Lust Unleashed (Night Seekers, Book One) Read Online Free Page B

hunters are out there, making sure everyone’s okay.”
    “How long had it been since the last time anyone checked on those hunters?”
    Denby made a face. “About three hours. The hunters go out while it’s still dark to set up and the workers give them that much time before they start checking on them. Don’t want to scare off the deer. But it’s still unlikely a human could have scaled that ten-foot, steel fence and gotten out without leaving some kind of track behind.” He took off his hat, rubbed his forehead and put the hat back on. “So. You say you’ve been chasing this thing called the Chupacabra for some time.”
    Jonah nodded. Had his cover sprung a hole and leaked? No, not possible. Craig Stafford never made mistakes. He waited to see what was really on the sheriff’s mind.
    “You asked if we’d had any other incidents like that around here recently and I told you no,” Denby said.
    “Yes, you did.” Jonah kept his face blank.
    “Well, Enoch here reminded me that about six months ago two of his neighbor’s dogs were killed the same way.” He shifted his eyes to the deputy, then back to his coffee. “At the time we chalked it up to coyotes. Despite what you might think,” he added defensively, “we do have coyotes around here and they do kill small animals.”
    “I don’t disagree with you, Sheriff. But the Chupacabra kills in a specific way. Puncture wounds in the neck, blood drained from the body and often the body ripped open and the entrails lying outside the body cavity.”
    He had to school himself to keep his voice uninflected. Every time he revisited this description it called up the image of Jenna lying on her backyard lawn, savagely destroyed. He didn’t think the pain of that would ever go away.
    “I hate to admit this to a civilian,” Denby said in a tight voice, “but I’m at a loss here. We’ve checked and rechecked the scene where the hunters were found. Took a zillion photos. It looks like a coyote kill but no paw prints around the bodies.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. “No prints at all except the hunters and the deer. And the bodies were destroyed the same way the dogs were. And no prints.”
    “We thought with the dogs it was because we hadn’t had rain in a long time,” Enoch broke in, “and the ground was too hard for impressions. But like the sheriff said, it was the same with the latest kills.”
    Both men looked as if they’d swallowed vinegar. As a former lawman himself, Jonah knew how difficult it was to admit to a civilian you could been mistaken and that person might have something to contribute.
    “That’s been pretty much the situation with all the cases I’ve researched,” Jonah told him in an even voice. Excitement bubbled up deep inside him and he clamped a lid on it. They’d been right. This was definitely a kill by the devil beast. All the signs pointed to it.
    “Well,” Denby went on, “Enoch was talking to his neighbor last night and now we’re wondering if it might not have been that damn Chupacabra after all.” He shifted in his seat. “Anyway, we were wondering—Enoch and me, that is—if you might like to talk to his neighbor. If you’ve been writing articles about it you might be able to give us some more insight.”
    “Yeah.” Enoch finally entered the conversation, his tone slightly defensive. “Sorry we gave you such a hard time the other day.”
    Jonah just tipped his head politely. He’d been too many years in the FBI not to know how lawmen felt about nosy civilians, and he had no intention of telling these people about his background. That would completely defeat his purpose. When billionaire Craig Stafford formed Night Seekers, pulling people from every aspect of law enforcement—public, private, state, federal—one of the caveats for each of them was to bury their past. The eight men and women, who each brought different skills to the team, moved forward as private citizens, hunting for the kill. The eradication