Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,93

the soaps and candles and long dresses and tarot cards been Abigail’s attempt to reinvent herself and get away from a corrupt life, or had it all been a disguise? Oh, Jesse was sure the girl had had reason to hide, but she also had a feeling that everyone in Prairie Gold had been played—and now she wondered if Abigail had moved to Bennett to try to patch things up with Kelley or to get away from her, an Intuit who sensed people and would no longer accept the disguise at face value? Was giving Tolya this information about the Blackstone Clan just a piece of a game?

She didn’t want to be responsible for the girl being driven out of town, especially if Abigail really was trying to make a fresh start. But if Abigail had a different agenda, what sort of damage could she do in a mixed community where she would find marks for a different kind of con?

Or had she already found some?

In small Intuit communities—and most of their communities were small, given that they were tucked away in the wild country—there was almost no crime beyond occasional mischief and the rare times when an individual snapped without warning and did grievous harm to someone. That didn’t mean all Intuits were good people. It didn’t mean their kind of human didn’t spawn liars and thieves. It just meant that kind of person didn’t prosper in an Intuit community. Couldn’t prosper. But in other communities where you could hide what you were and use your extra sense to do unlawful deeds?

There had been Intuits who had done such things. Maybe the most successful outlaws who had lived a century ago had been Intuits who sensed what to rob and when—and sensed when it was time to retire and become something else. Maybe they got married and raised children and quietly taught their sons and daughters skills that were outside of polite society. And maybe there were some of those progeny even now who knew when to move on and let the marks recover before coming back around, like some kind of outlaw migration.

A family of gamblers and thieves. A clan, Tolya called it. No, she’d never heard of the Blackstones, but she had a very bad feeling about what would happen in Bennett when the next member of that clan showed up.

* * *

* * *

Virgil helped haul boxes into the two vans while he tried to decide if he could justifiably snarl at Deputy Jana for not telling him about the Blackstone humans yesterday when she’d first found out about them. Except he’d known about humans made of black stones days before Jana arrived in Bennett and hadn’t shown her the picture the Hope pup had drawn.

Was he just as wrong for not telling? More wrong? No. Not more wrong.

He snarled and felt his canines lengthen to Wolf size—and watched one of the salvage humans stumble away from the van, dropping a box as the man fled back into the house.

Moments later, Jana rushed out of the house. Of course the wolverine would come rushing out to puff up and snarl.

“What happened?” she demanded. “Larry said something about teeth and is pretty freaked-out.”

Virgil bared his teeth.

Jana almost took a step back, then took a step forward, kicking the box, which, from the sound of it, had been full of breakables that were now broken.

“Oh,” she said. “Well, why did you snarl at Larry?”

“I wasn’t snarling at Larry; I was snarling about you.”

“What did I do?”

That tone was a challenge to his dominance. It really was. If he was certain she was the one who was more wrong, he’d bite her—but he’d use his mostly human teeth. Those wouldn’t hurt her as much, but enough.

And if she bit him in retaliation?

He shoved his box deeper into the van, then swung around her to fetch another one that wasn’t full of broken things. As he passed her, he growled, “You’re confusing the puppy.”

Jana threw her hands in the air. Why? Who knew? It was one of those weird things humans did.

“How?” she yelped. “Why? She’s not even here!”

As he walked into the living room, Virgil heard a box full of broken things being thrown into the van—and he smiled.

* * *

* * *

Jana stood under a cool shower, washing away dirt and sweat. They’d done a lot of good, hard work today, and tomorrow Evan and Kenneth’s family would move out of the hotel and into their new house—where