Dreaming of the Wolf (Heart of the Wolf #8)(10)

He hurried to make his excuses as his thoughts remained on the florist shop and his next destination—tailing Alicia Greiston to keep her safe.

***

Totally rattled by Jake Silver, the most dangerously disarming hunk she’d ever caught the attention of, Alicia had missed her chance to follow Mario. She knew that had been Jake’s intent, although she realized he had been right in warning her to use caution. But she didn’t want Mario to get away with murder, and she was determined to make him pay. It had nothing to do with the bond money either, although with a million-dollar bond on Mario’s head, ten percent wasn’t a bad day’s wages. Even though she’d been tracking him for months to be ready in the event that he skipped his court date.

The opportunity lost for the moment, she’d have to pick up his trail later. After buying a wreath of pink, peach, cream, and lavender blossoms at the floral shop down the street, she drove to the hiking trail where her mother had been murdered, intending to pay her respects like she did once a week, no matter what else was going on with her life.

Although the conversation she was going to have with her mother today wasn’t her usual kind.

She still felt angry that her mother had to die in the prime of her life and that she hadn’t heeded Alicia’s warnings. Alicia was driven with the need to avenge her mother’s death and saddened by missing her so. But this time a man she didn’t even know had made her feel something different. More alive than she’d felt in years. Distracted from her mission.

Neither of her former husbands had made her feel the way Jake had with his heroics and sizzling kisses. Never had her body melted into a pool of ecstasy from the simple touch of a man’s fingers at her back as he guided her outside or from the way he looked as though he wanted to eat her for dessert—her treat—after he’d so gallantly paid for her breakfast.

He was dangerous, all right. And armed!

She’d joked about it, but she’d really been flattered she could arouse him that much just by kissing him back. Of course, she told herself that she was only doing what she had to do to prove to Mario’s breakfast companion that she truly did know Jake intimately and had backup if she needed it. But the way Jake had reacted showed he was playing the game for keeps—at least for an overnight tryst, she assumed. Even though she suspected he was not the kind of person who frittered away hours doing inconsequential things. Neither was she. Her mother had always said she was way too serious. But for Alicia, it had been a case of survival.

Still, after her two husbands and a number of no-account boyfriends, for the first time ever, Alicia was really feeling something for a man—just because of the kind and interested way Jake had treated her.

Alicia parked at the trailhead, changed out of her heels, and slipped on a pair of tennis shoes. Then, with the fragrant wreath in hand, she hiked along Spruce Creek Trail to where her mother had died, the summer breeze twisting tendrils of hair around Alicia’s cheek and the sweet scent of pine drifting to her.

As she often did on the hike, Alicia thought about her mother, Missy Greiston, taking this very path as she started the trek to the Upper and Lower Mohawk Lakes to meet her lover at Continental Falls. Alicia had been there before and loved seeing the crystal water cascade in a foaming rush diagonally down a wildflower-blanketed hillside with alpine woods all around and abandoned mining cabins scattered over the area. But her mother had never made it that day. The macabre truth was that Tony Thomas, her mother’s lover, had been left for dead long before Missy would have reached his location.

Alicia thought about the times she and her mother had gone skiing on the mountain together—intermediate blue trails, not black-diamond expert runs for them, unless they skied onto them by accident. And they had done that a few times. They had laughed as they tried to make their way down the steep trails, taking one difficult mogul at a time. Stopping, skiing to the next one, and hoping they’d make it to the bottom without breaking their necks. Vowing never again to get on another expert slope. Until they made the same mistake later on a different black-diamond expert slope.

Alicia swallowed hard, hating that she still missed her mother so much and wishing that her mother had listened to her, believed her when Alicia had told her she thought the man her mother had been dating might be a mobster and dangerous to associate with.

She soon stood in the thick forested area where hikers had found Missy’s body and notified police. Despite it having been months earlier, Alicia still felt as though the murder had taken place only yesterday. She took a deep breath, having to make a confession to her mother. One she really didn’t want to make.

“Momma,” she said in a hush, crouching to place the flowers beneath a tree, “I’ve tracked down the family that killed you. Mario Constantino was the one who ordered the hit. Danny Massaro was the man who pulled the trigger. The judge set them free while awaiting trial, so they can eat in fancy restaurants, drink their fancy drinks, and have their fancy women.”

More strands of hair pulled loose from Alicia’s bun, flipping across her eyes. She snagged them and then slipped them behind her ear.

“But the one, Danny Massaro? He’s already skipped his trial, so as soon as I can manage, I’m turning him in to the police. Once Mario misses his trial date, I’ll re-arrest him, too. I swore to you…” Alicia swallowed hard. “I swore to you I’d make them pay.”