Finders Weepers

by Belinda White

  My life was so unfair. I had two men wanting to protect and possibly even love me and I was stuck with the one who just didn't care. Leaning back in my seat, I closed my eyes to block the tears.

  I PICKED AT THE VEGETARIAN chili Rose had waiting for us. Not that it was bad because it wasn't. It would be better with some hamburger, yes, but I was actually getting used to meatless food. While I swirled the chili around in my bowl, Jed told the events of the day. When he was done, silence descended on the table.

  Glancing up, I saw Rose and Lilith both looking at me with tight lips and flaring eyes. Great, now they had jumped on the anger wagon.

  Throwing down my spoon, I glared at each of them in turn. "Would someone please tell me why my trying to end this hunt was a bad thing? That is what we're all trying to do, isn't it? Just what was I supposed to do, not even try to catch him?"

  The new Lilith—sorry, I'd come to realize that now she wanted to be called Lily—the new Lily was not nearly as tough as the old one. She burst into tears, holding her napkin to her face. Rose reached across the table to pat Lily's free hand.

  "Everything turned out okay, dear. Taz is here safe and sound. She'll be more careful in the future." She turned to me and her voice lowered to about the same temper as steel. "Won't you, Tazlyn?"

  Careful?

  Seeing that I still didn't get it, Jed gave a disgusted grunt. "Your recklessness could have gotten you killed."

  "Since when did you start caring?" The anger must be catching, because now I had a full dose of it. "The Luparii, your precious organization, would be happy if we all ceased to exist. I'd think you would want me to take on the skin-walker. A win-win situation for the Luparii, right? Regardless of who actually walks away."

  "I'd like to hear how you had planned to take on the walker,” Jed said. “You ran after him with just your knife. Were you really planning on taking on a crazed wolf with just a knife? Or were you planning to sprout fur and go wolf to walker? In front of Riley and company, that would have been the change heard round the world."

  "I can control my changes, and I would die in skin form before I risked giving out the Benandanti secret."

  "Which leaves you with nothing more than a knife going after a skin-walker who has already killed two and seriously wounded a third." Rose's voice was soft like she was talking to a kindergartner. "We all want this thing stopped, Taz. But we don't want to lose you while doing it." She smiled at me. "We've grown rather fond of you."

  My anger left in a rush and I stared back down at my bowl of uneaten chili. "I'd like to say I'm sorry, but I can't. I would do it again if I had the opportunity to catch this creature." I grimaced. "Though next time I'll have my gun on me, I promise."

  At the time, I really thought the gun would make a difference.

  Chapter 26

  I'd smelled twins before. They may be identical to look at, but their scents are always unique. It all comes down to choices. What soaps they use, what they like to eat, what hobbies they have, who they hang out with, etc., and I've yet to meet a set of twins who've made all the same choices. Jesse and James—both named after their father's hero—were no different. Pair that with only one werewolf sighting, and I thought it was clear the boys weren't the ones we were after.

  Jed wasn't so sure. So I spent the better part of the day following the park chase tagging along behind Jed, watching him work. I hate to admit it, but he impressed the hell out of me. After spending the early hours of the morning using the mill's wi-fi set up to access the internet while I worked on the stone wolf, he had two leads to follow up on.

  The first was a known pedophile now serving time in a Tennessee state prison who had lived in Spencer at the time of the girl's murder. The second was the little girl's uncle. Two separate charges had been brought against him in the past couple of years. One for sexual misconduct with a minor and one for domestic battery. Both had involved family members and both had been dropped before going to trial.

  We left the mill around six before any workers could show up to cast the evil eye on our dogs. In a short twelve hours, Jed amassed enough circumstantial evidence to convince Sheriff Dunwood to bring in the uncle for questioning.

  Dunwood's pretty impressive himself. Within an hour, he had a sobbing confession from the man. The uncle claimed the little girl's death was an accident. According to him she suffered an acute asthma attack and literally suffocated during his...pleasure. The bastard had known he'd go to jail if he called for help, so he had watched his little niece die instead.

  Coming out from the Sheriff's office after the confession, I caught sight of the twin brothers. The uncle had better hope for a long, long prison sentence because I don't think his life will extend beyond the day he gets out.

  We were both pretty quiet during the ride home. I couldn't tell you what Jed's thoughts were. Mine seemed to center on a certain Luparii that would take an entire day off from his urgent search and destroy mission to find justice for a little girl. For the first time, I began to think that maybe Rose was right about him.

  WHETHER THE SKIN-WALKER had really been injured or was just taking a break from murder and mayhem, it was quiet on the Spencer front for the next few days. I was getting used to having a gorgeous man sleeping at my feet, especially as he had finally started talking to me again. His solution seemed to be to make sure I was never out of his sight. Well, he gave me bathroom breaks, but that was about the extent of my privacy.

  Which was starting to wear thin pretty quickly. The past couple of weeks had greatly advanced my social skills, but I was a long way from being ready for a full-time live-in. Especially one without benefits. At least that would allow us to work off some of the tension that was building between us. My little wooden wolf den was built for one skin and one dog—not two of each. My comfy little home was getting, well, close.

  So when Mindy called to officially invite us to a meal of Cin's pot roast, I actually said yes. Surprisingly, Jed didn't object. Of course, Cin and Mindy were very pretty girls, and I wasn't exactly a dog. Well, not in human form anyway. An evening with a home-cooked meal versus fast food and in the company of three girls to boot? I could see why Jed didn't say no.

  I made one of my no-bake strawberry cheesecakes to take for dessert and Jed stopped off along the way for a nice chilled bottle of wine. Maggie and Reb stayed at the cabin. Jed was oblivious to the fact that Rebel could work the latch on Maggie's kennel, and I wasn't about to rat them out. In a matter of months, there would be the pitter patter of a couple dozen little furry feet running around. I wasn't looking forward to the custody battle.

  Mindy's house was just outside of town, situated on a small grassy lot. A smaller Cape Cod home with two dormers on the upper story that looked out over a well-kept yard surrounded by a freshly painted white picket fence. The only trees on the entire lot were a pair of stately pines, one standing at each front corner of the house. The bright green of the pines offset the pale yellow paint perfectly. It looked like something out of a storybook.

  The door opened before we reached it and Mindy stepped out onto the small front porch, wearing a huge grin. "I'm so glad you came." She eyed our offerings. "And to bring both dessert and wine! Thank you, both."

  She shooed us inside and led the way back to the homey eat-in kitchen. Cin was arranging the pot roast and veggies artfully on a large pewter platter. Amazing thought that. I'd never seen anything like it. My family had always been grab the food from the stove kind of people. Saved time and dishes. But I had to give Cin kudos for effort. It did look nice. Of course, she had me at the smell.

  She limped over to greet us both with a hug. It took the limp for me to notice the padded boot on her left foot.

  "What did you do to your foot?" I asked.

  Cin grimaced and blushed. "Foolish me tried to move couch without help."

  Mindy laughed. "It was the first time I ever heard her cuss. Though as it was in Japanese, I'm not totally sure it counts as swearing."

  Cin n
odded. "Counts. Trust me. Counts." She motioned to the table. "We eat now, while still hot. Sit, sit."

  Jed, the gentleman that he was, insisted on Cin sitting first as he carried the heavy platter to the table. Sliding glass doors led from the dining area out to a small bricked patio. Containers of flowers lined the tiny area and two small, artfully cut yews graced each outside corner.

  Mindy smiled when she saw me notice them. "Aren't they lovely?" She gazed adoringly at Cin. "You carve stone, Taz, and Cin shapes hedges. The one on the right is a fox, and the one on the left is still in progress. Cin won't tell me what it will be yet."

  "A surprise. Will be done soon. You see then."

  Jed dished out the meat and we passed around the bowls, filling our plates. I watched Jed carefully and took my cue from his portion sizes. Wolves have very large appetites and I didn't want to shock Cin and Mindy.

  I waited until Cin took a bite before digging in, and I forced myself to match her bite for bite. Rather like a jogger will pace herself with a running partner. As I savored each delicious morsel, I let the conversation flow around me.

  "So, Jed, how long will you be in Spencer? Are we talking long term, or just until you catch the killer wolf?" Mindy asked.

  "Right now, my focus is on trapping that wolf. Plenty of time for decisions after that." Jed looked over to Cin. "This roast in the best I've ever eaten. My compliments to the chef."

  I added yum yum sounds, as my mouth was too full to actually be capable of speech. Which in turn reminded me of my pacing strategy.

  Cin tilted her head, studying Jed. "Which tribe are you from?" She said it slowly. When you got to know Cin, you realized that when she talked slow, it was because she was making an effort to talk good English, with all the verbs in place. I'm told it's a hard language to learn.

  "Cherokee," Jed answered. "Direct descendant of the renegades who eluded the trail of tears." Jed smiled with an apologetic look. "My parents are very proud of our heritage. I guess it's rubbed off on me, too."

  "The Trail of Tears?" Cin questioned, still talking slowly. "I'm not familiar with much American history. What is this trail?"

  "The single saddest event in Cherokee history," Jed said. "Gold was discovered on Indian land. So the white men gathered up all the Cherokee that they could find and moved them across the country to Oklahoma. In their rush to get at the gold, they didn't give my people much time to prepare. They were forced to leave their homes with little more than the clothes on their backs. About seventeen thousand Cherokee were buried along the trail. The tears of the tribe lined their path."

  "How horrible," Cin said. "To be persecuted and forced to give up home...all because color of skin different."

  "Times were different back then. The nation has grown more in terms of tolerance since then. Equality is the key word now," Jed said.

  I grunted. At least I hoped it didn't come across as a snort. "Things haven't changed all that much if you ask me. The different are still persecuted."

  Mindy nodded, her eyes tight. "I'm afraid I agree with Taz." She reached out for Cin's hand across the table. "It would be nice to be equal. Or at least not treated like freaks of nature."

  Oh yeah. They were different, too.

  "It's not a perfect world, true. There will always be those who do not respect the right to be different. But it is better." Jed smiled. "At least we don't have to worry about burning stakes anymore."

  I had to bite my tongue. They may not have to worry about burning stakes, but the Benandanti still had to deal with assassin's bullets. Things hadn't changed nearly as much as Jed would like to believe.

  "So, Taz, you still run?" Cin asked, changing the subject. Before I could answer, she turned to Jed. "Taz was a track star in high school. Broke many records."

  "None of which stood for very long, I'm afraid." I looked at Jed, who had arched a brow at me. "Boys really don't like being shown up by a girl. But yes, I still run. Just not for competitions now."

  Mindy and Cin were star hostesses, leading the conversation back and forth between high school memories and Jed's work and background. I even gave up my idea of pacing and simply wolfed out...in eating that is.

  After dinner, Cin took me to her bedroom to show off her tiny bonsai collection. Three tiny but perfectly detailed trees shared a container with a mini creek, complete with gurgling waterfall. It was beautiful.

  Unfortunately, I couldn't concentrate on the beauty. Struggling for nonchalant, I had to ask. "So, do you and Mindy have any pets? We may have some puppies to find homes for soon." I swear she shuddered before giving me a tight smile.

  "I don't like dogs." She mimed sneezing. "Allergic."

  Which was weird for two reasons. One, the motel accepted pets and she cleaned their rooms without any ill effects. And two, her room fairly reeked of canine.

  Chapter 27

  Luckily, it wasn't the smell of wolf-not-wolf. Unfortunately, it also wasn't anything I'd ever smelled before. With the scent being contained in Cin's bedroom, my gut told me she was a were. With a Luparii assassin sitting in her front room.

  I'd felt protective of Dunwood's background, but that was nothing compared to what I felt toward Cin. If she was guilty of anything—which I highly doubted—I owed her enough to deal with her myself before Jed realized what she was and went into his whole evil were hunting mode.

  We left their house with a box of leftovers shortly after my discovery. The first part of the ride home was quiet. I was trying to figure out a way to ditch Jed for long enough to check out Cin. I actually jumped when Jed spoke.

  "I didn't know you were a track star," he said. "Kind of cheating, wasn't it?"

  I looked at him. "Why? It's not like I ran in fur form. In skin, we have all the same equipment as you plan ole humans do, in case you hadn't noticed. Two legs, two arms, etc."

  "Oh, I've noticed the equipment all right," he said, shifting in his seat. He hesitated for a minute, then said quietly, "It's not like I've forgotten our kiss, Taz. It's just..."

  "Complicated," I finished. Kind of like Elmer Fudd falling for Babbs Bunny. Only with wolves.

  "Yeah. Complicated is as good a word as any," he agreed.

  A couple more miles passed in silence. He had made an effort to start a conversation, so I felt like I owed him the same.

  "So, you're from a family of renegades, huh?"

  He smiled. "Yup. From way back. On both sides of the family tree, too. So I get it honestly." His voice sounded warm, proud.

  "You see your parents often?" It hurt to ask.

  He glanced over at me, then back to the road. "Yeah. They live in North Carolina, and I make the drive down for most of the Holidays. They're good people."

  I swallowed but stayed silent. My family had been good people, too.

  "I'm sorry, Taz. If the Luparii really is wrong about all this..."

  His voice trailed off and I shrugged, looking out my passenger window. "Even if they issued a formal apology, it wouldn't bring them back."

  "No."

  "You know what really burns, though?" I turned to face him. "They'll never get justice. I'm a lone wolf with a couple of rabbits and a dog. What chance do we have against an entire righteous organization of assassins?" My voice was breaking, but it had to be said. "You saw that little girl get justice, my parents and sister deserve the same. And they'll never get it. Will they?"

  Jed shook his head but didn't speak. He knew the odds even better than I did.

  He pulled into the driveway and parked, and we went into the cabin. He took his sleeping bag from the corner and went outside without saying a word. I let him go. The rift between us wider than ever now.

  JED SLEEPING OUTSIDE gave me the advantage I needed. I took a short nap, giving him time to fall asleep, then stuffed an extra pillow under the blanket in case he looked through the window to check on me. Furring, I slipped out the back doggie door with my pack and made my way around through the trees to my workshop.

  Working the lock on the
shop door required a change to skin. It was warmer than it had been but still cold to naked skin. I had goosebumps all over by the time the door squeaked open. Frantic at the sound, I whirled to see if it woke Jed. The body in the sleeping bag didn't move. Relieved, I slipped in and hurriedly dressed in the clothes from my pack.

  Dad's bike was a small model, which made it fairly easy to walk it through the trees following one of our footpaths to the road. I followed the road a few yards from the beginning of the drive to help muffle the sound of the cycle starting, and I was off.

  I was making up my plan as I went along, and the chattering of my teeth kept me from doing much thinking on the way. Late October is not the time to go bike riding in Indiana. Especially around midnight. I'd be kicking up the electric heat for sure when I got home. I was almost to the house when I decided it might be a good idea to sneak in, so I wheeled the bike over to a standing of trees a little way from the house and parked. Right behind a sky blue Nova.

  By the time that fact registered, I'd been made. The car door opened and Jed stood there looking at me. I stared back.

  "The Jeep would have made for a warmer ride," he said.

  I just glared at him, shivering.

  "They must be having a late night." He nodded back toward Mindy's house. "The bedroom light is still on." He glanced back at me. "The Nova is warm. Climb in."

  He didn't have to tell me twice. I slipped into the front passenger seat and started to defrost. If he was here, it was because he had already made Cin and I wasn't about to let him out of my sight. A glance in the back seat showed his dart rifle all laid out and ready to go.

  "Just out of curiosity, how did you make it out past the alarms?"

  I hated to give up my escape hatch, but he would search till he found it anyway. "Hidden back doggie door."

  He nodded. "Smart."