by Zoe Chant
Drew shook his head. “He had work gloves on. I’m the only one who’s touched it bare-handed, probably. But that’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean?”
Drew pulled his phone—Marsha’s phone—out of his pocket. The screen lit up, and as Pauline watched, he hit a STOP button.
“I recorded it,” he said.
Pauline stared at him. “Drew. You—you need to come home with me right now.”
He hesitated.
“I promise you, I absolutely swear to you, I will help you,” Pauline said. “I will make sure you don’t get in trouble, I will take care of the kids, and I will ensure that all of this turns out fine. Okay?”
“I don’t think it’s going to turn out fine, Pauline!” Drew said. His voice was strained.
“Will you come with me and see if we can find out?” Pauline asked. She felt like her compassion, her sadness, her need for Drew to come with her were throbbing in her voice.
He was quiet for a long moment.
Then he nodded.
***
When they got back to the house, it was quiet. Before Pauline could get out her keys, Carlos had opened the door. Silently, he pulled her into a tight embrace. “You’re okay,” he murmured into her ear.
She nodded. “I was never in danger,” she assured him. “It all went according to plan.”
Carlos squeezed her tighter for a second, and Pauline felt so safe, so secure, that she wondered how she’d ever lived without the possibility of those arms around her.
Finally, he let her go, and stepped back to let her and Drew come inside. “What happened?” he asked.
Drew hesitated, and looked at Pauline. So she explained. Carlos looked more and more thoughtful as it went on.
“...and he recorded everything, even the threats!” Pauline finished. She looked over at Drew, who was standing tensely with his hands in his pockets. Pauline couldn’t help herself; she went over and hugged him. “It was so smart of him.”
Drew’s shoulders were stiff for a second, and then he relaxed into the hug all at once. Pauline wondered how long it had been since he’d been hugged by someone older than six. She held him tighter.
“Not that smart,” he mumbled. “If I was really smart, I wouldn’t have gotten into this whole situation in the first place.”
“You didn’t have many choices,” Pauline said, letting him go. She kept a hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to try to give you some more.”
“And first things first,” Carlos said slowly, “I’m going to call up a couple of people who might know what to do better than we can.”
“Please,” said Pauline.
Carlos took out his phone and dialed, and spoke quickly to whoever was on the other end. Drew, meanwhile, was looking at the package in his hands, a sick expression on his face.
“Here, give it to me,” Pauline said impulsively.
Drew hesitated, but handed it over. He looked relieved to not be touching it anymore.
Now Pauline was holding it. What did you do with a package full of something very illegal? She didn’t want to open it, but beyond that, she had no idea. For now, she set it on the table.
Drew, meanwhile, went over to his brother. He tugged the blanket a bit further up over Troy’s shoulders, then leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. Carlos, who had hung up with whoever he was talking to and was dialing someone else, paused to tell him, “Val’s in the bedroom. Through there.”
Drew nodded and went over to check on her. Pauline watched as he repeated the little goodnight ritual with her, smoothing her tangled hair back from her face. She murmured softly, then settled back down.
When he came back out, he looked a little more settled, and Carlos was just hanging up again. “Cal and Colonel Hanes are coming over,” he told Pauline.
Colonel Hanes was Carlos’ old commanding officer, and Cal had served alongside them—and Nate and Ken. “Why them in particular?” Pauline asked.
“Cal’s lived here for years, and the Colonel wouldn’t settle in a place without getting to know the local law enforcement,” Carlos said. “I’ve met the sheriff, briefly, last time I was here, but I don’t know her stance on delinquent minors. They’ll have advice for us.”
Pauline blinked a few times, then bit her lip.
“What?” Carlos asked softly.
She glanced over at Drew, who was sitting on the couch with Troy. Softly, she said, “I’m not used to having a...network like this, that’s all. For a long time, it’s been only me. The shifters around here tend to break up into family groups, packs, according to what animal they are. I’m the only owl here, and I don’t have any siblings. It’s nice to think...that might change.”
Carlos reached out and cupped her cheek. “You’re not alone anymore,” he told her.
Pauline could feel the truth of that in her chest. She took a breath, keeping her composure for Drew’s sake, but she could tell that it would be a long time before she could really think about it without wanting to cry a little.
Then Carlos grinned. “If I depended on other tigers only, I’d have a big problem, because we’re a standoffish bunch. And few and far between.”
Pauline frowned. “You’re not standoffish.”
“Learned behavior,” he told her. “You should’ve seen me as a kid. I hated everyone. It took the Marines to teach me the value of trusting the people beside you, working together as a team.”
“And it’s still bearing fruit decades later,” Pauline marveled. “I’m glad.”
He nodded. “Me, too. Best thing that ever happened to me, until now.”
That was a pleasurable shock that took a little while to wear off.
Sooner than Pauline would’ve thought possible, there was a solid knock at the door. Carlos opened it to reveal a big man with short, iron-gray hair—and a beautiful African-American woman behind him. Colonel Hanes and his mate Mavis. Pauline had seen them in Oliver’s often, but had never had a chance to talk to them.
“Carlos,” the Colonel said, coming forward to shake Carlos’ hand warmly. “Good to see you again. I’m looking forward to collecting all of my old men in one place again, which, from the rate it’s been happening, shouldn’t take more than another week or two.”
Carlos laughed. “Here’s hoping. I’ll call up Ty and see if he wants to move to Montana.”
“You’re unlikely to pry him away from Los Angeles, I think,” the Colonel said dryly. “What can I help you with?”
“What can we help you with?” Mavis put in. She came over to Pauline, reaching out to take her hand. “Pauline, I hope you don’t mind that I invited myself along. I want to help too, if I can.”
“Of course,” Pauline said, a little overwhelmed. Mavis had moved here about six months back, from a big city where she’d worked as a financial advisor. She was busy beefing up the economy around Glacier Park, helping all the small businesses thrive in ways they’d never done before. She was soft-spoken and graceful, with no outward indication of what a powerful woman she really was. Pauline had been a little intimidated by her from the moment she’d arrived in town and people had started talking.
She and Colonel Hanes were both snow leopard shifters, and the snow leopards were the fastest-growing pack the area had ever seen. They were quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with, and a close-knit community. Pauline had tried not to be wistful at the sight of all of them coming to Oliver’s in bigger and bigger groups. Or wildly jealous.
But maybe she didn’t need to be. Carlos, after all, wasn’t a snow leopard. In fact, he and Ken and Nate were all different types of shifters—Ken was a lion and Nate was a panther, and they were both mated to lynxes.
Maybe there was room for a bird of prey in there, too.
“Cal’s on his way,” Carlos told them. “In fact—” He turned toward the door, and a second later, there was a knock.
Cal came in alone, though when his eyes lit on Mavis, he said, “Lillian’s home with the baby. Sh
e’ll be sorry she missed a group get-together, though. Pauline, hello.”
She shook his hand. “Thank you for coming.”
“What’s this about, then?” Cal asked, businesslike.
Pauline looked over at Drew, who’d shrunk back a little at the sudden influx of adults. He looked especially wary of Cal and the Colonel; Pauline was reminded that he’d never had anything in the way of a good male role model. Marsha’s boyfriends had never stuck around for very long.
“That wolf pack we tangled with last month is causing trouble for Drew and his kid brother and sister,” Carlos said bluntly.
“That’s not true,” Drew spoke up, causing Carlos to look back in surprise. “I got into trouble my own self. I went to them.”
“Well, they could’ve done something other than take advantage of a kid with no parents and other kids to take care of.” Pauline hadn’t intended to speak up, but she couldn’t stand hearing him put himself down. “Did you wake up and think, I want to be a gang member when I grow up?”
“No!” Drew stood up. “We didn’t have any money. My job wasn’t enough to provide for the kids. I had to do something.”
You could’ve come to me. Pauline bit her lip. She was going to sit down with Drew, just the two of them, as soon as she could, and see if she could understand what had driven him to the dangerous choice, rather than the safe one of accepting her help.
“What sort of trouble are you in, son?” Colonel Hanes asked. His voice was friendly, nonthreatening.
Drew looked at Pauline, then back at Troy’s sleeping form, and then he took a breath and explained.
“My mom always...liked being a wolf more.” He bit his lip. “She’d shift and stay shifted for a long time. Days, sometimes. She’d sleep like that, she did that for years. But it started getting worse. And then one day, earlier this summer, she left us a note. She said she couldn’t handle this anymore. It was too much. She said she was leaving me the car and the house and all of her things and going into the woods forever, and she left us a little money. But not enough.”
He blinked quickly and went on. “I have a job at Safeway. I make enough to get us food and clothes at Goodwill and stuff like that. But I can’t—Mom used to stay home with the kids. And I’ll never get a better job and make more money to take better care of them if I can’t go back to school. So I thought...I needed enough money to pay someone to look after them until I graduated, and then...I’d figure something out. It was just going to be for a little while.”
Colonel Hanes sighed, a big, gusty sound. “That’s a shame, son. That’s all just a shame. You were in a tight spot. Are you eighteen yet?”
He shook his head. “This fall.”
The colonel’s lips tightened. “Even tougher.”
“It was still wrong.” Drew lifted his chin. “I know that. I went to them and I asked what I could do—I’m a wolf like they are, so I thought they’d give me something. And they did. But I—I realized, after, that they aren’t going to just let me...work for them for a few months and stop. Ryan’s already threatening the kids, and that’s gonna work forever, no matter what I do. Unless I pick up and move to Miami or something, but I’d need a lot of money for that, and what do I do when I get there?”
His shoulders slumped. “It was dumb. I knew it was dumb when I did it, but I didn’t realize how dumb until now.”
“We’re going to fix it,” Pauline said fiercely.
His eyes were dull when he looked at her. “You can’t just fix it. I need to take responsibility. I knew this was going to be something illegal, and I did it anyway.”
Carlos looked at Cal. “That’s where you come in,” he said seriously. “You’ve lived here long enough, you must have a sense of the sheriff’s probable take on this.” He looked over at the colonel. “And I imagine you do, too, sir.”
Both men nodded. “There’s a new sheriff, this last year,” Cal said.
“You met her, last time you were in town,” the colonel put in. “She’s new blood. Eager to whip the place into shape. Not amused by shifter politics at all.”
“Is she a shifter?” Carlos asked.
“Oh, yes. But she’s firmly against packs standing together,” Cal said. “Especially packs standing together against each other.”
“But she’s not vindictive,” the colonel said thoughtfully. “And she has her eye on the ball. She’s not likely to shoot the messenger, not if the messenger can get her to someone more important.”
“I’ll talk to her,” Drew said abruptly.
Everyone looked at him. He shrugged. “I don’t want to get further in with Ryan. I don’t want you guys to start a war with his guys.”
“We’re halfway there already, it seems,” the Colonel said.
“Any more of a war, then! I don’t want anyone to get hurt at all.”
Carlos stepped forward and put a hand on Drew’s shoulder. “You’re going to be all right, kid.”
Drew stayed still, but Pauline thought she could see the hint of a lean in him, the desire to take advantage of that solid presence.
She hoped so.
***
Carlos
Carlos stepped outside as Cal and the Colonel said their goodbyes, because the Colonel had that look in his eye that said, How about we have a talk, without any need for verbalizing it.
Mavis lingered to say something to Pauline, while the men came out to the cars. In the drive, Colonel Hanes looked at him. “I heard you were coming here on vacation. This doesn’t look like much of a vacation.”
“No,” Carlos admitted.
He hadn’t been looking forward to talking about his feelings with the two stoic men standing beside him, but somehow it all came spilling out of his mouth anyway.
“We’re mates,” he confessed. “Pauline and I. I thought—I saw her when I was here to help out Nate and Stella, thought she was beautiful, interesting. But I didn’t realize what was behind it. And now...” He shook his head.
“Realizing you want to settle down?” Cal said wryly. “When you never thought you would?”
“Guess you know the feeling.”
“Sure do,” he said. “I thought I was fine. Didn’t want anything more than what I had. And then Lillian came into my office, needing my help, and...” He opened a hand. “That was it.”
“That was it,” Carlos repeated. “Yep. I was gone the second I laid eyes on her. I just didn’t realize it until now. I don’t know if I even would’ve come back here if I hadn’t been wanting to see her again, in the back of my mind.”
“Well, good,” the Colonel said briskly. “We could use some new blood, here. There’s so much transition with the tourists in and out, the locals don’t have as much sense of community as they could use. And I have to say, Sheriff Dale’s right—there’s too much of people sticking with their own packs, staying away from anyone they wouldn’t call one of their own. My stepdaughter struggled for years and years, looking for a place to belong, until she found other snow leopards like her. I have to say, it’s hidebound and it’s not helping anyone much.” He looked disapproving.
“Not how the Marines do things,” Carlos observed quietly.
“Certainly not.” The Colonel was frowning. “You men were as much of a pack as any group of littermates, and not one of you was the same type of shifter as another.”
“Well, maybe that’ll convince the sheriff we’re on her side,” Carlos said thoughtfully.
“She’s passionate, but she knows what’s right.” Cal’s voice was quiet but confident. “She’s not going to put a seventeen-year-old first offender in jail, and if he’s right about how solidly he can point the finger at Ryan...”
“He’s a smart kid,” Carlos said. “It’ll be all right.”
He was half-trying to convince himself, he knew. Because he’d caught some of Pauline’s concern, and also some of his own was starting to well up. The way the kid was too thin, the way his shoulders set when he talked about taking responsibility for what he
’d done...it made Carlos’ chest hurt. He was going to make damn sure that kid was okay, and no sheriff had better try to stand in his way.
***
Pauline
“Now,” Mavis said once the men were out the door, “what can I help you with?”
“I’m sorry?” Pauline asked.
“It looks like you have a lot on your plate,” Mavis said quietly. “Surely you need a hand or two over the next few days.”
“Well, I suppose someone will have to watch the younger children tomorrow, when we go into the station,” Pauline reflected.
Drew looked startled. “You’re coming to the station, too? What for?”
“To be with you,” Pauline said, exasperated. “We’re not going to let you go in alone.”
“They probably won’t let you stay with me,” Drew pointed out. “You’re not my mom. I bet they’ll need to get a social worker or something.” Suddenly, fear invaded his face. “What’s going to happen to the kids? They’re going to be separated if I tell them my mom’s gone. I could pretend she’s out of town for a little while—”
“Drew,” Pauline said softly, “I’m not going to let them separate you.”
“How are you going to stop them?” His voice rose, and then he looked sharply over at Troy, still sleeping on the couch, and fell silent.
“You don’t have any uncles or aunts, do you?” Pauline asked. “Your dad, or Troy and Val’s dad, neither of them stuck around at all, paid any child support?”
“No way,” Drew said. “Mom said they were all worthless. So they’re just going to break us up and put Val and Troy in foster care—”
“Drew,” Pauline interrupted. “Drew, I’m your closest adult relative. Or if not the closest, the only one who’s stayed local and showed any interest in taking care of you. I’ll do anything it takes to get custody. I promise. I’ll sleep at the entrance to the courthouse until they let me. I’ll take a million silly parenting classes. I will do whatever I have to.”
Drew stared at her, his eyes huge and shocked.
“I better get going,” Mavis murmured quietly. “I’ll see about watching the children tomorrow. If I can’t cancel my meetings, Stella and Nate can likely do it. It won’t be a problem.”