by Terry Spear
“I’ll…see you tonight then.” He hoped Meghan wouldn’t cancel all their plans tonight because she was upset about this.
He should have been the one to open Meghan’s car door for her, but Jessup took care of her instead. He was looking at Peter curiously, probably wondering why he didn’t make a move to do it, why she had pulled away from him, and why he hadn’t kissed her goodbye. Peter ached for the intimacy they shared, and he suspected Jessup believed they were having a fight about her being out here. Hell. He could just imagine the news spreading like wildfire through the pack, and every bachelor who was interested in her would be salivating at the chance to date her next.
He glanced back at the house. He didn’t see anything but iced-up, dingy windows. Then he waved at Meghan and Jessup, but only Jessup waved back as they pulled out and left for the inn.
“Hey, Peter, are you all right?” CJ asked, joining him. Jake was right on his heels.
“Yeah.” Peter frowned at CJ and Jake. “Do you see any sign of Lena’s ghost?”
Jake shook his head.
“Not me. But we’re outside. Maybe inside? Wolf tracks lead into the house. We need to go in to check the place out. We’re waiting for you to okay it since it’s your place, your call,” CJ said.
“It’s too dangerous. I’ll go in and check it out. You just wait outside.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, it’s my place, it’s in bad shape, and it is my call.” Peter didn’t want anyone else getting hurt if the structure collapsed when he was inside. He trudged through the snow to reach the front door of the house. Men had already cleared the snow in front of the door so they could get to it.
His Glock readied, he opened the door. There was no lock. There hadn’t been any need until that fateful day, and once Lena had been murdered, Peter hadn’t bothered to put a lock on the house. He supposed he felt he deserved the same fate if anyone should try to attack him while he was living there, because he hadn’t protected the love of his life.
Of course, no one had bothered him.
He glanced around at the Victorian furniture, the blue camelback sofa where he’d read the newspaper now covered in a thick coat of dust. He’d kissed Lena there once, but she was too much of a proper lady—at least with him—and she felt any intimacy should only be displayed in bed. Even then, she’d never remove her gown while they made love or slept together. He sighed, remembering how he’d worn a nightshirt in bed at all times to please her.
Peter recalled Meghan hugging him while he only wore a towel and watching him as he dressed that morning. He loved that they enjoyed seeing each other in such a way and weren’t ashamed of their bodies.
Glancing around, he noticed the wolf paw prints in the dust covering the pine floors.
He heard movement behind him, his skin prickling with unease, and he turned with his gun aimed to shoot. “Hell, CJ. You weren’t supposed to enter the house.”
His own gun in his hand, CJ had moved into the living room and was looking at the wolf paw prints too. Peter also saw human footprints, bare footprints.
“Is it him?” CJ asked.
“You know I’m the sheriff and you’re my deputy, right?”
CJ nodded, looking like he was fighting a smile.
“And that means you work for me and follow my orders, correct?”
CJ said, “Laurel would kill me if I didn’t watch your back.”
Peter scoffed. “This whole place could come down on top of the two of us.” He glanced up at the ceiling to see the paint peeling off in chunks. Floral wallpaper was peeling off the walls, and the oil paintings of fields of flowers he’d bought for Lena were sagging in their frames. They were hers. All this was for her. He couldn’t have taken any of it with him. They hadn’t had a lot of money, so the furnishings were sparse. He’d given her the oil paintings for her birthday and as a wedding gift once she’d seen them and wanted them so badly, even though they could barely afford them.
“We think he came in the back way. The snow has covered up some of his tracks, but the porch back there was clearer,” CJ said.
Peter nodded and looked at the coffee table covered in layers of dust. A plate had been set on top of it, leaving a circular mark. Had Rollins been here? Peter glanced back at the sofa. No imprints. But on the spoon-back armchair, the definite form of someone’s imprint could be seen. “Someone’s been sitting in my chair.”
Lena always sat on the sofa, so that was his chair when she invited guests over. Which was rare. She had been a reserved wolf, not very social, except when it came to her old boyfriend.
“I see that. And the wolf ate something there.” CJ pointed to a couple of beer bottles mostly hidden under the sofa. “Those are new. He didn’t brush away the dust on the table, probably wanting to preserve the look if anyone peeked inside the house.”
“Yeah.” Peter followed the tracks to the only bedroom.
He and Lena had planned to expand the house when they had more money and when kids were on the way. The colonial bed sat against one wall, a tarnished brass mirror to one side. The quilt was something Lena’s grandmother had made, blue and beige, faded, but not covered in dust as he would have expected.
“Someone’s been sleeping in your bed,” CJ remarked.
“Too bad we didn’t catch him there.” The mattress was a lumpy mess. Peter figured Rollins, if that was who it had been, would have had some time sleeping on that gawd-awful mattress. Served him right.
They moved into the kitchen and found a bowl and a spoon in the sink. The dishes were a hodgepodge of some of her mother’s discards and some of his old bachelor plates and cups. Remnants of porridge were clinging to the bowl and spoon.
“Somebody’s been eating your porridge,” CJ said.
Peter smiled at CJ as he bagged up the evidence. They could now prove if Rollins had been here. “If he’d eaten anything left in the house, it probably would have killed him.”
“Yeah. So he probably got fresh porridge from somewhere else.”
“Bertha was missing oatmeal and brown sugar from her place. Ask again if anyone’s missing anything from their homes. This time, ask if anyone’s missing bottles of beer.” Peter opened a cupboard and found a stash of food—all new stuff, half hidden behind old canned and sacked goods. “We’ll take the new cans of food with us.”
“May be the cans the sisters were missing from their inn. He has to have a camp stove.” CJ looked at the wood-burning stove. “Scratch that notion. He’s been using the wood-burning stove. He’d have to get water from the stream, though. No running water in here.”
“We’ll check that next. I’ll grab the beer bottles to see if we can get DNA samples off either of them.”
CJ went to the front door and called out, “Anyone have a box or plastic bags?”
“Got a box, CJ. Be right there,” Jake called out.
Peter found a lantern tucked away in a closet, all cleaned off. “He’s been using this lantern for some light.”
“And this old battered pot to cook.” CJ pointed to the pot inside the kitchen cabinet.
“Yeah, an old hand-me-down that has seen better days.”
Once they’d confiscated the food, empty beer bottles, cooking pot, and lantern, they loaded the items in one of the vehicles. Then Peter had everyone search down by the stream to see if the wolf had been using water from there.
“He broke through the ice here,” one of the men hollered, about an eighth of a mile from the house.
They all hurried to the spot to see it. Peter studied the ground and found a couple of washcloths nearby. “Looks like he used them to clean stuff. I wonder why he didn’t clean the porridge out of the bowl.”
“Maybe he was just there,” CJ said.
The idea that Rollins could have been there when Meghan was gave Peter heartburn. What if she thought she’d seen
Lena at one of the windows when it had been Rollins all along? Peter was damn glad Jessup had been with her. Rollins wouldn’t have known they were unarmed. Thankfully.
They heard a truck engine starting up, the vehicle parked with the others at the cabin. Everyone looked in that direction.
“That’s my truck,” Darien’s brother Jake said.
“Did anyone stay to watch the vehicles?” Peter hadn’t asked anyone to.
“I think we’re all here,” CJ said with some misgiving.
All of the men dashed through the snow as fast as they could manage, Jake leading the pack. But they wouldn’t be able to stop the driver in time.
Was it Rollins who was stealing one of his pack member’s vehicles? Well, hell, if he could evade all of them like he was doing, nobody had better fault Meghan for having ensured he was taken into custody the first time. She was the only one who had succeeded.
As soon as Peter and the rest of the men reached the parking area, Jake was swearing up a storm, all of them looking at the spot where his truck had been.
Yeah, that’s how they all felt. Peter was sure Rollins was having a field day with besting them once again.
Peter glanced back at the cabin. He didn’t see anything. Just a desolate house. And he hadn’t seen or felt or heard anything that made him believe Lena was hanging around. Not this time. “Let’s go, men, and try to track down the bastard who stole the truck.”
Chapter 18
Sure Peter was going to be upset with her for going to the old homestead, Meghan manned the front desk at the inn for the rest of the day, trying not to think about it.
Then before three in the afternoon, Trevor walked her to her home and stayed there while she dressed for the pack party. He would be going too, but he would wait with her here until Peter arrived.
It wasn’t long before she heard Trevor talking to Peter at the front door, and she hurried down to see him. This time, she was wearing a soft, kelly-green sweater, a MacTire plaid skirt, and boots. It was time to go to the pack party to eat, drink, play games, and dance. She grabbed the gift she’d made for the gift exchange and hugged and kissed Peter before they followed Trevor out.
“See you at the party,” Trevor said, waving.
“See you there,” Peter called out. He eyed the package she had in her hands. “For the gift exchange?”
“Yes.” She saw his Santa Claus Christmas sack in the back seat of the car. “Yours?”
“Yeah. So what are you giving?”
She was giving a present to a woman, and he to a guy, so they didn’t have to worry about revealing the contents to each other. “A wool scarf I made.”
“That beige, rust, and white one I saw sitting on your living room side table a couple of weeks ago?”
“Yes, that’s the one. I finally finished it a few days ago.”
“Some lady’s going to be lucky. I picked up an unbreakable hatchet so someone has no excuse not to go out and chop wood for the fireplace this winter.”
She laughed. “Sounds like a fun gift.”
“I actually got one for myself after my hatchet handle broke while I was in the middle of cutting wood for the fire. It’s come in real handy. You know stuff doesn’t last as long as we do.”
She chuckled. “You’re right about that.”
“I just wanted you to know Lelandi asked Darien if it would be all right to allow Bill a chance to come to the Christmas party.”
Meghan frowned at Peter. “Why would she do that? Darien said no, right?”
“No, he agreed with Lelandi, but he talked to me first.”
“And you agreed to it?” She couldn’t help sounding annoyed about it. If Darien and the others hadn’t come to her rescue, Bill could have gotten them both killed. From Peter’s hesitation, Meghan knew he had agreed to it.
Talk about ruining the Christmas festivities with one fell swoop.
* * *
Peter knew this wasn’t going to go over well with Meghan, and he’d talked extensively with Darien and Lelandi about the issue, discussing every scenario they could think of, and in the end, he’d agreed to his pack leaders’ reasoning. The sooner they could catch this bastard, the better. And what better time than when Meghan was surrounded by people who would protect her? Bill would be the bait, since that’s what he’d wanted in the first place, and he’d agreed wholeheartedly with the plan. Peter could understand Meghan’s reluctance, though. He was certain that when their mates told them the plan, her sisters wouldn’t like it any better than Meghan did.
They always had outdoor activities and indoor ones in the big building they used for pack parties during inclement weather, but both Meghan and Bill would be well guarded, no matter where they were. “All the pack members will be on high alert, playing and partying and watching and listening for any sign of our former pack member. Bill isn’t to go anywhere near you the whole time during the party.”
“He’s feeling all right?”
“Yeah, he’s got a hard head. Trevor says he’s got the bruises on his fist to prove it.”
“He can’t be handcuffed, or he won’t be able to defend himself,” Meghan said, sounding as though she was finally accepting the plan.
“No, he’ll be free, but he’ll be highly supervised. If he tries to leave the party or to take you away, we’ll escort him to jail and let him stay there until we resolve this issue with Rollins. And we’ll have a couple of men watching him there.”
“Everyone gets to come to the party,” she said, now sounding a bit morose.
“That’s not why we’re doing this. Lelandi said Rollins will be hanging around, watching for you. Maybe for Bill too. Rollins is going to be tempted to make a move. Even if he doesn’t, we’re going to have men searching the area, looking for him, in case he is out there. The damn guy is like a ghost. I swear I’ve never met anyone who is this elusive before.”
“He keeps leaving clues, though. If he was that elusive, we wouldn’t keep finding his stashes. He’s real.”
“True.”
She glanced at Peter. “Did my sisters know Bill is coming to the party?”
“No.”
She let her breath out in exasperation.
“It’s hard to know what Rollins is going to do, but Lelandi is sure he’ll be observing the party, whether Bill shows up or not. She feels it would be safer if he goes after Bill instead of you and we can take him out. I know you’re still upset at what he pulled with you—”
“He scared the crap out of me!”
“I know. I’ve told him what I’ll do to him if he even gets a few feet away from you. He said he wanted to apologize to you personally, and I told him he can call you, but he’s not getting physically close to you, period.”
“All right.”
“I’m sorry. I hated to have to do this to you, but if we can eliminate Rollins tonight—”
“I would be thrilled.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “I hope you’re ready to dance with me.”
He lifted a brow.
“To every song.” She smiled a little evilly.
He chuckled. “Then I’ll have to make sure the band’s only playing slow dances.”
Smiling still, she seemed much more cheered at the prospect as she settled back against her car seat.
They were following behind Trevor, and CJ and Laurel’s car was behind his as they made the drive out into the country to Darien and Lelandi’s home.
When they finally arrived, Christmas lights were on all over the place—the house and barn, the trees and walkways. Brilliant outdoor security lights would come on at dusk so the outdoor activities could take place when it grew dark, mostly to keep everyone safe while participating in the outside fun, but for now, also to keep a look out for Rollins. Peter noticed even more lights had been set up much farther out from the activities to give them more se
curity around a larger perimeter than they normally had.
“Are you sure you’re up to this with Bill being here?” Peter asked, belatedly realizing he should have given her a choice. “I could take you home, and we could just spend a quiet evening there.”
“No way. You’re going to dance with me during all the songs. A deal’s a deal.”
He chuckled. He’d gotten himself into that one, but he wasn’t reneging. He went to open her door for her and saw her sisters together, arms folded across their chests, frowning at him. He realized that’s the way it would always be, the sisters sticking up for each other. They were wolves, and they were triplets. Just like he and his twin brother, Bjornolf, would be if he was living with the pack.
“Looks like your sisters are ready to eat me alive.”
Meghan took his hand and exited the car. She smiled. “I’ll tell them you’re dancing the night away with me, and they’ll be fine with it.”
She led him over to where her sisters were standing and explained the deal.
Laurel was still frowning at Peter. “If Bill grabs her again, I’ll kill him.”
“I told him if he moves in Meghan’s direction, he’ll have a whole pack on his back. He knows it. I don’t think Meghan will have anything to worry about.”
Christmas music was playing as several adults organized games for the kids and adults. First was a candy cane race, and Meghan dragged Peter over to run in it. He suspected she was going to wear him out tonight for agreeing to let Bill come to the party. As long as she had a good time, he would do whatever it took.
* * *
Meghan had been upset that Darien and Lelandi had decided Bill should be at the party as bait, but even more so when Peter hadn’t talked them out of it. It wasn’t just that she was worried Bill would go after her again, though she agreed there was probably little chance of that. Because he was her ex-boyfriend, she’d prefer everyone not see him for that reason alone.
When Peter agreed to dance with her, she figured that was the beginning of making up to her. Since the dancing hadn’t begun yet, she thought she’d make him play a bunch of games. What better way to see if he could play along?