Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels Read Online Free PDF

place. But Dana was sure that Hollis would never intentionally hurt her. They had cared about each other.
    “Great,” said Ursula. “Thank you so much.”
    Hollis would be all over this too. He’d love to write about the werewolf serial killer. He’d asked to have access to interview Cole before, but Dana had always ignored his calls. Now she was going to have to talk to him.
    * * *
    Dana flipped open her suitcase and began taking out clothes to put back in drawers. She’d officially moved back in her apartment the night before, but she’d been too tired to unpack. She lived on SF headquarters, like many employees did. Some lived close by, especially if they had non-wolf spouses, but Dana had always liked being right at the center of things. Her job was her life. It wasn’t just a job. It encompassed who she was, and she thought that what she did was meaningful. She helped people.
    But she’d been living offsite for the past few months, during her leave. It had been her psychiatrist’s idea. When Dana told Chantal how tempted she was to go and see Cole, Chantal had suggested that for the time being, it might be easier if she was far away from him.
    Now, she was back living in headquarters, and Cole was in the lowest level of headquarters, on the maximum security level. He was just an elevator ride away.
    She took a deep breath, telling herself not to think about him, and began shoving her clothes into her drawers. She needed to keep busy. She didn’t need to take that elevator ride down to Cole’s level and use her access badge to see him. She didn’t want to see him anyway. He was a killer. He’d tried to murder her. He’d terrorized her. She never wanted to see him again.
    Except Dana knew that she was lying to herself. Cole was all she thought about. She hated him, but she was drawn to him. He disgusted her, but he intrigued her.
    Sometimes, when she closed her eyes, she could still hear the hitch in his voice when he told her she was beautiful. Sometimes, she could swear she still felt his hands on her. Hands that had caressed her. Hands that had mutilated her. Hell, she had the scars. Why couldn’t she stop thinking about him? And why did it make her clothes feel too tight every time that she did?
    She needed a distraction, and the only thing that worked was physical exhaustion. Dana turned back to the drawer she’d been putting clothes in and rifled through it until she found a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. She threw the clothes on, and laced up a pair of tennis shoes.
    The SF had a nice gym with varied machines. There were television screens there and music. And people.
    Dana wanted to be alone.
    She headed outside instead. She got the guy at the gate to let her out the first gate, and she ran between the two high chain-link fences that surrounded headquarters. It was early dark outside—twilight—and the air was cooling. There was a tiny bite to the breeze, chilling her nose. She knew she’d soon be sweating too much to feel the cold.
    She started off at an even jog, steady and easy. She’d read about all the things that she’d been diagnosed with. She knew the drill. Stockholm syndrome. Post-traumatic stress disorder. Apparently, everything she was experiencing was normal for someone who’d been through a situation like she had.
    But Dana couldn’t quite believe that. She knew that people who were kidnapped or captured sometimes came to sympathize with their captor. She’d read all about Patty Hearst and the SLA. Her situation with Cole didn’t seem very similar.
    Chantal said that she shouldn’t give the thoughts of Cole what she called “a starring role” in her mind. “The thoughts are normal, but you know they’re irrational. Let them happen, but don’t engage with them. Accept them and move on. Eventually, they’ll go away when they see they aren’t bothering you, just like grade school bullies.”
    A lovely idea in theory. More difficult when nearly every thought that crossed