Eternal Hunter (Night Watch #1)(84)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“You scared the hell out of me,” he whispered, and the others fell away to her.

Disappeared.

“When I came up and that bastard was over your throat…”

Not a moment she really wanted to relive.

“I didn’t think I’d get to you in time.”

But this was a moment that called for honesty. “Neither did I.” And her last thought had been of him.

Her Jude.

Her tiger. With eyes that burned so very bright.

She touched his face. “You saved my life.”

“Only fair, considering you’d already done the same for me.”

And she’d do it again, any day. Because—because—

Antonio cleared his throat. Hard.

—because she was in love with her badass, wild tiger shifter.

In love. Absolutely, freaking, crazy, I’d-kill-to-protect him—and had— in love. For the first time in her life. Pity that it had taken almost dying to make her realize that fact.

But, better late than never.

Chapter 21

“I’m sorry, Ms. Jerome, but your mother isn’t here.”

Erin’s eyes widened as she stared at the emergency room desk clerk, sure the woman was wrong. She had to be wrong.

“But she was brought in on an ambulance not even an hour ago.”

The clerk, a short, balding man with a round face, flushed. “Ah, yes, um, I remember that.”

This wasn’t going to be a good story.

“When the doors opened, the EMTs were there, but the patient—ah, she’d…already exited the vehicle.”

Erin blinked. “Run that by me again.”

His face a deeper red now, he said, “The EMTs said she jumped out when they slowed for a blocked intersection. She shoved right past them and managed to kick open the doors.”

A smile lifted her lips. “Really?”

Sweat beaded his brow. “I assure you, this isn’t normal routine, and the EMTs did everything they could to restrain her.”

Her smile widened. “I guess she didn’t feel like being restrained.” If her mother was back in fighting and fleeing form, then she’d be all right.

And Erin knew she’d be seeing her again soon.

Thank you, Theresa.

Their life was far, far from perfect, but a mother who was willing to risk her life in order to get back into her daughter’s good graces, well, that was a woman who deserved a second chance.

Erin would give her one.

Her nails tapped against the counter. “And what about Dee Daniels? How is she?”

Seriously, no human should be that shade of red. “Dee.” He said the name like it was a curse. Based on that telling response, Erin figured the guy had probably seen Dee in the ER a few times. With the way Dee fought, that sure made sense.

“Dee, she’s ah…in recovery. Not up to visitors yet.”

“But she’s okay?”

A weak nod. His Adam’s apple bobbed.

Her shoulders relaxed. “Good.” Better than good.

She’d come to the ER at Mercy General alone. Jude had stayed behind to keep answering all the million and one questions that the cops had.

She’d gone after her mother because she’d had to make certain she was all right.

If the woman was well enough to flee, then, yeah, she had to be on the mend.

Voices buzzed behind her. Machines beeped. Doctors rushed past.

She couldn’t see Dee yet—

But there was someone else upstairs.

Erin shoved away from the counter.

“Ah, ma’am?” The desk clerk’s strangled voice.

Erin walked toward the bank of elevators.

“Ma’am? You—you’ve got a lot of blood there…”

She glanced down. The shirt had dried, finally, but the blood made it thick and heavy. And her fingers, the ones she’d been tapping on the counter, were stained red. Whoops.

The elevator doors opened with a chime. She walked inside and turned back to face the clerk. “Don’t worry,” she told him. “Only half the blood’s mine.”

The doors slid shut, but not before she’d seen his face turn from red to a very dark purple.

The crime scene looked like chaos, but Jude knew Tony had everything under control.

The body had been tagged and bagged. The area had been sectioned off. Evidence collected. No detail would be overlooked under Tony’s watch.

Erin wouldn’t be charged. Hell, after she’d given her story, Tony had even gotten one of the cops to take her to the hospital. A police escort.

No, she wouldn’t be charged, and good old Judge Harper would go down as a twisted freak who’d gotten too attached to one of the lawyers in his courtroom.

“When we start digging into his past,” Tony said, coming to stand beside Jude and staring out into the darkness of the swamp, “I give you fifty to one odds”— Tony loved to gamble—“that we’re gonna find out this wasn’t the first time he got batshit crazy.”

Jude grunted his agreement. No telling what skeletons were about to fall out of the judge’s closet.

“This isn’t his first time.” Ben Greer paced toward them, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He’d clipped his badge to the front of his shirt. Lines were etched across his pale face. “There have been some…killings in Lillian over the last few years.”

Jude narrowed his eyes on the cop. “What kind of killings?”

“The kind that some cops don’t care about.” Ben’s lips twisted. “A ra**st had his throat slit two years ago and his body was tossed onto the steps of the PD. Before that, a guy who’d walked on a murder charge—a guy guilty as f**king sin, because everyone knew he’d killed his wife and her lover—ah, someone cut out his heart…and then sent the package to the guy’s lawyer.”

“You’re saying that Harper did this?” Tony demanded. “If you knew about him, why the hell didn’t you move on the guy?”

“Because I didn’t have any proof.” A shrug. “I still don’t.” He didn’t look at the bagged body. “I remember though. Harper was the judge on those cases, and a few others where the defendants walked when they shouldn’t have gotten off.”

A pattern. “Like Donald Trent,” Jude said quietly.

“Yeah, yeah, just like Trent. And just like him these other bastards all ended up dead within six months.” Disgust had faint lines appearing around his mouth. “No evidence was left behind, except, on a few of the bodies, we found some damn dog hairs—” He broke off and gave a loud burst of laughter, the kind that sounded a little crazy and the kind that didn’t have one ounce of humor. “Dog hairs. Guess that makes sense now, doesn’t it?”