Page 38 of What a Wolf Wants
But Renault wasn’t done talking about Charlene. “Noah applied to take your vacant position and the boss just hired him, so I would watch your back if I were you. He’s not happy with Charlene either.”
Charlene quickly dished up their eggs, sausage, and potatoes before she burned them. She appeared a little off-kilter when she heard that Noah would be in Portland. Ethan poured cups of coffee for them, then rubbed her back to reassure her that everything would be fine. He couldn’t believe it. Would Charlene even want to return to Portland and be with her ex-boyfriend now? He didn’t think so, but now he was going to have to deal with the wolf. Which he had no problems with, but he didn’t want it to become a wedge between him and Charlene if she still had some feelings for Noah.
“Okay, that’s good to know.”
“The boss probably already told you that Kroner was mistakenly released from jail and now he’s in the wind. You know he wants your hide.”
“Yeah, but I’m retired now, and I won’t be as important to him as others who are still working for the DEA and pursuing him so they can return him to jail.” Ethan swore that Renault wanted to give him all the bad news just because he was now dating Charlene. Ethan didn’t want to rub it in that he was having breakfast with her, which could sound like he’d stayed overnight with her, so he didn’t mention it.
But then Charlene did. She grabbed the slices of toast and added them to their plates. “Hey, Renault, you didn’t send me some roses, did you?”
Silence ensued. She had really surprised Renault that she and Ethan were together this morning and that she had been listening in on the conversation the whole time.
“Uh, no. Why?”
“Oh, I just thought they were lovely, but the gift tag had gotten wet and so I couldn’t read the ink-stained words. I just thought maybe, since you realized I was in the area, you had sent me a housewarming bouquet of flowers,” she said, sitting down with Ethan to eat. “I was afraid to ask you though in case you hadn’t sent them.”
Ethan just smiled at her and shook his head.
“No, I didn’t send you any flowers. I didn’t realize I was interrupting anything. I’ve got to get to work. Glad you’re both enjoying each other’s company. Talk later.” Then Renault hung up on them.
Charlene speared a sausage link with her fork and pointed it at Ethan. “I wanted him to know that we are really together. Just in case he had hopes that we weren’t. Though with Noah being in the area, Renault would give up pursuing me in a heartbeat, knowing him.”
“Renault will be sure to tell Noah. I can’t believe my boss hired him. Though my position is technically vacant, and if Noah met all the qualifications, I could understand why he got the job. But hell, now he’ll be in the area and how much do you want to bet that he’ll be pestering you again?” Ethan scarfed up some of his eggs. “These are great tasting, by the way. I love the lemon and pepper seasoning you added to them.”
“Thanks. I should have asked if you would like that first.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Noah will be three hours away and I have a wolf at my back now.” She smiled at Ethan, then bit into her sausage. “Why did Renault think Kroner would be after you instead of the DEA agents who are still on the payroll and have to be tracking him down?”
“Renault knows Kroner threatened to kill me when I took him down this last time. But I’m sure Kroner will want to stay as far away from me as he can.”
“You’re retired and if he reads the news at all, he could know that you are. You wouldn’t have a badge, a gun, or the backing of the department. At least as far as he knows,” Charlene said. “So he might… Wait, your boss didn’t set you up to be the prey, did he?”
“No. Kroner’s escaping jail time wasn’t planned.” Though Ethan thought about it for a moment, then discounted theidea. His boss, Grainger, would have had Ethan agree to the plan if he had thought that was the best way to catch these guys.
Charlene sighed and sipped some of her coffee. “I absolutely can’t believe that Noah is coming to Oregon. He was Florida-born and he swore he would never leave there. He liked to surf on his off time. He’s going to be so pissed off when he learns I’m not even in Portland any longer and seriously dating you here in Oyster Bay. I’m sure Renault will tell him just where we are so maybe he can get back in Noah’s good graces.”
Ethan leaned back in his chair. “The water-stained note was genius.”
She laughed. “Yeah, I just wanted to see what he would say. I swear if we could have seen his face, he would have been blushing when I asked him if he sent the flowers to me.”
“I’m sure you embarrassed him. He shouldn’t have sent them anonymously. That would make him a beta wolf, if he had been a wolf.”
“Right. That’s exactly what he is. And the fact he wants to clean his hands of trying to date me and he’ll want to sic Noah on you? Totally beta behavior.”
Then Ethan got another call and pulled out his phone, thinking Noah might already have gotten the word and Ethan was going to get hell for it from him, but it was Adam. Ethan put the call on speakerphone.
“Hey, we played out our little drama in front of Renault so he overheard us talking about you dating Charlene. He was all ears,” Adam said.
“I just got a call from him.” Ethan ate another bite of his sausage before his breakfast got cold.
“No way.” Adam sounded incredulous.
“Yeah.”
“Did he tell you the other news?” Adam asked.
“About Noah taking my old job?”
“Yep. That’s what Renault said, pretending to innocently overhear us talking about you dating Charlene. He told us right away that you might be bound for trouble because Noah still thinks he and Charlene are together. That’s when I asked him if Noah knew you both were living in Oyster Bay,” Adam said. “He said he didn’t tell him, but the word would probably get out that both of you were living there now. Of course we know Renault is going to tell Noah right away.”
