Sadie Hart by Cry Sanctuary Read Free Book Online Page B

useless.
Her steel-gray eyes met his, exhaustion mingling with defeat. Once
again, the Hunter had won.
    “Thanks for meeting me here,” she said, and
he shrugged.
    “Let’s just get this done and over with.” The
words came out harder than he’d meant, a growl mixed in them, but
she didn’t flinch at the rough, broken sound. Instead, her chin
dipped in a slight nod, her shoulders sagging under the weight of a
long night.
    “I’m going to guess you want to be the one to
tell her family?”
    “Yes.”
    “I figured. She was your wolf.” Pain and
guilt smoldered in her eyes as she looked up at him. “I’m
sorry.”
    There was more emotion in those two words
than Caine knew what to do with. Her voice was so rich with sorrow
it seemed to bleed with the pain. Regret left her normally
soothing, strong voice hollow. It had a barren sound, tinny, that
echoed around in his head. “You were there?”
    Again.
    She flinched and looked away. Another thing
she couldn’t tell him. Jesus Christ. What did he have to do to get
some information? What hadn’t she told him that might have saved
Claire? His hands fisted at his sides, muscles bunched with the
urge to throttle her, but Caine held himself back. “She was my
wolf.”
    “I know. I’m sorry, we did all we could. I
know you want every last detail, but I can’t give you that. We hold
information back so we can weed through the wackos that call in
admitting to crimes they didn’t commit. We hold it back so the
killer doesn’t find out everything we know. It doesn’t help you,
but sooner or later it’ll help us catch this guy.”
    Her eyes closed, shutting him out. She tilted
her head up towards the sky before she breathed the next words out.
“And yes, I wish we could have saved her.”
    Holly hugged herself tightly, her knuckles
white as they gripped her biceps, and suddenly, the tough,
no-nonsense Enforcement Hound looked scared. Vulnerable. Those big,
blue-gray eyes opened and he saw the tears there, watched her turn
her head to the side as she tried to blink them away.
    Christ. He hadn’t meant to make her cry.
Caine exhaled on heavily, his anger draining out of him. What was
she supposed to do? He stepped forward only to have her flinch
away, gray gaze slashing against his. A flicker of a warning.
“Look, I’m tired. I just wanted to be the one to give you this. Be
the one to tell you what we can.”
    Because she couldn’t tell him what he wanted
to know.
    Yeah, he got that. “Let me see her,
then.”
    He followed Holly inside, the scent of fresh
brewed coffee greeting him at the door. It looked peaceful, the
mocha-colored walls inviting. Warm. Holly led him past the mahogany
chairs in the waiting room. Caine cringed. Nice of them to make
sure the families could wait in comfort before seeing their loved
ones on steel slabs. It sure as hell didn’t soften the blow.
    Fighting the urge to snarl, Caine blocked it
all out, his gaze on the woman in front of him, the steady sway of
her rounded hips. Her hand trembled when she lifted it to swipe
back a stray, frazzled strand of hair.
    “How long have you been up?”
    A grim smile flashed over her face as she
looked back at him. “All night.”
    The medical examiner greeted them as they
entered, the young woman no older than Holly. Long blonde hair
pulled back in a ponytail, she wore a square, white smock hung over
what would be a lean body underneath. Unlike Holly, this woman
looked like she’d seen a happy side of her pillow for most of the
night, her smile pleasant from a good night’s rest, and her
attitude fizzed with the coffee he could smell on her breath.
    “Just got her in. I haven’t had much time to
clean her up.” The ME glanced his way and Caine peeled back his
lips in a silent snarl.
    “I can handle blood.” Besides, if he gave
them time to clean Claire Rawson up, he might never know what had
happened. He turned to pin his attention on Holly, to demand she
let him have this when the Hound