“Only You” by the Platters began to play.
Why should it matter that the two of them were enjoying each other’s company? They all worked for law enforcement in some capacity. Allan couldn’t get involved with Debbie. Yet he felt all growly in that instant, wanting to show his alpha posturing and let Rowdy know to back off. What would Debbie think of that? And Rowdy? He’d probably get a kick out of it.
But the warier side of his nature kicked in. What were the odds Rowdy just happened to be here alone at the same time as Debbie was here? Allan thought back to how Rowdy just happened to drop in at the clinic at the same time Debbie was there. Hell, was he stalking her?
Getting his annoyance under control, Allan headed toward them. Rowdy saw him first. He smiled a little, as if he knew it would bother Allan that he was having fun with Debbie when she was here to have dinner with Allan.
As soon as Allan joined them, Rowdy said, “Debbie asked if I’d have pizza with the two of you. So what do you like on yours?”
Surprised as hell that she would invite Rowdy to join them, Allan glanced at Debbie, wondering if she had felt obligated to be polite since Rowdy appeared to be alone. She was all smiles, which showed just how pretty she was, her long dark hair pulled back, her brown eyes sparkling. She seemed to be thrilled to be here, and Allan was glad he had offered to join her. But if he’d picked her up, he wouldn’t have had to deal with Rowdy joining the party.
“I love double cheese and mushrooms, if that’s good with everyone,” Debbie said.
Allan snapped his mouth shut. Okay, he reminded himself, this wasn’t a date. She was just his partner, and they were just having a pizza. And Rowdy wasn’t dating her either. Just three people that had work in common and now were having a dinner out. So why did Allan feel like telling Rowdy to get lost? Or interrogating him about why he seemed to be at the same places Debbie was today?
“Yeah, sure, whatever everyone else wants.” Allan really tried not to show his growlier wolf nature, but he was having a hard time keeping his feelings hidden. He figured at this rate, they might as well sit at one of the long tables, but Rowdy steered them to a booth and maneuvered it so that he was sitting next to Debbie on one side.
She didn’t seem to mind. In fact, Allan thought she looked pleased with the arrangement. Was she miffed at Allan because he had wanted to take separate vehicles? He’d wanted to be able to leave at a moment’s notice if any of his family called to tell him there was more trouble. And he didn’t want it to look like he was dating her if a werewolf killer was on the loose.
“So, what do you make of this latest case?” Rowdy asked.
“I’d say the person was crazy,” Debbie said. “Who traps a naked woman like that and then shoots her several times?”
The waitress came and took their orders. She brought back a pitcher of beer and mugs, then headed for another table.
“The only thing I can come up with is some lunatic thought the woman was a werewolf. I thought of vampires, but hunters kill them with wooden stakes.” Rowdy poured everyone a mug of beer.
Allan had heard Rowdy watched the TV series Supernatural and several other paranormal series, so he wasn’t surprised when Rowdy came up with that scenario as a lighthearted approach to his ongoing murder investigations.
“Werewolf? Right.” Debbie sipped her beer.
As far as Allan knew, Debbie loved the epic, more historical kind of fantasy, but wasn’t into the urban fantasy stuff—like vampires and werewolves.
“We still don’t have a clue who she was?” Allan wasn’t about to get pulled into a discussion about werewolves or any other paranormal creatures.
“No word yet,” Rowdy said. “And the victim didn’t have any wolf DNA.”
Debbie rolled her eyes. “They did not test for wolf DNA.”
Rowdy smiled and winked at her. “I asked the county coroner to look for it, and she said she always checked blood work, as a matter of course. No wolf DNA. Just plain old human blood.”
“She did not check for wolf DNA,” Debbie said.
Rowdy laughed. “If she’d found some when she did the other tests, wouldn’t you have been surprised?”
Allan couldn’t help but be amused at the way the conversation was going. He wouldn’t have been surprised if Rowdy had asked the coroner to check the blood for wolf DNA.
Thankfully, lupus garous were all wolf in appearance, DNA included, when in wolf form and totally human when they were in human form. So if anyone ran any kind of tests on them, they wouldn’t show both in any of their systems.