A Mate to Share [Wolf Pack Mates 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (13 page)

It took them an hour to find all the things they needed at the store, then another half hour to unload and put everything away. Finally they were ready to go and ask Eve to eat with them.

“The plumber was supposed to be there today, so likely she’d be glad to get away from all the noise,” Jett said, hoping he was right.

Tired of locking and unlocking the boom gate, they went by motorcycle to the old schoolhouse, approaching from the wild lands at the back.

“Who’s here?” asked Morgan, talking straight into his ear to be heard above the noise of riding across leaves and sticks.

Jett shrugged. He had no idea of the answer to Morgan’s question, but he, too, recognized the motorcycle half hidden under a tree as one belonging to the community. He stopped his bike and turned the engine off, waiting for the noise of their journey to quiet as he looked around.

Morgan tapped his shoulder and pointed upward. In a tree not far in front of them, high up in the branches, was Malachi. “Wasn’t Malachi supposed to be watching Sard?” whispered Morgan.

Jett nodded, his heart pounding hard. What was Sard doing at the school? Surely he didn’t have a legitimate reason to be here. Jasper would never allow him to be allocated work that would place him so close to the women they all knew Sard hated.

Malachi shimmied down the tree and stood beside their motorcycle. “I can’t stop watching for long. Sard’s helping the plumber install the bathroom. I don’t trust him but there was nothing I could do about it. I’m glad you’re here, though. It’d be good to take the plumber aside and make sure he tests everything before he goes. But I mean, what can Sard do? So what if the shower leaks? It won’t exactly be a big deal.”

Jett had a scary thought. “Remember at the shape-shifter clinic? That crazy cousin of Oscar Thorne’s planted a bomb. Could Sard be planting a bomb to blow up the school?”

“Oh wow. If it went off during a craft market day dozens of people could be injured even killed. That would be really terrible,” said Morgan.

“I need to get back to watching. I’ll tell Jasper that idea. You two need to get the plumber inside to check everything, though without arousing anyone’s suspicions.” Malachi swung himself up into the tree and began climbing.

Jett turned the ignition key and slowly rode his bike the rest of the way into the school yard, stopping well away from where the plumber had dug a short trench from the shipping room to connect with the pipes to the external bathrooms.

“First we’ll talk to Eve and invite her to dinner. Then you watch Sard and I’ll speak to the plumber,” said Morgan.

“Don’t you think it might be better to speak to the plumber first, before Eve knows we’re here and wants to stand around listening?”

“Good point. We’ll do it your way.”

Watching Sard was going to be difficult. Did he stand where the man could see him and know they were watching him, or did he pretend not to notice him? And he had to be sure not to block Malachi’s view from up in the tree. So he needed to stay on the far side of Sard from the tree. It was starting to get more complicated the more he thought about it. However, it was very suspicious that Sard just happened to be here working on the schoolhouse. That couldn’t possibly be coincidence. He wasn’t a plumber. He worked in horticulture with seeds and plant propagation.

Just as they rounded the corner to talk to the men, Jett noticed the plumber speaking into his cell phone.

“Everything’s looking good here, now. Flush the toilet for me and run the water in the shower so I can check there’s no leaks.”

Jett saw a huge grin split Sard’s face. In that moment he looked one hundred percent evil. “Don’t do it. There’s a bomb,” he screamed at the top of his voice, jumping the trench and tackling Sard, so the man fell flat on his back in the dirt.

“What the fuck?” The plumber looked up at him, but Jett was too busy twisting Sard’s arm up behind his back to pay attention.

Morgan was already running toward the back door of the building. Jett heard pounding feet and guessed the plumber was following him.

Jett got on top of Sard, rolling him over and pushing his face into the dirt. He held both of Sard’s wrists in the middle of the man’s back.

“What have you done?” he asked.

“Likely nothing. You arrived ten minutes too soon.”

“Well thank all the fates for that. Now tell me, what have you done?”

Sard remained silent. Jett pulled his arms higher and tighter but Sard didn’t even flinch. Jett thought if he was a real Dom now he’d pull handcuffs out of his pocket, but he didn’t have any such thing on him, so he leaned his knee heavily in the middle of Sard’s back to ensure the man couldn’t pull free, and waited for the plumber and Morgan to get back.

At least there was no water rushing through the pipe and no explosions either.

Taige appeared first with a handful of plastic zip ties. They zipped Sard’s wrists together behind his back and then his ankles together, while Taige said, “He put a bottle of some chemical in the toilet cistern. The plumber’s called for the police and Eve’s taken photographs.”

“Why did you want to blow up the school? How will that help you? You aren’t going to find a wife in jail you know.”

“Find a wife? Who did he want to marry? Eve?” asked Taige.

“I’ll be out of jail in a year or two, then I’ll go overseas, find my perfect wolf bride, and start my own pack,” Sard spat.

Jett was grateful it was Taige beside him, and not Eve, who still didn’t know about the shape-shifters.

At last he heard the sounds of the police sirens. Jett wondered if it’d be the same officer again. What was his name? Stokes?

* * * *

Eve did not consider herself to be bad tempered or have the artistic flashpoint temperament that cartoons and movies loved to display. But right now, if one more person said “yes ma’am” to her without actually answering any of her questions, she might just hit them upside the head with her shuttle. Her big, heavy, polished hardwood shuttle.

She folded her arms across her chest and fixed her gaze on the police officer’s face. “What was the liquid in the bottle that man put in my toilet cistern?”

“It’s being taken for forensic testing, ma’am.”

“I know that. I also know you didn’t answer my question. What was the liquid?”

“I couldn’t be sure, ma’am.”

“Guess.” Eve tapped her right food on the stone floor of the schoolhouse foyer.

The officer sighed and gave in. “We won’t know for sure until after the tests are complete, but it’s probably just a noxious smelling compound designed to drive you out of the building.”

“But it would permeate all my hangings and make them unsalable.”

“Yes, ma’am, that might happen.”

“Or the women might have been attacked in the parking lot as they fled the building at night,” said Jett, his voice sounding harder and colder than she could ever have imagined.

“That is also possible, sir.”

Eve sighed. So not a bomb or anything dramatic, just another stupid, childish prank. Except she would have had to spend a big percentage of her potential profit having her hangings professionally dry-cleaned to get any odor out of the wool.

The man named Malachi, who seemed to be another associate of Morgan and Jett’s, came back to the open double doors, his jeans now very dirty. “The trench is all filled in and the bathroom doors are locked.” He handed her the key she’d given the plumber that morning.

“Thank you, Malachi.”

“No problem. Jasper said I’m to escort Taige back to his home for the night.”

She glanced over at Taige. Yeah, they’d both expected that. Jett and Morgan would likely want to stay here with her tonight. That’d be the next thing she supposed. She’d done almost no work today, but she was stressed and tired. What she’d really like was a long, hot soak in a tub. Problem was, this building only had showers, no tub. Well, she’d just have to manage anyway.

“Eve?”

She turned to Morgan. He looked so hesitant she wondered if she’d been scowling at him. “We don’t want you to stay here alone tonight. Please come with us?”

“Yeah, sure. Can we go somewhere there’s a tub I can soak in?”

“I have a tub at my place. I mean, a regular tub, not a hot tub. But you can soak in it as long as you want to,” said Jett.

“That sounds like a deal then. I’ll just go pack a few things.”

“Wait for me. I’ll come with you,” said Taige.

They both filled small bags with a change of clothes and then Taige gripped her arm. “Eve, they’re good men, Morgan and Jett. You might want to reconsider your answer to them.”

“I do love them. But I just feel there’s something really important that I don’t understand.” Eve wondered if now she was going to sound crazy. Oh, well, Taige knew all about her. They’d been friends since kindergarten after all.

“If there’s anything they need to tell you, give them the time and space to do it in their own way, okay?”

Eve stared at Taige. Either she was brain-dead from exhaustion or there
was
a secret and Taige knew it. “Fair enough.”

By the time they left the building and locked the double front doors, there was just a pickup truck sitting in the parking lot, with a motorcycle beside it.

“Everyone’s gone?” asked Taige.

“The plumber left a while ago, followed by the police. Malachi took one of the bikes back to the farm and brought the truck back here. Now he’ll ride the other bike home and we four will go back in the pickup,” said Morgan.

“Wow. We’ve put you all to a lot of trouble. I’m sorry.” Eve felt guilty that these men were being forced to babysit her. Then she realized they’d never actually said why they were here today. Any of them. Malachi or Morgan or Jett. “Why were you all here today in the first place?”

“Jasper sent Malachi on an errand. Jett and I came to ask you to have dinner with us. I’m going to cook you a potato gratin that’s absolutely to die for, and my own special honeyed carrots.” Morgan finished his sentence with a grandiose flourish of one arm like a caricature of a chef.

Eve smiled and her heart suddenly felt so much lighter. She really did love these men. Surely their secret couldn’t be anything serious.

* * * *

Jett left Eve in the bathroom with her change of clothes and a drawerful of bath products. There had to be something there she’d like. “Morgan said it’d take him just under an hour to cook, so you can take as long as you like.”

“An hour sounds delightful. If I’m not out in fifty-five minutes you can come and bang on the door in case I’ve fallen asleep,” she said.

He’d have much preferred to sit on the side of the tub and stare at her lovely pale skin and long slender legs, but tonight had to go just right. If they failed to win her over a second time, he didn’t see them having any hope of success on a third occasion. Basically it was tonight or never. Since he couldn’t bear the thought of never, that meant he had to get everything exactly right now.

Resolutely he shut the door on the sound of water running into the tub, and went to arrange the bedroom. He couldn’t light the candles this early or they’d be burned out before the time came for them all to go to bed. But he could set everything up. He’d already chosen some peaceful background music and now he set up a playlist. He laid out candles on the nightstand and the window ledge and across the top of the books on his bookshelf.

He’d already put fresh sheets on the bed and a vase of flowers on the nightstand. What else could he do? Jett experimented with opening and closing the drapes, deciding on closed. He really didn’t want any of Sard’s friends looking in his windows. So he went from room to room, closing all the drapes. That way, wherever they went, whatever they did, they’d have privacy.

He set the dining table for the three of them and put another vase of flowers on the end of it, where a fourth person would have sat if there’d been more than three of them. He understood women liked flowers. In fact, he liked them himself. But he didn’t want to be craning his neck around the vase all night, so this way was the perfect solution.

Already the food was starting to smell really delicious. He and Morgan had spent so much time and effort planning everything, he’d neglected to consider the pure enjoyment a nice meal could be. Especially a delicious meal with good company.

When Eve appeared he forgot about everything except her. She was barefoot, wearing a plain red T-shirt and pale blue jeans. The clothes could not have been any simpler, but she could never look any more lovely than she did right now. “You’re beautiful,” he said, kissing her cheek.

“And hungry. That smells really good, Morgan.”

“Your timing is impeccable. Both of you sit down and I’ll serve the meal now.”

The food was delicious, and Jett enjoyed it. But mostly he enjoyed having his best friend and his woman, together in his house, what he hoped would be a symbol of the future. A future stretching out for years and years with them just like this, together, at home, forever. Except that the next step was to shape-shift. And that alone might scare her away permanently.

“Do you like animals, Eve? Jett and I were planning to take you to the zoo. Apparently they run a night program with romantic evenings under the stars among the animals.”