thoughts, and one I’m betting he didn’t say too often. The security in this place was top-notch, but I knew for a fact the old couple who rented the smaller unit next to ours believed the roller door and the attached padlock made the unit impregnable. I doubted they’d be the only renters here thinking that.
“Maybe they were disturbed, which is why they didn’t get through.” Harry was well aware I was a witch, but he had no idea how extensive our protections were. Few did, in fact.
“Maybe.” His expression suggested he didn’t think so. “I’d better check the rest of them.”
I tagged along. It turned out that three other units had been hit—their padlocks cut and their doors unsuccessfully jimmied.
“It’s a rather random pattern of attack, isn’t it?” I commented.
“Yes, which means it’s probably the kids again.” He shook his head. “I’m going to kill the little bastards when I catch them.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Kids?”
He grimaced. “Yeah. There’s a gang of teenagers that have been hitting the businesses around these parts for the last few weeks. They broke into next door a few days ago.”
“The rangers haven’t been able to track them?”
“They wear head-to-foot protective gear, apparently. Cunning little bastards.”
“Who obviously aren’t werewolves, as they surely wouldn’t need to use a pry bar on the door.”
A smile tugged at his lips, lending warmth to his otherwise stern features. “That is indeed true. I’ll head up and check the cameras, but if it follows the same pattern as the other locations they’ve hit, I won’t find anything.”
“If you do, can you let me know?”
“Sure, but why?”
I shrugged. “Just curious.”
He nodded and headed for the office. I returned to our unit and continued reading the index. I was about to pack up and leave when, on the second-to-last page, I found the slightest mention of a mischievous ghost that used the crying of a child to make travelers get lost.
I doubted what we were dealing with here was an actual ghost, but it was at least a start. Besides, Nell had a habit of making side notes about similar entities in the margins.
It only took a few minutes to find the book in question. I locked up both units, then walked over to the office.
Harry glanced up, his face lit by the small computer screen. “Nothing untoward as yet, but I’ve hours of tape to check yet.”
I nodded. “Just in case you report it to the rangers, I left the cut lock on the ground. If we are dealing with kids, there might be prints.”
“They haven’t been that daft in their other break-ins, but I guess there’s always a first time. Thanks.”
I nodded and headed out. Dusk had given way to night, and the stars were gloriously bright, which meant it was going to be bitterly cold. Hopefully, I could get the fire alight when I got home—though it was an art I hadn’t yet really mastered. As much as I loved his house and log fires, I couldn’t help wishing he had central heating or even one of those wall gas units. But his body ran a lot hotter than mine, and he didn’t see the necessity of having any other means of heating. Which meant that unless we kept the fire going constantly, the bedrooms tended to be icy on cold nights.
Of course, that wasn’t so much of a problem when you were lying in bed next to a man who burned hot. It was a different matter entirely when it came to a middle of the night pee break.
I pulled into my parking spot at Aiden’s house, then grabbed the book and my purse and headed in, dropping everything onto the coffee table before kneeling in front of the fire. The gods of warmth were obviously feeling kindly toward me tonight, because the kindling caught straight away, and I soon had the fire roaring. I held my hands in front of it for a few seconds to warm them up, then headed upstairs for a quick shower.
I was drying off when I heard his truck pull up. I wrapped the towel around my body, shoved on my slippers, and hobbled down—though it had to be said, the pain in my feet was nowhere near as bad as it had been this morning.
His gaze slid slowly down my length and came up heated. “I do love it when you greet me in a mostly naked state.”
“It was too damn cold upstairs to risk greeting you in a wholly