“I’m gathering by the surname that you’re from the same pack?”“Yeah.” I got out my phone and brought up Adrienne’s picture. “You seen her around?”
He studied her for a moment, then nodded. “She did the tour here a week or so ago. I remember her hair.” His gaze raised to mine. “It’s such a pretty color in the sunlight.”
I smiled at the compliment. “Was she with anyone?”
“I don’t think so.” He hesitated. “Why?”
“Because her mom has been pestering me to find her. She thinks she’s run off with a man.”
“She looks old enough to make her own decisions about who she wants to bed.”
“She is, but this is a human man we’re talking about.”
He raised an eyebrow, amusement playing around his lips. “So the reluctance is a pack thing more than personal?”
“Both.” I switched the phone image to the sketch Blake had sent. “This is the man her mom believes she’s with.”
Again that something went through his eyes. He knew the man, I was sure of it.
All he said was, “Pretty lousy drawing.”
“But you know him, all the same?”
“Didn’t say that.”
Didn’t refute it, either. “He’s not in trouble. I just need to know if he’s got any idea where Adrienne might be.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, then shrugged. “I actually can’t tell you much. I’ve seen him on the island a few times, helping out at the bar and such, but I’ve never really talked to him.”
“Is he here today?”
“Don’t know. You could try asking staff-management. They might tell you if he’s around.”
“Do you know his name?”
He frowned. “I think it’s Jim. Jim Denton.”
“I talked to Jim Denton last night. He looks nothing like this sketch.”
Jared grinned. “Mom’s obviously a lousy artist. Or Adrienne was telling lies for reasons of her own.” He flung an arm around my shoulder, his fingers draping perilously close to my left breast. “Now that we’ve discovered I can’t help you find your friend, how about we discuss a more interesting topic?”
“Like what?” I said wryly. “You, me, and bed?”
His fingers moved, lightly brushing my nipple, teasing it to life. “That sounds like a good place to start.”
“Coffee is a good place to start.” I pulled away from his arm and stood up. “I need to be wined and dined before I can get into any sort of sexual discussion.”
“A reluctant werewolf,” he muttered, his expression a mix of amusement and frustration. “Who’d have thought there was such a beast?”
I linked arms with him as we walked down the pier toward the small coffeehouse. “Just goes to prove you can’t believe every rumor about us.”
“And isn’t it just my luck to find that one exception when I’m feeling as horny as hell.”
I grinned. “I never said I didn’t want to bed you. It’s just the whole human thing that’s the sticking point.”
“Meaning if I keep trying, I may just wear down your defenses anyway?”
“You might.”
“Excellent. Let’s get down to coffee and cake, then.”
We did. And he did keep trying.
But he didn’t get lucky.
Jared dropped the tour group back on the main island an hour later, and left me with a promise to continue his seduction attempts during his lunch break. Grinning at his determination, I headed back to my little villa and rang my brother.
“Once again, she rings at an indecent hour,” he said, by way of greeting.
I looked at my watch. “It’s nearly lunchtime.”
“Any hour before noon is an indecent hour after the night I’ve had.”
“Self-inflicted pain garnishes no sympathy from me, bro.”
“I’ll remember that next time you want sympathy and coffee after a late night carousing.”
I grinned. He’d feed me coffee no matter what, because he knew it was the only way to soothe the savage beast. Or at least shut her up. “You had a chance to look at the file yet?”
“No.” He paused. “Why?”
“Because I’ve been asking around about Adrienne and the man she was supposedly seeing, and have hit an odd little wall.” I told him about the two Jim Dentons. “It’s rather odd to have two people with the same name, and yet no one seems to know or recognize the second man.” No one except Jared, that was.
“You done a mind search?”
“Yeah, but without much luck. I found possible evidence of memory tampering on the older Jim, but I’m not yet skilled enough to undo the fudging.”
“Memory tampering doesn’t indicate foul play. It could just be a vampire not wanting her victim to remember their encounter.”
Because drinking from unknowing or unwilling hosts was illegal in most states of Australia. Apparently Tasmania was a little more free and easy, allowing vamps to drink from whomever they pleased as long as they took minimum amounts. Which probably explained why human tourism to Tassie had fallen, and vamp tourism had increased.
“I couldn’t see any evidence of bite marks.”
“If it happened weeks ago, you wouldn’t.”
“Trust me, the fudging didn’t feel like the work of a vamp.”
“Then what did it feel like?”
“I don’t know.”
“Fat lot of good that’ll do the investigation.”
“This from the man lazing about in bed feeling sorry for himself.” I paused. “Why isn’t Liander there pampering you?”
“He had to go to work early. The apprentices are working on the goblin masks today, and he has to supervise.”
Because they’d screwed up the goblin masks previously, no doubt. Those two weren’t the sharpest pencils in the drawer from what I’d seen of them.
“So what are you going to do next?” he continued.
“I don’t know. There’s really nothing much more I can do here. I’ll need to talk to the parents of the other victims and see if there’s some other connector. There’s something odd about it all.”
“If you add ‘I feel it in my bones,’ I’m going to come up there and hit you.”I grinned. “There’s nothing wrong with that saying—aside from the fact you hate it.”
“Mom used to say it,” he said. “Usually right before you and I got a beating for something or other.”
My smile faded. “I can’t remember that.”
“I suspect there’s a lot you can’t remember, Riley.”
He was probably right. That time of my life was not a place where I wanted to linger. “I remember the bad stuff.”
“Which just goes to show how screwed our definitions of bad are. There weren’t many good times, you know.”
“I know.” I scrubbed a hand across my eyes and fought the myriad of images that battered at the blocks I’d placed in their path years ago.
“Which is why I can’t understand you helping him.”
“I’m not. I’m helping Mother.”
“I doubt he’d actually—”
“I don’t. I think he’s capable of any sort of violence imaginable.” Especially if it meant getting what he wanted.
He sighed. “So, are you coming home?”
“If you and Liander don’t mind me leaving a few days early.”
“Mind? We were taking bets on it.” I could almost see his grin coming down the line. “I win, by the way. I said the guilt of letting us down would keep you there until the last week.”
“So what did you win?”
“A one-night free pass to go anywhere and do anyone.”
“You do that anyway.”
“Hey,” he said, sounding highly offended. “I’ve been a very good wolf since we had our discussion four weeks ago. I’ve only had one lover, and that was work related.”
So why did he feel the need to break free now? If he was happy with Liander—and I knew he was—why fuck that up by dancing with other wolves? Especially since he’d agreed not to outside of work? “Why did Liander even agree to this bet?”
“Because he was sure you’d miss Kellen so much you’d be following him home two days after he left.”
“Well, I do miss him.”
“Maybe, but the telling point is, you haven’t even contacted him.”
“Because he wasn’t home. He’s been off on some business trip again.”
“He has a cell phone, Riley.”
“Oh, just shut up and stop nagging me,” I said, more than a little crossly.
He chuckled. “Want me to meet you at the airport?”
“Someone had better. I can’t afford a taxi after all the chocolate I’ve eaten on this trip.”
“Text me the details and I’ll be there.”
“Will do, bro.”
I hung up. The thought of going home had my hormones dancing, and I couldn’t help the great big grin that plastered itself on my lips.
Still, before I packed, I headed down to reception and checked if Jim had left me a message. He had, and it was the answer I’d been expecting. No one remembered a man matching the description I’d given him.
Maybe it was just a scam. It wouldn’t be the first time a boy had lied about his name to get an easy lay. Although that didn’t explain why Blake thought she’d bedded him, when no one up here could even remember seeing him. No one but Jared.