notice or even to care.
“You disappointed me, mate.”
Mate. “I’m not your mate.”
The judge blinked at that, looking vaguely surprised. “Well, of course, you are. I recognized you the first moment you stepped into my courtroom.” His smile had faded completely. “I divorced my third wife for you.”
Divorced my third wife. Erin guessed she was lucky he hadn’t killed the woman. “There’s no way you could have known from one look that I was your mate.” Keep him talking. Backup would arrive soon. Had to. Just how many bullets would the guy be able to take and keep standing? Because when Antonio arrived, she knew he’d unload on the ass**le.
“I knew the second I caught your scent that you were mine.”
Bullshit. She hoped. Her eyes narrowed. “So what? You decided to make my life hell because you liked the way I smelled?”
He jumped toward her. Harper closed the distance in less than a second. Stronger than me. Faster than me.
Dammit!
His fingers wrapped around her arms, and she felt the sting of his claws. His breath— freaking minted breath—blew in her face. “I gave you everything you wanted. I punished the fools who hurt you or got in your way. I made sure your life was perfect.”
Insane. There was a reason for the whispers about wolves being psychotic. Some of them really were. “You killed. You murdered Donald Trent!”
The claws dug deeper. “Because you wanted him stopped.” His teeth snapped together and a frown pulled his brows low, as if he truly didn’t understand. “If I’d found him guilty in court, he would have been out in what? Two, three years?” He grunted.
“Not good enough for you. You wanted more—so I gave you more! I stopped him, permanently.”
“You buried him in the woods behind his kids’ house!”
The right side of his mouth lifted. “Thought it was fitting.”
No, it was insane.
“I just had to go and watch the cops dig him up. So f**king perfect.”
Erin could only stare at him. Why hadn’t she seen the madness before? Why hadn’t the cops? All the other lawyers?
The insanity had hid so well behind his black robes.
His gaze swept over her face. “When you walked in that first day, I thought you were the most perfect thing I’d ever seen.
Just like her, that same fire burning inside.” He jerked Erin closer. “I knew when I saw you then, I knew why fate had put that bastard in Theresa’s path so many years before.”
What? Her heart iced. “H-how do you know my mother’s name?” The mother who lay dying just a few feet away. She’d risked her life to save Erin from this bastard.
He blinked and, for an instant, almost seemed confused. “I thought she was mine.” The words came, slow and stilted. “For years, I thought she was the one for me.”
A choked moan rumbled from behind Erin. Her mother’s pain-filled cry.