Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,150

if she’d married a different man, had used her Intuit abilities to find the weakness in other people and inflict wounds, knowing just what to say to cause the most harm. It would have been a useful ability if she’d understood how to properly exploit it, but she’d inflicted one wound too many on him, and he’d walked away without a second thought, taking Lawry with him.

He’d had the knack, the knowing, the skill for gambling, that his father had lacked, and with Lawry’s quick fingers and skill at con games, they had done very well for themselves. They were a clan now, a family-run business, even if one of their branches handled darker projects that were always lucrative in one way or another.

His mobile phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Found one of our boys,” Judd McCall said. “We had a sharp reunion.”

“And the other?”

“His gear is here. I’ll find a place nearby to wait.”

“You’ll be able to make the meeting?”

“I’m on the outskirts, so meeting up with you won’t be a problem.”

“I’ll be on the westbound train tomorrow. Should arrive in time for my business associates to set up an appointment with the town officials.”

“I’ll see you there.”

Parlan ended the call and went back to shuffling the deck as he considered how to manipulate the straw-men businessmen partners into saying the right things to Bennett’s mayor.

Walking over to the card table, he dealt four cards faceup.

Two black eights. Two black aces.

Parlan stared at the cards and wondered why they made him uneasy.

* * *

* * *

Jana had hoped Virgil would be off somewhere doing a sniff-and-pee patrol when she reached the office. No such luck. Not only was he there, but it was obvious he was waiting for her since he was standing outside. Worse, the backpack that held her crime scene kit was at his feet.

“What happened?” she asked when he opened the back of the vehicle.

Virgil picked up Rusty.“I’ll put her inside. Wait here.”

The pup was stowed in her office crate—or maybe was given the run of the Me Time cell. Either way, Virgil returned fast enough that Jana didn’t think Rusty had been given a scritch or a treat. He set the backpack in the cargo area, closed up the back, and got in the passenger seat.

“What happened?” she asked again.

He gave her an address and then stared at her.

“I should have called and told you I might be a little late.” It was tempting to point out that she wasn’t actually late since this was her day off and she was just supposed to be coming in sometime that morning to check the e-mail from yesterday. But Virgil didn’t look like he was in the mood to have her point out anything. “Barb decided her hand was sore enough that she needed some help feeding the animals, so Abby and I went with her. After I dropped the two of them back home, I came here.”

Since he still didn’t say anything, she headed for the northern road that would take her to the address.

Finally, he said, “A pack member who is injured shouldn’t run with a hunt. If she can’t keep up, she will fall behind, be alone. She can’t dodge if prey turns unexpectedly. She should stay close to the den until she heals. A pack leader should be told these things. If he can’t trust that he will be told, he will demand submission in order to find out for himself.”

She could picture Virgil forcing a female Wolf into a submissive position so that he could sniff her and decide things for himself. Doing that to human females would be a violation, an assault. He wouldn’t see it that way, but she knew how she would feel if he forced her down. Something to explain to him when he wasn’t angry with her.

“Having me and Abby help her today … Friends were taking care of a friend. That’s what we do.”

She felt the weight of his stare before he growled, “And I’m not a friend?”

Friend? She wasn’t sure. Pack leader? Oh, yeah.

She glanced at him and hoped her smile looked genuine. “I didn’t need to bring out the big guns—or the big teeth—to convince Barb to do the smart thing. If I’d needed that kind of help, I would have hollered for you to come and deal with her.”

He grunted and looked away, ending their little snarl-fest. Jana felt like she could breathe again.

“I brought your crime kit,” he said.

It was tempting to remind him that it