Half an hour after Selene fell asleep in her bed, Eve returned to her living room, closing the bedroom door behind her. As much as she wasn’t looking forward to calling Jac, the sooner she could pass along Kevin Pike’s name and address to the police, the better. Although she still didn’t have a solid strategy for introducing the tip—and explaining Selene’s part in delivering it—putting off talking to Jac wasn’t an option. Every moment she waited gave Kevin Pike the opportunity to hurt another woman.
Eve picked up her phone and dialed Jac’s number. Jac answered after the first ring, breathless. “Yes, Eve?”
“Would you mind coming back for a few minutes? I need to talk to you about something.”
“Of course.” Eve could hear her already walking. “I’m on my way.”
When a knock sounded on the door seconds later, Eve rolled her eyes. Apparently Jac had decided to stay close after what happened earlier. Eve opened the door. “That was fast.”
Jac smirked. “At your service.” She stepped inside, not so subtly looking around. “Where’s Selene?”
“Sleeping.”
Jac didn’t bother to conceal her distaste at Eve’s answer. “So does that mean you two worked things out?”
“We didn’t have sex, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Technically it wasn’t, but I’m glad to hear that, I guess.” Folding her arms over her chest, Jac said, “What did you want to talk about?”
Eve gestured at the couch. “Let’s sit down.”
“Uh-oh. Something heavy.”
“You could say that.” When Jac settled at one end of the couch, Eve withdrew the slip of paper Selene had given her from her pocket. She met Jac’s gaze and exhaled. “I have the name and address of the man who I believe is the Golden Gate Park killer.”
Jac blinked slowly. Her face betrayed no emotion. “How did you manage that?”
“I can’t get into the details with you.” Eve crossed the room and sat beside Jac, handing her the paper with Selene’s handwriting on it. There was no real point in trying to hide where the information had come from. “Right now I need you to trust me. I know we don’t have anything on this guy. Unless he has an outstanding warrant, we can’t arrest him. But at least now that we know who he is, we can set up surveillance, watch for him to slip up.”
Jac took the paper, scanning the name and address. “You’re going to have to tell me how Selene got this information, Eve. First she reports the body of our initial victim, and now she waltzes back into your life with the name and home address of a man who’s threatened to kill you. Who’s killed at least three other women.” Folding the paper in half, Jac slipped it into a pocket inside her jacket. “I can’t fathom how Selene would know anything about the guy if she weren’t involved somehow.”
“I know this is hard to understand, and I get why you’re suspicious. I can’t explain how this information came to me without betraying Selene’s trust, so I’m not even going to try. I’m just asking you to remember who I am and what my values are. Ask yourself whether I’d protect someone who was responsible in any way for the deaths of three women. Not to mention my own stalking.” Eve briefly touched Jac’s knee. “You know how badly Selene hurt me. Please believe that it would take a genuine, honest explanation about her role in all of this—one that convinced me that she’s totally innocent of any wrongdoing—to sway me back to her side.”
“Are you back at her side?” Jac asked quietly. It was obvious she knew the answer already and that it disturbed her deeply. “Be honest with me.”
Eve wouldn’t have considered anything but honesty. “Yes. We talked and I realized we’d had a serious misunderstanding. I think we’re planning to work things out.”
“You think?”
“She was exhausted. She fell asleep before we came to any real conclusion.”
Collapsing against the back of the couch, Jac exhaled harshly. “I’m not sure I know what to do with this. I mean, even if I take you at your word, believe the tip is legit, I don’t exactly know what to tell my captain when I’m requesting that resources be allocated to watching some random guy who may or may not be connected to this case.”
“He is connected.” Frustrated but not surprised by Jac’s resistance, Eve racked her brain for the best way to act on Selene’s tip. “You’ll make it sound good, Jac. I know you will.” Chancing a playful wink, Eve said, “You are the best at what you do, after all.”
Jac seemed unmoved. “Flattery won’t work this time.”
“What will?”
With a low grumble, Jac stood up and walked to Eve’s door. Surprised by the abrupt departure, Eve sprang to her feet and followed. Jac put her hand on the doorknob, then faced Eve. “I’ll put surveillance on this guy. I can’t promise for how long. Obviously if we can catch him in the act of grabbing some woman or harassing you, we’re golden. But if not…” Jac shook her head. “Let’s just hope he slips up before my captain decides we need to pursue more reliable leads.”
“This one is reliable.” Eve shrugged helplessly. “I wish I could tell you how I know that. You just have to trust me—this is the guy.”
“I do trust you.” Her gaze flicking over Eve’s shoulder in the direction of her bedroom, Jac curled her lip in disgust. “I just don’t trust her.”
“I know,” Eve murmured. “But I do. I hope that counts for something.”
Jac stared at her in silence, as though she was trying to decide what to say. Then she opened the door with a shake of her head. “Of course it counts. Just…promise me you’ll keep me in the loop as much as you can. Your safety—and the safety of the women in this city—are more important than keeping Selene’s confidence.”
“If I thought she had additional information material to this case, I’d tell you.” At Jac’s fleeting expression of skepticism, Eve stiffened. “I swear.”
“Okay.” Jac patted her pocket. “I’ll get to work on this right away.”
“Thank you.” Relieved that Jac had accepted her lack of explanation so easily, Eve sensed that both she and Selene would need to be cautious around her. Jac was clearly suspicious, and the fact that she held a personal grudge against Selene for having captured Eve’s heart didn’t exactly help matters. “Let me know what you find out, as far as whether he has any warrants.”
“Of course.” Tipping her head, Jac slipped out of her apartment then shut the door behind her.
Eve sighed in relief. That hadn’t gone nearly as badly as she’d thought. Now that the immediate problem of telling Jac about Kevin Pike was over, Eve dazedly drifted back to all she’d learned over the past hour or so.
It was unbelievable, to say the least. Except she did believe it. She’d seen it with her own eyes. What Selene could do made no sense—hell, it violated the laws of physics and biology—yet it was true. Once again Eve silently thanked her parents for the gift of being able to accept even those things she couldn’t explain. Eve wandered back to her bedroom, eager to be close to Selene as she processed the inexplicable truth about her new girlfriend.
She was a shape-shifter—an honest-to-God shape-shifter, with a touch of werewolf thrown in. Opening the bedroom door, Eve stared at Selene’s prone form reclining on her bed. She was also gorgeous and still the woman Eve had fallen in love with, albeit far more complicated than Eve had realized. And she hadn’t been unfaithful. She hadn’t betrayed Eve in any way.
Eve crept to the bed and stood over Selene, watching her sleep. Was Selene even human? Did the answer to that question change anything between them?
Amazingly enough, Eve decided it didn’t. What mattered were Selene’s actions, her heart. When it came down to it, the question of her DNA—though fascinating to puzzle over—had no bearing on what Eve felt. She was in love.
Yearning to be closer, Eve stripped off her pants and crawled into bed beside Selene. Tentatively, so as not to wake her, Eve laid her head on Selene’s chest and curled up against her side. The heat from Selene’s body both soothed and inflamed Eve. Selene had always seemed to run hot—now Eve speculated that perhaps a faster metabolism was responsible for the intense warmth that radiated from her lean body. Surely transforming one’s entire shape required an extra reserve of energy.
Amused, Eve closed her eyes and forced her analytical mind to power off. Right now she just wanted to enjoy the simple pleasure of being close with Selene again. The science of who she was could wait for another day.
Selene shifted in her sleep, wrapping an arm around Eve’s middle and tugging her closer. Content for the first time in weeks, Eve basked in the sense of safety Selene created simply by being there. Eve had no doubt that Selene would do everything possible to protect her if the situation demanded. And if she could become a tiger, Eve doubted Kevin Pike would have an easy time getting past Selene to cause her harm.
Life had just gotten a lot more complicated, but a lot better, too.