Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,177

Hawk would tell Virgil what she’d said. And, if asked, because one of them was bound to ask, she could tell them that Tobias hadn’t kissed her ass.

Of course, this morning he might have gotten around to doing more than kissing her senseless if Barb hadn’t wandered into the kitchen half asleep and screamed the whole street awake when she flipped on the lights and found a strange Wolf munching on a large heart.

That sure had gotten the blood pumping in a different kind of way.

Barb had tried to apologize for screaming, tried to say she knew the Wolf had to be a friend of Virgil’s and she’d only screamed because she was sleepy and startled and she hadn’t meant to disturb him while he was eating his breakfast, but the Wolf just snarled at her. It might have been a nasty standoff if Tobias hadn’t unlocked the back door and held it open so the Wolf could grab the rest of the heart and enjoy his meal in the backyard.

After Tobias explained who Morgan was and why he’d been in the kitchen, there hadn’t been time for her to do more than thank him before she hurried to get ready for work.

But thinking about the kiss they’d shared in her bedroom before all the hoo-haw in the kitchen had her feeling fluttery in a good way.

She called the number for Tobias’s mobile phone. “I’ve been accepted back in the police pack.”

“Good for you.”

She could hear the smile in his voice. “You have any errands you can run while you’re here?”

“I might have one or two. Why?”

“I wasn’t sure how things would work out with Virgil, so I left Rusty at home. I was going to take an early lunch break to let her out. And Barb will still be working.”

“You don’t say. Well, maybe I could come by, drop off some lunch.”

Jana smiled. “Maybe you could. I’ll call when I’m heading to the house.”

When Virgil came out of his office, she gave him her best and brightest smile. He gave her that Wolf stare for a moment or two, then walked out without saying a word.

* * *

* * *

Parlan checked the labels on the bottles behind the bar. Then he looked around again.

Neighborhood bar. Local watering hole. Almost everything on the very short menu he’d found was food cooked in grease. A quick look in the preparation area had him backing away from the rotted or moldy food. The salvage company either had missed this place or hadn’t reached this street.

Parlan selected a bottle of whiskey, used a clean handkerchief to wipe the dust off a glass, and poured himself a healthy measure. Not rotgut but not the best. This wasn’t the kind of place that would serve the finest blends.

There was a separate room for parties or meetings. High-stakes games could be conducted back there. But …

Parlan sipped the whiskey and thought he still tasted the dust until he looked at the floor. Maybe it was the smell of mouse turds that interfered with the taste of the whiskey.

It would take a lot of work to make this place presentable—more work than he wanted to put in, especially when there was that saloon on the town square that was already up and running and had exactly the kind of ambiance he wanted, and his persona of a frontier gambler would slide right into that place. Of course, once he challenged Tolya and won the fight for control of the town, he’d have to keep the gambling low profile in public and he might have to find someone to manage the place along with Lawry. Not that Other with the strange hair. She had to go. And he might need to make other changes in personnel.

The door opened. Two men swaggered up to the bar.

The taller one said, “Set ’em up, barkeep.”

“Frank.” Parlan took two glasses from under the bar and didn’t bother to wipe them off before pouring the whiskey. He set a glass in front of Frank and the other in front of the shorter, younger man. “Eli.”

Frank and Eli Bonney were outlaws in the truest frontier sense of the word. They loved to steal. They weren’t Intuits, didn’t have that special sense, but they were damn good at their work. They were also just a touch crazy, which made them too impulsive for subtle jobs. Since there wasn’t going to be anything subtle about taking over leadership of the town, and since killing things was