Tightly Held [Werewolves of Hanson Mall 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (10 page)

He was driving Georgia’s SUV. He’d have been prepared to take the farm truck on such a short distance, but Georgia had led the way to her car so he was happy to use it. Driving her car was certainly better than worrying that the old truck might stop working somewhere.

He kept flicking glances at her in the rearview mirror, but she wasn’t working, just looking thoughtful. Nevertheless he stayed silent. It was their usual pattern as they road-tripped, and he felt it was comforting somehow, just to see her there in the backseat and know she was with him and Nolan. Which didn’t mean he wasn’t really eager to take her to bed again, but it was difficult to arrange now that they were back at the mall. He and Nolan shared a twin bed room in the office of the project. She had an apartment somewhere else. He didn’t even know where she lived, only that the apartment block was owned by the Hanson Mall pack and lots of the wolves lived there.

He pulled into the parking lot of a very nice apartment building at five before nine, and drove up to the door of the building. He stopped in the drop-off space, and Georgia pulled out her cell phone. “We’re a few minutes early. I won’t text her yet,” Georgia said.

A short woman with a rounded body came bustling out the door of the building and over to the SUV. Nolan jumped out immediately and opened the rear passenger door. “Ms. Young?” he asked.

“Correct. Let’s go.”

Ms. Young started giving him directions before Nolan was sitting down again, dropping her extra-large purse at her feet, buckling her seat belt, and talking all at once.

Ethan stopped looking at her or thinking about her and concentrated on going where she said.

Twenty minutes later he stopped again, this time in front of a long, rambling, single-story building, with wings sticking out at angles all around a central rectangular core.

Ms. Young was out of the car and slinging the oversized purse over her shoulder while Nolan was racing around to the trunk to collect Georgia’s bags. He followed the women into the building, looking back and pointing the car key at the car to lock it after Nolan had closed the trunk. They stopped at a reception desk to sign in and get passes, and then followed Ms. Young who set a brisk pace down one of the hallways.

Once again he needed to concentrate. He also tried hard to memorize the signs at the intersections of the various wings, but wasn’t confident he could find his way back. All the wings were named after flowers, but there was no logic in it. He’d turned right out of pansy into lily of the valley, but had he turned into poppy or was that the wing going in the other direction at the junction? Hell. No wonder the dementia patients couldn’t get out. It’d be a miracle if he could find his way back and he wasn’t even senile yet.

They stopped at the reception desk at rose, and the nurse showed them into a conference room. “They’re bringing your father up now. He’ll be here soon, Ms. Young. I’ll order some refreshments for you all as well,” she said.

“Thank you. You’re very kind,” said Georgia.

Ms. Young dropped her purse on the circular table in the room then walked quickly back to the doorway. She might look small and round, chubby even, but she had unlimited vitality. It made Ethan wonder if she was a wolf. She had so much energy. Yet wolves weren’t usually overweight. He’d never known a rotund one before. He shrugged. Hopefully he’d find out soon.

It was only a few minutes later that a nurse arrived, holding an old man’s arm.

Norm was almost bald, and short and chubby like his daughter. He smiled at her and said, “Hello, honey. It’s good to see you again. Are these the cousins you were telling me about?”

Georgia stood and smiled at him, accepting his hug. “Whose daughter are you then? You don’t look like Patrick at all.”

Ethan didn’t hear what Georgia replied as an assistant entered then, pushing a trolley with cups and saucers, coffee, and miniature muffins on a tray.

Only when all the staff had left and the door was shut again did Ms. Young take her father’s hand and speak to him. Ethan noticed she kept her gaze on his, holding his attention as well as his hand. That was a good technique. It grounded the old man in what he was supposed to be doing.

“Dad, do you remember me telling you about my friend Ambrielle?”

“Ambrielle. That’s an unusual name. Ambrielle. Why yes, I do. She was the one with an Aunt Kitty. An Aunt Kitty who was a kitty.” The old man giggled at his pun.

Was the woman a cat shape-shifter? Or maybe a panther? He’d heard of some panther shape-shifters before, although he wasn’t aware of ever having met them.

“These people are friends of Ambrielle’s, not our cousins.”

“Well that explains it then. You don’t look like Patrick,” he said to Georgia once again.

Ethan noticed she had her iPad out and was tape recording the conversation. Usually she explained to people she’d be taping the interview and offered to turn the tape off if there were things they didn’t want recorded. She must have explained what she’d do to Ms. Young, he supposed, and been told not to try to explain it to Mr. Young.

“Dad, I want you to tell them about the werewolves you know.”

“Are you sure? It was supposed to be a secret.”

“But these people are friends of Ambrielle’s so it’s not a secret from them.”

“Oh, okay. Very well then. Hmm. Yes. There’s a BDSM community, maybe two and a half hours from where I live, and from time to time they hold events. Parties with BDSM displays, that sort of thing. I used to go a couple of times a year and a few of them were werewolves. I got to know several of the men quite well, and became friends with them. I consider Kurt Urquahart my good friend. He showed me his wolf form several times. We actually visited some on the property there when I stayed over after a party.”

Ethan relaxed back in his chair as Georgia and Ms. Young encouraged the older man to tell his story. But it wasn’t a new lead unfortunately. All the people at Carnal Connections had been interviewed already. There were panthers there as well as wolves. More panthers than wolves, actually. Likely that’s who he’d been thinking of when he knew he’d heard of cat shifters. So, not a whole new lead, but still a worthwhile interview to hear this man’s story.

* * * *

When they left the aged care facility, Ms. Young, who’d told them to call her Janet, directed Nolan, who was driving, to her business address.

“If you’re going to interview me we might as well do it in comfort instead of in the car,” she said.

Nolan was amazed at how fast she walked up the stairs and into the building, pulling a swipe card out of her enormous purse and waving it at the security guard on duty.

Ethan was carrying Georgia’s two bags, but apart from that and driving, neither of them had done anything to help her. Still, he supposed at least they were there if it had turned out that she did need them.

Once settled on the couches in Janet’s comfortable office, Georgia mentioned taping the interview.

“Yes, I know. You told me before. I’m about to air some very dirty family linen. I expect you’ve heard this sort of thing before. Anyway there’s nothing Malcolm can do about it. It’s already in the hands of the lawyers. And for that I’m grateful to Mr. Vukic. Vukic Industries gave me an introduction to Sierra Bond and she’s helped my lawyers a lot. I anticipate her fee will be huge, but I also expect she’ll be worth every cent of it.”

Nolan knew Malcolm was Janet’s brother, the one who’d sent their father to the well-being center. Did he know the Hamilton brothers were mistreating shape-shifters? Nolan was interested to hear about that. He was also surprised to learn she’d spoken to Mr. Vukic. He was the Supreme Alpha of North America and even Nolan’s own Alpha had been wary about contracting the Supreme. To know this human woman had spoken to such an important person meant she had to be very important as well. And she’d said he could call her by her given name. Wow!

“I already told you that Malcolm is both self-centered and a bully. He’s older than me by eighteen months, and in his mind, that and a penis means he’s twice as good as me. When we were small he spent all his time stealing and destroying anything I showed any interest in. He pulled the arms and legs off my dolls when I was little. He took my completed homework out of my schoolbag and stomped all over it or tore it up when I was older. You get the picture. He was a total pain in the ass. Fortunately, I’m smarter than him and soon learned to lock my schoolbooks away from him. Even my parents, who thought the sun shone out of his ass, objected when he smashed my desk trying to get into the locked drawers. It’s also why I didn’t have a car. I knew he’d total it.”

“I understand why you aren’t close to him now,” Georgia said softly.

“It’s why I was really pleased when he said he’d sort out Dad’s accommodation and everything. I thought he’d finally grown up. Unfortunately I was too damn stupid to realize he’d only do it for his own advancement, not out of love or filial duty.”

Nolan wanted to ask what happened but knew it wasn’t his place. Besides, she was talking fast and easily. He’d soon find out.

“Malcolm had Dad assessed mentally and made himself sole trustee. Then he sold the family home and all Dad’s assets, put them in his own name, and paid Jackson Hamilton to care for Dad in his well-being center. Now all the money is gone and there’s no record of what Dad should have. I’ve paid for the deposit and his place in his new care facility myself, and meanwhile the lawyers are attempting to force Malcolm to make all Dad’s financial details public. Sierra Bond is going to get the court to revoke Malcolm’s sole trusteeship on the grounds that the Hamiltons were criminals. Meanwhile Dad has nothing left of what belonged to him.”

“No court will let Malcolm get away with that. I’m sure your father will get his property back,” said Georgia.

“I suppose they’ll appoint their own trustee who’ll expect to be paid a chunk of money to look after Dad’s assets, whereas I’d do it for nothing, but even that’s better than now with Malcolm having taken it all. And to think I thought he was finally starting to act like a regular human being.”

Janet was shaking her head at herself, but Nolan was certain he’d have wanted to believe in Malcolm if he’d been in her situation. He didn’t always love everyone in his pack, but they were his family. He’d never deliberately set out to steal from them or harm them.

Georgia waited for a few minutes but it seemed as though Janet had finished speaking about her father. “Tell me about your knowledge of shape-shifters. How long have you known Ambrielle?”

“Ambrielle used to stay with her Aunt Kitty each summer. We were friends from middle school and all through high school, then grew apart because I went away to college. I chose my college not just for the course I wanted to study, but because it was nowhere near Malcolm. Ambrielle’s association with shape-shifters was a secret between Dad and me. No one was supposed to know about her panther friends, but I worked it out and then I saw some of them shape-shifted when I went to visit Ambrielle once. I’m surprised Dad still remembered, although maybe it’s because of his own werewolf friends.”

Ethan wondered if Malcolm knew about the shape-shifters. Had he hoped to find out some secrets and have the Hamiltons pay him for the news?

“Have you met any werewolves?” asked Georgia.

“Not that I know of. I’d never heard Dad mention Carnal Connections or Kurt Urquahart before.”

Well damn. That was a dead end then because the people at the shape-shifter clinic and Carnal Connections had already been interviewed. If Janet couldn’t help them they’d just come around in a full circle. Although he really hoped her brother was sorted out quickly and that the old man regained the use of his own property.

Now, would they be able to go to bed with Georgia today? It’d been over a week and he missed having her in his arms so much. Was it possible to sneak her into their room? Or go to her home? He’d never been inside her apartment and he’d like to see it and learn more about her personality. It was her home. Surely it would reflect her temperament and nature as well as having a bed they could share.

* * * *

At first Georgia had been a bit saddened that the day hadn’t brought them more news of new shape-shifter groups, but as they headed home she realized it was actually more successful than that. It showed her that they were filling the gaps and adding more linkages. Mr. Young had a link into the BSDM community at Carnal Connections. Janet had a link to Ambrielle at Thorne House, the shape-shifter clinic. It was likely that, after more than a year of investigation, they had located all the werewolf communities within a day’s travel of here. Now the people they discovered were just links between existing communities. But she was very glad Norm had been rescued from the well-being center. He was losing his memory and he did have Alzheimer’s disease. But with gentle care and proper medication he could still have a happy life for years to come. And, in fact, he’d helped them today. His mind was still quite sharp enough for that.

“I hope Malcolm ends up in jail for what he did to his father,” she said.

“Is that likely?” Nolan was driving and she saw his eyes on hers in the rearview mirror.

“Probably not. All he’ll get is a slap on the wrist and maybe a fine. As long as the old man gets his assets back, that’s the most we can hope for.”

“Who is Sierra Bond? I’ve heard several people mention her,” asked Ethan.