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So you can get on your way and raid the right place this time, if it is the right place? she asked.

Yeah. We do good work. Most of the time. We just got the wrong information from the informant.

Does it happen very often? Be honest with me. Or did I just luck out? She arched a brow.

It happens once in a blue moon. Thankfully. He finished picking up the drawers and putting them back in place while she just watched him, her glower stern.

When he began rescuing her silverware from the floor, she said curtly, Put them in the dishwasher.

He almost smiled. It had been a long time since he d pissed off a she-wolf this bad.

Then his good friends Tori Rose and Sierra and Adam Holmes—all three red wolves who worked at the Portland Police Bureau—arrived, for which he was truly grateful.

When Tori had been hired last year, she had caught the guys attention because of her dark, shiny hair cut in a long bob, her seductive red lipstick, and her long legs that looked longer because of the high heels she wore.

But she was one hell of a good investigator, keeping them all on their toes.

Sierra, the sketch artist for the bureau, was a vivacious redhead with the prettiest blue eyes.

Adam had fallen for her in an instant. If any other bachelor wolves in their pack had been interested in her—which, truth be told, they had been—they had been out of luck.

Despite the job he had to do as a homicide detective, Adam was always upbeat, and all the women loved his dimples when he smiled.

They lived in one of the bedroom communities of Portland, so they were close by. It would take Leidolf and Cassie longer to get there since they lived out in the country where they owned a ranch and tons of acreage where members of the wolf pack could run.

Hey, thanks for coming to help us out on such short notice, Ethan said to his friends.

They smiled at Ethan, but then Tori and Sierra glanced at Ethan s arm, and he suspected they smelled his blood. Thankfully, they didn t ask him about it.

Adam said, Leidolf said you hit the wrong house.

Yeah. Ethan was glad that Leidolf had called on them to help him right away.

Go, Tori said. All your men are waiting anxiously for you to go after the right perps, and we know you want to finish this job before the criminals get away. We ve got this.

Thanks, guys. Sorry, he said to the she-wolf again, and then headed out to get his team together and hit the correct house before the guys he was after vanished like the last four times he had intel on them and just missed apprehending them.

***

Normally, Charlene thought of herself as good-natured and great about getting over her grievances quickly, but this was truly too much.

What a mess! Not once in her ten years as a homicide detective in Florida had she arrested the wrong person.

Maybe she had just been lucky, but she was still angry about Special Agent Ethan Masterson pointing a gun at her while she was taking a shower!

If they hadn t torn up her place, she wouldn t have felt quite so irate.

But God, Ethan was gorgeous, if she could look beyond the reason he had been there.

He was tall, probably at least six feet like her father had been.

His square jaw exuded masculinity and portrayed a sense of power and confidence.

High cheekbones made him stand out among men.

Auburn hair, trim mustache, and a beard gave him added character.

But it was his hazel green eyes that had captured her attention—from surprised, to shocked, to interested, then regretful—probably because of barging into her home when she wasn t their intended target.

What gave her real chills was seeing Special Agent Pete Cohen and the other agent who had been with him when Cohen had hassled her at the convenience store.

She couldn t imagine all the agents at her house were crooked, but she didn t feel confident in telling the only wolf there what she suspected of two of his fellow agents.

And Renault? He was her ex-boyfriend, Noah Westmoreland s best friend.

What was he doing living here in Portland?

Like them, he had been born and raised in Florida.

I m sorry. We haven t been properly introduced. I m Sierra and this is my mate, Adam Holmes. This is Tori Rose. We all work for the Portland Police Bureau, though I serve as their sketch artist. Tori and Adam are homicide detectives with the bureau.

Charlene let out her breath. I m glad for the assistance. She appreciated that they were fellow wolves.

We truly understand your frustration, Sierra said. I would have felt the same way.

Thanks.

Once the dishwasher was full, Charlene started the cleaning cycle and then went into the living room to right the standing lamps and put the cushions back on the sofas and chairs.

The place had been rented fully furnished, so it wasn t even her stuff that had been tossed about like that.

She could just see having to pay damages to the owner.

Then a couple of men, also both red wolves, arrived and said they were measuring the frame for the door and would take care of it in the next couple of hours. One of the men said, We ve got access to resources, and we ll get this done as soon as we can.

Thank you. She got on her phone and called the man who was the manager for the house rental.

Hi, Fred? This is Charlene Cheswick. I m sorry to call you so late at night, but the DEA busted through the rental house s door, and a crew is here to replace it.

If anything looks different from when I rented it, like the new door they have to put in? It wasn t my doing.

DEA? He sounded surprised.

Yeah. She was so exasperated. Couldn t they have waited at least until she d left tomorrow morning? Then they could have gone to an empty house and not terrified anyone. Like her. They got the wrong house.

I m on my way to the house to look over things. You re moving out tomorrow, right?

Yeah, so this was a shock.

All right. Well, I ll be over in just a little bit.

Thanks.

In most cases where the police stormed into the wrong house, nothing came of it for months, if ever.

And the people whose house was damaged were stuck taking care of the catastrophic mess on their own and dealing with the trauma of the whole experience.

At least she was leaving here and not returning, so she wouldn t have to relive the nightmare of a red wolf DEA special agent roaring into her bathroom to try to arrest her.

She could just imagine reliving the experience every time she took a shower.

She guessed she hadn t heard them bust through the door because her music had been turned on a little loud.

She did hope she hadn t hurt him too badly.

She usually didn t let her emotions get away from her, but when she smelled he was a red wolf, she had just reacted.

And tasted his blood. At least she didn t go so far as to break any bones.

He d been wearing body armor and gloves, but that hadn t protected his arms that were only covered in a long-sleeved shirt.

She could tell he was well built, in good shape, probably from working out and running as a wolf when he could.

She hadn t felt the need to apologize to him since he had been standing in her bathroom with a gun pointed at her and she had been naked and unarmed.

Until she shifted and took a bite out of him.

It had at least made her feel a little better.

Luckily, Ethan hadn t taken her aggressive nature as a sign of being guilty.

She knew she had been innocent, so she hadn t thought he might believe she was truly guilty when he realized she was a wolf too.

Then again, not all lupus garous were the good guys.

I guess they went upstairs too, Tori said, sounding apologetic.

Yeah. But they didn t touch my bedroom. I don t know about the guest bedroom. Charlene led them up the stairs.

At least Ethan could smell that there were no drugs in the place, Sierra said.

Unfortunately, the others weren t wolves so they couldn t.

Charlene walked into the bedroom where only one drawer had been pulled out of a chest of drawers.

I guess they didn t have time to do anything in here before they checked on Ethan.

She wasn t going to tell them she bit him.

They might think she was a little unstable for biting a fellow wolf.

Or not. Maybe they would have reacted the same way, given the circumstances.

Charlene put the drawer into the bureau while Adam checked the guest bathroom.

Everything s good here, Adam said. We ll stay here until they replace the door.

Thanks. It ll be nice having some police detectives here to make sure I don t have a break-in from another source. Then she heard her manager call out from downstairs. Charlene hoped he wouldn t be too upset about what he saw. Most of all, that the owners wouldn t be.