Chapter 12
Somehow, CJ knew this situation was going to get a lot more complicated before they resolved anything. “I’ll check with Peter and see if he can question the Wernicke brothers. If not, Darien will call them in again and learn how they knew when none of the rest of us did.”
Laurel nodded. “Okay. What if the brothers do prove that the property belongs to them through no misdeed of their own?”
“The pack runs the town. They took over the hotel and paid the taxes for it all these years. When you bought it, you essentially paid for the taxes on the property.” CJ leaned back against the couch and pulled her tight against his body in a comforting manner, wanting her to know in the worst way how much he wanted her here with him. He wanted her sisters here as part of the pack. He didn’t want them leaving, no matter what they learned.
“What if they try to ruin business for us?”
“We’ll do whatever we can to fight them legally. But if something unforeseen happens and the hotel doesn’t bring in the profits necessary to keep you in the black, what about building a new place? As you can see by how fast your hotel was booked, we do have a need for rooms. You wouldn’t have all the hassle of refurbishing an old place. You could make it any style you want—just as Victorian, except with some modern touches. You’d have the whole pack behind you and all the help you’d need to build it. I promise I’d tell Eric not to be so bossy if he helped with the new project.”
She smiled.
“Just give it some thought if things don’t work out the way we hope.”
“I have to thank you and all the pack for everything you have done for us to date. I guess you know we hadn’t intended to stay.”
“I suspected as much when we learned that you were investigating your aunt’s disappearance. I also want to say I don’t want you to leave. Not you or your sisters. And neither does the pack.”
She frowned at him then, and he was afraid he’d said the wrong thing.
“That’s…that’s not why you stayed here with me last night, is it? To try and convince me to stay?”
He laughed. “No, I’m really not that devious. You wore me out last night. I want you to know though, I never fall asleep on dates. Even if it wasn’t a date per se.”
She smiled. “Okay. I’m going to do some last-minute things before I need to start greeting guests.”
“Sounds good. I’ll ask Peter about the other business.” When Laurel disappeared into another part of the house, CJ quickly called Peter and got to work on cleaning the remaining frying pan. “Hey, we have another issue with the Wernicke brothers. No one knew about the MacTires’ Aunt Clarinda living here at one time. How did the brothers know anything about it?”
“Hell, I’ll call Darien and let him get hold of them. We’re kind of busy with the hotel opening.”
“Thanks. Be out soon.”
When CJ was done in the kitchen, Laurel joined him. “Are you ready to go?”
Before he could take her hand, she reached up and kissed him on the mouth. She might not be signaling that this was more than just a thank-you for the time they’d spent together, but he had every intention of showing her that it already meant more to him.
He cupped her face and leaned down to give her a sweet kiss…at first. But when she pulled him tight against her body, he deepened the kiss.
* * *
Laurel felt his growing arousal and welcomed it. She loved that she could turn him on so quickly. Already, her pheromones were raging every time she started to kiss him, prompting her to go further. Wouldn’t that be a shock to the whole pack? If she missed opening day to frolic with Deputy Sheriff CJ Silver, cousin of the pack leader?
With great reluctance on her part, she pulled away. “Really got to go.”
He smiled, but he slipped his hands to her shoulders and rubbed them. Clearly he was having a hard time letting go as well. “We’ll work it all out one way or another.”
She nodded.
She was really viewing the hotel as theirs with all the work they had put into it. All of the hotels they’d renovated in the past were labors of love, but somehow this one was different. She felt that whatever had happened to her aunt here, the hotel was still warm and welcoming. And the idea that anyone would try to ruin it for them didn’t sit well with her.
Then they parted company and CJ moved his truck around the back to the parking area behind the hotel. Bertha, Silva, and Sam arrived, carrying the food they’d made through the back door of the hotel. Before long, they would be serving the finger sandwiches, drinks, and sweets from the hotel kitchen.
Because of the winter storm coating everything in several inches of fresh snow that day, everyone began to arrive slowly. In about forty-five minutes, they would have the ribbon-cutting ceremony and head inside. Laurel couldn’t believe how she’d been so tired last night, and then she’d slept until way too late this morning.
Many of the townsfolk, of all ages, had gathered to talk and enjoy the revelry while the barber, Mervin, wore his barbershop quartet outfit—a black vest, a red band around the arm of his white long-sleeved shirt, a red bow tie, and a straw hat—to play a fiddle, while someone else was playing a flute. He had to be freezing!
Despite the snowstorm, nothing could dampen the enthusiasm. As soon as she began to greet everyone, Laurel was asked over and over again where her sisters were. As wary as wolves were, she was afraid the pack members suspected something was up when they learned her sisters weren’t there. She still didn’t want to tell anyone but CJ about the furniture. What if she and her sisters learned who the murderer was from a slip of paper in the highboy, and the murderer learned of it too? Then again, what if the murderer had been Sheridan?
CJ had been upset about his father’s complicity in a murder before, and she knew he’d be upset all over again if he learned his father had been involved in the death of her aunt. As close as she and CJ had become, she felt she owed it to him to let him know what they had hoped to find in the furniture.
But now she and her sisters had a new dilemma. Were they going to have real trouble with the Wernicke brothers? She was beginning to feel that this could be their real home. It all had to do with the wolf pack that lived here—and one special wolf in particular, CJ.
Even Carol Wood, the psychic, was there, her blond hair in a bun, her blue eyes warm and smiling. Laurel smelled that she was a red wolf. There were so few of them that she wondered how the woman had been turned. Had Lelandi, also a red wolf, turned her? Carol was there with her mate, Chester Ryan McKinley, with his dark coffee-colored hair and amber eyes, and his sister, Rosalind. She had the same color hair, except it curled about her shoulders, and her amber eyes were darker, but she and Ryan definitely looked like twins. She owned and operated the greenhouse and garden shop in Green Valley where Ryan and Carol served as pack leaders. Laurel thought it was nice that the pack members here were also welcoming to pack members from elsewhere.
She was surprised to see so many people wearing just wool sweaters. No one had gloves, though a few wore ski hats. She was bundled to the max: hat, gloves, wool scarf, wool coat, and snow boots. She was wearing jeans and they were way too cold. She truly had not yet acclimated to the weather in Colorado.
“We love your wolf sculpture,” a couple of teenage girls said as they hurried on by, their target a group of four teen boys.
Other attendees were crouched down with the wolf sculpture, having their pictures taken, which she loved.
Laurel managed to break away and tell Rosalind how beautiful the poinsettias were that she’d brought over yesterday morning. “I’d love to order live flowers for the check-in counter three times a week, if that would work for you,” she told Rosalind.
“Oh absolutely. I have deliveries all over the area, including Bertha’s bed and breakfast and Silva’s tearoom. Silva’s even making Sam keep plants in the tavern near the window and flowers for the women’s bathroom. He refused to put plants or flowers in the men’s room.”
br /> Laurel chuckled. She loved seeing the dynamics between the various pack members. Even though lupus garous were human too, their wolfish half dictated their behavior just as much as their human half influenced their actions as wolves.
She noticed Carol was staring at the attic window. Laurel didn’t want to look and see what she saw or interrupt her thoughts. But she was dying to ask her what the matter was. Carol didn’t look worried, but she was concentrating on something.
Quietly, Laurel said to her, “I understand you have some…special abilities.”
Carol swung her attention from the attic window to Laurel. “Uh, yeah. The pack members know about it, but it’s not something I advertise. I’m a nurse full-time and wouldn’t like the word to get out to…other kinds.”
“Sure. My sisters, Meghan and Ellie, sense things too.”
Carol smiled then, looking as though that made all the difference in the world to her. “I see future visions.”
“Do you see anything about the hotel?”
“No. Now that I’m with Ryan and his pack, and living in a different town, I often have visions about goings-on there. But I haven’t seen anything here for some time.”
“Did you ever see anything about the hotel? Or witness anything paranormal when you lived here before?”
Carol glanced around, but the only people nearby were other pack members. “As a human? No. I don’t see ghosts or feel paranormal activities any more than others do. Just sometimes, I see a glimpse of the future.”
“Ah, okay. So…what made you look at the window?”
“The woman up there, peering out.”
A wave of chills crashed over Laurel as she turned to look at the window. No one was there.
“Um, no one’s in the house. Could it be a future vision of yours? Someone else staying in the room at a future date?” Laurel clung to any explanation other than the obvious: the woman was a ghost.
“Could be.” Carol gave her a bright smile.
“So not a bad premonition.”
“No. I have good ones too.”
Laurel hoped that’s all it was. She looked for CJ and saw him near Bertha’s bed and breakfast. He must have run home to shower and change into his uniform while she was directing where the food should go for the opening. He was busy with crowd control—mostly watching everyone. He looked sexy in his uniform, in charge, alternately frowning and smiling. Everyone she’d met in the pack seemed even friendlier toward her, if that was possible. As if they knew that she and CJ were mated or about to be.
She glanced down at the beautiful wolf sculpture they had created last night, still perfect. Just like the night had been. She couldn’t see building a new Victorian-style hotel. Or watching their hotel being run by someone else. They loved renovating old hotels and bringing them to life again. But this one was special.
If they felt they had to leave, she would miss CJ most of all. She noticed that Peter and Trevor were also overseeing the crowds. Each of them slapped CJ on the back at one point, looking in her direction while chatting, then headed off to do their duty. She could just guess what they were saying.
Even his brothers had stopped to talk to him. All grins.
She felt her face turn hot despite the frosty breeze.
Main Street had been closed to traffic so that everyone could walk down the street. A large gravel parking lot at the end of town had been set aside for events like this. She and her sisters had witnessed Victorian Days in the fall, an annual celebration the town held to show their thanks for their longevity and to celebrate the town they had built. She and her sisters hadn’t participated, telling everyone they were too busy with renovations.
But the Silver Town wolf pack hadn’t given up on them so easily. During Victorian Days, Silva had brought over tea and cakes, and Bertha had made lunch for them to ensure they enjoyed the celebration too. Several other pack members had dropped by, wearing their Victorian gowns, to say that next year would be the best ever because the hotel would be part of the celebration. Laurel had seen the guarded looks her sisters gave her. She’d noticed even then how much they hated living the lie that they were here to stay. She wished they’d remain as focused as she was on learning the truth about their aunt. Even so, she harbored a secret longing to dress up and have some fun next year.
She had originally thought they would be out of the area well before that, but she had to admit that all the outpouring of wolf camaraderie and, well, falling for CJ were seriously changing her mind.
She couldn’t help but love the way the people in the pack made her and her sisters feel so welcome.
She got a call and looked at the ID. Ellie. “How’s everything going with the furniture?”
“It arrived on time, so that part was good. We’re hoping to arrive back late tonight.”
“Okay. Were you able to…look for anything?”
“No. We’ve had movers with us, and once we inspected the furniture to make sure the pieces were in good shape, the movers bundled them in blankets and packed them in the truck. We’ll have to investigate them when we get in.”
“Okay, sounds great.”
“How’s the grand opening?”
“Everything’s good. We’re cutting the ribbon in half an hour. We need to figure out what’s going on with the three men staying with us.” Laurel looked around for them again. She hadn’t seen them yet today. Maybe they slept all day and ghost busted at night, or maybe they were out looking for ghosts somewhere else right now. She didn’t want to discuss this with her sisters over the phone. They couldn’t do anything about it right now, so why worry them? She’d let them know what was going on when they got home.
“Okay. Good luck with everything.”
“All right, Ellie. And thanks. Talk to you later.” Laurel saw the Wernicke men coming from the direction of the public parking lot. Apparently they’d gone for a drive. To check out the ghost woman and wolf sightings, maybe? Or the haunted silver mine? Maybe they wouldn’t hang around the hotel much. But she doubted it. She was certain they were trying to dig up what had happened with their aunt and uncle, just like she and her sisters were trying to learn about their aunt.
She was dying to ask them how they knew that she and her sisters were looking into their aunt’s disappearance. She wondered if Darien had already questioned them about it.
“Hey,” CJ said behind her, and she turned around quickly, relieved he was there, despite telling herself she could handle the Wernickes on her own. “How are you holding up? You must be tired, as late as we went to sleep last night.”
Her cheeks heated all over again. He smiled. She wanted to sock him for the comment, even if he hadn’t meant anything by it. If anyone heard them, they’d wonder just what went on last night. At least he hadn’t made the mistake of saying they’d slept together.
“I slept really well.” She hated to admit that nothing had disturbed her sleep last night while she snuggled with CJ, and that she had felt perfectly safe and content. No howling wind, nothing. She had enjoyed his warmth wrapped around her, listening to his steady heartbeat and breathing in his sexy, masculine scent of spices and wolf before she’d fallen into a deep sleep.
He suddenly frowned and she wondered what was wrong now.
“What about the paint job?”
“Shoot, I forgot all about that. I need help hanging the picture. I carried it over just fine yesterday, but it’s so unwieldy that it takes two to actually hang it.”
“We could slip in around the back before the ribbon cutting. We don’t want anyone to think you’re ready to let everyone in just yet. It would look a bit odd for the painting to be sitting on the floor next to the other wall. Some might think something ghostly moved it.”
She glanced in the direction of the Wernicke brothers, but they were talking to Sam.
“Sure, let’s do it.” She walked with CJ around to the back of the hotel and crossed the patio.
She pulled her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the doo
r. Then she twisted the handle. Locked. Confounded, she stared at it for a moment, then tried her key on it again. Only this time it unlocked it.
“You hadn’t locked the door.” CJ sounded like he was scolding her.
“Yeah, I had locked it. I’m fairly certain. You know how it is when you do something so automatically, you don’t even think about it. Although I was in a rush to get things done, including helping to haul in all the food for the celebration. So…maybe I didn’t. I don’t know. But I really thought I had.” As often as she’d run back to the house for something and then returned to the hotel, she had begun to leave the back door to the hotel unlocked occasionally since she was coming right back. Besides, Darien had told her the town was really safe.
“Everyone’s out front, so I’m sure everything’s fine.” But CJ still sounded worried.
When they walked into the sunroom and continued into the main lobby, he looked around, taking deep breaths of the air scented with Christmas spice potpourri, wassail, and mulled wine. Plus, the sweet cakes—decorated in Christmas themes from drummer boys and snowman frosting to Santas and angels—scented the air. She didn’t smell any new people smells other than of those who had been here helping out recently.
When they walked through the sunroom and reached the main room, she looked at the spot where the painting had been sitting. It was gone.
Chapter 13
Before Laurel could say anything to CJ about the missing painting, he said, “The letter on the wall has vanished.”
She switched her attention from the missing painting to the wall. Goose bumps trailed down Laurel’s arms. No matter how many times she’d had to deal with ghostly happenings like these, they always gave her chill bumps.
CJ smiled. “It must have been just some old shadow of a stencil-painted letter, probably from sometime after the hotel was abandoned.”
“Right.” She was certain he didn’t truly believe that any more than she did.