Читать книгу Scratch the Surface - Amy Lee Burgess - Страница 8

Chapter 4

Hartford was a relatively small city dominated by tall buildings which housed insurance companies. The safe house was in the Asylum Hill neighborhood—which was rather apt, I suppose. Located on Farmington Avenue, the Great Pack owned it in conjunction with the Regional Council of New England. It dated back to the late 1800s and had five bedrooms and three baths upstairs, while the downstairs was divided into a large front room, a small kitchen, a half bath, a dining room stuffed with Colonial furniture and two conference rooms, one rather larger than the other.

I remembered the larger conference room vividly. I’d spent hours there going over the accident with Councilor Allerton and the Regional Council. One awful day had been spent with my pack—and one and all said vicious and hateful things about me. Even Callie, my best friend besides Elena, had not defended me. She had not added any vituperative fuel to the fire, but she’d sat there in a silence that indicated she did not disagree. She had studiously avoided my gaze.

My pack had painted me as the quintessential party girl, someone who didn’t give a shit about anybody but herself or about anything except the next opportunity to have fun. They said my contributions to the pack funds were minimal because I refused to get a steady job and instead only wanted to play my harp for money. I wouldn’t even go to the parks and play for tips. No, I was too superior for that. I would only play for weddings and business parties. I wouldn’t even deign to teach.

It didn’t matter that when I did have a gig, which wasn’t as sporadically as Jonathan made out—I brought in more money for four hours’ work than most of the pack brought in for a week’s. They were all in retail, except for Grey and Elena. Elena had gotten Grey a job with the game developers. He had been a beta tester and she, a designer. They had both worked from home. The company was based out of California. I could have been a beta tester too, but Elena and Grey wanted me to spend my time practicing the harp. We’d talked about me teaching, but as Elena had indignantly said every time Jonathan made a snide comment about my work ethic, between us we brought in more than three times than the rest of pack.

In exchange for my flexible work hours, I was the one who had cooked for our triad and I’d been responsible for most of the housework and laundry. I’d run errands and done the shopping.

But the way Jonathan characterized it, I had been a lazy-ass bum supported by my hardworking bond mates and the rest of the pack.

Even Vaughn hadn’t stuck up for me. Vaughn was the only other member of the pack who knew his way around a musical instrument. He was pretty good on the piano and the two of us used to spend many Sunday afternoons playing duets. Sometimes he’d gone on gigs with me and I’d arranged that, but he’d never said a word in my defense. He’d even agreed that my musical contribution to the pack had been negligible. Playing music wasn’t work. It was an indulgence—a hobby.

I hadn’t played the harp since the accident. I didn’t even own one anymore.

After the funeral the pack had gotten together for a somber gathering. I had definitely not been invited. I’d taken a cab home, wishing we’d get into an accident even as I’d clung to the little strip of leather above the passenger door, skin coated with a cold sweat of terror. All I’d thought about during the funeral was how I’d wanted to go home and play my harp. I’d wanted to channel my grief and anger through the strings and release some of the more toxic elements of it through the notes. I’d wanted to mourn through music.

The front door of our rented house in New Britain had been yawning open and inside the living room and the bedrooms had been a shambles. My harp had been strewn around the living room carpet in hacked-up pieces along with Elena’s computers, Grey’s CD collection and nearly everything else we’d owned.

Upstairs in the master bedroom, the bed pillows and the mattress had been slashed with a knife, stuffing and feathers everywhere. Someone had taken ketchup and mustard and squirted both all over the walls and ceiling. The stains had still been wet and dripping. The damage had been done during the three hours I’d been gone for the funeral.

My clothes had been ripped to shreds. Even worse, so had been Grey’s and Elena’s.

I remember sinking down to the ketchup-encrusted floor with one of Grey’s flannel shirts. It had been in tatters, but it had still smelled like him. I could smell his hair on the collar and his cologne in the sleeves. I’d rocked and cried like a fucking baby.

* * * *

All of this flashed through my mind as we stood on the front steps of the safe house and waited outside the imposing white door with the brass knocker in the shape of a wolf’s head.

One of the Regional Councilors, a woman named Kathy Manning, answered the door. She was a petite brunette with gray-blue eyes that tilted seductively. Her hair was cut pixie short, lending her a sort of elfish quality. Arrestingly attractive rather than conventionally pretty, she wore a pair of gray wool pants and a white blouse with a gray vest. A long gold chain looped several times around her throat and hung between her breasts. Tiny gold studs winked from her earlobes.

“Hello, Stanzie,” she said with a real smile. I smiled back, but mine was strictly cordial. Although she’d been one of the more sympathetic members of the Regional Council during my ordeal, she’d voted against me when the time came. I wondered if she regretted that now, although she evinced no guilt, merely friendly welcome.

She introduced herself to Murphy when I failed to do so and he shook her hand with reserve, obviously taking his cue from me. Nevertheless, he still charmed her. Women usually fawned over him. All he had to do was smile and they were hooked. She came up to the hollow of his throat and had to tilt her head to meet his eyes.

“Councilor Allerton is in the small conference room. I’m making a pot of coffee. Do you want some?” Her gaze traveled between the two of us.

I was cold, and coffee did sound good, so I nodded and once I did, Murphy did too.

An elaborate coat tree stood in the foyer decorated with winter outerwear and Murphy and I hung ours up too. We made sure to wipe our boots on the prim mat in front of the door so as not to track prints on the spotless parquet floor.

In the front room to the left of the hallway just past the foyer, a massive Christmas tree twinkled with lights in front of the bow window. It was adorned with silver and gold glass balls and a stiff, curled gold bow sprinkled with silver glitter held pride of place on the top.

Red poinsettias, six deep, were arranged artfully under the tree and along the shallow shelf beneath the bow window.

The room was filled with the scent of fresh pine and sap. I also smelled the coffee brewing down the hall in the small kitchen.

Murphy followed me down the hallway to the open second door on the right just before the formal dining room which, in turn, led to the kitchen.

Inside the small conference room, three of the four walls were covered with off-white wallpaper flecked with gold. A small crystal chandelier hung suspended over an oval-shaped cherry wood table with carved, scrolled legs. Ten cherry wood ladder-back chairs were arranged around the table. Each had a plush gold cushion for the seat and the back.

Dark, built-in bookshelves lined the far wall, broken only by a large multi-paned floor to ceiling window that overlooked the side yard and a parking lot for the small, brick office building on the next lot. Massive red velvet curtains were looped back with gold-braided tassels to allow access to the wintry sunlight.

Flames crackled and leaped behind the grate of a dark-green marble fireplace. Above the mantel hung a somber oil painting depicting a whaling schooner setting off to sea. The sky in the painting was the same ominous gray as the sky outside the house. It was a compelling painting, but it was not comforting.

Councilor Jason Allerton sat the head of the table with his back to the window. A hardcover book was propped on the table in front of him and his dark head was bent so he could read.

When he heard us at the door, he deliberately finished the paragraph he’d been absorbed in before he lifted his head to smile at us.

“Constance, Liam, it’s good to see you.” He rose to his feet, impeccable in a dark-gray Ralph Lauren suit with a white shirt and a subdued, yet powerful red tie. The jacket to the suit was draped across the back of his chair and his tie was loose. His shirt sleeves were rolled to just below his elbow.

In contrast, I wore a pair of faded Levi’s paired with a black turtleneck sweater I’d bought at Target for twenty bucks. My hair was pulled back into a messy bun. The wind at the rest stop had tugged several strands free and I’d pushed most of them behind my ears rather than redo the bun.

Murphy also wore jeans, only his were Armani, paired with a cashmere crew neck sweater of a burnished copper color. The wind had mussed his hair but he’d combed it in the car before we got out. Even though we were both casually dressed, I think he pulled it off with way more style and elegance than I managed. For one thing, he never shopped at Target. From Houston to Boston, he’d pushed the bright red cart around the various stores for me and turned up his nose at every men’s shirt or sweater I’d held up for his inspection. He wouldn’t even buy underwear there, the snob.

Allerton grasped Murphy’s hand and gave his forearm a meaningful squeeze. It was a handshake that expressed more than simply business. It was also a gesture of amity and fondness.

For me he had a hug, but I was stiff in his embrace. He gave my back a gentle pat before releasing me.

“Sit down.” He waved at the chairs around the table and resumed his original seat.

Murphy and I sat next to each other, facing the fireplace. Its radiating heat was warm on the side of my face as I turned my head to look at Allerton.

“I’ve arranged a dinner tonight here with Riverglow,” he informed us. My stomach knotted at the thought of having to eat with them. I’d seen them nearly three months ago at the Great Gathering in Paris, but they had snubbed me.

I still burned with humiliation at the way Callie’s, Vaughn’s and Peter’s eyes had glazed over and they’d pretended not to see me when I’d called out to them in the reception area at the chateau. It had been an instinctive greeting, born of past familiarity. For a second the two intervening years had been wiped away and it had been like seeing family.

I’d expected to be snubbed by Jonathan and Nora, but not the others. I don’t know why, because they’d been explicitly clear after the accident that they’d blamed me, but somehow I’d hoped that they’d had second thoughts, that maybe when they saw me they’d think family too.

“There have been some changes in the pack membership and leadership since you’ve left them, Constance.” Allerton’s blue eyes met mine across the gleaming conference table. When I refused to be drawn, he smiled a little and continued as if he’d never paused to allow me an opportunity to participate.

“The main reason they went to the Great Gathering was to find some new blood for the pack. Nora had a stillborn son last year and Callie’s had several miscarriages since she, Vaughn and Peter took Alpha status. It was the same thing the first time they were Alpha, when you and Grey joined the pack. You remember. It was after one particularly bad miscarriage that the triad stepped aside as Alpha. You and Grey were approached but I recall being told you turned it down.”

Beside me, Murphy shifted in his chair so he could stare at me. Passing up an opportunity to be Alpha was probably not something he’d ever contemplated before. In big packs such as Mac Tire, the position was highly coveted and campaigned for because not every female would get the chance before her fertility cycle ceased. Bigger packs tended to have shorter Alpha timeframes—five years was the usual span. However, smaller packs such as Riverglow tended to rotate the Alpha status. It wasn’t unheard of for duos and triads to have multiple opportunities. Grey had turned down Alpha status because of Jonathan’s jealousy. He’d known the position would eventually come to us and we were young, in our early twenties, and had plenty of fertility time left.

Pack women could only give birth once. Live or stillborn, if they carried a pregnancy to the end, they would become barren after the birth. Twins were slightly more common than singles.

While triads could be made up of two men and one female, most of them consisted of two women and one man in order to give two women the opportunity to bear a child at the same time. Only Alphas could have children. All the other women in the pack took birth control or had to have abortions.

I think it was both evolution’s and our own cultural way to avoid detection by the Others. Our population stayed small and underground. Secret.

Again Councilor Allerton waited for me to say something. I admit I felt a surge of sympathy for both Nora and Callie. Callie was over forty, near the end of her childbearing years and Nora, who was three years older than me, was now barren.

They were at risk, of course, of losing their bond mates, who still had the chance to bond with a fertile female and become Alpha so they could procreate. A lot of us created such strong connections with our bond mates, very few left in search of a chance to be Alpha and to have a child. The ambitious ones would, but normally love conquered ambition.

I knew Peter would stick with Callie. He loved her with a steady and deep adoration. I wasn’t sure about Vaughn. I was never quite sure of his feelings for her. He and Peter were close as brothers, but I wondered if that was enough to keep him bonded.

Jonathan, the bastard, I could see him ditching Nora in a millisecond if someone better came along. He was such a coward, he wouldn’t do it until he was sure. I’d bet he’d spent the better part of the Great Gathering looking for just such an opportunity. The fact that he was still a member of Riverglow proved he’d failed. That afforded me some small satisfaction.

Again, after he was sure I was declining his invitation to make a comment, Allerton continued. “They were able to convince a pair from Mac Tire to leave that pack and join this one with the understanding they’d be Alpha when it was quite sure Callie was past her childbearing window.”

“Mac Tire?” Murphy stirred in his chair. “Paddy never mentioned that.”

Allerton held up a hand. His nails were professionally manicured and he wore an expensive Cartier wristwatch with a chased silver band around his wrist. I could hear it ticking if I tried hard enough.

“They’re from the English branch.”

For some reason Murphy’s eyes darkened and he went very still. I was confused because, while I expected Murphy to know the members of his pack in Ireland, I didn’t think his personal knowledge would extend all around the UK. Mac Tire was a huge pack, but each country had separate Alphas who presumably knew each other and interacted, but I hadn’t thought it trickled down to the entire membership.

“I believe you know them. Him at least,” said Allerton, his expression bland enough, but something in his voice made me come to alert.

Murphy’s gaze was flat and hostile.

“Colin Hunter and Devon Talbot.”

Murphy reacted to the names like gasoline poured on fire. “Oh hell no,” he snarled, pushing back his chair. “Oh, fucking hell no. You could’ve told me this on the phone, Allerton, leaving me the opportunity to decline your invitation. Now I’m just gonna have to friggin’ walk out.”

I leaped to my feet too, grateful for an opportunity to escape.

Murphy saw me and snapped, “You sit back down. I’ll be back for you tomorrow, Stanzie.”

He’d promised to stay with me. He told me he would be with me when I had to confront Grandfather Tobias and listen to what he wanted to tell me. Now he was halfway out the damn door all because of some man named Colin Hunter, and I hadn’t the slightest clue who he was or why Murphy despised him so much. Hatred was all over his face and in the barely controlled violence of his movements. He was one step away from breaking something. He would have attacked Allerton if he’d dared, but he was putting distance between them instead.

I’d never seen Murphy so furious. The tone of voice he’d used on me was unfamiliar too. He’d never spoken to me so angrily, as if I didn’t matter, as if I were just one more obstacle in his way out the door.

I had nowhere to go if Murphy walked out. I didn’t even have my purse or any money. All of that was in the trunk of the car with our luggage.

The door slammed behind Murphy then five seconds later the front door slammed too. Absurdly, I wondered whether he’d taken his coat. It was bitter cold outside.

I stood there like an idiot, clutching the back of my chair. I struggled against bursting into cheated tears of frustration and betrayal. The weight of my bond pendant was heavy around my throat. The peridot and pearl hung suspended from a long chain I’d tucked under the edges of the turtleneck sweater.

The peridot was my birthstone; the pearl Murphy’s. Together they symbolized our bond and were the Pack’s version of a wedding ring.

Murphy had one too. He wore it beneath his sweater and never took it off unless we shifted.

“I’m sorry, Constance. I knew he’d be upset, but I’d hoped he’d handle it better than this. Please sit down.” Allerton’s tone was gentle and kind, and I responded to it obediently.

The conference room door opened and I spun around in my chair, ridiculously hoping it was Murphy. Instead, it was Kathy Manning with coffee and cookies.

“Is something the matter?” She hesitated at the door, her expression uncertain, but moved forward when Allerton gestured her inside.

“It’s all right, Kathy. How’s dinner coming along?”

“Under control.” She flashed him an attractive grin. “I’m making a seafood casserole. You might want to look at the wine we’ve got on hand and choose some. Oh, and for dessert, your favorite. Creme brulee.”

“That sounds delicious.” Allerton reached for the carafe of coffee so he could fill the china cups. He filled all three and invited Kathy to sit with us.

She unhesitatingly pulled out the chair opposite mine and regarded me with bright curiosity. “You’ve come up in the world, haven’t you?” She sounded as if she were personally responsible for it. I suppose she’d had an indirect hand in it, helping pave the way for me to be expelled from Riverglow. “Isn’t it exciting to be an Advisor? I was an Advisor for seven years back in my twenties. Gave it up when Matt and I were named Alpha. Then I had my son, served as Alpha for a few years, and the next thing I knew, I was invited to join the New England Regional Council. I imagine you’re in line for some of the same.” She took an appreciative sip of the coffee. She drank it black with no sugar. “Quite a difference from being the bottom of Riverglow, I would think. And now you belong to Mac Tire. Well done, Stanzie.”

I felt as if I were a character in an absurdist play and all communication was slowly being rendered meaningless while everything I thought I knew crumbled and became distorted and weird.

I remembered how this woman had judged me. She’d sat in silent disapproval as she listened to my pack condemn me. The entire Regional Council of New England had voted against me and it was only Jason Allerton, with the power of his personality and the weight of the Great Council behind him, who had been able to turn the tide and change their votes.

Now she sat across from me, her head tilted like a bird’s, and grinned at me as she congratulated me for becoming an Advisor and a member of Mac Tire. It was as if she’d always been on my side of things and believed in me, when she absolutely had not.

“It’s all because of Councilor Allerton,” I managed to choke out. I wanted some sugar but was afraid to reach for it. In this strange world of contradictions and about-faces, I thought my arm might fall off or something equally bizarre.

She tilted her head to the side and smiled at me as if I were a well-behaved dog. “I believe you must have done something to attract his attention. You don’t get to be an Advisor simply because of happenstance.”

I wanted to argue, because that’s exactly how I’d done it, but instead I watched Allerton pour cream into his cup and when he offered the pitcher to me, I took it, fully expecting to drop it or have it turn into a rubber chicken or something else totally unexpected.

It remained a pitcher of cream firmly in my grasp and I managed to pour some into my cup.

“I believed you were drunk the night of the accident, Stanzie. I was wrong. Please accept my apologies. This whole new chapter has thrown me for a loop, I’m afraid. I’ve had to reconstruct many of my previous beliefs and I hope that if I’m ever involved in a case like yours again, I will have more compassion as well as discernment.” Kathy Manning’s tone was sweet and sincere. She couldn’t reach across the wide expanse of the table to touch me, but she settled for giving me a very warm smile. “Your pack was so vehement and I thought they were the best judges of your character. I tended to believe you at first, but the more they talked, the less I trusted my initial judgment. That’s not a good trait for a Councilor to nurture, I’m afraid. Forgive me?”

Nervously, I wiped the backs of my fingers across my mouth. My lips were dry and chapped from the wind and shifting the night before. I’d forgotten both lip balm and lipstick. I did have on eye makeup. I seemed to always remember that, but sometimes I forgot my lips.

“You did what you thought was best,” I allowed. I was feeling more and more unreal and agitated the more I realized how alone I was without Murphy.

“That’s very generous of you. In your place, I’d want to spit in my coffee,” said Kathy Manning, as she winked at me. She swallowed the rest of the liquid in her cup and rose gracefully to her feet. “I’d better see to that casserole. Do you like Brussels sprouts? I have this wonderful recipe for Brussels sprouts Parisian that I hope everyone will like. Normally, you say Brussels sprouts and everyone’s first reaction is to grimace and pass the platter without taking any, but I swear if you try these, Stanzie, you will like them.”

“Do you need any help?” I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t want to sit here at this enormous table and stare at Allerton for the rest of the afternoon. That was for sure.

A pleased smile lit up her face. “No, but thank you so much for the offer. I’ve got a certain way I like to do things in the kitchen and it’s best if I do it alone. Helpers tend to get in my way and then I feel awful for snapping at them. You enjoy your coffee with Councilor Allerton. Have a cookie—they’re homemade. Sugar cookies, a grandmother’s secret recipe.” She gave us both a rueful smile. “I’m not quite a grandmother yet, but I managed to cadge the secret out of one. She was happy to pass it along, actually. Made her feel useful and wanted, I suspect.”

The topic of grandmothers and grandfathers was a sore one with me and although she knew what was going on in the Pack, apparently she still managed to be able to separate the good and innocent grandmothers and grandfathers from the corrupt ones.

The mere thought of them made me shudder. I didn’t trust any of them anymore.

She left the door open on her way out and I heard her cheerfully humming to herself in the kitchen. It was only a few feet away from the conference room in the back of the house.

Allerton helped himself to a sugar cookie in the shape of a mitten. It was glazed with green frosting and dotted with red M and Ms. It looked damned good but I refused to give in and eat one.

He consumed the green mitten and half of a red stocking before he said, “Aren’t you going to ask me why Liam has such an issue with Colin Hunter?” His voice was mild and completely casual which made me doubly determined not to ask. If Murphy wanted me to know, he’d tell me. I didn’t need to hear the gossip behind his back, even if it came from a Councilor.

“No.” I took a sip of my coffee. I grimaced because I’d forgotten the sugar and hastily remedied that overlooked necessity.

Allerton smiled and took another bite of the red stocking. “These are really very, very good, Constance.” He pushed the plate invitingly closer to me but I resisted.

He waited until I had the cup raised to my lips before inquiring, “How are things going with you and Liam? Everything working out?”

I swallowed wrong and only by sheer force of will avoided going into a coughing fit. “We’re fine.” I hoped my tone encouraged him to change the damn subject.

“Do you like him?” He was deliberately oblivious. And sadistic, I decided grumpily.

“I said we were fine.” A note of truculence crept into my voice.

“But that’s not an answer to the question I asked.” He finished the red stocking then looked wistfully at the plate and the remaining six cookies—three more mittens, one stocking, a Christmas tree and a snowman, and resisted.

“You know I can’t help but feel partially responsible for the fact you two are together.” He poured more coffee into his cup and into mine.

Partially responsible? I thought with an inward snort. Try completely. Totally. Under normal circumstances Murphy’s and my orbits would never have crossed at the Great Gathering.

“Councilor, I would have thought it was obvious I liked Murphy from the way I fell apart when he nearly died.” I sounded waspish and my fingers reached for the snowman without my permission. My stomach and my brain did not always listen to each other.

“That could have been guilt.” He stirred in cream and sugar. The silver band of his wrist watch gleamed in the firelight.

The sun outside had gone behind a cloud and the dim lighting of the chandelier cast an almost melancholy glow over the table.

The snowman crumbled into three pieces between my agitated fingers. “I didn’t do it,” I denied through numb lips.

“I know that,” he agreed with a patient smile. “But you did bite him and that was the reason he took that pill in the first place.”

I swallowed against a sudden obstruction in my throat. The scent of vanilla and sugar clogged my sinuses and I wanted to be anywhere else but where I was at this moment.

“We’ve been working on my wolf,” I confessed in a low, distressed tone. My words came in a rushed, defensive tumble even though I knew he wasn’t judging me. “We shift every chance we get and my wolf knows words for things now that she never knew before. She doesn’t run and play, she listens and learns. She would never bite him now. Never bite anybody.”

Allerton put a fatherly hand over mine. The rest of the cookie disintegrated into crumbs.

“Constance, I know you’ve been working hard. Liam has nothing but praise for your efforts. If anything, he thinks you’re trying too hard. And I know most of your motivation stems from that bite. But aside from working together on your wolf, how are you finding each other? In this form? Easy to live with? Annoying? I’m curious, indulge me.”

The fact that Murphy had been reporting to Allerton about my wolf’s progress should not have been a surprise to me, but it was. A deep, visceral jolt of betrayal surged beneath my skin, but it cleared. Of course he would talk to Allerton. Why wouldn’t he?

It was humiliating as hell that Allerton would be in contact with Murphy to talk about my wolf. He didn’t talk to me about Murphy’s wolf. It made bitter sense. Murphy didn’t need to do the work I needed to do. His wolf was adult and responsible. Mine was still childlike.

“We had fun on our road trip,” I said in a small voice. “We saw so many places. My favorites were New Orleans, Atlanta, and Knoxville.”

“How long are you planning to stay in Boston? I wonder that you don’t want to go to Dublin and meet the rest of your pack.” Allerton pushed the cookie plate toward me and I caved and took one of the mittens. Eating it gave me an opportunity to not answer him for a moment and I’d take all the time I could get.

The cookie melted in my mouth. The tastes of vanilla and sugar combined with the chocolate of the candy into sheer brilliance. Kathy Manning was a baking genius.

I remembered there had always been baked goods on the conference room table two and a half years ago when I’d been questioned. I hadn’t eaten any of them, but when I thought of the conference room I associated it with the smell of sugar and flour and chocolate—a weird dichotomy.

“Well, we just got to Boston two days ago. I want to show the city to him. We’re packing up the stuff I want and getting rid of the rest of it. We’re going to rent the condo out to tourists, in weekly blocks. We’ve got to talk to a rental agency to manage it for us. It’ll be a good source of income for the pack.”

“Your pack is being handsomely compensated for the time I take you away from them,” Allerton remarked. “Plus there’s some for you both personally. I’ve paid you for two months, have you not noticed your bank balance lately?”

I shrugged and debated a second cookie. Goddamn, they were good.

“I don’t bother with checking the balance. I use my debit card sometimes, but mostly Murphy pays for everything. He’s rich.”

Allerton’s smile was fond.

“I know, Constance. Quite a switch for you. You’ve always counted your pennies. I’m glad you feel comfortable enough not to check your balance nowadays, but just so you know, Advisors are well paid.” He casually mentioned a whopping sum that I took to mean at least six months’ salary, but no, that was just for one month.

“The Council’s rich,” I remarked, astonished. I wouldn’t exactly be a millionaire off my salary, but I would be comfortable. I was earning more than Elena had earned for her games.

Allerton laughed. “I’m personally well off. I pay my Advisors slightly more than the going Council rate. Mine deserve it.”

I wasn’t afraid of hard work, but I was a little remorseful for accepting two months’ salary for doing not a damned thing but gallivant through American cities.

“I’m ready to work whenever you want me to,” I told him, guilt pricking at my conscience.

“What you’re doing here right now is working,” he said

“Does it have to do with Grandfather Tobias?” I whispered. My mouth was dry and I took a sip of the coffee.

“I want to know what he tells you,” answered Allerton evenly.

I nodded.

“I want you to interact civilly with your former pack as well,” he added.

I bit my lip. “I wasn’t planning on making a scene, Councilor.”

“That’s very good.” He got to his feet and I followed suit. My gaze happened on the book he’d casually moved to the side to allow room for his coffee. It was the latest John Grisham. I gaped a little because I’d expected someone like him to read something a little more highbrow or intellectual.

He saw me looking and a smile quirked his lips. “It’s quite riveting. I intend to spend the rest of the afternoon consuming it. I hope to be finished by dinner. Would you like to choose a book to read while you’re here?” He gestured to the bookcases, which were crammed with both paperbacks and hardbacks. “You’re welcome to browse after you’re settled in your room. Are your bags in the hall? We can bring them up on our way.”

I flushed. “Murphy has them in the trunk of the car.”

Allerton steered me to the door, his hand hovering at the small of my back.

“No matter. There are toiletries supplied in all the bathrooms. I’ll see what Kathy can do for pajamas for this evening.”

“I guess I’m not really dressed for dinner,” I said.

“You’ll be fine,” he assured me as we walked down the hallway toward the front door. A wide staircase painted gleaming white with red-and-black carpeted stairs was just to the right of the hallway, making up part of the wall.

We ascended it and came out on a large landing that branched off into a hallway. The door to the master suite was at the end of the hall. It was obviously in use by Allerton. He’d used it two and a half years ago as well. There was a bathroom en suite. The other two bathrooms were located between the bedrooms on either side of the hall and were accessible through the rooms on either side of them as well as by the hallway.

All the doors, including Allerton’s, were open, except for the second door on the left-hand side of the hallway and the bathroom door between that room and the other bedroom. I knew immediately that’s where they held Grandfather Tobias. Both doors were locked against him, but allowed him access to the bathroom.

The windows in the house were electronically monitored by an alarm system, so if he were so foolish as to try to leap out the bedroom window, they’d know downstairs in a heartbeat.

Grandfather Tobias was old and frail. No match for Kathy Manning, let alone in combination with Allerton. If the fall didn’t kill or injure him, they would not let him get far.

Allerton showed me to the door of the first room to the right.

It was a small room dominated by a fireplace with gas logs. The mantelpiece and surrounding woodwork were painted a creamy white. An old-fashioned armchair was placed just to the side of the fireplace.

A mahogany four-poster bed was covered with a white down comforter with a Colonial patchwork quilt in reds, yellows and blues folded across the bottom. The pillow shams were also quilted. An old cedar chest crouched at the foot of the bed. A tray with a carafe, two mugs, and a plate of the sugar cookies wrapped in red plastic wrap decorated with a green bow sat atop it.

Bright yellow-and-red curtains hung across the window to the left of the fireplace.

A mahogany dresser with an oval mirror was placed against the wall opposite the bed. On either side of it was a door. One led to a small closet, the other to the bathroom which was tiled in white and dark blue. The toilet and spa tub were also dark blue, as were the two sinks in the granite-topped counter. A separate shower stall with glass doors stood to the side of the spa tub.

Every toiletry imaginable was arranged artfully on the countertop, including a wicker basket filled with travel-sized toothbrushes, mouthwash, soaps, shampoos and skin lotions.

The towels were royal blue, thick and fluffy. Two white waffle-knit spa robes hung on pegs on the door leading to the hallway. A motion sensor air freshener scented the air with vanilla when we walked by it.

Candles and bubble baths were arranged on the window sill above the spa tub. The window itself was glazed in a diamond pattern which alternated in blue and white glass.

Allerton made no mention of when I was supposed to talk to Grandfather Tobias and I didn’t bring it up because I wasn’t ready.

“Please make yourself at home. Dinner’s at seven thirty, but we’re having cocktails in the front room at six.” Allerton checked his watch. “That gives you about three hours. Is there anything you can think of you might need?”

Murphy. I mustered a smile from somewhere and told him I would be happy to curl up on the bed and take a nap. I’d stayed up late the night before.

He left me alone then, but not before he took my hands in his and gave them a gentle squeeze.