Fox Lost (The Madison Wolves)

by Robin Roseau

  "So you're stuck managing it?"

  "Morgan did a good job," she said. "I don't like his timing on quitting. I would have liked him to help us find his replacement. But I don't blame him."

  "All right. I think I'm caught up," I said. "You aren't suggesting you want me to run it?" I knew nothing about car sales.

  "You'd be good at it, if you spent a few years as a salesman first," Lara said. "But no. There's a sale this weekend. That's why Morgan's departure is so poorly timed. We need someone able to authorize sales."

  "There must be a sales manager."

  "There is, and he's a very good sales manager. However, he'll do anything to make a sale."

  "Ah, including underpricing the cars?"

  "Yes."

  "Lara, I'm not qualified-"

  "I know. I'm going to have to do it."

  "Ah, and thus we can't go to Bayfield, but that doesn't explain what you need from me."

  "All that explains why I'm not available to do what I need you to do," she said.

  "So there are two reasons we're not going to Bayfield this weekend?"

  "Yes, although we could have gone up Saturday morning if it weren't for the emergency at the dealership."

  "So you need me Friday night?"

  "Yes. Actually, Michele Lassiter needs you."

  "Is this going to be as convoluted as the auto dealer?"

  "It depends upon how many questions you ask."

  We smirked at each other.

  "All I need you to do is let Michele Lassiter pick you up for dinner and pay the bill."

  I narrowed my eyes at her, knowing there was more to it than that.

  "And agree to anything she says," Lara added.

  "Keep going."

  "And be charming."

  "You want me to take Michele Lassiter to dinner? That doesn't seem so bad. Who else is going to be there?"

  "Your enforcers," Lara replied.

  "And...."

  "Frank Harvey and Devon Anderson."

  I sighed. "I thought you sold that trucking company." Frank Harvey and Devon Anderson were the union representatives for the truckers and other hourly employees of a modest trucking company Lara used to own.

  "I did," she said. "I only held a minority interest, anyway."

  "So why are we dealing with them now?"

  "I sold my interest to Helen West."

  "Any relationship to the dearly departed council member we used to know and love?" I asked. The last part of my question was sarcastic. I had killed Christopher West.

  "His sister."

  I stared at Lara. "And you're sending me?"

  "Helen West won't be there. She left town. I'm not sure where she is now."

  "So why is the trucking company your problem?"

  "She stopped making payments on her loan to me, and we repossessed it last week."

  "Lara, this meeting seems a little too important to send me," I said after a moment.

  "It's just dinner," Lara explained. "Frank and Devon are representing the workers. They want to buy the firm. Everyone is operating in good faith. They came to me with an offer the day after we repossessed. It was a little low, and Michele is going to present a counter-offer. They aren't going to quibble over the counter offer, but they're going to want other concessions. Michele will handle it. But I need you there, and Michele is going to call you 'Alpha' at every opportunity."

  "Do you own the entire company?"

  "About fifteen percent. The employees already own about forty percent. The remainder is owned by various investors."

  "Most on the council?"

  "Yes," Lara said. "The employees want to buy all of it. There are a few minor investors who don't want to sell, but the rest will, at the price I'm asking."

  "So I just, what?"

  "Be charming and pick up the check."

  "All right." I'd done it for her before. "Why did you make it sound worse than that?"

  "You know," she said. "I shouldn't have. I'm just so tired of dealing with some of these things. I invest in these businesses, either as myself or on behalf of the pack, because they are new businesses started by pack members. Dad did the same thing. If someone comes to us with a reasonable business plan, we help them get started. But I have my fingers in far too many pies, and I've been trying to get rid of them. I hate when they come back."

  "And now you're dealing with two like that."

  She nodded. "Elisabeth used to help, but she's already overworked with her head enforcer duties. It wasn't so bad when she was just one of the enforcers, but she has divested herself of everything that consumed attention, and I just can't ask her to take on any of this."

  "Is that why you hired Michele?"

  "Yes, and she's been great, but I need three more of her, and I can't find them. Not within the pack, and I can't possibly go outside the pack for this." She paused. "If you ever get tired of teaching and wanted to go earn a business degree, I wouldn't mind a bit."

  I paused. "Was that a request?"

  "No, honey. I think you're happier as a teacher than you would in business."

  "I think you're right," I agreed. "But I don't mind helping when I can." I moved closer on the sofa, and Lara slid her arm around my shoulders. I shifted position so I was leaning against her, my head against her shoulder. Lara kissed my hair.

  We cuddled quietly for a few minutes before I asked, "I'm sorry I upset you earlier. I know my sense of humor gets out of hand."

  She cocked her head for a moment. "Ah, the snide comment about promises."

  "I shouldn't have said that."

  She kissed my head again. "I reacted poorly. I should know you use humor when you're uncomfortable. It's how you defuse your own reaction. My response didn't help."

  I shrugged. "I keep waiting for the other shoe to fall."

  "Which shoe is that?"

  "The razor wire fence around the compound. Or a tracking collar I can't remove by shifting, I suppose." I sighed. "Elisabeth keeps putting tracking devices in my clothes."

  "She's pushing your buttons," Lara replied. "I don't think any of them actually work."

  "They do," I said. "She had a detailed map of my every step she showed me one day. I lost a wager with her."

  "Did you?" Lara asked. "She didn't tell me."

  I pushed away and turned to look at her.

  "Honest," Lara said. "I don't know a thing about it, honey. What was the wager?"

  "I don't want to tell you."

  Lara began to smile. "But you're going to, aren't you?"

  "If she won, which she did, I had to buy a dress she picked out."

  Lara cocked her head. "I can't see my sister in a dress."

  "The dress is for me."

  "So what's the problem?"

  "It's pink." I spat the last word.

  "So I take it I'll never see you wearing it?"

  "That depends," I said.

  "On?"

  "Whether Elisabeth forgets about the wager."

  "My sister is not terribly forgetful. I take it there's more to this wager you haven't told me."

  I nodded. "I have to wear it for three future events of her choice. There are also shoes and panty hose to go with. And she gets to do my makeup."

  Lara began to laugh.

  "It's not funny!" I said. "This hair," and I fluffed my red hair, "does not go with pink."

  "So what was the wager itself?"

  "I found one of her tracking devices in the jeans I'd been wearing," I said. "I asked her why she kept putting them in my clothes and stated firmly they couldn't possibly work."

  "Ah ha," Lara replied. "I think you were played, Michaela."

  "We had my laptop with us," I explained. "We had a meeting later, and I don't like leaving it in the car. So when we went to lunch, she pulled up a web page that showed my every movement for that day."

  "Honey, I'm pretty sure nothing in your clothing is providing her with that information."

  "I accused her of putting a tracker
on my phone instead. She pulled up another web site with that tracker. Then she had Serena walk across the mall with my phone, and that signal moved, but the other one didn't."

  Lara began grinning, then schooled her features.

  "You know something!" I said. "Tell me."

  "I don't think so," she said.

  I moved away from her on the sofa. "Fine."

  "Wait," she said. "I want a wager if I'm right."

  "You'll tell me whatever it was that just made you grin?"

  "Yes, but only if you accept my wager."

  "What?"

  "If we decide I'm right, you don't let Elisabeth know you figured it out, and you keep her wager."

  I sighed. "You want to see me in pink?"

  "My sister works very hard, and I want you to let her have her fun."

  I stared at Lara for a moment.

  "You don't think the things she keeps putting in my clothes are anything but a red herring?"

  "Oh, I bet they do something, but it might be little more than those anti-theft devices they use at the stores. I bet she can track you all over the compound with them, but that's about all." Lara paused. "Honey, you know she has your best interests at heart."

  "I know." I thought about it. "What do I get if you're wrong?"

  "I will preface this by saying you already conceded her wager, and if it weren't for me, you would be wearing pink."

  I sighed. "Agreed. I just want to know what she's really doing."

  "If you decide I'm probably wrong, then I'll do anything to you tonight you ask."

  I grinned. "You would do that anyway."

  "No, I'd do anything to you I like."

  "Those are almost the same thing," I replied.

  "Did you want something else?" she asked. Her smile faltered a little.

  "No, Lara." I moved closer.

  "So we're agreed. Even if we figure out it's not the trackers in your clothes, you'll continue to let Elisabeth think she won, at least until after you've worn this pink dress the requisite number of times."

  "Yes, Lara." I slipped under her arm. "Tell me."

  "She was tracking something else. Maybe Serena's phone. Maybe her own."

  "Serena had her phone with her, and Elisabeth promised me it wasn't her phone. Would she lie?"

  "She'd lie, but if she said it wasn't her phone, then it wasn't her phone. But honey, what else did you have with you?"

  "I made Serena bring my purse with her, too," I said. "But there wasn't anything in it I couldn't identify."

  "What else?"

  "I always have my knives, and I probably had a couple of my chopsticks. You know I don't go in public without them. I'm glad I don't teach at one of those schools with metal detectors."

  "You're usually quicker than this, Michaela," Lara said quietly. "What else?"

  "Your belt, but I know she wasn't tracking that."

  "It wasn't anything you were wearing, honey."

  "Please just tell me, Lara," I said.

  "Honey, I could be wrong, but if she wasn't tracking her own phone or Serena's, then maybe she was tracking your computer."

  I froze, thinking about it.

  "Please don't be mad, honey," Lara said. "You trust Elisabeth, don't you?"

  "Why would she track my computer?" I asked in a quiet voice.

  "In case it's stolen. It's probably really Gia tracking it."

  "Do you know for sure?"

  "No. That's a level of detail I don't worry about. Gia is handling information security to the best of her ability. I can't do a better job than she can, so I leave her to it."

  "You think that's it?"

  "It might be a mix of things," Lara said. "It could be everything. Your phone, your computer, and the little things she leaves in your clothes. You go through all those stores with their detectors. Maybe they feed to some central security site. I don't know."

  "Well, she was clearly tracking me."

  "Are you sure she wasn't tracking herself?"

  "She wouldn't let me look any further back than that day, and it showed me in our house until we left to go shopping. She wasn't our overnight guard. And it's more likely she would track me than herself."

  "Do you remember the web site?"

  "She wouldn't let me see, and she erased my browser history so I couldn't go back and look."

  "Are you mad?"

  "No," I said. I looked up at Lara. "She and Serena help you keep me safe, Lara." I cuddled more tightly against her. "I trust both of them as much as I trust you."

  "But you still worry we're going to build a cage around you? I don't want to live inside razor wire any more than you do, honey."

  "The razor wire is symbolic," I said. "I keep giving up my independence, a little at a time."

  Lara didn't say anything. It was an old fight.

  "I'm not complaining," I said. "I just don't know how far it's going to go." I paused. "Twenty years from now, when I'm not as fast as I am now, I wonder what my life will be like. Will you let me step outside? Maybe you'll keep me in a big hamster ball all the time."

  "Oh honey," she said.

  I shrugged. "That's better than what I used to worry about," I pointed out. I looked up at her.

  "Oh?" she said.

  "That fear assumes you won't have grown tired of me twenty years from now." I offered a smile. "You think she's tracking the computer?"

  "Yes, probably."

  "All right," I said. "I concede our wager. I guess that means you aren't going to let me tickle you."

  She smiled. "Probably not," Lara agreed. She lifted my chin and lowered her head for a kiss. It was soft and sweet. She broke the kiss then pulled me into her lap, cradling me so I was sitting sideways, my feet on the sofa, then pulled me into another kiss.

  I clutched at her. We'd been together for nearly five years; our four-year anniversary was coming up at the end of the summer. And I never got tired of kissing her. I loved being in her strong arms.

  She broke the kiss and looked down into my eyes. I smiled at her, a little hesitant, unsure what she would do.

  "I love you so much, Little Fox," she said. "I wish I could give you everything you want."

  I pulled her lips to mine for another kiss, one filled with love, and I let her feel my desire for her. She held me tightly, and I drew out the kiss until we were both breathless. When finally we parted, both panting a little, I whispered, "I can't imagine being happier, Lara." I caressed one of her arms. "I love when you hold me like this. We have two beautiful daughters and good friends who love us. Nothing else matters."

  Lara caressed my face. "I have plans for your body tonight," she said.

  "Good."

  "But do you mind if I just hold you like this for a while?"

  "I like when you hold me like this," I replied. "Is something wrong, Lara?"

  "Everything is perfect," she said. "I just want to take my time tonight. It seems like everything is a rush lately."

  She continued to caress my face, and I closed my eyes, enjoying her touch. She brushed my lips with her fingers, and I tried kissing them.

  There were times I tried to treat her the way she treated me, but she was never able to enjoy it. She enjoyed when I pleasured her, but when she was feeling this tender, she always seemed to want me to accept the attention. It used to make me feel guilty, but I had learned to enjoy everything she did to me, and I had long stopped fighting her over it.

  "So gentle for such a strong wolf," I whispered as she gently caressed my face again. In response she bent her neck and kissed my forehead. "I love how magnificent you are, Lara. I notice it in little ways, like tonight when you leapt over all of us." I sighed happily.

  She continued to caress me, her fingers occasionally stealing to the buttons of my blouse, opening one button at a time. When she finally got to the last one, I opened my eyes and looked up at her.

  "Lara," I said, "You may do anything you want to me. I will do anything you want. But I have one request."

 
"Oh?"

  "I want to feel as much of your bare skin as you feel of mine."

  She smiled. "That's all you want?"

  "Oh no," I said. "I want a great deal. But that's my request." I looked at her shirt. "If I start undoing buttons, will you let me?"

  She smiled and nodded.

  I returned the smile then shifted my position and slowly began releasing her buttons. Her hand moved to my hip, and she let me undo all the buttons of her blouse, pulling it out of her jeans. The way I was draped across her, I couldn't pull the blouse off, but I could at least feel more of her skin, and that's what I wanted. She let me stroke the skin I had exposed, but then she shifted me until I was on my back again, her right arm supporting me, and her left moved up to stroke my side, inside the blouse.

  It felt nice, and I closed my eyes.

  She took her time; she definitely took her time. I was squirming long before she finished pulling my blouse off of me, releasing my bra at the same time. She slipped out of her own blouse. I opened my eyes, hooked a finger in the front of her bra, and said, "This too."

  "All right," she said. "But then you close your eyes and keep them closed."

  "Yes, Lara," I said, closing my eyes obediently.

  She caressed my face and teased my breasts. She leaned over and kissed me deeply, her hand moving down to my jeans to unzip them and release the button, but then she was stroking my sides again.

  We didn't talk, not with words beyond, "Oh," now and then.

  Finally I didn't think I could take it anymore. I opened my eyes and reached for her, pulling her face so she was looking at me.

  "Please take me, Lara, or let me please you."

  She smiled. "I told you to close your eyes."

  I closed them immediately.

  "I need you very submissive tonight, Little Fox."

  "Yes, Lara," I said. I lifted my chin, offering my throat if she wanted it. Rather than lowering her teeth, she caressed my neck with her fingers.

  "You will keep your eyes closed until I give you permission to open," she ordered.

  "Yes, Lara," I whispered.

  She shifted position on the sofa, and I knew she was about to pick me up. I reached an arm for her neck, leaning into her, and then she stood, me still in her arms.