Waking Hearts (39 page)

“Let me get dressed,” she muttered. “You can have it. But I want my fifty grand.”

Allie said, “You’re lucky I don’t rip your throat out for putting my kids in danger.”

Maggie leaned toward her. “Try it. It’s not really a surprise, I guess. You precious McCann pups have always been more valuable than the kids on this hill. Just a bunch of dirty Quinns, right? Nothing but trouble. Who cares if the outsider threatens
them
, huh? If the Quinns lose a few, they’ll only breed more.”

“If you believe I’d think that way, you don’t know me at all,” Allie said.

Sean followed Maggie into the trailer just as Alex and Ted pulled up.

“Anyone injured?” Ted asked, stepping out of the Jeep.

“Not yet,” Ollie said. “Give it a few minutes. Maggie and Sean are alone.”

“What happened at the resort?” Alex asked. “You found something. I saw the hole in the wall. Might have been nice to check your phones.”

“Maggie found Joe’s money months ago,” Allie said. “Simon Ashford was looking for it. Found her. Threatened the kids up here. Threatened to expose the town. She was stalling until Joe’s body was found. She figured you and Ollie would take care of Ashford and she’d be free and clear with the cash.”

Ted nodded slowly. “That sounds like a solid Maggie scheme.”

Alex asked, “She didn’t know Ashford was a shifter?”

Ollie shrugged. “You didn’t spot it on him. Neither did I.”

“You’re right.”

Allie said, “It’s the scent. They smell different, but not like us.”

Ollie could agree with that. There had been a sharp, sour smell in the old service station after Ashford had shifted and bitten his guard. Ollie had blamed it on the human at the time—panic held multiple layers of scents—but perhaps that pungent smell had been Ashford.

Maggie and Sean walked out of the trailer a few minutes later.

“Great,” she said. “The wolves and the cats are here too.”

Nothing else passed between them as Maggie turned to go. She walked back into the rocks behind her trailer, crouching down when she got to one shaped like a diamond at the base of a spreading Joshua tree. She rolled the rock to the side and pointed at the disturbed ground beneath.

“There. I didn’t bring a shovel.”

Ollie bent down and cupped his massive hands, digging into the loose dirt. Just a few inches down, he felt the cool smoothness of metal against his fingertips.

“Lockbox?” He glanced up at Maggie and she nodded.

“It was in the garbage bag. Knew I shouldn’t have left that shit behind,” she muttered.

“You gotta key?”

“I busted it open with an ice pick.”

Ollie grunted and bent over, slowly brushing the dirt from the nondescript, black metal box buried in the soil. He dug around until he could lift it out. Then he stood, holding it carefully.

“As far as I’m concerned,” he told Maggie, “you get none of this.”

Maggie’s eyes were bleak, but Ollie chose to ignore her. Maggie Quinn was not his problem. If she’d come to him in the beginning, he would have bent over backward to help her. But she hadn’t done that. She’d put Allie and her kids in danger, and no bear would forgive a threat against his children.

He held the box out to Allie, but she shook her head. “I don’t have a safe. Do you? What do I do with it? I can’t take it to the bank.”

Ollie glanced at Alex. “The wolves have a safe.”

“We have a few of them,” Alex said. “I’ll keep it for you, Allie. Get it counted. We can figure out what to do about it after this is over.”

She nodded and hooked her arm through Ollie’s after he passed the box off to Alex. Then the six of them walked back to Maggie’s trailer where Ted pushed her to sit on the old picnic table while she cleaned her split lip.

Maggie kept her eyes on her brother. “What are you going to do to me?”

“I already told you,” Sean said quietly. “You’re gone.”

Maggie’s eyes sparked fire. “You can’t do that.”

“Watch me.” He kicked the tongue of her trailer. “Hope this thing moves, because you’re not staying in the Springs, Mags. I’m serious. And the old man will back me up. You’re gone.”

The color drained from her face. “For how long?”

“Ask me in a year.” Sean turned and started walking away.

Ollie had never seen his friend’s eyes so cold. But then, he didn’t have any siblings. Betrayal on the scale that Maggie had committed had a way of changing everything, even ties of blood. There was a coolness in Sean’s gaze. A weariness in the set of his shoulders. Leadership was never an easy burden, but Ollie wondered if it was one that would end up breaking his friend.

ALLIE hadn’t been able to kick him out of her bed that night either, but she had insisted he put on a shirt with his sweatpants.

“Loralie and Chris will come barging in. It’s almost a guarantee.”

“There are locks on the doors for a reason,” he muttered, closing his eyes and pulling her head to his shoulder.

“But not when they’re away from home and there are all these guards around. Not when everything is so… chaotic.”

He grunted, but he was quickly falling asleep. Ollie could hear his clan and the wolves circling the house. His bear approved. More predators in the den wasn’t usually a good thing, but if it kept the children safe, it was acceptable.

“Tell me this will be over soon,” she said quietly.

Ollie’s heart jumped.

What? No!

Allie sighed. “Tell me we’ll be able to go back to our house. Have normal lives again. You and I could… go to the movies. Take my dad’s boat out to the river on a Saturday. Have regular Sunday dinner and worry about Nerf guns instead of real guns.”

His heart calmed down when he realized she was just talking about the looming danger.

“It will,” he said. “I’m going to take care of this, and life will go back to normal.”

She snuggled in and whispered, “Okay.”

“Not gonna lie though.” He kissed the top of her head. “I like having you guys around.”

“You might not think that when you find out Chris broke your torque wrench this afternoon while Kevin was working on the Charger.”

Ollie winced. “The Craftsman?”

“The Snap-on.”

“The old one or the one with the digital read out?”

“Since one of the things he was using it for was taking the dog’s temperature, I’m guessing it was the digital.”

Okay, he could admit it. That hurt.

“Still glad we’re around?”

“Yes.” He pulled her onto his chest and swatted her backside. “But I may demand repayment for the torque wrench.”

She laughed. “I can live with that. For the first time in my life, I have some extra money lying around.”

Ollie lifted one eyebrow and spread a broad hand over her cheek. “Oh, that wasn’t the kind of repayment I had in mind.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

ALLIE STILL HADN’T WRAPPED her brain around the idea of having two hundred thousand dollars. She’d brought her bills over from the house but had hidden them in her room, embarrassed by how much red ink was on them. Now she spread them nervously across the kitchen table where she and Alex were drinking coffee.

“This all of them?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Have you totaled it up?”

“Around sixty grand all together. A little over that.”

Alex let out a low whistle but nodded and started tapping on the calculator with almost manic glee.

Allie let out a slow breath. It felt good to plan. She’d been holding on by the skin of her teeth for so long she’d forgotten that she’d been great with budgeting when she’d had a real paycheck to work with. This was all manageable. She could pay everything off and even stop asking for charity.

And Alex loved handling money. It was the reason she’d called him. Ollie was at the Cave, trying to catch up on his own paperwork after so many days off his regular schedule. Ted and Jena were both working. Sean was holed up with his uncle. He’d said something vague about making things right, but she didn’t know what that meant.

The whole town felt like it was on guard. There were extra volunteers at the schools, and ranchers and farmers had been warned to watch for any unfamiliar vehicles and call Alex or Ollie immediately.

People. She had them.

And this threat had gone far beyond her own small family. Simon Ashford, his mysterious boss, and whatever foreign shifters they had were a threat to everyone.

For now, she’d just concentrate on keeping the water running.

“So,” Alex said, “the first thing we need to do is get you current and pay off the smallest creditors. These casinos… I’m going to look into what they might take as a settlement. I don’t know if it’ll be successful, but we can try. After that—”

“What am I going to do with all that cash?” Allie felt the anxiety rising again. “I can’t just deposit it in the bank. Or can I?”

“Not if you don’t want a lot of questions from the IRS,” Alex said, still scribbling notes on a legal pad. “But… I think I just hired you as a consultant, so we’ll figure out a salary that gets you your money and still keeps things mostly legal. Just let me figure it out.”

Her eyes bugged out. “What?”

“Listen,” he said, folding his hands and looking up. “I was thinking about having you working at the resort anyway. You have a natural gift for hospitality. You could easily work in event planning once Loralie is in school full time. I’ll just… start paying you a little early.”

Allie blinked her eyes. “But… Alex, I have no experience in that kind of stuff.”

“Don’t be humble. I saw Christopher’s last birthday party, remember? You had thirty-two seven-year-olds at your house and no one was bleeding. That’s practically a miracle according to Jena. You ran that like a drill sergeant. And I should know, I was raised by one.”

“But that’s kid stuff!”

“So?” He laughed. “Is a business retreat going to be more difficult than thirty seven-year-olds and assorted younger siblings?”

Allie shrugged. Since grown-ups could pour their own lemonade, Alex might have a point.

“All that cash would raise flags if you deposit it, but the pack can
always
use cash. My dad was practically salivating when he saw all those small bills. I’ll pay you a regular salary starting now—you’ll have to pay taxes on it, but I’ll make sure you don’t get slammed—and when you start working for real, you’ll get the rest. It won’t be a lump sum, but you won’t get any inconvenient questions, either. Does that work for you? It’s up to you. That was just my first thought.”

“If I worked for you, I wouldn’t have to work at my dad’s store anymore,” she mused.

“Nope. And there are plenty of people looking for jobs. He’d have a line out the door when he started hiring.”

“But I might still want to work at the Cave.”

Alex shrugged. “It’s all details. We can work it out. The point is, Joe left you something to work with. And I’ll make sure you get to keep most of it.”

Allie thought for a moment. “Do you think I should pay Maggie back her fifty thousand?”

“I’m not going there. Talk to Sean.”

She nodded.

“Allie, there was something else.” Alex’s voice dropped, and he pulled an envelope out of his pocket. “This was mixed in with the money.”

He slid a battered envelope across the table. It had her name on it in Joe’s handwriting.

Allie froze, staring at it.

“It hasn’t been opened,” he said.

“It’s from Joe.”

“I figured.”

Her hand was trembling when she reached for it. All these months. Every harsh word she’d said to her friends about him, every resentment she’d held, it all rushed into her mind. The anger was there, but so was the confusion.

What was there left to say that he hadn’t already yelled at her over the years?

Alex said, “You don’t have to read it right now, but I wanted to give it to you. Want me to throw it away?”

“No.” She hesitated.
Maybe
. “It’s from Joe.”

“I know.”

The last words he would leave her with. Would they be sweet? Bitter? Angry or sorry? She didn’t know. She had never known.

“Allie?”

She cleared her throat and tapped a finger on the envelope. “You know, if Ollie gave me a letter, I’d never worry about opening it. He’d never be hurtful. Not on purpose. With Joe? You just never know.”

“Okay,” he said softly. “So wait. Wait until life has settled down. Or don’t open it at all.”

“No, I have to.”

“Why?”

She smiled sadly. “Because of fifteen years and four kids. This—whatever it is—is the last thing he’s gonna give me. Good or bad, I’ll handle it, Alex.”

“You always do.”

ALLIE wore a sweater when she walked to the park. Fall weather was finally starting to break the heat, and the change was more than welcome. She saw Jim following her from a distance, knew Ollie had assigned him to watch her when she went out, but she tried to ignore him. She sat on the benches across from Willow’s mural, Joe’s letter burning in one pocket and a handful of Kleenex in the other.