by Lisa Ladew
He pushed all the items to one side of the cart and grabbed some things he needed at home. Bacon, six whole chickens, two gallons of mayonnaise─ Ella laughed and he turned to her.
“Is that mayonnaise? Who needs two gallons of the stuff?”
Trevor held it up. “You’d be surprised. Trent loves the stuff. He’s weird.” He ignored Trent’s calculated huff and the delicate lifting of one side of his mouth so only one fang showed.
Her eyes narrowed and she looked at him sideways. “Do you mean the dog Trent?”
Too late, he realized his mistake. “Yeah, um, I don’t work with them, but I’ve been, uh, boarding them lately.”
“They don’t stay at the station?”
Trevor pushed the cart quickly out of the aisle and headed towards the rear of the store. “Nah. They get lonely.”
She ran to catch up but he set a pace he hoped would keep her from talking. Past the sodas, he picked up a squeaky toy from a pile and squeaked it, grinning at Troy. Troy wouldn’t dare bite him in the store. He hoped.
Ella pointed to a bag of dog food. “Do you need any of this?”
Trevor laughed. “Hell no, they eat steak. The last time I brought some of that home as a joke Troy went in my closet and shit in all my shoes. Never again.”
Ella stared at him, her eyes wide. Trevor wanted to punch himself in the side of the head. He was normally not that stupid. She was affecting him. Making him babble.
“I’m done,” he announced, then pushed the cart towards the front of the store, hearing two voices laughing in his head.
After he’d paid and boxed his items, he stopped and looked at Ella. “Hungry?” he asked, nodding to the food court. “It’s not fancy but the food is good and I’m paying.”
“Oh no, you can’t.”
“I can,” he said with a simple grin, hoping she would let him. “I want to.”
She smiled back and he felt his stomach dip. “Ok then.”
They stood in line and when they got to the front, Ella ordered a small soda and a slice of pizza.
Trevor didn’t even have to look. “Fifteen foot-longs please, and a soda.”
Hey, Troy barked inside his head. I’m thirsty.
You’re gonna have to drink water. I’m not giving you soda in front of her. There’s a bowl in the truck.
Troy didn’t answer and Trevor knew that was bad. He would have to deal with the consequences later. He gathered up his fifteen hot dogs and went to the condiment area. He threw the buns away, slathered five with onions, five with ketchup, mayonnaise, and onions, and left five plain, not noticing Ella’s confusion.
He led her to a table in the corner where they would draw the least attention, then set ten of the hot dogs on the floor. Troy finished his five before Trevor could lower his butt into the chair, but Trent ate more delicately, licking off the condiments first, then munching one wiener at a time.
Ella sat and took a bite of her pizza slice. “You really do feed them people food. It doesn’t mess with their digestion?”
“Nah, that’s why I threw away the buns. They would have.”
Ella eyed his food. “You don’t eat the buns either.”
He swallowed a bite. It went down hard. “No. I don’t,” he finally said. “Low carb.”
She nodded knowingly, then looked down at the two canines. “They look so much like wolves.”
Trevor sucked a piece of meat down the wrong pipe and Ella watched him, concerned until he stopped coughing. “They do. How much do you know about wolves?”
She smiled and her voice took on a new excitement. “More than you, I’ll bet. Wolves are amazing animals. Highly intelligent. More social than humans. So gorgeous and cunning.” She leaned forward. “Did you know that the loss of wolves in this area is responsible for the current suffering of the ecosystem in the northern woods?”
Troy’s ears perked up and he placed his head on the table. Ella fed him a pepperoni.
“Suffering?”
“Yes.” Trevor watched her lips move and the animation of her gorgeous face as she explained. His mind started to slip, imagining kissing her, and he had to pull himself back to her words.
“You really like wolves,” he mused, almost to himself when she was done speaking.
“I do. Always have. I still have my wolf teddy I got for Christmas when I was four. I had to carry him around all day with me to keep him safe from my sister. One time she gave me a black eye and cut my arm with a paperweight but I still didn’t let go of Baron. I sleep with him every night.” She stopped as if embarrassed, then looked out over the crowd of people eating and shopping.
What she said warmed him from the inside. He wanted to take her hand, but he didn’t.
She faced him again and lifted her chin. “You know wolves have been reintroduced into the wild in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming after years of dwindling packs?”
He nodded.
“I think that’s a good thing, don’t you?” Her voice held a dangerous fire that he was certain he didn’t want to mess with, but his being ached to see more of. Maybe as she moved underneath him, naked, panting and clawing at him.
Trevor pushed the image out of his mind and looked down at his food. “I think it’s a great thing.”
She sat back, mollified, finishing the last of her slice, then looking wistfully at the food counter.
“Want another one?” he asked.
“Oh, I don’t want to─”
He stood. “I’ll get you another one. Be right back.”
She smiled at him brightly, making him decide to buy her two more slices. Maybe four. And some ice cream. And another soda.
Anything she wanted.
***
Several hours later, after four phone calls, two more errands, and amazing conversation with Ella whenever the department left him alone, Trevor pulled up in front of the building downtown. “I’ll only be a minute. I need to ask someone a few questions about an incident that happened two days ago on 15th Street. You can come in if you like.”
Ella gazed at the building, then shook her head, looking upset.
Trevor stopped for a beat. “You ok?”
She nodded quickly. “Ok, I’ve got to take Troy in with me, but Trent will stay with you.” She nodded again.
Trevor slipped out of the truck and looked over the new building. A faded and twisted sign sat in the window, reading You Need It. Blake had told him Mrs. White, the shopkeeper of the place that Khain had blown up, was trying to reopen her shop there. He walked inside with Troy, still wearing his police vest, following at his heels.
The curtains were drawn and the lights were low, giving the place an eerie look. Did items sell better that way? Maybe, if they were creepy items. He blinked in the low light and walked toward the counter, where a man who looked like he should be home in bed was placing jewelry into a glass display case.
“Is Mrs. White here?”
“I’m not open yet. Go away.”
“Sir, my name is Lieutenant Burbank, of the Serenity Police Department. I need to ask Mrs. White a few questions.”
“She already told that other officer everything she knows. You know, the sniffy one.” The man put his nose up in the air and sniffed hard, presumably imitating Blake. His eyes landed on Troy and he stepped back. “What in the hell is that?”
“Police dog, sir.”
“Get him out of here! He’ll, he’ll pee on something!”
“I can assure you that he won’t, sir,” Trevor said, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice and the smile off his face. “Just tell me what I need to know and we’ll leave quickly.”
He hunkered over the counter and stared at him. “What?”
“Are you an employee here?”
The old man snorted. “I’m the owner. Part-owner. This is my wife’s baby. She loves old crap.”
Trevor nodded. “You are Mr. White, then? Your wife, where is she?”
“At the salon. She’ll be in tomorrow.”
&n
bsp; “I see, thank you,” Trevor said, making a mental note to come back the next day. He hadn’t read Blake’s report yet and he was trying to put it off until he got to interview Mrs. White himself. He liked to do his interviews fresh, without the opinions of other officers tainting what he saw.
As he turned to leave, a trinket caught his eye. A pendant on a gold chain of a snarling wolf with amber eyes. The little gold piece grabbed him by the throat and demanded something from him. What, he didn’t know, but he had a guess. Just looking at it made him think of the beautiful woman waiting for him in his truck.
“Ah, Mr. White, is that piece for sale?”
“Everything is for sale, son, for the right price.”
“Could I see it?”
The old man lifted the pendant out by its chain and placed it in Trevor’s hands. Ella’s laugh, Ella’s smile, Ella’s voice, the curve of her hip, even her mangy cats filled his mind. I love wolves, he heard her say and he was lost.
“I’ll take it,” he heard himself saying, like a lovesick idiot who was too stupid to know that he was chasing a foxen’s errand.
The shopkeeper raised his eyebrows. “That’s a new piece. Not priced yet. But I can assure you it’s quite expensive.”
Trevor pulled out his wallet and placed it on the counter, then dug through it with one hand. He pulled out a credit card and held it out. “That’s fine. I want it.”
Mr. White leaned back pinning Trevor with his stare. Troy shifted and Trevor knew the wolfen was trying to figure out what exactly Trevor was doing. He couldn’t explain it or justify it. He just had to have that pendant.
Mr. White ignored the credit card, took the pendant and held it up. “The gold in this piece is worth almost two thousand alone by weight, and the gems in the eyes might be yellow tourmaline, we’re not sure. I don’t know that my wife is willing to sell until we know for sure.”
Troy whined, telling Trevor the old man was lying about something. Mr. White flipped the pendant over, displaying the angel that was perfectly carved into the other side, which made Trevor want the thing even more. He held himself back, trying not to show his eagerness. But he wasn’t walking out of there without the pendant.
Trevor took a deep breath as the man ran his fingers over Ella’s pendant, explaining why the thing was going to cost so much money. Whatever, dude. I don’t care how much it costs. Troy whined again, probably telling Trevor to relax.
Trevor did, focusing on the wall behind Mr. White’s head until he stopped talking. “So how much,” he asked bluntly when that glad moment finally arrived.
“Ninety-Two hundred.”
Trevor held out his credit card again and this time Mr. White took it.
Troy moaned in his head. You are awful at haggling. He would have let it go for five thousand. You couldn’t even check in with me?
Trevor turned his back on Troy, unwilling and unable to explain himself. When the pendant was safely wrapped up and in his pocket, only then was he able to breathe easily.
He didn’t know when or how he was going to get that pendant to Ella, but he knew it was meant for her, as sure as he knew his own name.
Chapter 19
Ella sat in the passenger seat of Trevor’s truck, feeling like she was in a young adult novel. Trevor had been so much fun to talk to, such a gentleman, and so interesting that she almost felt like they’d been on a date, and not part of some weird, forced protection team. He fascinated her. No sign of a wife or girlfriend or kids yet. She watched him from the corner of her eye. He had to be almost thirty. How was it that he wasn’t taken yet? Unless there was something wrong with him…
“We just have one more stop,” Trevor said, turning on the windshield wipers. “Crud, I was hoping the rain would hold off until I got the stuff in the back of the truck to Mac.”
“Who’s Mac?” Ella asked.
Trevor growled loudly, the sound reverberating low and deep in his throat, his lip lifting like a snarling dog’s would. Ella stared at him, her eyes like saucers, her heart beating hard in her chest. Had she heard what she thought she heard?
He leaned over the steering wheel and coughed hard, whacking himself in the chest with his fist. “Excuse me,” he said, not looking at her.
Ella stared hard at the dashboard, the pounding of her own blood in her ears almost blocking out what she could only describe as snickering that she was hearing in her head.
Trevor opened his door. “I’ll be right back. I have to cover the truck bed.” He jumped out and ran to the back of the truck. Ella twisted in her seat and watched him as he pulled on a roll of leathery fabric just behind the cab, pulling it to the very back of the truck and snapping it in several places to cover all the groceries they’d bought.
Trent licked her hand and she petted him, smiling at him. Troy looked jealous so she twisted farther and petted him too. “Such good puppies,” she whispered, as Trevor jumped back into the vehicle.
“Mac is no one,” he said. “Just a coworker. I need to get this stuff to him and then I can take you back to the safe house.”
“You aren’t going to stay with me?” Ella said, almost pouting, before she could stop herself.
Trevor put the truck in gear and started driving. Ella felt her heart sink as he seemed to be thinking of how to tell her no.
But then he didn’t. “I’ll stay with you.”
She smiled, her heart full. “Thank you.”
“Anything you want,” he said softly, his eyes on the road.
Ella let the words hang in the air. He was just being polite.
Within a few minutes, they pulled up into the police department parking lot and parked in an empty space. Trevor made a phone call and then scrambled out of the vehicle. “Wait here, I’ll be right back.”
Ella waited, twisting in her seat again to pet the dogs and surreptitiously watch Trevor’s muscles flex as he carried the heavy items from his truck to an expensive-looking car three spots down. A man came out of the building and approached Trevor, dressed exactly like Trevor. He was tall and dark with a broad chest and a handsome but mean face. Ella didn’t like him immediately and she felt surprised at her reaction. Normally she liked everyone, but then she realized why. He unlocked his car trunk, then stepped up to Trevor and his facial expression and gestures made it obvious he didn’t like Trevor, or at least was mad at him. Ella bit down on her lip, not liking that. She watched the two men argue in the cold rain and wondered if none of the cops ever wore jackets. She hadn’t seen Trevor wear one yet and Mac, if that’s who he was, wasn’t wearing one either.
Trevor glanced over at her and Mac’s eyes followed the glance. He said something to Trevor and for the first time Trevor’s response became heated. He placed his body in between Ella and Mac so she couldn’t see his face anymore, but his body told plenty of the story. The two men were about to fight and it was going to be a bad one. Troy whined and Ella did the only thing she could think of. She opened the back door to let him out. Troy and Trent swarmed out, both of them running straight to Mac and jumping up, putting their big paws on his chest and their snarling snouts in his face. Ella gasped.
“Still using your mutts to do your dirty work,” Mac said, and then he turned and walked away, knocking the two dogs to the ground. They paced, their angry energy obvious in the set of their bodies.
Trevor loaded the water and food into Mac’s trunk, then slammed it and headed back to the truck to a shocked Ella. “Done,” he said. “Want to go out for dinner, or get something on the way?”
Like absolutely nothing had happened.
Chapter 20
Early the next morning, Trevor opened one eye and watched Ella sleep in the chair across from him, the wolven at her feet. He hated that she was sleeping in the chair again, and if he had any guts at all he would put her in the bed, but he didn’t. He felt like a full-fledged chicken at the moment. She was scrambling all his brain circuits, swiping all his nerve. One disappointed or pained look from her and he would crumble.
The only good thing about her being in the chair was it made him feel like he could stay in the room. Like they weren’t actually sleeping so it wasn’t completely inappropriate for him to be there. The door was open, the other officers had stuck their heads in a couple of times through the night. His sleep was light enough that he had heard them coming and waved at them, pretending that he was just watching over a victim, keeping her safe. Everything totally on the up and up. He was not watching her sleep and wondering what her skin would feel like under his fingers. He certainly was not memorizing her features or imagining how her curves met under her clothes.
Trevor shifted in the chair and closed his eyes but a buzzing in his pocket brought him to full alertness. A text from Wade.
I want that safe house shut down today. Unless something more happens, you can’t keep that girl there tonight.
Trevor couldn’t believe what he was reading.
Khain was in her house. What if he comes back?
He won’t, as long as she’s with you. He smells wolven, he stays away. You can’t keep her forever.
Trevor bared his teeth. Risky business, leaving her alone to see if Khain would come back. He sent another text.
What if she’s a one true mate?
Is she?
Trevor thought for a long time. He wanted her to be. But that meant nothing.
I don’t know. She could be.
So question her. Eliminate it or confirm it. Today. If she is one, I want her in my office asap.
There was an echo at her house. Housecat. It mirrored Troy.
Wade didn’t send anything back for several moments and Trevor knew he had rattled him. Echoes meant serious business.
Any message?
Nothing yet.
It could be a coincidence. You know what you have to do. See you in two hours.
Ah, right. The funeral. Trevor let his eyes slip closed, his phone held loosely in his hand. He didn’t want to leave…