He finally let out his breath, fixed her with his gaze, and said, “I shouldn’t be saying this, but the police in Denver have evidence you were in Massaro’s apartment. Just a heads-up, when you speak with them.”

Her lower lip dropped, then she quickly clamped her mouth shut and swallowed hard.

Hell.

“What evidence?” she finally asked, sounding more timid than Jake liked to hear.

“Your driver’s license was found inside Massaro’s apartment.”

Her lips parted.

Jake stifled a curse. He was dying to know where they had found her driver’s license. He wondered if Detective Hanover, the chief’s son, had known this when he had asked her for her driver’s license, testing her to see if she knew it was missing. If so, what had he concluded? She wasn’t guilty of a crime? Massaro had stolen it from her? Or she’d left it there by accident when she was fleeing the crime scene?

But then Jake was certain the detective would have been asking himself why Massaro would have taken her driver’s license and nothing else. However, just because her driver’s license was found in the condo, that didn’t confirm she’d been there. He could have stolen it. Although why that and nothing else?

“When did he get it from you, Miss Greiston?” the chief asked.

So that was the crux of the matter. If she hadn’t actually seen him, hadn’t been able to enter the condo to speak with him because he was already dead, how did he manage to get hold of her driver’s license?

“Where did the police find it?” she asked, her voice dry.

The chief tapped one boot on the tile floor. “The Denver police wouldn’t say.”

“If you’re done with Alicia…” Jake let his words trail off, not wanting her to be subjected to any more of an interrogation when the chief had no business asking her questions concerning the crime scene in Denver.

The chief straightened a bit and looked sympathetic. “They found blood on the sheets, Miss Greiston. And in a couple of other unspecified locations. I’m sure the Denver police will want to take a sample of your blood. Did he hurt you?”

Alicia had to have bled when the bastard Massaro bit her, Jake suspected. Hell. The only good thing in the whole matter was that forensics couldn’t determine her werewolf changes. But poor Alicia. Her face took on a whole new shade of white.

“Do you mind?” Jake asked the chief, as he leaned in to help Alicia up from the couch. “We’ll be headed back to Silver Town. If you have any further questions…”

“They found your fingerprints on the inside front doorknob, so they know you’d been in the condo,” the chief said to Alicia and added with a nod to Jake, “My son gave me the information of where she’ll be staying. Thanks. And good luck, Miss Greiston. We want to solve your mother’s murder as quickly as you do. Let us know if you learn anything further, won’t you?”

She halfheartedly nodded.

“Good. Then we’ll be seeing you.”

Jake wrapped his arm around Alicia’s waist and helped her out of the bank and to the vehicle while Tom and Peter followed, and their guard detail reloaded into the SUVs.

“Drive, will you, Tom?” Jake asked, his voice terse as he pondered what they were going to do about the Denver police.

Chapter 18

Jake helped Alicia into the backseat and went around the vehicle to join her while Tom settled into the driver’s seat and Peter rode in the passenger’s seat. Their guard force led the way again. Jake hoped to assuage her concerns at once. Although the problem of her connection to Massaro’s murder wasn’t going to be easy to explain to the police.

“Oh, Jake,” Alicia said on a moan, as soon as he shut his door, “the Denver police will learn what I am as soon as they analyze the bloodstains.”

“No, don’t concern yourself.” He took her in his arms as Tom drove back to Silver Town. “Our werewolf genetics are such that as humans we have only human DNA. As wolves, only wolf DNA. Now, if they found both, blood from when you were a wolf and from when you were human, it’d make them believe a wolf and a human were in the room.”

She melted against his chest and sighed heavily. “Then if they do discover wolf’s blood in the condo, they’ll assume I lied about having a wolf at the Crestview Motel. I’m just getting myself deeper and deeper into this. And dragging your family into the whole mess. Before long, don’t you think they’ll get a warrant to search your place to see if I’m hiding a wolf there?”

“They won’t find any.”

“But what if I shift? I thought I was controlling it, but anytime now I could just, poof, turn into a wolf. And if I do it in front of a bunch of police officers—”

“We’ll deal with it, Alicia. You’re one of us, part of a pack. We’ll take care of this in any way that we have to.”

Tom said, “You want me to take her home.” But the tone of his voice was more of a question—did Jake want to take her to see Doc Weber instead?

Of course the doc made house calls when necessary, but in Alicia’s case, Jake assumed he’d need blood work, a urine sample, and a proper physical exam to tell if she was pregnant and make sure she and the baby would be all right. At least he thought that’s what was needed. He was certain that if he proposed it in front of Alicia with Tom and Peter listening in, she’d be upset with him. On the other hand, he didn’t want to take her to the hospital under false pretenses.

“The hospital, Tom.”

Alicia tried to pull away from Jake, her spine stiff, her whole body posture saying she was mad at him for even suggesting such a thing, but he held on tight, forcing her to remain in his arms until he felt the tension drain from her. She relaxed again, but not of her own accord, he felt. Rather, she just wasn’t feeling up to fighting him.

He kissed the top of her head and enjoyed the feel of her soft supple curves, her feminine fragrance, and her thick silky hair beneath his cheek. He wanted to give her a life free of worry by sequestering her from the interrogations, taking care of Mario and his bastards, and showing Alicia the way of their people until she felt comfortable being one of them.

But now they had a new dilemma. Who was Alicia’s father? And why had he and Alicia’s mother died?

Jake expected Alicia to say something about the visit to the hospital, but she didn’t voice a word. He felt guilty for forcing this on her, but they had to know. If she was pregnant, she needed to be seeing the doctor anyway.

“Call ahead to the hospital, will you, Peter, and make an appointment?” Jake said to the sheriff. He didn’t want to let go of Alicia for a second to try and fish his phone out when she seemed content enough to relax in his arms.

Peter opened his cell phone and said, “Bethany, we need an appointment with Doc Weber scheduled for”—he glanced at the clock in the car—“two hours and fifteen minutes from now. Yeah, it’s important. For Jake’s mate, Alicia Greiston.” He paused, cleared his throat, and then said, “Possible pregnancy.” He spoke as softly as he could so that Bethany could still hear him, but not softly enough that Jake and Alicia couldn’t, what with their wolf’s hearing. Although Jake gave him credit for making the effort. “Thanks. We’ll be there then,” Peter said, and put his phone away.

“We’ll have to get married,” Alicia grumbled against Jake’s chest. “I’m not going to keep telling people I’m engaged to you. I didn’t think I’d ever say I’d want to again, not until you walked into my life and became my knight.”

“We don’t wear jewelry. So wedding rings are out.” Jake tried his damnedest to be consoling, but this was probably one of the hardest things for newbie lupus garous to get a handle on. “We don’t need rings to stay faithful. But even so, it would be especially difficult for you to wear any jewelry because you don’t have the shifting under control. Trying to remove rings or necklaces and bracelets in the process of a shift could prove disastrous. As for marriage, we’re mated. That means more than a marriage certificate. It means we commit to one another for life.”

She frowned up at him. “If I am pregnant, I want to be officially married. With the paper to prove it. Blame it on my human upbringing.”

He looked down into her dark chocolate eyes and thought of how addicted he was to looking at her, to feeling her close, to being with her. He would be with her always. He wished she could understand that. “We don’t marry because we make a commitment…”

“I… want… to… be… married. I understand, or at least think I understand, how you commit for life without the need for a witnessed document. But I never knew who my father was and never knew if my parents had really been married. I want our baby to have the security of knowing we’re formally committed.”

He really wished they could have this discussion in private. He could just imagine what his brother and Peter were thinking. They were probably glad neither of them was trying to deal with an unreasonable newly turned wolf. He realized then her feelings might have something to do with her father, though—the fake birth certificate and not knowing what was going on with him. Her father’s abandonment of her and her mother, and then the mystery that surrounded her mother and father reuniting without letting Alicia know. Maybe, beyond all that, she was concerned Jake wouldn’t live up to his promise to be the baby’s father if she was pregnant.

“Any baby you have will be mine and yours, Alicia. And he or she will be raised as a werewolf, knowing how we live our lives and that a formal marriage isn’t part of the equation. You don’t have to worry about that.”

She let out her breath in an exasperated manner. “You’re a man,” she said sourly.

He wanted to tell her he wouldn’t be like her father had been to her mother. But he didn’t think she would believe him, even if he tried to convince her. All he could do was prove he’d stick by her side forever.