Page 16 of Triumph of the Wolf
“Justthe latter?”
My phone buzzed, distracting me from responding. A text from Bolin had slipped past the poor reception.
Someone here desires to see you.
Someone?I texted back, slumping in the seat, worried Chad had shown up.Do they have a name or other identifying characteristics?
Bolin didn’t respond. He was either busy dealing withsomeone, or the mediocre reception ensured the signal was heading up to the nearest satellite via carrier pigeon.
“I’d better go deal with that.” I showed Duncan the message.
“Before visiting the cave?” He tilted his thumb in that direction.
“Mom just wants us to visit with those medallions so the magic makes us get vigorously horizontal.”
“You thinkthat’sthe vision she mentioned?”
“You must be used to women having dreams about you.” I waved at the wheel. “If Chad is at the apartment, I need to…” What? Tell him to beat it? That was more or less what I had in mind. Perhaps while kneeing him in the balls. “Show him how good I’m getting with that sword,” I finished.
Eyebrows rising, Duncan turned the key in the ignition. “That could be entertaining.”
“Are you going to watch me prong him?”
“I enjoy seeing you wield my gift.” His half-drooped eyelids assured me that was an innuendo.
“Chad will be furious.”
“As people so often are when pronged by swords.”
5
When we turnedinto the parking lot, I eyed the cars, but I had no idea what Chad was driving these days. A rental vehicle, most likely. As far as I knew, he’d been out of the country for most, if not all, of the last couple of years.
Bolin stood on the walkway, talking to a familiar man. Minato, one of the owners of the local convenience store. After one of what had sounded like many robberies, he and his wife had beseeched me to use my werewolf powers to stop crime there and in the rest of the neighborhood.
His presence might mean the motorcycle thugs had reappeared after the last battle that Duncan and I had engaged in with them. In our wolf forms, we’d killed a couple of them. I’d thought—hoped—that would keep the rest from wanting to pick fights in this section of town.
“Is that who Bolin meant?” I wondered as Duncan parked. “It’s not Chad who showed up but Minato?”
“Are you disappointed?”
I didn’t want to see Chad ever again, but… “I was kind of looking forward to a pronging.”
Minato noticed us before we got out of the van and waved to a car parked near the front of the lot. The passenger-side window rolled down, and his wife, Mayumi, held out a manila envelope.
“A new assignment?” Duncan wondered.
“Oh, let’s hope not. There’s enough to deal with right now already.”
After parking, we headed over to join Bolin while Minato collected the envelope from his wife.
“Is this who you texted me about?” I asked Bolin.
“Actually, no.” Bolin looked at his phone in surprise. Maybe that carrier pigeon was still in flight. “Sorry, I got distracted with work stuff. The person who came looking for you was Izzy, Ivan MacGregor’s sister. You, uhm, met her at the networking event.”
“We turned into wolves and battled each other in his closet.”
“Hence,meeting.”
