Hunt Me

Published by Shiloh Walker at Smashwords

Cover Art by Croco Designs

Editorial Work by
d.y.m.k.
productions

&
Sara Reinke

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This book is a work of fiction. The names,
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* * * * *

“Hello, gorgeous.”

The low, rich purr of her voice was enough to
have Drew Quentin shifting in the miserable, busted chair. He also
had to fight the urge to smile as he reminded himself he’d decided
to ends things with Dakota Coulter.

He wanted her, he was halfway in love with
her…and she refused to so much as give him her damn phone
number.

He could have handled that.

But the cop in him was a little bit disturbed
by the fact that Dakota Coulter had a past that was just a little
too
mysterious. Oh, her background check held up—too well,
actually. Something about her had his instincts quivering.

She wouldn’t open up for him.

“Drew?”

He closed his eyes. “I’m here, Dakota.”

“Having a rough night, sugar?”

The compassion in her voice all but gutted
him.
Damn it
. This would be so much easier if she didn’t
care—so much easier if he wasn’t in love with her.

“Yeah, you could say that.” He rubbed his
temple. He shouldn’t have answered the damn phone. But shit, it
wasn’t like he could avoid this forever. He looked up and saw
Nicole staring at him. Nicole Halloway, the local DA with the
pretty blue eyes, sweet smile and dynamite body.

She was there, she was steady. She was the
reason he needed to break things off with Dakota. He liked Nic.
Cared for her—a lot. There was an attraction there, too, one that
could maybe become more. But not if he was obsessed with a woman
who wouldn’t ever hang around for longer than a night or two.

“I guess you’re not up for meeting me after
work, huh?” Dakota sighed. “That’s cool, sugar. I understand. I’ll
look you up—”

“No.” He continued to star at Nic. He had to
get this done. “We can meet. I…I’ve been needing to talk to you
anyway, Dakota.”

Now Nic’s brows arched up over big blue eyes.
So far their ‘dates’ hadn’t been much more than a cup of coffee, a
quick lunch. She knew he’d been seeing another woman, knew he
wasn’t going to get serious until he’d been able to break things
off. It was time he did that.

Even if it did feel a little like he was
ripping out his own kidney with his teeth. Or even his heart.

Sighing, Dakota ended the call.

Something in Drew’s voice had her heart
aching.

“We need to talk, huh, lover? Yeah. I’ve
heard that line before.” Then she tipped her head back, staring up
at the nighttime sky. Granted, she hadn’t heard it much in recent
years. Not since she’d slid into a crazy little world where
vampires, werewolves and other things went bump in the night.
Sometime back in the 70’s, she thought.

Yeah. She smiled absently, some echo of
fondness trying to lift the melancholy settling over her heart. But
it wouldn’t budge. She’d been kind of happy about coming to
Asheville. Now? Not so much.

She was a Hunter without a territory or
Master. Her random circuit had her rambling all over the east
coast. She often ended up in this area, and she’d been just fine
with that. Because this area held a lot of appeal for her, namely
in the fine form of one Asheville city detective…Andrew Michael
Quentin…Drew.

Drew—the cop who was getting ready to dump
her.

She glanced down at her clothes, remembered
she’d planned to change before she saw him. “Screw changing.”

She was going shopping.

If he was going to dump her, she was going to
show him in vivid, glorious detail what he was missing.

Maybe it would make her feel better.

Although she wasn’t particularly counting on
it.

The splash of murderous red on her nails
didn’t do much to lift her spirits, but Dakota was pleased with how
she looked, at least. The dress might have been a bit overdone, but
red looked good on her. It clung to her curves, stopped just a bit
short of her knees. And she could still move.

She’d passed on the really cute Jimmy Choos
with the ankle straps, settling on a simpler pair of heels. She
could run barefoot without falling. Even though falling wasn’t
likely, running flat out in heels wasn’t as easy as people might
make it seem in books or movies.

On the job, Dakota was practical, and even if
she was taking some time to get dumped, she was still working. The
only time she wasn’t working was when she crashed in her cabin up
in Maine or when she got pulled into Excelsior for one thing or
another.

The life of a Hunter.

Sighing, she made one last study of her
reflection, pulling the brush through her dark brown hair. It
curled around her mostly naked shoulders, the ends coming down to
drape around her breasts. She looked good. She was honest enough to
admit that. She looked good…like a woman who wanted a man to
know
it, too.

“Damn it.” She swallowed and turned away from
her reflection, determined not to spend the next hour thinking
about this. Next hour, minimum, because even though she wasn’t
meeting Drew until midnight, she’d be circling around the city.
Circling around, watching things. Making sure she wasn’t being
watched. There were paranormal creatures aplenty here.

Every damn time she came through, she had to
settle trouble. None of it was
bad
. If it had been
bad
in the
major
category, a bigger bad-ass would be
here.

Dakota had yet to grow into full bad-ass
potential.

But she was good enough to play cop and if
things got bad, call in the big guns. Part of playing cop meant
being careful.

The life of a Hunter.

A damn lonely life.

“So. You’re breaking things off.” Nic stared
at him with a thoughtful frown. “Look, you know, you don’t have to
do this. I…I can tell you’ve got feelings for her. And it’s not
like we’re ready to move in together or anything. All we’ve got so
far is a couple of casual dates and…”

He caught her around the back of the neck and
pulled her close. When this woman started babbling, as adorable as
it was, this was the only way to stem the flow of words. She gasped
against his mouth and then sighed, moving closer. Her lips parted
for him and she slid her hands inside his coat.

“Hmmm.” She hummed under her breath as he
lifted his head. “What was that for?”

“To make you be quiet a minute.” Pressing his
brow to hers, he stroked his thumb across her damp lower lip. “I
know I don’t have to do this. But things with me and her aren’t
ever going to change, and I don’t like where they are. I
like
where things are with us. We
can’t
change while
she’s in the picture. Those casual dates won’t go any further until
things change, right? So we change them.”

I
change them
, he thought.

She wrinkled her nose at him. “That shouldn’t
sound so sweet. But it does.” Nic rested her head against his
chest. “Call me when you wake up?”

“Yeah.” He stroked his fingers through her
hair, the silken blonde strands glinting in the harsh, fluorescent
lighting. “You want me to follow you home?”

“No. I’m good. I’ve got paperwork to finish
up. I’ll have somebody walk me out.” She stroked a hand down his
cheek. “You need to shave, baby.”

Then she pecked him on the lips and turned
around, her heels clicking on the floor. Just before she
disappeared around the hall, her phone rang. He could hear her
voice drifting down the hall. When she suddenly snapped, “Son of a
bitch
!” it made him grin.

He was still shaking as his head as he turned
to grab his stuff. But the grin had faded by the time he hit the
door. He had thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes to figure out how in the hell
to tell Dakota Coulter good-bye.

How did he tell this woman he loved that he
was leaving her because she wouldn’t hang around for longer than a
day? Hell, he hadn’t even told her
loved
her.

If she asked why he was ending it, did he
tell her he didn’t entirely trust her? And that he’d rather have
the sweeter, quieter woman who was
there
…even if he didn’t
want her
quite
as much as he wanted Dakota?

Rage vibrated inside her. She hid in the
darkness, clinging to the shadows she’d just learned to call,
because she had to get control. Yeah. Dakota was being dumped. For
another woman. She could smell the other woman, even above the
smoke, the alcohol, the food…and that lovely, male scent that was
uniquely Drew’s.

Now it was for another woman to enjoy.

Mine
.

Everything inside her screamed it. But she
pushed it aside. Yeah, she had feelings for the guy. She’d had them
for a while, but Drew was human.

Dakota was a vampire. Her heart might still
very well be human, but she’d stopped being human forty years ago.
Tears pricked her eyes. She blinked them away. Nothing like leaking
blood-tinged tears to really freak him out. She waited until she
knew her eyes would be normal. Even though she knew they hadn’t
slid from their sheaths, she checked her fangs with her tongue.

He didn’t know. Oh, he knew she had secrets.
She could see it in his eyes. She had no doubt that was part of the
problem between them. But what could she say?
Honey, I’m a
vampire. I’ll be around as often as I can, but…

He was a mortal who wouldn’t even believe in
her world. She’d always known it would have to end. Now it was
time. As she slid from the booth, she released the shadows. She saw
the way he stiffened when he saw her, caught off guard. She allowed
herself a small, pleased smile. She’d seen him looking for her, and
he was a cop—he’d have looked
well
.

But nobody could hide like a vampire.

She came to a stop in front of him, smiled at
him lazily, careful to keep her mouth closed. Now that she was
closer, she could smell the other woman more clearly and she wasn’t
going to risk losing that oh-so-precious control.

“Hey there.” He bent down to kiss her, not
that he had to bend much with the four-inch heels she wore.

Dakota turned her head to the side so that
his lips brushed against her cheek. Her heart shuddered in her
chest and she eased backward, avoiding his gaze as she headed
toward the bar. “I need a drink,” she said over her shoulder. Not
that she expected it would do her much good, except maybe the
familiarity of it. She’d have to down a vat of it before she could
really get tanked.

She slid onto the stool and called out to the
bartender. “Hendrix and tonic with a cucumber slice! Make it a
double.”