Joy to the Wolves (Red Wolf #1) - Terry Spear Page 0,14

from one of the reindeer ranch competitors. If he had been, the whole thing had backfired because, according to Maverick, they’d received more business than they’d had all season with all the media coverage. The chances a competitor would hire a wolf to do the sabotage would be practically nil. But it did make Josh think they’d made an enemy of a wolf. Someone they didn’t know.

He kept thinking about Jingles and how happy he’d been in Miss Cerise’s shop. How she’d taken him inside to keep an eye on him. Or hide him? Except if that had been her intent, it hadn’t worked, because all her customers had shared on social media about the little lost reindeer. It had made for a great special-interest story for the news at Christmastime.

“Do you know where your reindeer is at this hour?” one woman had texted with a cute picture of Jingles sleeping underneath the Christmas tree in the shop. Another had said, “Have you hugged your reindeer today?” Then she’d had someone else take a picture of her hugging Jingles.

He found the store’s Facebook page and read through the hundreds of comments. “I wish we had a reindeer ranch near us.” “Aww, isn’t he cute.” “I want one for Christmas.”

He smiled. At least having Jingles there had been good for business. Then he lost the smile. He had other cases to investigate tomorrow, but as soon as he had time, he was dropping by the antique shop to question the little red wolf some more. He had to know if she knew any other wolves in the area. And if she knew anything about working with security equipment. Or knew anyone who could work on security equipment. Her reaction should help him judge if she knew something about their video equipment.

That was one good thing about having the wolves’ enhanced sense of smell. They could smell someone’s anxiety, deception, depression, even interest. The wolves were lucky to be able to use more than just the visual cues a suspect would give up, something the police were trained to watch for.

Josh wanted to call Miss Cerise back in the worst way. He wanted this resolved before anyone else stole one of their reindeer.

The fragrance of cinnamon and cocoa and apple-cider wassail stuck with him, the Christmas music playing in her shop still replaying in his head, no matter how much he wanted to turn off the music and get some much-needed sleep. But as soon as he closed his eyes, in his mind’s eye, he saw the feisty red wolf giving him grief, her sweetly annoyed voice telling him to provide security for her shop, to watch the calf, to do anything but bother her.

Her green eyes had flashed with annoyance when he’d continued to stick by her as if she were a criminal who might flee his interrogation at any minute. He told himself he’d stayed close because he wanted the truth from her. To resolve the case so he could get on with other police business.

And he’d question her again tomorrow for the same reason. He was always thorough when conducting criminal investigations.

Chapter 4

The detective had pinned her with his intimidating gaze, so why did Brooke want to be swallowed up by his dark-chocolate eyes? Her gaze broke free of his, and she studied his masculine lips as he asked her something. What? The words were spoken as if the audiobook narrator she loved was telling her he loved her, that he wanted to kiss her, that he wanted to get her naked in his bed and ravish her.

But then a word or two of what the detective was really saying came crashing through: Where were you last night? She frowned at the handsome face, annoyed with him for interrogating her again.

Somewhere off in the distance, Brooke heard music. Christmas music.

Her alarm! She was instantly awake and scrambling to get out of bed.

“Police Detective Josh Wilding is a nightmare! Not a dream.” Unfortunately. She hurried to dress in a green wool sweater and a green-and-blue-plaid wool skirt, leggings, and her dressy boots, along with green lace panties and bra this time, and skipped making tea at the house. She had enough time to make some peppermint mocha at the shop.

Brooke grabbed her bag of money for the cash register from the safe she’d installed in the house, set her security alarm, and closed and locked the door to her house, then turned to see Detective Wilding peering over her gate