“I’ll tell Daryl you said so.” Her gaze swung toward Enzo, who had shrunk against the booth. “Do you need anything else?”
“Can I ask a quick question?” I mumbled around a mouthful of saucy goodness.
“As long as you swallow first, sure.” She clicked her tongue. “You have the table manners of a starving wolf, sweet stuff. Anyone ever told you that?”
“No?” Most folks who ate with me gulped down calories in bulk the same as I did.
“Word of advice?” She adjusted her top to reveal more skin. “Land a good man while you’ve still got your looks.”
“I’ll take that under advisement,” I said flatly. “Have you guys had any weird power surges? I heard the hotel is warning guests about their electronics.”
“Sure have.” She smoothed a lock of stiff hair back into place. “Oven three kicked the bucket last week. Daryl’s waiting to find out if insurance will cover the replacement before he puts in the order. Why?”
“Just curious.” I took another bite, and sauce dripped onto my chin. “Weather seems worse in town.”
“Who knows? Maybe the lightning is attracted to all these damn electronic gizmos.” She shook a finger at me. “I warned Daryl that Wi-Fi mess is nonsense, but it’s all around us in the air. We’re breathing it in just talking. It could be giving us cancer for all we know, but as long as it keeps bringing in the teenagers, Daryl says it’s an acceptable health risk.” After slapping a yellow ticket down in front of him, Peggy spun on her heel. “Call if you change your mind, sugar.”
Once we were alone again, he raised the paper and flashed the digits she had written on the back of the receipt.
“I hope I’m half the sex kitten she is when I get to be her age.” I meant it. It took guts and sky-high self-esteem to swing your hips after one or both had been replaced and to hit on guys young enough to be your grandson. “You’ve got to admire her moxie.”
Another bonus of Peggy’s cougar tendencies was the way she made Moore so damn uncomfortable he wouldn’t even pick up pizza. It was delivery or die for him. That meant this place was another of my havens, and Peggy my guardian angel of questionable integrity.
“I can’t decide if you’re being snarky or sincere.” He bit into his pizza and groaned sounds of approval.
“I don’t give lip to my elders.” I popped a cube of chicken into my mouth. “Women who’ve lived that long and have that kind of fight in them deserve my respect.”
Plus, I got the feeling Peggy was the kind of woman who—regular or not—wasn’t afraid to snatch a knot in my tail if I mouthed off to her. Those three-inch claws she called fingernails would leave a mark, warg healing or not. With that in mind, I tended to tip big, mind my manners and let her torment the pretty boys all she wanted.
Chapter 4
My second attempt at having a day off started better than the first. I brewed coffee, drank coffee, drank more coffee, and then changed from pajamas into ratty shorts and a tank top with holes worn into the fabric. A few hours passed while I enjoyed the Zen state where the scope of my world narrowed to me, a random orbit sander, and the porch. I had just finished sweeping the area clean and pried open the lid to a can of deck stain when the somewhat familiar scent of lemon and cayenne lifted my head.
A small child, maybe six or seven, stood a dozen feet away, half-hidden by an oak tree wide enough to conceal all but the sliver of one rounded cheek. Black hair tangled around her head, and her bright orange eyes glowed in her face.
“Hello.” I replaced the lid and sat so I cut a less imposing figure. “Can I help you?”
“Daddy didn’t come home.” One plump hand gripped the bark. “Did you eat him?”
“What?” I pushed to my feet. “No. I would never hurt your daddy.”
The girl recoiled, disappearing for a moment before her voice drifted to me. “He said the magic wolves eat bad fae.”
The slap of her words caused me to wince. “Your dad is Tim O’Malley, right?” No other fae in town had eyes the color of orange rinds. “I dropped by the Cantina last night, but the door was locked.”
“Momma was scared. She didn’t want to open the store alone. I told her I would help, but she said I wasn’t big enough.”
The wolf guided my steps, keeping them silent as I approached her hiding place. “Does your mom know you’re here?”
“No.”
I hesitated three feet away, afraid I might spook her into running. “Won’t she be worried about you?”
“Yes.”
God save me from tiny heroes. “Then why are you here?”
The girl flung herself from safety to stare me down and almost stumbled over a root backpedaling when I proved closer than she’d expected, but she found her balance and locked her bony knees. “I want to hire you to find my daddy.”
I blinked at her. “Come again?”
“You said you didn’t eat him,” she challenged. “Did you lie?”
“No.”
Her imperial nod resembled a vote of confidence. “Magic wolves eat bad guys, right?”
Possible answers turned themselves over in my head. What version of the truth was the right one? She was so young and so afraid. I didn’t want to make it worse. I also didn’t want her to think wargs weren’t dangerous. Accidents happened. But I didn’t want her terrified of us either. Packs aimed to be good neighbors. For her sake, because she might have popped in on one of the Stoners instead of me, I told her the unblemished truth. “Yes, we do.”
“Good.” Confirmation of our bloodthirstiness appeased her. “Whoever took my daddy is very bad.”
“Why do you think I can help?” That was the part I didn’t understand.
“When Daddy needs help at the Cantina, he hires people.” Her brow creased as if mentally downgrading my IQ. “I need help. You eat bad guys. So I’m going to hire you.”
The thing about fae is some live forever. Their appearance was not a true reflection of their age. This girl looked young, spoke young, and had that glow of childhood about her, but her mind was razor sharp under that baby fat. Her deductive reasoning proved that.
“I don’t work that way.” I gestured around the park. “I have a job to do here—several in fact.”
“You won’t help me because I’m fae.” She thrust out her bottom lip. “I’m going to tell Momma, and you’re never eating our cupcakes again.”
Faster than the wind blows, she ran. I could have shifted and caught her, but chasing her as a wolf seemed like a great way to scar the kid for life.
“Nathalie?” I pinged one of the sentries on duty. “Where are you?”
“Stalking a fae girl who smells like tears and lemons.”
“Define stalking?”
Mental laughter rolled through our bond. “I recognize the kid, okay? Chill. It’s Florence, Tim’s oldest. I trailed her to your place. Now I’m following her home. Or we are.”
“Aisha’s with you?” My lip curled. “I thought she was babysitting the Stoners with Haden today.”
The former alpha female of the Chandler pack was about the last wolf who ought to be tasked with watching a child, since her inattention had almost gotten Bessemer’s daughter killed on at least one occasion. That explained why she was a former Chandler alpha and why her mate had exiled her. The bigger mystery, to me, was why Cam had offered her a temporary spot in our pack.
“She got in a fight with one of the new guys. Hot but smiles too much?”
“Oh him.” Killer Smile strikes again. Making friends wherever he goes. “Anything I should be worried about?”
“Depends.” Humor injected her voice. “Did Haden mention it to you?”
“No.” I palmed my forehead. “Oh.”
“We have a chain of command for a reason.” She snorted. “Get used to being at the top, baby.”
“Yeah. Maybe.” The whole impending-doom thing kind of sucked the joy out of achieving one of my life goals. “Thanks for the update. I’ll get Moore to stand in until yo
u two get back.” I switched channels. “Moore, you’re on sentry duty. Nathalie’s running an errand for me.”
“I’m off today,” he huffed.
“Yeah, well, so am I, and yet here we are.” I returned to my porch and picked off a couple of leaves the wind had tumbled. “Suck it up and deal. It won’t take her but maybe twenty minutes. You can fill in that long.”
Tucking away Florence’s request for later consideration, I pried open the lid on the stain, took a paint stirrer and mixed it up, then grabbed for my brush. I had finished one glossy plank and sat back to admire the richness of the color when the smell of peppercorns and vanilla assaulted my nasal passages.
“Where is my daughter?” a shrill voice demanded.
“Hi, Mrs. O’Malley.” I rested the lid on the can and wrapped the brush in a plastic grocery bag before turning. “Let me guess. You’re here because Florence is missing.”
The short woman with a choppy bob and ruby-red lips anchored her fists at her hips and scowled with impressive severity. “Yes.”
“She was here a few minutes ago, but she left.”
“You just let her go?” Her arms flopped at her sides. “She’s a child.”
“I didn’t have much choice. She ran before I could stop her.” I held up a hand to forestall the momma-bear routine. “One of my wolves is with her. Nathalie will make sure that Florence gets home safely.”
Lips mashed into a thin, red slash, she nodded. “That will do.”
It was as close to thanking me as she would get.
The suddenness of her arrival made me curious. “Why did you come here looking for her? Did she mention wanting to see me?”
“Darling Flo was quite taken with your wolves after dear Tim brought us here to meet your pack.” The fight drained out of her. “She pretends to be a wolf, and her friends pretend to be her pack.” A faint smile haunted her mouth. “You’ll never see the like, that I swear. A banshee, an anthousai, a brownie and a hob as beta.”
“Who’s alpha?” I couldn’t stop my smile.
“There isn’t one.” She eyed me as though that should have been obvious. “As far as my darling Flo is concerned, a beta is the top of the pyramid.”
Lingering warmth spilled into my chest, tightening my throat until it burned. Probably heartburn from all the sausage patties I ate at breakfast. “She mentioned your husband is missing.”
“Dear Tim is never late.” Mrs. O’Malley’s eyes glistened. “He missed dinner. That was two days ago. I checked the store first. He wasn’t there, but his car was. I called his friends, searched his favorite quiet places.” Moisture rolled down her cheeks. “I don’t know where my husband has gone.”
Regretting the offer before I made it, I couldn’t stop the words from coming. “I’ll help you find him.”
“You will?” She sniffled and wiped her eyes clear. “Not that I don’t appreciate the help, but why?”
“Your daughter hired me.” Not exactly a lie.
“That girl.” Her watery laugh faded into hiccups. “I’d swear she was half gruagach, if she didn’t wear my dear one’s face.”
All my studying was paying off. The name gruagach spit a paragraph of information into my head instead of stumping me. Gruagachs, a subspecies of brownies, wore grotesque faces but possessed sometimes literal hearts of gold. They rewarded those who could look upon them without showing fear or revulsion.
“The kid’s home safe,” Nathalie informed me. “I’m on my way back.”
“Thanks for the update.” At least Flo had the sense not to strike out on her own. Crap. Once the idea occurred to me, I couldn’t dismiss it. Not with the initiative she had already shown. “On second thought, stay put. Her mom is here with me. Hang around until she gets there?”
“Sure thing. Oh. Hey. Do you mind if we grab food while we’re in town?”
Evil as it was to grin over costing Moore a block of his off day, I couldn’t seem to help myself. What can I say? The wolf in me was beta. The woman in me was petty. “Knock yourselves out.”
“Dell?” Mrs. O’Malley reached for me but let her hand fall. “Are you all right?”
“Sorry about that. The wolf I mentioned was checking in with me.” I tapped the side of my head. “Flo is home safe and sound. Nathalie is going to wait there to keep an eye on things until you arrive.”
“That would be…” Her hand fluttered over her chest. “That’s very kind of you.”
“No problem.” I relaxed my stance. “I do have a favor to ask.”
“Of course,” she said. “Anything.”
“Call before you pop in next time. Tell Flo the same.” There was a phone in the office with an answering machine, and the sentries checked for messages every four hours. “There are a lot of new wolves at the park. They’re good people, but they’re jumpy right now. Fae showing up in our woods without an escort are asking for trouble.”
Color drained from her cheeks. “I didn’t think.”
“I know.” I offered a tight smile. “I’m just asking you to remember next time.”
Her vigorous nods tapered into an almost bow. “I should go. I’m sure your Nathalie has better things to do than babysit for me.”
“Let me walk you out.” I needed to have words with my sentries about who and what they allowed inside the park without notifying me first. “Do you mind if I stop by later?”
She fell in step beside me, hope a bright sheen in her eyes. “Will you start your search tonight?”
“I will.” Who needed a night off anyway? “The last you saw him he was at the Cantina, right?”
“Yes.” She dashed away fresh tears. “He told me to go ahead and tuck in the girls. All that was left was the bookkeeping, and I don’t have a head for numbers. Not the way my dear one does.”
“Then that’s where we’ll start.”
I must have sounded like the authority on missing persons I wasn’t, because her steps had lightened by the time we reached the parking lot.
“Here.” She circled her car and popped the trunk. “It’s the least I can do.” She shoved three boxes of cupcakes into my arms. “I cleaned out the case at the Cantina. I don’t have the heart to open it while my dear one’s away, and there’s no point wasting perfectly good food.”
Water pooled in my mouth as the perfumed sweetness of the icing tickled my nose. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to.” She opened her door. “I’ll see you tonight then?”
“I’ll be around about six,” I assured her, waving her off with a smile that covered my irritation at how easily she and her daughter had crossed onto our property. Had they been dangerous fae, we would have been dead wargs. That was unacceptable. Enzo’s wards couldn’t get activated fast enough for me.
Kissing my free time goodbye, I stormed the office and spread the cupcake boxes on the long table in the conference room. I started a pot of coffee in the hopes caffeine might provide some inspiration, and pinged the Lorimar wolves to join me. Before the others arrived, I opened the lid of each box until I found my heart’s desire—the lemon meringue cupcakes—and took those into Cord’s office to hide them. The others might smell my stash, but they wouldn’t filch them as long as they were in the boss’s private area.
There were definite perks to being a beta. Using the alpha’s office as a cupcake sanctuary was one of them.
Chapter 5
Another perk of my rank was the ability to use the Stoners as free manual labor. After spanking the Lorimar wolves about their lax stance on visitation, I borrowed three guys who claimed to know a thing or two about woodworking. Killer Smile was thankfully not among them, but Shoe Laces was. I gave strict instructions on how I wanted my porch finished and left them to power through what should have been a relaxing weekend project for me.
Of course thunder chose that moment to boom overhead. I tipped back my chin to see only blue sky. I bit my lip, hopped in the car Nathalie had loaned me, and decided to believe the local weatherman. He ha
d promised his viewers two more dry days, long enough for the stain to cure, and I chose to extend his predictions a smidge of faith.
Speaking of predictions… Not that I was keeping an eye out for him, but our resident witch hadn’t put in an appearance all day. Had I seen him, I might have asked him to divine the forecast. I hoped his absence meant he was hard at work and not floating in his hotel’s hot tub while regretting his life choices.
Trusting the park to still be standing when I returned, I aimed the car toward the O’Malleys’ home. They lived in a small cabin on the outskirts of town that reminded me so much of Meemaw’s house when I arrived that my vision blurred the numbers on their mailbox.
Circumstance had tied my hands for the time being. Visiting Villanow was out while the alphas were away, and the nightly death matches on the fringes of our property meant it was far too dangerous for Meemaw to spend the weekend. Except…we had a witch on the payroll now. Maybe once Enzo put some pep in his step and got the wards up, I could finally send for her.
Even the possibility of wrapping my arms around her made breathing easier.
The driveway curled around a stand of trees, and a pale face stared out at me as I passed. Flo. I tapped the brakes and gestured her closer. “You want a lift?”
“Momma said you took the case.” She locked her arms around a young sweetgum tree. “She said you’re going to help us find Daddy.”
“I’m going to try.”
Her hand went to her pocket. “Should I pay you now, or when you find him?”
Ah, the bold confidence of sheltered youth. Tell a grownup your troubles, and wait for them to make it all go away. “How about we settle our tab after?”
“That’s fair.” Her lips puckered. “I’ll ride with you. I got in trouble for running earlier.”
“Okay.” I popped the locks. “Hop in.”
Once she was inside and belted in, she twisted to stare at me. “Why did you come to our house? Daddy disappeared from work.”
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