art so beautiful it makes other wolves weep.” A standard state of affairs for Miko Tanaka. “She calls me each Friday without fail and goes through every piece of gossip she’s heard about me. It’s like having my own personal spy network.”
Garnet’s laughter was a caress that made his wolf want to throw back its head and howl.
• • •
Telling herself she could trace the edges of Kenji’s smile later, Garnet said, “I gave one of her pieces to my parents for their mating anniversary.” It would’ve been financially beyond her reach if Miko didn’t have special secret pricing for packmates. The outside world paid high six figures for one of her unique multimedia works—and that was at the low end. Packmates paid what Miko thought they could bear.
As a lieutenant, Garnet was paid an amount commensurate with her heavy responsibilities. The pack’s business assets were myriad and strong and, as such, all SnowDancers who either worked for the pack or held necessary positions in it—like the lieutenants and healers—were compensated fairly. Garnet would’ve done it for nothing, rarely spent what she was given, so she’d had a good sum saved up to offer Miko.
Only Kenji’s mom had insisted on giving the stunning piece to her for what she’d said was the “future daughter-in-law” price. It was so outrageously low that Garnet had felt like a thief, but no amount of arguing by Garnet had changed Miko’s mind that Garnet and Kenji were meant to be. Garnet might’ve refused to take the artwork had Miko not made it clear that she’d be mortally offended at even the suggestion of any such thing.
Clearly, Kenji’s mother would be having the last laugh. “My folks love it,” she added, “have it up in their living room.”
“Yeah?” Kenji’s cheeks creased. “You should’ve asked me for one. She sends me a piece every time she decides I need more culture in my life.”
“You’re sitting on a fortune there.”
“Except that if I ever sold one, she’d rip off my head.” Kenji laughed. “Your folks still doing the lovebirds thing?”
Garnet groaned. “I walked in on them making out like juveniles last time I was in the main den. No wonder I have eight brothers and sisters.” Turning to the door with Kenji’s laugh rippling over her skin, she stared at the dead bolt. “Is there any way this could’ve been relocked from the outside?”
Chapter 10
His sweater sitting easily over wide shoulders, Kenji examined the lock. “I can’t see how. It’s got no fancy computronics that might’ve been hacked. Just a solid iron bar snicking into place.”
“I talked to Revel on my way to meet you.” She’d run into him as he was heading off to get Pia a favorite snack. “I asked him about magnets or other tricks and he said the same. It’d be impossible given the depth of the door—and the dead bolt’s too stiff for anyone to have gone low-tech with a pulley system.” It took a bit of grunt to push the bolt into the lock; Garnet had tested it during their forensic sweep.
“Revel a locksmith?”
“Engineer.” The majority of SnowDancer soldiers had a secondary specialty. Kenji’s was in international law, Garnet’s in finance. She worked with their fellow lieutenant, Cooper, to keep SnowDancer’s investments strong. However, after the massive attack on the pack earlier that year, she’d also made it a point to learn and study weapons that could be used against SnowDancer and its allies. She was no expert yet, but she was getting there, and Hawke had put her in charge of evaluating possible counterweapons.
Kenji, by contrast, had a brilliant facility for languages on top of his legal training and natural strategic skills. As a result, he dealt with a number of SnowDancer’s major offshore business contacts and was point man for their alliance with the BlackSea changelings. Now his face grew dark, skin tight over the clean angles of his features. “Last night—”
“Rev and I decided to call it quits yesterday.” She bumped her shoulder against Kenji’s arm. “I’m free to seduce you.”
Kenji focused those pretty green eyes on the door. “I don’t see any scratches or anything else that would indicate this lock’s been jimmied.”
Grinning at this dangerous, wicked wolf’s attempt to simply ignore her flirting, she returned her attention to the matter at hand. “And we found no forensic evidence on it to indicate Eloise touched it. Only sign of damage is from when she forced the door—”
“—and that damage seems to exonerate her,” Kenji completed. “No way