“I’ll be setting up the bar for the festivities,” Sam said. “Silva is bringing her special petit fours, and she’s serving finger sandwiches. The hotel had better be ready to open on schedule.”
“Do you think any of the guests will run out of there screaming in the middle of the night, claiming the place is haunted?” CJ asked. It was something he’d worried about. He wanted to see the sisters do well so they could stay here forever.
Sam shook his head. “Blamed foolishness, if you ask me.”
Sam didn’t believe in anything paranormal. Some might ask how he could feel that way when they were lupus garous—wolf shifters. But then again, their kind believed they were perfectly normal. Nothing paranormal about them.
Someone called for another beer, and Sam left their table to take care of it.
“When you were over there getting underfoot, did you see anything?” Tom asked, keeping his voice low.
“Nothing unusual.” Even though they’d been best friends forever, the ghostly business with the hotel was one thing CJ really didn’t want to discuss with Tom. Neither of them had, not once over all those years.
CJ took another bite of his sandwich, hoping now that the hotel was opening, he could finally start seeing Laurel MacTire in more of a courtship way. He would never again make the mistake of mispronouncing her name. Who would ever have thought that a name that looked like “tire” was pronounced like “tier”? He couldn’t know every foreign word meaning “wolf.” But he did love that she was a pretty redheaded, green-eyed lass. She had been born in America, but she still had a little Irish accent, courtesy of her Irish-born parents. He loved to listen to her talk.
The problem was that she and her sisters, Meghan and Ellie, acted wary around him and everyone else in the pack. In fact, they didn’t seem like the type of proprietors that should manage a hotel, since they were more reserved than friendly or welcoming. He wasn’t sure what was wrong. Maybe they’d never lived with a pack before. He had to admit that everyone had been eager to greet them, so maybe they felt a bit overwhelmed.
The pack members were so welcoming because fewer she-wolves were born among lupus garous than males, and many of the bachelors were interested. The women in the pack were also grateful that they had more women to visit with. Besides that, the wolf pack’s collective nature was such that its members openly received new wolves.
After eating the rest of his sandwich, Tom leaned back in his chair. “The two painters working on the main lobby left prematurely yesterday after demanding their pay for what they’d finished. They said that when they returned from a lunch break, their paint cans had been moved across the room, their plastic sheeting was balled up in a corner, and an X was painted across the ceiling in the study.”
CJ frowned. “None of the sisters saw or heard anything?”
“The sisters had returned to their house behind the hotel to have lunch.”
“Could it have been kids? Vandals?” CJ figured that what had happened wasn’t the result of anything supernatural.
“Who knows? If we discount the ghostly angle, could have been.” Tom finished his beer.
“Did the women smell the scent of anyone who had been in there earlier?”
“Not that they could say. So many people have been traipsing through the hotel, finishing up renovations, that maybe somebody else just moved the stuff. The electrician and a plumber were in earlier.”
“About that… I’ve seen that they’ve hired humans for a number of the jobs. Except for Jacob, the electrician. I would think everyone, even if they’re new to the pack, would hire wolves.”
Tom shrugged. “They’ve never been in a pack before. It’ll take a little getting used to. Maybe no one gave them a list of who could do the jobs for them. We all know who does what in the vicinity. The sisters wouldn’t have a clue.”
CJ nodded, but he was already thinking about how the painters had left the work unfinished. Maybe the women could use his help in painting the rest of the place. As long as the town or surrounding area didn’t require him to get involved in any law enforcement business, he was free to help out. And eager to do so.
“Of course, that doesn’t explain the X on the ceiling,” Tom said.
“Most likely vandals.”
CJ wasn’t afraid of any old ghost in the hotel. He hadn’t been since that day when Darien and Jake had tried to scare him and Tom when they were all kids. CJ told himself it had just been them. But neither of the Silver brothers had said anything about what CJ had witnessed, confirming or denying it. He was still telling himself the apparition he’d seen was only a figment of his imagination. That, as a kid, he’d been so scared, he could have imagined anything. That the darkened shadow of a woman was nothing more than dust particles highlighted by moonlight shining through the basement door’s window.
Tom sat taller in his chair. “If visitors ask about the hauntings, Darien wants everyone in the pack to tell them the stories are just rumors.”
“Right. Ghosts don’t exist.”
Tom let out his breath. “But you know differently. We both know differently.”
That made CJ wonder what Tom had experienced. But if CJ admitted to even one soul that he believed the hotel was haunted, there would go his best-kept secret of all time. Besides, Tom had never shared what he’d experienced either.
Tom straightened a bit. “Okay. Well, as I said, Darien has a job for you.”
If it had to do with helping Laurel MacTire, CJ would jump right on it. He was certain that she really didn’t mind that he’d been so in the way when she was trying to get the place fixed up. She was just overcautious about everyone in the wolf pack.
“Hang some Christmas lights on the hotel?” Then again, the job could have nothing to do with Laurel, her sisters, or the hotel. CJ finished the last of his beer.
Tom tilted his chin down. “No helping the women with the hotel. Unless they change their minds and ask you to.”
“All right,” CJ said. “What then?”
“We have some ghost busters in town.”
“That’s just what we need.” CJ was ready to protect the three sisters from anyone who might try to ruin things for them.
“For now, they’re staying in the Hastingses’ bed and breakfast, both tonight and tomorrow. But they have reservations at the hotel, and they will be moving over there as soon as it opens. They’ve been grilling Bertha Hastings and everyone else about the hauntings.”
“That’s not good.”
“Of course, we’re worried they might stir up trouble for the ladies by reporting the place is haunted to discourage people from staying there. But what we’re really concerned about is that they’ll learn that something a lot more serious than ghosts exists in the area.”
“Lupus garous.”
“Yes. Us.”
“You want me to get rid of them?” CJ asked, surprised. Not that he thought Darien wanted him to kill anyone, but keeping their wolf halves secret was paramount to their well-being.
Tom chuckled. “No. But you’re assigned to watch over them. If they see anyone shift when they shouldn’t, then we’ll have to take care of it.”
CJ’s whole outlook brightened. “Right. They’re staying at the hotel.” And if he had to really watch them, he’d have to stay there too! That meant he could see Laurel more.
“Can you handle it?”
“Hell yeah.”
“I mean…” Tom glanced around the tavern where pack members filled nearly every chair at the wooden tables. The room was humming with conversation. He leaned forward. “Because of the ghosts.”
“That don’t exist.”
“Right.”
“Yeah, I can handle it.” CJ smiled. He would do anything to be able to spend more time with that wickedly intriguing she-wolf. Though he hoped he wouldn’t be running out of the hotel and breaking out into a cold sweat—again.