Sadie Hart by Cry Sanctuary Read Free Book Online Page A

the three of them turned to see a pair of lion-shifters
standing at the edge of the Enforcement tape, the men watching
Lennox with tired eyes. Ollie smiled. “How long have they been
waiting?”
    “They drove. They didn’t want me running
around half-cocked after this bastard any more than they wanted you
to.” Lennox’s lips twitched in a small smile and Ollie grinned
back, her gaze drifting to the woman’s rounded middle.
    She waited for her boss to say it, but she
didn’t. Fine. She’d ask first. “When are you going on leave?”
    Lennox snorted. “When I’m too big to roll out
of bed without help? I’m pregnant, not an invalid.”
    She touched the slightly round pooch of her
belly. “Besides. You can barely tell.”
    “Yeah. Tell that to your men. They look like
they want to eat your Hounds for dragging you out here.” Lennox’s
lovers were lion-shifters, not exactly known for patience. And
they’d seen Lennox through a killer of her own, seen her nearly
die. Ollie was sure déjà-vu made it harder for them.
    One glance around assured her there was
nothing more to do here. No reason to keep them waiting. Ollie took
a deep breath and started to head back down the field, her boss and
partner trailing after her. She was whipped, ready to crash, but
she still had a phone call to make, and an angry man to meet at the
morgue.
    “They worry about you, too, you know,” Lennox
said softly.
    “I’m a big girl. Haven’t you taught them
anything yet? Big girls can take care of themselves.” That drew a
laugh out of Lennox, a rich happy sound which, for the first time
that morning, made something seem bright. Hopeful. Ollie glanced at
the rounded belly, the miracle growing within. “Are you guessing
it’ll be a Rhodesian ridgeback or a lion?”
    Either way, the kid was going to be a
shifter.
    “I’ll take either,” Lennox said, leaning over
to kiss both men softly on their cheeks.
    “Ridgeback,” Kanon said with a grin, the dark
circles under his eyes crinkling as he smiled. “Boy, though. Girls
are too much of a hassle.”
    Tegan gave a grunt of agreement. “Especially
if they’re anything like their mother.”
    “You both are ones to talk, considering we
met while I was trying to arrest one of you and threatening to
handcuff the other.”
    Ollie shook her head at the banter, the way
both men dragged Lennox into hugs, first one and then the other.
“Take her home,” Ollie called as she strode away. When Lennox
looked ready to protest, she added, “I’ll handle the morgue, Sawyer
can wrap up here. Everything else can wait. The pack has processed
what it can.”
    “You need sleep.”
    “And I’ll get some. But the Sanctuary Falls
alpha deserves to know now rather than later.” And Claire Rawson’s
family deserved to know.
    “You don’t have to be the one—”
    But Ollie shook her head before Lennox could
finish. She wanted this. And something in the way Caine Morgan had
let her take control that night, had helped her, even after she
couldn’t tell him what he’d wanted to know. He wouldn’t appreciate
someone else calling him. More important, what little truth they
could reveal, she wanted to be the one to give it to him.
    Even if it was only what he’d known all
along.
     
    ***
     
    Caine stood outside the morgue, back braced
against the brick building. He hadn’t bothered to shave. Then
again, he hadn’t bothered to sleep. His back tensed as he watched
the car approach, the sleek black sedan sliding into the STE-marked
spot up front. He’d waited all night, phone in hand, knowing he’d
get the call today. Knowing he’d have to tell the Rawsons that
their daughter was dead.
    Holly slipped out of the car, her wavy black
hair crammed back in a bun, curls sprouting from the up-do in a
wild, mad scientist look that, surprisingly, looked sexy as hell on
her. It was the look of a woman who’d been up as long as he had,
had been just as worried, and hating every minute of being