She turned her head and kissed his palm.
“I’ll stay,” she said. “But if he comes anywhere near here, you’d better believe I’m ramming the crap out of him.”
“I’d never believe you wouldn’t.” He started to get out of the car, but then he turned back to her one last time. “Aria, I—”
“Don’t say you love me.” Her eyes were glittering a little with unshed tears, but her jaw was set. “Don’t act like you need to say goodbye. Go in, get Susan, make sure she’s okay. Do whatever you have to to make sure Eli doesn’t hurt her or anyone else. But don’t say goodbye.”
He couldn’t stop the corner of his mouth from twitching in a kind of smile. He wouldn’t argue with that.
Saying a real goodbye to her, with everything he would need to say, would take way too long anyway.
*
Susan Fowler whipped the door open before Colby had even finished knocking.
At least he hoped she was Susan Fowler. He hadn’t gotten a good look at her the night before, and he didn’t even want to try to figure out whether or not she fit whatever bust-related description Eli had given Mel.
“Susan Fowler?”
“Yes. Thank God you’re here.”
Right: she already knew she was in trouble, more or less. If Eli had made a habit out of lugging dead deer to her back door, no wonder she’d had a low-level case of the creeps for a long, long time.
He started to say something, but she cut him off.
“You’re Animal Control, right?”
Shit. He knew where this was going.
Eli was close. Close enough for Susan to have spotted him yet again.
And now they had Animal Control headed for what was about to be a werewolf-on-werewolf fight, and that was a risk of exposure they couldn’t afford.
Eli might even agree with him on that—though his proposed solution would probably just involve ripping the Animal Control officers to shreds for daring to interfere with him.
He kept his voice steady. “I’m a US Marshal, ma’am. My name’s Colby Acton. I have reason to believe that you might be in danger from a federal fugitive we suspect is in this area.”
At least right now he wasn’t catching another wolf’s scent on the wind. He still had a little time.
Susan gasped. “The sex fiend? My neighbor mentioned seeing him. A shirtless man?”
“Yes. I’d like to get you to safety.”
“Of course—” She froze. “Wait. Aria said he was tall, with dark hair. You’re tall. You have dark hair.”
“Ma’am—”
“I can’t believe this.” Tears shimmered in her eyes. “I’ve been calling Animal Control about it for weeks. When they got over telling me I was wrong and it was just a big dog, they finally came out, but the stupid thing has a gift for high-tailing it out of here the second someone comes along to grab him. So now they don’t even think I’m wrong, they just think I’m making it all up. And now you might be...” Her lower lip trembled. “Now you might be some crazy person.”
Colby needed to think on his feet.
“Actually, I’m interested in helping you with your wolf problem too.”
“The US Marshals handle wolves?”
“We do a little bit of everything,” Colby said. That part wasn’t even exactly a lie. “And my office has some expertise in wrangling exotic animals.”
“Okay...”