Page 38 of Quest of the Wolf

“It’s betternotto be wanted by bad guys. Trust me. You can focus on being wanted by prospective employers instead.”

I waved for her to get into the passenger seat and opened the driver-side door, but I couldn’t help but gaze wistfully down the mountain, wondering when I would see Duncan again. At least he wasn’t in a dungeon. He was doing what he loved. I did worry, however, what would happen when he returned to Radomir and Abrams without the werewolf medallion, especially after he’d implied to the thugs that he had it.

I shook my head. Duncan had chosen those actions of his own accord. What befell him wasn’t my fault. It bothered me, though, that he’d done it to protect me. It also bothered me that I had no idea how to rescue him if he was willing to go along with that magical compulsion and not fight it as much as he could. I didn’t think that was a good idea. My gut told me we didn’t want Radomir and Abrams acquiring any more werewolf artifacts. It also told me that they might get rid of Duncan once they had no use for him. Abrams had already had him dumped in a ditch once. Next time, he might have Duncan shot with a silver bullet.

“Are you okay?” Jasmine looked over at me.

I’d slid into the driver’s seat and gripped the wheel but was staring out the windshield without putting the truck in gear. Too lost in my grim thoughts.

“Yeah,” I said, even if I wasn’t. I forced a smile for her and started the truck down the road.

“You’re a crappy liar, Aunt Luna.”

“Yeah,” I repeated.

13

Lost in my thoughts,I drove down the bumpy logging road, winding toward the mushroom building. I wanted nothing more than to get back out on the highway and head home. Or should I visit Mom tonight? It was getting late, but I had promised Lorenzo I would talk to her.

Worried about her and Duncan, I wasn’t paying attention to my senses or surroundings as I drove. Jasmine was the one to grip the dashboard and say, “Wait. Someone’s up there.”

She pointed toward the silhouette of the mushroom building.

Under the cloudy night sky, it stood in the dark, and I didn’t see anyone near it. Radomir’s vehicles had passed by long enough ago that the motion-sensing lights had gone out. But, now that Jasmine brought my awareness to it, I could sense magical beings. Not raccoons. Men. A couple of those thugs we’d just encountered?

Had their drivers dropped them off at the building? To lie in wait for us?

The front door remained shut, the windows bricked in, so itwasn’t as if they could fire at us from inside. It was, however, possible they were lying on the roof with their rifles pointed at us.

“We’ll go by quickly.” I hit the accelerator.

If I’d thought there was another way back to the highway, I would have turned around and taken it, but these logging roads tended to head deeper and deeper into the mountains, not the other way around.

“Hang on,” I added.

We hit a bump, and, even with her seatbelt on, Jasmine’s head thumped against the ceiling of the cab. “You think?”

She gripped the oh-shit handle.

“Sorry,” I said but didn’t slow down.

I sank low in the seat in case guns fired and I needed to duck below the windows.

“My wolf keeps almost coming out.” Jasmine also sank low.

“You think it can help with potholes?”

I eyed the building as we drew even with it. If there were people on the roof, I still couldn’t see them.

“It could nibble on the hands of the person driving usintothe potholes.”

“That’s not a good way to get a reference for a résumé. I wouldn’t be able to write kind things about you without my fingers.”

“There’s voice dictation.”

I started to smile, but as we passed the building, an engine roared to life. Headlights came on, almost blinding me.

Startled, I nearly veered off the road. It was the damn tank vehicle. The men had been hiding in it behind the building, not on the roof.

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