Josh snorted. “I know you’re more than capable of taking care of yourself. I’ll see you in a bit.”

It was hard to remain flustered when he was so adorable so she let it go, telling herself she’d have to continue to get used to how protective he was.

They followed him to a group of chairs in the lobby, preparing to leave him there until they’d finished with Charlie. Michelle pulled her cop all around herself like armor and turned to Pam. “I’m ready.”

But all hell broke loose before they could get on the elevators.

Cops rushed past and she felt it. Dark, ugly magic was being worked.

Michelle turned to Pam. “Shit. Get me to where he is. Now.”

“There’s a lockdown. I can’t override it.”

“They’re here. The mages. Something ugly is being worked.” She gagged, and Josh was at her side, touching her.

“What is happening?”

“Get Charlie safe. They’re here for him.”

Josh took her upper arms in his hands and shook, once, to get her attention. “What if they’re here for you? Have you thought of that?”

A blast of something very dark sent her to her knees. She heard shouts about a prisoner being down, and she knew. Josh pulled her out of the way of the traffic, shielding her with his body. Pam had rushed off to get information.

“What? Should I call Gina? Damn it, Michelle are you all right? Answer me!”

“Charlie is dead. Or close to it. I…my skills aren’t that good, but I can tell that much.”

He patted her all over. “Are you all right? Did it hurt you?”

She pushed his hands back. She was a cop on the floor for God’s sake. “I need to stand up, and you need to back off or get kicked in the sac.”

He relaxed a little, standing and letting her do so without his assistance. “If you’re threatening to kick me in the junk, you must be all right.”

Pam hustled over. “Another prisoner killed Charlie. They were walking him to an interview room. He was in cuffs and with two guards and another prisoner walked up and snapped his neck. The other prisoner is dead too. He’d been shot several times because he wouldn’t stop. They didn’t injure anyone else. I…this is beyond my skill level.”

Hers too.

He led her to his office at Pacific. She was still pale, and his wolf noted the remnants of whatever spell that’d knocked her to the ground. Her scent was slightly off. A little dirty. And not the good kind of dirty.

“Michelle, I’d like you to meet someone.”

She looked up from where she’d been studying her phone. “Sorry. I was texting with Gage. They’re going to get in contact with Gina, and she’s going to call me when they get all that figured out.”

“No need to be sorry.” Gabe stepped into the office and the room seemed to shrink around them. “I’m Gabe Murphy. Tracy said she met you earlier. I wanted to stop in and introduce myself and extend our offer of help. Are you well?”

He took Michelle’s hand, and before Josh knew what he was doing, he’d put himself in Gabe’s path, showing his teeth.

His back was to her so she wouldn’t have seen anything, but Gabe sure did. But rather than be upset or offended, he had to wrestle back a grin. Josh narrowed his eyes, promising retribution, friend to friend, if he got any teasing about this.

Josh made himself step to the side, placing his hand on Michelle’s shoulder. Her brows were up as she glanced back and forth between them both.

“Sorry, wolf stuff.” Gabe shrugged, his smile still in place.

She took his hand, shaking it.

“If you don’t mind my saying so, you don’t look well.” Gabe examined her closely.

“The spell that was used was…wrong. Gage told me it should wear off in a bit.”

“How about you eat something? I was just about to head home to see my babies. Why don’t you and Josh come along? Nick said he was going to grab some Chinese on the way to meet us. I’ll call and tell him to get extra.”

“Gabe, Nick and Tracy have two daughters. And a dopey three-legged dog named Milton who guards them with his life.”

Gabe laughed. “He’s really fond of all the food they drop. What do you say? You can fill us in on what you know. Maybe we can brainstorm something.”

“Are you sure?”

Gabe smiled, charming. “Of course. Nick would only whine about me and Tracy having met you and him not yet. He’s a handful that way.”

Her phone rang. “Excuse me a moment. This is Gina.”

She answered and turned to where she’d been sitting at his desk.

“Are you all right?” Gina asked.

Michelle took a deep breath. “I think so.”

“I’d like to see you. To do a quick check of your shields and your aura. I want to be sure you’re unharmed. I know Gage told you we’re learning all this as we go.”

“Tell her to come to my house for lunch. She can check you there.” Gabe announced this without so much as a pardon me for listening in on your phone call.

“You’ll get used to that. Tell him what your limits are. He might even remember it. But don’t count on it. Wolves, especially male wolves, are ridiculously overprotective. I’ll grab Damon and we’ll meet you at their place in a few.”

She hung up and looked back at both men, who stood, arms crossed over their chests, only making them appear more imposing.

“I’ve seen that one before. Lots of perps do that.” She put the phone into her pocket and stood. She was still a little dizzy but at least nausea had retreated some and she didn’t have double vision anymore. “Also, it’s rude to eavesdrop.”

Josh grinned at Gabe, who raised a brow.

“Gina is right. We’re really nosy and overprotective. We have great hearing so it’s hard not to eavesdrop on a phone call. It comes in handy sometimes though. There’s a bright side.”

Gabe Murphy appeared to be a bigger handful than Josh, which said a lot. Little tiny Tracy must be a powerhouse to keep him in line.

“We’ll meet you at your place.” Josh nodded at Gabe, who waved one last time and disappeared.

“If you need to rest, they have extra bedrooms. It’s a soothing place they’ve got. Warded by the Owen witches just months back. It’s safe and quiet. It’ll do you good. You’ll like Nick.”

“They’re your family, right? So this is like…meeting your dad? Your other dad, since I already met Gabe.”

He took her face in his hands and kissed her quickly. “Sort of, I guess. Don’t be nervous, all right?”

She sighed as he took her bag. “Maybe if this last week hadn’t been filled with kidnapping, dark magic, attacks and death, I might be more worried. At this point, I’m just happy to be somewhere no one will try to kill me for a little while.” She looked him askance. “No one will, right? I mean there’s no battle to the death or anything like that?”

He burst out laughing as they headed out to his car. “Nope. Just a dog, some toddlers and alpha wolves.”

One of the girls, Rose, the two-year-old, had settled next to Michelle, reaching out to pat her hand from time to time. It was pretty freaking adorable. And it eased some of her nervousness.

Not that anyone had given her anything to be nervous about. Tracy, Nick—who looked like a model—and Gabe had been incredibly welcoming. Josh had stuck close. The girls were sweet and jolly, and the house was, just as Josh had said, soothing and calm, even with all the people in it.

People. Ha. Weres had so much energy. Power coming off them in waves. She’d have known the difference in a crowd, between a human and a shifter. Funny how she never noticed it before. There had to be shifters in Roseburg for goodness’ sake, she’d just never been in any enclosed space or near enough to one. Or maybe she didn’t notice, or attribute it to any one person in particular.

Whatever the case, when Gina arrived with another Owen witch, Rhonda, it was easy enough to tell the difference between their energy signatures.