she gasped. “Ohmigod. There are remnants of white powder in the box. Do you think there are drugs inside the hand-decorated clay sculptures?” She pulled one of them out of the box to examine it.
Josh glanced into her box while he opened his. “Uh, yeah. Hell. I’ve smelled it before—courtesy of my heightened wolf sense of smell. Powder cocaine. Humans can’t smell it, so I had to be careful not to let on I could tell from a whiff of it. There’s a tiny bit of white powder in this box too. I’m sure your great-aunt wasn’t selling it—”
“Which means someone will be coming for it.”
“Exactly! I’ll get ahold of the DEA special agent I work closely with.” Josh immediately got on his phone. “Hey, it’s me, Ethan. I’m at Cerise’s Antique and Gift Shop, and we’ve got a situation.” He explained what was going on. “Since Ivy Cerise was one of ours, she wouldn’t have gotten into this with the intent to sell. We need to make sure the new owner—Ivy’s great-niece, Brooke Cerise—isn’t implicated in any wrongdoing. We also need to ensure that if the drug dealers come for their stash, we take them into custody and keep her safe.”
Was Ethan a wolf too? He had to be if Josh was telling him her great-aunt was one of theirs. That would be good news.
Josh made another call, and when he ended that, he told Brooke, “DEA Special Agent Ethan Masterson is gathering all the necessary people to handle this. They’ll want to catch these guys trying to take possession of the boxes.”
“Is Ethan a wolf?”
“Another red wolf like us.”
“Oh wow, that’s great. So what are we going to do?”
“I suspect we’ll have company as soon as you open the shop. Most likely the drug dealers have been watching for the delivery. They’d want to grab the boxes before you sold the clay figures to customers.”
“What about my customers?” Brooke immediately worried about their safety and couldn’t believe her great-aunt had mistakenly gotten involved in the shipment of illegal drugs.
* * *
“Everyone’s safety is tantamount. The DEA will want to catch these guys and trace the shipments back to where they originated, but not at the expense of civilians. I’d send you home, but I don’t want you to get into trouble on the way over there.” Hell, Josh wasn’t sure what to do. He sure didn’t want Brooke in the cross fire. “Do you have an interior room with no windows where you can hide?”
Brooke folded her arms and looked cross with him. “I’d prefer turning into a wolf.”
“Right. I know how you feel, but they’ll be armed with guns and who knows what else. A wolf wouldn’t stand a chance. Not to mention that we have law-enforcement agents coming who will be human.” He got a call from Ethan.
“Hey, Josh, the house in back of the shop is Ms. Cerise’s, right?”
“Yeah.”
“The DEA wants to set up there. We’ve got agents moving into the area, but they don’t want to spook the drug dealers.”
“I’ll make sure it’s okay with Brooke and get the keys to the house.” Josh relayed the request to her.
“Uh, yeah. I guess.” She sounded like she wasn’t happy with the prospect.
“The sooner we get this over with, the sooner you can get your shop open, as long as we don’t have a major crime scene to deal with. I’ll need the keys to the house.”
Brooke fetched the keys and told him what the security code was.
“Don’t let anyone into the shop. I’ll be just a moment. Lock the door after me.”
“I will.”
“Don’t let anyone see you inside the shop.” That was one problem with having a glass door and big glass display windows. Josh left through the back door, waiting until she locked it after him.
He hurried to the house, unlocked the back door, and went inside, praying Brooke didn’t get hurt while he was gone. After he turned off the security alarm, he unlocked the front door. The special agents hurried inside and questioned him about the layout of the shop.
Hell, he didn’t know how it was laid out except for the kitchen, the main room where her checkout counter was, the office where they’d taken the boxes, and the bathroom on the first floor. He had no idea about the rest of the shop.
“You stay here, Detective,” the man in charge said. “We’ve got this now.”
“Hell, no. The shop’s owner is in the store right now. I need to be there for