Shifters: A Samantha Reece Mystery Book 1 by Jaime Johnesee (libby ebook reader txt) 📕

tech left with the evidence. It only took about thirty minutes total which was a damn sight better than I was thinking it would be.

Chapter 6

"HEY, REECE, YOUR BOYFRIEND WAS HERE," James called out, all sing-songlike to me.

"What?" I was thinking maybe Ben had come back.

"Chad stopped by with that information you wanted. Why, do you actually have a boyfriend, Sam?"

"Not yet. Nobody man enough to keep up with me, I suppose." I winked and grabbed the file he was holding out.

Then I smiled at him sweetly and walked with Quinn back to our desks.

Once we were seated I opened the file folder and glanced inside, my eyes straying to the important areas on the forms within.

"So, according to what Chad found at the morgue, our hunch was right and all the vics are shifters."

"Damn."

"Well, when you add in what the priest told me about Grisly being a shifter it makes sense. I just feel like there is more to it than we know. This guy hadn't killed anyone until recently, or we'd have gotten a hit in the system when we ran the stuff from the scenes."

"So, you think he's a recent change? That tracks with serial behavior for sure. Usually a big upset causes them to go out and start killing."

"I do think he’s a new were. I have a gut feeling there is more to it than that, though. I don't know what it is yet, but something tells me we won't find him so easily. I think there is just something wrong with the picture. If he is muddled enough to think he’s God’s warrior, how is he so good at not leaving any evidence behind?"

"You think he's working with somebody?"

"Yeah, maybe. Or maybe he's working on behalf of a group. Maybe he has ties to AWFA. I don't know exactly what, but something about all this just isn't sitting right with me."

"There's a metric fuck-ton about this whole thing that doesn't sit right with me right now. Whether there is a conspiracy involved or just a wacked out shifter serial working on his own, the thought of anyone winding up like hamburger meat in a seedy hotel bathroom is enough to make me hate this guy."

"I hear you loud and clear." I gave him a weak smile.

Quinn sounded so much harder and angrier than I'd ever heard him before. Gerry walked over and asked us to follow him. As we walked into his office he closed the door behind us. That was never a good sign.

"Look, there's been another body, and this time there’s a witness. A fellow saw the man leaving the motel room where the ... victim was discovered." Gerry handed me a slip of paper with an address and a name. It was Ben's.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!”

“What is it, Reece?”

“My maker.”

“Your coffee maker?” Gerry looked confused.

“No, my sire.”

“The guy who bit you? What’s he got to do with this?”

“He’s the witness.” I sighed and began rubbing my temples.

It was going to be a long and uncomfortable day.

“You want me to put James and Sheila on this, instead?”

Gerry was concerned and there was a big part of me that wanted to say yes, but I knew I had to be the one to do this. If nothing else, maybe I could get him to answer some of my jaguar questions.

“No, I need to do it. I have some questions of my own for him.”

“You want Quinn to go with?”

“No. It’s best I do this on my own. That way if I sock him in the nose there are no witnesses.” I grinned.

Gerry didn’t.

“Sam, you can’t punch a witness no matter how big a prick he may be.”

“Aw, boss, you spoil all my fun.”

“That’s my job. Official fun spoiler and grumpy Gus.”

“Well, let me be the first to say you are fantastic at your job.”

I ducked the paper ball he lobbed at me and stood up.

“Good luck, Reece. You’re going to need it. Please be on your best behavior.”

“Damn, there you go again taking all the fun out of it.”

“Just go and interview the witness,” Gerry growled.

“On it, boss.” I left his office and went to the break room for some coffee to go.

Chapter 7

"BEN, IT’S SAM. The Bureau sent me to talk with you." There was no answer and I knocked on the door a little louder.

After a few minutes without an answer I banged on the door with all the force of ... well, the FBI. "Ben, come on, open up, I need to talk to you. I know you're in there. Your car’s in the lot."

"Why are you here, Sam? I'm sorry I bit you. I'm sorry I changed you without talking to you first. It's just that I saw you every day, getting coffee from that blasted cart. My office window overlooked the square. In the beginning I watched you just because you caught my eye. You are just so beautiful and I saw the same melancholy in your eyes that I felt before I was given my cat. I just wanted to help. I thought that—”

"You thought if you gave me my own cat, I wouldn't hate yours?" It seemed ludicrous and even just plain childish.

Yet it hit me that it was the real reason he'd bitten me.

"No! Yes! I don't know. It wasn't like that. I just wanted you to see yourself the way I always saw you. The beauty I saw in you. Fuck, I'm just drowning here aren't I?"

"Pretty much. You sort of just admitted that you infected me because you were stalking me and wanted to date me. How did you think that would go over?" He opened the door and my eyes met his.

"Not that it matters now, but I planned to come back. I went around the corner to change. I put on my clothes and my phone rang. My mom called me to say my dad had died. It's