Abby glanced at him. “Thanks, Donald. I appreciate that, considering that Roarke and I weren’t completely truthful with you.”
“Hey, Abby, it’s okay. It’s your business.”
Cameron cleared his throat. “If I may interrupt this lovely display of solidarity, I’d like to interject that I appreciate your candor, Donald. I suspected that Abby and Wallace were sexually involved, but thanks to you, that’s a confirmed fact.”
Donald looked horrified. “Don’t take my word for it! I wasn’t exactly there, you know? Maybe they weren’t having sex at all! I mean, unless a person actually witnesses the horizontal mambo, they can’t be sure that it really took place, now, can they?”
Cameron smiled. “In this case, I think they can.”
“Sorry, Abby.” Donald hung his head. “But I still don’t know why this has anything to do with the price of beans.”
“It may not,” Cameron said, “but I like to gather all the information I can. I’m convinced you’ve told me everything you know, Donald, so I’m prepared to offer you a deal.”
Donald squared his shoulders. “I don’t deal with terrorists.”
Cameron, the arrogant bastard, laughed at that. Abby would have loved to punch him in the nose, but the satisfaction of that probably would be short-lived. She thought about the note Cameron had left and knew that once Roarke had read it, he’d come to the rescue.
Exactly how he’d effect a rescue was still hazy in her mind, but until Roarke showed up, she planned to hold the line with Cameron Gentry. Donald was welcome to cave, though. She wouldn’t blame him at all for doing that. He had nothing at stake here.
“So you don’t want to hear my offer?” Cameron asked him.
“Not particularly.”
“Well, I’ll make it anyway, because I can see you’re a discerning man and I want to present you with all the options.”
Abby thought Donald would react well to the flattery, but instead he sniffed in disdain. Her respect for the tubby engineer grew. Depending on how this all worked out, she’d like to keep in touch with Donald Smurtz. He had hidden depths.
“Here’s my proposition,” Cameron said. “I have no quarrel with you. You stumbled upon Abby and Roarke by accident, so—”
“Or maybe it was Fate,” Donald said.
“That’s for you to decide, but if you’d like to walk out the front door and get on with your life, I have only one request. That you won’t speak of this incident to anyone, ever. If you wonder how I’d know if you did, let me assure you that I, too, have contacts in the Sony Corporation.”
Donald took several deep breaths.
“You should take that deal,” Abby said. “You didn’t ask to be part of this craziness. Just put it behind you and move on.”
Donald shook his head. “I can’t. I promised Roarke I’d watch out for you. So I’m not leaving.”
“It’s okay!” Abby was desperate to get an innocent bystander out of the line of fire. “Roarke meant for you to watch out for bears and stuff. He didn’t mean you should defend me from crazy rich guys.” Abby sent a searing glance in Cameron’s direction when she said that.
“I know,” Donald said. “But I can’t help thinking he would want me to stick around.”
“Suit yourself.” Cameron raised his voice. “Samuel, Colin!”
Two of the men from the helicopter came through the door immediately.
“Show this gentleman to his room. And see that he does not leave it.”
“Hey!” Donald tried to resist, but he was no match for those two. “Abby, I wasn’t going to leave you! I wanted to stay with you and make sure you’d be okay!”
“I’ll be fine.” She gave him a reassuring smile as he was practically dragged from the room. “Take care of yourself, Donald!”
Once he was gone, Cameron gestured to the armchairs in front of his desk. “Now will you sit down, Miss Winchell?”
“All right.” She chose the armchair on the right, because it was closest to the door. She didn’t give herself much chance of escaping through that door, but if the opportunity presented itself, she wanted to be ready.
“May I offer you a glass of wine?”
Said the spider to the fly. “No, thank you.”
“I’ll have some, if you don’t mind. It’s been a trying few hours.”
“Go right ahead.” Maybe she could coax him to get drunk. That would have distinct advantages.
He left his desk chair and moved to a sideboard where he uncorked a bottle and poured red liquid into a crystal goblet. “Fortunately my wife and two children are away visiting relatives in San Francisco, so they were spared this nasty business.” Returning to his desk, he set the wine on a coaster.
“It doesn’t have to be nasty, Cameron.” She reconsidered her strategy. “Maybe I will have some of that wine, after all.”
“Excellent.” He returned to the sideboard and poured a second glass. “I have a cellar full of French wines, but I’m old-fashioned. I prefer the local Willamette Valley wines. Besides, I have investments there.”
She didn’t doubt it. He was proud of his wealth and his standing in the community. She’d do better if she catered to that instead of fighting him.
“Is this from one of your vineyards, then?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact.”
She sipped the wine. “It’s very good.”
He looked pleased. “Do you come up here often to visit Earl?”
“I did as a child. But as an adult, I haven’t spent nearly as much time here. I regret that.”
“Have we met?”
“Not officially.”
“I didn’t think so. I would have remembered you.”
No, he wouldn’t, but she wasn’t about to correct him. “Your family and the Dooleys have been neighbors for a very long time.”
“Yes.” Draining his glass, he walked over to refill it. “Too long. It’s time for your grandfather to sell.”
She pretended to sip her wine, but she wasn’t about to drink much of it. “Here’s the interesting part, Cameron. He might have done that if you’d allowed him his moment of glory with the Sasquatch.”
“Excuse me?”
“All he wanted was to go out with a bang. Sighting that mated pair would have allowed him to do that, after a lifetime of searching in vain. And then you brought Roarke in to ruin it. Grandpa Earl dug in his heels.”
Cameron rested his forearms on his desk and stared at her. “I’ll be damned.”
“If you would allow Roarke to confirm that my grandfather saw something out there instead of insisting it was only hikers, I might be able to convince him to sell. Maybe not to you, but—”
“I can create a dummy corporation to buy it. That’s not an obstacle. It could all be so simple, except for one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You, Abby Winchell.”
“I’m nothing, a cog in the wheel, a person trying to make this come out okay for my grandfather.”
“Ah, Abby, you are also a person trying to pull the wool over my eyes, and I can’t let you do that.”
Her heart beat faster. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do. Now tell me how you convinced Roarke to let you go along to look for the Sasquatch.”
“I told you why. He was feeling guilty about Grandpa Earl, so I convinced him to take me in Grandpa Earl’s place.”
Cameron looked at her over the rim of his crystal goblet. “This was a top-secret operation, and no matter how guilty Roarke felt about discrediting your grandfather, he wouldn’t have been eager to take anyone with him unless he had no choice. I want to know what leverage you used to make him agree to take you, Abby.”
“I had no special leverage.” She wondered how long it would take for Roarke to get here. Yes, they’d hiked for two days, but not steadily, and in wolf form Roarke would move much faster.
Still, she couldn’t reasonably expect him any time soon. Once he arrived, Roarke would
corroborate her story because he was as dedicated to keeping Cameron in the dark as she was. Maybe he could convince Cameron, werewolf-to-werewolf, that she was no threat to the Were community.
“I believe you did have leverage,” Cameron said. “And that information happens to be critical to me. I’m afraid I can’t let you leave this house until I find out what I need to know.”
Abby met his cold gaze as if what he’d said made no difference to her whatsoever, even though her tummy churned. “Surely you’ll give me a place to sleep. It’s been a long night.” Yes, this place looked like a fortress, but left to her own devices, she might figure out a way to escape.
“That would be the hospitable thing to do, but I’m afraid I’m not feeling hospitable right now. You and I are going to sit here until you decide to tell me the truth.”
She lifted her chin. “Will you bring out the thumbscrews, then?”
He smiled. “I hardly think that will be necessary. My goodness, you’ve barely touched your wine.”
She leaned forward and set her glass on his desk. With luck it would leave a ring. “You know, it’s amazing how quickly a good glass of wine can turn to vinegar.”
Chapter Twenty-One
By the time Roarke came in sight of the mansion, his paws were bloody and every breath brought a stab of white-hot pain. He disregarded both problems. Unless Gentry had misdirected him, Abby was in there, being held prisoner.
He spotted a sentry in human form at the entrance to the wolf tunnel. The sentry appeared to be unarmed, but Weres seldom openly displayed a weapon, even if they were carrying one.
Roarke wondered if the sentry would try to prevent him from going through that tunnel. If so, Roarke would have to take him out, and he could do that more effectively as a wolf. He trotted closer, mentally preparing to attack if necessary.
Then he noticed a Bluetooth attached to the sentry’s ear and heard the man say something to whoever was on the other end of the connection. Obviously the sentry had been posted to sound the alarm, not prevent Roarke from entering. That made sense. Gentry had left a note inviting Roarke to come after Abby, so barring the door would serve no purpose.
Roarke pushed at the revolving tunnel door, leaving a bloody print on the stone as he entered the system of passageways that lead to each of the mansion’s bedrooms. Exhausted though he was, Roarke traversed every tunnel and climbed every stone stairway, leaving bloody tracks as he went.
At the top of each stairway he paused to sniff at the revolving panel that opened into the bedroom beyond. Outside of one room he caught what seemed to be Smurtz’s mothball odor, but he couldn’t very well go in that room and confirm it. He checked all the other rooms to no avail. Wherever Gentry was holding her, it wasn’t in one of the sleeping rooms.
At last he approached the narrow stairs to the guest room he’d been assigned, and his head lifted in surprise. He knew that scent as well as his own. His brother Aidan was in his room.
He didn’t know for certain why Aidan was here, but he could guess. Gentry had summoned him to deal with the problem brother. Aidan’s presence lowered Roarke’s stress level considerably. He couldn’t believe Abby was in immediate danger with Aidan on the premises.
Chances were Aidan had taken the corporate jet over, and he hated to fly as much as Roarke loved it. No doubt Aidan had left Emma at home, too, because this wasn’t a social call. With the combination of high altitude flying and no Emma, Aidan would be in a mood. Roarke prepared himself for that as he pushed through the revolving panel into the bedroom.
Obviously Aidan had been stretched out on the king-sized bed, but he sat up immediately. His golden eyes narrowed as he surveyed Roarke. “You made good time, but you look like hell.”
Roarke had many things to say to his brother, but although he could understand human speech in wolf form, he couldn’t speak himself. And telepathy only worked when both Weres were wolves.
Running his fingers through his dark hair, Aidan swung his long legs off the bed and began putting on his wingtips. “I left clothes in the bathroom for you. We need to get downstairs, pronto.”
Roarke didn’t have to be told twice.
“Christ, Roarke. You’re bleeding all over the Aubusson.”
Roarke would have liked to take the time to dance a tango on Gentry’s damned antique rug. Instead he gave Aidan a look and padded into the bathroom.
“Yeah, I know.” Aidan’s feet hit the floor. “He’s an asshole, but that rug’s gotta be at least a hundred years old and you just reduced its value by several thousand dollars.”
Roarke liked the idea of that. Once he was capable of using gardening shears, he might decide to reduce the value of the rug some more. But in the meantime, he had to find out where Gentry had stashed Abby. He told himself that she was okay or Aidan wouldn’t have been lying peacefully on Roarke’s bed waiting for him.
Once Roarke had shifted, he called out to his brother as he turned on the shower. “Where’s Abby?”
“With Gentry in the study. How’re your hands and feet?”
“Fine.” In actuality they hurt like hell, but at least they weren’t bleeding anymore. Fortunately, shifting speeded up the healing process considerably. “Is Abby okay? Have you seen her?”
“No, but when I walked past the study door not long ago, she sounded all right. Feisty as hell.”
“Redhead.”
“Ah. Anyway, Gentry seems to think she’s keeping something from him. Is she, Roarke?”
“Tell you in a minute.” Roarke stepped into the shower and gasped as the water hit his abraded hands and feet. He made the shower quick and stepped out to find his brother leaning in the bathroom doorway.
Aidan threw him a towel. “You might want to tell me now.”
“Well…” Roarke considered what to say as he quickly dried off.
“She knows, doesn’t she, hotshot?”
“Don’t get all huffy with me, bro. You aren’t exactly the poster boy for pack security, either.” Roarke reached for the clothes Aidan had left in the bathroom. Roarke would have been fine with sweats and a T-shirt, but he dutifully put on the slacks and white dress shirt Aidan had left there.
Aidan sighed. “So she knows you’re Were. How much else?”
“Pretty much everything else.” Roarke buttoned the shirt and tucked it into his slacks. “And she has pictures of me shifting.”
“You posed for her? What kind of an idiot—”
“No, I didn’t pose, for God’s sake. I didn’t know she was there.” He glanced around the bathroom. “I need shoes and socks.”
“Wear the oxfords.” Aidan stepped out of his way as Roarke left the bathroom. “Gentry returned all your camping stuff, by the way. Your watch is on the bedside table, so you might as well wear it.”
“I get the idea you want us to walk in like urban professionals.”
“It’s what Gentry understands. If we show up looking like the heirs to the Wallace fortune, he’ll respect that. If you want to get Abby safely out of this situation, you need to play the game. So what’s this about pictures?”
Roarke sat in a wingback and put on his shoes and socks. “She happened to be in the woods when I was shifting and got me with a zoom lens. Then she blackmailed me into taking her along on the Bigfoot hunt.”
Aidan groaned. “Shit. I thought you’d fallen for her. But instead she’s a scheming—”
“She’s not scheming.” Roarke stood and finger-combed his damp hair. His camping gear was piled in a corner of the room, but he wouldn’t deal with it now.
“Roarke, she blackmailed you.”
“For a good reason.” He grabbed his watch from the bedside table and put it on. “Let’s go.”
“I don’t care what her reason was.” Aidan followed Roarke out of the bedroom and fell into step beside him as they walked down the hall. “If she’s capable of blackmail, then we’re in big trouble. At least with Emma I knew her heart was in the right place.”
“Abby’s he
art is in the right place, damn it. You don’t have to worry about her.”
“I assume she knows the Wallaces have money.”
“She knows.”
“So what’s to stop her from using what she knows to blackmail us for money?”
Roarke shook his head. “She would never do that.”
“Why not? If she blackmailed you for a good reason, then why not blackmail the family for more good reasons? There are any number of causes she could decide to support with money she extracted from us. She could—”
“Hold on, bro.” Roarke grabbed Aidan by the arm and pulled him to a halt. “We’re not going down there until I straighten you out on this score. I won’t have you dissing Abby like that. She’s a good person who doesn’t deserve the crap that’s been thrown at her.”
Aidan’s eyebrows rose. “You’re the one who said she blackmailed you. I’m only following the information to its logical conclusion.”
“And you’re dead wrong. Abby saw me as the enemy who was destroying her grandfather’s reputation, which I was. She caught me in the act of shifting and called me hypocritical, which was also true. I hated giving lectures debunking Bigfoot and making Earl Dooley look like a fool.”
“You were doing it for the good of the Gentry pack,” Aidan said quietly. “They couldn’t be overrun with humans looking for Bigfoot, and you’re the expert on cryptids, so you were the logical one to handle this. If you hadn’t, this pack was in danger of exposure.”
“Yeah, but making fun of Earl Dooley’s legitimate sighting was a nasty business, Aidan. You wouldn’t have liked it any better than I did.”
Aidan held Roarke’s gaze. “So you have fallen for Abby.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to. You’ve defended her the way I would have defended Emma.”
Roarke’s chest grew tight. “Look, it may be working for you and Emma, and I’m happy for both of you, but that doesn’t mean I’m in favor of a Were mating with a human.”
“Tell that to your heart, Roarke.” Aidan clapped him on the shoulder. “Come on. We need to go down there and break up whatever happy little party Gentry has going on.”
Werewolf in the North Woods Page 21
