Sympathy welled up inside of him for her. “Yeah, I imagine it wasn’t great to have to land in Scotland just to rush right to base and get to work.”
This might actually explain her exhaustion a little better. Dealing with the time changes, jet lag, and the workload that had\s been dumped on her would take its toll.
Aiden immediately felt like a dickhead for not thinking of it sooner.
“How about this…we hit the snooze button, and I’ll come back for you in an hour. Go dream about how we’ll stop by that coffee shop we passed last night. Does that sound good?”
Delilah scratched the back of her neck, hesitating, though he could see the look in her eyes that suggested a deep yearning for exactly what he described.
And if this was what she wanted, Aiden, as her mate, was determined to give it to her. So he was glad that she gave in and accepted it without a fight.
“That sounds amazing. Thank you.”
He winked at her. “No problem. I’m at your service. We’re going to need you at your best if we’re going to catch this guy. Or girl.”
Delilah blinked at him, shaking her head as though she thought he was ridiculous. “God, you’re such a flirt.”
“Really? I wasn’t trying to.”
But that might have been a little lie. This was the woman that he needed standing in front of him. The one person he would want and desire more than any other in his entire life.
Maybe he was being a little flirty.
Shit. He was going to have to do something about that, and soon.
“Are you sure it’s okay for me to just go back to bed? There’s so much to do.”
Despite the sound of guilt in her voice, Aiden knew that this was absolutely the best thing she needed.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Someone like you needs to be in tiptop shape and everything, right? At any rate, I should do a quick sweep of the perimeter and make sure nothing was going on while we were sleeping. But you don’t have to worry. I’m a very light sleeper.”
“You are?
He nodded. “Yeah, the slightest noise has me up and ready to go. It’s kind of a pain in the ass at times, but great to have if I need to keep aware of my surroundings at all times.”
Like he did with her, because there was no way in hell he was going to leave her unguarded just so he could take a catnap.
While he left Delilah to enjoy her extra hour of sleep, Aiden set off to check on the dozen spy cameras he’d set up around the property the night before. If anyone had driven onto the parking lot, or a stray dog happened to get too close, an alarm would have woken him. The alarms had stayed quiet, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have to worry about malfunctions.
He had it on good authority that this sleepy motel didn’t get much business this time of year. At the moment, they had only one other family checked in. Aiden observed the husband, wife, and young daughter and determined that they weren’t anyone to be concerned about.
Time to check it out and see if the night was really as uneventful as the tech suggested.
The marks in the grass a bit away from the parking lot told a different story. They were outside the frame of the cameras and scanners, which worried him a little.
The grass was pressed down flat, in a pattern that made it look like a giant snake had slithered along there.
But snakes didn’t leave claw marks like that behind.
Or the smell of burning garbage.
Aiden sighed.
“This just got way more complicated.”
He was going to need to call in some help on this.
6
Delilah had to admit that extra hour of sleep really did help.
Not that she didn't wish she could crawl back into bed and stay there anyway, but it was better than nothing, and her eyes didn’t feel quite so puffy when she opened them.
She was not a morning person, but that was normal for a honey badger.
If she didn’t get her eight hours minimum, curled up in a nice, warm ball, she was a grumpy badger.
And despite the name, there was nothing sweet about how a honey badger could kill their prey if they were pissed off.
With a satisfying stretch, Delilah pulled herself out of bed, but her feet had barely touched the scratchy carpet when she realized something was very wrong.
She could hear the voices outside her window. Enough to make it suspicious even if you didn’t pick up the anxious tone of their voices.
She could hear the sort of official mutters that came when someone was going over a crime scene.
Heart lurching, Delilah threw on fresh clothes and stuffed her feet into her shoes, running outside to the multiple FPU vans and agents milling around.
Agent Reyes was pointing out the scene while yellow tape was placed and pictures were taken.
Any humans who passed by would think the police had been called over a disturbance. They wouldn’t stick around long enough to figure out these weren’t local law enforcement.
Of course, Delilah could see what this was, and her senses were immediately rushing into overdrive. Her mind raced. Was there a body? Did something happen? Was new evidence found?
If so, what could it be doing there? It wouldn’t be just some coincidence.
As she got closer to the group, she noticed a few things. The first was the number of the agents who took note of her but stepped aside for her to enter the scene.
The second was the smell.
She caught the scent of death but not in the way that suggested a nearby body.
Actually, the closer to the center of the scene she got, the more she realized this wasn’t the smell of death.
It stank like shit, though.
Agent Reyes spotted her and stepped away from Jack, attempting to head her off. She pushed past him. She wasn’t going to put up with whatever bullshit reason he might use to keep her from doing her job.
“Get out of my way.”
“Delilah…”
Whatever he was about to say, she didn’t hear it. Not when Delilah stepped up to the yellow tape. The local forensics team stopped taking their photos as they saw her approach, as though they worried she would get in the way of their jobs and would have to tell her to back off.
“FPU Special Agent Delilah Lovett, coroner.”
They shrugged and got back to their investigation. That startled her. Usually, in a situation like this, people thanked her for showing up and took her over to the body. But no one did that, and she saw no sign of a body.
All she saw was a bunch of flat grass.
A few gouges in the ground here and there prickled her nerves. She’d read about the bunyip in the files.
The smell she got right now came from that creature.
Like old blood and sour milk.
This definitely wasn’t the sort of creature that would be low on the food chain. If anything, it was fairly high up there.
“At least we know what it smells like.”
Agent Reyes stepped up behind her. She jumped a little when he placed his jacket on her shoulders.
“Here, wear this.”
“It’s not that chilly out.”
In fact, she felt a desperate need to pull away from him. The minor touch of his fingers on her shoulders was enough to make her shiver with delight.
Relax.
There were people around. She couldn’t be lusting after him, letting her body react to him in public.
“Just do me a favor and wear it.”