Wolf Born by Ann Gimpel Page B

pretty shaken up by what happened yesterday. I told her to take as much of today off as she needed and to call me when she was ready to come to work.”
    Loren’s eyes softened. “She’s a good woman. Almost like a daughter to me. I worked with both her father and her brother at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office. Her brother and I are still friends.” Loren leaned closer and spoke low. “Father disappeared right after the shifter edict came down. I figure he went into hiding. Damned shame. He was a fine officer.”
    “Do you know where he is?” Max pitched his voice equally low.
    “Why?” Loren’s voice vibrated with suspicion. He moved back a few steps as if worried he’d said too much.
    “Not the reason you’re thinking.” Max’s forehead creased. “If you’re right about the streets being overrun with criminals, it simply struck me that if Audrey’s father, uh, disappeared, others like him did also. We could use every trained man, that’s all. We can’t afford to have them moldering away in bunkers or wherever they’ve gone to ground.”
    “I couldn’t agree more, boss, but if they come out of hiding—”
    “I know. It’s a big, fat, fucking problem. Let me give it some thought. The other states are in the same boat we are…” Max let his voice trail off before he revealed more than was prudent. “I need to run. I don’t want Audrey standing out in front of her house for any longer than she has to.”
    “Why the hell didn’t you tell her to wait inside?”
    “I did. She said her place is in the back, and she can’t see the street. She doesn’t know I’ll be getting her. She probably thinks I sent you or one of your boys. Anyway, we’ll talk more later.” Max tugged the door open and trotted through it, intent on riding the elevator to ground level. By the time he got there, Johannes stood next to the open passenger door, waiting.
    “The security guy told me they’re tailing us.” Johannes jerked his chin toward a car sitting right behind them in the Load and Unload Only zone.
    “They are.” Max slid into the car. “Come on. Get in. That way, we’ll be ready to roll as soon as Loren, or whoever he sends, shows up. I’ll sit in the front seat. It will be easier to talk that way.”
    Johannes got behind the wheel and shut the door. “Do they do everything in pairs?”
    “Mostly. Why?”
    “When I started in this business, we preferred to work alone. Less chance of being compromised.”
    “That was three hundred years ago.”
    Johannes gave a Gaelic shrug. “Things haven’t changed that much. Too many people knowing something always spells trouble.”
    “We’re picking up a woman and lunch. It doesn’t matter who knows.”
    “It always matters, my friend.” Johannes glanced in the rearview mirror. “Looks like we’re good to go here. Do you have an address?” Max rattled it off and then entered it into the onboard nav system. The fully electronic car would find the house without any assistance from Johannes.
    Max swallowed a grimace. He knew Audrey’s address because he’d looked up her personnel records the previous evening and then felt like he was trespassing. By the time he’d pried his eyes from the screen, there wasn’t much he didn’t know about Audrey Westen. Born and raised in Bend, Oregon, she was the second of four children born to a 75 percent shifter father and a human mother. The family had relocated to the Sacramento area when she was ten. She’d finished high school with honors and gotten a degree in business from UCSF. After that, she’d gone to work for the California State Legislature and moved from there to the Governor’s office. She was twenty-nine years old and had been married once for five years. The final divorce papers were issued eight months ago. She had no children.
    “Are you going to tell me about her?” Johannes asked, his voice so soft Max wasn’t certain he’d even heard the question except