by Lori Drake
“Gotcha. Well, hello to you, then. I’d introduce you to the others, but we all work for a living. Why don’t you come around tomorrow for dinner? Heidi makes quite a spread. I’d invite you tonight, but I hate to spring dinner guests on her without a little notice. In the meantime, you’re all welcome in my territory as long as you keep your noses clean. And be careful if you decide to go for a run. Wolves are ‘shoot on sight’ in this area.”
Joey lifted both brows as the announcement distracted her from the veiled insult about working for a living. “Really?”
“Yeah. They’re not native to the area… not enough big game herds to sustain them. But some idjits out west decided to lobby for them to be ‘reintroduced’ east of the Cascades, and it’s been a big problem for ranchers ever since.”
“Why on earth would you stay here?” Ben asked.
“I’ve got plenty of land for us to roam and hunt small game on. I’m only using some of it for pasture. As long as we steer clear of the property line, we’re in no real danger.” Lewis slurped the rest of the lemonade from his glass and stood. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to work.”
Joey stood again, and Ben and Maria followed suit. “Thanks for the invitation. We’d be happy to come to dinner tomorrow and meet the rest of your people. For now, we’ll get out of your hair. It was nice to meet you, Mr. Scott.” She stuck out her hand again.
“Lewis is fine.” He shook her hand once more, this time considerably more firmly.
Joey gripped his hand tightly in return and held his gaze. “Lewis.”
Lewis walked them to the door and shut it rather firmly in their wake. Or maybe it was all in Joey’s head.
As they walked back to the car, Maria said, “He seems…”
“Abrasive? Overbearing? Rude?” Joey suggested.
“Yummy,” Ben said with a dreamy smile.
Joey crinkled her nose. “Since when are surly lumberjacks your type?”
“He wasn’t surly. He was just extra dom. Which not everyone has a problem with, by the way. Besides, what do you know about my type?”
“More than I’d like to,” Joey muttered, forestalling further commentary about their host until they were in the car and the engine was running. Just to be safe. Once settled behind the wheel, she looked at Maria, who was once again in the passenger seat. “He seems what?”
Maria shrugged. “Familiar, I was going to say.”
That piqued Joey’s interest. “Hmmm. Maybe you bumped into him when you were in Cincinnati?”
“Maybe.” Maria buckled her seatbelt and reached for her mostly empty water bottle. Unlike Joey and Ben, she’d declined coffee or other refreshment when Heidi offered. “He doesn’t seem all that forgettable, though.”
“I’ll say,” Ben said.
Joey snorted softly and turned the car around to head back down the drive. “You’re wasting your time. He and Heidi are obviously a thing.”
“I didn’t see a ring on either of their fingers. But anyway, I didn’t come here to get laid. I came here to make sure you stay ready for the challenge. Speaking of which, we’re going to have a hard time training if we have to worry about getting shot at.”
“We’ll have to keep it inside the hotel room. Speaking of which…” Joey lifted her hips to get her fingers in her jeans pocket and extract her phone. She unlocked it and tossed it in the back. “Find us a hotel.”
“I do have a phone of my own, you know,” Ben said.
She glanced in the mirror and found him doing as requested anyway. “Yeah, but mine’s already paired with the car. Humor me.”
Joey turned up the music, which had automatically begun playing as soon as the car was turned back on. A glance at Maria found her staring out the window in silence, which was par for the course. Joey wondered what was going on inside the ex-hunter’s mind, even tried—briefly—to put herself in Maria’s shoes. Someone in Lewis’s pack, if not Lewis himself, might know who Maria’s birth parents were. Was the prospect of getting answers exciting? Or was she dreading it, this final confirmation that her uncle had been lying to her for her entire life about, well, her entire life? Joey’s own mother was no stranger to intrigue, and had kept many things from her, things Joey was still discovering all the time. But Adelaide had never—that Joey knew of—lied to her.
Still, Joey knew at least a little bit about what it felt like for the foundation of the world as you knew it to be turned upside down. On impulse, she reached across the console and squeezed Maria’s hand. Maria started and looked at her sharply, but her expression softened a moment later, and she nodded before going back to staring out the window.
No matter the outcome of this trip, Maria still had a ways to go. But Joey would do her damnedest to make sure she didn’t have to do it alone.
“Okay, let me see if I have this straight.” Jon sat back in his chair once Chris had laid out the whole sordid story. “Colt killed Kate while possessed by a ghost. You buried her on your property and told her employer she had skipped town. Now her daughter is looking for her, and she’s got the cops involved?”
“Yeah, that sums it up.” Chris reached for another cookie from the platter on the dining table between him, Sam, and Jon. So far he was the only one to partake of Sara’s culinary creations, but he’d always been a bit of a stress eater.
“And Colt wants to confess,” Sam added.
“Wanted to. I think I talked him out of it. I hope I talked him out of it.”
“Yeah, that’s a bad idea,” Jon said. “I mean, you’d be an accessory after the fact.”
“That’s what I told him, and I think it’s why he agreed to lie to the cops. I’m just not sure he did a very convincing job of it. So… here I am. I’m hoping you can give some insight into what the cops might do next, what my rights are, that kind of thing.”
Jon stroked his chin. “Well, it kind of depends on what kind of a read they got off you and Colt, and whether they suspect there’s foul play.”
“And how much the daughter hounds them,” Sam added. “Speaking of which, have you ever met her?”
Chris swallowed and washed the bite of chocolate chip cookie down with a sip of milk. “No. I was aware of her, because Kate had her birth certificate hanging in her room. But from what Colt told me, Kate’s family basically disowned her when she left her husband. Speaking of which… he’s also buried on my property.”
Jon and Sam exchanged a glance, but it was Jon who asked the question they were no doubt both thinking: “Did Colt kill him too?”
“No, he seemed surprised when we found the body.”
“Do I want to know?” Jon asked.
“Probably not, but I’ll tell you anyway. Eric dug him up by mistake when we were trying to get rid of the ghost that killed Kate. I’ve had a theory for a while, that one of the ways Eric cemented his pack’s loyalty was by eliminating their problems and holding it over their heads. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn Adam and Lucy’s asshole father is out there in the woods somewhere. As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of those ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ kind of things. I don’t want to know.”
“I swear, you and Joey attract trouble like flies to shit,” Sam muttered, snagging an oatmeal cranberry cookie from the platter.
It looked good, so Chris grabbed one too. “Be that as it may… it still needs to be dealt with. So let’s assume that the daughter keeps pushing, or the cops think there’s something going on. What happens next?”
“With probable cause, they could get a search warrant for the property,” Jon said. “I’m not sure what they have is enough for that right now. But if she pushes, they could come back to ask more questions, and the more rounds you go with them, the more likely you are to incriminate yourselves. Cops are good at picking up on inconsistencies. You’ll want to make absolutely sure everyone is on the same page, has the same story.”
“They can also subpoena Kate’s phone records and credit card statements,” Sam added, “to try to de
termine when and where the last calls and transactions were made. What did you do with her phone?”
“It’s probably in the attic with the rest of her stuff. I didn’t know what else to do with it.” Chris winced even as he said it. “You know, now that I think about it, keeping it wasn’t a great idea.”
“No, not particularly,” Jon said. “But you had no way of knowing she’d become a missing person. Just deal with it now. Quickly and discreetly.”
“Don’t I have the option of refusing the search?”
“Only if they don’t have a warrant. But, honestly, refusing will just make them more suspicious. Civil rights or no. Get rid of her stuff and you won’t have to sweat it.”
“The bodies too,” Sam said. “You don’t want them found on your property.”
“It might be better to leave them where they are,” Jon said. “Otherwise it’ll be pretty obvious where the ground was recently dug up.”
Chris smiled grimly. “I can ask Aunt Cathy if she can help. When she, uh, dug me up last year she moved the earth with magic, and when she reburied the coffin there wasn’t any indication that the ground had been disturbed at all.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Sam said. “Getting her involved in covering up a murder, I mean.”
Chris considered that for a moment. He hadn't thought about it that way. “Ugh, you’re right. I’ll think about it. Maybe give her the opportunity to decline before reading her in.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay, I guess that’s all for now.”
Jon fixed him with a level look. “Be careful, little brother. I don’t think I need to tell you how serious this is. If the cops connect you to Kate’s disappearance-slash-murder, you’re going to be up shit creek. You might’ve been better off letting Colt take the fall.”
Chris’s chair legs scraped the floor as he pushed back from the table abruptly. “That’s not an option.” He couldn’t believe Jon would even suggest it. The very notion turned his stomach. His wolf stirred too, driven to protect his pack on a primal level. “It’d be one thing if he was actually guilty, but this… he didn’t do it. I was there. I know.” Hell, he’d been looking up through Kate’s eyes at the time. The memory sparked a shiver as he pushed to his feet. “He never would’ve harmed a hair on Kate’s head. He doesn’t deserve to go moon-mad in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.”
“Relax, man. We’re not suggesting you turn him in,” Sam said, joining Chris on his feet.
Jon, remaining seated, folded his arms and cleared his throat. “Maybe you’re not.”
“Not an option,” Chris repeated. He leaned forward and touched his fingertips to the table, meeting Jon’s eyes. “And you’re not going to get it into your head to do it for me out of a misguided desire to save me from myself. Is that understood?”
Jon’s wolf rose behind his eyes, bristling in challenge. Chris held his gaze, letting his own rise in answer. They remained locked in a battle of wills until Sam cleared his throat and said, “Jon.”
Jon grumbled but lowered his eyes. “I wasn’t going to anyway.”
Sam walked Chris to the front door once the matter was settled.
“Thanks for backing me up in there,” Chris said quietly while they walked.
Sam grunted. “I think I’ve done enough ‘for your own good’ meddling for both of us. With that said…” He caught Chris’s arm and drew him to a halt. “I know things have been… strained… between us for a while.”
Chris pulled his arm free. “Yeah. And?”
“And I wanted to say I’m sorry. For letting you go into that challenge blind.”
“It’s Joey you should be apologizing to.”
“I know.” Sam sighed and shook his head. “But she doesn’t make it easy.”
“No, she doesn’t.” Chris knew that all too well. “But neither do you. Do you want some advice?”
“Are you going to give it to me anyway?”
“Probably.”
“Okay, then shoot.”
“Stop thinking of her like your kid sister. She’s not the little girl you could push around anymore. Hell, she hasn't been for a long time.”
Sam worked his jaw a bit. “I’m not sure if I can do that. Lord knows I’ve tried.”
“Try harder.” Chris gave his brother’s arm a slap and squeeze, then turned and headed for the door. He called over his shoulder, “And when you do get around to that apology, flowers help.”
9
The Shimmering Sands Motel was a no-frills affair on the east side of town. It was also the only place in town that still had vacancies. Apparently there was some big festival going on that attracted a lot of tourists, because they’d had a hell of a time finding somewhere with two rooms available. At one point, Joey had thought they might all have to share one, and she wasn’t eager to do so. If for no other reason than Ben snored loud enough to shake the walls most nights.
Fortunately, they didn’t have to go co-ed. Ben got a room to himself, while Joey and Maria shared another. Once everyone had a chance to settle in and stretch their legs, they convened in Joey and Maria’s room for a little training. By the time they finished, it was dinnertime. After dinner, Joey left Ben and Maria watching a movie and wandered down to Ben’s room for some privacy.
The phone rang a few times before Chris picked up. “I was just thinking about you.”
“What a coinky-dink,” Joey said. “Here I am. Can you talk?”
“Yeah, hang on a sec.”
Joey waited, listening as the voices in the background on Chris’s end receded. She heard the stairs creak under his feet as he went up to the second floor, and she imagined him slipping into their bedroom for some peace and quiet. He made that “oof” sound he always did when flopping into a chair to take a load off, and she couldn’t help but smile. Damn, but she missed him. And it’d only been, what… ten hours or so?
“Okay, hit me. But I hope it’s good news because today has been a damn roller coaster.”
“You’re going to have to tell me about that,” she said, staring up at the discolored ceiling tiles overhead. “But I’ll go first. We made it to Wenatchee, met the local Alpha. He’s kind of a jackhole, but he invited us to dinner tomorrow night to meet the rest of his people. So far Maria and Ben haven’t killed each other, but I did leave them alone to call you, so who knows what I’ll find when I get back.”
“Hmm. I take it you decided to keep Maria’s recent history with them under wraps?”
“Yeah. She said she was pretty sure none of them would recognize her. So far, so good. Anyway, we’re going to stick around at least until after dinner tomorrow. Will have to see how that goes. I’m hopeful that over dinner we can figure out if there’s anyone left in the pack that might’ve known Maria’s parents.”
“I hope so. The sooner you wrap things up out there, the better.”
The tension in his voice was unmistakable. “Okay, your turn. What’s going on?”
“Where do I start… Let’s go chronological. Emma’s in Seattle.”
Joey sat up on the bed, blinking. “What? She got parole?”
“Not exactly…”
“Oh god, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.” She rubbed her face and sighed. “I take it back, I want to know.”
“She said now that Madrigal isn’t after her, she didn’t want to be there. So she left.”
“And she came to us, because that’s not one of the first places they’ll look?”
“She’s got a pretty good disguise, and says she knows someone that can get her an ID. I think she’s crazy, but it’s her life. You know? My biggest concern is whether having her around puts the pack in danger. Harboring a fugitive and all that.”
“Yeah, that’s a valid concern. Shit. Well, tell her I said hi.”
“You can tell her yourself when you get back. She said she’d stick around at least a few days.”
“Great. That gives us time to think about how involved we want to be, too.”
“Yeah. But speaking of being an accessory…”
“Uh-huh?”
“Got a visit from the Granite Falls PD today. Kate’s daughter is looking for her.”
Joey blinked. “Kate had a daughter? Why am I just now finding out about this?”
“They were estranged. Anyway, it was a wellness check but Em—er, Dawn… that’s her new name—said we weren’t very convincing.”
Joey stood and began pacing the width of the room, from dresser to nightstand and back again. “Should we even be talking about this on the phone?”
“Adam says it should be fine for now. He’s monitoring things. Anyway, I stopped Colt from confessing, and—”
“Colt wanted to confess?”
“Yeah, he still feels guilty about it, even though Roger was possessing him and there’s nothing he could’ve done about it. Anyway, I got him to tell the cops he and Kate broke up, and she moved out. Jon suggested we get rid of her stuff from the attic ASAP and move the body.”
Joey groaned and ran a hand down her face. She hadn’t even been gone for twenty-four hours and the shit had hit the fan. “I’m coming home.”
“What? No, you need to—”
“I need to be home. Helping you figure all this out. We can come back here. They’re not going anywhere.”
“You said the Alpha invited you to dinner. You can’t just cancel on that.”
“I can, and I will. He’ll understand. An emergency back home.”
“What if he asks what the emergency is? It’ll be okay. I can handle it. Please stay put and help Maria.”
Joey swallowed a growl, her free hand clenched at her side. “But…”
“You trust me, right?”
“Of course I do.”
“I can handle this. I’m handling this. You do what you need to do and get back here as soon as you can, but not any sooner. Okay?”
Joey sighed. She wanted to argue, and resented that he was basically telling her what to do. But no one did that unless she let them. Not even Chris. For now, she let him. “Okay. But on one condition: if you need me sooner, you call me. I will drop everything and come home.”