You Had Me at Wolf

by Terry Spear

  “No rabbits to chase at the lodge. He did so well at the avalanche victim training that I wondered why he chases after rabbits. I mean, he seems well-trained.”

  “About everything except for squirrels and rabbits. One of these days, he’ll figure it out.”

  “Does he belong to the whole family?”

  “Yeah. We’ve always had one in the family. We have our own jobs to do with him—feeding, so we’re not forgetting or feeding him twice or more, grooming, his regular potty walks, and any scheduled training he needs to do.”

  “So who washes him?”

  “Landon and I do that together. Rosco loves the water, not so much baths. He’s so big that it’s easier for us guys to take care of it.”

  “And brushing out all that fur?”

  “We take turns. Roxie does all the vacuuming to pick up both our fur and Rosco’s. No sense in getting a nonshedding breed when we all shed.”

  Nicole laughed. “I agree with you there.”

  Rosco was eager to take his usual walk, as though he’d been afraid he was going to be shortchanged this morning. But after a nice, long walk in the cold, crisp snow, they went to the house for breakfast with the family.

  “I bet Rosco was confused when you took him to the lodge to pick up Nicole, thinking he was just going to sleep by the fireplace and not go for his regular walk.” Roxie served up the pancakes while Landon dished out the sausages and Kayla made coffee for everyone.

  Blake set out the butter and maple syrup. “Yeah, he was really confused when I made him head for the lodge first thing. Dogs have just as much of a routine as the rest of us. Tomorrow morning if we do the same thing, he’ll begin to expect it.”

  “No trouble with rabbits this morning?” Landon asked.

  “No, thankfully.”

  “Breakfast is great,” Nicole said.

  “We’re glad you could join us,” Roxie said.

  Then they all finished their breakfast, helped to clean everything up, and walked to the lodge as a family. Blake thought Nicole fit right in. His family seemed to accept her as one of their own.

  “Do you want me to listen to what’s going on next door from your room and let you know when they wake?” Roxie asked when they reached the lodge, looking eager to do so.

  Nicole had the greatest urge to take Blake up to her room instead and ravish him. What was wrong with her? “Uh, yeah. Let’s go.”

  Blake kissed Nicole before she left with Roxie. “I’ve got to take care of some lodge business. Let me know when you need me.”

  “Thanks, Blake, and thanks for the lovely breakfast.” She kissed him back, and then she and Roxie headed to Nicole’s room. They set up the same way as they had the day before with Nicole on her laptop, sitting on the bed, searching for information, and Roxie listening at the wall.

  Nicole figured she’d start with trying to learn more about Eli. “Okay, when Eli was ten, he broke his arm. There were conflicting reports at the time about how it had happened, which made the situation suspect. He said his father knocked him down, then changed his story and said he slipped on a toy. He refused to say his father abused him after that.”

  “It sounds like Arthur silenced him. I wonder if he learned Eli wasn’t his son about that time and took it out on him,” Roxie said. “He must not have been present when she gave birth to Eli.”

  “Could be. The next year, a teacher reported Eli had bruises on his arm. Eli said he bruised easily, but the handprints were that of an adult and severe enough to be noticeable. There were several more reports of unconfirmed abuse. A broken leg, bruises, cuts. Reasons given: falls, clumsy, fighting with schoolkids, but he wouldn’t give names.”

  Roxie frowned. “Did it happen at school?”

  “Nope. It happened after his dad was home from work. But Eli said it was after-school fights, not on school property.”

  “And the mother wouldn’t protect him?” Roxie asked.

  “She wasn’t home. Either she was at work or out shopping or running errands.”

  “Feeling guilty she had the affair, maybe,” Roxie said.

  “Maybe. And maybe she was just glad her husband took it out on the boy instead of her,” Nicole said.

  “I was thinking the same thing. It was easier just to make the boy disappear than to deal with her husband’s anger,” Roxie said.

  “Yeah. But Arthur was also the older boy’s birth father, and I don’t find any indication he ever had broken bones or bruises, at least none that were reported. Maybe Eli was exceedingly clumsy. When I saw him on the slopes, he did look a little out of control and like he was hotdogging it for his brother and cousin, but still, I think he was trying to show them he wasn’t a kid anymore. That had to be an awful environment for Eli to live in. His mother wasn’t protecting him, and it wasn’t his fault Arthur wasn’t his dad.”

  “And Oscar wasn’t protecting him either,” Roxie said.

  “He was just a kid too. Think about it. If your dad was leaving you alone and beating up on your brother, what would you have done? If the dad’s paying for most everything, Mom would hate you if you turned him in for abuse. Your brother would deny it. And Arthur was your biological dad. Would you turn on him?”

  “I would have tried to stop him.”

  “Okay. This isn’t really a fair assumption since we’re wolves. I would have protected a sibling from a threat. And we don’t know. Maybe Oscar tried to protect his younger brother.”

  “I hear them getting up.”

  Nicole came over to the wall to listen.

  “Hey, I’m sleeping in,” William said, his voice sounding muffled under a pillow.

  “I told you that you were drinking too much,” Rhys said. “Okay, we’ll see you later. Did you want to ski with me, Eli?”

  Confirmation! Eli was the drowned brother!

  “Yeah, sure.” Eli sounded enthusiastic that his brother had asked him.

  The shower ran for a while, and then it quit. Drawers opened and shut. Then the shower started to run again.

  After another hour, the door to the room opened and closed, and Roxie ran to Nicole’s door to see Eli and Rhys walk by. “They’re wearing the same clothes as before. Do you want me to stay here and listen to learn when William gets up?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Nicole called Blake on her cell phone. “The brothers are going to the elevator. They’re probably headed for the restaurant. Rhys finally called his brother Eli by name. William’s in bed with a hangover. I’ll meet you for a cup of hot chocolate if you’re available.”

  “I sure am. And that’s great news on the confirmation concerning Eli. See you soon.”

  “They’re wearing the same ski clothes,” Roxie told her.

  Nicole pulled on a new ski jacket.

  “You sure have a lot of different outfits,” Roxie said.

  “When I’m home, I ski a lot at Breckenridge on my time off, so I have some changes of clothes. On this mission, I hoped I would look different while I’m on the slope. All bundled up in different colors that hopefully would make me blend in and not stand out as someone who would always seem to be in the same place day after day.”

  “You do look different, and that’s a great idea. Oh, and about tonight, I’m not missing the wolf run this time like I did last night.”

  “Good. We all missed you on the run. Thanks so much for all your help with this. I’ll see you later.” Nicole left the room and found Blake downstairs, holding on to two cups of hot cocoa, waiting eagerly for her to arrive.

  Blake gave her a big smile and handed her one of the hot cups. “They’re just getting breakfast in the restaurant. I wish we could catch up to them when they get rid of their trash.”

  “I’m thinking they must do it in the middle of the night when I’m asleep. I can’t imagine not catching them otherwise,” Nicole said. “I’m a light slee
per, but I still don’t hear them opening and shutting the door to their room in the middle of the night. We need to see if we can catch them on the videos leaving the room in the middle of the night.”

  “Yeah, that sounds like a good plan,” Blake said.

  Then they took seats by the fire. Rosco curled up at their feet.

  “This is the hard part of the job. All the waiting and observing and not getting very far with anything.”

  “I’m certainly not complaining. You have added some real spice to our lives.”

  “Thanks. I’ve been having fun with you and your family too.”

  They were enjoying their cocoa and watching the brothers getting their lunch takeout when Nicole got a call from Landon. “It’s your brother,” she told Blake and answered her phone. “Yes, Landon?”

  “We’ve got a problem.”

  “What’s wrong?” She knew from the darkness of Landon’s voice, it had to be trouble.

  “Do you know a Clay Strand?”

  “Yeah. He’s the private investigator who went missing. What’s happened?” She envisioned the worst-case scenario: Clay’s body had been discovered somewhere at the lodge. Why else would Landon know about the man?

  “He’s here, and he’s been asking for you,” Landon said.

  “What?” Nicole was so surprised. She supposed she should have been grateful that he was alive and well.

  “I told him I couldn’t give out guest names. He said the insurance company said you were here, and he had to stay here. I told him the lodge was booked. We don’t have any available rooms. He repeated that he’d stay with you.”

  “Like hell he will.” Though Nicole thought about how she and Larry had been rooming together. “What’s his excuse for vanishing?” She thought if he’d been injured by Rhys or his partners in crime, she’d view the situation differently. Though she really didn’t want to work with the guy now. She loved working with the Wolff siblings.

  “I didn’t ask. I didn’t let on we knew you. I was waiting to see how you wanted to handle this. Have you met him before?”

  “No.”

  “He’s a gray wolf.”

  “What? Oh, that’s just great.” No way would she room with the wolf. Not that he would come on to her, but she still didn’t like staying with a male wolf—other than Blake.

  “Yeah, and he’s alpha.”

  “He sounds like an ass.”

  Landon chuckled. “I had the same thought. He’s in the restaurant getting something to eat.”

  Blake was waiting for her to tell him what was wrong.

  “I’m calling the insurance rep that hired me for the job. Hopefully, I can get this straightened out with them.”

  “Okay, good. I can tell you right now, the guy grates on people.”

  “Thanks. I know what he looks like, but I doubt the insurance company would have sent him a picture of me.” Then she let out her breath in exasperation. “He knows my name. He’s a PI. He can find out everything about me that he wants.”

  “Except that you’re a wolf.”

  “Right. Thanks, Landon. I’ll let you know what I learn.”

  “We all back you on this, and I don’t mean just our family but the whole pack of Silver Town.”

  She kept forgetting about that part. She smiled. “Thanks.”

  When she and Landon ended the call, Nicole took Blake’s hand. “Come on up to my room.”

  “I would take that as a good thing, but I understand we have trouble.”

  She sighed. “Yeah. The PI who vanished is a wolf, and he just arrived at the lodge, stating he’s staying with me in my room.”

  “No way in hell.”

  She smiled at Blake as they took the stairs. “He’s a wolf.”

  “Really, no way in hell.” Blake smiled back at her. He looked like he was trying to make it sound like he was joking, not trying to tell her what to do, but she was sure he wasn’t.

  “I agree. I need to know why he vanished. I had agreed with the insurance company to work with Larry and stay with him in the same room because we thought Rhys and William were dangerous. Now that I know they have a gun, they still could be. And now there are three of them.”

  “You have all four of us to watch your back, and a whole pack besides.”

  “Right, and I don’t need Clay, but if he’s anything like me, he will want to finish the job since he was hired to do it first.”

  “Which is why he’s here.”

  Nicole reached for her room key, but Roxie opened the door before she could, and Nicole and Blake entered the room and shut the door.

  “Landon called and told me the missing PI just turned up and is a total-pain-in-the-ass gray wolf. And the guy says he’s staying in your room, but it’s not happening,” Roxie said.

  Nicole smiled. Roxie was being as territorial as Blake.

  “You’re right about Clay. He’s not staying with me. I need to talk to the guy who hired him though. He should have let me know Clay was coming here.” Nicole got on her phone while Blake sat at the table in the room and Roxie continued to listen at the wall. “Hey, Taggart, it’s Nicole. Clay is here making a nuisance of himself.” She put the call on speakerphone.

  “I hired him first, and you need a PI partner on this job. I know you said you didn’t, but Clay’s still contracted to do the job, now that we know he’s alive.”

  “How come he disappeared and didn’t let us know he was fine?”

  “He was working on this case.”

  Bull! She wondered if Clay had another, more lucrative case he was working on. “Okay, listen, I’ve got a team of people on this, and you don’t have to pay for their services. He’s going to cause trouble for me and not help me with the case. He’s extremely abrasive, and from everything I’ve learned about him, he doesn’t work with partners.”

  “He will on this one. He’s got a proven track record. I want him staying with you at the lodge, just like we’d arranged for Larry to stay there with you for safety sake.”

  “I have a proven track record.”

  “You do. Which is why I also hired you when we couldn’t get in touch with Clay any longer. Either do it, or you can give up the assignment. I’ll pay you for your time on the job. He can take your room.”

  Man, did she wish Blake had a PI license so she could have had Taggart hire him! Then Clay could just waltz out of here and get some other assignment.

  Blake wrote on a complimentary lodge notepad on the table and handed it to Nicole.

  The room is yours. You’re vacationing here then. It’s free for you to stay at.

  Nicole smiled at him. “Okay, look, Taggart, I’m not working with Clay. I suspect he had another case he was working on that paid more than this one, and that’s why he did his disappearing act. He was being totally unprofessional not to let anyone know what was going on with him. In any case, I’ll stay here on my own penny, so you can’t force me to share a room with Clay. The lodge is booked, so he can camp out in his car for all I care.”

  Taggart chuckled, sounding darkly amused. “If I pay you for the work you’ve done up until this point, you will turn over all you’ve learned about the cousins.”

  Nicole was disappointed she couldn’t continue working on the case for the insurance company, but she wasn’t giving up her job. “Of course.” Anything that pertained to actually proving Rhys was Oscar Kovac. But everything else she learned, like about Eli? Not happening. She might not be paid for the job, but she planned to still prove Rhys was Oscar and put his butt in jail once and for all.

  “Have you even talked to Clay?” Taggart asked.

  “Not yet. I will. And I’ll ask him where the hell he was when he was supposed to be working on this case for you.”

  “Talk to him first before you give up the case. Maybe you’ll change your mind.”

&n
bsp; Not happening. Unless the guy turned out to be way less aggressive than he sounded right now. “I’ll let you know.”

  Taggart gave her Clay’s phone number. Then they ended the call.

  “Taggart sounds like a real jerk too,” Roxie said, “but you’re not really giving up the case, are you?” She sounded worried.

  “No way. We have the perfect setup here. If Clay learns the truth before I do, more power to him, but I’m still going to try to nail Rhys’s butt.” Nicole wouldn’t give up on the case, knowing how much it meant to Roxie too.

  Roxie gave her a hug. “We’ll get Rhys this time. I know we will.”

  “We will. They’ll slip up eventually. These people always do,” Nicole reassured her.

  “Do you want to talk to Clay on the phone or in person?” Blake asked.

  “In person. I don’t want him to think I can’t speak with him face-to-face.” Nicole looked at the video feed for the restaurant. “That’s him. The bearded redhead eating a steak. Let’s try to meet up with him down there.”

  Blake looked pleased she wanted him to go with her. Roxie was smiling. She motioned to the wall. “Do you want me to continue to monitor William? He’s showering now in his room.”

  “Yes, and thanks.”

  “I’m glad you’re still doing the job. You’ve worked too long on it not to finish it,” Blake said as they left the room.

  Nicole told him about Eli and how she suspected Arthur abused him, maybe because he learned Eli wasn’t his son.

  “That’s really rotten. But I’m glad the boy didn’t drown.”

  “I am, too, though if he’s been in on all this, he may serve some prison time.”

  “I hope the kid gets a break.”

  “I do too,” Nicole said.

  Blake slipped his arm around her waist, and they headed for the restaurant.

  Roxie called her and said, “I see you on the security monitor. William is leaving his room, probably to get something to eat. Unless he’s too hungover. Clay is still eating at the table.”

  “Thanks, Roxie. We’ll let you know how it goes.”