A Tiger's Tale (A Call of the Wilde Mystery) (30 page)

“Then you can just keep the key,” she said simply, and slid the box out to rest it on the floor.

Before I could object further, she’d flipped open the lid.

“What the hell?”

I leaned over to look. The box was empty, except for one thing.

Brooke reached in and picked up the business card. It was blank, except for a ten-digit number.

“Logan.”

Whatever had been in the box, the Ghost had gotten to it first.

“Where’s your costume?” Brooke demanded as soon as she brought the four-wheeler to a stop behind the tiger house and cut the puttering engine.

I looked at the teenager from where I was leaning on the concrete block wall. She was dressed in stereotypical safari khakis—shorts, brown boots, and a vest sporting a plethora of pockets. Around her neck hung a pair of binoculars. The only element that threw off the look was the large, lime green name tag with the word
VOLUNTEER
across the top.

“I was hoping to hide from Emma, so I wouldn’t have to wear one.”

“Come on! It’s a masquerade.”

“I’m aware—it’s all I’ve heard about for a week.”

After learning Brooke had missed the deadline to apply for grants, Emma decided to raise money for Happy Asses by putting on a last-minute “Feast with the Beast” event. From that moment on, life had been a party-prep whirlwind. Everyone who worked at the rescue facility had pitched in—Brooke more than anyone. She’d done everything from mailing invites to stringing lights.

I was contributing by donating my services to the silent auction—or so I’d been told.

“Don’t be lame, Grace.”

I ignored her statement. “How’s Josiah?” I asked.

“Good. His docs got him the right meds now, and Reedy makes sure he takes them.”

I straightened away from the wall. “And your mom? Did she get the okay to come tonight?”

“Yep. The rehab place let her out a day early.” She looked away and asked, “Any word on Logan? From the cops, I mean.”

I knew she wasn’t asking because she was afraid of him. She was afraid
for
him. After talking to her father, Brooke had decided Logan was loyal to him and, by extension, to her. The fact that he’d cleared out the safe deposit box, including the blackmail book, protecting her father and his secrets, only made him more of a hero in her mind.

“Don’t worry,” I told her. “There are still no leads on the Ghost.”

“My dad says the cops won’t find Logan if he doesn’t want to be found.”

“I can believe that.”

“Well, at least they got Ferretto and Mancini,” she said brightly.

Both men had been arrested, hauled off to jail, and charged with a litany of offenses. Though Mancini had to be treated first for broken ribs and numerous small hoof-print-shaped contusions.

The thought still made me smile.

“What about the guy who mugged you?”

“That remains a mystery. None of the guns the cops found here matched the bullet casing from my mugging.”

“I bet it was that psycho Mancini,” she said and started walking around the building to the tiger enclosure.

I fell into step beside her and nodded. Though, looking back on the event, I had my doubts. “So sure it wasn’t Logan?”

“Logan’s not like that,” she said, confident. “He wouldn’t hurt a girl. He didn’t even really fight me and Ozeal when we tackled him. I told you, remember? He kept saying he was on our side, but we didn’t listen. He wanted to help us.”

“Hummm . . .” I wasn’t sure I believed that. When it came to Logan, I wasn’t sure about anything.

“Brooke, you’d tell me if you saw Logan, wouldn’t you?”

Boris had been pacing, rubbing his head along the fence and making happy tiger sounds as we approached.

“Hey, Boris,” Brooke said, ignoring my question. She cooed as she knelt by the fence. “How’s my boy doing today?”

Boris pressed his head against the wire fence and chuffed.
Pet.

Brooke glanced at me with raised brows.

I gave her a bland smile. “Oh, right . . . you need someone who speaks tiger to translate.”

“Come on, Grace, you promised.”

“You’re right, but my services come with a price.”

Brooke got to her feet and said, “I haven’t seen him, okay?”

“What are you two doing? Grace, why aren’t you dressed?” Emma materialized on the path to glower at us from the other side of the fence. She wore a tiger-print minidress and leather arm cuffs, more to hide the stitches on her biceps than as part of the outfit, but Emma made it work.

She looked like Jane of the Jungle—if Jane wore less clothes and had kitty cat ears.

“My greeter”—she pinned Brooke with her gaze—“is supposed to be in her place, ready to welcome the early arrivals.”

Brooke scurried to the four-wheeler and popped a safari hat on her head. “Hey, I’m ready. See?”

Emma turned to me, arching a brow.

“As long as you promise me I won’t have to put on a loincloth.”

“Your costume is in the office. Sonja’s waiting for you.”

I hitched a ride on the four-wheeler with Brooke and found my costume hanging on the door of one of the offices. It wasn’t a loincloth, but a dress. Black-on-black leopard print, whose pattern, much like a real black panther, was most discernible when caught by the light.

The fabric was beautiful—there just wasn’t much of it.

I shimmied into the dress just as there was a knock at the door. Sonja, holding a black half mask, breezed into the room.

“Grace, you look amazing.” She grinned. “Amazing Grace.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Emma has decreed you must wear your hair down and put this on.” She held out the mask.

It was made of black leather shaped into the upper part of a cat’s face. Gold accents detailed the ears and outlined the eyes in a distinctly Egyptian style.

“Let me guess, Bastet?”

“You got it.”

I pulled out the ballpoint pen that had been holding my bun in place and combed my fingers through my hair, then turned to let Sonja tie the mask.

“You make me sick the way you can just let your hair down and it looks all flowy and perfect.”

“I’d cut it short, like you, but I don’t have your bone structure. I’d look like a ten-year-old boy.”

“With your body? Please, girl.”

“What about you? Where’s your mask?”

She flashed me a grin, the gap in her teeth winking as she said, “It wouldn’t fit through the front door.”

We left the offices and on the porch I saw what she meant. Sonja’s mask, or headdress, rather, was shaped similarly to mine but in a tawny gold with a profusion of feathers fanning out like a lion’s mane.

“Female lions don’t have manes,” I pointed out.

“Oh, who cares? It looks fantastic.”

I helped her tie her mask and she asked, “Is Kai coming tonight?”

“Yep. I thought it was a bad idea since Sartori was going to be here, but he didn’t care.”

“I thought he was cleared of all that mob stuff.”

“He was.”

“You can’t keep beating yourself up over all that, you know. Kai’s a big boy. You didn’t force him to help you. And it all turned out okay, anyway.”

I nodded. Emma had said almost exactly the same thing, but I still felt bad about it. I’d promised myself not to get Kai involved again in anything that could ruin his career.

We stepped off the porch and walked toward the covered picnic area. A band was set up where the tables had been and a portable parquet dance floor was spread out in front. To one side, tables and chairs decked out in subtle animal prints and tropical centerpieces flowed out over the grass. To the other, there was a trio of long tables lined with goods for the silent auction.

I caught sight of Brooke. She was ushering a couple, both masked and dressed to the nines, to a table.

She was flushed and smiling.

Happy.

I found that as I watched her, I was smiling, too.

“You look—wow.”

I glanced over and saw Kai, wearing a tux and carrying a small mask, striding toward me.

I turned, and his gaze slid over me slowly. I could almost feel the heat everywhere he looked.

Or maybe that was the blood rushing to my face . . . and other places.

Kai. In a tux. Looking at me with as much hunger as any of the big cats around us.

Heaven help me.

“Hi” was all I managed to say.

“Hey, Kai.” Emma hurried toward us, grinning as she gave him the once-over. “You look delicious. My sister’s a lucky girl.”

“That’s what I keep telling her.”

“I’m going to leave it to you to make sure Grace mingles. We want someone to bid top dollar for her services and they won’t do that unless they know what she has to offer.”

“In that dress, I’m sure she could sell just about anything.”

“You guys make it sound like I’m peddling more than a pet consult.”

“Hey, whatever works,” my sister said with a wink before heading off.

I watched her go and saw with surprise that she’d linked arms with Hugh. He leaned down to say something in her ear—knowing Hugh, it was probably scaldingly flirtatious—and Emma laughed, looking up at him with an expression I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“She likes him,” I muttered aloud.

“Is that a problem?” Kai asked.

“Not as long as he’s nice to her.”

“You’re not jealous?”

“What?” I cast Kai an incredulous look and, seeing he was serious, said, “Listen, Kai, Hugh is just a friend.”

“Good.” His lips turned up into an almost feral grin and I flushed.

Kai did, in fact, make me mingle. So much so that an hour into the party I had to seek solace by sneaking off for a quick visit with Boris. I’d snagged a few pieces of sushi to share with the tiger. He dissected the first piece, daintily pulling out the bits of salmon and leaving chunks of rice and vegetables behind.

“Kind of picky, for a tiger.”

More?

I gave him the last piece of tuna, shaking my head as I watched him repeat the process.

Boris heard it before I did. A whisper of movement followed by a
thump
.

I couldn’t be sure in the twilight but I thought it was the sound of the door to the tiger house bumping open.

Had there been a breeze, I would have blamed the wind, but the night was still and quiet.

I stood and walked toward the rear of the enclosure to take a look. I’d almost reached the door when he stepped out in front of me.

The mask he wore did little to hide his identity. I recognized the close-cropped hair and those unmistakable eyes.

“Taking a break from the festivities?” he asked.

“What are you doing here, Logan?”

He glanced down at his tuxedo. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“I don’t usually ask questions I already know the answer to. So, no.”

“I wanted to give you something.” He reached into his jacket pocket and handed me a piece of paper.

“Another one of your notorious cards?”

“This one has something special on the back.”

I flipped the card over.

“James Russo. Unit 35-D . . .” I read the rest of the address and looked up at Logan. “What’s this?”

“You remember seeing a guy at Cooper’s Catch the day you met with Frank? Younger than me and Mancini.”

“The waiter?”

“More of a gofer. He did all sorts of things for Frank. Very eager to please the boss. That’s where you can find him.”

“You running a dating service now?”

He did that almost-smile thing and I had to wonder if I’d misplaced my brain in the last few minutes, because I wasn’t afraid. Okay, I was a little bit afraid. But mostly I was confused. And curious.

“Depends,” he said. “Are you into the type of guy who’d mug his own mother to get ahead in the business?”

“Mug . . . wait. This is the guy who mugged me?”

Logan inclined his head. “Jimmy will be at that address until someone unlocks the storage unit and unties him.”

“You locked him in a storage unit?”

“Just to give him time to regret attacking a woman.”

I stared at him, openmouthed. “Why are you doing this?”

“I told you, I don’t like men who hit women.”

“Is this supposed to make me believe you really aren’t such a bad guy?”

“No. I’m definitely a bad guy.”

“Grace?” I whirled around at the sound of my name in time to see Kai walk into view and stop at the fence.

I turned back.

Logan was gone.

“Emma asked me to round you up,” Kai said. His smile dimmed when I turned back to face him. “What’s wrong?”

“Why? Do I look like I’ve seen a ghost?”

He was over the fence in a flash and almost as quickly drew a gun from his ankle holster.

“He’s gone,” I said. “You know he is.”

My words didn’t stop Kai from checking the area.

“What happened?” he asked when he was sure Logan had once again vanished.

“He gave me this.” I handed Kai the card and told him Logan’s claim that James Russo was my mugger.

“I’ll get a deputy to check out the storage unit.” He frowned at me and asked, “Grace, have you been in contact with Logan?”

“You mean since the night he Houdinied on us? No. I would have told you, Kai.”

He searched my face for a moment, then nodded. A few seconds later Brooke and Sonja appeared on the path.

“See?” Brooke said. “I told you she’d be over here with Boris.”

“Come on, Grace,” Sonja called. “They’re about to announce the winners of the silent auction.”

“Go on,” Kai said. “I’ve got to make a few calls, then I’ll join you.”

I nodded and walked toward Sonja and Brooke, but stopped as I reached the fence. I’d come the long way around the back to avoid being spotted and because I didn’t want to try to scale the small fence in a dress and heels.