Read Tooth and Claw (The Harry Russo Diaries Book 2) Online
Authors: Lisa Emme
Nash let out a deep breath as if I had confirmed what he had
been thinking. He took a step away from me, running a hand through his hair.
“She’s…did you…?” He struggled with the words.
I stepped towards him, putting a hand on his arm in
comfort. “Just tell me what her wolf looks like,” I said.
“She’s light grey, almost white.” His voice wavered.
The breath I had been holding rushed out in a huge sigh of
relief. “It wasn’t her. It’s not her,” I replied, wiping at the tear running
down my cheek.
Nash grabbed me and pulled me close. Without heels, I was
short enough that I tucked right in under his chin. He rested it on my head,
his arms wrapped around me. “Oh thank god,” he sighed with relief. Just then
my stomach growled loudly. I was starving but hadn’t wanted to say anything.
Nash laughed, grabbing my hand. “Come on, I’ll get you a cookie too,” he said,
leading me back out towards the kitchen.
“I’d rather have a sandwich.”
***
I got the sandwich
and
a cookie.
While Nash and I were gone, someone had laid out lunch –
buns, deli meats, pickles, salad. Nash led me to a chair at the kitchen table
and growled a ‘wait there’ at me. He came back a few minutes later with a
plate loaded with sandwiches and set it down in front of me.
“Eat,” he said, which set Eileen off to snickering behind
her hand.
I rolled my eyes at her, grabbing Nash’s arm as he passed.
“Only if you sit down and eat too. You’re not going to be any good to anyone
if you pass out.”
“That plate is for you,” Nash started to protest just as
Eleanor came into the room with another plateful. She set it down on the table
beside mine and looked at Nash.
“Eat,” she said, her eyebrows raised, daring Nash to
defy her. Seeing as how she was his mom and his alpha, it was highly unlikely
he would, but I guess some parent-child relationships never change, no matter
how old you get.
“So Harry,” Eileen began, waving a potato chip at me, “are
you okay? You seemed a little upset a few minutes ago.”
‘I’m fine,” I replied, looking at Nash. He nodded and so I
continued. “I saw a ghost, a wolf.”
“Here?” Eileen looked shocked. “It’s not…”
“No! It’s not Christina. It was light brown, or maybe more
of a kind of a reddy-gold, I guess.” I shrugged not really sure what else to
say. Evaine came over, Michelle on her hip. “Actually,” I continued,
“Michelle saw the ghost first.”
“She did?” Evaine exclaimed a look of shock on her face.
“It’s pretty normal for very young kids to see spirits. It
doesn’t mean she’ll end up like me,” I added quickly. “She called the ghost
‘Paw-paw’, in case that means anything.”
The room went absolutely silent as everyone turned to stare
at me. I probably had that ‘deer caught in the headlights’ look, I was so
shocked by everyone’s response. I turned to look at Nash who had stopped with
his sandwich halfway to his mouth.
Eleanor walked across the room to a bookshelf and picked up
a picture frame. She carried it over to the table, almost cradling it. “Is
this the wolf you saw? The gold one?” She showed me the picture. It was of
two large wolves. They looked like night and day. One was a deep charcoal
black, similar to Nash’s wolf. The other, the larger one, was a tawny gold,
just like the wolf I had seen.
I nodded my head slowly. “Yes, that could be it.”
Michelle had no doubts however. She reached for the picture
shouting, “Paw paw!” She waved her chubby little arms at Eleanor. “Mee maw!
Paw paw!”
Eleanor smiled at the little girl. “Yes, that’s right my
precious. Mee-maw and Paw-paw.” She touched the gold wolf in the picture
lovingly. Evaine stepped closer to Eleanor, wrapping her arm around her
shoulders.
“But why would Daddy still be here?” Eileen asked, looking
at me. I couldn’t quite remember, but I thought Tess had told me that Nash’s
dad had died more than a decade ago.
“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “It looked like he was just
watching over you.”
“Crazy old wolf,” Eleanor grumbled. “Stubborn as a goat, my
Daniel.” She smiled, sadly setting the picture back on the shelf. “Well, it
certainly explains the child’s odd behaviour at times,” she said, walking over
to give Michelle’s curls a pat.
“Mee maw!” Michelle cooed throwing her arms out to Eleanor.
“Do you think he could talk to you? Or to Michelle?”
Eileen looked excited at the thought.
“I don’t know. I’ve only ever seen him in wolf form.”
After that, the conversation wound down. Everyone finished
their meal and Nash gave me an awkward goodbye before leaving with Dean to go
join the search for any clues of Christina’s and Diane’s disappearance. It was
unlikely they would find anything, but this was the first time they knew
exactly where a werewolf was when it disappeared, or at least they knew the
general vicinity. Maybe they would get lucky and pick up a scent or track or
something.
I had noticed that Nash never mentioned the name of the
mystery man, Elian Navarre, when he was telling Eleanor what we had learned
about the fight club. With everything that had happened last night, I hadn’t
even had a chance to ask about it, but I didn’t think bringing the name up now
would be a good idea. Not with how Isaac and Tomas had reacted to the name.
If vampires were freaked out, he had to be bad news.
Evaine, whose house it turned out we were in, offered me a
change of clothes, but since Eileen was just going to drop me off at home, I
opted to stay in Nash’s sweats. Yes, I know, I know. Sex with Nash had been a
bad idea. It didn’t mean I couldn’t enjoy how it felt being wrapped up in his
clothes for a little while longer though.
As we were heading out the door, Daniel’s ghost padded
across the front porch towards me. I still couldn’t get over how alive the
wolf ghosts looked compared to human ghosts which were usually pretty
translucent. If I didn’t know better, I would have sworn I was being
approached by a living, breathing wolf.
Daniel stopped and sniffed the air, cocking his head from side
to side. He huffed, then plopped down on his haunches and stared at me, his
tongue lolling out between his very sharp looking teeth. It almost looked like
he was smiling at me.
I crossed my arms, looking him in the eye. “You know, if
you have any clues to help me find your missing daughter, now would be the time
to help out,” I said to him.
Daniel cocked his wolfy head at me again then threw his
muzzle up, releasing a long, mournful howl.
“Whoa, did you feel that chill?” Eileen asked as she stepped
out behind me on the porch. “I think we're going to see snow soon.”
I looked back to where the wolf had been sitting, but he was
gone.
Eileen dropped me off at the firehall and I was climbing up
the stairs when I realized that Isaac didn’t know about Christina’s
disappearance. Lucky me, I got to break the news to him.
It was still pretty early in the afternoon so I decided to
turn around and head to the shop and check on Mrs. Potts and Tiffy. Luckily,
Mrs. P didn’t seem to mind when I occasionally failed to show up for work and
was more than capable of running things without me, otherwise I’d probably have
gone out of business by now.
I had a bit of a shock when I reached the front of the store
and I found a construction crew working on installing a large double set of
French doors in the side wall of the building, right where I had been thinking
of putting them.
“Oh Harry dear, there you are,” Mrs. P’s voice called out to
me from inside the soon-to-be café. “You’re just in time to help with the
paint colour choices.”
“Mrs. P? What the heck is going
on? Where did all these men come from? I didn’t – “
“Not to worry, Harry. I hope you don’t mind, but you left
your sketches and notes for the new café in the shop. I knew you were busy
dear, so I thought I would get the ball rolling.” She waved a hand towards one
of the men. “That’s Morris. He always takes care of any maintenance in the
building.”
I looked over at Morris. He was short and squat and as
brown as cocoa. His face was as weathered as an old piece of leather. He had
a cigar butt, unlit, clenched between his teeth. When he noticed my attention,
he nodded and tipped a finger to his brow. “Ma’am,” he said.
“Uh, hi Morris,” I stammered. I turned back to Mrs. P. “I
don’t mind, but don’t we need to get building permits or something? I haven’t
even looked into getting a business license for the café.”
“Pish-posh,” Mrs. P shook her head. “Don’t you worry, Harry. I have everything under control.”
“Okay, if you say so.” I shrugged. Mrs. Potts had been a
part of this building since the day it was built. Who was I to argue with her?
Truthfully, I was relieved to have someone taking over the responsibility of
coordinating the work for me.
Mrs. P. grabbed my arm and started walking me further into
the store. “Now tell me dear, what do you think of the colour? You had said
cream in your notes, but I was thinking perhaps something a little darker.”
She pointed me to a space on the wall where three different colour swatches had
been painted. Tiffy was standing nearby, puzzling over them.
“Hi Tiffy,” I said.
“Eeep!” For a second Tiffy looked like she was preparing to
bolt, but then she stood her ground. Mrs. P. nodded her head in approval and
Tiffy seemed to relax a little.
I looked at the different colours. They were all various
shades of cream, but one stood out. It was a little darker, reminding me of butter.
It looked amazing with the deep wood wainscoting that wrapped around the
perimeter of the room and the exposed brick of the outside wall. It was
definitely my favourite and I said so.
“Oh wonderful,” Mrs. P clapped her hands. “That’s the one I
liked too.”
“Me too,” Tiffy squeaked, covering her mouth with her hand
as if she hadn’t meant to speak out loud.
I stared at her in surprise. “Well, that settles it then.
It’s unanimous.” I smiled encouragingly at Tiffy. She was slightly hunched,
her fingers fluttering in front of her mouth. “What’s it called?”
Tiffy blinked her eyes at me for a few seconds, fighting the
flight response. I waited patiently.
“B..b..butterchurn,” she whispered.
“Nice. I like it.” I smiled at her again. She dropped her
hand from her mouth, her shoulders straightening slightly. Mrs. P. smiled
proudly. It was nice to see that Tiffy was starting to come out of her shell.
Mrs. P snapped her fingers and the paint in the tray at
Tiffy’s feet suddenly changed to match the identical shade on the wall. Whoa.
I’d never seen brownie magic in action before.
“There you go, Tiffy. I think two coats should do it.” She
nodded her chin at the paint tray and roller.
“Oh, I could help out,” I said, although I really needed to
get upstairs and talk to Isaac, but I was feeling guilty that Mrs. P. and Tiffy
were doing all the work.
“Nonsense dear,” Mrs. P said, pushing me back towards the
front of the shop. “Tiffy has it covered. Besides, you have things to do.” She
patted my arm. “I heard about that nice girl Christina. You must help get her
back.”
“I, uh…yeah. Okay.” I let her push me out the door,
wondering how she had heard about Christina already.
***
It was still a bit early for Isaac to be up, but Tess was
home and she pounced on me the moment I walked in the door.
“Omigod! Harry! Where have you been?” She took a critical
look at me. “And what are you wearing? Are those Nash’s clothes? Did you…?”
She leaned into me and made a big show of inhaling deeply. “Omigod! You did.
You and Nash did the big ole nasty!” She clapped her hands with glee and then
grabbed my arm dragging me towards the sofa. “You totally have to dish.”
“Alright, alright,” I said, putting the brakes on. “I will.
But first I need a shower and I want to get into my own clothes.”
“Fine, fine. Come on, you can tell me while you shower.”
She dragged me towards the stairs and yes, she thought it was perfectly normal
for her to stand in my bathroom while I showered, filling her in on my love
life or whatever it was. Of course, she didn’t get
all
the details.
Some things a girl just doesn’t tell.
***
Breaking the news to Isaac was easier than I thought,
especially since he already seemed to know. Was everyone on some sort of
supernatural grapevine, and if so, why had I not heard of it?
Isaac was visibly upset about Christina’s disappearance.
Obviously there was more going on there than just baking and gourmet cooking. I
filled him in on what I knew, which wasn’t much. I hadn’t heard anything back
from Nash when I texted him earlier looking for an update. Figures.
“We should call the number immediately and pay for an
invitation to the next event,” Isaac said as he paced the floor.
“Yeah, except for the slight problem of coming up with a
thousand bucks,” Tess replied.
“Eleven thousand actually,” I added. “We need a thousand
just to get the invite, but that won’t help us find where they are holding the werewolves.
We need to get in the door and we can’t show up to the pick up without the
entry fee.”
“The money is not a problem,” Isaac said casually.
“You have that kind of money lying around?” Tess asked, her
eyes wide.
“Easily.” Isaac shrugged.
I nodded, trying to work out all the details in my head.
“We’ll need covers. Marcel said that they run a background check after you request an
invite. You’ll need to look like a high roller so they don’t get suspicious.”
I walked over and sat down at the desk with Bryce’s computer. “I’m sure Bryce
can put together some fake ID’s. Once we have those, Isaac can call and
request to attend the next fight. That will get the ball rolling.”
Before I could call up Bryce and get him into action, my
cell phone rang. It was Salvador. I knew because I had assigned him a
ringtone that sounded like something from an old vampire movie, all dramatic
organ music. I think it was Bach. My gut reaction was to just send it to
voicemail, but I had learned the hard way that that wasn’t a good idea. The
last time I had avoided his calls, he showed up on my doorstep. Resigned, I
answered the phone.
“Hello Salvador,” I said, trying not to sound aggravated.
“My dear Harry, how are you this evening?” Salvador’s voice
purred through the phone.
“Actually, this isn’t really a good time,” I replied.
“Ah, yes. I have heard the unfortunate news regarding our
dear Detective Nash’s lovely sister. Terrible news, terrible.”
“Yes, it is, so you could understand why it’s just a little –”
“Of course, of course, which is why I have called,” Salvador
interrupted. “You will dine with me this evening. I have information that
could be of use to you.”
“Salvador, I really don’t have time for a social call. If
you have information you think will help, just tell me and when this is all
over we can meet as usual.”
“I’m afraid that just won’t do,” Salvador replied, his voice
taking on a subtle, yet harsher tone. “Henry will pick you up at eight. We
will be dining at Cirque, dress accordingly.”
“Cirque?” I couldn’t hide my surprise. It was only the
swankiest restaurant in town. You had to call months in advance for a
reservation. No surprise though that Salvador could get one at the drop of a
hat.
“Eight o’clock, Harry.” The line went dead.
“Damn it!” I tossed my phone on the desk and looked at the
clock. I had just over an hour to get ready.