Hers (17 page)

“Fuck. I know. But I need to know who said what and
why Sammy wasn’t protected when she came in and asked for help.”

“This is going to end badly tonight. I don’t know
what’s come over the cap to do this. I still think this is a bad idea.”
Kegon’s
eyes narrowed in on him, and Brock knew his partner
wasn’t about what he would have to do.

“I can’t move on until I know what the hell
happened. How could they treat Sammy like they did, and how on earth did they
not know a serial killer was among them? I know there are shifters among them.
Something’s not right.”

Kegon
groaned. “Crap. I really don’t want to do this, but if this will help you move
on and feel better I’ll help and do what I can.”

Brock nodded and went to a quiet spot to call
Slater.

Chapter
Nine

Sammy walked into the kitchen to see a young dark-haired
girl and an older graying woman cutting up potatoes.

“Hi.” They both stopped what they were doing to
stare at her. “I’m Sammy, Brock’s girlfriend. I was wondering if you need any
help?
”

The younger of the two looked her up and down. “Do
you really want to help?”

“Um … yes. I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want
to.”

The older woman smacked her daughter on the hand.
“Lena, don’t be rude.”

“Mum, there are over fifteen women out there, and
Sammy is the only one who means it when
she’s
 
offered
. I know Jude’s and
Kene’s
wives are pregnant, and Belinda and Holly offered,
but they didn’t really mean it. The rest of the women are badge bunnies and
probably are too busy fawning over the men.”

Sammy loved Lena instantly. She reminded her of
Sandy, not afraid to speak her mind. “What can I do to help? Do you have
another chopping board? And I can do a salad. I’ll cut some lettuce, carrots,
and tomatoes.”

“Thank you,
Sammy, that
would be wonderful. I’m Gretel, and this,” Gretel pointed to the dark haired
beauty. “Is Lena, my
daughter.
” Gretel walked around
the kitchen and gathered up ingredients, a knife, bowl, and a chopping board.
She placed them on a clear part of the kitchen top. “I think we’ll only need
one salad. These boys don’t really eat it, and most of the women won’t eat.”

Sammy walked to her station and started cutting her ingredients.
It was quiet in the kitchen for a good five or minutes before Lena sighed.

“Okay, I’m dying to know how you met Brock and how
on earth a tiny thing like you isn’t terrified of him. I bet even in the heels
you’re wearing you only just come to his massive shoulders. Don’t get me wrong.
Brock is gorgeous, but in a dangerous ‘I’ll kill you if you step one foot wrong’
kind of way.”

“Lena.”
Gretel gasped at her daughter.

“What? I just asked what you were thinking as well, Mum.”

Sammy laughed, enjoying the mother-daughter banter.
“
It’s
fine, Gretel. I’ll answer. I meet Brock through
my friend Susie, and one of my best friends, Sandy, just married Brock’s
brother.”

“Oh my God, you’re friends with Sandy? I love her. I
think she is awesome. She handles two handsome men.”

“So does Susie. It seems to be a thing with the Bear
family.”

Lena’s eyes widened.
“No way.
You are with two?”

“Lena!”
This
time Gretel shouted.

Sammy thought it safe to tell because they didn’t
seem to mind Sandy’s little family. “Yes. I’m with Brock and Slater, who is
Brock’s cousin.”

“Wow. They’re not together, are they?”

Sammy chuckled.
“No, not at all.
It’s like Sandy’s relationship, except I’m not pregnant, engaged, or married.
It’s still new. They have been asking me out for almost a year, but I just got
out of a bad relationship and needed time to heal.”

She watched both women, and Sammy could tell Gretel
already knew most of what she’d just said, but Lena hadn’t.
     

“I think I need to find myself someone from the Bear
family.”

Sammy giggled, surprisingly enjoying
herself
.

When the salad was finished she helped make some desserts.
As she put caramel on the puffs, Brock’s arms circled her waist.

“Did you forget about me, angel?”

He nipped her neck, and she shivered messing up the
puff. She turned and looked up at him. Something looked different. Before he’d
been on edge and nagging her to find out things she wanted left alone.

“No. I was just enjoying myself with Gretel and
Lena.” She searched his eyes and she could see his bear prancing back and
forth, but he didn’t seem frustrated, more like impatient. “Are you okay?”

Brock nodded, leaned down and brushed his lips
against hers, lingering a moment. “Yes.
You almost done?
Our afternoon dinner is ready.”

Sammy grinned. “Yeah, be out soon.” She watched as
he strolled out. Sammy couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right.

She turned back to finish the last couple of puffs
to see Lena staring at her. “What did you do to him? Usually he only wears
black, and he always has a five o’clock shadow. He just turned into—”

“Yeah, I know.” Sammy didn’t need Lena to finish. She
knew how good Brock looked.

“No wonder you were late. He cleans up good,” Gretel
whispered. “He’s never come to one of my dinners looking like that. If he would
have, I would have made Albert invite him around a lot more.”

“
Muummm
!”
 
Lena yelled.

“I’m old, not dead,
sweetheart
.”

Sammy felt her cheeks heat, and she laughed so hard
she cried. She really liked Gretel and Lena. “Thank you.”

“What are thanking us for?” Lena asked.

“I haven’t felt this light-hearted in months. You
remind me of how I used to be with my mother. We bantered back and forth, and I
could tell her anything. Thank you for the wonderful time.”

Gretel and Lena came to her and hugged her. Sammy
cried hard as she soaked up the love. They patted her on the back.

“We did nothing. You were just so easy to get on
with. We will definitely be doing this again. I had fun.”

Gretel chuckled. “See, you just got a massive compliment.
Lena had fun with you. She wants to have a play date. She’s really picky with
who she likes.”

“Really, Mum.”
 
Lena rolled her eyes heavenward.

Sammy smiled. She knew she’d just found some great
new friends.

****

Slater was unsure what to expect after Brock called
him and told him what was going down. He was pissed at Brock for using Sammy as
bait to help get people to talk.

Walking into the barbeque he was unsure of what to
expect. Slater knew most of the people in Brock and Jake’s precinct, but there
was
a huge number of humans he didn’t know at the party.

Slater couldn’t see Sammy anywhere. He scanned the
party until he gave up on finding her outside and thought he’d give inside a
go. The lounge room was a no go, but in the kitchen he found his mate hugging
two women and crying.

He cleared his throat and took a deep breath that
came out on a snarl at the smell of Sammy.
That fuckwit
.
Sammy’s emotions
were everywhere, and she wasn’t ready for what Brock was about to do to her.

Pissed off he snapped, “What’s going on?”

Sammy detangled
herself
from the two women, one he remembered as Brock’s captain’s wife. “Slater, what
are you doing here? I thought you had to work as you had two sick chefs.”

He stalked her, his bear going crazy at her sad
emotions. “I decided to take it off to make you happy.” Sammy didn’t need to
know the real reason right now. He needed to get her out of here before
anything happened.

Sammy came to him and wrapped her arms around him.
“Thanks.”

She leaned up on her tip toes, and he leaned down
letting her press her mouth to his. Slater didn’t touch her back or let
himself
kiss her. He knew if he did he would leave here
right now with her slung over his shoulder. It was probably the safest and
nicest idea, but he didn’t want Sammy angry with him for embracing her.

Sammy backed away from him. “What’s up?”

“I’m pissed. We need to get out of here now. Please,
you’ll thank me later.”

Sammy studied him before she nodded. “Let me help
put this stuff out, and then we’ll leave. Gretel, Lena, this is Slater. Slater,
this is Gretel and Lena. Gretel, I don’t mean to be rude, but you don’t mind if
we help put this stuff out to the dinner table outside,
then
leave?”

Slater knew that was probably the best he would get.
Sammy wouldn’t just leave without helping and then saying bye.
“Nice to meet you.”

Gretel smiled and passed him the potato bake.
“That’s fine. You can go. You’ve been here for a while.” Slater narrowed his
eyes then. The woman knew something was going on. “Let’s go feed the hordes.”

Slater walked behind Sammy as she grabbed the salad
and a large box of plastic knives and forks.

The farther outside they got the shakier Sammy got.
Crap!
The other precinct was already
there. When she placed the stuff she had on the table Slater looked around and
saw half the eyes were on Sammy.

“I didn’t say anything. I didn’t say anything,”
Sammy whispered over and over.

Slater concentrated on the smells around him using
his shifter senses.
Fear, anger, astonishment, and hate.
He shoved the potato bake down and wrapped his arms around Sammy, who, he could
tell, was barely holding it together.

He was going to kill Brock. Slater was glad he had
come now, and he wished he’d been here earlier to get Sammy away sooner. He had
to get Sammy out now.

“I didn’t tell anyone anything. I haven’t told
anyone. I promise.” Sammy voice was getting louder, and she shook in his hold.
“I kept all your secrets.”

He let his bear show through and used all his
shifter senses, growling when he heard soft whispers between two men somewhere
in the back of the group
..

“I thought Greg killed her the last time she went
out with her friends.”

“Stupid slut deserved to die. She’s going to expose
us all if she doesn’t shut up.”

“Why did he let her live? She knows too much.”

The last whispered comment had his bear ready to
kill.

“Why didn’t Michael kill her? We told him she was
compromised.”

Slater watched as Brock and his partner and two
other shifters went to the two
guys
 
who’d
spoken. Brock took a hold of one
and dragged him to the officials. Brock then went up into the face of a panther
shifter and a wolf,
who
stood to the side of the
panther.

“You want to tell me why the hell I’m not
challenging you in form to a death match?”

The wolf shrugged and glared at Sammy. “We don’t all
have a trust fund, bear. This job doesn’t pay enough. I didn’t know the human
was important.”

“If we’d known she was your mate we would have
stopped him,” the panther said in a whisper only the shifters in the room could
hear, and now Sammy, thanks to them mating her.

Brock snarled. “I, Brock Bear, challenge you both.
It shouldn’t matter if she was my mate or not. You don’t treat humans that way.
Because of your neglect shifters were killed also.” Brock’s voice got louder so
everyone could here. “Breakaway precinct has just sealed its fate.”

Eight officials stepped into the circle that had
formed around Sammy. They flashed Internal Affairs badges.

“Thanks, Albert, for helping the investigation
along. Detective Bear, we appreciate all your help, but we can take it from
here.”

“I’m not done with them.” Brock attacked the two
shifters, and all hell broke loose.

Slater placed Sammy behind him, and Sammy screamed
and gripped his back. “I didn’t tell.”

 
The men and
women around them from Brock’s precinct came to Brock’s aid, and some helped
the Internal Affairs get control of the groups.
 

Once the scene was contained,
Kegon
held Brock back, and his captain stood quietly talking to him.

Slater was fuming. How could Brock have put their
mate in danger like this? Sammy was trembling as she clung to his back. Brock
didn’t deserve Sammy as a mate.

One of the older men from internal affairs came over
to him. “Mrs. Gardener, thank you for your cooperation.”

Slater growled at the man. He knew Sammy had been
involved in this. She’d had no idea what was going to happen tonight.