“I’m getting used to it. It’s gone down the scale from humiliating to mere embarrassment.”
“Sorry. I get a little shy and nervous around women.”
“A little shy and nervous? You don’t say.” This shut Ben up, which she was not aiming for.
After a while, he brightened up. “It’s got over a million views. You’re probably making bank on it.”
Trina folded her arms. “I didn’t post it.”
“Oh.”
Rain showered the truck. A mechanic drove a car from one of the bays. Ben’s hand was still on the key. Trina decided to try again. “What makes you want to be a tech manager on a paranormal show?”
“I was working in Silicon Valley, coding. You can make tons of money coding. But you have to sit in a dark room for hours and hours. I’m more of a doer. I like the outdoors, sunshine moonlight. It wasn’t for me.”
“I need to be up front with you about something.” Trina told him of her terrible morning. Ben listened without interrupting.
When she finished, he said, “You think Brian Truman took the money?”
“Why do you think that?”
“Because he’s a cheater.”
She hadn’t expected that. “Because of the faked evidence?”
Ben nodded. “I called him out on it when I saw it on TV. Pepper’s Ghost, the oldest trick in the book. It was crazy that no one else caught on.”
“Pepper’s Ghost?”
“It dates back to the 16th century, but today you see it with teleprompters mostly. An image reflected on glass, with the proper camera angle and depth of field, appears to be in front of the camera, not behind. I e-mailed Brian when I first saw it. He offered me a job on the show if I kept quiet.”
Trina sat, astonished. “I never saw you on a shoot.”
“Technical advisor. I didn’t get credit. Just a bribe, really.”
“All the way back on the first season?” It took two years for the boom guy to come forward with accusations.
“All the paranormal investigators use equipment the wrong way. EMF detectors, audio recorders, heat sensing cameras, digital thermometers. I’m an open-minded skeptic, and the reason I remain open-minded is because of the lack of the scientific method in ghost hunting. We talked about ELF and ULF, the near-Earth plasma environment and how evidence of ghosts might exist there, but could only be categorized as paranormal with the presence of antennae and filters on the detectors, or course. Analog, i.e. magnetic, versus digital, stuff like that.”
Trina only half understood what he was talking about. Still, she recalled that they had changed how they used the standard ghost-hunting gear early on. They switched from looking for cold spots to thermal profiles, and stopped using digital recording in favor of old-school video and audio tape where they could. “You were the one who suggested the changes?”
“Yep.” Ben finally started the truck. “Even then, there was a lot of tomfoolery, manipulating the evidence. That’s why I didn’t want my name on it.”
He drove, finding his way back to the highway. “Just on the surface of it, paranormal investigation is using tools absolutely backward. We’re talking about organized energy patterns without a medium. Are these electrical beings, then? All living things generate bioelectric fields. But think about it. Just to measure human brainwaves, you need highly sensitive gear and electrodes placed directly on the skull. Without a body, a generator if you will, why would we expect more energy rather than less?
“Really, think about it. The presence of a ghost defies the laws of thermodynamics. People say they experience cold spots. From that, there’s the unlikely extrapolation that a spirit presence is drawing energy to manifest itself. So in the EM fields alone, we shouldn’t be looking for spikes or surges, but for valleys, sags, right?”
Trina was amazed in the change in Ben as he babbled on, finally in his element. Well, she had wanted a technician. It made sense that she could barely understand a word of his theorizing. She wasn’t a particularly tech-savvy woman.
He continued on, the technobabble randomly touching on plasma dynamics, the magnetic field of the Earth, artificial intelligence, and a host of subjects Trina knew nothing about. Nor cared to.
“I get it. It’s showbiz. You need ratings and stuff. It’s not the ideal situation for a scientific endeavor.”
“Well, what would you suggest?”
“It should be more pure than that. Investigations shouldn’t have to rely on sponsors and media and money.”
Trina shrugged. “At this point, from what I can tell, we don’t have any sponsors or money.”
“Perfect,” Ben said. “I’m in.”
Perfect indeed. All she needed now was something paranormal to shoot.
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Chapter Fourteen
“At what point were you assholes gonna tell me about Scarlet?”
All three brothers dropped their eyes simultaneously.
“For fuck’s sake!” Casper growled.
Cheyenne held up his palms. “We didn’t know it was a done deal, all right? The alphas thought you needed some help with the books. So we could get more projects done.”
“But Scarlet Fucking Sanders of all people?”
The other three shot glances over their shoulders, even though the Squirrels Nuts was nearly empty.
Sheridan shrugged, angling his head back and forth. “Well, maybe they were thinking you needed a mate, Cass. She is a wolf-shifter. It’s not like that’s a common thing.”
“I don’t do blind dates, or arranged marriages.”
“Yeah, we know,” Cheyenne scowled.
“What?” Casper demanded.
“It’s just that, if you ever got your immature ass a mate, we could run this company the right way instead of having all our ideas voted down, Casper. You’re the alpha male. What you say goes. Or it would—you see what I’m saying?” Cheyenne said.
Casper’s vision moved over each of his brothers. “Yeah, I’m the fucking alpha. That means I choose my mate. My mate doesn’t choose me.”
“Bullshit, Mr. Alpha Wolf. If you don’t choose anybody, what the fuck does it matter?” Sheridan said.
Cheyenne’s brow knitted. Casper thought he was going to speak up, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
“Well, if you’da warned me, Trina wouldn’t be wandering around. One look at Scarlet, and she gave me the cold shoulder and went off with some guy she hired.”
Laramie put his head in his hands. “Holy shit, you’re supposed to be watching her.”
“It mighta smoothed things over if I had informed her beforehand that a hot-looking chick was gonna be hanging out in my house this morning.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what does that mean?” Sheridan asked. “Are you two a thing, is that what you’re saying? Because the opposite is kinda what we’re all looking for here.”
Cheyenne gave Casper a knowing look. He ground his teeth over his words. “She’s a total babe, no doubt about it. But you know she’s gotta go, Cass. Why are you getting tangled with a human woman, a woman who could fucking expose us if we make a wrong move?”
“Get off my back, alla youse. I’m doing this my way. What, I’m gonna throw her out on the street all of a sudden? She’s determined, don’t you get it? I’d rather have her determined and a friend than determined and an enemy.”
“Friend my ass,” Sheridan muttered.
Casper snarled. “I’m gonna box your ears, kid.”
“You can tell her you need the in-law apartment for Scarlet. Nobody told you she was coming, or you wouldn’t’ve offered the place,” Laramie said.
“Fuck that noise. The alphas hired her, the alphas can house her. Where’s she staying?”
“My house,” Laramie said. “Isabela’s touring college campuses. We got the room. For now.”
“Then she can stay there. Let’s try to be smooth about this for a change. Once Trina gets what she came for, she’ll go. We
’ll be safe. Let’s not make her suspicious. Now, where’s her purse and stuff, Sheridan?”
“Oh, yeah.” He took a long drink from his glass; smacked his lips. “About that. I forgot yesterday was garbage pick-up day. Her purse is somewhere in the county landfill.”
“Fuck!” Cheyenne growled. “We’re never gonna get rid of her.”
“What the hell does she want, anyway?” Laramie asked. “You took her to look for flying saucers, didn’t you?”
Casper nodded. “We interviewed a guy.”
Laramie threw his hands out to the sides. “Then what is she still doing here?”
Casper made a face. “The fuck should I know what she’s looking for? I don’t know nothing about paranormal shit. Whatever she’s looking for, apparently that wasn’t it. And let’s face it. Since her tires were slashed and so on,” he gave Sheridan and Laramie the stink-eye, “she can’t leave until the shit is fixed. I’ll try to figure out what it is she needs done in the meanwhile. Whatever that is, let’s make it happen for her, so she can go. Okay?”
Sheridan’s eyes widened as he looked over Casper’s shoulder. “Uh-oh. We got trouble.”
“What? Is Trina here?” Casper whispered.
“Worse,” Laramie said under his breath.
Casper felt an arm slide across his shoulders. “Hi there, sugar pie. Having a meeting without your newest employee?”
Shit. “Scarlet.”
“Hello, boys, I haven’t seen ya’ll in a coon’s age.”
The brothers sat perfectly still, staring at the reason they had to leave their homes at such a young age. Casper felt the palpable tension in the air.
Scarlet pulled a chair from another table and sat. Casper saw that she had changed into a dress even more plunging and shorter skirted than the one Trina put on. She crossed her long, long legs and leaned back, her arms on the back of Laramie’s and Sheridan’s chairs.
“Now what are you ole boys scheming about, hmm?”
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Chapter Fifteen
Sheridan and Cheyenne went rigid. Laramie folded his arms. “You here to get us kicked outta Oregon now?”
“Oh, puh-leaze, Larr. Nobody forced ya’ll to get drunk that weekend.” She took in the circle of brothers.
“We don’t need you here, Scar,” Laramie said.
Scarlet waved at the server for a glass. “You don’t, huh? When are you going to get a proper office?”
“Maybe we don’t need one.”
“You poor, poor betas. So manly, yet so utterly hen-pecked. I’m just certain you protested my hiring so vociferously.”
Even Laramie couldn’t face her. Casper knew the law of the pack. His brothers were submissive, and nothing on earth could ever change the fact. Like their wives, Scarlet was an alpha bitch. They couldn’t help but submit to her as well. But Casper was an alpha.
“What do you want, Scarlet?”
Ava, the green-haired waitress, brought another pitcher and a glass for Scarlet. She poured and drank before answering. “Well, as the company office manager, I thought I’d update ya’ll on the progress of Marino Brothers Construction.”
Casper poured himself a glass. “I’ve already done that.”
“So you’ve mentioned this big project on the horizon?”
“Yeah. We agree we need to bid on it.”
Cheyenne smirked. “We also agreed the alphas will probably reject the idea.”
“Well, this time, ya’ll have an alpha bitch on your side, boys. It’s time to take the company to the next level.” She raised her glass. His three brothers automatically lifted theirs.
Casper did not. “That’s still two against three,” he said.
“I’m certain they’ll come around to my way of thinking, Cass.” She smiled.
Damn it to hell. Scarlet was sexy. It didn’t help that kissing Trina had made him horny as hell. But Scarlet was his first. You didn’t ever forget your first. Maybe Casper was an alpha, but Scarlet still had a lot of pull. He wasn’t a kid anymore. “I’ll drink to it if it happens. We’ll see if they come around.”
The four of them drank to that, and Casper reluctantly followed suit. “Keep in mind that if we get uprooted again, it’ll really cost the pack.”
“Now, what am I gonna do to uproot ya’ll? You’re grown men with wives. Well, most of you. This isn’t teenage mating season anymore.” She covered a smile at Casper with her glass.
“I miss being close to Elk,” Laramie said. “Deer are delicious, but there’s just something about elk.”
“It was a lot drier there, too. All this rain. I mean, you get used to it.” Sheridan drank. “I still miss Wyoming. I miss Yellowstone.”
“No going back now. The Mackenzie pack controls our old territory. Damn Canadian wolves.” Cheyenne threw a look of contempt at Scarlet.
Scarlet shook it off. “Listen, Chy, if I am responsible for what happened, the four of you are just as responsible. And if you’ll recall, it was my advice to stick it out.”
“So, what?” Sheridan asked. “You weren’t pack.”
Scarlet deflated a little. “I am a relative.”
“By marriage,” Laramie said.
“Your wife’s cousin married my brother,” Scarlet said. “We’re pack, damn it.”
They all knew it didn’t work that way, but the other three were too cowed by Scarlet to argue further. Casper didn’t have the energy for it. As much as he didn’t need Scarlet around screwing things up, he felt for her. She wasn’t pack. Her own pack was so small that it had no pull over her. She could simply pack her bags and move out west. The Marinos didn’t have that luxury. Social order held them fast. Scarlet must crave that kind of structure.
“So, if you’re Wendy’s cousin-in-law, or whatever the fuck, are you staying with Laramie?” Cheyenne asked.
Scarlet gave Casper a sharp look. He ignored it.
“Isabela’s touring college campuses,” Laramie said. “We’ve got the room. For now.”
“Speaking of which, I have an early day tomorrow.” Her gaze was still on Casper. “Thank you for the drink, gentlemen.”
The four of them watched her leave. They couldn’t help themselves.
“Whatever bad things happened, Scarlet is sure good looking,” Sheridan said.
Laramie smirked. “Not too chubby?”
“Not too at all.”
Having a single alpha wolf around stirred Casper’s instincts, and made it harder for him to think. Any man who could produce brainwaves would be attracted to Scarlet. An unmated alpha male felt it not just in the crotch, but deep in the soul. That he thought of Trina, even in Scarlet’s presence, had significant meaning. What, he wasn’t sure.
“Maybe Scarlet will drive that woman out,” Laramie said. “She makes me nervous, and she wasn’t even being mean.”
Scar wasn’t just a cute shortening of her name, Casper knew well. “I doubt it. Trina’s pretty immune to bitchiness, as far as I can tell.”
“So, what’s the plan, Cass? You lost Trina already. It’s been, what, two days?” Cheyenne drained his glass.
Casper had no idea, no plan nor scheme. For the sake of his beta brothers, he decided to bluff thought it. “All I need to do is find out what she needs in order to get gone, and make it happen. A television star ain’t gonna hang around a place like Ripple, right?”
His brothers made motions of agreement, even if they didn’t seem enthusiastic.
“We’re behind you, Cass,” Cheyenne said. “Once you figure out what needs doing, we’ll do it.”
Laramie and Sheridan nodded.
“All right, then. Laramie, get your ass home before Scarlet starts bending your wife’s ear. I’ll let youse know once I have a plan in place.” His brothers looked at him expectantly. Casper sighed. “And the beer’s on me.”
“Right on, Cass. We’re behind you a hundred percent,” Cheyenne stood. The others followed and walked out of the Squirrels Nuts.
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Chapter Sixteen
One thing Trina had learned early on in her career as a celebrity paranormal investigator was that the majority of her fan base was socially awkward men who leaned on odd grooming choices. Nerds, in other words. While it was nice to be fawned over, Trina wasn’t attracted to them. They were spectators, thinkers. Men she was attracted to were doers, guys who knew what they wanted and went after it.
That meant she could be suckered by a man like Brian Truman. It also meant snogging Casper Marino after knowing him for less than a day. Casper made her feel like a hormonal teenager, no denying it. Beyond his physical good looks, there was a certain strength to him, a solidity in his attitude, not to mention his shoulders.
Ben drove her to Casper’s house and stopped on the street. It hadn’t taken Trina long to put Ben firmly in the nerd camp. Handsome as the man was, he just didn’t do it for her. “Did you want me to pull up the driveway?”
“No, this is fine.” Trina wanted to sneak past the house and avoid Casper as much as possible. She had a task to perform, and his mere presence was too much of a distraction.
“So what’s the plan, man?” Ben asked. Then his face reddened. He cleared his throat. “Ma’am. Boss.”
What was the plan? She remembered the bike riders she interviewed at the gas station. “Supposedly, there’s a weird clearing in the woods. A logging road runs through it. It gives people the creeps, but that’s really all I know.”
Ben looked at the dashboard. “That’s it?”
“So far.”
“Okie-dokie, why don’t I scout it out before we waste a bunch of time on it?”
“That sounds like a good idea.” Especially since she didn’t have anything else for her tech to do. “Thanks for driving me around today.”
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