She reconsidered Faith and what she had to offer Kintail. The woman was a neophyte. It would take eons for her to understand their ways. Kintail couldn't want that. Maybe he was trying to get Lila to give up her loss, her secrets, to move on, forcing her by showing an interest in another woman.
Then she heard movement somewhere in the house, footfalls walking from one room to another. No voices though. She wanted to hear voices, to get details. A house number and street name would be nice. A warning to the others that Kintail was on his way to free her would also be welcome news.
She waited, just as if she was on a hunt, patient, all ears, waiting.
She thought back to how she'd gotten here, tried to recollect anything that might help her pinpoint the location. They'd pulled a black hood over her head, but she'd memorized the amount of time she'd spent on a snowmobile, and then in a vehicle, the roar of the engine sounding like a pickup, and the amount of time on the road. That's why she thought she was in Millinocket. Not too far away, but far enough. The killers' home base.
She knew how many steps it took from the front door of the house, or a back door, into a long hallway, and then to the basement door. Waxed wooden floors that were a little slick, the smell of gingerbread cookies baking in the oven, the sound of New Age music drifting from another room had greeted her when she arrived. The place had been almost uncomfortably warm, but not the basement.
As soon as she was taken to the basement, the temperature had dropped a good thirty degrees. When she had asked if they could give her a coat, the redhead just smiled. "Grow a fur coat," he said, his companions all laughing, then they left her alone in the basement in darkness.
Which suited her just fine.
About two hours after that? They brought in this huge cage bearing the Three Stooges. Sleeping a long winter's nap like a bunch of damned polar bears. David, Owen, and Elizabeth. Kintail's people didn't recapture them… nope, the killers had to.
She let out her breath as she stared down into the basement at the three wolves, glad the killers hadn't eliminated them or her, yet. She wondered why they took them into custody this time. Why didn't they just kill them outright?
Hopefully they didn't plan to dissect them or torture them into telling the truth about their existence. What if that's what this was all about now? The Dark Angels didn't plan to rid the world of the scourge of werewolves now, but wanted to make a real name for themselves. The famous Dark Angels who discovered the real exis tence of werewolves.
She ground her teeth and listened again at the door, figuring if she could ever wake up the sleeping beauty trio and conjure up a way to get them out of the cage, they'd show the Dark Angels how dangerous it was to deal with darkly angered lupus garous.
Chapter 19
CAMERON DIDN'T TRUST KINTAIL ONE BIT, BUT MAYBE, JUST maybe if Cameron could help the pack leader with his troubles, Kintail would change his mind. If Kintail didn't, Cameron assumed there was only one way to deal with it—wolf to wolf. And ancient or not, Kintail would not win this battle. Not when Cameron had so much to lose.
"All right," Kintail said, and rose from the table. "I'll call off my people and let Owen and David make their way here under their own power. From the time they left the place, and if they're running as wolves, they should be here within the next hour or so. Find the bastards who killed my men, but let me deal with them in my own way."
Cameron shook on it, although he didn't know what he'd do when the time actually came. The idea of just killing the men in cold blood didn't appeal. Yet if he and his kind were exposed now, he was sure that they would have an even worse nightmare.
Kintail whipped around and headed out the door, slamming it behind him.
Faith let out her breath and wrapped her arms around Cameron's neck, her gaze worried. "What do we do first?"
"We're going to have a problem with Gavin." Cameron stroked his hands down her sides, attempting to reassure her. "We can't tell him what we're exactly up against. He'll think these bastards are crazy, and he can help us locate them, but beyond that, it'll be too easy for one of us to slip up and show our true nature now."
Someone walked up onto the deck and knocked at the door. "Yes," Cameron hollered.
"It's me, Gavin."
"Come in."
Gavin opened the door, smiled when he saw Faith and Cameron in a hug, then closed the door. "I don't understand what's going on. Trevor said David and Owen are still hunting and that communications are just not available where they are. Which is understand able. I researched the place and read where the owners of several lodges told guests to leave laptops and cell phones behind because they don't work out here. No land phones, nothing. Now, this Kintail has asked us to search for serial killers, but from what I gather, he's a winter resident here, not even a permanent year-round resident. He's not a police chief or anything. So what's the deal?"
"Which as private investigators is why it's right up our alley," Cameron said smoothly, offering Gavin a chair. "The two men who were killed were employees of his. That's why he's so concerned. He's afraid someone is targeting his people, and if we don't catch these bastards soon, there'll be more deaths."
"Want some green tea or cocoa?" Faith asked, moving to the kitchen to turn on the stove.
"Cocoa," both men responded.
"So it's not an official investigation?" Gavin asked.
"The police are definitely looking into it. They've had two murders, one out here by the lake and one at Kintail's office in Millinocket. But they don't have the resources to analyze all the clues or find the killers.""Then it must be connected to his hunting business." Gavin looked in Faith's direction. "What about the little lady? Isn't this kind of out of her area of expertise? I mean, this could get dangerous, and I wouldn't think you'd want her involved."
Faith didn't look in his direction, but smiled a little.
"She's a forensic scientist, works for the police in Portland."
Gavin stared at her. "Well, hot damn. Beauty and brains all in one package. Send you on a rescue mission and instead… hey, wait, so what was the deal with the guy in the gray pickup stalking her?"
"Just Kintail's people wanting to get in touch with her about her father's research here."
"Which was about Bigfoot?" Gavin smiled. "Did Cameron tell you we went on one of the Bigfoot hunts in Washington State once?"
"You did?" She raised her brows at Cameron.
He shook his head and joined her at the stove, resting his hands on her hips and kissed her cheek. "Yeah, but they're not real, you know."
"All four of us went," Gavin continued. "We were actually tracking down a deadbeat ex-husband who owed child support. We heard he was on one of those Bigfoot hunts so we hoped to catch him."
"Bigfoot or the deadbeat husband?" she asked.
Cameron wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her snug. "The deadbeat husband. We always catch our man… or woman."
She smiled back at him. "And Bigfoot?"
Gavin cleared his throat. "Missed him completely. But you know, hunters can go on hunts looking for known prey in an area and still not run across them. Even if the prey really exists. So what's the plan now? Trevor said you'd already been to both crime scenes, so what's the verdict?"
"I've only been to the one at Kintail's office." Faith stirred the cocoa into the mugs, then handed them to Cameron. "At least that one appeared to have been killed by silver poisoning."
When Gavin stared at her in disbelief, Faith shrugged. "Lots of silver remedies claim all kinds of health cures. So you can get them either online or in health food stores. When people ingest silver, the condition is called Argyria. But it's not a good way to kill someone. Slow silver poisoning can permanently turn skin gray."
"Sounds like you've got a keeper, Cameron," Gavin said with a wink.
But he knew from the slight sarcasm in the tone of his voice, Gavin didn't think Cameron had what it took to make this relationship work either. But he and Faith had more in common than they ever thought possible. And he planned to hang onto her. The problem was, retaining Gavin in the partnership. He wondered, too, if David and Owen had changed any personality-wise after being turned. Would they be able to stay together as a team after all this was over with? If his friends were even all right?
"So what's next?" Gavin asked.
"I think the three men who were in the hot tub with us the one night, are the ones who killed the men," Faith said.
Again, Gavin looked surprised.
Cameron smiled a little. "Like you said, she's a keeper."
"What makes you think the three men had anything to do with it?" Gavin asked her.
"They said so, in so many words. If Trevor didn't tell you already, the killers are werewolf hunters. They believe that werewolves exist just as much as Bigfoot does. So they injected at least the first of the two men with silver, believing that he was a werewolf and it would destroy him. The only thing is, it can kill anyone, so his death isn't really proof that the guys are werewolves. They've seen Kintail's Arctic wolves and believe they're werewolves and anyone who has anything to do with them are, too."
Gavin switched his attention to Cameron. "Did you ever find your wolf?"
"She's back with Kintail's pack."
Gavin leaned his head back and opened his mouth to speak, then looking as though he thought better of it, he closed his mouth and said, "Hmm."
Yeah, that would take some explaining. First, Cameron's frantic about "his" wolf, and now he didn't care anything about her because she was back with Kintail's pack. He could see how complicated things were going to get without telling the whole truth of the matter.
"So then what do we do first?" Gavin asked.