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

son is okay and she is grateful to you for keeping me alive. The councilwoman is actually a friend of my family and has known me since birth.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

“Look, I’m sorry I got snippy with you.”

“Snippy?” I raised an eyebrow.

“You prefer pissy?”

“It fits better.”

“Well, then, sorry I got pissy with you. It’s not like you knew you were leading a vicious serial killing bear shifter to my front door.”

“I honestly didn’t. I truly thought the bear was a shifter neighbor of mine out for a run. I never would have gone to your place if I had known. In fact, it wasn’t until he attacked that we knew he was even a bear shifter at all.”

“I know. Sorry if I was a jerk. It’s just, they told me you broke protocol.”

“They lied. I ran everything by the book.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Stop apologizing.” I winked after I tossed his words back at him.

“Touché. So what is going to happen now? Do I get to see your house? Are we going to a motel?” Ben grinned and waggled his eyebrows in an attempt to make me chuckle.

“The US Marshals are coming to guard you. They’ll probably fly you right on out of here until Grisly is behind bars or dead.”

“What about you?”

“I’m suspended. Just stuck here until they can spare someone to babysit me.”

“So, that’s it? We’re just going to go our separate ways and hope someone takes down this bastard so I can go home?”

“It’s all I can do. I’m sorry, Ben. I fucked up. Whether I meant to or not, I did.”

“I thought I told you to stop apologizing,” Ben said softly.

“Right, sorry,” I joked halfheartedly.

“I don’t want to go with the Marshals. What happens if I refuse?”

“I don’t know exactly. I’ve never seen anyone refuse before.”

“Will I get to stay with you?”

“I don’t think so. It kind of came out that you’re my sire and we’re bonded. That’s sort of why I was suspended.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, it was a lovely career while it lasted.”

“Don’t be so dramatic. They won’t take it that far. You’re a good agent and you did let your partner and boss know there was a friendship between us, right?”

“How did you know that?” I was surprised.

“Because I know you. It’s not something you would leave out. You’re a mostly by the book type of agent.”

“Really, you think that after all the plotting on the way over here to keep our conversations tonight secret?”

“Really, really.”

“Thanks, Ben. And thanks for calling the councilwoman. I appreciate that.”

He was about to say something more when Gerry burst in the door.

“Sam! The councilwoman called and apologized for being so forceful earlier. She isn’t going to press the matter; you should send her a frigging fruit basket, though.”

“Thanks, Gerry. Am I still suspended?”

“Hell, I never even began the paperwork.” He handed me my gun back and I slipped her into my holster. I’d felt somewhat naked without my gun.

“So, am I still on the case?”

“Yes, why?”

“Excellent. I’m going home.”

“The hell you are! The killer knows where you live, remember?”

“Exactly. We want him, and we can get him to come right to us.”

“I don’t like it, Sam,” Ben chimed in.

“Excuse me, but it doesn’t matter what you like or don’t like, asswipe. This is my call, not Sam’s, and definitely not yours.” Gerry’s brow wrinkled and he looked like he was about to start screaming.

Visions of comic books danced in my head and I had a quick flash of Gerry as J. Jonah Jameson. I tried to hold in my chuckle as my mind completed the picture with Gerry lighting up a cigar and screaming for someone to get him the scoop about Spiderman.

“Something funny, Reece?”

“No, sir. Nothing at all.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You are not to go home, but I will be having Quinn take you guys to a motel and keep watch while you get some sleep.”

“Sounds like a plan. Who else will be going?”

“I could send Sheila?”

“No! Er, I mean no, thanks. Q and I can handle this.”

“Not a fan?”

“Not really. She kind of scares me a little.”

“Little Sheila scares you?”

“She’s really odd, Gerry.”

“Well, you’re her hero, Reece. Makes sense she’d be uncomfortable around you.”

“What do you mean I’m her hero?”

“Remember those bank robberies a couple years ago?”

“Yeah. The one Quinn and I caught the pair because the guy always kidnapped the branch manager the night before the heist?”

“She was the manager’s wife. She was going to be a lawyer, decided to be an agent because you and Quinn saved her life.”

“Huh, I barely remember her. I think we only spoke to her for a little bit because she’d been immediately tied up and stuck in a closet. She saw and heard nothing, right?”

“Yes, that was Sheila.”

“Oh, man, I had no idea. Does Quinn know?”

“He’s a tad more perceptive than you. He figured it out immediately.”

“Why didn’t anyone ever say something?” This explained why she was so keen on me noticing her.

“We figured you knew.”

“I got shot on that case. I barely remember anything from it.”

“You were shot in the leg.”

“It was very traumatic. Okay, so I’m just a dick who forgets names and faces when they creep up on the job.”

“I wouldn’t say you were a dick,” Ben spoke up in my defense.

“No, I really am. I don’t mean to be, it’s just that I learned early on not to get attached. So I tend to detach from witnesses and suspects when working a case.”

“Not a smart way to investigate.”

“What do you mean by that, Fitzpatrick?” I demanded.

“Well, without attachment you can’t feel anything about the people involved in the case you are working.”

“That was kind of the point.”

“Well, if you don’t care about them, how can you keep them alive?”

“That’s my job.”

“So it’s only a job?”

“Hey, Fitzpatrick, you really give as good as you get with her, don’t you?” Gerry sounded amazed.

Then again Gerry hardly ever won a fight against me.

“Well, it’s my job to challenge her and get her to think outside the box.”

“It is?”

“Not really, but I’d be