shelve books as well as anyone else.”
Russ bit back a growl at the slight and Drew smirked at him.
“Roberts is a pompous ass,” Ty replied, flicking a bottle cap and then fist-pumping when it landed squarely in the trash can. “He’s only the Scholar-in-Residence for a year, but he acts like that means he’s royalty. I don’t care how many books the guy’s written—he’s an asshole, and everyone I’ve talked to can’t wait for his term to be up.”
“Well, Liam’s got the job, moved into the bungalow, and had a tour of the place from Jeffries himself, so I’d say it’s a done deal,” Russ replied. “I hope Roberts isn’t stupid enough to try to make trouble about it.”
“Jeffries is a psychic or a medium or something, right?” Brandon asked. “Maybe he could get the ghosts to short-sheet Roberts’s bed. Hide his car keys. Unscrew his toilet seat.”
Russ thought all of those ideas sounded fitting, but he doubted Dr. Jeffries would enlist the aid of the dearly departed to play pranks on Roberts, no matter how well deserved.
“Hey Brandon, you hear anything else from Sheriff Armel about that hiker who went missing?” Ty asked.
Brandon shook his head and reached for another slice of pizza. “Yeah, unfortunately. Found him at the bottom of a cliff. People think just because it’s a state park and there are trails that it’s ‘tame’ somehow. There’s nothing tame about these mountains.”
Three days ago, they had all rallied to help search for a hiker who had failed to check back in at the ranger station. They had searched as humans and shifters, cops and first responders, taking turns. Russ and Drew weren’t natives like Ty, but they knew the stories by heart about people who wandered off and were never found. A few had been children, but more were adults who vanished without a trace.
When people said the Adirondacks were “forever wild,” they sometimes forgot that nature didn’t play nicely.
Russ and the others took their beer and went to the table in the living room to play. None of them were on duty with the firehouse tonight, and everyone stayed over on poker night, so driving wasn’t an issue, and they could all have fun.
Drew won the first game and gathered his winnings while he passed the deck to Russ to shuffle. They had long ago established an individual cap on losses at one-hundred dollars, at which point the player had to leave the game. That usually left two players pitted against each other by the end of the night, while the others watched a movie or played video games.
Russ was the first to tap out since his head wasn’t in the game. He picked an action movie that everyone enjoyed seeing for the umpteenth time, and made popcorn, awaiting the next unlucky person to be banished from the game. Drew was on a roll. Ty joined Russ on the couch next and vied for control of the popcorn bowl. Justin gave up after only losing fifty dollars, bemoaning the fact that he needed maintenance on the seaplane that cut into his pocket money.
That left Brandon, and by the time the movie was over, Drew emerged the winner.
“Thank you all for a spirited set of games,” Drew said, pocketing his wad of cash. Russ shot him the finger and Drew laughed. He went to the kitchen, made more popcorn, and returned with a huge bowl just as Russ started the sequel.
Everyone knew the second flick wasn’t as good as the original, but by this point in the evening and the progress they’d made on the case of beer, no one cared.
The rest of the evening passed the way poker night usually went—plenty of banter, quoting dialog with favorite parts of the movies, and lots of junk food, as well as polishing off the rest of the beer.
By the time they finished the third movie, it was well after midnight. Ty had claimed the oversized armchair to sleep in, Justin watched from the comfort of the air mattress and sleeping bag he had brought, while Brandon won the rights to the couch, as the first runner-up in their games. Since Drew and Russ had their own rooms, that covered everyone.
“There’s a box of doughnuts in the kitchen,” Drew told them. “And I set the coffee pot to automatic brew. Just in case anyone decides to get up at an ungodly hour. I’ll cook bacon when I get up—since I’m a big-hearted winner like that,” he added with