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

have a badge. You’re a witness, not an agent. You’ll be staying here. That’s it.” I turned to leave then stopped and looked back at Ben. “Look, I appreciate your wanting to help, but you don’t have the qualifications to be there.”

“This isn’t regular FBI business. This guy is strong, he is big, and he is mean. Worse than all that, he sees you as an abomination and a potential target. I don’t think it’s right for you to go it alone.”

“I won’t be alone, I’ll have full department backup. Not to mention Quinn.”

“Humans are not the same.”

“Speciesist! Humans can take down a shifter just as easily as you and I, besides they will all have these amazing pieces of technology we call guns. Bullets stop shifters and humans alike. Now, you’re staying here, we are doing this by the book, and I’m bringing Grisly in.”

“Sam, he is going to kill you.”

“Ye of little faith.” I turned back to the door and continued walking out.

Once the door closed behind us, I asked Gerry to make sure that someone stayed on the interrogation room door, and Ben, until the arrest was over.

Chapter 17

I KNEW THAT BEN WAS RIGHT, Grisly wasn’t going to let me take him in peacefully. There was absolutely no way he was going to let me walk up and handcuff him. I also knew I had to try. It was like I told Ben; if I just went gunning for the killer then I’d be no better than him. That said, I wasn’t stupid. I was going in locked and loaded for bear.

Literally.

If I was going to have a chance at this, I was going to need good people behind me. I was lucky, I had the best. I called Quinn in and he agreed to bring Chad. While I waited for them to arrive I called Josh and filled him in. He actually made it to the office before the O’Reilly brothers.

When everyone showed up I led them all into Gerry’s office and we began to coordinate the apprehension.

“So, let me get this straight, we’re pulling a Scooby Doo?” Josh asked after I explained my plan.

“What the hell is a Scooby Doo?” I just had to know.

“When one member of the team acts as bait or a distraction while the others close the trap around the monster.”

“Uh-huh. I prefer to think of this more as a professional sting operation than a Great Dane’s escapades,” Gerry said.

I smiled, there was something sort of fitting in being compared to Scooby.

“At any rate, we will have to make sure we have eyes on you at all times. I don’t like the idea of him getting close to you.” Chad had stayed pretty quiet, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with my plan.

“I don’t like the idea of him getting close to me, either,” I lied.

My jaguar wanted this hunt badly. She was aching to get her teeth and claws into him. She hadn’t had a good chase in some time and a good fight in far longer.

“Then it’s settled. We keep eyes on Sam from all directions. Quinn, do you want to be in the house with her?”

“I think that’s a good plan.”

“I don’t want you too close to him, either, Q. You have Kelly and Angelique at home needing you in one piece.”

“Sam, you’re my family, too. There is no way I wouldn’t be there for you. Besides, Kelly wouldn’t let me come home if I allowed anything to happen to you.”

I patted his hand and smiled. “Thank you. I still don’t want you that close to him.”

“I’ll go with her. I don’t have anyone waiting on me at home.” For once, Chad wasn’t being melodramatic. He was being completely serious about it.

“Are you sure?” Quinn asked his brother.

“Yeah.”

“Sam, are you okay with that?”

“If Gerry is, I am. Ultimately, it’s his call who goes where.”

“I’ll sign off, but only on the condition that you stay back and let my agents handle things. You report to them, understand?” Gerry’s gaze went from Chad to Josh and back again.

Though they were part of the task force set up to apprehend Grisly, they were still police and not FBI.

“Understood,” Josh said.

“Yeah, I got it, no worries.” Chad shrugged.

“Good. Okay, Reece, pull up the blueprints for your house. Let’s get a game plan as well as a couple backup plans in the works.” Gerry handed me the tablet that controlled the smart screen in his office.

I pulled up the designs for my house and we used a program to mark where we should all position ourselves during several different scenarios. I looked at my watch and was surprised to see that it had only been two hours since I had decided upon this course of action. I hoped, and silently prayed, that we would all make it out safe and intact, except for Grisly.

We stopped to be fitted with body armor and grabbed crowd control teargas grenade guns, ammo for the tranq guns, and masks. I didn’t think the bullet-proof vests would do any good, but better safe than sorry. If that bit of Kevlar gave us a measure of protection against Grisly’s claws, I was all for it. The teargas would definitely be useful, as would the tranquilizers. As we geared up, I felt the need to remind them, “Remember, guys, that he may look like a grizzly bear, but he is still his human weight so we have to keep to the human dosage on the tranq guns. We have no idea how quickly he will be able to burn it off. We’ve not been in this situation before and we don’t want any more deaths, so the priority here is to get him down and subdued.”

I listened to them all agree to stick to keeping the darts at safe levels. The plan was to bring the monster to justice, not kill him outright. No matter how much we may want to.

We filed out to the garage and