by Tasha Black
Grace shook herself slightly and addressed Ainsley.
“I stopped by the construction site on my rounds. Erik seemed worried. I told him I’d pick you up. How’s it going?”
“Not well,” Ainsley answered honestly.
“You’re trying too hard, that’s all,” said Grace. “Let it do its thing. This is part of you, it should feel natural. Right, Julian?”
How could she speak with such nonchalance when something so intense was obviously happening between them?
He couldn’t bear to look into those eyes again, so he looked to Ainsley as he answered.
“Ainsley is learning formal magic. It requires hard work, study and sacrifice, but it will give Ainsley control and precision. It’s a little different from cottage magic.”
Ainsley sighed in exasperation and tromped toward the cul-de-sac.
Too late he realized that what he’d said might offend Grace.
“Though of course, cottage magic can be very helpful in its own right.”
“It was nice to finally meet you.” Grace gave Julian a tight smile and headed after Ainsley.
A jolt of sweetness that almost made him feel faint followed their brief eye contact.
Mortified, he realized he was sick with love for her.
And now she hated him.
But surely everyone knew that formal magic was preferable to cottage magic? It wasn’t snobbery, it was a fact. Cottage magic was unpredictable and took its toll on its own terms. Formal magic was powerful and reliable.
He turned back to the pool. It felt like even the frogs were giving him the stink eye. Who could blame them when he had managed to screw up love-at-first-sight?
He tried not to imagine making love to Grace Kwan-Cortez on the abandoned brick patio, or in the tall grass as he trudged away from Happy to set up tomorrow’s lesson.
Chapter 4
Erik hummed as he tapped out the next morning’s agenda on his iPad. He didn’t spend much time in his trailer - he much preferred the fresh air and blue sky, but at least in here he was surrounded by blueprints.
A bad feeling broke his concentration. Something was different.
He put down the iPad to listen for the sounds of trouble.
Silence.
There should never be silence on the site.
He flew out the door of the trailer, praying that there hadn’t been an injury, and ready to tear into whoever was holding things up if there wasn’t.
His eyes took in the familiar acre of overturned ground, auburn as his mate’s fur. His men stood around looking nervous, but there was no sign that their medical emergency plan had gone into effect.
An unfamiliar man approached. He was short, with round wire-rimmed glasses. His white button down shirt and khakis looked like they came from a cheap department store. A clipboard jutted from beneath one arm.
Government.
Shit. What could be wrong?
“Erik Jensen?”
“That’s me. What can I do for you?”
“This site has been closed down indefinitely.” He tapped the clipboard with a cheap Bic pen. “I’ll need you to sign here, here and here to acknowledge that you received this cease and desist and that you understand your obligations.”
“May I see some ID?” Erik asked.
That got the little guy’s attention.
“Excuse me?” The man blinked behind his thick glasses.
“If you work for the government, I have the right to request your identification and even your pay grade. Just identification will suffice, for now at least.”
The man shook his head as he pulled a lanyard with an ID out of his pocket and handed it to Erik.
Leopold Pruitt - Environmental Protection Agency.
“EPA, wow.” Erik returned the ID card. “May I ask why the EPA is interested in this site? We’re on private college property. I think you’ll find all our papers are in order.”
“It’s all right here,” Leopold pointed at the clipboard again.
“I intend to fully review that document with an attorney. Can you explain it in layman’s terms?”
“We’ve had reports that this site is a habitat for the endangered short-eared owl.”
They looked together over the already treeless lot.
“This was an athletic field, Leopold. We dug up the grass and removed 6 trees that had been planted to screen the field from the road. I don’t really see how it could qualify as an owl habitat. Are you sure you’re in the right place?”
Leopold looked down at his clipboard.
“Is this ‘The Proposed Site of the Tarker’s Hollow College Inn and Bookstore’?”
Erik nodded.
Leopold shrugged.
“Then please sign, here, here and here.” Tapping the clipboard again.
“Do you have a supervisor I can speak with?”
Leopold blinked up at him again. Fleetingly, it occurred to Erik that the man himself actually looked sort of owlish. No wonder he wanted to protect them.
“Sir, maybe you don’t understand. These are endangered birds. We need to take all reports seriously. You can go over my head, but you can’t keep building here.”
Erik fought his wolf, and even his human temper. The man was just doing his job. If only they hadn’t lost two days of progress to Clive’s hissy fit just last month.
“How quickly will you be able to wrap this up?” Erik tried his best to sound civil.
“This seems like an easy case to …evaluate.” Leopold smiled at him politely. “I expect we could have you back to work within six months to a year.”
Erik ran a hand through his too-long hair.
His men were watching him closely. It was important to lead by example.
“I will take your card and a copy of this document. As soon as my attorney has reviewed it I will be glad to sign off and get it back to you.”
Leopold took the sheet off the board.
“It doesn’t really matter if you sign it or not. If you start work again you will be in violation of the law. The clock on our evaluation process won’t start ticking until after you sign.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. You have a good day now, okay?”
The setting sun silhouetted Leopold Pruitt as he ambled back to his little gray car.
Erik fought to keep his head from exploding as he figured in his losses and the losses of the men who waited in silence on the red dirt. He had to find a way to keep them working.
He’d already lost a few good men this year. His crew were all young, male wolves from the Tarker’s Hollow pack. It was no secret that there was a shortage of available female wolves in town.
He and Ainsley had wondered together what that meant for the future of the pack, and what, if anything, they could do about it. If the remaining young males left to find mates in other packs, the Tarker’s Hollow wolves would be in trouble.
The Inn job they were on now, and the upcoming highway project, were all that kept his remaining crew from seeking greener pastures.
“Let’s call it a day, guys. Everyone back on time and ready to work in the morning.”
There was a collective sigh, and the men scrambled, glad to have an early night and hopeful that it meant they weren’t out of a job.
Erik knew his night would be a late one. Why would someone think short eared owls had been living on an athletic field?
He didn’t need to be wolf to notice something about this whole business smelled funny.
Chapter 5
Grace could not believe her luck as she stepped into the interrogation room.
“Dale,” she shouted through the open door. “Not today!”
“Sorry, Gracie,” came the muffled reply from the front desk. “You know it rained on Tuesday.”
Tarker’s Hollow police station was not large. Once a month, when the parking meters were emptied, the change had to be spread out somewhere to dry before they could deposit it.
The most likely place was the interrogation room, since it wa
s seldom in used for its intended purpose. So now the table in the middle of the room sparkled like the Potters’ vault at Gringotts. And there was barely time to get it out of here before Sanderson got here.
“Hello?” came a soft voice from the station door.
He was early. Perfect.
She’d hardly been able to concentrate on normal day-to-day life since meeting Julian Magie last night. The electric feeling when they had locked eyes set her pulse racing just thinking about it. And she couldn’t stop wondering if he’d felt the same.
Of course, his attitude toward her “cottage magic” gave her a pretty clear idea of his feelings toward her. But still…
No time to dwell on it now. Now, she had to conduct an official interview in a place that looked more like the back room of a Chuck E Cheese’s than a police interrogation room.
“Come on in.” Grace pushed away the distractions and turned her mind to the business at hand. She had a crime to solve.
A man turned the corner from the hallway. He was probably in his late fifties and walked slowly with a cane. But his posture was faultless and there was a youthful sparkle in his cornflower blue eyes.
Dale Evans followed a few steps behind.
“Hello, Mr. Sanderson, thank you for coming in,” Grace said.
“I see you got lucky at the slot machines,” he said, nodding at the change.
“No, this is from the parking meters.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“They aren’t water tight,” Dale explained. “We have to dry the change, or the girls at the bank won’t take it anymore.”
“Ah, the responsibilities of our small town police force. I wonder if any of us are really aware of all you do for the village.”
Grace wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic or not, but she was very sure he had no idea about some of the things Tarker’s Hollow officers had to do. She gave him the benefit of the doubt and gestured for him to sit.
“Can I bring you a cup of coffee?” Dale asked.
Grace was sure he was only stalling because he was curious about the ‘younger man’ Sadie had been seeing.
“No, thank you.”
Garrett Sanderson sat down carefully, elegantly crossing one long leg over the other and holding his cane to the ground like a king with a scepter. The cane was polished black wood with a wrought metal handle.
Grace thought it might make a good makeshift weapon.
“I’ll let you get to it then, Gracie,” Dale said, backing out and shutting the door.
Grace tried to turn her wince into a smile.
Garrett Sanderson smiled back at her expectantly.
“How may I help you today?” he asked, gazing earnestly at her with his penetrating blue eyes.
She tried and failed not to let them remind her of Julian’s sparkling eyes.
Grace wasn’t sure how to begin. The whole town had been aflutter for weeks because of Garrett’s presence in Sadie Epstein-Walker’s life. Though he was no spring chicken himself, he was much younger than she. And there was not much to talk about in a small town - especially for the non-wolf majority. They had the weather, the Inn, the highway, and Sadie Epstein-Walker’s new beau.
“I’m sure you’ve heard about Sadie’s injury?”
“Yes, of course, I’ve been worried sick ever since I heard. I just came from the hospital. Nasty business, taking a fall like that.”
“Because she isn’t awake to tell us what happened, we need to do a routine investigation.”
“Ah, I see.”
Grace looked through the pages on her clipboard.
“Excuse me for a moment, Mr. Sanderson?”
“Please, it’s Garrett, and of course.”
She stepped out of the door and closed it behind her. One of the best tactics she had learned at the academy was that a suspect who was given time to get nervous usually did just that.
She grabbed a bottle of water out of the mini-fridge in the kitchenette and drank a little. She checked her iPhone and read the headlines and weather.
When she entered the room, she found Sanderson just as she had left him.
“Was that a test to make sure I wouldn’t steal any change?”
Rather than acknowledging him, Grace sat down on the other side of the table.
“You’re the Department Secretary for Russian Lit at Tarker’s Hollow College, is that right?”
“I believe the politically correct title is Administrative Assistant.”
“How long have you been in town?” She ignored his natural charm and focused on his reactions to the setup questions.
“About three weeks now.”
“I see. And where are you living?”
“The college didn’t have any apartments available so I’m staying at Thayer House.”
Now to get down to business.
“What is the nature of your relationship with Sadie Epstein-Walker?” Grace tried not to allow any inflection in her voice, as she asked the question she knew every old biddy in Tarker’s Hollow was dying to know the answer to.
Garret smiled, deepening the sexy lines in his face. He reminded Grace of that television show with the doctor who solved medical mysteries.
“Sadie and I are companions.”
Grace didn’t reply.
They stared each other down. When she was sure he wasn’t going to offer anything more, she continued.
“Do you mean you have a romantic relationship?”
“I don’t see how that is relevant here,” Sanderson replied. “But sure.”
“Have you had any altercations lately?”
“Miss Kwan-Cortez, when you reach a certain age you realize that altercations are more trouble than they’re worth.”
“Where were you last night between the hours of six and eight?”
“I was at Thayer House.” He uncrossed his legs and straightened up a bit. “Officer Kwan-Cortez, am I to understand that I’m suspected of something?”
“This is routine, Mr. Sanderson. Can anyone corroborate your whereabouts?”
“No. I was reading a book, alone. My leg doesn’t respond well to cool moist weather, so I don’t go out at night much in the fall.”
He twirled his cane in place and looked into her eyes impassively. The metal top caught the light, revealing it to be an ornate silver wolf’s head.
Though it was unlikely, Grace fed him the pack line.
“Did you notice the moon last night?”
He studied her in silence. His hesitation surprised her and she almost expected him to respond with, I’ve noticed it all of my life - Tarker’s Hollow code for pack membership.
“No. As I said, I was inside, reading a book.”
It had been worth a shot.
“I’m beginning to think that I might need an attorney for the rest of this routine investigation,” he said, his warm demeanor cooling.
He didn’t actually ask for one, so Grace wasn’t obligated to cease questioning yet. She pressed on.
“I only have one more question.” Her instincts told her she wouldn’t get much more out of him today. “You and Sadie were close, do you know if anyone was angry with her?”
He looked out the window. There was nothing to see out there except the top of the Habers’ Elm tree, which was nearly bare of leaves.
Here would be the point where he fabricated something to throw suspicion away from himself. Something she could catch him in later.
He turned back and looked her in the eye.
“Official investigations aside, you know Sadie, don’t you?” He didn’t wait for her to respond. “Of course no one is angry with her. She’s the sweetest lady in Tarker’s Hollow. All she does is garden, walk the dog, and smile at everyone she meets. You could interrogate the whole town and not find anyone with a grudge. Now, if you’re finished, I’m going back to sit with her.”
Grace nodded slowly.
“We’ll be in touch if we need anything else,” she said, rising from her chair and o
ffering her hand. “Do you need any help getting out?”
“No, thank you, officer.” He leaned heavily on the table as he stood. “And I’m sorry I lost my temper. I’m worried about Sadie. I know you’re just doing your job.”
“We are all worried about her, Garrett. Hopefully she’ll wake up soon.”
He nodded, his lips pressed together tightly. She assumed he was trying not to cry. Or at least he was trying to make it look that way.
She watched him walk away slowly, the metal tip of his cane tapping sharply with each step.
Chapter 6
Ainsley stood in the open field behind Erik’s house.
The wind blew the long grass, and the swelling moon lit the sky. All she wanted was to sink into her wolf and run the woods and creek. She could almost taste the crystal water from here.
Instead, she exhaled and lifted her palms. After a moment a tiny blue flash of lighting began to dance between her hands.
A month ago that would have been a victory. But it was all coming too slowly.
Julian said she should meditate. Ainsley had always meditated. Back when she still tried to deny her wolf, it was the only way she could block the change. This should have been easy.
She was afraid to tell Julian that something in her had changed. She didn’t want to believe it herself.
But with this wolf’s brain, she could no more tune out her senses than she could fly. It was frightening and freeing all at once.
She exhaled again, and if she wanted to she could have listened to each cell of her lungs squeal the air out like a balloon being stretched empty by a child.
The blue light in her palm strengthened. She wanted it to shoot across the field. She was unsure of the best way to make that happen. Julian said to just will it forward.
She tried.
It flickered out.
Damn.
She’d hoped that once she had the privacy to try on her own, she could master this and then show Julian her progress.
Ainsley could scoff at him and give him a hard time on the outside, but in truth she loved her pack, and if they were in danger, she would have to do whatever it took to protect them. Even if it meant learning formal magic, which confounded her. Even if it meant giving up the sugar and caffeine that kept her going. Even if it meant giving up Erik’s warm bed.
