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I sighed. “Believe me, I’m going to try.” I almost didn’t say the next thing. “I’ve got too many shifters here who mean the world to me not to.”

“Be careful for yourself, too, Hart.”

“I’ll try,” I promised.

I caught him up on where things stood here, he offered to call the Shawano PD again, but I told him not to bother.

“If your last tip didn’t do anything, another one about someone from a year ago isn’t going to do any more. Let me work at it for a bit and see if I can’t come up with some reason to force them to pay attention.”

“Okay, Hart. Anything else?”

“Not today—and, really, thanks, boss.”

“You’re welcome, Hart. And I mean it about being careful.”

“I’ll try,” I told him again. “Take care, and say hi to Doc and the kid for me. And thank them for the daily Pet pictures.”

“Will do. Bye, Hart.”

I walked back into the living room, and everybody turned to look at me. I took a deep breath. “I’m going to figure this out.”

If only I had a fucking clue how.

13

Elliot threwus out the next day a little before dinnertime, saying that he wanted an early night. It was bullshit, of course. He was trying to give us a little bit of our lives back, if only for an evening. We could go back to my folks’ house, have dinner with my parents, and maybe pretend things were a little bit normal. Maybe help my mom put out decorations or talk about when we might get a tree, since apparently that was on her list of things thathadto happen. I was pretty sure she was plotting how to get one for Elliot, too.

At least I’d gotten the rest of the way through Gregory’s office—Taavi and Elliot had left me in there by myself for the better part of a day and a half, and I’d actually managed to pull several files that needed following-up on. Things that might point me in useful directions. Maybe. If I was lucky.

But before I could seriously think about next steps, I needed sleep, which was something I’d gotten all too little of since the night Elliot called.

Hopefully tonight would be better. Instead of crawling into bed—whether my parents’ guest bed or Elliot’s futon—at nearly midnight, we might actually be able to get a full night’s sleep.

It was barely after five when Taavi and I pulled out of the Cranes’ driveway and headed toward Shawano proper where my parents lived. We drove in silence for a few minutes before Taavi spoke.

“Val?”

I glanced over at him, his arms around himself, whether against the cold or against everything else, I wasn’t sure. “Yeah?” I asked.

“Is—Is there a hotel between here and your parents’ house?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Can we stay there tonight?”

I glanced over at him again, confused. “Uh, I guess. Why?”

“I just…” He pulled in a long breath, and I could hear it shaking as he did. He wasn’t looking at me, his gaze instead focused out on the grey slushiness that was post-snow Wisconsin. “I just want to spend time withyou.”

Oh. Shit. I felt emotion pushing at the back of my throat. “Yeah. Yeah, we can stay there.”

It was the AmeriVu, again, which wasn’t swanky, but it wasfine. I got us checked in, then went back to the Culver’s because Taavi had never had either deep fried cheese curds or a butter burger, and that had to be remedied. I made sure to get even more curds, some fries, and onion rings, as well as a salad because I was starting to worry I might get scurvy, and two concrete shakes that might melt enough that we could drink them by the end of the night.

When I got back to the hotel room, Taavi was sitting cross-legged on one of the two beds, his features tight in the flickering light of the TV.

“I brought food.”

He looked over at me, and the look on his face damn near broke my heart. I dropped the bags of Culver’s on the counter with the tray of shakes and immediately went to him, sitting on the bed and pulling him into my arms.