by Terry Spear
“Delicious. We’ll run another time.”
“Tomorrow, if I don’t get hung up on another case or I’m busy with this one,” he promised.
“That sounds good.”
“What did you want for lunch tomorrow?”
“I’ll figure out something. Don’t worry about it. We’ll get together when you have some time off.” She didn’t want Maverick to have to pick up lunch for her if Josh couldn’t make it. She really could just make a sandwich or microwave a meal.
“We’ll try to run tomorrow night,” Josh said.
“Sure.” If he couldn’t, she was running at Forest Park herself. In fact, that was what she could do tonight. First, she wanted to see what other treasures were up in her attic. She’d have to wait until nearly ten tonight anyway to run, so she might as well get some work in. She slipped her phone in her pocket, unlocked the attic door, and stepped inside to go on yet another dusty treasure hunt.
* * *
After ten, Josh finally got home to find the house all lit in Christmas lights, welcoming him, and the Christmas tree covered in reindeer ornaments and sparkling with colored lights. He was making a grilled cheese sandwich for himself when Maverick asked, “So what happened on the murder case?”
“After a few hours, the husband broke under interrogation and confessed to murdering his wife. I wish the bastard had done that earlier so I could have brought Brooke out here for dinner and a wolf run.”
“It’s a good thing you got him to confess though. We had a little bit of excitement. A two-year-old ran into the corral with the reindeer calves, but he wasn’t hurt. He wanted to pet the big doggies.”
Josh chuckled. “More fun than my day.”
“Yeah, luckily—”
Josh got a call. “Hold that thought.” He pulled out his phone and frowned at the caller ID.
“Is something wrong?”
“My favorite former suspect in the stolen Jingles case is calling.” Josh answered the phone. “Hey, it’s Josh. What’s up?” He wondered if Brooke was checking to see if he was home and wanted to run as wolves tonight.
“There’s someone in my shop.” Brooke’s voice was breathless, worried, hushed. “I’m hiding in the attic. I—” The phone went dead.
“Hell.” Josh was out of his seat, grabbing his gun out of the safe and racing for the door in the next instant. Brooke’s voice had been low, fraught with fear, and it made him sick to think she was in trouble. He wished he’d never given her grief about Jingles. What if she didn’t survive the encounter with the intruders? He’d never forgive himself if he didn’t reach her in time.
“What’s wrong?” Maverick was off his chair in a second, waiting for guidance.
“Brooke says someone broke into her shop.” Josh yanked open the door. He hoped it wasn’t someone looking for the cocaine they’d confiscated who hadn’t gotten the word that the DEA had all of it.
“I’m going with you.” Maverick grabbed a rifle from the gun cabinet, then locked the cabinet back up. “Why didn’t she call someone else on the police force or 911?”
Josh hurried to his car, and Maverick was right behind him. “I’m a wolf? She felt she could trust me?”
“She hung up on you?”
“She might have been afraid the person was going to hear her talking on the phone.” Just thinking about it gave Josh chills. “What if she got another box of that damn cocaine?”
“Hell. She’s in the shop?”
“Yeah. Hiding in the attic with no way to get out safely.” Josh’s blood was pumping hard, the adrenaline running high, his heart racing as much as his brother’s was. He secured the light to the top of the car and tore off from the ranch, siren blaring, praying they’d get there in time.
“Should you call a unit to respond that could be closer by?” Maverick asked, rifle in hand, ready to shoot the intruder as soon as they reached the shop.
“I’m calling Ethan.” But he couldn’t get ahold of him. “We’re getting close. There has to be a reason she called me and no one else. What if it has to do with her turning into a wolf? We can’t get the human police involved.” Josh called Adam and told him to get to Cerise’s Antique and Gift Shop as fast as he could. “There’s a break-in in progress, and the shop owner is hiding in the attic. I’m ten minutes from there.” Adam was the only other red wolf in law enforcement who might be close enough to help.
“I’m on my way, but I’m a lot farther out than you are now,” Adam said.
“Just get there as quickly as you can.” Josh ended the call.
“What if whoever it is kills her before we can get there?” Maverick sounded as angry as Josh was.
“We’ll get there, damn it.” At least Josh sure as hell hoped so. He wanted desperately to call her back. To ensure she was all right. But he knew that could be a fatal mistake if she was hiding in the attic and he alerted the intruder that she was there.
“Drive faster, Josh,” Maverick said.
“I’m going as fast as the car will go, damn it.” Now Josh wished he hadn’t had to deal with the murder case and could have taken Brooke for a wolf run like they’d planned and kept her out of harm’s way.
“She’s got to be turning into her wolf,” Maverick said.
“That’s what I was thinking too.”
They were finally in town and getting closer to her shop. Josh slowed his car down, but he didn’t stop the sirens from blaring. He’d rather scare off the intruder than give him the false sense of security that he was safe and had time to harm Brooke.
* * *
Brooke sure didn’t expect somebody to break into her shop tonight. When she heard two men’s muffled voices as they looked for something and heavy footsteps moving around the shop and into her office and the storage room on the first floor, she was thinking she should have left all the lights on and the Christmas music too. Since she moved here, she hadn’t had any problems, and the Realtor had assured her the area was safe—no bars on the windows or doors, no breaks-ins or thefts. Her great-aunt had never mentioned having any trouble here. Not until Ivy had ordered merchandise from the wrong people.
The shops were fairly safe from crime since most of the quaint little shops had homes behind or above their businesses. That meant somebody was usually at home at night when the shops were closed.
Had Brooke left her front door unlocked? She hadn’t thought so. She was trying to do too many things at once. Maybe she had. Damn it. How could she claim someone broke into her shop if she’d left the door unlocked? Had she even left the Closed sign in the window? Now she couldn’t remember.
Worse, the guy who was installing her security cameras wasn’t coming until after Christmas because all the security services were too booked up! Or she could have caught the intruders on video.
It didn’t matter now. Whoever was rummaging around in her shop must be looking for something they could sell. Back in Phoenix, Brooke was careful to have antiques appraised that might be valuable and then keep them secure, but she hadn’t found any records that indicated her great-aunt had done so for her merchandise. Worse, what if the intruders were some of the drug dealers looking for more cocaine? Of course they could be hunting for something that was only of value to the person looking for it—not drugs but something else.
Brooke was afraid to move around on the creaking wooden floor to search for something she could use as a weapon, concerned she’d alert the intruders that she was right above them in the attic, so she started to strip off her clothes. She wanted desperately to turn off the attic light, but she was afraid that would catch someone’s attention. Not to mention she’d have to walk across the creaking floorboards to do it. She hoped they’d believe she forgot to turn off the light in the attic, not that she was up there hiding.
At least as a wolf, she could protect herself better. Which was why she called Josh to come to her aid and not 911,
when a police officer on duty might have been closer. She finished pulling off her panties and bra. In a flash, she shifted into her wolf.
Hopefully, Josh wouldn’t call other police officers to the site to protect her if she had to fight the intruders in her wolf coat. With any luck, the intruders wouldn’t bother checking the attic.
She heard things crashing downstairs, glass breaking, and she wanted to kill the men!
“I don’t see the boxes down here,” the one man said. “You think they’re upstairs maybe?”
Her skin prickled with fresh awareness. At least she learned one thing: the guy’s comment meant they hadn’t just randomly broken into the shop for stuff to steal. They were looking for something specific. Now, if only they would tell her what they planned to take. The news had reported that the DEA had confiscated over $25,000,000 in cocaine, so she’d hoped anyone else associated with those drugs would realize the boxes were no longer in her shop. Unless there were more to come.
“Yeah, or the house,” the one guy said. “We’ll check here first. We can break into the house when she’s at the shop during the day. At least she has no security cameras anywhere.”
Which irritated Brooke again when she thought of how she wouldn’t get the cameras in any sooner. It would have been great to have gotten a video recording of the guys, though she guessed they would have destroyed her cameras, if she had them.
The two intruders tromped up the stairs. Maybe they wouldn’t go into the attic. Three other rooms and a bathroom were below her on the second floor. Her great-aunt, like her parents, had the estate sale/garage sale/thrift store sale obsession. They told themselves it was because they needed to keep their shops well stocked. Brooke knew deep down it had been more than that. They were treasure hunters, and they figured one of those days, they’d find the treasure of a lifetime. And then? They’d look for another.
She thought about making some noise to warn the men she was here. Maybe she’d spook them, and they’d leave. But she was afraid it was too late for that. There were no guarantees that she could scare them off if they really wanted the item they were searching for.
There was no lock on the attic door from the inside of the room, so she had no way to keep them out. The door was standing wide open, inviting them right in. She suspected if she’d managed to lock it, they would have just kicked in the old door anyway. As a wolf, she moved soundlessly toward two large trunks, one a Victorian leather-covered humpback trunk and the other a wall steamer trunk covered in embossed metal and metal bands to strengthen the frame and add a decorative touch. That one she recognized as a Louis Vuitton trunk, and it still had labels from the ships the traveler sailed on. She quickly reached the trunks and crouched behind them.
You may arrive anytime now, Detective Wilding! She hoped she hadn’t made a mistake in calling him and not just dialing 911.
Brooke prayed he’d get here, sirens blaring, and these men would run off. Maybe he’d catch them. But mostly she hoped they’d leave before she had to deal with them.
She realized the problem she now faced. If she killed the men, what would she do with them? If she only bit them, she might turn them. That was a total no-no. Then she was back to having to kill them.
They were rummaging around in two of the three rooms below her. “Shit,” the one man said. “She’s got so much damn stuff in here. We’ll never find it.”
Good. Though it could be safer for her if they found whatever they were hunting and left. Not that she wanted them to steal from her. What if it was the treasure her parents and her great-aunt and great-uncle had always hoped to find?
“Check the other storage room. I’m going to see what’s up those stairs. The light’s on and the door’s open, unlike earlier when I checked the place out.”
Ohmigod, he was the man who had carried the box into the shop for her earlier when the mail carrier delivered it. She should have recognized his voice from earlier!
“We should have checked there first.” The man climbed up the stairs to the attic door, every footstep making the stairs creak, causing Brooke’s heart to beat even faster. When he reached the landing, he paused. She envisioned him surveying the boxes and trunks, maybe looking to see if someone was hiding in the room.
“Anything up there?” the other guy asked.
“More damn boxes and junk.” The floorboards creaked, and he went straight for one of the trunks.
The other guy came up the stairs. Just great. He started to walk across the floor headed for the other trunk—the bigger of the two that she was crouched behind.
Angry they had broken in and no longer afraid, maybe because she was wearing her wolf coat, Brooke curbed the urge to growl and come out and bite them. She had to keep her wits about her and let the police detective—if he ever got here!—handle matters.
The first of the men swore. “The damn thing has a lock on it I can’t open.”
“Same with this one.”
She smiled with some satisfaction.
“Shoot them off,” the one man said.
Then her phone lit up. She’d turned the sound off, but someone was trying to call her. She prayed that the men wouldn’t see the light go off where her clothes were, close by her.
“What the hell,” the one guy said and began to move around the steamer trunk.
She was a dead wolf if she didn’t take him down first. The floor creaked where he was walking toward her, and both men took the safeties off their guns. She readied herself to lunge.
Chapter 9
When Josh pulled up in front of the antique shop, his sirens still going, he heard the distinctive sound of shots being fired, coming from the attic. Cold chills ran up his spine. That was where Brooke was supposed to be. He envisioned her wearing her red wolf coat and dodging bullets, damn it.
His heart doing double time, he jumped out of the car, pulling his gun out, and yelled to his brother, “Head around back so they can’t get away that way. Watch yourself. They’re armed and dangerous.”
“Hell, yeah.”
The front door to the shop was shut, but when Josh tried the knob, it was unlocked. His first thought was that Brooke hadn’t locked the door, just like she hadn’t locked the gate to her courtyard the other night. Not that he blamed her. She had a lot on her mind—lots to do and no one to help her do it—and it was easy to forget things. He threw the door open, and it banged against the wall.
Right now, all that mattered was that the two people firing shots in her attic hadn’t ceased, even with his siren wailing. They had to be concentrating so hard on shooting at her that they hadn’t heard his siren. He couldn’t imagine she would have survived the onslaught, and that made his stomach knot with tension.
“Police officers! Come down with your hands up!” Josh was certain someone else living nearby would have heard the shots and called the police. He just had to protect Brooke if she was in her wolf form.
He headed up the stairs, the darn steps creaking with his weight, warning them he was on his way. Neither of the men responded, and he worried they might try to take him out before he reached the attic. He had no cover here, but he had to reach Brooke as quickly as he could.
A couple more shots were fired. God damn it.
Josh was running up the stairs when he heard a banging noise and then glass breaking. He reached the landing and peered into the attic room. The front window was broken. The men were gone.
Someone was running up the stairs behind him, and Josh whirled around to see his red-faced brother, just as angry as he was, rifle in hand.
“They got away out front. Brooke?” Josh called out, afraid she might not be able to respond, not wanting to consider the worst-case scenario. He was searching behind the antique trunks and stacked boxes, but he hadn’t located her. “It’s me, Josh Wilding, and my brother.”
Wearing her red wolf coat, Brooke came out from behin
d a bunch of boxes full of bullet holes. She was limping, bloodied, her tail down. She managed a small tail wag when she saw them.
Josh was so glad to see her alive. He quickly looked her over to make sure she wasn’t wounded anywhere that could be life-threatening. She licked his cheek, and he gave her a small hug. “Was there more cocaine in a box?” he quickly asked, thinking he needed to call Ethan back. Ethan would have a DEA team over here in a heartbeat.
She shook her head.
Maverick was trying to get around him in the narrow space to see the damage too.
“It looks like two flesh wounds, one to her right hind leg and one to her right foreleg. Take care of her, will you, Maverick? More police are bound to be on their way. I need to try to find these guys so they can’t return and hurt her or anyone else.”
“I’ve got this.”
Josh went back to grab her clothes from behind one of the bigger antique trunks, found the sexy lace underwear she’d stripped out of, and returned to shove the clothes at his brother. “Get her dressed before anyone else arrives.” Then he bolted for the stairs, determined to catch the bastards and learn what was so valuable that they’d broken into her shop to find it. What made him see red was that they’d shot her. He just prayed her wounds were superficial like he thought they were. And he hoped she hadn’t bitten one or both of the men and turned them.
His primary goal as a sworn police detective was to take down the criminals. Well, taking care of Brooke’s injuries first if his brother hadn’t been there to do so. But damn if he didn’t want to be the one checking on her injuries and helping her to dress before the police officers arrived. He didn’t want to admit it was more than just a need to make sure everything was done right before the other officers got there. He wanted to be the one ministering to her needs and protecting her.
* * *
“Can you shift?” Maverick asked Brooke.
Hurting horribly, which was why she seemed to be doing things in slow motion when she should have shifted already and dressed, she nodded and shifted. She wasn’t embarrassed to be seen naked in front of one of her kind. She was used to stripping and shifting to run as a wolf with a pack. Maverick wasn’t part of the pack she’d belonged to, but it still didn’t bother her.