Page 41

“Yeah. I’m as tired as the kids, and I’m going to nap. What would you like me to fix for dinner?”

“Beef stroganoff? It’s great warmed up if I get in rather late. I’ve got a recipe in the book and all the ingredients.”

“You’ve got it. And if you’re not too tired after that…”

He laughed. “I’m never too tired for that. When I can, I’ll give you a call later.”

“Look forward to it. All of it!”

Monica was barely awake after a lovely nap when she thought she heard the Ring camera’s fairy tune at the front door.

She stretched and yawned, then got out of bed.

Once she reached the door, she peeked out and saw a white Maine Coon kitten sitting in a basket filled with pink fluffy blankets and a card attached.

She knew to be wary of gifts like that, but the kitten was mewing, and it was too cold for her to be outside.

Monica hurried to open the door. Pierre walked into view, his curly sandy hair a ragged mop on his head, but the telltale bruising and cut on his forehead made her realize he hadn’t lied about Denny hitting him.

“Hey, Monica, don’t be mad at me for not telling you what I couldn’t before, but I’m a DEA informant, and my handler swore me to secrecy. I hope you’re not allergic to cats. Snowflake is my peace offering to you. Can I come in and talk?”

“How did you know I was staying here?” She lifted the basket as gently as possible, so as not to startle the kitten.

“I overheard a couple of men at the White Bear Tavern saying that you had moved in with Andy and were going to mate him. I thought it was an odd way of putting it.”

“You have a lot of explaining to do.” She frowned at him. “How could you become an informant?”

“A friend of mine’s kid overdosed in Anchorage, the reason I relocated here. I wanted to help take down the bastards responsible. Believe me, I’m coming clean about all of it with you. I’ll be right back. I need to get her litter box and litter, play toys, climbing tree, and bed.”

She hoped Pierre was on the up and up and wasn’t trying to con her. But he risked coming to see her and being arrested, so she thought he might be telling the truth. She hadn’t smelled deception or fear on him. He just seemed relieved.

Thankfully, she wasn’t allergic to cats since she was a bear shifter. She hoped Andy wouldn’t be upset about having a cat as their first baby. Or annoyed that Pierre was the one who gave the kitten to her.

Pierre returned with armloads of gifts. “Where do you want me to put all this?”

She hadn’t expected him to purchase a pink princess bed for Snowflake surrounded by soft velour sides for a little cave-like appearance, a climbing tree meant for a much bigger cat, an enclosed cat litter box to keep mess down to a minimum, and a pink water and food dish covered in white snowflakes.

“These are just adorable. You can put the climbing tree over in the corner, and we can have her bed there for now.” She knew she needed to get to the business of what he had been up to, but taking care of the kitten was just too all-encompassing.

“The litter box can go in the mudroom. She can easily access a quiet place off to the side.”

“Got it. A friend had kittens ready to go home to a new family, so I bought the prettiest little female just for you.”

“She’s adorable.” Then she sighed. “You know I’ve got to record all you have to say.” Monica tried to be as professional as possible as she sat on one of the recliners and cuddled the purring kitten on her lap.

Right away, Snowflake was kneading her lap and falling asleep. This was so nice. A great companion when Andy was away. Monica began recording the interview with Pierre, identifying him and the time, and said, “All right, go.”

“Yeah,” Pierre said, sitting on the sofa opposite her. “Okay, you know I really liked you when I met you at the café.”

“Yes, and we had a great time.” But it couldn't have lasted because he wasn’t a polar bear.

“At the time, I couldn’t tell you I was working on a DEA case as an informant. I wanted to. You were an FBI agent. I thought I could, but my handler said no way. That he didn’t want you to be involved and hurt in the process.”

“Okay.”

“So then he said I needed to be in White Bear, closer to the action.”

Light dawning, she said, “No. This has to do with Harvey Marquart?”

“Yeah. So he was involved in some high-level drug trade, using his motel as a cover.”

She settled back in the recliner, the kitten not moving a muscle. “And the kidnapping scheme?”

“I knew Helen was Harvey’s cousin. So I befriended her at a café like?—”

“You befriended me,” Monica said, amused.

“Yeah, but not for the same reason. She was a means to an end. I smooth-talked her into thinking I had tons of money.”

“Which you do, unless you bamboozled me.”

“I do have tons of money, and that’s why I was able to relocate here without any trouble.

I had the notion that I could ‘get involved’ in Harvey’s drug trade since I had the money, but the payoff was really DEA money.

The next thing I know, Denny arrives at the house with the scheme that he’s kidnapping her, and I’m paying a ransom.

She’s Harvey’s cousin, so I wondered if that was another reason they came after me and the money. ”

“Totally throwing off your drug deal.”

“Yeah, they just wanted the fast money and didn’t want me involved in their drug business. My DEA handler wasn’t happy.”

“I bet. Did you really give him five hundred thousand?”

“No. I told him I had to get the rest later. When Denny nearly cracked my skull in his faux kidnapping scheme, I thought he was going to hurt Helen. She told me he had a short fuse, and she had a restraining order against him.”

“Hmm, okay, so you think it was real, but you change up the scenario.”

“Yeah. I didn’t want her hurt, even though she was just a pawn in the scheme of things as far as the drugs went, since she was Harvey’s cousin.”

Monica was glad he was one of the good guys. She had thought he was until the story kept flipping around.

Pierre let out his breath. “When I saw you were in the vicinity with another kidnapping case, I thought that maybe, since you had taken care of four kidnapped victims without any harm to them in the past year, you could help save Helen. But Denny told me he would kill her if I called anyone. I knew you would handle it right.”

She didn’t want to tell him about the one she couldn’t save, which still haunted her. “Okay, so I went to get gas in White Bear, and when I was there, Teague cut my brake lines, so I would get far enough into the wilderness that it could be dangerous to me.”

Pierre’s eyes widened, and he ran his hand through his sandy hair. “Hell. You didn’t tell me that.”

“I didn’t learn of it right away. But your girlfriend, Helen, was the one who put him up to it.”

Pierre rubbed his chin, staring at the floor, deep in thought. “Ah, hell. Here I was truly worried about Denny hurting her. I shouldn’t have been.”

“What about them picking up the money?”

“Oh, that. They wanted me to meet them at some isolated location. Lots of money? No witnesses? No way. All that was true. I told them they had to come to the house, and I’d disable the cameras. They weren’t the brightest bulbs in the box.”

“Did you disable the cameras?”

“Hell no. I ensured all the recorded video was in the cloud and turned it over to my handler. I had some fake cameras that looked like they were off, and they yanked them out just to be sure.”

It was good to know that Pierre had documented everything, though she couldn’t take his word for it.

“I guess you’re stuck on this Andy MacMathan.”

She paused the recording. “Yeah, we really hit it off. I met him a year ago when I went through White Bear and had a flat tire. He helped me with it, but I was seeing another guy at the time.”

“The guy you had ditched before I walked in on you at the café.”

“Right. Back to the interview?”

“Yeah, sure.”

She restarted the interview. “Why did you disappear after we tried to haul Helen, Denny, and the rest in?”

“Oh, hell, well, Teague said he knew I had betrayed them and had sicced an FBI agent on them. My handler put me in a safehouse, and it was all hush-hush. Though I tried to contact you and got caught at it before I could get through to you.”

“Who is your handler?”

Pierre hesitated to say.

“I have to know who he is to verify all of this and believe you.” Snowflake stretched, licked her lips, and fell asleep again on Monica’s lap.

“He said he knew you. That you were a great agent, but I already knew that.”

She frowned. “Who?”

“Agent Elio Weland?”

Her eyes widened. “I worked with him.”

“Yeah, and he shot you accidentally. When I got you involved in the kidnapping case, he was furious.”

“He’s DEA now?”

“Yeah.”

Okay, she trusted Elio. “He did it to save my life.”

“Not the way he tells it. He shouldn’t have shot you.”

“He saved my life, and it all turned out right.” Mostly because of her faster healing genetics. No way would she ever think of Elio as anything but her hero in that high-stakes situation of life and death.

Suddenly, Monica’s phone lit up. She glanced at the caller’s ID. “It’s Andy.”

“Answer it. I know he’ll want to come to your rescue. I sure wish I had been the one who had been your hero instead of putting you in harm’s way.”

She smiled. “Snowflake makes up for it.” She answered the call. “Andy?—”

“We’ve got the house surrounded.”