Sami rolled her eyes. “Whatever. The remote control isn’t working.”
Aric made a comical face. “Did you change the batteries?”
“I don’t know where they are.”
“They’re in the drawer in the kitchen where everything that doesn’t have a specific place to live goes to die,” Aric supplied. “Change the batteries.”
“Can’t you do it?” Sami sounded whiny, and when I risked a glance at Zoe I found her smirking instead of frowning.
Aric growled low in his throat as he ushered Millie toward the stairs and scowled at his wife. “You were right. We should’ve remained childless.”
Zoe shrugged. “Live and learn.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Aric paused when he hit the bottom step and shifted to face me. “Zoe says you’re okay, that you’re not a threat. I believe her, but I’m going to throw this out there all the same.
“If you move on my wife, if you try to hurt her, I will rip your heart from your chest and feed it to the first werewolf I find,” he continued. “That’s after she’s finished with you, of course, and she’s a lot meaner and more inventive than I am.”
For some reason the fact that he even remotely considered me a threat to his wife bolstered my confidence. “I’m not here to hurt her. I just want to … talk.”
Aric nodded. “I know. I get it. But she’s my wife, and I will kill for her.”
“I understand. You don’t have to worry about me.” I watched him go, doing my best to ignore the way Millie fawned over him – and the inappropriate things she said about his chest – and waited until I was sure it was just Zoe and me to speak again. “You’re being awfully gracious for someone who found two strangers spying from your bushes.”
“I guess that’s how you’d see it.” Zoe gestured toward a set of chairs near a fire pit. “From my perspective, I knew you would come.”
“Because of what you saw in my head?”
“What makes you think I saw anything in your head?” Zoe asked. “That’s a weird thing to say.”
I couldn’t decide if she was playing coy to monitor my reaction or if she really thought I’d fall for the lie and opted to say it as a way to discourage me from questioning her further. “Because I saw things in your head, too.”
“Really?” Zoe crossed one leg over the other and leaned back in her wooden chair as I did my best to get comfortable in the other. “And what did you see?”
“I saw your husband at various stages of your life. I saw … at least I think I saw … your hands glowing blue.”
Zoe held up her hands. “Glowing, huh?” She shook them. “They seem to be on the fritz.”
I pressed my lips together as I debated how to proceed. “I get that you’re trying to protect yourself. You have no idea who I am or what I’m capable of doing. You have a family you need to protect.”
“My family is my biggest priority,” Zoe agreed. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep them safe. I don’t think that’s out of the ordinary for most people.”
“No, probably not.” I scratched my upper lip, convinced angry bees lurked in the area and were ready to strike. “Do you know what happened to the people in the woods? Did you have something to do with their disappearances?”
Whatever she was expecting, that wasn’t it. For a brief moment I saw a flash of uncertainty buzz through Zoe’s brain. She shuttered it quickly and forced a smile. “Do you think I had something to do with their disappearances?”
“I don’t know.” I opted for honesty. “The things I saw … they happened so fast. I couldn’t quite understand what I saw. The only thing I did understand was that you and your husband are a unit … and you’re the sort of unit that manages to survive terrible things because you work together.”
“I think that’s a fair assessment.” Zoe tilted her head to the side. “I did some research after our meeting in the woods. I placed a few calls to learn about the people staying in town and came up with a name, one I think you volunteered before I really started listening. The Legacy Foundation is a big operation. It’s so big I almost glossed over the fine print of the description. If I’d done that, I would’ve missed the part that said the group searches for paranormal creatures.”
“I think that’s a rather simplistic version of what we do,” I offered.
“Okay. What do you do?”
“I don’t know. This is my fourth assignment with the group. I’ve only been out of college a few weeks.”
Zoe snorted, amusement evident. “That’s … freaking priceless. You’re very funny. Back in the day, you’re exactly the sort of person I would’ve surrounded myself with in college. I like to think I have good instincts, and my instincts say I should trust you. Of course, my instincts also had me trusting evil losers a time or two over the years, too, so I never do anything without giving it a lot of thought these days … no matter what my husband says to the contrary.”
“Bees?”
Zoe nodded. “They’re evil. He doesn’t get it, but I do.”
I chuckled as I rubbed the back of my head, weariness threatening to overtake me. “You’re not going to tell me why our minds joined like they did, are you?”
“I can’t say that I remember that happening.” Zoe was a master at controlling a situation. I could see that, sense her determination to remain enigmatic. “If something like that did happen, though, I would imagine it wasn’t on purpose. Perhaps it occurred because two like minds crossed paths when neither was expecting it.”
“So you don’t know why it happened either.”
Zoe smirked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Right.” I briefly pressed my eyes shut. “You’re sure you didn’t kill the people in the woods? I’d hate to start liking you and then find out you’re a murderer.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with the disappearances.” Zoe sobered. “I was out there looking for answers, the same as you. I’m just as concerned about what could have happened as you, maybe more so because it essentially went down in my backyard.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Just you.”
“Will you keep looking?”
Zoe nodded and leaned forward. “I can’t give you what you want, at least not right now. I’m sorry if that’s disappointing, but it’s another reason I was waiting to seek you out. I don’t know you. You could very well be a good person – and I think you probably are – but you said it yourself: My family is my number one priority.”
“And you can’t trust me because you don’t know me.” I honestly understood where she was coming from. Her family had to take precedence over the needs of a virtual stranger. “Can I ask you one thing, though, even if you don’t answer the question?”
Zoe nodded.
“Did you die?”
Zoe jolted, but regained control of herself relatively quickly. “Why would you ask that?”
“I saw. I saw what looked to be a burning building … and a gun … and your crying husband and child. I felt what you felt for a moment. You were willing to go if it meant they’d be safe. All of it overwhelmed me.”
“Is that what you felt when your friend arrived?” Zoe asked, not bothering to deny my description. “Were you feeling the aftereffects of death?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I was feeling something else. I don’t know how to describe it, but I haven’t been able to shake the feeling all day. That’s why I asked around town about you. Your reputation is out there, by the way. According to the guy I talked to, you’re the most hated and feared woman in town.”
Instead of being offended, Zoe grinned. “I’ve worked hard for that reputation. It’s exactly what I want.”
“Because you’ve been hunted?”
Zoe shrugged. “I’ve been many things. Are you asking if I’ve been hunted because of what happened in the woods? Do you think they were hunted?”
I shrugged. “My boss is convinced that a werewolf got them. Do you believe in werewolves?”
“I believe in a little bit of everything.”
“But you’re not a werewolf, right?”
“I’m definitely not.”
That made me feel better. I got the distinct impression that Zoe tiptoed around questions she didn’t want to answer, but when she did offer a sound response it was the truth. That was simply how she rolled. “So, what do you think happened?”
“I don’t know.” Zoe’s expression turned troubled. “If something attacked in the woods – even though it was a mile away – I have to think I would’ve felt a ripple. I didn’t. That means either something else happened or nothing happened.”
The two options threw me for a loop. “What do you mean?”
“Perhaps what happened in those woods is human in nature,” Zoe suggested. “Or perhaps two people were looking for attention and set up a scene as a way to get the town buzzing. We don’t have enough information to move forward with a workable hypothesis yet.”
“But … we have footprints. We made casts of them. They’re canine in nature.”
“Not everything is as it appears.” Zoe brushed off the seat of her pants as she got to her feet. “Whatever is out there – human or otherwise – you need to be careful. I have a bad feeling about this one, which is the only reason I got involved.”
“And we’re seriously not going to talk about what happened?”
Zoe’s lips curved. “Again, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I heaved out a sigh. “You’re a lot of work.”
“You’re not the first person to tell me that.” Zoe tilted her head to the deck and smiled when she saw Millie and Aric talking. They seemed to be having a good time. “Sometimes the work itself is fun, though. Just ask my husband.”
“He seems fine with it.”
“He does.” Zoe turned serious as she glanced at me. “Don’t make the mistake of wandering around these woods again after dark. If you need to talk to me, knock on the front door. Don’t eavesdrop.”
I felt sheepish. “I didn’t mean to be rude.”
“I don’t care about that. I care about what could possibly be in the woods. You need to think before you act. I know it’s difficult – trust me, if anyone knows it’s me – but you need to think hard right now. I don’t know what’s out there, but I am concerned that something bad could happen if you don’t pay attention. Fight your inner urges and pay attention.”
“Are you going to fight your inner urges and do the same?”
Zoe shrugged. “I live by my own set of rules. It’s basically, ‘Do as I say, not as I do,’ in this house.”
I was definitely starting to believe that.
10
Ten
Millie couldn’t stop talking about Aric and Sami for the duration of the drive back to the inn. Apparently Aric left his shirt off for the entire conversation, which was a big bonus, and even though the kid had a few irritating quirks, Millie was in love with the Winters family.
“Seriously, he must work out ten times a day to get a body like that. Hello, hunka, hunka burning love!”
We were walking up the pathway to the inn, so I felt the need to admonish her. “Yes, he was hot,” I hissed. “But you’ve got to stop talking about it, because our trip has to be a secret. We agreed on that.”
Millie’s expression turned dour. “Do you think I don’t know that? I’m not a rookie. I just can’t get over that body. Are you telling me you didn’t want to run your fingers over that chest?”
I was fairly certain that Zoe was the type to scratch out eyeballs if someone expressed that sentiment, so I merely shook my head. “He was a nice guy.”
“And?”
“And his body was nice, too. You have to stop talking about it, though. We need to get the keys back and pretend we were in our rooms all night. If someone finds out … .”
“You’ll be in a lot of trouble,” Jack finished, moving from the shadows offered by a set of trees to our right and cutting off our avenue into the building. He stepped under the bright outdoor lights and let loose a glare that would’ve shriveled the bowels of almost everybody … except possibly Millie. “Hello, ladies.”
“Uh-oh.” I shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable.
“Uh-oh is right.” Jack’s expression wasn’t hard to read. He was angry. No, he was royally ticked off. “Where have you two been?”
Millie decided to take control of the conversation. “I don’t think that’s the most important topic of discussion for the night. I think it’s far more important to discuss why you felt it necessary to hide in the trees and then ambush us like some sort of self-righteous ninja. That’s a lot weirder than whatever we were doing.”
I wasn’t a big fan of going on the offensive when in the wrong, but for this particular situation it seemed a good idea. “Yeah.” I nodded. “Why are you hiding in the bushes like a … hiding-in-the-bushes sort of guy?”
Jack rolled his eyes and lifted his phone. “Because after your last excursion with the rental vehicles I decided it would be smart to pay for tracking on future trips. There’s an app that provides everything there is to know when a vehicle is in motion. It’s a good thing I thought ahead, isn’t it? This way I knew when you were coming back and didn’t have to call the police to find you.”
“Huh.” Millie moved her jaw back and forth. “Well, if you knew where we were why did you bother to ask in the first place? That seems like a waste of time.”
“I didn’t ask you.” Jack expectantly held out his hand.
Millie slammed her hand into his and grinned, offering a high-five for the ages. “I’m glad all the uncomfortable stuff is over. Let’s move on and forget all about it.”
Jack narrowed his eyes to the point where I could see nothing but darkness. “Give me the keys.”
“Oh.” Millie dug in her pocket and returned with the keys. “There you go. No harm, no foul.”
“Oh, there was very much a foul.”
“How so?” Millie wasn’t in the mood to back down. “We had someplace to be so we took one of the Jeeps. As you’re well aware, I am always listed as a driver on the vehicles. If you have a problem with me taking one, I suggest you talk to Chris about it. He is the boss, after all.”
“Maybe I will.” Jack wrapped his fingers around the keys and glanced between us. “As it stands now, I’ll keep this to myself. I don’t want to see you two getting in trouble and turning into a distraction. It hardly seems conducive to finding answers about our missing couple.”
“Thank you,” I offered hurriedly. “I didn’t mean for this to turn into a thing.”
Millie put her hand on my arm to still me. “Don’t let him get your panties in a twist. He’s only complaining because he likes the sound of his own voice and hates it when he loses control of the situation. He has no reason to be so upset.”
Jack’s eyebrows practically flew off his forehead. “No reason? You disappeared without telling anyone where you were going!”
Millie refused to back down. “And we’re both adults. We don’t have to tell you where we’re going.”
“You do if you take one of the rental vehicles.”
“No, we really don’t.” Millie used her hip to nudge Jack out of the way. “If you have a problem with what I did – and I’m the one who enlisted Charlie’s help – then take it up with Chris and I’ll talk to him. Don’t try to bully me. I don’t like it.”
Jack took an inadvertent step back. “I’m not trying to bully you.”
“That’s exactly what you’re trying to do.”
“It is not.”
Millie poked a finger into Jack’s chest for emphasis. “You’re not the king here. You’re the security expert. You’re good at your job. That doesn’t mean you get to issue proclamations and edicts about how everyone else should act.
“Think about it,” she continued. “You spent your evening watching your phone in an effort to spy on us. That says a little something about you … like you�
�re bored and need to get some action. If that’s the case, I think Laura is open for offers.”
The look Jack unleashed was straight out of a bad horror movie. “Don’t ever say anything like that again.”
“Then don’t force me to say it.” Millie grabbed my arm and jerked me toward the door. “You’re not the boss of the world, Jack. You need to understand that. We didn’t do anything wrong and we’re not going to apologize for exercising our rights as adults and taking a little trip. Get over it.”
Jack opened his mouth to continue the argument, but Millie shook her head to cut him off.
“We’re done!” She gave me a hard shove through the door and waited for it to close, leaving a perplexed Jack on the other side, before speaking again. “Well, I handled that well. Now he’ll spend the entire night thinking about what I said and start tomorrow with an apology.”
I was dumbfounded. “Do you really think that’s true?”
Millie bobbed her head. “He’s a man. I just shamed him. He’ll apologize.”
“But he didn’t technically do anything wrong. We were in the wrong.”
“Bite your tongue! We were not in the wrong. As far as I’m concerned, I’m never in the wrong. Mark my words, Jack will be calmer and easier to talk to in the morning. That’s exactly what we want.”
“What if he’s not?”
“Then I’ll have to walk through door number two to save us.”
“And what is door number two?”
“You wouldn’t believe the stuff I have on my ex-husband.” Millie’s smile was evil. “There’s a reason I can do whatever I want, and I only pull that trigger sparingly. Don’t worry about it. We’ll be fine.”
I wanted to believe her, but I’m a worrier by nature. “I hope I don’t lose my job.”
“You won’t. You’ll be fine. Trust me.”
The Werewolf Whoops Page 9
