Page 56 of What a Wolf Wants
“Last night, one of the cars that arrived at Oakley’s house was Renault’s.”
“No way. Are you sure it was him? Maybe someone else was driving his car.” Charlene just couldn’t imagine that Noah’s friend was the mole in the organization. He always seemed really nice. But for the right price or even blackmail, an agent could be turned. “Oh, poor Noah. He must be angry or upset about it.”
“He was kind of quiet once he learned of it. I hope he doesn’t confront Renault about it, trying to discover if Renault is involved with these guys. I just don’t want either of us to jump to the wrong conclusions.”
“I agree.” She poured cups of coffee for them.
“I hear Noah’s car pulling up now. Hey, after we do this, no matter the outcome, I’m ready to return home and take a nap with you.”
She laughed. “Yeah, wolfish naps are the best. Especially if you have a cuddly wolf to snuggle with. I couldn’t wait for you to return home to me so we could spoon each other again after your surveillance mission.”
He smiled. “The feeling was mutual. Being at home with you in bed was preferable to drinking coffee in Noah’s car with him and collecting license plate numbers of all the vehicles that dropped by Oakley’s house. Poor Tori. I kept her awake for most of the time we were doing surveillance, feeding her all the plate numbers so she could track down who owned them.”
“But nobody you were looking for dropped by?” Charlene set the table for breakfast for the three of them while Ethan went to get the door for Noah.
“Unfortunately not or we would have taken them in right then and there.” Ethan opened the front door before Noah could knock. “Good morning. I told Charlene what we learned last night. I hope you got some sleep.”
“I did, though I was still perturbed about the situation with Renault. But you were right. We have to just put that on the back burner and deal with these other guys, then sortout what’s going on with him,” Noah said, walking into the dining room with Ethan. “Morning, Charlene.”
“Morning, Noah. I hope you’re not as tired as I am,” she said, “and I didn’t even stay up as long as you guys did.”
“I know you were worried about us,” Noah said, though he gave her a wink like he didn’t really mean she was worried about him, just about Ethan.
“Of course I was. I know you dodge bullets well, but Ethan?” She smiled at Ethan.
Ethan chuckled. “Okay, ham and eggs. Or omelets with grated cheese?” He took over the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
“Ham and eggs,” both Noah and Charlene said.
She was impressed. She figured she was going to be making breakfast for the guys again, which was fine with her. They had a job to do. She could relax for the rest of the day. Well, sort of. She would be worried about Ethan and Noah while they carried out their mission today.
Once they finished breakfast, she said, “I’ll clean up. You guys be safe.”
“We will be,” Ethan said. Then he kissed her. “I’m not going to be quiet about it any longer. I have to tell you that I love you, honey.”
She smiled brightly at him and hugged him tight. “I love you too and I didn’t want to wait any longer to say it either.” It was so easy to say that to Ethan. Though she had planned to reveal it to him when he returned to her to take a nap.
She realized that she and Noah had never said they loved each other, but with Ethan, it came so naturally, and shereally meant it. She thought Noah had already left, but he was standing near the front door watching them.
He smiled a little but didn’t seem to be offended or upset about it. She was glad because she wanted to be friends with him. Aslupus garousbelonging to such an exclusive and small group of people, it was important.
She and Ethan kissed each other again and the guys left, and she cleaned up the kitchen. Later, she heard someone pull up in the drive. It wasn’t Noah’s car, so she wasn’t sure who it could be. She peered out the window and saw it was Renault.Ohmigod, what was he doing here?
She took a deep settling breath and called Ethan, hoping he wasn’t in the middle of a bad situation. “Hey, Ethan, I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“No. We’ve been watching to see if Oakley arrives at his great-aunt’s house, but he hasn’t yet. We’ll keep observing to see if he arrives or if his great-aunt goes to church on her own. What’s going on there?” Ethan sounded like he was concerned something might be wrong.
She was glad he was intuitive like that. “Renault just drove up to my house.”
“Shit.”
“He’s not going to hurt me. He doesn’t know that I know about him parking his car at Oakley’s house. I just wanted to make you aware that he’s here. He’s still sitting in his car.”
“You be careful with him,” Ethan said, sounding worried about her.
“I’ve got this.” She wouldn’t have worried Ethan, butshe didn’t want him being upset with her if she hadn’t told him that Renault had come by and something had gone wrong.
“Okay, well, you call if you have any trouble at all.”
