Etched in Bone

CHAPTER 8

Firesday, Messis 10

Jimmy stepped out on the apartment’s porch, wanting to inflict a world of hurt on somebody. But there were too many people already awake, and some of those people were cops. And one of those cops was his brother.

Caw!

And if being around cops wasn’t bad enough, there were too many fucking things watching him, keeping tabs on every ass scratch and fart.

A bit of mellow weed would have smoothed things out, but the fucking freaking Others had found not only Sandee’s stash of pills but the weed he’d carefully hidden in a secret compartment in the suitcase. Nobody should have found that hiding place. But his stash was gone, and the compartment had been slashed by a claw or something.

This was all Sissy’s fault. Stupid bitch. Yeah, she’d told him that she was going with Mama and her girls to visit CJ in Lakeside. But she hadn’t pushed hard enough to get him included, and he couldn’t squeeze anything out of her, not with Mama holding the train tickets and the available cash. And, yeah, once she’d reached Lakeside, Sissy had called to warn him to get out of Toland, that something bad was going to go down. And maybe she’d called him in time for him to get one of the last trains out of Toland before the storm shut everything down. But he’d had to pay for his own tickets, with Sandee clinging to him so tight he couldn’t shake her. Weighing him down with her snot-nosed brats. Gods. The way she put out when she needed something, he wasn’t sure those kids were his, so why should he use the stash of money he needed in order to buy clothes and food for them?

After getting out of Toland—he heard on the news later that entire blocks in some neighborhoods were nothing but rubble—he got bogged down around Hubbney, unable to find transportation to a town large enough to have the kind of business opportunities he preferred. In the end, Lakeside was the largest city he could reach. He would have preferred Shikago, even knew some people there, but he couldn’t afford the train fare or, gods, even the bus fare, since the ticket prices had doubled after the travel restrictions were put in place. As it was, he had to scrimp and save for weeks before he could buy the bus tickets to Lakeside and then had to wait a while longer to reach the top of the travel list. And during that time he’d had to smile and pretend to be grateful for the work that allowed him to eat watery soup and hard bread.

At first he’d thought he could set up in Hubbney, maybe meet up with acquaintances and do a little business, but the handouts ended after the first week. With all the storm damage, there was plenty of grunt work to be had, and every physically able adult had to show a work chit in order to get a meal at the reduced price for displaced persons. The chits could also be used to buy food from the nearest grocery store—and they could be exchanged for money. But Sandee gobbled up as much food as the two kids put together and then whined about there being no one to watch the kids when he told her he wasn’t feeding her anymore. If she wanted to eat, she could work too.

Since she was coming back to the flop with money instead of chits, he had a good idea what kind of work she was doing. Fine with him. These days, she was the body he banged when he couldn’t find better.

Should have gone back to Toland, where he knew the players, knew the games, knew whose back to scratch and who was weak enough that he could lean on them to get something. But he was in Lakeside because Sissy had led him on, let him believe CJ had somehow greased some wheels and set her and Mama up with a place to stay and food for the taking. But there was no food for the taking, and while he wasn’t paying anything to stay there, the apartment wasn’t any better than the flop they’d had in Hubbney. The freaks had found another bed and brought it up yesterday afternoon. Single beds for a man who had a woman. And bedsprings that squeaked every time he moved. How was he even supposed to hump his woman, knowing there were cops—and worse—listening?

Sissy’s fault. All of it. Well, she could do a little something to make it up to him. She surely could.

Jimmy went inside, letting the screen door slam. The sound woke Sandee, who jerked up in bed.

“What’s going on? Jimmy? Where are you going?”

“Out.”

“Out? Where? Baby, let me put some clothes on, and I’ll go with you.”

He left the apartment while she was still scrambling to find something to wear that didn’t stink since she’d been “too busy” to wash any clothes. He wasn’t concerned about his own clothes. If Sandee didn’t look after him properly, he’d boot her ass out and let Sissy look after him.

Maybe he should do that anyway.

When a break came in the morning traffic, Jimmy hustled across Crowfield Avenue and went into A Little Bite to let Sissy provide him with a decent breakfast.

While Nadine filled the display case with fresh baked goods, Tess wrote the day’s offerings on the menu board.

“We received extra eggs yesterday, so I made quiche for the breakfast crowd and figured I’d use the rest of the eggs to make egg salad for sandwiches later in the day,” Nadine said.

“I’ll add them as specials,” Tess replied. “Save a piece of quiche for Meg. She dashed out this morning without eating an adequate breakfast.”

“Why was she in such a hurry to reach the office? Some kind of special delivery?”

“She’s reading a book, which she left at the office because she went to the Quiet Mind class last evening. But she had stopped at an exciting part and wanted to read more before work.”

Nadine raised her eyebrows. “And there were no comments at home?”

Tess smiled. “Simon doesn’t know how to complain about it since he asked her to review the book.”

Nadine laughed softly. “Maybe I’ll walk the piece of quiche over to the Liaison’s Office and see for myself what Meg finds so interesting.”

Tess looked at the Sierra, who was moving a broom around but didn’t seem to be doing much actual work. Her smile faded. “Hold off for a few minutes. I’ll be back.”

Howling Good Reads wasn’t open yet, but the lattice door that separated the two shops wasn’t latched. Going in, she went to the checkout counter, picked up the phone, and called the Market Square bank. The Business Association had an account with a human regional bank, but the Market Square bank was a private institution run by the Sanguinati. It was the place where all the Courtyard businesses recorded the amount of credit employees could use in the stores here. Pay was always split between Courtyard credit and money that could be used in human places.

When Miss Twyla arrived with the Sierra and the pups, Simon and the rest of the Business Association had been prepared to give them food and shelter for a few days simply because they were Lieutenant Montgomery’s family, and the Courtyard had offered the best protection against the storm and the Elders’ wrath. But Miss Twyla had insisted on working for her keep and had insisted that the Sierra do the same. No pay had been involved. But after it became clear their visit was actually a permanent move, Simon had held by the Courtyard’s basic rule: anyone who lived off the land’s bounty had to do a job that supported the Courtyard. Humans like the police pack didn’t officially work in the Courtyard, didn’t receive a pay envelope like an employee, but the interaction they provided was valued, which was why the police directly involved with the Courtyard were allowed to purchase things in the stores.

“Market Square Bank,” a male voice said.

“This is Tess. How much credit does Sierra Montgomery have available?”

While she waited for the information, she looked out the window and saw that Cyrus waiting to cross the street. Her hair turned green with broad red streaks and started to coil.

The banker returned to the phone. “How much credit do you want to allow that she hasn’t yet earned?”

Tess watched that Cyrus cross the street as she considered the question. All the children received half their daily milk ration as part of their midmorning snack on school days, courtesy of the Courtyard. When they had decided how much rent to charge for the apartments, the Business Association had taken into account that the Sierra was a lone female who had to feed two pups, so they had agreed to charge her less than their other tenants. They had done those things because, while the Sierra wasn’t a dominant female like Miss Twyla and hadn’t earned the same respect, she had started out as a good, reliable worker.

She’d sulked a bit about their decision not to let her work at the consulate, and showed her displeasure by not doing her assigned work as well as she’d done it before. They were used to that behavior in humans, and she would have improved or been fired. But since the arrival of that Cyrus yesterday, the Sierra acted like a different person—someone none of the terra indigene would have trusted if she hadn’t been connected to Montgomery and Miss Twyla.

“Basic meals for herself and her pups at A Little Bite and Meat-n-Greens,” Tess said in answer to the banker’s question. “She has to pay cash for everything else, including food for anyone else, until she has a credit balance again.” She heard his hesitation. “Get Simon’s and Vlad’s approval before you send a message to all the stores, but let them know I’m going to hold to it in my shop.”

“Vlad just came in. I’ll tell him. If he agrees, I’ll tell all the stores.”

Tess hung up and stood to one side of the archway, watching the Sierra and that Cyrus, who had taken a seat.

“We’ve got quiche with seasonal fruit this morning,” the Sierra said. “And we have fresh muffins and some pastries left over from yesterday.”

“I’m not eating that shit,” that Cyrus replied. “I’ll have some bacon with scrambled eggs and fried potatoes and buttered toast. And coffee.”

“We don’t make that kind of breakfast,” the Sierra whined. “It’s a coffee shop, Jimmy.”

“You got the fixings here. You can go in the kitchen and make it for me.” That Cyrus leaned toward the Sierra, who cowered but didn’t have enough sense to walk away. “You owe me, Sissy. You lied to me about the situation here, so you owe me. Now, get your ass in the kitchen and cook me up some breakfast.”

Nadine stepped into the front room. “My kitchen is off-limits to everyone but Tess.”

Tess glanced at Nadine. Then she considered the knife in Nadine’s hand and the weirdly calm fury in the woman’s eyes.

Shit. now.>

Her hair turned red with threads of black as she strode into the coffee shop, a predator to be reckoned with. “This coffee shop works the same way as any other in the city. You order the food, you pay for the food, and then you take it with you or eat it here.” She stayed focused on that Cyrus, struggling to stay in control while the threads of black in her hair turned into streaks—a warning that she was getting closer and closer to her true nature. She wanted to blacken his organs, turn them into festering slush. She wanted to make it rain inside his skull while she harvested his life energy. She didn’t care if she damaged the Sierra, but she didn’t want to hurt Nadine, so she had to stay in control, had to avoid taking that last step toward her true nature.

“Sissy can pay,” that Cyrus said.

“She’s tapped out,” Tess snapped. “So unless you have cash for the food, get out.”

That Cyrus rose, knocking the chair over. “Who do you think you are?”

She didn’t want to tell him. She wanted to show him.

“Tess?” Merri Lee’s voice from the archway. “Should I call the police?”

“Human law doesn’t apply here,” Henry growled, coming in from the back door.

She knew by the expression on that Cyrus’s face that Henry didn’t look completely human.

That Cyrus looked at all of them, then headed for the front door. Pausing as he pushed the door open, he hawked and spat on the coffee shop’s floor.

Feeling Henry move to block Nadine, and hoping Merri Lee had enough sense to hide, Tess shouted, “Hey!” In that moment when Cyrus looked toward her, her hair turned black with a few threads of red and she looked away before he saw more than the tiniest glimpse of what she was. He clutched at his chest, staggered out the door, and almost stumbled in front of an oncoming car before righting himself.

It didn’t feel like she had harvested enough life to damage him permanently, but that brief look at her should weaken him for a day.

The human mask wasn’t sufficiently in place, so Tess avoided looking at anyone—and hoped none of them were looking at her. she asked Henry as she headed for the hallway.

he replied.

Simon said.

Startled, Tess almost looked up. When had the Wolfgard arrived?

she said.

She had an office up there that she’d turned into a cozy nest where she could rest and still keep an eye on the shop during the day.

Keeping her eyes lowered, Tess went upstairs. Once she was safely alone, she looked in the mirror that hung on one wall. Black hair streaked with red, the coils beginning to relax. A face that, once again, looked human.

She had managed to contain her true nature—or enough of it.

She wondered if she was the only one regretting her self-control.

Simon had come in too late to see the start of the fracas, but he was going to put a stop to this part of the trouble.

Hearing Vlad’s angry hiss, he glanced toward the archway in time to see Merri Lee elbow the Sanguinati in the ribs and break free.

Great. Now they had to deal with one of the exploding fluffballs as well as . . .

“By all the gods, what is wrong with you?” Nadine snarled as she turned on the Sierra, her hand tightening on the knife handle.

That. he told Vlad.

Vlad replied.

Montgomery and Kowalski came in through the front door, avoided the gob on the floor, and scanned the room, taking in the people and their positions. A young woman hustled in behind them, then froze just inside the door.

“Mr. Wolfgard . . . ,” Montgomery began.

Nadine swung toward Montgomery. “I have things to say!”

“You can say all of them after you give me the knife,” Henry said.

She looked at the fur-covered hand clamped around her wrist. She blinked and offered no resistance when Henry took the knife.

Simon wondered if she even knew she’d been holding it.

“Now,” Henry rumbled as he released Nadine and stepped back, “say what needs to be said.”

Nadine turned back to the Sierra. “How long are you going to pander to that man?”

“He’s my brother!” The Sierra’s voice cracked. She looked at Montgomery. “We’re supposed to help family.”

“You’re supposed to help him lie, cheat, steal?” Nadine demanded. “Or does he remain above it while you become the liar, the cheat, the thief?”

“No! It’s not like that!”

“He wants a full breakfast, so you’re going to use the supplies here? Were you even going to offer to pay for them, or were you hoping no one would notice missing supplies when we keep track of every egg and stick of butter? And after he’d eaten his fill here, would he have persuaded you to fill up a bag with food to take with him? Would you have paid for it or pretended that you didn’t know who took the breakfast sandwiches and pastries?”

The Sierra started to cry. “Jimmy doesn’t have any money to buy food.”

“He had money yesterday when he went to the Stag and Hare,” Nadine snapped. “Unless he makes friends awfully fast, he had to pay for his drinks and food there.” She looked disgusted. “Yesterday you took home dinner for three people. Did you end up splitting it seven ways because he claimed he didn’t have money?” Her disgust deepened. “Or did he get half the food because he’s the man and the rest of you split what was left?”

Simon frowned. That wasn’t right. The Sierra and her pups should have eaten their fill first since she was the one who had done the work for the food. But larger predators did steal food from smaller ones. Maybe that’s how it had always worked in the Montgomery pack, with that Cyrus waiting until the Sierra brought home food and then taking it away from her.

He studied Montgomery and saw a grim expression on the lieutenant’s face—and sadness in the man’s dark eyes.

Anger in Kowalski’s face—and in Merri Lee’s. Who had caused the anger? That Cyrus or the Sierra, or both?

“I owe him!” the Sierra shouted.

“For what?” Nadine shouted back.

“He never had enough because Mama and Daddy adopted me. My first mother didn’t want to keep me, tossed me out like trash. And trash isn’t entitled to anything.”

Simon heard a soft, pained sigh. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Miss Twyla—saw tears running down her face.

“You owe him because the resources for two children had to be divided three ways?” Nadine said. “Well, if that’s how you want to count it, Jimmy owes his brother half of everything he gets because Monty is the oldest child, right? So when Jimmy arrived, Monty only got half of what he would have had if Jimmy hadn’t been born. And somehow he managed to survive just fine without taking and taking and taking.”

“Cyrus said that to you?” Miss Twyla stepped forward. “He said you were trash? And you never said a thing to your daddy or me? Child, we shielded you as best we could from Cyrus’s childish meanness, but we couldn’t help with what you kept secret.”

“You made him leave and he blamed me,” the Sierra said, crying.

“When he was eighteen, we told him he had to find another place to live.”

“Because of me.”

Miss Twyla nodded. “That was part of it. Childish meanness was turning into a harder kind of meanness. Along with the lying and scheming, that wasn’t something your daddy and I could live with anymore. We couldn’t change Cyrus, and we were concerned about you, about the way you sometimes acted like you’d taken a beating.”

Shocked, Montgomery turned to the Sierra. “Did Jimmy hit you?”

“No!” She shook her head. “No, he didn’t do that.”

“No, he didn’t,” Miss Twyla agreed. “I looked for bruises because I wondered—and I would have told you, Crispin, if I’d noticed any.” She sighed. “But words can beat down a person as surely as fists, and I hadn’t known about the things Cyrus was saying when I wasn’t around to hear him and put a stop to it.”

“He hurt your heart, bullied you into doing things for him just like he tried to do now, and you kept coming back for another serving of hurt instead of slamming the door in his face,” Nadine said.

Simon studied the Sierra. He’d seen this behavior once before when he’d attended the terra indigene college to learn how to work in, and run, a Courtyard. A young female Wolf had been besotted with one of the males. She did everything she could to win his approval—brought him food, brought him gifts. The male had paid attention when he wanted something, made promises to become her mate if she could do just one more thing. Other males, Simon included, had tried to befriend her, but she ignored them—just like the Sierra ignored the brother who didn’t put a price on his love.

The young female died trying to bring down prey that was too big for a lone Wolf to handle because the male had told her that would prove her love for him. The male was expelled from the college but stayed on the fringes of the college’s land, fully expecting to be allowed to return. Then he disappeared and was never seen again.

Simon had never caught a whiff of an Elder’s primal scent—a scent he remembered from the time he’d run with the juvenile pack in the Northwest—but he had wondered if the instructors had killed the male to prevent more trouble, or if something larger and less merciful had passed judgment.

Now, comparing the Sierra with that young female Wolf, Simon had a better appreciation of why the Elders wanted to see what happened when a male like that Cyrus entered a successful working pack of humans. The man hadn’t been in Lakeside a full day and the pack was already fighting among themselves.

He stepped forward, drawing everyone’s attention.

“There are two Montgomery packs,” he said. “One pack is Lieutenant Montgomery and Lizzy. The other pack is that Cyrus, his mate, and their two pups. While they came from the same family, they are now separate packs, are adversaries. That means the other pack members can be loyal to one or the other but not both. The rest of the family now must consider what each pack has to offer.” He looked at Miss Twyla. This would hurt her, and he was sorry for that. “Choose.”

She stared at him, the tears still flowing. Then she took tissues out of her pocket and wiped her eyes and nose.

“Guess I always knew it would come down to this, but I can’t choose between my children. Not that way.” Miss Twyla straightened her shoulders. “Crispin asked me to come here and help him with Lizzy, and I’d like to keep on doing that. But even if I have to turn away from one of my children, I don’t want to turn away from any of my grandchildren.”

“You have to choose,” Simon said with regret.

She nodded. “I choose your pack, Mr. Simon.”

“What?” Simon gave Montgomery a look that said, Does she know what she’s doing?

“Mama?” Montgomery’s look at Simon said, She knows.

“I’ve put my hand to different kinds of work over the years, Crispin,” Miss Twyla said quietly. “There is plenty of work to be had, and I could find a job in this city. But this Courtyard feels more like the neighborhoods your daddy and I lived in when we were newlyweds and when you and Cyrus were young—a place where people looked out for each other. Haven’t lived in a place like that for the past few years, and I’ve missed that. I’ve done what I could for all of you, but my children are grown, so I’m making a choice for myself first.”

“All right, Mama.” Montgomery didn’t sound happy. “If this is what you want.”

Simon looked at the Sierra. “Now you. Choose.” He held up a hand and noticed the patches of fur on the back. Damn. What else didn’t look completely human? “Understand the choice you have to make.”

“I know the choice,” the Sierra said bitterly. “I have to choose between Jimmy and CJ.”

“No, you have to choose between that Cyrus and your pups.”

He heard several gasps. He suspected those had come from all the females in the room, including the female still standing just inside the door.

“If that Cyrus is so important to you that you’ll crawl for his approval, that’s your choice. But your pups would be the lowest members of that pack, considered orphans if that’s what he wanted, and pups in that position don’t often survive if food is hard to find. Odds are one or both of your pups would die of hunger. So if you want that Cyrus, you can live as another female in his pack. But your pups won’t go with you. They’ll be transferred to another pack that will be able to care for them.”

“You can’t take my children!” the Sierra cried.

“Yes, we can. And we will. Or you can swear to the members of the Courtyard who are here and to the human witnesses that you will not give that Cyrus food or money that you need for your pups. No excuses.” Simon bared his teeth. “And know this: if you steal from us, we take a hand the first time. The second time we take a lot more.”

“CJ?” The Sierra turned to the brother who gave his love.

Montgomery shook his head. “Sissy, if you want to find another job and another place to live that isn’t under Mr. Wolfgard’s jurisdiction, you can do that. But I’m guessing you’d have to do it soon.”

“We would give her a week,” Simon said. “Then we would drive her out of our territory.”

“Even if you found a place you could afford and work to support you and the girls, who would stay with them?” Montgomery continued, then added when the Sierra slid a look at Miss Twyla, “Mama has a job and her own bills to pay.”

“That’s right,” Miss Twyla said. “If you and the girls are here, I’ll help you look after them, same as I’m helping Crispin. But if you leave, maybe you’d best think of going a long ways away from all of us. Maybe one of those towns out west that need good workers. And if you leave and have any sense at all, you won’t tell Cyrus where you’re going.”

Sobbing, the Sierra fell into one of the chairs.

“For you, being around that man is like drinking a glass of poison every day,” Nadine said. “Maybe it just makes you sick, makes you weak, makes you forget who you really are and what you really want. But if you keep drinking, sooner or later, the poison will kill you.”

Simon wondered if Nadine had drunk that kind of poison when she was young. If she had, she’d also stopped drinking it. So had Theral MacDonald. She’d run away from an abusive mate. That Jack Fillmore was still sniffing around, still a threat, but Theral wasn’t crawling back to him. So there was a chance the Sierra would make a good choice for herself and her pups if she had a little time to think.

“We’ll all meet back here in one hour,” Simon told her. “You’ll give us your answer then.”

The Sierra ran out of the coffee shop, brushing past a female, who looked at them with big eyes and said, “Is it always so dramatic here?”

“Who are you?” Simon snarled. He wasn’t close enough to catch her scent, but her voice sounded vaguely familiar.

“Emily Faire. The nurse practitioner who is going to be working here? I have a letter from Mr. Ferryman for Mr. Wolfgard.”

Simon nodded, remembering where he’d seen her before. She had been in attendance as the healer when Meg made the cut and saw the possible future for the River Road Community.

He looked at Vlad.

Vlad replied.

For the terra indigene, Merri Lee would always be the Teakettle Woman from Charlie Crowgard’s song about Teakettle Woman and Broomstick Girl.

“Come up to the office and we’ll discuss your employment,” Simon told Emily Faire. Then he pointed to Nadine. “This is Nadine Fallacaro. You’ll have a room in her apartment on the days you’re working here.”

“Really?” Emily Faire didn’t sound enthusiastic. She probably wondered how often Nadine attacked other females with a knife.

They hadn’t seen this behavior in the woman until now, but Simon was wondering the same thing.

Nadine sighed. “I’ll show you the apartment when you’re ready.” Her eyes widened. “Gods! I forgot about the muffins. Didn’t even hear the timer.”

“I took care of them,” Tess said, stepping in from the hallway. Her hair was green and curling. She wasn’t calm, but she was safe enough to be around the rest of them.

Simon walked past Montgomery on his way to HGR’s office.

“Simon,” Montgomery said quietly. “Would you really take Sierra’s girls away from her?”

“Yes.”

“Away from all of us?”

A good man, Simon thought. Intelligent and courteous. A man who had been trying to work with him from the first day they met. A man who understood loyalty. A man who had been separated from his own pup for a few months and wouldn’t willingly do that again.

A man who cared.

“If it came to that, the pups would be close enough that you and Miss Twyla could visit them,” Simon said.

“But Sierra couldn’t see them?”

“No.” He waited, but Montgomery didn’t say anything more. “One hour, Lieutenant.”

Simon and Vlad went upstairs to talk with Emily Faire about the terms of her employment. Since their original idea was for her to divide her time between the Courtyard and the River Road Community, they offered her one of the duplexes in the community, thinking that, being an Intuit from Great Island, she would want to live as close to her kind as possible. But she surprised them and asked if there was an inexpensive apartment in Lakeside that she could rent because she had a feeling she was needed here full-time and that someone else would be more suited to run the little clinic in the River Road Community.

Yes, they had an apartment she could rent, if she wanted her own den instead of a room with Nadine, but they didn’t have much furniture to offer.

Vlad took her across the street to show her the available apartments in the building where Nadine and Merri Lee resided. Simon watched them from the office window.

So, Emily Faire had a feeling she was needed here full-time? Why? Did that feeling have something to do with that Cyrus or the Elders? Or did she just want to learn more about the terra indigene and Meg and living around them was a way to do that? A new addition to the Courtyard. She hadn’t seemed overly excited while witnessing the scene in the coffee shop, so maybe they wouldn’t be adding another exploding fluffball to the female pack.

That was a problem for another day. Right now, he wanted to shake off the drama and go for a quick run before he had to deal with whatever problems the Sierra’s decision would cause.

Maybe he could pester Meg for a few minutes before going for a run. The pester game couldn’t last more than a couple of minutes before it stopped being fun for Meg. If she was still reading that book, she’d growl at him for interrupting her. He’d bring a snack from A Little Bite to distract her. She must be hungry by now.

He stripped off his clothes, shifted to Wolf, and went downstairs and through the archway to the coffee shop. Then he considered who could be approached and decided that Tess, while more dangerous than Nadine, was the better-known threat.

“We were just packing up a piece of quiche and a couple of other things for Meg,” Tess said. Then she looked at Nadine. “Guess you’re not going to have a chance to ask Meg about that book.”

Nadine gave Simon a look that made him very glad he could run faster than she could.

Tess gave him one of the insulated sacks she used to deliver food in the Market Square and opened the back door for him. When he looked back, he noticed her hair was brown and wavy.

How nice that Nadine amused one of them.

He trotted to the back of the Liaison’s Office and faced a locked door. Of course, he didn’t have a key tucked in his fur, so he put the sack on the ground in front of the door and moved to the back room’s small window, which was open to let in fresh air.

“Arrooooo!”

Meg rushed into the back room and looked around until she spotted him at the window. “Simon?”

He grinned at her, showing a lot of healthy teeth.

He returned to the door and had the sack in his teeth before she turned the lock and opened the door. He brushed past her and went into the sorting room. Standing on his hind legs, he set the sack on the big wooden table and eyed the book that was held open with a rough purple rock that looked like a mountain range.

As Meg joined him, she reached up and gave him a scritch behind one ear. Almost made him forget about playing the pester game.

“Look what Jenni brought me to use as a paperweight.” Meg held up the rock. “It’s amethyst. Isn’t it pretty?”

It was a rough purple rock.

“She showed me a split geode that would also make a good paperweight. I’m bargaining with her to buy the geode and the amethyst.”

Crows had that look in their eyes when they spotted a coveted shiny. To distract Meg before they ended up with a den full of rocks, Simon nudged the sack with his nose.

“What did you bring?” Meg set the rock back down on the book and opened the sack. “Oh! Quiche and . . . this is for you.”

Simon caught the beef scent before she pulled the treat out of the sack. Wolf cookie! He’d smelled the beef but thought it was some of the food for Meg.

“There’s another cookie in here. Must be for Nathan.”

Why? But she was already walking into the front room, and Nathan, having heard, was already waiting for her at the counter.

“I’m enjoying this book,” Meg said, returning to the sorting table. “It’s exciting. I had to read a couple of chapters like this”—she put one hand over her eyes, then moved her fingers to see between them—“but I didn’t mind. Is it okay if Ruth and Merri Lee read it too so we can all give you a review?”

This wasn’t happy Meg. This was brittle cheerfulness. This was Meg trying not to show she was scared.

Simon carefully placed a paw on her shoulder.

No pretend happy or cheerful now.

“Jenni said there was trouble at A Little Bite, but she didn’t know what happened except that it upset Tess. And Ruth called to say I should stay in the office until everyone settled down. Simon?” She touched his face. “Do you need answers?”

“Roo,” he replied sternly. No silver razor. No cuts.

Her fingers combed through his fur as she studied him. “You’re sure?”

He licked her chin. She tasted better than the cookie, so he licked her again.

Her entire body sighed, and she felt more like his Meg again.

She gave him a hug and said, “You’d better get back to work. I’ll let you out. Thanks for bringing the quiche and other food.”

He was outside staring at the closed door before he realized Meg hadn’t given him a chance to play the pester game. That was so unfair, but at least he’d gotten a cookie, a scritch, a hug, and a couple of licks out of it.

He could live with that kind of unfair.

“Want some orange juice?” Pete Denby asked, going to the small fridge in his office.

“Sure,” Monty replied. It would probably burn a hole in his stomach, but he appreciated the offer of a drink that might not be in the Northeast grocery stores much longer since it, like the oranges, came from the Southeast and West Coast regions.

Pete poured two glasses and handed one to Monty before taking his chair behind the desk. “Do you know what’s going on?”

Monty told Pete what he’d seen and what he’d pieced together—and the choice his little sister had to make in an hour.

“Gods, what a choice,” Pete said softly.

“It shouldn’t be a choice.”

“You’re a cop. You know addiction doesn’t just come in the form of a pill or syringe. From the sound of it, your sister is addicted to your brother’s particular form of abuse.” Pete leaned forward. “Do you know why Simon Wolfgard is letting your brother stay? Or why your brother is staying?”

“I can’t guess Simon’s motives, but Jimmy is staying because the use of the apartment is free, and he came here expecting a handout. But the Sanguinati guard the building’s outer door and will keep tabs on everything and everyone.”

“So Cyrus can’t harass Sierra in the hallway or try to push into her apartment to discuss things without someone coming to her defense even if you’re not home.”

Monty nodded. “Jimmy wasn’t expecting the kind of scrutiny he’s under now. Even if Sissy had told him flat out, he’d still think he could get around being in close proximity to cops and Wolves.” He sighed. “Whatever Jimmy thought, my sister is in a bind.”

Pete said nothing. Then: “Did you come here because you needed a sounding board or were you looking for an opinion?”

“What do you think of my mother’s decision?”

“Smart move. No ‘you took his side’ accusations when things go sour, which you know they will. There is an unsavory part to any city, and I don’t think it will take your brother long to find Lakeside’s underbelly.”

“You haven’t even met him yet.”

“I live next door, so I saw enough when you got him and his family settled in. I know Eve brought them a bag of groceries, on Simon’s orders, so that they would have food for the first day or so.”

Monty sat up. “No one mentioned that.” He and Kowalski had picked up pizzas from Hot Crust, and he’d brought one up for Jimmy’s family and one for Sissy and the girls, while he, Lizzy, and Mama had the third. But if he’d understood Nadine’s accusation, Sissy had also brought home dinner last night and shared the food with Jimmy’s family. Had she held on to the pizza, or had that, too, become part of Jimmy’s larder?

“If you were me, what would you do?” Monty asked.

“Does your sister-in-law have any skills?”

Monty looked at Pete.

“Any skills that wouldn’t require you to arrest her?” Pete qualified.

“I don’t think so. As long as I’ve known her, she’s never held a job.”

“Regardless, if I were you, I’d start researching towns that are looking for workers, a place where the rent doesn’t cost more than your month’s pay. Start looking for your sister-in-law and the kids.”

“Three tickets out of town. And where is Jimmy?”

“In the morgue, if you’re lucky. If you’re not lucky, he’ll be one of those humans who disappear without a trace.”

Or some identification will be left at the cairn in Lakeside Park and the police will fill out a DLU form, Monty thought. A Deceased, Location Unknown form was needed in order for a family to receive a death certificate. It was the way the Lakeside Police Department acknowledged that a person had been killed, and most likely eaten, by the terra indigene and no body would be found.

“Your brother is a powder keg, Monty,” Pete continued. “Don’t let him take you down with him.” He hesitated. “Do you want me to come with you when your sister makes her choice?”

“As an attorney, what would you tell her?”

“To do what it takes to keep her children. And that means staying away from Cyrus.”

“When I first came to Lakeside, Simon kept his nephew Sam in a cage to keep the pup safe. It upset all the Wolves and it hurt him every day, but he did it.” Monty looked at Pete. “So I know he won’t hesitate to take those girls away from Sissy if he believes she’ll allow them to be mistreated.”

“If he does take them, do you think he’ll ever give them back?”

Not while Jimmy is alive. But Monty didn’t say that. “Thanks for the talk and the orange juice.”

“I might not have the orange juice the next time, but as an attorney or a friend, I’m here if you need to talk.”

As Monty walked down the outside stairs, he heard a car driving up the access way to the employee parking lot. Captain Burke’s black sedan. He should have called his captain, because Pete was right: Jimmy was a powder keg waiting for a match. Apparently someone else had made the call.

Packs and loyalty. Police and family. And consequences no matter what choice he made.

As Burke came around the corner, heading for the back door of Howling Good Reads, Monty hurried to meet him and give his report.