SIX MONTHS
A Seven Series Novel
Book 2
DANNIKA DARK
Summary
April Frost is a compassionate young woman with a steady job and ambitious goals. But the harder she runs away from her past, the more it threatens to destroy her. When three strangers enter her life, April is forced to face her demons and it’s a battle she may not win.
Private investigators in the Breed world are men who take risks, and Reno Cole is no exception. As a Shifter, he’s expected to control his inner animal. But lately his wolf has been venturing dangerously close to the city, and he’s about to discover why. When Reno is reintroduced to a family friend, the attraction is immediate. April captivates him with her secretive eyes and resilient spirit. She’s also in trouble, and despite the fact she’s a human, Reno can’t turn his back on her.
April is caught between two worlds: One that threatens to bury her dreams and another that could fulfill them. Can she trust the wolf at her door and find the courage to overcome her demons? Book two in the Seven Series.
Acknowledgements:
This book is dedicated to every person who has found their happy ending in a new beginning, and for those who seek it.
The first time I laid eyes on Reno,
I was afraid of him.
Six months later,
I was afraid of living without him.
Prologue
Reno parked his Triumph motorcycle off a side road on the outskirts of the city. He could smell the thick prelude to an oncoming storm mingled with the sweet fragrance of wildflowers. No better scent in the world.
It had been a grueling week and he’d just closed an important case. Reno was a private investigator and accepted jobs at his own discretion. Most of the time he turned down the petty shit like Shifters who suspected their mates were cheating. They’d offer Reno good money to stalk their women and capture damning evidence. He’d learned men like that didn’t have good intentions, and Reno didn’t want to do anything that would endanger a woman’s life because of a jealous man. He’d relocate women when he suspected abuse, but he preferred jobs that led him on a chase, hunting down deplorable criminals. That’s the kind of life he came from as a former bounty hunter.
Bounty hunters went after nefarious men with a price on their head, officially declared outlaws by the higher authority. But plenty of criminals flew under the radar. After years of getting his ass shot at and living out of a suitcase, Reno had decided to settle down and start up a new career. PI work wasn’t as glamorous, but it had its perks. For one, he could hunt men who committed an act not punishable by Breed laws. Because there weren’t many Breed jails, the laws were lax in order to fill their prisons with only the most depraved criminals who were a threat to society. If a man beat his wife, he wouldn’t be arrested. Wolf packs didn’t tolerate abuse and would make those men regret they had ever drawn breath. But not all Shifters followed the same code of conduct, and not all Shifters were wolves or living in tight family units. Reno worked for anyone who hired him, regardless of Breed. Sometimes a little street justice was called for on Reno’s part, but in most cases, he handed the offender over to his client.
It didn’t work like human investigations where evidence was gathered and they’d have a trial. Reno was a Shifter, and that meant he roughed men up in order to set them straight. Sometimes he was hired to find a person gone missing; other times he set up surveillance to help catch people suspected of fraud.
This last job had taken him on a wild-goose chase for two days to track down an embezzler up in Chicago. He’d gotten double the pay to compensate for the travel expenses. After closing the case, he decided to take a little time off because money was good and he needed a vacation.