Fighting for Wolves (Shifter Country Wolves Book 3) by Roxie Noir Page B

guess,” teased Dane.
    “So you stopped fighting?” Grey said.
    “That was my second-to-last fight,” Dane said. “The last one I lost in about thirty seconds, and they didn’t want me on the circuit anymore, so I left and joined the police academy.”
    “They let you, even after getting arrested?”
    “The charges ended up getting dropped,” Dane said.
    Isaac nodded.
    “The fight organizer has a lot of sway,” he said. “He knows a lot of lawyers, a lot of people who can make stuff go away.”
    “Does he know how to make people go away?” Grey asked.
    Dane looked down at her, a shiver of danger going through him.
    “Not unless we have a whole lot of solid evidence to connect him to it,” he said.
    “Pete’s smart,” said Isaac, shaking his head. “Smart and careful.”
    “You said Nicky owed people money,” Grey said, softly.
    “You don’t get money from a dead man,” said Isaac.
    The talk made Dane start forming a to-do list in his head. Tonight he was dead tired, and he was already here, in a cell, with his — with Isaac and Grey, and he didn’t think that a herd of wild horses could drag him away.
    But tomorrow, he had shit to do. He had to find whoever had been at that poker game with Grey. Whether Nicky had been there before her, and left. He needed to find out who Nicky owed money to, whose toes Nicky had stepped on, who just couldn’t stand Nicky’s face anymore.
    “I’ll talk to him,” said Dane, glancing over at Isaac.
    He could have sworn that he saw something flicker across Isaac’s face, but he let it go.
    It’s been a long day, he thought. We’re all tired.
    Then Grey’s hand was on his arm. He had the sleeves of his button-down shirt rolled up past his elbows, and she was distractedly poking at the veins in his forearm.
    “Yes?” he asked, trying to mask the shivers running up and down his entire body.
    “They must love it when you give blood,” she said. “Easy to find a vein.” She had both legs on the bench, crossed neatly beneath the skirt of her sundress. Over that, she’d draped Dane’s jacket, and she leaned against Isaac, her finger running up and down Dane’s arm.
    For another brief moment, he and Isaac exchanged glances.
    Does she have any idea of the effect she has on me?   He wondered. More than anything, she looked bored and nervous — not at all like a woman who had two wolf shifters practically eating from the palm of her hand.
    “Shifters can’t give blood,” Dane said.
    Grey frowned.
    “Really?”
    He shook his head.
    “Why not?”
    Dane shrugged. “People are afraid it’ll make them sick,” he said. “Patients don’t want shifter blood, and the general population doesn’t want to think that if they ever need a transfusion, it might come from a dirty wolf.”
    “ Does it make humans sick?”
    “No. It’s happened a couple of times that shifters gave blood without admitting to being shifters, and nothing’s happened.”
    “So if you gave me a blood transfusion, I wouldn’t be able to turn into a wolf.”
    Isaac laughed.
    “We’re not vampires,” he said.
    “I’m just asking!” Grey said, a little defensively. “I don’t know many shifters, but a couple of my students are, so I’m trying to learn.”
    “Sorry,” Isaac said, still grinning.
    “Anyway,” she said, still tracing one finger over Dane’s arm, “It’s stupid that you can’t give blood.”
    “I agree,” said Dane.
    “Is that why Ramirez is being kind of a dick about this?” she asked. “Because Nicky was a wolf?”
    “I don’t think so,” said Dane. “I think it’s because it’s his first homicide case as Chief.”
    “It might be his first homicide case, period,” offered Isaac.
    “This is how he is,” said Dane. “Small town police chief with not much experience outside that. He just doesn’t want to do anything wrong, and if someone from town says they saw you do it, he’s got to at least look into the possibility.”
    Grey just sighed,