by Diane Leyne
“How—oof.” Nate’s breath came out in a whooshing sound. Clearly Ginger had elbowed him. Ben rubbed his right index finger. It still hurt. Ginger was one heck of a woman.
“Chief, they’re new in town, just passing through to see their sister, and I know they meant no harm.”
“Maybe passing through, maybe staying,” Sully mused. “Maybe Nate is right. Harmony seems like a really nice town. Maybe we’ll stay a while.” Sully grinned, but his expression held no amusement. Ben wanted to laugh. When Sully grinned like that, grown men quaked in their boots.
It seemed the chief was made of sterner stuff.
“Well, if you boys are staying around, I’m sure we’ll meet up again.” He looked around the table. “Gentlemen. Ginger.”
They watched his departing back for a moment when Nate broke the silence. “My stomach hurts. Your elbow is sharp, woman!”
“And you were going to insult the Chief of Police.”
“He doesn’t seem to like shifters much.” Ben stated the obvious. “Do you know why?”
“He grew up here in Harmony and went to school with the first generation of wolves in Harmony, including my parents. He’s been around shifters all of his life. He’s a bit…well, okay, I don’t know why he doesn’t like shifters, the male ones at least. I’ve never had a problem with him. And, by the way, I work for his wife Octavia who owns the real estate office in town. She’s his second wife, actually. His first one walked out years ago and left him with a son to raise. Rumor has she ran off with a shifter, but then they both died in a crash so no one ever really knew the truth except maybe the chief. But he never said a word after she died. His son Tim is a year younger than I am and we even went out for a while, and the chief was fine with us dating, but I know he doesn’t hire shifters.”
“This Tim, he wouldn’t be a deputy, would he?” asked Sully.
Chapter Five
Ginger started. “Yes, he is. Part-time, anyway. How did you know?”
“We saw him poking around the family home. We were shifted and watching him from a distance as he peered into our SUV and took down the license plate before he appeared to get a call and sped off. We half expected him to have our car towed or something. That’s when we called Sam and she said she’d call you about the key.”
Ginger looked at Sully. “We never connected. I had promised to inspect the place because she’d been thinking of leasing it out. And then I forgot my phone at the office. I admit I kind of rushed out when I realized Sam was calling. I’ve been procrastinating for a week and wanted to tell her I’d done it before I spoke to her.”
“Well, if you’d spoken to her, then you probably wouldn’t have come out to visit and we wouldn’t have had nearly so interesting a first meeting.”
“Interesting, yes, that’s one way to put it. Now look, guys. I do have to get back to work, but my car is back at the house.”
“We’ll take you back just as soon as we finish eating.”
Ginger stared hard at Sully who raised his hand. “Promise. We won’t jeopardize your job. But we want something in return.”
“And what would that be?”
“Have dinner with us tonight.”
“Don’t you have plans with your sister and her Mates?”
Sully colored. Clearly he had forgotten.
“Fine. Breakfast tomorrow, then.”
Ginger looked at each man in turn. They’d all stopped eating to wait for her answer. She’d expected begging, pleading, teasing, but they just looked scared. Scared? Yes, like they were afraid she’d say no.
“Seven thirty at the Sunshine Café down at the main square.” They all grinned identical happy grins, and she felt something melt inside her. Damn they were cute and good for her ego.
Looking up, she saw Mindy’s son Teddy. He was eighteen and drove a motorcycle that he’d scrimped and paid for himself, and he looked like he was leaving. She looked around at the brothers who were now contentedly munching away.
“Guys, can you let me out? I need to hit the ladies room.”
Both Ben and Nate jumped up, but Ben was quicker and she slid out his side. Walking quickly through the restaurant, she stopped to talk to Mindy and then headed for the bathroom. She really did need to go. When she came out, Teddy was there, two helmets under his arms.
“Let me make a quick good-bye and I’ll meet you in the parking lot in two.”
“Make it three and I’ll get the bike started and be waiting at the front door.”
She smiled and kissed his cheek. She’d babysat him when he was small, and he was just as sweet as he’d been at three, although he’d grown up to be quite a hunk. If he was a bit older and she hadn’t changed his diapers, she might have fallen for him.
Walking quickly back to the table, she saw Nate rise and move to let her return to her seat.
“Take your time with the meal, boys. I’ve asked Mindy to bring you some of Bessie’s famous chocolate cake. I have to get back to work, and I’ve arranged a ride back to my car. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”
Then she skedaddled out the front door before any of them could reply. Luckily she was wearing pants. Teddy was waiting where he said he’d be. He handed her the helmet, which she quickly donned.
Looking up, she saw the Anderson brothers standing in the doorway watching. They looked both pissed and amused as she waved good-bye and Teddy roared off.
* * * *
The three brothers walked back to the table and sat down. Their plates had been cleared and in their place sat three huge pieces of the most decadent-looking chocolate cake he’d ever seen and three steaming cups of coffee.
Sitting down, Sully picked up the fork and then sat it down again, looking from Ben to Nate.
“She’s the one, isn’t she?” Nate’s voice was challenging like he’d expected Sully to disagree.
“She is, Sully. Don’t try to tell us you don’t feel it, too!” Ben’s tone was pleading. Sully paused and then picked up his fork again and slid it into the cake, taking a large piece up to his mouth and chewing thoughtfully.
“This is damned good. Why aren’t you two eating?”
“Why aren’t you answering us?” Ben’s tone was moving from pleading to demanding. He knew he sounded childish, but he couldn’t help it. He’d kill his big brother if Sully didn’t answer soon.
Sully sighed and pulled out his cell phone.
“Hey, Sam, we need a favor. Yes, I realize you are writing. And no, we aren’t on our way over. We promised not to come over until after five. We didn’t promise not to call. Fine. Yes, you can kill us when we arrive. But first that favor. We want you to invite Ginger to dinner tonight. Yes, you can invite other people, too. That might be good so Ginger doesn’t realize it’s a setup. Yes, we realize that you are Mated with her cousins and they’ll string us up by the balls if we hurt her. And we expect you to do the same if she hurts us. Of course I know she doesn’t have balls. At least I hope she doesn’t. You can string her up by another body part, then. You’ll do it? Great. See you at five. Okay, six. Love you, too. Bye.”
He turned to look at his brothers. “Satisfied?”
Ben grinned. “Not yet, but I expect to be quite soon now.”
Sully turned to Nate and glared. “You’re a bad influence on the boy!”
“Boy? You do remember that we are triplets and that while he’s technically the baby, he’s only a couple of hours younger than you are, right?”
Sully laughed, and then they all joined in. It was like all the tension left. Ben picked up his fork to sample the cake.
“This is good, really good.”
They ate in silence for a few moments. Mindy came and refilled their coffee. Sully ordered more cake for the three of them.
Finally, Ben could hold the words in no longer. “Am I crazy? Are we crazy? I mean, we just met Ginger. We’re here for a job. We need to figure out who started the fire at the clinic and has been targeting the other shifter businesses.”
“Yu
p,” Sully agreed.
“And we have always agreed that the talk about instantly recognizing your Mate, yada, yada, yada, was just some old tale.”
“Agree.”
“And even though we are attracted to Ginger, that doesn’t mean she has the same feelings for us, and even if she does, this is just lust. We don’t really know her. She doesn’t know us. Clearly we are in the grips of some mass delusion based on our upbringing, and when we see her again we’ll realize that she’s a nice lady…”
“With great tits.” Trust Nate to be Nate.
“With great tits, but she’s not some kind of destined Mate or something. She’s just a woman we’re all attracted to, and she seems to be somewhat attracted to us. So maybe we’ll have fun together and fool around a bit, and then we’ll move back to Florida and we’ll never see each other again and the three of us will die alone and bitter old men because we let our one chance at love slip away!” Ben realized that his voice was rising, and he had to force himself to speak more quietly so that no one could overhear their conversation.
“Sully! Do something. Say something!”
“What do you want me to say, Ben? That Mating is nonsense? That there is no destined woman for us to share and that our wolf blood would recognize her and call to her? Ginger makes us all hot because we are brothers and share the same DNA and are attracted to the same kind of woman, and not because of some kind of shifter mojo?
“Fine. I’ll say it all, but I don’t believe it, not anymore. Before today, I’d have believed every word. Now, all I know is that we are meant to be with her. We just have to convince her of that. But we also can’t forget why we are here. Her friend’s Mate could have died in that fire. Hell, her friend, the vet, could have died in that fire. No matter how difficult it is, we can’t think with our cocks. Whoever this nutcase is, we’re at risk. Sam and her men are at risk. And most importantly, Ginger’s at risk.
“And now I’m going to propose something that you two will not like, but I have to say it—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can’t have sex with her until we get the perp! It would only distract us from the task at hand,” interrupted Ben. “Damn you can be pompous sometimes, Sully.”
“Seconded,” added Nate. “To clarify, I second both things. Sully can be a pompous ass, but he’s also right in this case. If we make love with Ginger, we won’t be able to think of anything else. And when I finally get her in my bed, if I get her in my bed, I’m not getting out for a week, so as much as I hate to say it, I agree. We have to wait.
“But I’m not waiting forever. We need to clear this case in record time.”
Chapter Six
Ginger pulled into her usual parking spot in the small lot behind Griffin Homes. She knew she should go in. She had a hundred and one things to do, and she’d wasted the morning. No, scratch that. It wasn’t wasted, exactly. She’d met the Anderson boys, and she desperately needed to talk to someone. That meant Penelope, Lena, or Samantha. But Lena was a busy vet, kept busier because she was working out of a temporary location until her office was rebuilt. And Penelope would have just finished with the lunch crowd at her café and be cleaning up and doing the myriad of chores she needed, as the owner, to finish before she could leave.
That left Sam, who was probably the best person to talk to anyway. Ginger was already reaching into her purse before she remembered she’d forgotten her cell at the office. Oh, well. Can’t put it off any longer. But still she dawdled. Octavia always knew everything about everyone. That was one of the things that made Griffin Homes so successful. Ginger always suspected that Roger gave her the inside scoop some of the time, and maybe her stepson Tim who worked part-time as a deputy. Poor Tim. He wasn’t half the man his dad was, and sometimes she thought he knew it, so she found herself going out of her way to be extra nice to him.
She wasn’t sure if he took after his mother. She didn’t really remember Roger’s first wife. Tim was nice enough, and they’d dated for a while just after she’d graduated, but he was one of those people who seemed to drift through life with no drive, unlike his father and stepmother, and stepbrother and sister who were a decade younger than he was and already more accomplished. Carrie was in New York studying theatre at Julliard on full scholarship, and Louis was at Northwest, also on a scholarship.
It had been hard for Tim when his dad married Octavia. She was only a decade older than him, a divorcée with two children, closer to his age, in fact, than to his father. But Octavia had truly seemed to love Roger and made an effort with his son. But Tim was a born slacker. He’d wanted to be an artist when Ginger had dated him. It had sounded romantic and about as far from law enforcement as he could get. Roger wasn’t chief back then, but he was a deputy and next in line when the old chief, coincidentally Octavia’s father, retired.
But the painting hadn’t worked out. He’d also tried writing, song writing to be precise. And he’d studied guitar. Those hadn’t worked out either. She’d gone to his one and only live performance at open mike night at Lupo’s, and it had been a disaster. It had also spelled the beginning of the end of their relationship as he accused her of not being supportive enough of him.
She and Tim had stayed cordial over the years, and she’d watched from a distance as he tried real estate, six months, sales, three months, and banking, two weeks. He seemed to be going backward. Finally, his father had told him he had to hold a job for a year or he was going to make him enlist in the army because the military would be able to make a man of him.
The army seemed to have done something for him. He left town for two years, stopping by only a couple of times with his short hair and upright bearing. But after barely two years, he was back in Harmony. No one seemed to have any idea what happened except maybe his family, and they weren’t talking. He went back to loafing, but Roger had laid down the law again and told Tim he had to get a job. So Tim did. He applied for a part-time deputy position in the police force, and Roger had hired him. He’d been working there for a few years now, still part-time, but he seemed happy enough.
As she finally made herself get out of the car, she saw the backdoor to Griffin Homes open and Tim emerge. Speak of the devil!
“Hey, Tim.” He really was a good-looking boy, or rather man, in his uniform, with his crisp shirt and tie, his hat under his arm. She sometimes forgot how handsome he was and how old. He was just a year younger than she was. Back when they dated, it had seemed daring to be with a younger man, even if it was only a single year. “How are you? Visiting Octavia?”
“Uh, yeah. She needed something. How are you, Ginger?” He grinned at her, seemingly happy to see her.
“Not bad. Busy, of course.”
“Not too busy to head to Lupo’s in the middle of the day, I hear.”
“Does it matter where I eat lunch?”
“No, no it doesn’t. Sorry, Ginger. None of my business. I know how hard you work. Octavia says you’re her best agent.”
“Octavia’s a great boss. I only hope I can live up to her faith in me.”
“I know you do. She always regretted when we broke up. She had been hoping to have you as a daughter-in-law. I think that was the most pleased with me she ever was, when you and I dated and she thought we might get married. When you broke up with me, I think it hurt her even more than me.”
“Damn, Tim.”
“Yeah, I know. Sorry again.” He looked at her, his eyes sad. She reached out and patted his arm.
“Tim, that was a long time ago.”
“I know, Ginger. And I’ve changed. I really have. I’ve grown up a lot. I work two, sometimes three days a week for my father, and he even trusts me with a gun.” He smiled and patted his hip, and when she didn’t smile back, he continued quickly. “And my novel is almost done. I’ve had some interest from a couple of big-time agents. They think it could be the next big thing.”
Ginger smiled as he gave the words air quotes.
“I’m very happy for you, Tim. You deserve to be the n
ext big thing. What’s the book about?”
“Sorry, Ginger. I can’t tell. Not yet. Soon. I can’t tell anyone until the contracts are signed. I don’t want word to get around and someone to steal my idea. Oh, not you, Ginger. But it might slip out if you knew, and then things get around and before you know it, someone’s beaten you to the punch and making millions off your idea.”
“I understand, Tim. Now I do have to get to work. If you’ll excuse me.”
“Oh, sure, yes. But, as I was saying, um, it’s been a long time since we, uh, broke up, and I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner with me. No pressure or anything. Just two old friends catching up.”
“Oh, Tim. Thank you, but I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“It’s them, isn’t it? I’ve heard about those new wolves in town. You were seen with them at Lupo’s, letting them touch you right out in public. Samantha’s brothers, right? You always were a wolf lover, weren’t you?”
She was shocked by the venom in his voice.
“How can you say such things? I’m wolf, Tim. You know that!”
“Yeah, but you don’t change. You don’t shift. You…you…you’re different.” He stepped closer and reached out a hand.
“I’m not, Tim. The wolf is inside me, Tim. Even if I married a human, my sons will shift, too. It’s in my blood. It’s part of who I am. And now I think you need to go.”
Ginger turned and rushed up the steps away from the hand he’d reached out. Using her key, she opened the door and entered, turning to watch him walk over to the cruiser in the corner of the lot. He looked so dejected, but she couldn’t feel sorry for him, not after his hurtful words. She’d never known him to be one of them, the haters, before.
Closing the door behind her, she walked quickly to her desk. Her phone was just where she left it, in the charger. Unplugging it, she dropped it in her purse and then turned on her computer. While she waited for it to boot, she checked her voice mails. Twelve, including three from Sam.
