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stepped forward and gave Mullet Woman a reassuring smile. “It’s called an Elizabethan collar. Isn’t that right?”
    “Stay back.” Ansgar placed his body between Evie and the dog. “The animal is dangerous.”
    His sudden movement sent the dog into a renewed frenzy of barking.
    “Sorry,” Mullet Woman said over the noise. “Frodo hates men ever since my ex, Travis the Louse, shut the Barker Lounger on his tail. Did some serious nerve damage, although I didn’t know it until later. By the time I realized it, poor Frodo had done chewed off his tail.”
    “Oh, the poor doggie,” Evie said.
    The Chihuahua threw back its head and howled.
    The receptionist clapped her hands over her ears. “Have mercy!”
    “Hush, Frodo, hush. For Mommy’s sake, please.” Mullet Woman patted the Chihuahua’s minuscule rump, and the dog’s yowling muted to a rumbling whine. “My bad. He does that ever time he hears the ex’s name. Makes him crazy. I have to spell it out when I’m around him. T-r-a-v-i-s did a number on us both. Broke Frodo’s tail and my heart, and busted my pocketbook all to pieces.”
    The receptionist lowered her hands. “This is the Sheriff’s Department, not a vet’s office. Get that animal out of here.”
    Mullet Woman wobbled after her, the yapping dog in her arms. “I can’t leave, not until I see the sheriff. Frodo’s in terrible danger.” Her double chins trembled. “Somebody’s trying to kill him. I need me one of them restraining orders.”
    The woman at the desk gave Mullet Woman a hard look. “You want a restraining order. For a dog.”
    “Not for the dog! For the dog stalker.”
    “I don’t have time for this.”
    “Please, Miss . . .” There was a pause as Mullet Woman squinted at the nameplate on the desk. “Uh, Miss Mooneyham.”
    “It’s Willa Dean,” the receptionist snapped.
    “Well, Willa Dean, if you’ll just listen to me . . .”
    Lowering her head, Mullet Woman launched into a spirited discussion with the receptionist.
    Evie was riveted by the drama across the room. She jumped when Ansgar touched her on the arm.
    “We must go,” he said. “Brand and Addy are waiting.”
    “Did you hear that?” Evie worried her bottom lip. “Somebody’s trying to kill her dog. That’s horrible.”
    “With good reason. ’Tis a singularly unpleasant creature. We should depart. It is seldom wise to involve oneself in the affairs of humans.”
    “You involved yourself in my affairs and I’m human,” Evie said. “If you hadn’t been at the mill this morning, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”
    “That is different. You are different.”
    “She’s in trouble, same as I was this morning. Only she doesn’t have a handsome demon hunter to save her.”
    He stepped closer, surrounding her with his spicy cologne. Coriander, she thought in dazed delight, her soaper’s nose working to identify the complexity of his unique scent. With a little cedar and amber thrown in.
    “Handsome? You find me attractive?”
    Startled, she looked up at him. He had that hungry, aching look in his eyes again, the one that made her feel dizzy, breathless, and oh-so-wonderful. Like she had wings and could step off the precipice and fly, instead of going splat.
    “What, are you kidding?” she said. “Have you seen yourself?”
    “That is not an answer.”
    Evie stared at him in confusion. Was he playing with her? Teasing the fat girl, like the boys back in school? A spark of anger she didn’t know existed smoldered and ignited.
    She raised her chin and looked him in the eye. “You’re gorgeous. Probably the best-looking guy I’ve ever seen. But you don’t need me to tell you that.”
    “I will be the judge of what I need.” He paused, frowning. “What do you mean probably the best-looking guy? Is there someone else?” She could swear little red flames danced in his silver eyes. “Are you involved with the Peterson human?”
    “How do you—” she began. The sound of