“Are you Detective Selinofoto?” he asked. There was a hint of accent in his voice. She was usually good with figuring out where people came from based on their accents, but for the life of her, she couldn’t tell with him.
“Yes.” She made her irritation obvious in her voice. “Who are you?”
“My name is Daric Jonasson. I’m also a partner in this club,” he said. “Zac wanted me to take care of you.”
“Did he?” Her thoughts drew back to the other man. The groom.
“Yes, I believe I can answer all your questions. Follow me, please.”
“Hold on,” she said, moving away from him. “Where are you—”
He took a step toward her. Not anticipating such a bold move, she didn’t have time to dodge him, and he caught her wrist, then placed his other hand in his pocket. Was he taking out a weapon?
“What the fuck! Let go or I’ll have you arrested for assaulting a police officer!”
The man’s eyes flashed surprise for a moment then he took a step back. He held his hands up in surrender. “I mean you no harm, Detective. I just wanted to stop you from tripping and hurting yourself.”
“Tripping? On what?”
“On that.” He nodded toward the floor.
She followed his gaze and noticed the empty bottle of champagne by her foot. “That wasn’t there a second ago.”
“Perhaps you just didn’t notice it roll towards you.”
“Maybe.” There was definitely something going on here. “We don’t have to go anywhere, Mr. Jonasson. I can take your statement right here.”
“All right, Detective. Whatever you want.” He cocked his head at her, the expression on his face curious. “But first, may I see your badge?”
“Fine.” She held it up. “Satisfied.”
“Sofia Selinofoto.” The corner of his mouth quirked up. “Wisdom and moonlight in Greek.”
“My family is Greek,” she found herself saying, then shook her head. Why the hell was she revealing personal information to a stranger? She shrugged. “Mr. Jonasson, just tell me where you were during the incident and what you witnessed.”
“There really is no need, Detective. We don’t plan on pressing charges. The disturbance happened on private property, not out on the street. Besides, the people who caused the trouble are long gone.”
“But you have cameras all over the place, right?”
“Yes, but it would be a waste of resources and time—ours and your department—to track them down for a little scuffle that really hurt no one but themselves,” he pointed out.
She didn’t like any of this. Not the way his reasoning made sense or the way he looked at her. Like he knew everything about her with one look. But she couldn’t do anything else, not unless she found evidence that there was something illegal going on. “You’re right.” Unfortunately. She took out her card and handed it to him. “But if you do change your mind—”
“I know where to find you,” he finished, taking her card.
With a nod, she pivoted on her heel and walked toward the exit. She ignored Martinez’s disdainful glance, despite the fact that she could feel it burning a hole in her back. Pushing at the door, she walked out onto the sidewalk.
It was one of those cold winter nights, so it wasn’t surprising that she was shivering. But the cold air felt amazing on her face, and she didn’t even realize that her cheeks were warm.
Despite Jonasson’s reassurances, her gut was screaming at her. It was telling her something was not right at Blood Moon. Everything about the whole thing was strange.
And then the image of mismatched eyes popped into her mind. That man. He was attractive for sure. No, attractive wasn’t the right word. Magnetic.
And so very taken. It was his stag party, after all, and it looked like he was trying to make the most of his last nights of freedom judging by how drunk he was. Did they also have strippers in there? Again, that strange tightening in her chest came back, but she pushed it away.
A quick glance at her watch told her that it was past ten thirty in the evening. She’d been working for over fourteen hours, and now fatigue was creeping into her body. Really, she should go home and crash. Vrost and Jonasson were doing her a favor by not adding to her caseload. This was one gift horse she shouldn’t be looking in the mouth. With everything else going on, she should just walk away from Blood Moon and never come back.
Chapter One
Lucas Anderson stared out of the window of his office on the sixty-eighth floor of the Fenrir Corp. building, watching the snow drifting down slowly, obscuring his view of New York in a sheet of whiteness. It was getting late, and he really wanted to leave, but he had one more appointment.
“Mr. Anderson?” The voice was hesitant, almost scared.
“Yes?” He turned around to find his new assistant, David Masters, standing by the door. Instantly, his inner wolf was on alert. Calm down, he said to the animal who shared his body. David was new to the job, having only been with him for a few weeks, so his wolf wasn’t yet used to the human’s presence. Stop! His wolf reached forward, trying to break through their skin, but he reined it in. It was getting harder to control his animal, but he chalked it up to the events of the past few weeks and the threat surrounding them. He reached deep inside him, trying to recall his training. Find something to ground you. A memory. A scent. Those from before the incident worked best. Family vacations with parents and sisters. Mama’s lingering scent at the breakfast table after she left for work in the morning.
“James Turner is here, sir.”
Lucas cleared his mind and focused his attention on his assistant. David looked so nervous Lucas almost wondered if the young man
