Legend of the White Wolf

Chapter 20

EVEN THOUGH KINTAIL AND HIS MEN WERE SCOURING Millinocket, he hoped the hell Trevor had gotten word to Cameron and the others since they were more equipped to handle investigations. Kintail, although normally in control and never rattled, felt like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off as he searched down every side street, drove past every home, but there wasn't anything to say, "Here's the house where your werewolves are being kept hostage," and he didn't feel he was getting anywhere—totally useless, at a complete loss as to what to do. But more than anything, he couldn't help worrying about Lila. She'd really gotten under his skin.

He pulled his gray pickup off to the side of the road. Even though he'd intended to leave Hilson and Whitson safely behind at the lodge, they both had insisted they come along to be part of the pack despite their injuries. Since he'd arrived in town, even Adams, suffering from his concussion, called him on his cell phone from the hospital, wanting to join in the search.

Kintail said no to that, but if Adams acted anything like Hilson and Whitson, Kintail doubted he had any control over his pack members, all of whom wanted to help save Lila and the others, and all who knew in his present state of mind, no meant maybe and that's all they needed to hear.

His phone buzzed and Kintail saw it was Trevor. Thank God. "Yes."

"We just made it to town. We're on our way first to Specialty Cookies. Faith thinks it might be a lead."

"We're on our way there now." He hoped to God the woman was right, and they found Lila and the others before it was too late.

"There it is," Faith said, pointing out the window while Cameron drove her SUV. They'd meant to split up the passengers, two in Cameron's rental, and the rest in Faith's because the seat was really crowded for three men to squish in back there.

But everyone, Leidolf, Gavin, and Trevor did just that, squished together in the backseat, because Cameron wouldn't let Faith ride with them in the back instead of one of the men, and the men all wanted to stick with the woman who seemed to be in the know.

"I know it's a real long shot." Faith didn't want them to think she knew for sure, but she was used to following dead-end leads in her work, and she figured both Cameron and Gavin would realize that. But Trevor and Leidolf might not.

"It's the best shot we have right now," Cameron said, his voice attempting reassurance, but an edginess was evident.

But all that kept going through her mind was a little girl with dark curls and dark eyes and a winning smile who drew pictures on the sidewalk in colored chalk across the street from her parents' home, annoying the eighty-year-old next-door neighbor who claimed it was graffiti and hosed it down every chance he got.

The day of her disappearance, he hosed down the last memory of her, and that was the last Faith remembered of the smiling little girl. Faith stared out the SUV's window and fought the tears. She thought she'd gotten over the memories so long ago. But every time she had a case like this where the victim was still possibly alive, she felt the same cloud of doom, feared the same ending.

And all she was left finding was the killer on the loose, the victim sacrificed for yet another meaningless cause.

"Faith?" Cameron said, touching her shoulder.

She clenched her teeth and looked at him.

"We're here."

"Right." She grabbed for her door handle, but Gavin was already opening the door for her. And then she saw the quaint little house with the gingerbread trimmings like lilac lace and the rest of the house painted in garish pink, reminding her of Hansel and Gretel and the witch who lived inside with her big oven and children made into gingerbread ornaments in the front yard. Here a white picket fence enclosed the small front yard, and a sign hanging between white porch columns said: SPECIALTY COOKIES, OPEN MON-WED, 1-5 PM.

It was Thursday, so no problem there. Cameron led Faith up to the front door, but none of them bothered to knock. Leidolf whipped out his lock picks and opened the door as if he were a master thief, quietly, without making a sound. Thankfully, there wasn't any kind of an alarm to let the occupants know someone had come in through the front door. But Gavin gave Cameron a look and Faith assumed he wanted to know what business Leidolf was in where he carried lock picks wherever he went. That made her curious, too.

The entryway had a quaint little parlor filled with two antique love seats, curved mahogany legs and seat backs, and bright yellow floral fabric. A counter with an old-time cash register sat nearby. And a plastic display contained chocolate fudge of various kinds— vanilla, with nuts, without, chocolate, next to it, the aroma mouthwatering. But deeper inside the house, the fragrance of gingerbread filled a kitchen, which was decorated in yellow, bright and cheerful. Antique platters and plates and paintings gave the place an old-world feel, but the splash of constant color made it more Alice in Wonderland in appearance, when ironically Faith thought it could be a front for a bunch of "Dark Angel" lunatics bent on killing werewolves.

While Faith investigated each room thoroughly, Gavin, Trevor, and Leidolf hurriedly explored every room throughout the two-story house and the basement also, looking for any sign of hostages or hostage takers.

Cameron stayed with Faith, his gun ready, protecting her while she looked in every kitchen cabinet, in every drawer for some kind of clue.

Just cooking supplies and cooking utensils, nothing else. But then she found a drawer full of receipts. Again, for cooking supplies, shipping orders, nothing that would indicate whoever owned this place was involved in hunting werewolves. She moved on to the basement, but she didn't smell any of the men who had visited them at the hot tub.

"You don't smell them here, do you?" Cameron asked.

She shook her head.

She walked to the second floor up the creaky wooden stairs covered in an old worn tapestry muffling her foot falls and examined the two bedrooms and bath when she got there. All were very feminine with frilly curtains, frilly bedspreads, frilly lace pillows, in frilly pink and purple colors. She looked in the drawers. In one, the folded sweaters were big and bright. In another, she found underwear, all white. In another, she noticed a bright, neon pink strap of bathing suit fabric beneath a pair of denim shorts. She reached for the strap and pulled the bathing suit out and stared at it. The woman in the hot tub. The woman who had seen Bigfoot. Mary.

In the other room, the chest of drawers was completely devoid of clothing. Downstairs in her office, they didn't find anything but her billings to customers and to grocery stores in the area.

"I'll…" Trevor started to say when the front door swung open and Gavin and Cameron pointed their weapons at the entrance.

Kintail held up his hands in surrender, his amber eyes darkening, narrowed. "Just me. Find anything?" he asked Faith, looking at her as if she was the only hope he had in the world.

"A swimsuit," Trevor eagerly said. "She's one of them. A woman."

"Older, gray-haired, heavy-set, Mary McNichol's her name," Cameron said, holding up an invoice.

"And the men?" Kintail asked.

"It appears they've never been here. We couldn't find any trace of their scents." Faith looked back at the kitchen. "But there was an empty bag with her cookie company's name on it at one of Charles's cabins that's under renovation. We smelled all of them there. So they work together, only the men must avoid her house for some reason."

"Do you have another clue?" Kintail asked.

"No, but if we split forces, we could ask various business owners, like these grocers," Faith said, pointing to a list of the places Mary sold to wholesale, "if they know Mary and have any idea about a redheaded Chris and a dark-haired Matt. It's worth a try. Surely someone's seen the woman with the men, and they'll know last names and an address."

"I'll go to the grocery store here," Trevor said.

Kintail waited for Faith to say where she planned to go. "I'll be checking out the lodge where Cameron and I first stayed. A clerk I talked to knew a lot about you and your wolves. Maybe she knows something about Mary and her friends," Faith said.

Kintail looked like he wanted to go with her, but she handed him a list, thwarting him. "You might want to have your people check out these other businesses that dealt with her. Before long, everything will be closing. So we need to hurry."

Almost in panic, Kintail immediately began snapping orders to his men, while Cameron escorted Faith back to the SUV, with Gavin and Leidolf joining them.

"If we make Faith one of our partners," Gavin said, walking with them back to her SUV rental, not leaving Faith and Cameron's side for an instant, "we could sit back and watch her work and she could solve all our cases for us. Of course we'd provide her with protection. Think that could work?"

Cameron opened her door for her and shook his head at Gavin.

"I don't know," Gavin said, smiling, "I really think she's worth taking a chance on."

But she wondered if he'd think so if he knew what she and Cameron had become. She climbed into the front passenger seat and watched as Leidolf came around to the left side of the car and climbed in. She thought he was going to go sleuthing on his own. He'd been so quiet all along, she wondered what he was thinking.

But when they got to the hotel, she saw just what he intended to do. After getting a room so he could use the Internet and one of the lodge's guest computers, he sat down at one in the lobby and began searching through websites, looking for the Dark Angels. Gavin remained with him while Faith and Cameron got a room for the night.

Unfortunately, the clerk who'd been on the desk the evening they had arrived wasn't here tonight. But when Faith described her to the man at the desk, he said, "Sissy? Yeah, she knows everybody's business. We learned a long time ago if we wanted a rumor spread, tell Sissy. If you don't want the world to know, mum's the word around her."

"But she'll be on duty here in the morning, right?"

"First thing, six in the morning."

"Good, that's my kind of time." She took Cameron's hand and led him to Leidolf's table as he surfed the Net, barely pausing to see what she wanted. "We'll be in Room 213. What's your room number, Leidolf?"

"It's 442. Gavin can stay with me."

"If you find anything, let us know, okay? We're going up to the room to discuss plans."

A small smile lifted Gavin's lips, but he didn't say anything. Leidolf glanced up from the computer screen and frowned at Cameron. "Remember what I said, Cameron. We do things differently. Once you reach a certain point, there's no turning back. Not for us."

"I'll keep it in mind, Leidolf. Thanks for the advice." But Cameron sounded like he was peeved that Leidolf would mention it.

But she understood. Being a pack leader, Leidolf was used to taking charge of a situation. He probably didn't trust Cameron and her to follow the rules of their society, yet. And he was probably right not to trust them. At least, she figured some of the rules might need to be broken.

Cameron walked back out to the vehicle to get a single bag for each of them, then he led her to the elevator. "You really were talking about discussing plans to locate David and Owen, right?"

"Absolutely. I have to assimilate what I've seen. I kind of categorize everything in my mind, run over it mentally, back and forth, until I come up with another idea. There's no one way to do this. Something triggers something, and then that triggers something else. And then we've got our man, or woman."

"Or three men and a woman."

As they walked to their room, Faith said quietly, "Or more."

Once they were settled in the room, Faith pulled off her parka, hat and gloves, kicked off her snow boots, and climbed onto the bed. "Want to order some room service?" She leaned against the pillow and closed her eyes.

"You're going to go to sleep?"

She didn't open her eyes. "This is how I think, Cameron. Really. I have to have absolute quiet, shut down everything but my mind, so I can think."

"What do you want to eat?"

"Salmon. If they have any."

"What did Leidolf say to you?"

Faith opened her eyes and narrowed her gaze at Cameron. "My dad's a red wolf, damn it, and he has a red wolf girlfriend. And he's happy with everything that's transpired." She snapped her eyes shut.

Cameron moved in close to the bed and kissed the frown on Faith's forehead. "He's alive and well, and that's all that's important, Faith, honey. That's all that matters."

Afraid that her father might have been eliminated, or would be soon, Cameron was damned relieved her father was fine.

She quit frowning. "You're right." And then she didn't say anything more.

He watched her, worried that she was going to fall asleep on him when every minute that passed meant his partners were at risk. Then he gave up and ordered the salmon dinners. Every officer, every investigator had their own methods to work things out. Some looked over evidence a million times, some had to visit the crime scene to visualize what might have occurred, everyone did something a little bit differently. Combing through the physical evidence was more his style, so just thinking about random happenings didn't work for him.

For a while, he stared out the window at the parking lot, trying to figure out where they could look next, hoping that Kintail's people would pick up another lead, or that Leidolf would. He glanced at Faith. Her breathing seemed shallow. Hell, she had fallen asleep.

He kicked off his boots and joined her in bed, pulling her against his body, her head resting on his shoulder, her hand planted on his stomach, her inner thigh pressed against his thigh. Breathing in her subtle lavender fragrance, he felt the shaft of desire slamming into him. Every sense on higher alert—the sound of her soft intake as she took a deep breath, her fingers spread across his belly in a tantalizing touch, her leg draped over his as if screaming I'm yours, take me—keenly affected him. Ever since he'd felt he'd nearly lost her when she was in her wolf form, he'd been forced to realize how much the woman was already part of his life. How much it would kill him if she no longer was.

He stroked her hair, his other arm wrapped around her, holding her close, enjoying the moment of silence, of peace, wishing he didn't have to worry about his friends being in trouble at a time like this, when there was a knock at the door.

"Room service," a man cheerfully called out.

Cameron slipped out from under Faith and headed for the door. When he opened it, the man rolled in the cart, the same one who had brought him the steak the first night Cameron had been here. The man glanced at Faith, and Cameron expected him to smile at the sight of her sleeping on the bed, figuring he'd have remembered her slipping on her boots while Cameron was wearing only a towel, and that the lady was more or less a permanent guest of his, when Cameron noted a tattoo on the man's hand.

The words Dark Angel in small print stood out as if the letters were as visible as a billboard on a high speed highway.

Faith opened her eyes and took a deep breath. "The food's here."

The man was already edging toward the door, his eyes wide. Something clued him in about who Cameron and Faith were, or maybe just Faith, but he wasn't waiting for his tip and that confirmed Cameron's suspicions.

The man turned to bolt. Cameron tackled him to the floor. The guy was wiry, flailing with arms and legs, trying to connect with anything that might help him break free, but with his stomach pressed against the floor, he didn't have much leverage. If Cameron hadn't needed him to be coherent, he would have just as soon knocked him out.

"Who is he?" Faith asked, as she hurried to get Cameron's gun from his holster on the bedside table.

"One of them."

The man's green eyes widened even more when he saw Faith pointing the gun at him. "Where are they?" she asked, in a voice that bordered on dangerous.

He grew very still.

Someone knocked on the door, and Faith called out, "Yes?"

"It's me, Gavin."

Cameron nodded, still pinning their Dark Angel conspirator to the floor. Faith went to the door, but had the gun poised just in case Gavin wasn't alone.

She might not be a police officer, but she sure knew what she was doing.

Gavin said, "Leidolf found their website and—" That's when he stared at the gun Faith was wielding, although she lowered it quickly, and then he saw Cameron sitting on the Dark Angel. "Holy hell, who's he?"

"Brought our meals, but he gave us the wrong brand of tartar sauce," Cameron said, sarcastically, pointing at the man's hand bearing the tattoo. "He recognized us, started to book before he had his tip. Now the question is, what kind of torture should we use on him to get him to reveal our partners' location?"

Gavin closed the door, stalked into the room, and stood with his boots pressed against the top of the man's head. "We're werewolves, right? So why don't we turn into wolves and start eating body parts? Slowly."

The man began to tremble. He might think he's a killer, but he wasn't anything more than a scared pup, probably talking big when he was with his gang. Without them as moral support, egging each other on? He was nothing.

Faith crouched next to him. "Gavin's teasing. He's got an insanely sinister sense of humor. Werewolves don't exist. But their partners' lives are at stake, and right now, I doubt I can keep them from torturing you so they can learn their location. If you don't think they'll do it, believe me, they've used some techniques even I can't stand to watch. And I've seen some pretty hideous stuff, being a forensic scientist."

Gavin raised his brows at Cameron. Cameron gave him a small smile back. The woman was worth her weight in diamonds.

"We've seen you change," the man bit out, his words muffled with the way Cameron was pressing him against the hotel's carpeted floor.

"Me?" she asked and Cameron detected a hint of alarm.

"Not you, specifically. But some of the others."

Cameron figured Gavin wouldn't believe any of it, so he assumed the best way to get the truth out of the guy was to play along with it. "My partners?"

"They're wolves right now. The bastards are in a cage nice and safe and sound—for the moment."

Hell, didn't sound good. Did they have the shape shifting trick down pat? Or would they inadvertently shift at the wrong time?

Gavin grunted. "Hell, you've got some of Kintail's wolves and think they're David and Owen?"

"We saw them shift, damn it. Them and some woman they had with them. They buried their clothes and shapeshifted near where Kintail's lodge was. Surprised the shit out of us. We were watching the lodge, ready to get any of his men who ventured out of the place alone, when these three ran for the barn like the devil was after them. Then in a few minutes, they headed for the woods as others from the house shouted they'd escaped. At first we assumed the three of them were prisoners, and we thought to rescue them from Kintail's people. Then we'd solicit them to join our group."

He squirmed a little, but Cameron tightened his hold on him.

The man groaned and quit resisting. "After they started tossing their clothes, we changed our minds. You sure as hell turn fast. One minute a man or woman, the next a wolf. If I'd looked away for a second or two, I would have missed the whole episode. But it wasn't the first time we'd seen it happen. When we were on that trip with the hunter guide, Trevor Hodges, looking for Bigfoot? We got separated from him, and then we saw Kintail's woman shapeshift. We wanted to tell Trevor and Kenneth O'Malley, the weird dude who kept taking notes. But then we thought they wouldn't believe us. So we kept them out of the loop and changed our focus from hunting Bigfoot to werewolves. For a long time, we just watched Kintail and his wolves. And then we decided to act. Why should they pretend to be normal people like us? So we killed them with silver and it worked."

"Anyone can die from a lethal injection of silver. Even anyone as stupid as you," Faith said.

The man's eyes widened, then narrowed. "Says you."

"If you're so well read up on stuff, you could easily find out that what I'm saying is true. In fact, we could run to the health food store tonight and get some silver supplements to feed you. See how long you live. Hell, how do we know you're not a werewolf?"

He scowled at her. "We wanted you to join our team. We thought you'd understand us. But it seems you're one of them now. Either that or just clueless." He didn't say anything for a few seconds, then took up with his story again. "So here are your friends running as wolves through the forest in the direction of Charles's resort. We figure he's either a wolf, too, or a friend of theirs. The next thing we knew, Kintail's men were in hot pursuit of your partners and that woman. At first, we just observed them, not sure what to do. Then we figured, what the hell. We have what it takes to show who's superior. Who shouldn't exist. And we showed off our guns, and that made their pursuers run away like scared little rabbits. So much for them being bad ass wolves. Didn't take long for us to run your partners and the woman down and dope them up. We got Kintail's main squeeze, too."

"Where are they?" Cameron growled.

"If I tell you, you'll kill me."

"Quickly, mostly painlessly," Gavin said. "Believe me, you don't want a wolf eating at your organs while you're still alive. That's got to hurt, lots."

"I don't know where they are, exactly. They took them to one house, but Chris said he'd moved them to another later. Just in case anyone might have tracked us."

"Why not kill them like you did the other men?" Cameron asked, still puzzled about why they'd keep them alive this time.

"Hell, we could just kill all your sorry asses. But we'd have to do it secretly, and someone would eventually try to arrest us for mass murders. So we have to prove you're werewolves. And then, we can become famous for finding the first real werewolves. Fame, fortune, we'd be able to make public appearances on all the talk shows, maybe even get honorary degrees. If we were in England, the queen would even knight us."

"Lead us to the house Chris had taken them to," Cameron said.

"Change into a wolf. You're not going to shoot me with that gun. And you can't scare me like this. Shapeshift, growl at me, bare those wicked teeth. Then I'll take you there. But I can't guarantee they'll be there."

"Sorry, we're all newly turned. We can't just shape shift any time we want to," Faith said shrugging.

"But I can shift anytime I want to," Leidolf said, and everyone turned around to see him standing in the doorway, his amber eyes lethal.