Chapter Twenty-Two
D riving to work from the pack house each morning gave me time to think about the coming day.
I really didn’t like how Gerrell’s lackeys were acting. There was something suspicious about them and I hated it. Luckily, I had good instincts—literally and figuratively—and could use those to my advantage.
The previous day, before I needed my walk with Rian to clear my head, I’d discovered the scent of the wilier one, Deputy Harris, lingering around my office door.
Now, my office was along the hall where everyone walked all day, every day. I was used to the scents of the people I worked with, which made Eau de Harris especially jarring as I was opening the door after coming back from lunch.
I was interested to see how today would shape up, because I had an ace up my sleeve.
I’d drop by my house and get one of my indoor security cameras and install it inside my office. Just as insurance. I knew neither Harris nor Granville, the less creepy deputy, had gone inside my office yet, but something told me one of them would do it soon.
After getting the camera, I put it in my jacket pocket and drove to work like usual.
“Morning,” I said to Penny and everyone at the desks in the front.
I got bleary eyed responses like always. Mikayla was our only morning person, and her being gone for the time being was rough on everyone who knew her here.
I snuck past the desks and into the hall and to my office. The scent wasn’t as strong now, and it also wasn’t inside the room. Closing the door behind myself, I quickly installed the camera on top of the corner-shelf that held a couple of plants and picture frames; the only decorations in the room. My trusty fern would hide the camera, but this way I could see the whole room if need be.
I didn’t lock the door even when I was gone, because someone might need to access the couple of filing cabinets in the room. It also gave people a reason to drop by the room when I wasn’t there and that, in the current circumstances, made my skin crawl.
I was at my desk, mentally preparing to going out to do a welfare check, when Penny knocked on the door.
“What’s up?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.
She slipped inside and closed the door behind herself. “Do you… I don’t know… get a vibe from the newbies?” she asked, looking hesitant and a bit awkward, which was quite unlike her.
I frowned. “Short answer? Yes.”
Sighing with obvious relief, she came to sit across from me. “There’s… I don’t know. There’s something going on. I got an email that there’s going to be an inspection soon, date pending, and that because he’s so awesome, Sheriff Gerrell is going to send cleaning crews to each station to help out because we’re ‘so busy doing the great work we do’ or some such.”
“When’s the last time we had an inspection?” I asked, trying to wrack my brain.
“It must be a few years. Two, at least, right?”
“I genuinely can’t remember.” I didn’t share my observations or the fact that I now had a camera in my office. I didn’t want to affect anything myself; I’d rather see how things would happen organically.
“Well, if there’s anything you see….” She got to her feet, frowning still.
“I’ll let you know. If anything comes up, you do the same.”
She was back at the door when she turned back and brightened. “Oh, the ladies have worked their miracles and Val and her kids have enough resources to leave town. They likely left last night.”
“Oh, that’s good news.” I felt a whoosh of relief. “She doesn’t have any family in town so I’m glad she has the means to leave to start over.”
“Absolutely. They’ve also made sure Mikayla and her grandpa have nothing to worry about. The town is treating her like the hero she is.”
“I’m glad. She deserves it.”
As it so often happened, the ringing of the phone in the front called Penny away.
I glanced at my camera, finished my mediocre coffee, and put my coat back on. It was time to go check up on people their loved ones were worried about.
A fter getting my morning duties done, I did paperwork, I went to get lunch for everyone else, and then went to park my butt at the diner.
It was no surprise that Sheila and Barbara-Anne were there. I raised a hand at them, then pointedly went to a booth on the other side of the diner.
Tadeo came to take my order, grinning understandingly. “They’ve been on a roll for a while,” he murmured.
His back was to the ladies, so they were none the wiser of his words, especially with their human hearing.
I raised a brow. “Oh?”
“Well, they obviously organized everything for the Halls and for Deputy Fischer. But they’ve been really on the roll with trying to get you some recognition, too.”
I groaned and rubbed a hand over my face.
“The usual?” he asked as he poured me coffee.
“Yeah. Thank you.”
He went to tell his brother my order, and I changed seats so my back was to the ladies. I hoped that signaled I wasn’t to be bothered.
They were likely aiming to make me the Chief Deputy Sheriff, then. It was a position you were appointed to, but in small counties such as ours, if the powers that be got enough pressure from the public and could prove their point, those promotions could happen pretty easily.
I was senior to all my colleagues at the station, and as a Lieutenant, which meant I was their superior, but in practice it only meant that I had a few more responsibilities. We didn’t even have a Chief Deputy Sheriff at the moment, which—fuck, they were going to make me do it, right?
But once you got to the position, undersheriff, as some called it, it was only a step down from being elected as the Sheriff. And that was not the position I wanted. Hell, I’d get three root canals in one sitting with no pain relief as a human rather than I’d become Sheriff.
Everyone knew that. Yet this… whatever campaign they were trying to pull off behind my back, put me directly in the way of them pushing me to nominate myself for the next election. I knew I’d win, but I didn’t want to .
As I ate my meal, I watched as Holly Gerrell stormed out of the hair salon across the street. She looked pissed off as she gesticulated wildly while on her phone. When she spotted my cruiser in front of the diner, she scowled hard enough to probably sprain something in her face.
She really didn’t like me. I had no idea why.
As I watched, she crossed the street without looking to see if there were cars, then marched past the cruiser on her way to her unnecessarily expensive Mercedes Benz.
“I know!” she shrieked just as she walked past the diner. “That’s what you keep telling me, but I haven’t seen any proof, Quentin! You need to stop— fine! I’ll talk to you when you get home!”
Well, that had been informative. I wondered if she’d talked about her husband’s rumored gambling issues or something completely different. Either way, I was pretty sure he’d be having it once he made it to their place between Luxton and Warren.
She vanished from the view, and I peeked over my shoulder to see if any of the people inside had heard her rant, but they looked too neutral. I was probably the only one with non-human hearing here outside the cook who was in the very back.
It was probably safe to say Sheriff Gerrell had some stress going on, and I wasn’t making it any easier for him, not that I actually knew what his deal with me was outside of being a wolf.
I left a sizable tip for Tadeo, which he noticed and gave me this “I got you” look, then went to distract Barbara-Anne and Sheila. I managed to escape the diner without having to chat with them, so I counted it as a win.
I visited Mikayla, who was hoping she could get back to work in the next week or so, if everything worked as we hoped. As I left her, I realized that once she got back, Harris and Granville would go back to wherever they’d come from.
Of course, technically Gerrell could leave his spies at the station if he chose so, but we didn’t have that kind of money.
What all of this meant—if Mikayla was right about the timing—was that whatever Gerrell was planning would have to happen very soon.
O f course, the next day Penny told me the cleaning crew would be at our station on Thursday. Since it was Tuesday, well… I decided I could give Harris and Granville a chance to do whatever they needed to.
At lunch time, I walked out of my office and to the front. Harris and Deputy Pearce were sitting at the desks. Perfect. I only needed to get one of Gerrell’s lackeys, after all.
“Hey Penny? I’m going to drop by the pack house for lunch, so I might be a bit longer than usual. Just make sure they patch me in in an emergency if I run late. I’ll be back in… an hour and a half, tops.”
“Oh, sure. Tell everyone I said hi!” she said brightly.
I left the station, feeling the weight of Deputy Harris’s gaze on my back as I walked out the door.
As I drove to the old Victorian, I wondered what I would see in the camera. Tampering with files would be the easiest. The physical files, obviously, because I wasn’t stupid enough to leave my work computer unlocked while I was gone.
Whatever it was, I was confident that having evidence was the best way to secure myself.
I hadn’t told anyone I was coming home for lunch, and when I parked the cruiser, I saw Ben and Brodie’s trucks were gone.
I got out, and Kye rounded the corner in his winter gear.
“Oh, it’s you! I thought Brodie forgot something,” he said cheerily, clearly in a good mood.
I grinned. “Nah, just me. Actually, are the brainiacs studying?”
“I think they were taking the morning off to figure out next week’s menu or something.” He looked guilty for a moment. “There was suddenly firewood that needed chopping.”
Laughing, I nodded at him. “Understandable. I might need some brainstorming help from the smart ones.”
Kye looked at me in a way I couldn’t read. In his sincere tone, he said, “I think you do just fine that way, but if you need more brain power to back you up, I’m sure they’ll be willing to help.”
Feeling oddly bashful, I nodded, then headed inside while he went back to the wood pile. I needed to do my part with that soon. We went through so much firewood with how warm we were keeping the house mostly for Luca’s sake.
“Knock-knock, might there be lunch?” I called out as soon as I stepped inside.
“Always!” Carys replied from the kitchen.
Before I had my shoes and jacket off, I heard the fridge door open and smiled.
I peered into the living room and saw Luca asleep with Cindy curled up against him. She’d taken a liking to the man, and I could understand why.
As I moved to go to the kitchen, I was derailed by Rian who pounced from the third step from the bottom.
I caught him, smiling at his clearly delighted expression. “Hey, you.”
He wrapped his legs around my waist and settled in. “I thought I heard you. What are you doing home at this hour? Not that I’m complaining.”
I couldn’t answer him, because he kissed me in a sort of happy, carefree way that I needed to feel more of.
The microwave beeped in the kitchen, which reminded me of one half of my reason to be there.
Reluctantly, I pulled my mouth from Rian’s, and he pouted.
“Lunch,” I said firmly. “Then I’ll explain more. I need you guys’ help.”
“Oh, okay.” He pecked my lips once, then slithered down my body until his feet were firmly on the floor.
The kitchen looked lived in the way it always did. While it was clean, there was always some clutter in certain spots, and various notes and lists flapped on the fridge door when Carys closed it.
“Water,” she explained, and held up a pitcher.
“Perfect, thank you.”
She poured me a giant glass. “There’s last night’s pasta in the microwave.”
There was another ding, and I went to get my plate. She’d already set a fork and a knife on the table, and now put my drink there, too.
Max was sitting across from me, frowning at the communal iPad where they did most admin type things for the pack, including making shopping lists.
The pasta—Chicken Alfredo—was nearly as good as it had been the previous night, and I had to consciously not scarf it down as fast as I possibly could.
I took out my phone and opened it, then handed it to Rian who had come sit next to me.
“Can you open the home security app for me? Check the live feed?”
Frowning, he took the phone and navigated to the app. He looked at the screen, frown firmly on his beautiful face.
“This is… your office?” he asked, confusion coloring his tone.
“Mhmm.” I drank from my glass and then continued eating until my plate was empty.
“More?” Carys asked, but I shook my head.
“No, thank you. This was enough. A coffee would be great, though.”
She smiled brightly. “Coming right up!”
I loved the girl like the little sister I’d never had. Come to think of it, I loved everyone in this house, even Luca, though I didn’t know him that well yet. The fact that Rian loved him was enough for me.
“So, I need you guys’ brain power to help me out,” I started, then began explaining the situation.
We had coffee and treats—even Rian was sipping his espresso—and contemplated the situation.
“I think it’s safe to say he’s low on cash if he’s gambling and he needs to keep the Missus happy, right?” Max pondered.
“Right. That’s what I was thinking as well. I just don’t know where I fit in in all of this. But something hinky is going on.”
Rian, whose eyes were glued to the phone where nothing was happening, murmured, “What if it is as simple as you being more popular than him? Maybe he’s trying to do something shady to smear your reputation?”
I hummed. “I guess it could be that. But I don’t really understand what he’d benefit from me being out of the picture. He knows I’m not gunning for his seat.”
Max frowned. “Ben says his wife is getting bitchier and bitchier. She had a flat tire the other day and was horrible at the guys at the garage even though they literally changed the tire right there within thirty minutes.”
I told them how I’d seen and heard her at the diner and they all grimaced.
“He’s certainly having a hard time at home, then.” Carys curled up on the window seat. “What if the Sheriff is actually dirty? Like more than we think he is? If he’s gambling, I don’t think his salary will cover the habit and the lifestyle they have, right?” She looked hesitant, as if she wasn’t sure if she was correct. It reminded me of how young she truly was and how much regular teenage life she’d missed while being trafficked.
“You’re not wrong,” I stated firmly, and she relaxed.
“I don’t know how much money he makes, but it can’t be enough if his wife is that mad,” Max murmured.
“What if—”
“Shush!” Rian smacked his hand to my chest, pointing at the screen.
Max and Carys scrambled around the table to peer at it over our shoulders.
“That’s Harris,” I whispered.
He looked around the room, but didn’t seem to catch the camera. There was sound, but he was being so quiet I couldn’t hear anything.
He went to sit in my chair, then opened one of the lower drawers of my desk and—
“Is he putting something inside?” Carys asked breathily.
I tilted my head. “I can’t tell from this angle.”
We watched as Harris closed the drawer and leaned further down. He seemed to do something to the underside of my desk.
Then he quickly got to his feet and glanced around, walked to the door and listened for a while. Then, without another look, he exited my office and closed the door behind himself.
“Well, I guess now we know they really are in it with Gerrell,” Rian said, his tone more pissed off than I’d ever heard it.
“Yup.” I kissed his temple. “I guess we now have evidence that he did something there. I’ll ignore it and save the recording on my phone and send it to everyone in the pack, too.”
“I was about to recommend that,” Max said, his disgust evident in his tone.
A loud coughing sound startled us all, and Max was out of his chair faster than the rest of us could even contemplate moving.
“How’s he doing?” I asked quietly.
“Not good today,” Rian replied, sorrow clear in his gaze.
There was nothing I could say, so I hugged him close for a while. Then I let go so he could go check on Luca, too.
Cindy sauntered into the kitchen, and Carys began to coo at her.
“Is it your lunch time, girl?” she asked, and got a chirp in response.
Smiling, I began the process of saving and distributing the video. There wasn’t really anything else I could do for the time being.
I was still waiting for the endgame, after all.