Furred Lines

by Renee George

  “I was read in on the council’s report.”

  “By Willy?” I asked.

  Dom grimaced. “Yep.”

  “What happened between you two? Did you break her heart?” I glanced at him to read his expression. It was blank, but his knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel to make the turn.

  “I thought I loved her. She didn’t think she loved me. She was the wild girl everyone wanted to tame.”

  Was that his type? The wild girl. If so, there was no way I’d keep his interest. “I’m not a wild girl,” I said.

  “Good.”

  “Oh, I get it,” I said. “She hurt you, so you are determined to date her opposite. I’m no one’s consolation prize. This thing between us isn’t going to work if your only interest in me is that I’m not her.”

  Dom slammed on the brakes out front of Eldin’s house. “My interest in you has nothing to do with Willy Boden.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  He turned in his seat, gripped my shoulders, and kissed me completely breathless.

  “That’s not an answer,” I said airily. My pulse thudded in my throat and much lower parts of my anatomy.

  “Isn’t it?” He stroked my cheek. “I told you that I’d thought I loved her. It’s only been this week that I realized what I felt for Willy was trivial, it was nothing, a brief infatuation. I’ve never had a woman make me feel like you make me feel.”

  “And how’s that?”

  “Excited, protective, frustrated, worried, hopeful.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Scared.”

  “Scared?”

  “Scared that I’ll lose you. I don’t want to be without you, Nic.”

  “We haven’t known each but a few days.”

  “I know you have feelings for me. What’s holding you back?” He raised his brows. “Eldin Farraday? Are you in love with him?”

  A knock on the window had us both jumping to our respective sides of the car.

  Eldin’s face pressed against the glass. “Nicole? Agent Tartan? What are you all doing out here?”

  I met Dom’s gaze. “Setting the record straight,” I said. “I’m not in love with Eldin.”

  Dominic’s chiseled features softened. “Okay.”

  Eldin, who looked even more confused, said, “Good to know. Why don’t you park this sedan and come on in? I have cold beer in the fridge. I think we’re all going to need it.”

  Dom parked the car and raced around to the passenger side to help me out. He got my crutches, and, even though I hated being babied, the way he hovered over me was actually sort of sweet. Eldin held to door open as I swung my feet inside. As we made our way into the living room, I saw a man in jeans and a vee-neck forest green sweater sitting on the couch with a bottle of beer in hand. “Deputy Thompson?” I asked.

  “Nope, wrong brother,” the guy said, standing up. Now I could see, while he looked almost identical to Tyler Thompson, this man was a bit thinner, more muscular. This was Taylor Thompson.

  Eldin went and stood beside him, “Nic, I have been trying to tell you something ever since I saw you in Springfield.”

  “You have?” I blinked because I hadn’t noticed. Had I really been so self-absorbed?

  “I’m just going to say it quick. Like a bandage ripped off a wound.”

  Taylor gave Eldin a sour look. “I’m not a wound.”

  “I didn’t mean it like that.” Anyhow. He flexed his fingers. “Nicole. This is Taylor Thompson.”

  I nodded. “I’m aware.”

  “My boyfriend.”

  “I’m...” Clueless? Blind? Stymied? Oblivious? Jesus H. Christ and the whole choir of angels, I had been completely obtuse. “How long have you...?” It was a dumb question. I was a freaking shrink. I knew sexuality didn’t just happen magically out of the blue. Eldin Farraday was gay. And he’d been gay his whole life. “But we...” I was handling this soooo badly. “But you...God, Eldin. You broke my heart our senior year.”

  “Please don’t be mad at me,” he said. His fingers laced with Taylor’s.

  “I’m not mad,” I said. I had a gazillion feelings going on. Anger wasn’t one of them. “I’m a little hurt that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me, but I’m not mad.” I did what I should have done when he first announced he had a boyfriend, I limped forward and threw my arms around his neck. “Are you happy?”

  “Yes,” Eldin said. “I’m very happy.”

  “Then I’m happy for you.”

  He must have dropped Taylor’s hand because both his arms went around me. “You know, Nic, you’re the only girl I ever loved. I’m sorry I couldn’t be what you needed.”

  I cast a quick glance over my shoulder at Dom, who, for the record, was grinning like a fool. “Don’t be sorry. I’m not. Not at all.” I jumped back on one foot and used Dom’s forearm to steady me. “So,” I asked, “how many people know?”

  Taylor took the lead. “My family knows. And if my mom knows something, everyone in earshot knows.”

  I laughed. “Ruth still make the best pies in town.”

  “There’s one in the fridge I can heat up if you’d like.”

  I fist pumped my arm. “If you have some vanilla ice cream the answer is yes, yes, yes. Oh, hell, even if you don’t have ice cream, I will definitely take the warm pie.”

  Eldin and Dom helped me to the couch when Taylor ducked into the kitchen. I turned to my high school sweetheart and took his hand. “How did I miss the signs?”

  “I’m very macho,” Eldin said. His narrow features and high cheekbones always made him look a little elfish. Manly, yes. Macho, not so much. We both chuckled. “I’m terrible at this profiling thing.”

  “So, tell me about your ankle. What happened?”

  “Can Taylor keep a secret or will he tell Deputy Thompson?”

  “My identical twin didn’t find out I was gay until I told him on our twentieth birthday,” Taylor said from the other room. “I’m awesome with secrets.”

  We laid out the entire afternoon for Eldin and Taylor over some of the most magnificent blueberry pie I’d ever eaten. “You mom should box this crust and sell it as magic. She would make a million dollars.”

  “I’ll tell her you said so. It’ll make her feel good,” the blond deer shifter said.

  Eldin leaned forward. “So, you guys found a hidden cellar through a dusty trap door with a secret entrance underground? That’s some Silence of the Lambs’ shit there. Do you think this has anything to do with your case? Or just Lloyd’s murder? Or the guns?”

  “Maybe all three. We don’t know. We have to find out where that door leads, though.” Dom said.

  I nodded. “My gut is telling me that tomorrow will be too late.”

  Eldin tilted his head at me. “It’s now or never.”

  “Do not break out in song,” I told him.

  He laughed. “You know you love my Elvis impersonation.”

  Taylor snapped his fingers. “Hey. Some old bomb shelters and tunnels had been built—back in the late fifties when people were worried about atomic warfare. I’m pretty sure I could get into the zoning office and find some of the old property maps for that area.”

  Eldin hugged Taylor to him. “You’re brilliant, babe.” He turned to me. “Taylor is the human resource manager at City Hall. He does all the hiring and managing of the non-elected positions.”

  “I have the master key, so I can get into any room I want.”

  I looked at Dom, and I could see his excitement level had kicked up a notch. “I’m in.”

  “This is some real James Bond shit,” Taylor said.

  Eldin grinned. “Sean Connery?”

  “Who else?” Taylor stood up and gave Eldin a hand up. In a fairly good imitation of the original, he said in a spot on Scottish accent, “Shall we go, Money Penny?”

  Dom helped me to my feet next. In my ear, he said, “I can’t believe I was worried about this dork.”

  I giggled. “Come on, doub
le-o-nerds. We have a City Hall to break into.”

  Taylor shook his head. “It’s not breaking if you have the keys.”

  “I like you, Taylor Thompson.”

  “Thank heavens, because I think Eldin would have dumped me if you didn’t approve.”

  At least three of us walked out of Eldin’s house humming the theme song for Mission Impossible.

  When we got into the car, Dom's eyes were bright. Happy. “Thanks for rescuing me from Judy at dinner. That woman is grabby.”

  I wrinkled my nose at him. “It was either rescue you or come flying across the pot roast to snatch her hair extensions form her head. I did not like that woman touching you.”

  “Really?”

  “I was already thinking about places to bury the body.”

  Dom’s grin grew ridiculously wide. “I’ve had Eldin buried several times since he met us in Springfield.”

  “We’re a pair,” I said as Dom started the engine and followed Taylor and Eldin in Taylor’s car.

  “We sure are, partner.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Dom carried me piggy-back style into City Hall and down two sets of stairs to the basement. The county assessor had moved all the old deeds and property assessments along with maps to a large storage room off the main entrance.

  Taylor put his key in the door and jiggled it. It wouldn’t turn.

  “I left my lockpicks at home, so I hope you can get this open.”

  Dom turned his head over his shoulder and said to me, “I can’t believe we forgot to bring the fanny pack.”

  “In our defense, I wasn’t planning to not-break and enter into City Hall.”

  Dom, with his forearms under my knees, hoisted me up higher on his back. “In my defense,” he emphasized the word my, “I think you’re a bad influence on me.”

  Eldin snickered. “He knows you so well, Nic.” He looked at Dom. “I was a model student and citizen until I started hanging out with Nicole.”

  I squeezed my thighs against Dom and pointed indignantly at Eldin. “You were thirteen-years-old. You weren’t even fully formed yet when I found you. You cannot blame me for your bad behavior.”

  “Sure I can,” he said. “I do it all the time.”

  “Still?”

  “Got it!” Taylor said. He opened the door. “And to answer your question, yes, Eldin blames you all the time.” He winked at me and gestured for all us to enter.

  “Are there any guards who patrol here at night?” Dom asked when Taylor turned on the light in the room.

  “This is Peculiar, not some metropolis, and besides, this room has no windows, not even in the door, so,” he closed the door, “no one is going to see the light on.”

  We searched for only half an hour before Eldin said, “Bingo!”

  “How’s your back holding up?” I asked Dom. He hadn’t put me down once since we’d exited the car.

  “It’s fine.” He raised me up again.

  “You can put me down if I’m getting too heavy.”

  “I’ve carried weapons and rucksacks heavier than you.”

  “Rucksacks?”

  “I was Army Intelligence before I joined the FBI.”

  “How freaking old are you?”

  “Old enough know better, but young enough to do it anyway.”

  “Will you two stop flirting and get over here?” Eldin took a stack of rolled-up papers out of a cylindrical canister. “I’ve got the maps.”

  I looked over Dominic’s shoulder at the property description and the topographical outlines. There were several areas that crossed. “There,” I said, indicating the stream we knew flowed under the gate. “Right there where the stream comes in from the right, that where we breached the compound. We probably went about twenty to thirty feet before we crawled out of the creek bed, across a road to a building probably the same distance. So go back another twenty feet and to the right about ten feet and that’s where we saw the underground door.”

  Dom poked his finger on the map. “And there’s the tunnel. The description says a storm shelter was built in this location. They must have built the pantry over the top of it.”

  “There was so much dust, I can’t imagine more than a few people still know the underground room exists.”

  “Well,” Taylor said, “if this map is accurate, it looks like the tunnel comes out over here.” He indicated a spot near the edge of the property that bordered a big pond.

  “That’s probably where the stream empties.”

  Eldin nodded. “You know, that pond is at the edge of Brady Corman’s new property. He is building a house out there for Willy and their new babies.”

  “Those kids are going to have the biggest potty mouths,” Taylor said.

  Dom laughed. “That’s the God’s honest truth. That woman can make the people who make sailors blush blush.”

  “I’m sure Deputy Boden will be a fine mother.” I rested my upper arms on Dom’s shoulders and rubbed my hands together. “Let’s go find ourselves a super-secret entrance to this evil lair.”

  TAYLOR THOMPSON HAD been an immediate, hellz yes, but Dom and Eldin had taken some coercing. Dom would learn soon enough that I was a girl who liked to get her way. Eldin already knew that about me, which is why I couldn’t understand what took him so long to get on board...until I realize he was worried something might happen to Taylor, the only civilian in the bunch.

  However, Taylor, in no uncertain terms, told Eldin he was going with or without him. I’d given the same speech to Dom, and both men reluctantly agreed to join us on this little adventure.

  Mr. Corman hadn’t finished the house yet, so the property was vacant. Good. I didn’t want to have to beg Willy for any favors. I mean, I liked the woman, she was feisty as hell, but I didn’t really want to hang out with Dominic’s ex-girlfriend if I could help it.

  Since I wasn’t about to go home to grab my gear, we had to make due with what Eldin had laying around his house. Two small flashlights, some pore tweezers and a pore remover that I hoped I could make work for locks, some nylon twine, and a couple of knives. Dom brought his gun, just in case, and I had my multi-tool because I’d put it in my jacket pocket. We had our bulletproof vests in the trunk, and I insisted that Taylor Thompson wear one. The gesture helped Eldin relax, but it made Taylor a little tense. I don’t think he’d considered the danger real until the moment he put it on.

  We took off, with me still riding Dom’s back. The plan was for me to shift into raccoon form if something happened or we were caught. We were far enough away from the compound that I felt like we were probably safe.

  We walked the property for about half a mile until we came to the pond. We followed its edge poking sticks into thicker parts of the brush trying to uncover a manhole or some kind of cellar door. We’d had no luck by the time we reached the wide mouth of the stream where it flowed into the pond.

  “Well, poop.” I sighed. “I was hoping it would be easier than this. A super-secret opening to an evil-lair is always easy to find in the movies.”

  “Hey!” Eldin shouted. “What the hell was that?”

  “What?” Dom asked.

  “Quiet,” Taylor hissed.

  I heard it then. Doo-ip, doo-ip, doo-ip, and a small splash. “There!” I pointed to where the water was rippling out from four spots on the small lake. “Someone skipping rocks.”

  Skipping rocks on the lake. Damn that Sunny Trimmel. She was three for three.

  “Help,” a weak voice called out. “Help me.”

  “The stream,” Eldin shouted. “It’s coming from the stream.”

  Dom practically dropped me on the ground, his gun raised and ready. “Taylor, you stay with Nic. Eldin and I will go check it out.”

  I hopped in his direction. I wasn’t missing whatever was happening. I didn’t get far before Dom came rushing back to me. His eyes were haunted as if he’d seen a ghost. “It’s Lieberman. He’s barely hanging on.”

  “We need to get him to Doctor Smith rig
ht now,” I said, my adrenaline raising my voice an octave.

  “Eldin is calling your dad and the sheriff’s department to get emergency vehicles out here, but Lieberman’s foot is caught in a bear trap under the water. He’s half frozen, and the water is neck high. I put a stick down, and it hit another trap. I don’t know how many are out there.

  “Coil spring, long spring, or conibear?”

  “The one I triggered was a long spring, but I don’t know what kind trapped Lieberman.”

  “Get me there,” I told him. “I can swim out to him without activating the traps, dive down and unlock the claws on his feet.”

  “But how? Especially if you don’t know which kind of trap he’s caught in.”

  “I have twine, a multi-tool, and a raccoon’s opposable thumbs.” I wiggled my fingers at him. “My dad had taught me how to get out of any bear trap if I was ever caught in one. I’ll cut a length and tie it to my multi-tool. That’s all I’ll need.”

  “If you have any problems at all, you get the hell out of the water. I want to save Lieberman, but not at your expense.”

  I kissed his worried face. “I’ll stay safe.”

  At the edge of the creek, I watched Lieberman struggle to keep his head above water. “Hang in there. I’m coming to help. Just hold on a while longer.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” he said. “I’m so tired. I just want to sleep.”

  I stripped my shirt off, and Dom braced me up as I slid my palazzo pants off one leg at a time.

  “This wasn’t what I imagined when I thought about getting you naked.”

  I covered his lips with my finger. “Don’t make this any more awkward for me.”

  I shifted, and Dom handed me my tool on the string. I grabbed the string and dragged the tool down into the water with me. I kept the surface until I got to Lieberman.

  “I’m not cold anymore,” he said, his words slurring. Crap, he was suffering from hypothermia, and God knew what else.

  I dove down, the water dark and murky, and felt for the trap. Damn it. It was a conibear, one of the most dangerous traps out there. Whoever laid these in the creek was not messing around. I surfaced for a breath of air then went back down feeling for the upper and lower loops. I threaded the twine through the top loop then down through the bottom loop and back up into the top loop just like Dad had taught me.