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

had some seriously bad wounds to go with the baseball sized bruise forming on the left side of his face from where he’d collided with the living room doorway while running.

As we were walking Grisly out to a waiting ambulance a shot rang out. Everyone took cover and after several moments, and no other shots, we dispersed to check the area. Grisly had been shot in the head. It was clean and right in the center of his forehead. There was no doubt that whoever had taken the shot was a pro.

Several officers and agents fanned out toward where the shot had come from. I had a sinking suspicion they wouldn’t find anything. I was pretty sure that Grisly’s God-spouting benefactor had taken care of a loose end. He couldn’t allow Grisly to spill the beans about who he was and what he was planning.

I was pissed, because in the end it didn’t matter if I’d come in shooting or not. We never would have managed to get Grisly alive; the guy who had recruited him saw to that. I just wish I had gotten more off the bear shifter while he was in our custody. I went to my room and wrote down word for word what had been said during our time together. Maybe there was a clue in there somewhere.

Chapter 18

I HAD A GUT FEELING AMERICANS FOR A WERE-FREE AMERICA had something to do with it all. I just didn’t know what. I did, however, know there was a larger game plan at play and I knew I had to do something to stop it.

At least we could ID Grisly and start digging into him. It didn’t matter that he was dead, he’d still lead us to whomever had corrupted his brain with so much anti-shifter sentiment that he could slice and dice several women into so much meat without remorse.

As crime scene techs came and went, going through every single item I owned and cataloguing it just in case he had touched something, I sat in my home feeling violated and angry. Not only did this group know about me, they knew where I lived. I loved my home and now I was no longer safe in it.

Don’t worry, I wasn’t about to let anyone run me off my land, and so I decided to make a call to a former coworker and very good friend who went into private security a few years back. I’d make damned sure my home was safe even if it took half my paycheck every month to do it. I took in the claw marks in my floor, including the deep gashes where we had collided and dug in to gain purchase. That could have been me. It was only luck, and Kevlar, that saved Josh and I from being taken away by Quinn’s corpse grabbers.

A shiver ran down my spine as I dug out the phone and immediately called my friend’s security company. I was hoping they could send someone down tomorrow after the scene was processed and released. Preferably even before then. My friend, Alex Baltazar, assured me they’d meet me at the FBI office and someone would stick with me while he sent someone else to secure my house.

“Look, Sam, we will have someone there the entire time the cops and feds are there, as well as make sure the place is secure, then build a security system just for you. In the meantime, one of my guys will meet you at your office and I think I should bring a lawyer in.”

“A lawyer? There’s no need—”

“Hey, you never know what these people are capable of. I think it’s best you protect yourself in all ways.”

I’d always been able to trust and count on most of my FBI brethren. The idea that one of them could betray me never even crossed my mind. I thought back to those who never liked me from the moment I revealed my shifter nature and I wondered if any one of them were a part of this plot Grisly and his puppet-master had. Then I wondered when I had become so paranoid.

I smiled a moment and thought, Is it really being paranoid if someone’s really out to get you.

They’d known where I lived. They’d sent Grisly there earlier. Somehow the big bad had known right where his pet psychopath would be. Sure, perhaps they spoke beforehand, but Grisly didn’t seem like the sort who would take well to being micromanaged. He had his orders and that was all he needed.

He thought he was acting in service to God, which meant military type tactics were out. They would have to give him space to complete his mission. If that was the case then the person behind everything had to have known where Grisly was from the FBI or police’s end of things. I didn’t like the implications that carried.

Still, better safe than sorry.

Until I had things figured out I’d spend my time where it mattered most, investigating the whole shebang. I knew Grisly was a pawn to them because he was too messy for them to keep standing behind. It was only a matter of time before he was caught. If he was a game piece then who was the one playing him?

“Sam?”

“Sorry, I was thinking it over. Send the lawyer. What the hell could it hurt?” If someone in my office wanted me dead, having legal backup would be nice.

If they were nuts enough to try and have me killed, what’s to stop them from setting me up for something? Alex was right, better safe than sorry.

“See you downtown.”

I held the phone for a moment and considered calling him back and asking him to forget the attorney. I didn’t want to be that cop who lawyers up automatically. Those guys always look so frigging guilty. At the same time, I had to look out for myself.

I had coworkers who would vouch that I’d done everything aboveboard