Chapter 38: Mate's Touch

Rance knelt behind the giant oak, watching as Deputy Lainie Everest slid out of her patrol car. He would not allow some small-town deputy to steal his case, regardless of how his wolf panted after her back at the crime scene. Now was not the time for animal lust to distract him. Roger O’Brien was his; Roger’s phone was his. Rance needed the video on that phone to put that punk, Snake, and four of his friends behind bars for shooting up a family’s house and killing the father. Gang violence in Pensacola was out of control, contributing to almost eighty percent of the criminal activity in the county. Rance’s office was determined to do everything within its power to put as many of them behind bars as possible. Roger was to be a step in that direction. Was to be, that is, until the man turned chicken and ran. Now the only witness to the fatal shooting had been fatally shot, and some one-horse deputy was doing her best to impede Rance’s investigation. Well, she’s going to try anyway.