Fox Afield (Madison Wolves)

by Robin Roseau

  I looked into her face and paused before replying. "Yes, Alpha."

  Greg didn't have much more concrete information for us but he told us, "This is coming together. If we can narrow down the location of the person collecting the proof of life, and we either confirm or deny these four sites tonight, we'll be down to a reasonable number.

  * * * *

  We hung out for a few hours, waiting for full dark. People talked about the sheds we were building.

  "Guys," I said. "It's just a couple of sheds. Don't make more of this than it is."

  The rest of them looked around. "None of the rest of us know how," Lara said.

  "It's not rocket science," I said. "And they aren't built yet. They might fall down in a stiff breeze."

  They wouldn't, but they were just a couple of sheds. If they had known all the things I had done to the house, they might be impressed for good reason.

  Finally it was time to go. Karen drove while Lara and Elisabeth read me the riot act, although they referred it as "your briefing".

  We'll drop you off within sight of the target," Lara said. "We'll be watching for you. If we hear any fox noises, I will come running."

  "You will check each building from the outside."

  "Do not go inside."

  "Do not get caught."

  "If you can't get close without being seen, you will back away."

  "Right," I said. "Don't be seen, don't get caught, don't be stupid, don't use my own judgment."

  "That's right," said Lara.

  "All right, Alpha."

  The first location was a commercial building. It was steel and brick, and the likelihood I was going to hear a thing from inside was close to zero. They dropped me off a block away, and I slinked carefully to the darkest corner of the building. I listened and didn't hear anything beyond what I expected to hear. I tried from several locations. But buildings like this are built to be largely soundproof, and someone would need to be making some significant noise for me to hear anything.

  I carefully returned to the SUV. They let me in, and I shifted to human. Lara wrapped a blanket around me. I told them what I'd seen.

  "This site is not ruled out," I said. "The basement would be a great place to keep someone. Or even one of the offices."

  "I didn't see any cars or lights," said Elisabeth. "I don't think they would leave her unattended."

  "Not our best target, but not ruled out," we summarized.

  The next was a house. "This is rental property," Elisabeth said. "And it appears to be unrented right now."

  I checked it thoroughly, staying to the shadows. I heard only the faintest of house noises and found no indication anyone else had been here recently.

  Location three was a house under construction. When I got there, it looked like perhaps construction had halted. I didn't know why. I checked it carefully. I found a basement window ajar. I poked my nose in and I saw a light from under a door. I stared, listening. A radio was playing faintly. I listened for other noises and used my nose, but I didn't hear or smell anything useful. I wanted to go in. I knew I could get in and out.

  But I had promised.

  I returned to the car and reported in.

  "You didn't go in?" Elisabeth confirmed.

  "No. I came back for permission."

  Lara looked around us. "We'll go together," she said.

  She shifted to fur and we crept to the back of the house together. I brought her through the deepest shadows to the open window. Lara knelt there, sniffing, then shifted back to human.

  "People have been here," she said. "Recently. They could be vagrants."

  I shifted human with her. "Stay human. I'll pop down and listen carefully. If I need to leave in a hurry, I'll run to you and jump. Grab me, pull me out, and we're out of here. We'll be out of sight in three seconds and gone in fifteen."

  She thought about it and nodded.

  I slipped back into fox. Lara helped lower me into the basement. I crept to the door with the light under it. The radio was coming from the other side. I listened for a long time, but I didn't hear anything.

  I looked back at Lara. She was trusting me. I shifted to human and very slowly opened the door.

  It looked like homeless people may be staying here, but it didn't look at all like somewhere they would be holding Virginia. I closed the door, stepped back to Lara, and said, "I'll shift to fox once your hands are under my arms." She nodded and picked me up. I shifted, and she pulled me out. She shifted to wolf, and we left by the way we had come.

  "Definite no," we told Elisabeth. "But worth checking."

  The last site was the Block residence itself. "There are almost certainly people here," Lara said. "Be exceedingly careful."

  I nodded and worked my way very carefully towards the house, taking fifteen minutes to get there. I listened from across the yard for a long time before approaching closer.

  I heard snoring, I thought perhaps from an upstairs bedroom. The Block residence was well-built, and the sounds were not completely clear.

  I listened for a long time. I couldn't hear anything more distinct than the snoring. Then there was a short round of coughing, also from the upstairs bedroom, and it sounded like perhaps a different voice. I waited fifteen minutes, but I heard no other useful noises. I looked for an open window to listen at, but I didn't find one.

  I made it back to the car.

  "We were about to come look for you," Lara said. She sounded perturbed.

  I gave my report. "I wish I could poke my head in," I said. "But if Virginia is being held there, then Mary Block knows about it."

  We drove back to the motel and reported in. When we were done, I said, "If we're not any closer by tomorrow night, I think we should take Tim."

  That suddenly garnered me a lot of attention.

  "Greg, is there any doubt at all he is involved?"

  "None."

  "Is there any doubt he knows what he is involved with?"

  "None."

  "So we take him late tomorrow night. We have six or eight hours with him. We scare the crap out of him, and if we need him on the phone, we let him know what happens if he doesn't play it exactly the way we want. We let him know his only way out of this is if we recover Virginia alive and healthy. And we convince him how ruthless we're willing to be."

  "How are we going to do that," Elisabeth asked, "without seriously roughing him up?"

  I stared at her. "Take me at the same time. Rough me up."

  "Absolutely not!" said Lara.

  Elisabeth studied me not saying anything.

  "Greg, we're running out of time. I think we need to hear from him one way or the other who he is working for. If it's not Harvey, we need time to refocus. We're up against a deadline."

  "She's right," Greg said.

  Lara considered. "All right, we take him. But we aren't hurting you."

  "Take me at the same time," I said. "It keeps options open."

  Lara wasn't happy, but we assembled a rough plan. If we needed it, we'd work out the details.

  * * * *

  I took Lara back to the room, asking Elisabeth to give us a half hour. "You're not going to talk me into it," she told me.

  I started to undress. "Talk you into what?" I asked her.

  "Torturing you."

  "The only kind of torture I want to experience tonight comes at the tip of your tongue," I replied.

  I finished undressing and stood naked in front of her. She glanced down, her gaze lingering on my breasts for a moment, then moving to my crotch. She sighed.

  "I suppose I deserved that," she said.

  "I have forgiven you," I said. "I did it while I was angry." I moved into her arms.

  "Will you let me put them back in?" she asked.

  "I healed the holes," I replied. "You are forbidden from asking that again while you have me in the throes of passion."

  She smiled. "You didn't say 'no'."

  "No, but I said not tonight, and no cheating. Now, do you wan
t this body tonight, or not?"

  It turned out: she did.

  * * * *

  In the morning, I slipped out of bed without waking Lara and crouched in front of Elisabeth. She opened her eyes. "You and I need to talk."

  She nodded and climbed out of bed. We both grabbed clothes and slipped out of the room. We collected Eric and Karen and went for a walk.

  "We have a trust issue," I told her.

  "I know," she said. "And it's my fault."

  "It's not that I don't trust you, Elisabeth. It's that you don't trust me."

  "What?"

  "You and Lara both. Neither of you trust my judgment. You suspect virtually everything I do."

  "That's not true!" she said.

  "Isn't it? It sure seems like it. I have to prove everything to you, to both of you, before you believe I know what I am talking about. It's been like that since the beginning. It's like everyone still believes the things David used to say about me."

  "I believe your judgment is flawed when it comes to your personal safety."

  "I'm still here. By and large, the wolves who have gone up against me are not. Why doesn't my track record speak for itself?"

  She sighed. "Why are we having this conversation again?"

  "Because I am about to trust you a great deal, but it won't do any good if you don't trust me."

  "What is this really about?"

  "I would be more than happy to kill anyone involved in kidnapping Virginia."

  "So would I," Elisabeth said.

  "Lara is not. Which means we need to find another way, if we can."

  She stopped me and turned me to look at her. She studied my face. "You have a plan."

  "Of course I do."

  She sighed.

  "We already discussed it, last night," I said. "We can't really rough Tim up. But we can rough me up."

  "Lara is never going to allow it."

  "Elisabeth," I said. "I would do anything for Virginia Callahan. Anything." I sounded out each syllable of that word. "Just like I would for Lara. Elisabeth, you can't do anything to him that's going to leave so much as bruises, but you can use me to scare the crap out of him. And you have to do it. You have to."

  "What if-" She turned away.

  "I am going to trust you, Elisabeth. And you are going to trust me." I grabbed her and made her look at me. "Do you hear me?"

  She studied my face.

  "Elisabeth, I need you to be scary. I know you're not that person. But unless Greg has a breakthrough -- and I don't think he expects one -- then I need you to be absolutely terrifying. I need to know I can trust you to do that, and I need you to trust me to know my limits."

  "It won't come to any of this. He's a weak human."

  "Promise me, Elisabeth. You'll trust me. And you'll do what it takes. And you will be absolutely terrifying."

  "You're asking me to be a monster."

  "I know."

  "I don't want to hurt you," she said, looking away. "You're the fox. Come up with a better plan."

  "Sure. We can fake it. And if he figures out we're faking it, we're screwed. We need to leave no doubt. No doubt at all, Elisabeth. This is our best plan. But if I can't count on you, then we may as well resign ourselves to killing him when we're done. And I'm not sure Lara will approve a plan that presupposed murdering a human. And that's what it would be, Elisabeth. An execution. Murder."

  She turned away, swearing. I let her think about it. She turned around, studied my face.

  "Please come up with a better plan."

  "Do you think I want this?" I asked her. "Do you think I'm looking forward to it? We don't have the time for anything more elaborate. We don't have time to come up with better theater."

  She sighed. "I'll make a deal with you."

  "All right, let's hear it."

  "If you promise you'll keep thinking about it, trying to come up with something better, then whatever happens, you can count on me, Michaela."

  I pulled her into a hug. "I'm still working on it, but I don't think I'm going to come up with anything better. Thank you, Elisabeth."

  She wrapped her arms around me and held me tightly.

  "Will you forgive me afterwards?" she asked quietly.

  "There won't be anything to forgive, Elisabeth."

  * * * *

  Greg had nothing further for us in the morning. We had breakfast and returned to the pack land to work on the sheds.

  I set the anchor fittings over the bolts in the concrete and bolted them in. Then we unbolted the feet from the platform I'd made, set them into the anchors for the first shed, then used a laser level to mark each of them at a level mark. We cut each foot at that point then reattached them to the shed floor section. The wolves worked together to carry the entire section and drop it into place, and it was a near perfect fit. We bolted it in.

  The other one was easier. I showed the wolves how to use the laser level and how to cut the feet so their tops would be level. While Angel and Scarlett cut the feet for us, I had the rest of the wolves lift the first wall of the first shed into place. Once I was happy with it's placement, I anchored it temporarily with two nails and asked Serena to hold it in place. We lifted the rear wall into place, I checked the fit and made sure the walls were straight, and then I showed the wolves how to properly anchor them in place. The next two walls went up quickly, and voila, we had the walls of our shed.

  Angel and Scarlett finished cutting the feet. I got them and Karen working on the floor for the second shed. The rest of us started putting the roof trusses on the first shed.

  After that I went back and forth between both sheds. We finished the main shell of the first shed and then repeated everything for the second. We got the roof sheeting on both and it was time for lunch.

  "Wow," was the general comment.

  We had bought shingles. I taught four of them how to do the shingles. The rest of us worked on siding and hanging the doors.

  Each of the sheds had a door on the side for a single person to walk through as well as a large pair of doors on the front for larger loads. By dinner time, both roofs were done. They weren't perfect, but they weren't bad. We had all the doors hung and the plywood walls nailed up.

  They needed paint, but they were done.

  "If you want them, you can add a ramp," I said. "Otherwise, it's dinner time. Lara, I want a shower and a nice dinner."

  "I'd like that," she said.

  Prisoner

  We showered back at the hotel and received a briefing from Greg. "We're not any closer," he said. "We can't get a fix on the other end of this."

  "All right," Lara said, looking at me. "Are you sure this is how we should do it?"

  "It's your operation," I said. "But yes, I think taking us together gives you more options, and I can make it easier to take him. You'll know where he is, and I can act panicked, throwing my arms around him. I'll even make sure the doors are unlocked."

  "I don't like this," she said.

  "Then come up with a better plan."

  I called Tim's phone. He answered on the third ring, clearly confused.

  "Hello?" he said.

  "Tim?" I asked, my voice breathless.

  "Yes. Who is this?"

  "Tim, it's Michaela. We met the other day."

  "Ohh," he said. "The dog walker."

  "Yeah. I've been thinking about you."

  "You have?"

  "Uh huh," I said. "Have you been thinking about me?"

  "Yes," he said. "Maybe a little."

  I smiled, knowing he could hear it if I did. "I'm glad. You know Lara? My girlfriend?"

  "The one with you outside the coffee shop."

  "That's the one. She's not here tonight, and I'm lonely."

  "You are?"

  "Yes. I don't like being lonely. I was wondering if you'd like to get a drink with me."

  "Me?"

  "Yeah. Is there somewhere we can meet?"

  "Um. Sure." He named a bar.

  "Great," I said. "I
know where that is. Nine o'clock?"

  "All right."

  "Tim?"

  "Yes. Michaela?"

  "Pick up some protection. Okay? You know what I mean?"

  "Con-con-condoms?"

  "Yeah. Get several. We're going to need them. That is, if you want to. You know. With me."

  "Yeah," he said.

  I hung up. Lara was not happy. I melted into her arms. "I love how strong you are," I told her. "I love how you take care of me. I love being yours, Lara. Do you think maybe we can go to our room now?"

  We could. She carried me to the shower and used her body to show how much she loved me. After, we drove to Bayfield for dinner at the Rittenhouse, bringing a small gang with us. Stepping inside, I pulled Elisabeth to the side. "Like that?" I asked her, referring to my behavior after the phone call with Tim.

  "Yes."

  Dinner was nice. I waited until dessert. "Lara, I am going to tell you this. I know you don't want to hear it. I know you are going to say 'no'. But you are going to listen."

  She sighed and nodded.

  "I talked to Elisabeth. Trust what she tells you. Understand that she knows my thoughts on this. Know also that I will play it up from start to finish."

  She tightened her mouth but didn't respond.

  "You must do what it takes to break him, Lara. You must. We know he's guilty, but I do not believe he's so guilty he should die. Which means you can't really hurt him. But I'll heal, and we know how to make it look a lot, lot worse than it really is."

  "He's going to wet his pants, Michaela, and last about three minutes."

  "If not, you have options. You must use them."

  She nodded. "Last resort."

  "Lara, we need to break him fast. Trust Elisabeth and me. Please."

  "I don't like this."

  "She doesn't have to do anything worse than she'd do on a ransom night," I said.

  "As I recall," Lara said. "You didn't respond well to that."

  I stared into her face. "Is that what you're worried about?"

  "Terrified of it, Michaela. I have never been more scared in my adult life as I was less than two weeks ago."

  "Lara, I promise you, it won't be like that. Trust Elisabeth and me. Please, Lara."

  "I don't like it," she said. "All right."