“You know they will leave,” CJ said gloomily. “This is their livelihood. Like writing for the newspaper has brought you lots of enjoyment, and solving crimes or keeping people safe has been the best thing for me. Take their business away from them and they’re sure to leave. There’s nothing we can do about what the ladies decide to do, but we can help them as much as possible and hope they stay.”
CJ pulled out plates and began to set the table.
Brett flipped the steaks. “I heard about the situation with the aunt.”
CJ tore off some paper towels for napkins and frowned. “That’s why they were being so standoffish with the pack for so long.”
“That changed today though,” said Brett.
“How?” CJ asked. After he had mentioned their father, Laurel had put on the brakes big-time with him.
“Hell, Brother. The news about you being on the slopes with Laurel and then running with her early this evening is all over the pack by now.”
“That was before we knew she and her sisters were here because of the disappearance of their aunt.”
“You didn’t have anything to do with it. She’s not going to blame you if one of our pack members had something to do with her aunt’s disappearance.”
“That was before I talked to her about Dad.”
Brett stared at him in disbelief, then let out his breath. “Ah, hell, CJ. You should have let sleeping dogs—”
CJ gave him an annoyed look.
“All right. I guess if I were in your shoes, I would have told her too. Just to clear the air and ensure that if she learned from someone else, it wouldn’t be a sticking point.”
“Well, it is a sticking point.”
Brett raised his brows.
CJ served the salad and brought out a couple of beers while Brett loaded the T-bone steaks on their plates.
“Okay, so tell me what’s wrong between you and Laurel.”
This was the part that CJ had been avoiding. He really didn’t want to tell his brother what the ladies believed. “It was going great, I thought, until I had to tell Laurel about our father.”
Brett took his seat at the table and so did CJ.
“Okay, we’re back to that.”
“Yeah. I had to tell her what happened to him because I knew, with everything else going on, she was sure to learn about it. Then she might think I was trying to cover up his ill deeds. The problem was that Laurel’s mother spoke with our dad because he was serving as sheriff. Along with the hotel owner, our dad denied that Clarinda had even worked there.”
“Wait, what if she hadn’t? How had they come to that conclusion?”
CJ explained about the proof they had.
“Oh. Okay, so learning that our father was a murderer didn’t sit well with her, I gather.”
“Hell, she thinks Dad might have had something to do with her aunt’s disappearance too,” CJ said.
Brett stopped cutting into his meat and looked up at CJ. Apparently Sheridan had lied to Laurel’s mother. So what else might their father have been involved in?
“Hell.”
“Agreed.”
Brett continued to cut up his steak but didn’t say anything for a moment.
In the silence, CJ was processing all that he had learned in the past couple of years about their father’s deceitfulness.
“Maybe Dad didn’t know Clarinda worked there,” Brett said. “What if she didn’t join the pack and was stuck working at the hotel all the time? She might have disappeared before he even knew she worked there. On the other hand, Dad didn’t have a perfectly honorable track record, as we learned too late. Laurel has nothing to go on but a few scanty records and a whole lot of inconsistencies.”
“It’s possible he didn’t know about Clarinda, of course. I’d considered that too. But given his previous history, Laurel has good reason to suspect that he might have been involved in more shenanigans.”
“Hell. Have you talked to Eric or Sarandon about this?”
“No. She just mentioned it tonight, so I haven’t had a chance to talk to anyone but you.”
Brett sat back in his chair. “Why don’t we wait to tell them for the time being? If Dad was involved in the cover-up of Clarinda’s disappearance or—God forbid—worse, I don’t want to say anything to Eric or Sarandon until we know for certain.”
“Agreed. We’ve all taken the news about his criminal activities hard enough. I’d rather know something definite before we discuss it with them. I only mentioned it to you because you’re looking into this like I am, and you need to know everything I do.”
“Darien already has a number of us working on the case.”
CJ frowned at his brother. “Why didn’t he tell me? I should be working on it too.” Though CJ planned to do that every chance he got.
“He doesn’t have to tell you. He knows you’re working the inside job. You’re the key, the most important person in investigating this matter. You have access to the sisters and the opportunity to learn everything they know about their aunt’s disappearance. You have free rein at the hotel when everyone’s sleeping and can explore it for clues to your heart’s content. You’ll be keeping an eye on the Wernicke brothers, and who knows? During a conversation with one of them, you might learn something that will prove they’re frauds. Whatever. But you are at the heart of all of it.”
CJ hadn’t seen it that way, but he agreed. “So I take it that you’re researching more about the hotel for your newspaper article.”
“And the disappearances of the Wernicke brothers’ aunt and uncle and the MacTires’ Aunt Clarinda. Darien has both Trevor and Peter using their law enforcement background to dig deeper. They’re questioning anyone who remembers anything that far back. Anything that might trigger a memory of something that seemed odd before the disappearances. Anyone who has a recollection of a woman fitting Clarinda’s description who worked at the hotel. We’ll solve it one way or another. Although Darien needs to be informed about everything that is going on, he also wants you to know what everyone else learns, since you might not be able to listen in on conference calls while you’re watching the brothers.”
“Okay, sounds like a good plan.”
“Right. So I take it that this has become an obstacle in you getting to know Laurel better.”
“It could work against me if we learn Dad was involved in the disappearance of her aunt or a cover-up, yes.” CJ took a swig of his beer, then asked the question that had been on his mind since Brett first told him he was coming over tonight. “Have you ever seen the ghost wolf?” They’d never talked about it, so he really didn’t know if his brothers had seen it or not.
Brett finished his beer and got them another cold one. “So, I take it you saw it?”
“No.”
“I haven’t seen it. It’s just an old wives’ tale. Parents told that story to their kids to spook teens that were learning to drive, so they’d watch their driving and not run into a wolf on the road. Why mention it now? Are you sure you haven’t seen it?”
“No. But when we were driving back from Darien’s place after the meeting with the Wernicke brothers, Laurel thought she saw it.”
“The snowstorm has died down now, but it was going full blast there for a while, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“So it’s easy to think you see something when there’s nothing. I swear I’ve seen deer in the middle of a blinding snowstorm. I might have, or I might have just imagined it. I’ve never seen a wolf in that area while I’ve been driving. Then again, if one was running in that kind of weather, it would be easy to believe it was a ghost wolf and not the real thing.”
CJ glanced out the dining room window and watched the snow falling in tiny flakes now.
“Well, don’t you agree?” Brett asked.
“We went running after it in our wolf coats.” CJ looked back at his brother, who was staring wide-eyed at him.
“You chased after a phantom gray wolf?”
“It was w
hite.”
“You saw it then? You said you hadn’t seen it.” Brett frowned. “An Arctic wolf? I didn’t think you saw it.”
“I didn’t. That’s what Laurel said. Some gray and some black wolves have been known to turn pure white. We don’t see that as much with our lupus garous unless they’re very old. But even traumatized wolves can turn white. I remembered reading about a gray wolf that had a leg injury and his coat began to turn white. When the injury was healed, the coat returned to its grayish-tan color. So it could be a regular-size gray wolf or a shorter-legged Arctic wolf, if Laurel really saw what she thought she did.”
“Okay, wait. Back up a bit. You’re coming up with an explanation for why a gray ghost wolf is white when you didn’t even see it?”
“Laurel saw it. And we chased after it.”
Brett smiled a little, and CJ was certain his brother thought he was just buying into Laurel’s flight of fancy because he liked her.
“The ghost left tracks?”
“A trail. The snow was too deep for the wolf to leave paw prints in the snow.”
“Did you smell the wolf?”
“No. It’s a ghost wolf.” CJ smiled.
Brett laughed. “But it left tracks as it plowed through the snow.”
“Right. When we reached a dirt road that led to the river, we found fresh tire tracks. Really fresh. Despite how much the snow had been blowing, the flakes hadn’t yet filled up the tire tracks.”
“The ghost wolf was driving a car.” Brett took another swallow of his beer and smiled.
“Pickup truck, by the look of the tire treads.”
“Did you tell Darien?”
“Are you kidding? Look at how you reacted.”
Brett shook his head. “You know what Darien is like. He isn’t me. He’s the pack leader and he takes everything seriously. You never know… He might have learned something that ties into what you’ve seen that he hasn’t shared with everyone.”
“I didn’t see anything but the tire tracks. Laurel might have imagined seeing a white wolf in the snow. Someone in our pack might have been out fishing or running and left just before we arrived. He might have been running near the road and took off into the woods when he saw my truck, thinking we were human.”
“I’d still call Darien and let him know what happened. Do you really think that Laurel imagined seeing the wolf?”
“No. We followed a trail and it disappeared in the vicinity of the truck’s tire marks. I think she saw a wolf.”
“Not really a ghost wolf then,” Brett said. “But we don’t have any pure white wolves in the pack.”
“I know.”
“When you saw the Wernicke brothers, they weren’t white wolves, were they? I never had a chance to ask Jake or Darien what they looked like.”
“One was black. I’m thinking it was Stanton because he seems to be the leader, and he was in the lead there. The other two were gray. I really think the snow colored Laurel’s vision,” CJ said. “If the wolf was old, he couldn’t have moved as fast as he did. Though it took me a little while to park the truck, then get out, strip, shift, and take chase. Do you really believe the ghost wolf story was just told to frighten teens into watching their driving on the country roads?”
“That’s what I’ve always heard. Nobody I’ve discussed it with has ever seen the ghost wolf or a naked woman. So I don’t believe she exists. It’s just a situation like you and Laurel experienced. A wolf out for a run that’s spotted by a passerby driving in a snowstorm. Have you seen anything else? Anything to do with the hotel, beyond the situation with the paint cans being moved?”
“A letter C appeared on one of the walls in the main room. I’ve painted over it a number of times already, but it keeps reappearing.”
“Huh. Any reason for it?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Oh, one other thing. Did Dad ever talk to you about wanting the hotel torn down?”
“Not that I recall. He didn’t like it sitting there, as dilapidated as it was becoming. He said it was an eyesore. But I don’t remember him ever saying he thought it should be demolished. Darien wouldn’t have gone along with it. He’s the reason we have Victorian Days. He loves the town and everything about its history. If our dad had wanted to tear it down, even petitioned for it, Darien would have said no.”
“I agree. Which is probably why, if Dad wanted that, he never said anything to the rest of us.”
They finished their meal, and then Brett began to cut up the pumpkin pie, topping it with whipped cream as CJ cleared the dishes and loaded them in the dishwasher.
“Okay, so about Laurel. You’re not going to let this stop you from getting somewhere with her, are you?” Brett asked.
CJ snorted.
“I’m serious. She only has eyes for you, and we all know you are totally hung up on the woman. So…how are you going to resolve this with her and make it right?”
Damned if CJ knew.
Chapter 10
Alone in the house, Laurel felt really isolated. Even though their home had a feel-good aura, she hadn’t realized how lonely it would be with her sisters away. She felt like a wolf missing her pack mates.
The wind was blowing and howling eerily. She considered the chocolate cake still sitting in its box on the kitchen counter and realized she’d intended to invite CJ in for a slice or two after their run.
As much as she loved chocolate and as inviting as it looked, she didn’t want to have a slice by herself when she’d intended to share it with him.
Feeling drained, she finally retired to bed, pulling her handmade quilt up to her chin. She’d seen Brett taking pictures of the lights on the hotel earlier, a little after CJ left, but then Brett had disappeared around the front of the hotel again. She’d almost wanted to invite him in for cocoa and a piece of cake to thank him for helping to promote the hotel in the paper, but she didn’t want him thinking she was interested in him like she was interested in CJ. And that made her feel disconcerted about CJ all over again.
She knew she’d upset him by mentioning that his father could have been involved in her aunt’s disappearance or the cover-up. But she hadn’t been able to let go of what CJ had revealed about his father. It all added to her unease about what had happened to her aunt. She’d felt she had to say what she thought could have happened.
Because she felt something for CJ, she didn’t want to hide the truth of what she’d been feeling. Still, she felt bad about suggesting that his father could have been involved in her aunt’s disappearance and that her comments had upset CJ. She should have kept her thoughts to herself and let the truth come out on its own.
She rolled from her back to her side and stared at the clock. She couldn’t sleep. Tomorrow was the big grand opening, and now she was even more worried about the Wernicke brothers and what they might find, or how they might try to make her and her sisters’ lives more difficult. She closed her eyes, her thoughts drifting back to kissing CJ, his warm, sensuous lips pressed against hers¸ his hard body tight against her body. Thinking about playing with him in the snow as wolves brought a smile to her lips. He was so good-natured to have taught her how to ski. And he hadn’t dismissed her concerns when she wanted to chase down a ghost wolf that hadn’t been a ghost wolf at all.
After what she’d said to him about his father, CJ probably wished he’d never kissed her or shown her any affection. Unable to stop feeling bad about it, she groaned and stared at her cell phone sitting on the bedside table. Would he be awake? Annoyed if she called him? With every intention of apologizing, she lifted the phone off the table. Thankfully, Darien had given her all the key pack members’ cell numbers in case of an emergency. Which was something else nice about belonging to a pack.
This wasn’t an emergency, but she couldn’t sleep, and if she didn’t make amends with CJ, she’d never get any rest. She hoped he wouldn’t be sound asleep and become further annoyed with her for calling him at this late hour.
She poked at his name on the
phone and a tired male voice said, “Hello?”
“I’m so sorry about this evening. I shouldn’t have said what I did—”
“Who is this?”
Ohmigod, in her tired state she must have punched a different Silver’s phone number.
“Laurel?” There was a definite hint of a smile in the masculine voice.
The trouble was the Silver brothers and cousins all sounded similar. She had no idea which one she had called. Because of her slight Irish accent, he could guess it was her or one of her sisters. And since she was the only one here at the moment, it had to be her.
“Sorry, wrong number. I was calling Ezra Holcomb. I guess that’s not you.” She ended the call, her whole body warming with embarrassment as she snuggled under the covers and felt like a complete idiot.
She set her phone on the table. Sheesh, teach her to just leave well enough alone. What if it was one of the married Silver brothers? Then she had disturbed his wife too. Or one of the other Silver bachelor males, and he had the notion she was actually getting friendly. No, whoever it was wouldn’t think that because she’d said she was apologizing and—oh brother, she’d never get to sleep at this—
Her cell phone rang. She stared at it, hoping it wasn’t whoever she had just called. Maybe it was one of her sisters.
“Hello?” she said.
“It’s CJ. Are you still wide awake?”
“Who did I call by accident?” She wanted to clear that up right away.
“Darien.”
She groaned.
CJ chuckled. “He was worried. He thought it was you and that you meant to call me because I’m right above his name on the list of numbers. Unless you were really trying to call Ezra Holcomb.”
She shook her head at herself.
“Is everything okay over there?” CJ sounded so nice, masculine, and comforting. She wished they’d ended tonight on a better note. “Darien was concerned because you’re alone and thought maybe someone was giving you some trouble.”