twenty-one. He supposed they hired them young and attractive like that to attract bigger tips.
“Gin and tonic,” he replied, then turned his attention back to the swarming crowd.
His job was to pick up on anything that seemed out of the ordinary while keeping his appearance low-key. The tip Connor had received from another cop and long-time friend of his wouldn’t have piqued his interest if it weren’t for the fact that the location in question was the Dockhouse bar, a hotspot where both shifters and humans were known to mingle together. The place was also outside of either Alpha’s domains.
Apparently, the local cops had a robbery suspect with a long rap sheet of violations under his belt in custody. When they’d been searching through his belongings, his cell phone had rung. Five calls from the same number in one day, not even one hour apart was rather suspicious. The location of the calls was traced to a cell tower nearby, and linked to the Dockhouse bar. His friend had contacted him right away and given him access to the voicemail.
The voicemail message was the reason Connor was here right now: We need you to make the drop, man. Graham is dead. They shot him. Where are you?
A man ID’ed as Graham Muldrid was found shot dead a couple days ago and thrown into a dumpster with two shifters who had apparently suffered the same fate. A bullet lodged in the eye socket of one of the wolves matched the bullet found at the murder scene of another shifter. These were details the local cops may have missed, but they were pieces to the missing puzzle that Connor was attempting to solve.
“Here ya go, sexy.” The attractive bartender put his drink down on a coaster and slid it towards him.
Connor slid a fresh twenty-dollar bill on the counter toward her. Tipping the glass to his lips, he took a couple swigs. Before long, he’d have to move locations. He didn’t want it to appear like he was watching others. Instead, he needed this to look more like he was simply enjoying himself in the place. He wasn’t. Nightclubs had never been his thing.
He put his unfinished drink back down on the bar and just as he was preparing to get up he saw her.
From what Connor could see of her face in the darkened interior, she was pretty. Her beauty stunned him first and foremost, but there was something else about her that had him frozen in place. Despite all the activities going on around her in the bar, she stood out like a blazing light. As she glanced left and right around the club, Connor got a good look at her profile, which was accented by her aura. Every living being had some type of aura—the thing that made that person unique and different from everything else. She was no different, of course, but Connor was drawn to her on a level that he couldn’t fathom.
Static sparked through his earpiece and he thought he heard a voice, but nothing else came through after a few seconds. Eyes still on the woman, he pressed the earpiece firmly into his ear and spoke in a low voice. “Repeat that.”
There was no reply.
“Rodney?”
Once again…nothing.
The woman was a lot closer to Connor now, and he could almost make out all of her features. She appeared young and was small in frame and short in height. She carried a tote, a little large in size, but something that most of the campus kids carried around. That made him wonder if she were just a college girl, but the way she carried herself with such grace, she appeared to be more than that. She had a woman’s body and was dressed for the occasion. She had on a dark gray hoodie and tight black jeans, which was likely the reason he hadn’t seen her at first. She wore flat boots that were almost knee high.
Connor followed her gaze to the right corner of the club. There was a hallway that led to the back offices there. Connor knew because he’d once done business in those same offices when Maxim Securities had had a connection with the place. Her attention didn’t remain on
Douglas E. Schoen, Melik Kaylan