Hounded (Shifter Town Enforcement) by Sadie Hart Read Free Book Online Page B

house. “Get your shirt on.”
    He didn’t argue, and a second later he reappeared tugging his shirt back on over his head. He stuffed his feet back in his shoes while passing Tegan’s pair to him. In all of five seconds they were ready, in their rumpled, sleep, sex, and alcohol riddled clothing.
    “One last thing,” she murmured. “The written testimonies, where are they?”
    It took the three of them another five minutes to turn the room and hall upside down, but nothing. Lennox felt a painful twist in her gut. “Maybe we left them at the bar.”
    The words didn’t sound at all comfortable to her ears so instead, she turned back towards the front door and waved them out. “After you.”

Chapter Four

    Death.
    Tegan recognized the smell the moment the car door opened and Lennox stepped out, the coppery tang of blood thick on the mid-morning breeze. The lion in him regarded the smell with a cool, distant regard. Possible food? Tegan slammed the no down on the animal hard and fast, shoving the instinct away.
    One hand gripping the car door, he froze, the yellow crime scene tape wrapped off Metro and part of the surrounding parking lot. A camera whirred under the trigger happy snap of a reporter’s finger, but Tegan ignored it, instead focusing on the splay of blood against the brick wall.
    Tristan’s.
    Kanon slipped out of the car behind him, large hands wrapping around his waist. Just a brief contact to lend strength as they walked around the building after Lennox. But he had to know. Someone had killed a close friend and—Hounds or no Hounds—Tegan wasn’t about to let whoever it was just walk away.
    If he could pick something up at the scene, he would. And by the brief flex of Kanon’s fingers against his hips, he could feel the taut anger in his partner too. They’d get their revenge. Whoever had done this would pay.
    Two other Hounds—a second ridgeback, and something else, a muskier flair to her scent—stood around the back of the building between the bar and the dumpster. Tristan’s body was slumped against the wall, his guts draped out over the sidewalk. Tegan stopped cold. A roar built in his chest, aching to rumble and he swallowed it back.
    He would not lose it here. Not yet.
    The couldn’t afford a show of anger.
    The woman rose, eyes narrowed on them as she addressed the Hound with Lennox. “Hennessy...”
    “They’re clear.” He gestured towards Lennox with a broad wave. “Sesarina Dade, Kyle Rogers, this is Lennox Donnelly.”
    Both Hounds looked shocked, Sesarina’s lips curling back in a small sneer, but Lennox met her with a cool glare. Her confidence never faltered, not even when she looked down at Tristan’s blood splattered against the bar.
    “I didn’t realize ridgebacks fucked lion-shifters.”
    Lennox’s lips thinned, but she stepped towards the body, attention solely on the work at hand. Her voice came out sweet, pleasant, but Tegan didn’t miss the bite to it. Nor did the woman with the barbed tongue. “Less than wolfhounds and their wolves.”
    Neither denying nor confirming sex, Lennox knelt beside the body, her nostrils flaring. Tegan found himself scenting as well. Concrete, blood, sweat, the Hounds milling around, a hundred other bodies that had passes this very spot last night, but nothing on Tristan himself. Not even the slightest whiff of his attacker, and for wounds like that, the son of a bitch should have left a mark. And yet there was nothing . How the fuck were they supposed to find who was behind it if there was no scent?
    Lennox tilted her head slightly, a frown creasing her brow as she studied Tristan. “It’s like it’s been wiped?”
    Sesarina snorted. “If you’re accusing a Hound of doing this, maybe we should be looking at you. You are after all with the two suspects we originally had in mind and if anyone has the skills to cover up a murder, it’d be you.”
    “Dade!” Walker took a step towards the wolfhound, but she didn’t back down.