Lust Unleashed (Night Seekers, Book One) by Desiree Holt Page B

something else out there in the world besides this godforsaken outpost. But life just hadn’t worked out for her. When her father was killed in an explosion she came home to help her mother. Two years later her mother died of a heart attack and Donna inherited the farm.
    To prevent the scathing remarks from the good people of Eagle Pass, none of whom had ever given her the time of day, she’d invented a fictional husband who’d been killed in a car accident. Now nobody bothered her and they all felt sad for poor Donna who’d lost her whole family.
    Screw them.
    She watched Fred head toward the barn and went inside to build him a sandwich. She kept the rifle next to her, as she often did, working quickly and efficiently. When she carried a paper plate with a thick sandwich and chips out to the porch he was already standing there waiting for her, his face an unreadable mask.
    She handed him the plate and a glass filled with iced tea. “You can eat out here or in the barn. When you’re done, I have work that needs doing in the barn. Hard work. You interested?”
    Light flared in the amber eyes for a moment. “Yes. I’m interested. I guess you’re talking about the roof and the big doors.”
    Donna nodded. “Needs a man, much as I hate to admit it.”
    “I’ll take a better look at it. He started to walk back toward the barn.
    “Come talk to me after you eat and tell me how long you think it would take to do it,” she called after him.
    He nodded and kept on walking.
    For a moment a chill skittered over her spine, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. Wrapping her arms around herself, Donna walked back into the kitchen. She’d keep the shotgun at the ready, all the locks tight at night, and get Fred out of here as soon as possible.
    * * * * *
     
    Sophia was on the schedule monitoring communications when Jonah’s email came in.
    “Hey, guys.” She leaned forward in her chair, her tall, lithe figure tense with excitement. “Come see this. Jonah sent pictures of the kill site in Maverick County.”
    The others left what they were doing. Everyone was in the big room except for Dante Martello, former Chicago homicide detective, who was spending his required daily hour on the shooting range. They watched while Sophia tapped her monitor with her finger to open the email, then brushed each photo to pop it up on the big screen. Stafford had equipped the headquarters with surface computers, the latest in technology where all you had to do was brush your finger over something to open it and display it.
    As soon as the six photos appeared, Ric Garza sat down at the computer beside her, located the photos of other sites they’d stored and put them up on the big screen for comparison.
    “Too bad he couldn’t get the photos right away,” Ric commented, “before the scene was disturbed.”
    “Yeah, but at least it’s still marked off,” Sam Brody pointed out.
    “Not from animals,” Garza said. “I don’t think anyone’s told them yet not to go inside roped off areas. If they can jump or leap, that’s all they need.”
    “But you’re missing one thing.” Ric moved closer to the big screen. “Do you notice one thing they all have in common?”
    “What, that they’re all in isolated areas?”
    Ric shook his head. “That, too. Stafford’s wife and daughter were waiting at a campsite for him. Jonah’s fiancée was out in the backyard of their somewhat isolated house. The others, more of the same. But there’s something else.”
    “I see it, too.” Sophia’s voice was suddenly excited. “Nothing’s disturbed.”
    Sam frowned. “I don’t get it.”
    “See?” Ric moved his hand from one photo to the next. “Once the site was cleared, nothing touched it. Forget about the people. There are wild animals all over these places but no prints made by any of them.”
    “I see what he means.” Logan Tanner, the ex-sheriff from Montana, moved in closer. “You’d expect animal tracks all over the place,