Joy to the Wolves

by Terry Spear

  “Leidolf and Cassie said it was on them—anything to protect a new she-wolf to the pack.”

  Brooke smiled broadly. “That’s wonderful. I should have moved here a long time ago. I hope they don’t believe taking me into the pack will be a mistake after all the difficulties I’ve had.”

  “Not at all. As long as you’re not a rogue wolf, he and Cassie and, well, the rest of us are delighted. The guys with the security equipment should be here soon to start installing it. Maybe I can order something to eat for us when it’s time for lunch.” Adam set his thermos and sack of doughnuts on the kitchen table.

  “I have to stay at the shop,” Brooke reminded them.

  “I’m sure we can work something out.” Josh knew Adam was trying to come up with a way to have lunch with Brooke and hopefully get to know her better. He didn’t blame him. Adam had done a lot for her already. “I take it you didn’t have any problems over there.”

  “No, it was really quiet. Same at the house?” Adam asked.

  “Yeah,” Sierra said.

  Josh took a sip from his mug of coffee. “It was a perfect night.” Especially the part about sharing it with Brooke.

  A blush rose on Brooke’s cheeks, her gaze turning to Josh’s. Josh smiled at her.

  Adam cleared his throat and raised a brow. “Just call me if you have any trouble.”

  “Same with us. If these guys show up at the house, don’t play the hero. Let me know, because I’ll be your closest backup,” Josh said.

  “Right. What appeals for lunch?” Adam asked Brooke.

  “Pizza. I haven’t had any in ages.” Brooke motioned to the bathroom. “Bathroom is that way. Feel free to eat or drink anything you want. Make yourself at home.”

  “Thanks. I will,” Adam said. “See you at lunch then.”

  Brooke and Josh left the house, thermoses in hand. Even though he and his brother had pizzas recently, he didn’t mind eating one again.

  “You said you were able to sleep finally. How are your injuries this morning?” Josh asked her.

  “They’re much better. They hurt some, but not like yesterday.”

  “Do you want me to check them? I thought you might have groaned a little at one point when you were in bed with me, but then you didn’t do it again, and I didn’t want to wake you to see if you were hurting. I should have asked you first thing this morning.”

  “I groaned because you pulled the covers off me.”

  He chuckled.

  “Really, my injuries are fine.”

  Wanting to be sure, he transferred the second thermos into his other hand and placed his free hand against her forehead. He was glad to feel she wasn’t too warm. “No fever.”

  “No, the EMTs did a good job of disinfecting the wounds. I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thanks for being concerned.”

  “You tell me if you start feeling poorly.”

  * * *

  With apprehension, Brooke unlocked the door to her shop and opened it. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She’d envisioned seeing broken glass, porcelain, and merchandise scattered all over the floor. But everything—that wasn’t broken—was neatly stacked on the shelves again, and there wasn’t a shard of breakage on the floor anywhere.

  Tears filled her eyes. “They did this? Adam and Maverick? They cleaned everything up?” She hurried into the shop to turn off her security alarm.

  “They did so you’d be all set when you returned to the shop.”

  “Ohmigod, I’ll have to have all of you over for dinner one night to thank you. You don’t know how much all this means to me.”

  “We’d love that. Since they were looking for something specific, we figure they did damage like some thieves looking for random stuff would do to throw us off the case. Do you have a list of the merchandise you’ve bought recently in case there’s something among the items that those guys were after?”

  “No. I haven’t purchased anything since I’ve been here. All the stuff that’s still coming in are things my great-aunt purchased. Well, except for the five boxes I have coming from Gulliver’s estate, but I haven’t received them yet. The things my aunt purchased were preordered or handmade—like the Colombian pottery stuffed with cocaine—so they weren’t shipped right away.”

  “I wondered about that.”

  “I thought we could unlock those trunks. I don’t even want to see the condition of them after those bastards shot so many bullets all over the attic last night. I had figured I might be able to sell the trunks. There may be nothing salvageable inside them, but the trunks themselves would probably have sold.”

  “I’m sure we can find someone in the pack who can restore the trunks.” Josh pulled out a set of lockpicks.

  She eyed his lockpicks. “What would I do without you?”

  “Call a locksmith?”

  She smiled and then set the thermoses in the kitchen.

  “Why don’t you wait here, and I’ll check everything out first, even though Adam was just here. He did run to the doughnut shop, and that took him a little while.” Josh pulled out his gun and headed into the other rooms of the shop.

  Brooke pulled a knife from a kitchen drawer for protection, realizing she hadn’t even thought of the possibility that the intruders from last night had gotten into her shop while Adam was out. She was glad Josh was here with her. She imagined if he hadn’t come with her, she would have been feeling horribly spooked, afraid the thieves would be waiting in the shop for her to arrive or could show up at any time tonight after she closed the shop. In fact, she probably would feel unnerved when Josh couldn’t be here with her a couple of days from now, if Adam or someone else couldn’t stay with her. She hated feeling like that. At least until they caught the bastards who had broken in.

  Tension filling her while she waited in the kitchen, she listened to Josh moving about the rest of the shop, praying he wouldn’t run into any trouble. She heard jingle bells ringing in one of the rooms, then growing closer to the kitchen. She frowned, wondering what Josh was up to.

  He walked into the kitchen holding antique leather sleigh bells and an antique Alaskan dairy postcard featuring Alaskans milking a reindeer. “I know the shop isn’t open yet for business, but I’ll take these. I’ll settle up after I check out the rest of the shop.”

  She was amused to see him “shopping” as if he were a customer and not her police protection. “Are you kidding? After all you’ve done for me? They’re yours.”

  “Thanks, but—”

  “No buts, they’re yours.” No way was she making him pay for them after all he’d done for her.

  “Thanks.”

  She took them from him and set them in her office so no one would think they were for sale.

  Josh began climbing the stairs to the attic, the steps creaking, and then he walked around the large attic room and finally called down, “All clear.”

  “Coming!” She was glad no one had been in the shop, waiting for her to open. She turned on all her Christmas lights and her Christmas music, then hurried to the stairs and heard the clicking of keys—or in this case, lockpicks—opening a lock on one of the antique trunks.

  She entered the attic room and found Josh with a padlock in hand, heading for the other trunk to unlock it. She hated seeing where the bullets had clipped the metal bands and sunk into the metal. Maybe someone in the pack could restore the trunks and she could sell them.

  Light was filtering through the big windows in the attic, and she was glad the guys had replaced her window. And it was perfectly clean! Which meant she needed to clean the others too. She looked around the room. It was huge, and it would be perfect for fixing up and using as an additional salesroom—something whimsical and fun. A German-crafted goat pull toy was standing in one corner, peeking over a box. Made of goat skin and real goat hair, it would fetch around $600.

  Brooke hoped sh
e’d find a treasure trove of valuable objects that would help make up for the ordeal she’d suffered. She was determined to go through all this stuff to sell it, but even now, she was trembling a little, the scene flashing through her mind, remembering the deafening sound of bullets being fired and hitting wood, cardboard, and metal. And the bite of the bullets as they sliced through her skin and fur.

  Trying to shake loose the raw memories, she waited for Josh to finish so they could see what was in the trunks at the same time. Then she pulled her phone out of her pocket to document the contents before they began rifling through them.

  She lifted the lid of the steamer trunk first. Everything smelled musty, like the trunk hadn’t been opened in years. The men had obviously only thought that since the trunks were locked, something valuable had to be inside. Something that they were looking for.

  “Did you want me to remove the items since you appear ready to catalog them with your phone?” Josh asked.

  “That would be great. Thanks, Josh. I bet you never expected to be helping with something like this on your days off.”

  “No, but this is more in line with what I normally do—police work—so it works for me.” He brought out each item from the steamer trunk and the other.

  She took pictures and added notes. “I still can’t believe anyone would wait this long to look for the items if they knew that something valuable was inside the trunks.”

  “What if they only just found out your great-aunt had something of value in the shop? Or the house? And now they’re searching for it.”

  “That could be. Though they did mention boxes, and that makes me think they were waiting for something to arrive here that had been shipped.”

  “Like more cocaine?”

  “Maybe.” She didn’t want to admit she had considered there might be more boxes of cocaine coming and she could still be in a world of danger. Anyone who was helping her out would be too.

  Josh pulled out an old Santa suit and a little girl’s hat and muff and coat that appeared to be from the 1930s. Oh, how cute!

  “Anything of value in there?” he asked.

  “These are lovely, well preserved, like they’d been worn only a few times and then put away. They should sell pretty well once I get rid of the musty smell.”

  “What do you think? Someone your great-aunt knew played Santa? Your great-uncle, maybe?”

  She shrugged. “Maybe. Why else would she have it in this trunk?” She sorted through the old costume jewelry. “Some of these have real diamonds. They could be worth some money. A couple of old Chinese vases. I’ll have to check on all these things to see if they’re truly valuable or just pretty decorator pieces.”

  Then they began searching around in the attic. She found a whole bunch of old paintings leaning against one of the walls, a floor-length mirror, and boxes and crates of stuff she’d need to sort out later. Thankfully, the mirror and the paintings hadn’t been hit by gunfire.

  She didn’t have time to look through everything right this minute. She was thinking she needed to hire someone to run the shop while she sorted, cataloged, determined values, and then priced the items for sale. Not to mention she needed to update her website where she listed all the major merchandise.

  Josh peeked through a bunch of dishes he found in one crate, each one wrapped in newspaper.

  “I haven’t inventoried the boxes of merchandise my great-aunt has stacked in all the rooms. I haven’t had time to go through them. Any of the new merchandise she bought should have inventory lists packed in the boxes. For the past two weeks, I made some headway on listing items she already had out for sale, so they’re now on a website people can search through. If they want an item, they can claim it and then come in within forty-eight hours to pay for the item and it’s theirs.”

  “You need to have it where they can pay online.”

  “Yes, next job to do. Oh, and be careful with the newspapers wrapped around objects. They can be sold also, depending on the shape they’re in, what the news was, and the age of the newspaper.”

  He looked over one. “1911? Does that mean these dishes have been wrapped up in this paper since then?”

  “Probably. And that’s great. The dishes and the newspaper might be worth something. Depending on the quality and the name brand of the dishes, they could bring in some money. Though only collectors want stuff like that. Most everyone wants microwavable dishes nowadays. Which is why so many people get rid of their old dinnerware now.”

  “That makes sense. I know that’s all Maverick and I use. We didn’t have any hand-me-down dishware though.”

  “You don’t use paper plates?”

  He smiled. “We have a dishwasher.”

  “The last guy I dated used paper plates and cups for everything.”

  “No dishwasher?”

  She chuckled. “No dishwasher soap.”

  “I have him beat there. What about the rest of the items in the chest?”

  “Tintype photos, which can be worth a little. A wedding gown, a beautiful red ball gown. They can be used for displays and sold.”

  He looked over the red gown. “It looks like it would fit you.”

  “It would be pretty to wear for New Year’s, once I clean it. Oh, also, I’ll be closing early on Christmas Eve. I usually close early because I don’t have many sales after about two. At least that was the case in Phoenix. At that point in the day, everyone goes to the mall and the big-box stores for their last-minute shopping.”

  “We also have a pack party. You could wear it to that.”

  Was he inviting her to the Christmas party as his date?

  “It might be a little dressy for it. Let’s leave this for later. I can lock the attic so no one gets in here, hopefully, but I’ll take the jewelry with us, just in case it’s valuable,” she said. “I had a built-in safe installed in the house. It’s the first thing I did when I moved in.”

  “Good idea. Do you want me to take anything downstairs?”

  “Grab the vases, if you don’t mind. We’ll put them in the office in the safe I had installed, and I’ll check the value of them later.”

  Then they left the attic, and she locked the attic door. She should have done it last night, but with all the police there and being injured, she hadn’t thought of it.

  “Do you always lock it?” Josh followed her down the stairs.

  “Yes, except last night.”

  The doorbell rang. She glanced at the Felix the Cat clock. “It must be the mail carrier with another package. It’s not time to open yet.”

  “Or it’s the guys coming to install the security equipment. I’ll go with you, or I can handle it.”

  “You can come with me. I can’t be afraid of answering the door every time someone is there. And you can’t always be here.”

  “I’ll make other arrangements with pack members to be here until we catch these bastards. If whatever you have is valuable enough, I’m sure they’ll be back.”

  “I just wish I knew what it was.”

  And she really wanted to know if Josh wanted to take her to the pack Christmas party.

  Chapter 13

  In her office, Brooke opened the safe. She put the Chinese vases in there and locked them up, then opened her laptop. “Here are all the lists of merchandise I’ve added to the website with the prices my great-aunt had them listed for, but I don’t know what they cost.” She pulled some papers from a file. “These are the invoices for the new vintage-looking merchandise she bought from wholesalers that I put out on the shelves last night.”

  He looked at the four-drawer oak file cabinet. “Yours or hers?”

  “Mine. She has one, too, but her filing system isn’t like the way I set things up, so I’m having a hard time finding anything. When I came here during the summers, she wouldn’t let me touch her filing system.”

  He
smiled. “Sounds like my brother and me. He keeps track of all the costs and revenues and keeps all the records. I’d do it in a totally different way, though it wouldn’t mean I’d do it any better than him. Just that it would work better for me. Since he usually handles all of it, I let him deal with it.”

  “I can imagine. That’s how it was with my great-aunt and me. I keep paper copies of all my records, but I also list them on the computer for easy reference. I have to have the original cost of the items so I can determine how much profit I make for tax purposes. I’ve had a few things I’ve paid a couple dollars for that brought in thousands.”

  “That’s not a bad return on investment.” Josh could see where this could be a fun business, when he hadn’t thought it would be. It would be like Christmas—getting a gift that turned out to be something valuable. Or like winning the lottery.

  “I agree on the return on investment. That’s what I always hope for. Even the trunks could sell for $300 to $1,000 apiece. As long as I can refurbish them without having to pay a lot for someone else to do it.” She glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner. “If you want to go through the items listed on the website, I’m going to heat the cinnamon rolls and then open the door for the customers.”

  “I can do that.” And he’d see if he could find her great-aunt’s inventory lists.

  Brooke set the cinnamon rolls in the microwave and started it.

  Josh texted his brother: Bring Jingles and Cinnamon to the shop.

  It was a last-minute idea he’d had. He really wanted to help Brooke with her sales before the big reindeer season was over and do something to make her feel better after what had happened to her last night.

  She returned to the office and handed Josh a mug of peppermint mocha. “I miss Jingles. That will be one Christmas open house I’ll never forget. If I sold as much as I did that day every day, between the breakage last night and brisker sales, I’d be bought out though.”

  “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Josh didn’t believe she would be sold out. Not with all the boxes of stuff she had stacked everywhere in the attic and the other rooms on the second floor. But it would save having to have massive sales after Christmas.