She tried to joke it off. He let it slide.
“Let’s have a nice hot bath and get some sleep.”
He carried Harley up the stairs and into his bathroom. He had a tub that was large enough for them with some room left. It took about five minutes for it to fill.
Cash added some essential oils and bubbles. She loved bubbles. Getting two Turkish bath sheets from the linen closet, he laid them next to the bath.
He picked Harley up stepping into the tub with her. The water was hot. Almost too hot, yet it felt wonderful. Harley lay her back against his chest. Cash started washing her. He spent several minutes tenderly washing every inch of her body.
She was slightly sore from the sex. The hot water eased the soreness. Cash took extra care in washing between her legs and her outer lips.
The talk between them was casual. Harley found herself relaxing. She was getting sleepy. Her eyelids fluttered shut a few times.
Cash stood up lifting her out of the tub and drying her off. He carried her to bed and tucked her in before going back and draining the tub.
The last thing Harley remembered was Cash drawing her back against his body. She snuggled in his warmth. He always smelled so good. It was a combination of the essential oils in the bath, and beyond that was the smell of the woods.
He smelled like nature. Fresh, clean and a little musty like a wolf. Harley murmured “Yes,” as she fell asleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Cash’s phone went off waking her up. He answered and handed it to her. “It’s for you.”
“Hello.”
“Harley this is Lieutenant Meyers. We have another murder. Can you come to the scene?
“Sure. Where is it? How many? Is it the same type of murder?”
“In Broken Arrow. It’s another family. Six people altogether.”
Cash handed Harley a notepad and pen. She quickly wrote down the address. “I will be there as soon as I can. It will be about an hour and a half.”
“The evidence isn’t going anywhere. See you when you get here.”
Harley didn’t have to ask where he had gotten the number. She was certain the Mrs. Reyes would have given it to him. She had no idea where her cell phone had gotten off to.
“Let me drive you back home. Maybe you should keep some clothes here.”
“That’s an excellent idea.”
Cash went out to the truck and retrieved her phone, clothes, and purse. Five minutes later they were headed to her house. Harley quickly changed and grabbed her gear. She ran down to the lab long enough to stuff several potions in her bag.
She and Emery had made several new potions geared toward vampires. Cash had given her a quick kiss when he dropped her off. She said she would text him when she was done.
It took her a little over 90 minutes to find the Broken Arrow address. This was another farm. Out in the middle of nowhere. The police didn’t have a problem showing her into the house, once she showed her credentials.
Meyers was standing close to the entry way of the two-story brick house.
“Shall we inspect the scene?”
She braced herself and followed him. Meyers led her down a short hallway and into what looked like a dining room. Only this scene was out of some horror movie.
All six of the family members had been sitting around the table when they were slaughtered. It was really the only word for it. Blood covered nearly every inch of the room in some form.
Great pools of blood spilled under each chair. Spatters covered the walls and even the ceiling. Harley couldn’t tell the bodies apart readily. They had been so mutilated it would take some time for her to identify the differences.
None of the bodies looked like they had been small children. She was thankful for that. Harley used the same potion as before to identify the type of assailant.
The potion once again pointed to vampires. It would take the lab much longer to sort this scene out. There weren’t enough pieces readily available to identify bite or claw marks.
“Did you have a chance to interrogate Perovsky?”
Meyers shook his head. “We seem to be having trouble finding a judge in Texas that wants to sign a warrant for him.”
“What is he, some kind of old time gangster?”
“I don’t know. I have never really met with this kind of resistance before. Not to just bring a man in for questioning.
“The judges are saying we need more proof. If they are going to bring in a high-profile member of the community, they need a reason.”
“High-profile member of the community? Is he that well known?”
“Apparently he donates large sums of money to local charities. He also donates heavily to the police and fire stations in Dallas.”
“They don’t want to lose their pocket book unless we have concrete proof against this guy. Damn.
“I can tell that these are the same vampires. Even if it takes a few days for the results to come back. The problem is identifying all or any of them. If we can tie one of them to Perovsky, we can tie the rest of them too him. I think we need to determine a motive. Perhaps work the case backward. We already have cause of death. Time of death won’t take long to figure out. The suspects are firm. Now, we just need to know why. The why should tie us to the suspects.”
“In this case, we know it’s a group of vampires. We have every reason to believe they belong to Perovsky and not to Luc.
“Though until we know the motive, I don’t think we should rule out any of the broods in the area.
“We could be going in blind
