Page 59 of The Wolfing Hour

It was a good opening. Now was the time to tell him about the black SUV showing up twice today. I looked into his exhausted, worried face and said:

Nothing.

I couldn’t do it, couldn’t bring myself to worry him even more.

Ida and the boys stepped out of the garden room, and I took advantage of the interruption to erase the pic of the SUV from my cell. It was a useless shot anyway. The license plate numbers were blurry.

“You’re real lucky you’re home,” Ida said. “Cecil here was about to whip up a tracking spell that would set off a panic alarm in every cell of your body. From what I gathered, you’d probably end up peeing your pants, but that was a risk he was willing to take.”

I narrowed my eyes at the purple hat poking out from behind Ida’s left leg. “The only way you could cast a spell like that would be if you already had some of the components in place. When did you put a tracking spell on me, Cecil Lennox?”

The mischievous little man made a nervous peep and scuttled back into the garden room, his feet clicking loudly on the tile.

“Trim your toenails, gnome,” I called after him.

Ronan hugged me to his side, his grip tight, possessive. “I got a message you might be in trouble.”

“From whom?”

“Margaux Ramirez.”

Damn it, Margaux.

With Ronan supporting my weight, I let my head fall back and stared up at the late afternoon sky. Let out a long, tired breath. How was it four o’clock already? I was caught in a push-pull time loop where it felt like a week had passed in a day, but oddly still felt like morning.

“I’m hungry,” I said, after a moment. “Let’s discuss this in the kitchen.”

“What if we discuss it at the pub? In my office over tacos?” Ronan asked.

I brought my head down so fast my neck made a disturbing snapping sound. “Tacos? From El Rancho Grande?”

“Yeah. I put in an order for my staff. No reason I can’t call up and add in a few more.”

Ida stared down at Fennel. “Looks like we’ll be getting the story later. No way she’s turning down tacos. I can see the drool from over here.”

“What sane person would?” Gladys asked. “Anyway, she’ll be with the boss, so we don’t have to worry about her now.”

Another scoop of guilt piled onto the mountain I was already feeling. I really needed to be more considerate.

“Sorry, everyone,” I said.

“Heard you the first time, kiddo.” Gladys winked then turned to Ida. “Hey, you and Cecil still coming over tonight to watch that new Jason Statham movie?”

The tip of a purple hat appeared around the doorway.

Ida glanced behind her. “The one with all the explosions?”

“Don’t all his movies have explosions?” Gladys shrugged. “That’s why we like them.”

“That’s not the reason, and you know it, Gladys Jiménez.” Ida waggled her brows. “The man’s beautiful. Are yousurehe’s not a shifter?”

“Not a wolf, at least,” Gladys said. “We’d know. Right, Boss?”

“Yep.” Ronan’s eyes were back to normal, and his fur had retracted, though he hadn’t shrunk down to his normal size. Not that his normal size was diminutive, but compared to his wolf, even a sumo wrestler was small.

I reached up and stroked his oversized jaw. “You’re going to need to shift all the way to human. I’m not sharing my tacos with you in this form. You’ll hog all the salsa.”

His smile was reluctant, but it finally showed up. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back to human size by the time we get there.”