And I hadn’t had sex in…too long. Now that world might be ending for me, maybe it was time to make some new priorities. I’d devoted my life to protecting the wolf packs around this nation, and now it might end up having been for nothing.
I clenched my jaw and increased the angle on the treadmill before pumping up the speed. My knees ached at first as I channeled all my frustration and worry into the run, punishing my body in order to clear my head. Gradually, I stopped making a mental packing list for the trip to Salem and focused on the rhythm of my pace and my breath. Sweat dripped into my eyes as I found my stride. I grabbed my towel, and my cell phone buzzed inside the cup holder.
Wiping my face off with one hand, I took out my phone with the other. There was a text from a number I didn’t recognize with a link to the New York Times. I kept running as the story came into view. The headline read, SENATOR CARL HANSON PLANNING TO REVEAL SOME OF THE GOVERNMENT’S BEST-KEPT SECRETS.
Shit.
Frowning, I hit the “stop” button on the treadmill and skimmed the article.
Senator Hanson had held a press conference this afternoon and teased the idea that the Department of Defense would be declassifying some of its more controversial research contracts by the end of the month. He’d followed it up with some bullshit excuses about the taxpayers being owed an accounting of defense spending.
“Fuck.” I ran my hand down my face. He was going to throw werewolves under the bus, and I was running out of time. I stared at the number. It had a DC area code. Maybe one of my remaining friends in the Pentagon who didn’t want a trail leading back to them? Hard to say, but I wasn’t going to respond either way.
I slid my phone into my pocket and headed over to the twenty-foot climbing wall. My mind was spinning so fast I wasn’t sure the climb would slow it down, but I had to fucking try.
CHAPTER 4
Rayne
The last few feet of the climb up Doe Mountain challenged me mentally almost as much as physically. My shoulders and hands ached and my legs were noodles as intrusive thoughts barraged me with panicked whispers about plunging to my death.
Above me, Asher’s calming voice coached me, constantly reassuring me. I never would have made it this far if he wasn’t there. If I lived through this, I was going to add a huge gratuity onto the tour fee.
“That’s it, Rayne.” He wound up the slack on the safety line. “The final ten feet are the hardest. You can dig your toes into the grips and catch your breath if you need to. You’ve got plenty of time to finish.”
“No.” I shook my head, simultaneously aching to look down to see how far I’d come and terrified to look anywhere but up. “If I stop, I’ll never move again.” My fingers trembled as I stretched out my hand, reaching for the next metal peg Asher had hammered into the rock face. “Unless you have a helicopter…”
He chuckled. “Sorry. Our budget doesn’t include a chopper.”
“Well shit.” I grunted as I pushed with my legs until I caught the next grip, then moved my foot. My mantra sounded like the Little Engine That Could: I think I can, I think I can…
Asher kept the rope connected to my safety harness wrapped around his waist. “Two more. You’ve got this.”
Only two more. Adrenaline tickled my veins. I was almost there. I’d done it.
Almost. This wasn’t time to get cocky. Not yet, anyway.
When my fingers finally reached the top edge of the mountain face, I almost cried.
Asher grabbed my wrist in a firm grip. “On three, push with your legs and I’ll help you up. Ready?”
I nodded, and when he got to three, I started to straighten my legs. Suddenly, I was standing next to him. I blinked. Had he just pulled me up with one hand? Maybe my legs weren’t as weak as I had imagined, but it didn’t seem like I’d even pushed off yet.
I stared out at the view, struggling to catch my breath. “It’s…gorgeous.”
Asher nodded. “Do you want some water?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed like he’d just offered me a tub of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. “Please.”
He studied me for a second. “Are you steady on your feet?”
“I think so.” I wasn’t dizzy if that’s what he was really asking.
“Good. I’ll be right back.”
While he walked over to his pack, I took out my phone to take some photos as the late-afternoon sky changed color and the sun leaned toward the mountaintops. It really was gorgeous up here. I had zero regrets about the harrowing rock climbing adventure. I might even do it again sometime.
A new e-mail notification popped up. I clicked it and sighed. It was from my ex-boss at Quantico. I should’ve put the phone back in my pocket, but my curiosity got the best of me and I opened the e-mail. A photo immediately started loading.
Asher came back with a canteen in one hand and my CamelBak in the other. “Is everything okay?”
The photo finished loading and the body of a massive wolf filled my phone’s screen. It appeared to be missing its head and all four feet. The message contained the measurements and the weight. I’d never realized wolves could get so large.
Asher handed me my hydration pack before I could close my screen. Concern lined his brow. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to read over your shoulder.”
I sucked in a deep breath and stuffed my phone back into my pocket. “I should be the one apologizing. I forget sometimes how desensitized I’ve become over the years.”
He opened his canteen. “You work for animal control?”
“Not exactly.” I took a few swallows of the cool water in my pack and almost groaned in pleasure. I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was until I’d taken that first sip. “I was actually a profiler for the FBI. I took early retirement a couple months ago.”
He tipped his head slightly. “Since when is the FBI interested in animal cruelty?”
“The FBI tracks animal cruelty now.” I pulled my hydration pack over my arms. “Mutilating animals can be a sign of a serial killer in the making.” I shook my head. “They’re hitting a dead end with this one, and I’m trying not to get involved, but my curiosity gets the best of me sometimes. I think there’s a pattern to this, and once I see one, I can’t let it go until I unravel the mystery, you know?”
What I didn’t tell Asher was that I had a hunch that the person killing the wolves had already made the jump to human beings. I didn’t have the full story from the Bureau yet, but from what my ex-boss had told me over the phone, there had also been some bags of dismembered body parts of men found from Salem to Colorado and the last one was discovered in Arizona. So far, I was the only one who seemed to notice the missing parts of the wolves, the paws and heads, were the same as the human parts they’d discovered in the trash bags. Maybe I was reaching. Sometimes a profiler’s intuition led you down the wrong path, but my gut was telling me I was onto something.
It was my head that kept reminding me that this was no longer my job.
Asher gulped down more water and put the lid back on his canteen. “Looked like a big wolf—or what was left of it.”
“Yeah.” I drank some more water and wiped my forehead. “They said he weighed two hundred fifty pounds and that was while he was…missing some parts.” I cleared my throat, not wanting to gross out my guide. “I need to do some more research, but I’m pretty sure that’s about twice the size of an average adult male wolf.”