Eternal Hunter (Night Watch #1)(16)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Now, with Pak, Jude never knew where the guy got his info. But with Dee, he knew the source. Tony told that woman too much. Jude was about twenty percent sure the two of them had been lovers at one time.

“The ADA?” Zane stretched slowly, the floor creaking beneath him. “What’s Prichard doing now?”

“Not him.” Dee sighed. “The new woman—Jude’s lady.”

“She’s not mine.” Yet.

“Huh.” Zane’s lips curved down. “She human?”

Generally Zane’s first question on every case. The guy preferred to hunt Other, and he had a real deadly hunger for the demons who’d crossed the line.

The guy liked to kill his own. Whatever. Not Jude’s issue.

Erin was his issue. “The f**kup who is after her isn’t.” Missed you.

Zane’s gaze snapped to him. Now he’d gotten the demon’s attention.

“Just what went down there last night?” Dee asked, rubbing a hand over the back of her neck.

“Erin’s got a stalker. Some ass**le who has been trailing her for months.”

“The guy tracked her to a new town?” Zane whistled. “Persistent, I’ll give him that.”

“Psychotic,” Jude fired back. “I’ll give him that. ” He tossed the file he’d been compiling onto the conference table. “Crime scene photos from last night. The guy broke in, wrote a message on her wall—in blood.”

Dee rifled through the folder and picked out the image of the words MISSED YOU. “Animal blood?”

“No.”

Her fingers tightened around the photo. “This ass**le a vampire?”

Dee’s one weakness—she let the vamp cases get to her, every time. One day, that could come back to bite her in the ass.

“No, a shifter.” He rubbed his thumb across the scar on his lip. After a moment, he dropped his hand and said, “Least that’s what Erin thinks.”

“She’s seen him?” Zane jumped on that.

Now Jude hesitated. “The lady says no, but…” But he didn’t believe her.

And he didn’t trust her, either.

You don’t know me.

Could be there was a lot more to this game than he realized. “Let’s go carefully on this one, okay?” These two knew the score, and they understood what he was saying and what he wasn’t.

“Where do you want to start?” Dee asked.

“With Erin.” Because everything was about her. “We need to dig into her past—”

“And tear her life apart.” From Zane. Never one for tact.

But he was right. “Yeah. Yeah, we do, but only her past life.” The lady had worked hard for a new start, and he didn’t want her secrets spread. “Don’t talk with anyone she works with yet. Let’s just find out everything we can about Erin before she came to Baton Rouge.”

Flawed.

He’d find out exactly what she’d meant by that.

And he’d stop the ass**le on her trail, too.

“Bail is set for the defendant at two hundred thousand dollars.”

“Your Honor!” Erin jumped to her feet. Two hundred grand? That was spare change to Lorenzo Coleman. Why not just give the guy a ticket out of town? “The defendant is a flight risk!”

“He’s a pillar of the community,” Lee Givens, the snake of a defense attorney fired, on his feet now, too. “Despite the ADA’s attempt to slander my client, there is barely any evidence—”

“Enough for an indictment, ” she snapped. When it came to drugs in Baton Rouge, good old Lorenzo was a definite leader. The guy had been running his operation for years, but the vice cops had finally gotten lucky and busted his ass when there had been a shit load of cocaine stocked in the back of his office.

And the judge wanted to let him out with a two hundred grand bail?

First Burrows, now this guy. Were the judges insane? She’d had one judge almost this bad back in Lillian. Judge Lance Harper. The guy had been a nightmare for her in the courtroom. Every time she’d been forced to appear before him, her stomach had knotted with dread because she knew the guy would do something crazy.

“An indictment, yeah, but not enough for a conviction!” Lee’s face flushed. “My client will walk on this, he will—”

The gavel slammed down. “Enough!” Judge Julia Went pointed the gavel at the defendant. “Surrender your passport, Mr.

Coleman.”

Better than nothing, but…“Your Honor—”

“Bail is set at two hundred thousand.” Another hit of that gavel. “We’re done here, Ms. Jerome.”

Hell.

Erin gave a hard nod and tried to ignore the throbbing in her temples. She’d been in court for most of the morning, and with all the hell that had happened last night, she hadn’t gotten much sleep.

Dead on her feet—yeah, that old term fit right then.

She grabbed her briefcase and shoved her files and notes inside. She’d snag lunch from one of the vendors outside, then call Jude and see what he’d found out about the blood at her house.

With one hand, she pushed open the courtroom doors. A quick nod to the guard outside and then—

“Why are you chewing my ass, Jerome?”

Givens.

She looked heavenward, but didn’t find inspiration. Just a cracked ceiling.

“You don’t need to push this case so hard. Lorenzo is a good man, established in the community, with a family, a wife, two sons—”

Erin marched past him.

He followed.

She stabbed the elevator button and spared him a glance. “He’s a drug dealer.”

Givens smiled. An oily, used car salesman kind of smile. “Just because drugs were found on the premises doesn’t mean he’s a dealer…or that those drugs were even his.” His southern drawl was smooth as honey. He swept back his light brown hair and gazed at her with his falsely sincere blue eyes. “He’s a victim, he’s—”

She snorted. “I don’t have time to listen to this bull right now.” Another case waited, and she still had to check in for a report on the Burrows killing.

The elevator doors slid open. A rush of people pushed by her, then Erin hurried inside.

The doors began to close. Bye, Givens.

He flung out his hand and had the doors easing back. “You’re new in town, Erin. Don’t go making too many enemies, too quickly.”

Her brows lifted. “That a threat?” Her voice dripped ice. Lee Givens was an attractive guy, with one of those clean-cut faces that juries loved.