Dangerously Attracted [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

“Thank you, Sophie.”

The elevator door beeped and Lewis stepped back from Sophie’s desk. She might be needed by whoever was coming down from the professional suites. But instead, it was Rhion. “Come on up to my office, Lewis. We’ll talk.”

Lewis was surprised that Rhion would interrupt his no doubt busy day to talk with him.

“I’m sorry to have disrupted your schedule.”

“Not a bit. Willow and Hawthorne have both been keen to get the roof garden underway and Cadfael hasn’t gotten around to thinking about the project yet. But if you have some ideas that would be very helpful.”

Lewis was relieved that Rhion wasn’t annoyed with him, but he still suspected Rhion had many more important things to worry about than a roof garden. “There must be so many calls on your time to manage such a huge enterprise as this mall,” he said.

“Yes, but we’ve gotten together an excellent team of managers to help us. That’s one of the benefits of being in a wolf pack. There are plenty of men and women with a variety of talents so everyone can find a job they don’t mind doing. Plus there are humans involved as well. But if you’re willing to take on the roof garden maybe we can get that project underway now, too.”

While they were talking Rhion had swiped his keycard and pressed a button. Lewis recognized the sixth floor when they got out of the elevator. He’d been here before to the conference room. Rhion’s office was in the other direction from the elevator, and there was a male secretary in a sort of anteroom that led to four offices, one of which was apparently Rhion’s. Rhion opened the office door, waved him to a chair, and sat behind the desk. “So tell me your thoughts about the roof garden.”

Lewis had thought through this carefully, but it was difficult not to be nervous when such an important person was speaking to him, no matter how nice the man had been. “You know I grew up on a farm. All my life I’ve worked with crops, vegetables, flowers. All different kinds of plants.”

Rhion nodded at him.

Lewis struggled to explain himself. “I understand plants. They—not
talk
, that’s not the right word, but, maybe
show
me what they need.”

Rhion nodded again and his face displayed no anger or impatience. Lewis relaxed a little. “I’m not really used to a city yet. I’d never seen one until I was an adult, and on my way across the country from Wyoming I avoided not just cities, but even larger towns. So I’d like to be working on the roof, away from people, just with plants. I dig my fingers in the soil and I know if it’s too wet or too dry. I look at their leaves and flowers and know if they need more sun or more nutrients. I know I could build you a garden where the plants would thrive. I could design the beds so the plants each got what they needed. Sun or shade, or protection from the wind. I could blend the flowers and herbs together so insects wouldn’t attack the plants because they’d be discouraged by the plants they don’t like to be near.”

Lewis stopped, not sure if he’d already talked too much, but Rhion was smiling.

“We’ve also talked about having an area where wolves could run on a dirt pathway with twists and turns and maybe some obstacles to jump over and humans could run there as well if they wanted to.”

“I could do that.” Lewis was confident. As a wolf he knew the joy that came from running and jumping.

“What about the building materials? You’d need to go to a lumber yard and buy timber and soil and bring them all back here. Can you drive a truck? A stick shift? Do you have a driver’s license?”

“Yes, I can drive a stick shift and I do have my license. There are roads in the mountains, but most of them are dirt so I’m more used to driving a truck on a dirt track than on a highway. I’ve never driven in a city but I could learn. I know the road rules.”

Rhion swung around to his computer and began typing things in. Lewis waited patiently for the next question. Even though the Internet hadn’t arrived in his neighborhood until he was fifteen he knew how to use a computer. He rather thought computer games were hardwired into every male, since the concepts had come to him so easily.

“You still have plenty of money on your credit card. Buy yourself a decent phone. One you can check e-mails on. Then e-mail me with your cell phone number and I’ll have a copy of your e-mail address to add to my address book. Then I’ll be able to contact you more easily.” Rhion handed Lewis a business card with his cell phone number and e-mail address on it.

“In a couple of days we’ll go up to the roof and begin measuring it up and planning where things will go. I can’t remember now whether it was Willow or Hawthorne, but one of them had some quite good ideas you should be able to incorporate into your plans.”

Lewis felt a giant ball of happiness swell in his chest. Rhion was okay with him being involved. He’d be able to contribute usefully to the pack. He could stay here and see Dakota often, even though she would probably never be his. But he could look at her and perhaps even help her from time to time. He liked the idea of maybe assisting her in some way or just sharing time with her. And while he was building the garden he’d be at peace and in harmony with the sky and his environment. He rather thought the roof garden was the closest he could get to his old home. And he’d be up there for the next several months making the roof beautiful. And after that? Well perhaps they’d let him stay in a shed on the roof at least until it started to snow.

Lewis couldn’t wait to tell Dakota all about it. He knew she’d understand his joy at the project and perhaps she’d have some good ideas for him to include as well.

The security guard shifts at Hanson Mall were on a roster and everyone was rotated through each shift—midnight to eight a.m., eight ’til four, and four to midnight. Midnight to eight was usually the quiet shift. Eight to four was the busiest shift as the stores were all open and the mall was bustling with customers. Four to midnight tended to be the one where pranksters and graffiti artists were liable to cause trouble in the parking lots, and customers leaving the late movies and who’d perhaps drunk a little too much in the restaurants tended to get into arguments.

Dakota liked them all. Variety suited her and it wasn’t as if she had a cat to hurry home to feed or kids to get off to school each day. But her favorite was the four to midnight shift, which she was on at the moment. Lots of people didn’t go to bed much before midnight so she wasn’t very different in time schedule from everyone else and there was enough work to keep her busy without being run off her feet racing from crisis to crisis.

It was just after ten in the morning and Dakota was awake and about to have a shower when her cell phone rang. Her uniform was lying across a chair where she’d left it the previous evening, and she snatched up her pants and pulled the cell out of her pocket thinking that there was trouble at the mall. “Dakota,” she said.

“Oh, Ms. Rutherford, it’s Jackson Hamilton here. You left me a message last night.”

Wow. That was a quick response.

“Good morning, Mr. Hamilton. I was introduced to your brother, Bailey, at a fund-raising event a few months ago, and I mentioned that my grandmother’s dementia is getting worse and that I need to find secure care for her. He offered to introduce me to you. I believe you were at the same fund-raising party. But I wasn’t ready to make a decision right then. Now, it’s quite clear to me that Grandma needs extra care so I was following up about that. Are you taking on any new patients at the moment?”

“Yes, Ms. Rutherford I have a few vacancies. What are your grandmother’s needs?”

“Basically she has to be supervised all the time. She still wants to make herself meals but we can’t trust her near the stove. She’s already burned the bottom out of several pots. We can’t let her iron clothes for the same reason. She scorches them. Mostly we distract her with other activities and she quickly forgets what she’d been going to do.”

“That all sounds consistent with the usual progression of the disease. I’d need to make an assessment of her before anything was decided of course.”

“I can send you her paperwork. She’s been assessed quite recently. What’s your e-mail address? I’d need to see your clinic, too, and the room where she’d be staying. Are there any vacant rooms where she could look out into a garden? She loves plants.”

“The well-being center is surrounded by gardens. I’m sure your grandmother would be happy here.”

Dakota didn’t like the way he said that. He sounded, not slimy or sleazy exactly, but certainly heading in that direction. Even if she had been considering sending her grandma to him she’d be reconsidering her plans right about now.

“Thank you. I’ll send you the paperwork and then we can talk some more.” He said something more but she wasn’t really listening and clicked off the call. Now more than ever, she thought he was not a nice person. Definitely the bad guy here.

She really wasn’t looking forward to seeing inside the well-being center. Dakota felt sure she’d see a lovely room, and maybe a few nicely dressed but heavily sedated clients. But she wouldn’t be shown the heart of the complex where innocent people like Lewis had been kept locked up. Although one thing did occur to her. Lewis had managed to convince the guards that if he wasn’t allowed to run outside he’d die. Therefore, not only were they humans, but also they didn’t know much about wolves. She’d never heard of a wolf dying from being unable to run anymore than a human would die from not being able to run. Of course, without begin given adequate exercise they might become overweight, or develop brittle bones or other issues, but no one died because they were banned from running. These people didn’t know shit about real wolves or even real human health. Which put her at the advantage. If Lewis could mislead them she could too.

* * * *

Andreas looked forward to the time when Dakota and whoever she was partnered with for her shift would look through the doors of the gym and check that everything there was going smoothly. Of course, if ever there was serious trouble he’d call security, but he still liked that part of the guards’ routine was to drop in and speak to him each shift.

It didn’t always happen. Sometimes they were far too busy to do any courtesy checks, but with Dakota, especially, it was always a part of his day he appreciated. Andreas spent most of his day out on the reception desk. Sometimes he sat behind one of the computer terminals checking numbers of guests and customers, ordering more supplies, and answering e-mails. Other times he stood behind the desk talking to customers as they came in, keeping in touch with his clients and what they were interested in.

It was after eleven and the fitness center was officially closed. He’d already locked the front door and checked the entire building to ensure no one was hiding anywhere or still in the showers unaware the gym was closed. Once he’d even found a guest sound asleep on a bench out by the lap swimming pool. But today, once he was sure the building was empty he’d clicked the switch on the door so anyone with a swipe card could still open it, and he sat behind his terminal looking at fitness clothing. Marbella, the wolf who taught aerobics classes, had told him his clothing lines were boring and if he’d stock more interesting attire he’d sell plenty of it.

But the problem was it was “girl stuff” and he had no knowledge of girl stuff. He had no sisters, no wife, and not even a girlfriend right now. Of course, he could let Marbella choose it, but he didn’t want to relinquish that much authority to her.

Andreas was still frowning at the screen when there was a tap on the door. He looked up to see a friendly wave from Berian, a fellow werewolf shape-shifter and one of the other security guards. Berian, a burly blond man, swiped the door open and stood in the doorway. “Everything okay here, Andreas?”

“Yes, thanks. I’m closed, just trying to catch up on paperwork.”

“I know how you feel. Sometimes I reckon it takes as long to write up the incident report as whatever it was that happened,” joked Berian.

Dakota joined Berian in the doorway. “All secure over there.” She tilted her head in the direction she’d come from.

“Dakota, you’re a woman. Come and look at these and tell me what you think.” Andreas spoke before he’d thought it through, but the idea of her standing close beside him was nice, even if she laughed at the exercise clothing on the screen.

Both Dakota and Berian walked around the reception desk to where he sat, but Andreas noted it was Dakota who stopped to check the door was secured behind her. She was incredibly hardworking and thorough.

“Oh, nice. I like,” said Berian staring at the screen.

Dakota laughed but scanned the outfits carefully. “I think some of these things are for people to stand around in, not exercise in. I mean, they’re meant to look good, not necessarily be functional. Like those bikinis that you can’t actually wear into the water. They’re just for wearing when you sunbathe or whatever.”

“They make swimwear no one can swim in?” asked Berian.

“Yes, sure. Andreas, if you want to start selling these sorts of things, and I agree you should think of expanding this area of the business, you might consider talking to Quintana. She’d be able to advise you about what would and wouldn’t sell and what women really would like.”

“You don’t think she might be angry and think I’m competing with her store?” Quintana was very focused on becoming successful. He really didn’t plan on getting in her way. There was no reason to, after all. His fitness center was profitable in its own little sphere.

“She would only be interested in selling the kind of clothing a woman would wear to lounge around in, not the type of outfit meant to get perspiration on it. You wouldn’t be competing with her, and Quintana has a real talent for choosing things people will buy,” said Dakota.

“Thank you, Dakota. You’re absolutely right. I’ll do that.”

Dakota smiled at him and Andreas’s cock went from limp to erect in about a nanosecond. Damn, she was sexy when she smiled. Well, actually she was always sexy. But her smile was an aphrodisiac in itself.