“I didn’t break into anyone’s place.”
Unfortunately, they had no proof that he had.
“I tried to find the secret compartments when Meghan was watching me and didn’t find any. Every cabinetmaker has his own way of creating them. I told the MacTire sisters that.”
“And you learned cabinetmaking from your father.”
“Yeah, so? Find one piece of furniture I made with my initials on it that’s constructed in the same way as my father’s furniture and has a false bottom.”
“What happened to my aunt?” Laurel asked, her voice soft, but CJ heard the steel behind it.
“I don’t know what happened to your aunt, and that’s the God’s honest truth. Hell, as soon as she bit me, she took off.”
“What?” Laurel said, suddenly looking so pale, CJ took hold of her arm and made her sit in a chair.
“The white wolf that bit me! Who did you think she was?”
“Charity Wernicke.”
“Where did you come up with that idea?”
“She—Charity—said she was keeping house, and then my aunt came to live with Warren and her.”
He gave a sarcastic laugh. “Hell, if Warren had a sister, she wasn’t living there.”
“She was running the hotel. After her brother vanished,” Laurel managed to get out.
“She might have let on that she was his sister, but she was Clarinda O’Brien.”
CJ rested his hand on Laurel’s shoulder, ready to keep her in her seat if she suddenly passed out, she appeared so pale.
“How do you know this for certain?” she asked.
Jacob narrowed his eyes. “Because my father was seeing her, made her the furniture even. Free, because he loved her. But Warren did too. She was perfect for him, did all his housework and kept the books.”
“Are…are you her son?”
“No. My mother had died two years earlier. My father hadn’t looked at another wolf until he laid eyes on her.”
Laurel swallowed hard. “So she mated Warren?”
“She wouldn’t mate either wolf. She wouldn’t say why.”
“Did your father have something to do with Warren’s death?”
“No. He died of a broken heart. He thought, like I did, that Warren left to set up another hotel somewhere else, somewhere that Clarinda was happier, that she managed this hotel, then took off and joined him.”
“Oh, right,” Laurel said, sounding like she didn’t believe him in the least.
CJ got a call on his phone. “Yeah, Peter, what did you find?”
“It’s not good. I’m emailing you a picture so you don’t have to leave there and end your interrogation.”
CJ waited with dreaded anticipation as the picture uploaded. A damn blackmail note? And it looked suspiciously like his father’s handwriting. He was blackmailing Clarinda? For pretending to be Warren’s sister? But Jacob just said she wasn’t pretending.
Every eye was on CJ. “Darien, Laurel, can I see you in Doc Weber’s office for a moment?”
Doc Weber nodded his okay for them to use it.
CJ took hold of Laurel’s arm. She was so shaky, he was worried that she might be going into shock.
When they were in the doc’s office, Darien shut the door. “What did Peter find?”
CJ helped Laurel onto the couch and sat beside her. “A blackmail note from my father, hidden in one of the drawers.”
“Someone needs to catch Clarinda, Charity…whoever she is,” Laurel said, sounding numb.
Looking sympathetic, Darien nodded. “While you were both questioning Jacob, I sent a text to Ryan to have her taken into custody, not as a murder suspect, but to help clear this matter up.”
“Could Jacob be lying?” she asked.
“Could be. We can’t take what either of them say at face value, it seems.” Darien looked over the blackmail note. “It’s Sheridan’s handwriting, all right.”
“If he was blackmailing her, maybe that’s why she disappeared. But why did he blackmail her?” Laurel asked.
Darien glanced at his phone. “Hell, Ryan says they’re looking for her, but she hasn’t returned to her home or store in Green Valley.”
“What if she runs again?” Laurel asked.
“I’ve already put out an alert for her truck. A third of the pack members are out searching in the vicinity where she ran.” Darien’s phone rang. “Yeah? Okay, so she’s running as a wolf still. Good to know. Keep looking until you find her.”
He ended the call and said, “Mason found her truck, and her clothes are inside. She might be headed for home. We’re confiscating her truck.”
“I want to go to my sisters’ house,” Laurel suddenly said.
“All right. Darien, we’ll keep you posted if we learn anything more. Wait, what happened with the Wernicke brothers?”
“They’re royals as far as we can tell. Stanton’s one pissed-off wolf, but he hasn’t shifted yet.”
“Okay, we’ll talk later.” CJ helped Laurel leave the room. “Are you going to be all right?”
“Yes.”
But her voice was toneless, and he had to know what she was feeling. “Laurel, don’t shut me out.”
“What was going on? I want to go to the pit.”
CJ stopped her as they left the clinic. “Why there?”
“I think she loved Warren. I think she couldn’t mate him for some reason. I think Jacob’s father loved her too. And I think she was pretending to be Warren’s sister because she was afraid of someone.”
“But Jacob said—”
“I think Jacob just learned the truth of who she was. Or his father did before he died. And so Jacob knew who she was, but she was gone, so there was no need to say anything to anyone about it. So why wouldn’t she mate either man?”
“Hell, she probably already had a mate! She couldn’t mate Warren because she had a mate and she was scared. He took her in and kept her hidden at his house where she did the books and the household chores.”
“That’s why she loves her ‘brother’ so much,” Laurel said. “She feels guilty that Warren died for loving her. Don’t you think?”
“Yeah. Sounds to me like a good reason. So who killed Warren?” CJ drove her out to the area closest to where the pit was.
“Her abusive mate? And she took care of the hotel for a short while, still pretending to be Warren’s sister after the threat was past, but she couldn’t manage it on her own and probably hated the hotel because it represented the man she lost.”
“So why do you think she’s at the pit?”
Laurel looked out the window. “She goes there when she needs to be comforted. Maybe she feels his spirit there. I don’t know. Maybe he gave her direction in her life and she loved him for it. I’m just grasping at straws here.”
“Why was Jacob trying to find something in the houses?”
“To protect his father, maybe? Thinking that maybe his father did kill Warren? Or maybe he was trying to locate something that would prove his father didn’t have anything to do with it. You know how bad you felt when you learned your father had committed murder. You left the pack. Jacob doesn’t want to live with the pack knowing his father murdered one of its pack members. And he doesn’t want to leave the pack. Just like you and your brothers didn’t really want to.”
“Yeah, okay. That makes sense. Then he would have opened the secret compartment right away, if he could have gotten away with it. He didn’t know what we would find and was afraid it would condemn the memory of his father.”
“Like with you and your brothers and your father.”
CJ let out his breath. “We’ll deal with it. We have before. And…I hadn’t mentioned it because I didn’t think it was relevant, but my father had been the mastermind of a blackmail scheme before.”
“I’m so sorry,” Laurel said, squeezing his shoulder as he parked.
“As soon as I saw the blackmail note, I realized he’d done it before. Hell, maybe it’s like you said, he murdered be
fore too.”
“He wouldn’t if he was getting money from Warren. Once Clarinda took over the hotel, she lost all the money.”
“And my dad might have threatened to expose who she was to her mate if she didn’t give him more money.”
“Or, she did give him money, and that’s why she was broke, not that someone was doing the books and stole it from her.”
“If that’s the case, in a way, she hadn’t lied, because the blackmailer would have stolen the money from her.”
“No matter that she lied, I think she did so only to protect herself, and maybe even my sisters and me. What if her mate came after us, looking to catch up with her?”
“That’s true. I hadn’t thought of that. Do we go as wolves or humans?”
“I need to talk with her.”
“Okay.” They got out of his truck and trudged along the trails left earlier in the snow. Then CJ got another call. “Yeah, Darien?”
“While searching for the white wolf, Jake saw Vernon and Yolan Wernicke in their wolf forms. He thinks they’re trying to chase her down.”
“Hell, okay. We’re on our way to the pit. Laurel thinks she might be there. We’ll keep you informed. Is Stanton still in jail?”
“Released. We had nothing to hold him on. He didn’t shift and—”
“Crap. I just saw him running as a wolf in the same direction we’re going. I’m giving Laurel my gun. I’m shifting.”
“Wait for backup,” Darien said.
CJ handed Laurel his gun and phone and began ditching his clothes. “I’m going to head Stanton off.”
“I should run as a wolf too. I don’t know how to shoot a gun, but that way I can fight a wolf if I need to.”
“Laurel.” He frowned. “All right. Hurry.”
They quickly buried their clothes and both shifted, then ran full out for the pit.
Laurel’s heart was racing so hard that she thought she was going to have a heart attack. She still didn’t know what to think—Clarinda was Charity, Charity was Clarinda? Why would the Wernicke brothers be after her? Because she could prove they couldn’t lay claim to the hotel, Laurel suspected.
When they reached the cordoned-off area, the yellow tape stating it was a crime scene, Laurel saw flower wreaths circling the pit. From wolf pack members? Her eyes filled with tears at the thoughtfulness. And then she saw the white wolf, nearly blending with the snow, standing among the pines. Laurel approached her cautiously, not wanting the wolf to run off. CJ hung back, letting Laurel attempt to win the wolf over.
Laurel had just reached her, the wolf not leaving, thankfully, and they’d touched noses and licked each other in greeting, when Stanton came loping into view.
CJ immediately raced to intercept him. The two faced off against each other. But Stanton didn’t do what CJ thought he would. Instead of fighting, he lay down on his belly, a modified beta move. To be truly subservient and show no animosity, he would have rolled over and exposed his belly. CJ waited for him to do so.
Stanton wouldn’t.
CJ stayed where he was, eyeing the wolf with suspicion. But when he saw Stanton’s brothers join him, CJ growled at them to do as Stanton was doing. No way could he fight three male wolves. The white wolf and Laurel couldn’t help in the matter.
At first, the brothers stood next to Stanton, staring CJ down, challenging him. Finally, Stanton snapped at one of them, who let out a low growl, then sat down. Stanton turned to his other brother and snapped at him too.
He grumbled back and sat down, then they both lay down on their bellies.
What the hell was going on? CJ stayed alert, though when Laurel lifted her chin to howl, the white wolf joining in, he was glad to have Laurel as his mate.
He didn’t want to lift his own chin to howl. He was keeping his eyes trained on the three male wolves, any of whom could suddenly attack him. If that happened, he’d be dead, along with his mate and the older white wolf.
An answering howl called back. Brett. And then several more. His other brothers and others. Darien must have gotten word to them somehow, though CJ remembered him saying that Brett was chasing after two of the brothers. So his brother must have just followed them here.
And then the wolves from the Silver pack began to gather around the pit. The three Wernicke brothers were still lying on their bellies in a submissive way, though CJ suspected that all three were alert and ready to jump up and fight. The women were standing near the woods, tense, waiting, and watching.
Lelandi walked through the snow to reach them, escorted by Trevor and Peter in their wolf forms for protection. “Darien’s on his way.” She glanced at Laurel and the white wolf. “I need the two of you to come with me.”
Laurel licked the white wolf’s face and then moved a little, watching to see if the white wolf would follow her.
She hesitated.
“Come on,” Lelandi said, half an order, half an entreaty. “I’ve got to get back to my toddlers.”
Laurel began to walk toward Lelandi, and the white wolf joined her. Some of the wolves watched them as they left, but most of them kept their focus on the Wernicke brothers.
CJ and the others waited another half hour until they heard some others crunching through the snow on their way there. Darien and five other men finally appeared. “You’re coming with us. Dead. Or alive. Your choice,” Darien said to the Wernicke brothers. His patience was shot to hell.
CJ smiled a little at his cousin. But he knew the pack leader meant it, and he’d shift right then and there to prove it.
Stanton reluctantly stood. His brothers followed his lead. And then they moved toward Darien, who turned and headed back the way he’d come. The wolves of the Silver pack flanked the Wernicke brothers and a few followed behind. If the brothers did anything that appeared threatening to Darien or anyone in the pack, the rest of the wolves would tear them apart.
CJ didn’t know what Darien planned, but he figured they were back to questioning the brothers. CJ stopped where he’d left his clothes and found Laurel’s were gone but his still there. He quickly shifted, dressed, and ran after the wolves. He thought Darien would haul the brothers to his house in the back of a police car, but instead, he opened the door to CJ’s truck and said, “Stanton, you and your brothers will ride with CJ. He’ll bring you to the house.”
CJ thought Darien was crazy! He sure as hell hoped his cousin knew what he was doing.
Even so, Brett and Eric got in with them as wolf backup. His whole truck smelled like wet wolf.
“Why did you lie to us about who Charity was?” CJ asked, not that anyone could answer him as a wolf.
Stanton shifted. “We’ve been looking for our mother for years.”
Chapter 23
By the time everyone arrived at Darien’s place, a couple of the men had retrieved the Wernicke brothers’ clothes so that they could shift and dress, and then they all met in the outdoor hall reserved for larger pack events.
Maybe thirty wolves were in attendance, the rest going home to their families at Darien’s request. Most everyone had shifted and dressed. Ten were still in wolf form, providing wolf muscle if things got out of hand.
It seemed strange meeting in the Silver Hall when it was all decorated for Christmas. The business at hand seemed too onerous to suit the occasion.
Laurel and the white wolf were in the house, CJ figured when he didn’t see them. “I’m going to check on the women.”
“All right, CJ. We’ll wait while you ask them to join us,” Darien said.
CJ stalked out the door and headed along the path to the house. When he walked inside, calling out to Lelandi to let her know he was there, she replied, “We’re in the sunroom.”
He hadn’t made it two steps before Laurel ran out of the sunroom, raced across the living room, and threw herself into his arms. She was crying tears of joy. The only way he could tell was that she was smiling at him.
He hugged her tight, suspecting the white wolf was her aunt, and Laurel was gla
d to know Clarinda was alive and well. “She’s my aunt,” Laurel confirmed, choking on the words. “Ellie and Meghan are on the way.”
“Happy, I take it?”
“Ecstatic.”
“I figure she had hidden her identity from an abusive mate.”
“Yeah. John Wernicke.”
CJ’s brows lifted. “Warren’s brother?”
“Yeah. John really was Warren’s brother. They had a sister named Charity, but she died from a fever the year before Clarinda arrived. Charity had never lived with Warren, so no one knew that Clarinda wasn’t his sister. Warren and John had had a falling-out about his treatment of his mate—my aunt. When she managed to run away, she took refuge in Warren’s home, praying he would take her in and that John wouldn’t find her.”
“She left three young sons behind.”
Laurel frowned up at CJ. “What? Oh God, no.”
“She knew her husband would kill her if she took his sons with her, so doing the worst thing she could imagine, she left them behind and pretended to be Charity.”
“Stanton and his brothers…” Laurel looked ill.
CJ didn’t blame her. “Come on. Let’s get your aunt, and we’ll all go to the meeting Darien’s having.”
They headed for the sunroom, and Laurel said, “I don’t want them as my cousins.”
CJ chuckled. “To get into the Christmas spirit, I thought we could have them over for Christmas dinner.”
She scowled at him.
He smiled and kissed her lips. “We’ll do whatever you want to do.”
“I want my aunt to have Christmas dinner with us. My sisters. Your brothers. And your cousins and their mates.”
“Deal. But if your aunt wants her sons to have dinner with us?”
Laurel growled. “Under coercion, I’ll agree. But against my better judgment.”
He smiled at her and tucked her under his arm as they walked together to join her aunt and Lelandi.