Edward was not the dedicated shifter that Jason or Zane was. He could handle himself in his wolf form as any shifter could, but he wasn’t as much of a consummate outdoorsman or outdoorswolf as his brothers were, and Gemini seemed to make all of them look straight-up citified.
Plunging down the edge of the stream bed, Edward made the leap at the bottom to head up the other side. His jump fell a little short and the wolf grumbled as his back feet plunged into the icy cold November waters. Digging in with his front claws, Edward dragged himself up toward the edge of the stream bed.
That was when he spotted the red wolf. The creature was standing beneath a copse of heavy trees still sporting most of their leaves and looked absolutely unbothered by the weather or anything else. The light was bad. Edward had good night vision, but so did Gemini. And of course the both of them could see that the other was alone. Perhaps this was a good thing. No doubt Gemini had no desire to see any more of the members of the King family proper after his experience in their home last night.
Edward yipped at the other wolf. It was a greeting. A friendly one. No hint of aggression at all. And since the red wolf did not run off, Edward could only surmise that the animal was feeling on friendly terms.
At this point the main issue was where to have a meeting. It was wet and raining and freezing cold, and right now Edward had no desire to shift into his human form to have a conversation about needing Gemini’s assistance.
That left Edward with no choice but to issue a series of low barks, yips, and a whine or two to request of the red wolf—emphasis on request of course—that Edward needed to have a nice human conversation.
Less than a few seconds later, the red wolf took off at a full gallop. Edward chuffed out a sigh. He had no choice but to follow, but this wasn’t going to be pretty. He sprinted off through the wet night. Mud splashed his belly as he plowed his way through the soaked terrain. Water rushed through the stream bed now directly to his left. He knew that they had to cross it. There was no choice about that, but it remained to be seen where it would happen.
They were getting closer to the old A-framed ranch house that sat closer to the hook end of the property. Soon enough the lights would be visible through the trees—or they would have been if Gemini had left any on when he’d gone for his run. Edward’s car was parked in front of the old house beside a battered truck that apparently belonged to his half brother.
Edward could hear the red wolf pounding ahead, sprinting through the trees ducking and diving around limbs and stumps and rocks as though he had been born in these woods. In contrast Edward struggled to keep up. He slipped and slide down a slope, leaped over a fallen log, and then pushed his butt to the ground to keep himself from tumbling headlong into the stream bed when the red wolf made an abrupt turn and bounded over the stream as though it wasn’t even there.
With a grumble Edward plowed through the cold water and struggled to get across. His paws were wet. His belly was soaked. And there was no doubt in Edward’s mind that when he finally shifted back to his human form he was still going to be a mess. No amount of shifter magic could change that.
The shadowy shape of the house took form through the trees. It wasn’t far now. Edward felt a shot of relief as the red wolf bounded up the back steps and shook off on the porch. Water flew everywhere, but the enormous beast looked like some graceful woodland god. Edward, not so much. He trotted up to the steps and made sure to shake off before he hit the porch. Mud and leaves and general forest sludge flew off his fur and slapped the ground around him. The rain was still falling. It was starting to penetrate his fur and soak him to the skin. That did not bode well for what he was going to look like when he finished shifting back.
It was a relief to feel his body beginning to change. The red wolf was already gone. In his place stood the large form of Gemini King, the true eldest of the King brothers. Edward felt the hair receding from his face and his toes retreating even as his shoes reappeared. It was a strange kind of sensation, like bits of electrical current travelling right along his skin. But once it was done he could finally shake his head to get the excess water away from his scalp. He just felt better.
“Your mother has turned the lot of you into humans.” There was no judgment in Gemini’s tone or words. It was a simple observation.
He wasn’t wrong. As Edward pushed his way up the stairs and reached for the door handle to enter the house, he realized that this was technically Gemini’s residence at the moment. Edward stepped back and ducked his head to offer Gemini the first entrance.
The older shifter snorted and shook his head. He was only wearing a pair of athletic pants and a T-shirt. His feet were bare. He looked like a wild creature even in his human skin. If Tisha Olivares-King had turned her boys into humans, then their father Mac King seemed to have turned Gemini into an animal.
“Come on in. It’s your house too.” Gemini flipped on a light.
To Edward’s surprise the house wasn’t trashed. In fact, it looked better than the last time he and his brothers had been here right when a demolition crew had been preparing to knock it down. Edward sank gratefully onto a sagging sofa that had once belonged to his grandfather.
“I need your help.” Edward decided there was no point in beating around the bush. “The woman you attacked the other night”—Edward held up his hand—“I know. You didn’t actually attack her. But she is now claiming that Diana was responsible for the attack and that there was no other creature, human or otherwise, anywhere near the scene.”
Gemini was silent for a moment. “And you think I need to what? Sign a confession?”
“No. I want you to let me take video of you. The parking garage would be ideal. But even if I could get something of you in your wolf form at our University Park house that would probably be enough to convince the detectives to drop the investigation.”
“Who is this woman to you?” Gemini wondered out loud. He tilted his head to one side. The man was so wolf-like that for just a moment Edward wondered why he was even bothering to ask Gemini for a favor like this.
Then Edward cleared his throat. This was Diana. He had to try. “She’s everything. I think it’s difficult to adequately explain who she is to me.” This was ridiculous. Why did Edward feel such a strong desire to come clean with this man? What was it about Gemini that made Edward want to share himself? “You’re my brother. We don’t know each other. But maybe that makes this easier.”
“For what?” Gemini pressed. “To tell me that you’re leaving this place and your family and going with this woman to start a new life somewhere else?”
“Yes.” Edward swallowed back his surprise. It wouldn’t do him any favors to seem so shocked, but this near stranger had guessed something his closest family would probably never believe was going to happen. “That’s what I’m doing. And I want Diana’s record clean. I don’t want her to worry about anything. I sure as hell don’t want her having legal troubles just because she associated with shifters. That’s bad. Don’t you think?”
There was a long pause. Gemini seemed to be staring out into space. “Why do you think there are no other shifters around here?”
“Our father always told us that it was because we need space so we don’t gather together with more than one pack in a place.” Edward offered a shrug. “I don’t suppose I ever really thought about it.”
“Mac told me that we used to live close to each other. Shifters would form communities that consisted almost entirely of shifters. But it did not take long for our people to forget how to behave in the human world.” Gemini sighed. He looked almost wistful. Why? The man seemed so at ease in his own skin. He was more in touch with his shifter blood than Edward could ever hope to be. “Our people stepped away from each other because they knew that the way to survive was balance. You need to be a wolf and a man. But you have to do it your own way. You can’t let your human mother determine that for you. You can’t let your shifter brothers determine it either. And if you feel that it’s tim
e to go. You should.”
“So you’ll help me?”
“Yes.” Gemini gave a rueful shake of his head. “It isn’t like it wasn’t my fault anyway. You just have to understand how totally ridiculous this woman is. She was shrieking and falling and acting like a total basketcase. Teasing her was almost a freaking public service.”
Edward could not help but laugh. He could not argue with that idea either. “Ah. Yes. Gwen Pallister is one serious piece of work. I have no doubt that you’d like to poke at her again.”
That gave Edward an idea. It began to form inside his mind and with each passing second it sounded like more and more fun. But the timing would have to be impeccable.
“What?” Gemini frowned. “You’re thinking about something bad. I can tell. Do share. You can’t leave me in the dark. That’s just not right.”
“What if we set a trap for Ms. Pallister? What if we made sure that there was no way for her to blame Diana? We could make it so she’s dying to complain to the authorities so that they’ll start searching everywhere for you.”
“Whoa.” Gemini frowned. “You want me to expose myself to the city and wind up on the evening news?”
“No. I’m talking about making Gwen beg people to believe that the big bad wolf was attacking her.” Edward could see it in his mind’s eye. “She’d go to the cops and they would think she was crying wolf again. Literally.”
Gemini appeared to be warming to the idea. “Almost as though I was harassing her every single morning and evening when she got to the garage.”
“Exactly!” The more Edward thought about this, the more he felt like it would be the best idea to get Diana off the hook without her even having to say a word. “Then they will have to start thinking seriously about Gwen’s reliability as a witness. They’ll drop the investigation against Diana without her saying another word.”
“This sounds like fun.” Gemini was grinning. “You boys never seem to have fun. I approve of this change.”
Edward stared at this strange new eldest brother and tried to figure out how this life was going to fit together. Somehow it needed to work with all six of them. But there were nearly insurmountable roadblocks in the way and the biggest one was named Tisha Olivares-King.
“Did you meet my mother when you were younger?” Edward asked quietly.
Gemini waited a long time before nodding. “When I was a teenager. It didn’t go well. Dad brought me to dinner. Apparently I didn’t have good enough manners for her. Among other things, of course. My mother was pretty low born by Tisha’s standards.”
“Everyone is lower than Tisha by her standards,” Edward muttered. “Are you going to try and have a relationship with me and my brothers?”
“With you,” Gemini said firmly. “I don’t think Orion is going to be interested and that’s okay. We’re grownups. We’re men. We’re wolves. We’re pack. I’m not interested in taking his alpha pack leader status from him.”
“He doesn’t really have it,” Edward mused. He thought about that for a moment. It was really true. “He’s boss, I suppose. I know he’s bossy enough. Period. But when we’re in our wolf forms we’re all loners in our own way.”
“Perhaps that’s best for the lot of you.” Gemini shrugged. “It’s hard to say. I don’t know any of you very well, but I know when someone feels threatened. Orion was at that first meeting when I went to dinner with your mother and our father. Orion was there. He walked out when Mac introduced me as his son.”
“They’re probably worried you’ll want the company,” Edward observed. “Even just a share would make them nervous right now with all of the probate nonsense.”
Gemini tilted his head to one side. “You’re looking for missing money.”
“Yes.”
“Look at your mother.”
Edward raised his eyebrows. “I have.”
“Look at the inheritance she got from her lover. That’s where the money goes. And always keep in mind that the person least worried about finding it is the one who took it.” Gemini narrowed his gaze and growled low in his throat. “Your mother is the snake. But all of you are too worried about pissing her off to really poke around for answers.”
“You’re right.” It was a tough thing to acknowledge, but sometimes blindness was the safest answer.
Chapter Thirty
Diana was carefully putting together a packet for the meeting she had scheduled with Mr. Lucietto for later this afternoon. She was excited about it and yet trying to keep things on the down low. It was almost as though she were afraid of jinxing something. The broker had already confirmed the closing date. They had accommodations. They had airplane tickets. There was land transportation lined up. It was ready to go and Diana could not wait to get out Texas for a few weeks.
Staring at the pictures of the palazzo on her computer screen, Diana could not help but wish that she could somehow purchase that kind of property and make her home outside the US. She wanted to be international. She wanted to get up every morning and go down to the café for a coffee and an Italian pastry. Or French. Or Colombian. She really didn’t care. She just wanted out of Dallas and away from Gwen Pallister and this whole ridiculous legal snafu.
Diana pushed away from her desk and stood up. A quick trip to the window left her feeling even more troubled. The weather was gross. It had been raining now for nearly three days. She hadn’t heard from Edward other than a few text messages telling her that he was working on her legal problems and not to worry. Like she could stop that!
The people on the street below were like little ants scurrying about. They got into their cars while trying to stay dry underneath swirling umbrellas of every color. From the sixth floor the umbrellas looked like tiny patterned wheels. She wondered if they even had umbrellas in Italy. They did have rain. They even had rainy seasons. It was just very different.
Diana frowned. There was something very odd going on down there. Very odd. She pressed her nose to the window and stared down at the street. There was a little figure running about the street in crazy circles. It seemed unmindful of the rain. The person—assuming it was a person—looked like a bright splash of red against the dark wet street. The colored umbrella discs were all spinning away from the red dot as though they wanted nothing to do with it. What on earth was happening?
“Diana!”
She spun about in surprise and saw Bryan Pallister panting in her doorway. The elderly man was gripping the edge of the doorway as though he were about to collapse into her office. Diana ran to his side. She took his arm and helped him to the seat in front of her desk.
“It’s horrible!” Bryan Pallister moaned.
Diana was confused. She was also tempted to go back over to the window and stare at that red dot. She was starting to think that she might know what it was. “What’s horrible? What’s happening?”
“Some animal has been attacking Gwen all day long!” Bryan gasped. His eyes were wide with shock. “I honestly thought that you were trying to pull a fast one the other day.”
“Excuse me?” Diana felt insulted by that. “You thought I was lying?”
“Well, you have to admit that Gwen has made your life rather difficult. It was Halloween,” the older man reasoned. “You were down there. She was down there. No doubt she ran her mouth because that’s what she does. I’ve had multiple complaints from other employees about her stealing the credit for their deals.”
“And you don’t do anything about it?” Diana was absolutely incensed by the idea that Gwen Pallister had been terrorizing the whole office and nobody had done a damn thing because she was Bryan Pallister’s precious grandbaby. “That’s despicable, Mr. Pallister. I’m sorry. But it is!”
“But you were right!” Pallister wheezed. He was obviously trying to make up ground. Stumbling up out of the chair, he ran to the window. “Look at her! She’s lost her ever-loving mind!”
“What?” Oh yes. Diana had been right. The little red dot was most definitely Gwen Pallister running
about in the street outside the parking garage entry. “Are you saying Gwen is the one on the street down there?”
“Yes! She’s been attacked by a huge red dog every single time she tries to get in and out of her car! I called the police, but they won’t come!”
“They won’t come?” Now that was odd. “What are you suggesting? Or rather I guess what are they suggesting?”
Another unannounced and unwelcome entry into her office happened when the door slammed open and Officer Paulsen came tromping inside with Detective Canzona on his heels. At some point Diana was going to have to ask the receptionist why the woman was so pissed off at Diana that she would let just anyone come right on back with literally no warning.
“Ms. Appleton,” Officer Paulsen said in a very serious tone of voice. “Detective Canzona and I are here to inform you that we are dropping the investigation into any accusations of an assault by you on Ms. Gwen Pallister.”
“All right?” Not that Diana was disappointed. She would call it more confused than anything else. “Can you help me understand what’s going on?”
“Oh God!” Pallister whimpered. “There is an ambulance pulling up. What’s happening, Officer Paulsen?”
“We called a psychiatric EMT team to come and pick up your granddaughter,” Detective Canzona told the older man. “It’s just a precaution, sir. She’s acting erratic and scaring passersby. She needs to be taken from the scene and placed somewhere for a short duration where she can calm down and realize that what she is experiencing is some kind of figment of her imagination.”
“It’s not a figment!” Pallister argued indignantly. He turned away from the window where he’d apparently been watching his precious Gwen get approached by a cautious EMT. “If Gwennie says that she’s being chased by a giant dog, then it’s happening! You believed Diana!” Pallister thumbed a finger at Diana as though that explained everything.
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