Joy to the Wolves (Red Wolf #1) - Terry Spear Page 0,45
learn who stole your reindeer calf?” Sierra asked Josh.
“No, but I’m hoping we can wrap that case up fairly quickly while looking into the other situation.”
“What’s the world coming to when someone will steal a reindeer calf so close to Christmas? Nice to meet you, Brooke. We’ll have to get together for lunch or dinner and shopping, whenever we’re both free,” Sierra said.
“I’d love that.”
“You take care. You look like you’re fading. Adam told me you were shot.”
“I was, but luckily they didn’t hit anything vital. The bullets just grazed me.”
“That’s good.” Sierra said her goodbyes and eyed Maverick’s brownie crumbs on his plate. “You didn’t save any for me?” Then she laughed and was out of there.
“She seems really nice,” Brooke said as Maverick locked the door after Sierra.
“She is. But none of us have had a chance at dating her yet,” Maverick said.
“Why not?” Brooke got up from the recliner, and Josh was right there helping her.
“She’s been dating some wolf from out of state.”
“Is she going to mate him?” Brooke held onto Josh’s arm, her eyes half-lidded, looking exhausted.
“Most of the bachelors figure if the guy doesn’t live here and she didn’t stay where he was, she’s not that interested in him. But she hasn’t gone on any dates either. So it’s a toss-up,” Maverick said.
Brooke managed a smile. “I’m exhausted. If you don’t mind, I’m going to bed.”
“Go ahead. We’re going to talk until Adam returns to pick up Maverick. We’ll try to keep our voices low so you can sleep.”
“Thanks, guys, for everything.” She yawned. “Good night.” She padded down the hallway to the master bedroom. Then she padded back to the living room with some sheets, a blanket, and a towel. “Sorry. Tell Josh what the cost of the window and the labor were, and I’ll pay him in the morning. He can give the money to you and Adam and George, Maverick. These are for Adam to use on the Napoleon bed at the shop tonight. There’s no sense in him staying up all night when he can probably just sleep. The store was once a house, so there’s a bathroom with a shower on the second floor he can use. The kitchen has lots of stuff he can snack on if he gets hungry.”
“I’ll tell him,” Maverick said.
“Thanks.” She headed back down the hall to the master bedroom.
“Was the door locked to the shop?” Maverick asked Josh.
“She doesn’t remember. I looked at the lock, but it didn’t look like anyone had tampered with it.”
“Adam and I swept up all the glass and porcelain and dumped it in the dumpster. We put stuff on the shelves, though we didn’t know where everything went,” Maverick said.
“Thanks. I’m sure she’ll really appreciate returning to the store in the morning and not seeing the wreckage all over again.”
Maverick frowned. “Did you need me to stay the night, too, or do you think the two of you will be fine? I can stay until I need to return early in the morning to feed the reindeer. Or I can reschedule one of our ranch hands to be in charge.”
“We should be good. She said the thieves didn’t intend to come here until she was at the shop. I’m going to ask Adam if he could stay at the house tomorrow while I’m at the shop with her since it’s his day off.”
His brother smiled. “You know what Adam’s going to say.”
“That I could stay here while he watches over her.” Josh smiled.
“Let me know if you learn anything, and if you want to bring her out to the ranch to have a meal together, just call. I figure she’ll want to stick close to home until this is resolved now though.” Maverick pulled his phone out and texted someone.
“Thanks, Maverick. I will.”
“Adam is coming to pick me up. I texted him on the way to the sandwich shop.” Maverick got another text message and responded to it. “If you haven’t mentioned to him about staying in her house when she’s at the shop tomorrow, I’ll ask him.”
“Go ahead.”
Maverick texted Adam. He received another text. “Tell Brooke not to worry about the window. The pack takes care of its own, even if she’s not officially one of us yet,” Maverick told Josh.
“I will. I wasn’t going to make her pay for it. I would have paid for it myself,” Josh said.
Maverick smiled.
“It doesn’t mean anything.”
Adam called Josh on Bluetooth. “Hey, I thought you were not planning to date