He smiled. “You can backseat Marshal all you want. First, I’ll probably go by the nature preserve to check out where you ran into him. If you could just tell me where that was—”
No way. She couldn’t let him walk into her territory unprepared and alone. She knew the woods! The odds were minuscule that he had even half of her familiarity with them.
“Do you have backup?”
Colby shook his head. “My office is tied up right now, so I’ll be on my own. But I can take care of myself.”
“I’m sure you can,” Aria said, even though she wasn’t sure that anyone, ever, should be going up against a werewolf alone. “But I was way off the beaten path when I ran into him. I could find the spot again, but I don’t know that I could give you directions there. I’ll just have to retrace my steps.”
“If you don’t know exactly where it was, we can just turn the whole place upside-down. Police Academy cadets should be combing the place this evening anyway, and they’ll flush everyone out. I can just get them out early. We’ll shake the woods and see what falls out of their pockets.”
Great. Now she could be responsible for some unprepared college-aged kid becoming a werewolf’s dinner.
Eli Hebbert could thank her for delivering a bunch of cadets to him like pizzas.
“I’ll just show you,” she said firmly. “That makes the most sense. I know the woods like the back of my hand, and I’m licensed to carry, so I can bring a weapon. I’ll be able to lead you straight there and keep you from getting lost.”
Colby looked a little offended. “I don’t get lost.”
“The woods can be confusing.”
“Not to me. If I get turned around, I can just sniff my way out again.” He paused. “Metaphorically.”
“I know what I’m doing,” Aria said. “I’ll make a good stand-in partner.”
“I’m sure you do, and I’m sure you would. But bringing a civilian to a crime scene—”
“Happens all the time,” Aria said brazenly.
She had no idea if that was actually true. It happened all the time on TV, at least.
“I’m like a special consultant,” she continued. “I’m your wilderness consultant. Besides, Hebbert could be after me. Am I really going to be safer somewhere else than I will be with you?”
There was a flash of emotion in his eyes that made Aria feel like she could fall even though she was already sitting down.
“Fine,” Colby said, his voice tight. “You’ll be my wilderness consultant, which I don’t actually need—"
“Because you can smell your way out of the woods whenever you want.”
He gave a very adorable, put-upon harrumph that made it suddenly easy to visualize him, Deputy US Marshal Cool, sitting in an armchair with kids scrambling up his lap. It was an endearing image—and one she should stay away from if she knew what was good for her.
“I said it was a metaphor.” He raised his chin. “Don’t make me unconsult you.”
“I would never,” Aria promised.
*
“Are you out of your mind?” Doreen said. “Did I raise you to lose your head like this?”
“I’m not out of my mind.”
She tried to sound calm and sane, as though her entire view of the world hadn’t been completely upended in the last few hours, forcing her to be heroic when she really just wanted to go home and take a nap.
“You know how well I know the woods, Mom. If I don’t go with him, he’ll just waste a bunch of time trying to find the right place.”
“So let him waste the time,” Doreen said. “It’s his to waste. He’s a man with a gun, and you’re my little girl.”
“I know. But it just makes sense, right?”