Page 130 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
“That’s because you’re a lucky, lucky man.”
“I know you’re being sarcastic, but it’s true.”
And he dropped a kiss to her smiling lips.
13. These exist! Amazon haseverything.
Chapter 57
Lila knocked on the farmhouse door, which was yanked open halfway through the second knock. “Hi!” she said. “Remember me?”
The farmer in whose field Sue and Sam Smalls crashed nodded and looked over Lila’s shoulder, noting Berne, Garsea, and Oz. “The number one Realtor in Fargo. Did you get business cards? Have you come to show the field again?”
“No and yes. And I’ve come to confess.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m not a real estate agent.”
“No shit.”
“You wound me, madam!” Lila shrugged. “Fine, you got me. I could be a Realtor, if I wasn’t deathly allergic to closings and real estate licensing exams. Also, are you harboring a terribly injured man who bailed from the plane that crashed on your property and you’re opening the door wider and you’re beckoning us inside so the answer is yes. Excellent.”
Wendy smiled, and it transformed her wary expression into something bright and welcoming. She was short and chubby, with long black hair pulled back in a braid, and small, wide-set hazel eyes. Her hands were beautiful, not at all the way Lila assumed a farmer’s hands would look. Wendy had the delicate wrists and long, elegant fingers of a hand model. “Well, finally. Poor guy’s been going stir-crazy all week. C’mon.”
She led them past a sunny living room and up the stairs, walked to the end of the hallway, rapped softly on a closed door, then opened it. “Hey, Sam,” she called softly. “Your friends are here.”
Annette opened her mouth, then at a look from Oz, shrugged and closed it. They filed into a small, nondescript bedroom that might as well have had “guest room” stenciled on the wallpaper: pale blue carpet, cream wallpaper, an end table with a lamp. One kitchen chair on the left side of the bed for a visitor. A lonely chair in a lonely room.
A painfully thin man with Sally’s dark hair and eyes was tucked into the double bed. His skin was greenish-pale—too much time indoors—and he was wearing black wire rims with a cracked right lens. His left leg and right wrist were in casts, his face a rainbow (if rainbows were mostly yellow and green) of fading bruises. He smiled at Berne’s pained gasp.
“There you are, Maggie. I’ve been waiting all week here.”
“There was some confusion over whether or not you were dead, Sam.” Berne crossed the room and shook the hand that wasn’t in a cast. “My God, how are you?”
“You should see what’s under the pajamas. I’m a walking rainbow.”
“I’m so sorry about Sue.”
“I know you are,” he replied, clasping Berne’s hand. “Thank you for coming for me. Introduce me to your friends.” His tone was friendly, but as he looked at the others, he flared his nostrils, and his eyes narrowed when he zeroed in on Lila. “What’s this?”
“Yeah, sorry. I don’t have an ‘other self.’ There’s just me.” So it was rude to ask a Shifter what kind of werebeast they were, but a Shifter could smell out a Stable and comment? Bogus.Eh, give the guy a break. Tough week.“Your daughter’s wonderful, by the way.”
Sam smiled. “Takes after her mother, thank all the gods. How is she?”
“Stubborn. Strong-willed…”
“What’d I tell you?”
“…never believed you were dead…wouldn’t give up your phone number until evil was mostly vanquished…” Which had been yesterday. Once Oz, Garsea, and Lila had sat down with Sally and explained that the men who hurt her parents had been caught, she turned over the last piece of info they needed to solve the puzzle.
Sam’s smile faded. “I don’t look forward to telling her about Sue.”
“I never got a chance to tell her,” Berne confessed. “By which I mean Oz told her when your plane went down that you were both dead, but I wasna able to update her after I identified Sue at the morgue. Oh, Christ, Dr. Gulo and the morgue—I have so many things to tell you—everything went to shite so quickly—”
“I know having to ID her was difficult. Thank you.” Pause. “Dr. Gulo and the morgue?”
“What I’m sayin’ is, your bairn knows her mother is dead, but she doesn’tknow, d’you understand?”
