by Anne Bishop
“I know the choice,” the Sierra said bitterly. “I have to choose between Jimmy and CJ.”
“No, you have to choose between that Cyrus and your pups.”
He heard several gasps. He suspected those had come from all the females in the room, including the female still standing just inside the door.
“If that Cyrus is so important to you that you’ll crawl for his approval, that’s your choice. But your pups would be the lowest members of that pack, considered orphans if that’s what he wanted, and pups in that position don’t often survive if food is hard to find. Odds are one or both of your pups would die of hunger. So if you want that Cyrus, you can live as another female in his pack. But your pups won’t go with you. They’ll be transferred to another pack that will be able to care for them.”
“You can’t take my children!” the Sierra cried.
“Yes, we can. And we will. Or you can swear to the members of the Courtyard who are here and to the human witnesses that you will not give that Cyrus food or money that you need for your pups. No excuses.” Simon bared his teeth. “And know this: if you steal from us, we take a hand the first time. The second time we take a lot more.”
“CJ?” The Sierra turned to the brother who gave his love.
Montgomery shook his head. “Sissy, if you want to find another job and another place to live that isn’t under Mr. Wolfgard’s jurisdiction, you can do that. But I’m guessing you’d have to do it soon.”
“We would give her a week,” Simon said. “Then we would drive her out of our territory.”
“Even if you found a place you could afford and work to support you and the girls, who would stay with them?” Montgomery continued, then added when the Sierra slid a look at Miss Twyla, “Mama has a job and her own bills to pay.”
“That’s right,” Miss Twyla said. “If you and the girls are here, I’ll help you look after them, same as I’m helping Crispin. But if you leave, maybe you’d best think of going a long ways away from all of us. Maybe one of those towns out west that need good workers. And if you leave and have any sense at all, you won’t tell Cyrus where you’re going.”
Sobbing, the Sierra fell into one of the chairs.
“For you, being around that man is like drinking a glass of poison every day,” Nadine said. “Maybe it just makes you sick, makes you weak, makes you forget who you really are and what you really want. But if you keep drinking, sooner or later, the poison will kill you.”
Simon wondered if Nadine had drunk that kind of poison when she was young. If she had, she’d also stopped drinking it. So had Theral MacDonald. She’d run away from an abusive mate. That Jack Fillmore was still sniffing around, still a threat, but Theral wasn’t crawling back to him. So there was a chance the Sierra would make a good choice for herself and her pups if she had a little time to think.
“We’ll all meet back here in one hour,” Simon told her. “You’ll give us your answer then.”
The Sierra ran out of the coffee shop, brushing past a female, who looked at them with big eyes and said, “Is it always so dramatic here?”
“Who are you?” Simon snarled. He wasn’t close enough to catch her scent, but her voice sounded vaguely familiar.
“Emily Faire. The nurse practitioner who is going to be working here? I have a letter from Mr. Ferryman for Mr. Wolfgard.”
Simon nodded, remembering where he’d seen her before. She had been in attendance as the healer when Meg made the cut and saw the possible future for the River Road Community.
He looked at Vlad.
For the terra indigene, Merri Lee would always be the Teakettle Woman from Charlie Crowgard’s song about Teakettle Woman and Broomstick Girl.
“Come up to the office and we’ll discuss your employment,” Simon told Emily Faire. Then he pointed to Nadine. “This is Nadine Fallacaro. You’ll have a room in her apartment on the days you’re working here.”
“Really?” Emily Faire didn’t sound enthusiastic. She probably wondered how often Nadine attacked other females with a knife.
They hadn’t seen this behavior in the woman until now, but Simon was wondering the same thing.
Nadine sighed. “I’ll show you the apartment when you’re ready.” Her eyes widened. “Gods! I forgot about the muffins. Didn’t even hear the timer.”
“I took care of them,” Tess said, stepping in from the hallway. Her hair was green and curling. She wasn’t calm, but she was safe enough to be around the rest of them.
Simon walked past Montgomery on his way to HGR’s office.
“Simon,” Montgomery said quietly. “Would you really take Sierra’s girls away from her?”
“Yes.”
“Away from all of us?”
A good man, Simon thought. Intelligent and courteous. A man who had been trying to work with him from the first day they met. A man who understood loyalty. A man who had been separated from his own pup for a few months and wouldn’t willingly do that again.
A man who cared.
“If it came to that, the pups would be close enough that you and Miss Twyla could visit them,” Simon said.
“But Sierra couldn’t see them?”
“No.” He waited, but Montgomery didn’t say anything more. “One hour, Lieutenant.”
Simon and Vlad went upstairs to talk with Emily Faire about the terms of her employment. Since their original idea was for her to divide her time between the Courtyard and the River Road Community, they offered her one of the duplexes in the community, thinking that, being an Intuit from Great Island, she would want to live as close to her kind as possible. But she surprised them and asked if there was an inexpensive apartment in Lakeside that she could rent because she had a feeling she was needed here full-time and that someone else would be more suited to run the little clinic in the River Road Community.
Yes, they had an apartment she could rent, if she wanted her own den instead of a room with Nadine, but they didn’t have much furniture to offer.
Vlad took her across the street to show her the available apartments in the building where Nadine and Merri Lee resided. Simon watched them from the office window.
So, Emily Faire had a feeling she was needed here full-time? Why? Did that feeling have something to do with that Cyrus or the Elders? Or did she just want to learn more about the terra indigene and Meg and living around them was a way to do that? A new addition to the Courtyard. She hadn’t seemed overly excited while witnessing the scene in the coffee shop, so maybe they wouldn’t be adding another exploding fluffball to the female pack.
That was a problem for another day. Right now, he wanted to shake off the drama and go for a quick run before he had to deal with whatever problems the Sierra’s decision would cause.
Maybe he could pester Meg for a few minutes before going for a run. The pester game couldn’t last more than a couple of minutes before it stopped being fun for Meg. If she was still reading that book, she’d growl at him for interrupting her. He’d bring a snack from A Little Bite to distract her. She must be hungry by now.
He stripped off his clothes, shifted to Wolf, and went downstairs and through the archway to the coffee shop. Then he considered who could be approached and decided that Tess, while more dangerous than Nadine, was the better-known threat.
“We were just packing up a piece of quiche and a couple of other things for Meg,” Tess said. Then she looked at Nadine. “Guess you’re not going to have a chance to ask Meg about that book.”
Nadine gave Simon a look that made him very glad he could run faster than she could.
Tess gave him one of the insulated sacks she used to deliver food in the Market Square and opened the back door for him. When he
looked back, he noticed her hair was brown and wavy.
How nice that Nadine amused one of them.
He trotted to the back of the Liaison’s Office and faced a locked door. Of course, he didn’t have a key tucked in his fur, so he put the sack on the ground in front of the door and moved to the back room’s small window, which was open to let in fresh air.
“Arrooooo!”
Meg rushed into the back room and looked around until she spotted him at the window. “Simon?”
He grinned at her, showing a lot of healthy teeth.
He returned to the door and had the sack in his teeth before she turned the lock and opened the door. He brushed past her and went into the sorting room. Standing on his hind legs, he set the sack on the big wooden table and eyed the book that was held open with a rough purple rock that looked like a mountain range.
As Meg joined him, she reached up and gave him a scritch behind one ear. Almost made him forget about playing the pester game.
“Look what Jenni brought me to use as a paperweight.” Meg held up the rock. “It’s amethyst. Isn’t it pretty?”
It was a rough purple rock.
“She showed me a split geode that would also make a good paperweight. I’m bargaining with her to buy the geode and the amethyst.”
Crows had that look in their eyes when they spotted a coveted shiny. To distract Meg before they ended up with a den full of rocks, Simon nudged the sack with his nose.
“What did you bring?” Meg set the rock back down on the book and opened the sack. “Oh! Quiche and . . . this is for you.”
Simon caught the beef scent before she pulled the treat out of the sack. Wolf cookie! He’d smelled the beef but thought it was some of the food for Meg.
“There’s another cookie in here. Must be for Nathan.”
Why? But she was already walking into the front room, and Nathan, having heard, was already waiting for her at the counter.
“I’m enjoying this book,” Meg said, returning to the sorting table. “It’s exciting. I had to read a couple of chapters like this”—she put one hand over her eyes, then moved her fingers to see between them—“but I didn’t mind. Is it okay if Ruth and Merri Lee read it too so we can all give you a review?”
This wasn’t happy Meg. This was brittle cheerfulness. This was Meg trying not to show she was scared.
Simon carefully placed a paw on her shoulder.
No pretend happy or cheerful now.
“Jenni said there was trouble at A Little Bite, but she didn’t know what happened except that it upset Tess. And Ruth called to say I should stay in the office until everyone settled down. Simon?” She touched his face. “Do you need answers?”
“Roo,” he replied sternly. No silver razor. No cuts.
Her fingers combed through his fur as she studied him. “You’re sure?”
He licked her chin. She tasted better than the cookie, so he licked her again.
Her entire body sighed, and she felt more like his Meg again.
She gave him a hug and said, “You’d better get back to work. I’ll let you out. Thanks for bringing the quiche and other food.”
He was outside staring at the closed door before he realized Meg hadn’t given him a chance to play the pester game. That was so unfair, but at least he’d gotten a cookie, a scritch, a hug, and a couple of licks out of it.
He could live with that kind of unfair.
• • •
“Want some orange juice?” Pete Denby asked, going to the small fridge in his office.
“Sure,” Monty replied. It would probably burn a hole in his stomach, but he appreciated the offer of a drink that might not be in the Northeast grocery stores much longer since it, like the oranges, came from the Southeast and West Coast regions.
Pete poured two glasses and handed one to Monty before taking his chair behind the desk. “Do you know what’s going on?”
Monty told Pete what he’d seen and what he’d pieced together—and the choice his little sister had to make in an hour.
“Gods, what a choice,” Pete said softly.
“It shouldn’t be a choice.”
“You’re a cop. You know addiction doesn’t just come in the form of a pill or syringe. From the sound of it, your sister is addicted to your brother’s particular form of abuse.” Pete leaned forward. “Do you know why Simon Wolfgard is letting your brother stay? Or why your brother is staying?”
“I can’t guess Simon’s motives, but Jimmy is staying because the use of the apartment is free, and he came here expecting a handout. But the Sanguinati guard the building’s outer door and will keep tabs on everything and everyone.”
“So Cyrus can’t harass Sierra in the hallway or try to push into her apartment to discuss things without someone coming to her defense even if you’re not home.”
Monty nodded. “Jimmy wasn’t expecting the kind of scrutiny he’s under now. Even if Sissy had told him flat out, he’d still think he could get around being in close proximity to cops and Wolves.” He sighed. “Whatever Jimmy thought, my sister is in a bind.”
Pete said nothing. Then: “Did you come here because you needed a sounding board or were you looking for an opinion?”
“What do you think of my mother’s decision?”
“Smart move. No ‘you took his side’ accusations when things go sour, which you know they will. There is an unsavory part to any city, and I don’t think it will take your brother long to find Lakeside’s underbelly.”
“You haven’t even met him yet.”
“I live next door, so I saw enough when you got him and his family settled in. I know Eve brought them a bag of groceries, on Simon’s orders, so that they would have food for the first day or so.”
Monty sat up. “No one mentioned that.” He and Kowalski had picked up pizzas from Hot Crust, and he’d brought one up for Jimmy’s family and one for Sissy and the girls, while he, Lizzy, and Mama had the third. But if he’d understood Nadine’s accusation, Sissy had also brought home dinner last night and shared the food with Jimmy’s family. Had she held on to the pizza, or had that, too, become part of Jimmy’s larder?
“If you were me, what would you do?” Monty asked.
“Does your sister-in-law have any skills?”
Monty looked at Pete.
“Any skills that wouldn’t require you to arrest her?” Pete qualified.
“I don’t think so. As long as I’ve known her, she’s never held a job.”
“Regardless, if I were you, I’d start researching towns that are looking for workers, a place where the rent doesn’t cost more than your month’s pay. Start looking for your sister-in-law and the kids.”
“Three tickets out of town. And where is Jimmy?”
“In the morgue, if you’re lucky. If you’re not lucky, he’ll be one of those humans who disappear without a trace.”
Or some identification will be left at the cairn in Lakeside Park and the police will fill out a DLU form, Monty thought. A Deceased, Location Unknown form was needed in order for a family to receive a death certificate. It was the way the Lakeside Police Department acknowledged that a person had been killed, and most likely eaten, by the terra indigene and no body would be found.
“Your brother is a powder keg, Monty,” Pete continued. “Don’t let him take you down with him.” He hesitated. “Do you want me to come with you when your sister makes her choice?”
“As an attorney, what would you tell her?”
“To do what it takes to keep her children. And that means staying away from Cyrus.”
“When I first came to Lakeside, Simon kept his nephew Sam in a cage to keep the pup safe. It upset all the Wolves and it hurt him every day, but he did it.” Monty looked at Pete. “So I know he won’t hesitate to take those girls away from Sissy if he believes she’ll allow them to be
mistreated.”
“If he does take them, do you think he’ll ever give them back?”
Not while Jimmy is alive. But Monty didn’t say that. “Thanks for the talk and the orange juice.”
“I might not have the orange juice the next time, but as an attorney or a friend, I’m here if you need to talk.”
As Monty walked down the outside stairs, he heard a car driving up the access way to the employee parking lot. Captain Burke’s black sedan. He should have called his captain, because Pete was right: Jimmy was a powder keg waiting for a match. Apparently someone else had made the call.
Packs and loyalty. Police and family. And consequences no matter what choice he made.
As Burke came around the corner, heading for the back door of Howling Good Reads, Monty hurried to meet him and give his report.
CHAPTER 9
Firesday, Messis 10
“Meg?”
Following the sound of Merri Lee’s voice, Meg went to the back room of the Liaison’s Office and opened the door for her friend. Then she noticed Sierra standing nearby.
Merri Lee stepped inside. She spoke so quietly Meg could barely hear her. “Could you use the cards to answer a couple of questions?”
Meg glanced at Sierra. “What’s going on?”
“Simon says Sierra has to choose between her children and her brother Cyrus. She’s asked all of us, except Ruth, who’s still in the schoolroom with the children, and we’ve all told her the same thing: Simon will take her girls, will drive her out of the Courtyard if she chooses to be part of Cyrus’s pack. But it’s like she’s lost her brains and won’t believe this can happen. I finally said we’d ask you to look at the cards as the final input before she makes her decision.”
Meg nodded. Merri Lee gestured to Sierra, and the three of them went into the sorting room.
Nathan was at the front counter, taking notice of who was in the sorting room with Meg.
“Private consultation,” she said, and closed the Private door almost all the way. The Wolf, with his keen hearing, would still know everything that was said, but the illusion of privacy was for Sierra’s sake.