Pack of Lies, page 14
Eli’s eyelids dipped slightly and he licked his lips. “Oh,” he said softly.
“Mmm-hmm.” Julien brushed him again and felt Eli begin to respond, hardening very gradually under his touch, the soft cotton between them. Julien leaned closer, pulse in ears, and dipped his head down to meet Eli’s—
“Wait.”
A hand on his wrist gently held him still. Julien stopped and looked up from Eli’s lips to meet his eyes.
“I think we should just keep this professional,” Eli said. He looked a little flushed, but tense. Determined.
“Professional?” Julien echoed.
“Or as professional as a couple of Hardy Boys can get, you know what I mean,” Eli said, then hesitated. “Look, one-night stands are fine and dandy, but if we make this into a habit, you’re going to start thinking you can trust me, and I wouldn’t want that. I don’t want that, because I’m telling you right now, I don’t trust you. We’ve both got too much riding on this to take those sort of chances.”
“Right, of course. I understand,” Julien heard himself say, even though he didn’t. Because what else was he supposed to do, tell Eli that he could trust him?
He pulled his hand away, but Eli’s grip on his wrist lingered a moment before letting him go and his gentle touch throbbed. Julien looked down and noticed a bruise there he hadn’t seen before. From where Eli had bitten him.
At least he’d have that, Julien thought, and pressed down on it hard with his own thumb. The small, quick pain helped ease the pounding in his head.
“It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it,” Eli said suddenly, sounding frustrated.
“Hey, hey.” Julien forced himself to look back up into his eyes. “You don’t need to explain anything to me. You say you want to keep it professional like the Hardy Boys, my only question is who’s Frank and who’s Joe.”
Eli huffed and gave him a slanted look. “Well, I do have darker hair.”
“And you’re the brains of this operation. Which is why I’m grateful to have you on my side, Frank,” Julien said, and he wasn’t even lying.
He was more grateful than he could possibly tell Eli. Even though this was all he was allowed. Even though his wrist ached in sync with his heart.
Chapter Eight
Heel-toe. Heel-toe. Heel—fuck it.
Eli clumsily tripped on the snowy service road and glanced at Julien out of the corner of his eye, but he was staring straight ahead, toward the tower, apparently lost in his own thoughts. Eli allowed his feet to slip into a more natural—and blessedly quiet—position. He and Julien had driven as far as they could and parked outside the locked gate. A rusty metal sign hung from a chain in the center stating Closed for Season had made Julien a bit nervous, and Eli refused to find that disarming in the least.
He wasn’t sure what to think of Julien’s story, exactly. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe him. As they’d driven, Julien had readily told him all the details he’d managed to dig up about Ian Ackman. Moved to Maudit as a teen, was described as a charismatic but impulsive man who had a knack for making friends and losing money. After high school he’d worked a string of jobs in town, before settling into his career as Annabelle’s partner. Unlike him, she’d come from wealth and had paid off most of his debts before moving them both out to Blue Tail Lodge.
In a way this was the beginning of Ian’s disappearance from the world. The two of them had spent increasingly little time off the mountain as the stress of a failing business took its toll. By the time he was supposed to have left town, Ian Ackman hadn’t had any friends or family left to report him missing. No one but Annabelle, who’d claimed he’d left her and shown Maudit Falls Police the letter to prove it. Apparently Bucknell hadn’t bothered to look any further. Apparently it was an open secret that Ian Ackman had been planning to leave her for years.
Julien even answered the occasional questions about his brother that Eli peppered in. He sounded like your run-of-the-mill paranormal-obsessed human. He’d drowned in a boating accident just over a year ago. The guilt on Julien’s face when he talked about him was so painful Eli frequently had to look away.
It made sense, in its way. Way more sense than the paranoid worst-case scenarios Eli had been cooking up as he’d spent the entire night pacing, replaying the moment he’d opened that drawer over and over. He’d even broken down and called Cooper around four in the morning. Thank god, the whippet hadn’t picked up and Eli wasn’t quite so far gone as to leave a voice mail. Of course he’d started ringing back with a vengeance in the car, but near the top of the mountain Eli lost service again. Perhaps by the time he got back down to the retreat, Cooper would get the hint and let it go. Hope sprang eternal.
The only part of Julien’s story that did bother Eli was the sheer relief he’d felt to hear it. How quickly he’d wanted to accept it as the truth. How the first thing he’d done when Julien had burst into his private misery was to demand answers like a betrayed lover. The clever thing would have been to feign ignorance and play along with whatever Julien thought was wrong until he could pry the truth free from the inside. When was the last time he had ignored an opportunity to work his own angle? And over what? A pretty face? Stern, demanding hands? The tantalizing possibility of a phenomenal fuck? Absolutely not.
Eli liked Julien. He wanted him to find what he’d come to Maudit looking for, because he knew what it was like to reach for someone who wasn’t there and grab hold of the first thing you happened to touch instead. That thing could drag you to hell if you didn’t figure out how to let go first.
But Eli had already done his time down below the last time sexually compromised feelings had convinced him to ignore his gut. It was one of the many reasons he didn’t get involved with humans beyond a single one-night stand here and there. Not even the nice ones. Not even the funny ones. And especially not the ones who went looking for monsters whether they believed or not.
They came to the tower clearing and paused. There pulled to the side of the road was an official-looking vehicle with Maudit Falls Police stamped aggressively over the doors.
“Looks like we’re not the only ones with murder on the mind. How tedious.” He sighed, but inside he felt antsy. He didn’t like the idea of anyone noticing him take an interest in this murder, least of all Bucknell. He quite liked his status as eccentric on the fringe. Out of the loop was out of the snare.
Julien didn’t look particularly pleased either. “I thought they closed up the scene yesterday. With all this snow coming down, what could they be doing?”
“I hope you didn’t want to form this dynamic duo because you were under the misapprehension that I’d provide forensic insight.”
“Nah, I was just drawn to your straightforward, plain-talking manner,” Julien said. “Do you want to look around the clearing or turn around and try another time?”
Truthfully Eli wanted to slip into his far more sensitive nose and try to pick up any hints that Nia, or another wolf, had climbed that tower recently. But he couldn’t put it quite like that. “I want to go up.”
“The tower?” Julien frowned. “Why? Annabelle said the cabin on top is locked.”
“Means, motive and opportunity,” Eli said airily, counting off three fingers. “Isn’t that where they always begin? I hear the view is to die for. Maybe that’s where we’ll find our means.”
“Be serious,” Julien said. “I couldn’t help but notice when we were pooling information in the car that your end was a little shallow.”
Eli laughed and began walking. “Thirteen days, remember? I’m just trying to catch up to you.”
Julien stopped him with a hand on Eli’s arm. Not a grab, just a firm touch that stilled him as easily as it had last night. Eli looked up into Julien’s dark eyes. “Listen, Rocky left Maudit...different. More convinced that there was real evil in the world than he’d ever been before. Less than a month later he was gone. So whatever it is, whatever you know, you can tell me, because nothing is more important to me than finding out what happened.”
Eli rocked on the balls of his feet a moment, considering. “Remember Celia De Luca? The woman who’s trying to turn people of influence against me, destroy the retreat and steal Christmas? The day before yesterday, a couple of her representatives showed up on my porch.”
Julien looked shocked. “What? Are you okay?”
An odd first reaction, but Eli still felt a ridiculous, pleased sort of warmth. “Yes, of course. But they...knew things. About what’s been going on at the lodge. Annabelle’s cameras,” he said carefully. “I think they might be getting inside information from someone there.”
“Hmmm,” Julien hummed thoughtfully. “Is that why you broke into Cody’s room last night?”
Eli’s jaw dropped. “What?” He snapped his mouth shut and took a wary step back. “What in the hell makes you think I would do something like that?”
“You can save the sanctimony. I’ve seen you breaking into someone’s drawers once already. And I was there doing the same thing.” Julien looked at him intently. “Remember, nothing is more important to me.”
“How?” Eli asked flatly.
“There had to be some reason you were wandering the halls at night and Cody is the only one on that floor with me. At first I thought you really were there just to see me.” Julien’s cheeks went pink. “But I think it’s pretty obvious now that’s not the case.”
“Julien,” Eli whispered. “I didn’t—”
Julien shook his head. “It’s fine. Honestly. I just hope you didn’t feel like you—like you had to. Do that. To stay.”
“Absolutely not,” Eli said vehemently. “I could have left. I stayed because I wanted you.” They both winced at the past tense. “I—”
Julien held up his hand. “Seriously, it’s fine. I was only worried you thought you didn’t have a choice. And if anything like that ever happens again, which I know it won’t,” he added hastily. “But if it does, you can just tell me what you need. You’re not trapped with me.”
Eli blinked and hastily looked down. He didn’t think anything was slipping, but he felt...precarious. Better safe than sorry.
“Here,” he said, taking out his phone and pulling up the photos he’d taken last night. “Cody had an SD card hidden in his desk. Not the card. Different. I don’t know what I’m hoping to find in the tower exactly. Maybe nothing. But she—” he tapped the screen before handing it over “—is one of the De Luca reps who showed up at my door. Based on the leaves and the unmarked shed, I think this was taken sometime last year.”
Julien examined the pictures for a long couple of moments. “Fifteen months at least. That’s Ian Ackman.”
“Perchance me hears the plot thicken,” Eli said, grimly satisfied. “Are you sure it’s him?”
“When I was looking into his background I found a couple of photos of Ian online from when he and Annabelle first opened Blue Tail. It’s him.” Julien ran a finger over the screen absently. “Why would Cody have taken these?”
“Blackmail?” Eli guessed. “Proof that Ian was meeting with someone? Something to show Annabelle?”
“You think they were having an affair? Isn’t she a little young for him?”
Eli snorted. “You’re not serious.”
Julien’s face flushed and handed the phone back over to Eli. “Well. I just mean, what about De Luca?”
“You think Nia might be acting as a representative here, too? Perhaps. De Luca would love to get her claws on the—” He hesitated, looking down to tuck his phone away. “Into a business here on the mountain.”
Julien hummed with interest. “Ian might have been meeting her to negotiate some kind of deal behind Annabelle’s back.”
“Another blackmail-able offense,” Eli agreed. “So, Cody caught Ian doing something bad in business or pleasure up here and has held on to the photos to prove it. You want to take a look in that tower yet?”
“Views to die for,” Julien agreed, gesturing him forward. They crossed the clearing quickly, trudging through the quickly gathering snow. Eli peeked at the stark claw marks on the shed door as they passed, drawn to the blatant threat of a wolf. He worried for a moment that Julien would want to examine them again. But Julien didn’t even glance over there. He seemed as eager as Eli to get to the top of the tower as they began to climb the metal stairs.
“Tell me about De Luca,” Julien said suddenly, and Eli would have preferred they’d just gone to look at the clawing.
“What do you want to know?”
Julien tapped on the metal railing restlessly as they got to the first platform and turned to walk up the second. “Well, you make her sound sort of...mafia-esque.”
Eli laughed. “She’s not.” Maybe it would be easier to say so rather than describe the intricacies of what it meant to alpha a ruling pack. But the last element of chaos he needed dropped into this mess was Julien feeling obligated to contact some agency claiming to have uncovered a mob war in the mountains. “She’s the head of a conglomerate, I guess. You know, the other organized crime.”
“She holds controlling stakes in a bunch of unrelated businesses,” Julien confirmed.
Well, maybe it was easier to explain ruling packs to humans than Eli had thought. “Yes, something like that.” He sighed a bit petulantly. “I don’t know the details. I’m afraid I’m not very corporate-minded. Imagine me climbing the stairs of a high-rise right now, in a suit, ordering people about. It’s just not who I am.”
Julien shot him a wry look. “Mmmm, something tells me you are whoever you want to be at any given moment. In fact, I’ve seen you become at least three different types of people in the last hour alone.”
That surprised a laugh out of Eli. They climbed in silence for a moment. Then Julien said, “What you’re doing with the retreat, though, that’s... I’m glad you decided to skip the high-rise and apply that Machiavellian brain to the powers of good.”
“Now you’re just being mean, and I can’t begin to imagine why,” Eli said archly. They started on the third flight of stairs.
“When I was a kid, my mom and I stayed in a place like your retreat once,” Julien said after a moment. “Just for a couple days. But it was...the difference between swimming across the entire ocean toward land you can’t see and swimming to a boat waiting way out on the horizon. Mind you our boat had a whole lot less windows and stone fireplaces. More of a dinghy, really. But it was still something solid under our feet.”
“Just the two of you?” Eli asked.
“Oh yeah. For a long time. Mom didn’t marry my stepfather, Skip, until I was twelve. Rocky was born a couple months after that.”
“Twelve years is quite an age difference.”
“Yeah. Helpful, though. Mom and Skip are both in the business. Filming is weird hours, so it was really lucky for them I was old enough to take care of him.” He cleared his throat. “What about your family? I’d love to see a baby picture of you.”
“Trust me, you wouldn’t recognize me,” Eli said, which was an understatement. They crested the fourth and final flight of stairs onto the platform just outside the glass cabin’s steel door.
“Any siblings?”
“I have a twin sister. We’re extremely different.”
“Twins! I can’t imagine the scheming. You must have terrified your parents.”
Eli turned away from Julien to stand by the railing and look out at the mountains. “How tall did Annabelle say this was?”
There was a pause and Eli glanced back in time to catch Julien grimacing, where he lingered by the cabin door as if he realized he’d pushed too hard, crossed some line. But all he said was, “I’m not sure she did. Forty feet, maybe? The mountain’s just under five thousand, though. I guess you really aren’t afraid of heights, huh.”
Eli shook his head and walked back to join him. “Not as long as I have something solid under my feet. I didn’t always. Have that either.” Even just that small bit of truth, of exposure, sent his heart pounding absurdly. But Eli forced himself to meet Julien’s eyes and then moved toward the door, leaning close and allowing their arms to brush together firmly as he passed him. It was how he’d offer comfort and affection to another wolf. Julien probably wouldn’t get anything out of it, but Eli wanted to nonetheless. Maybe he needed to feel it himself. It had been a long three days.
“Unlocked,” he said, trying the door. “That’s lucky.”
The moment he opened it, he caught the scent. Cody was getting to his feet quickly. Had he been...sitting? Kneeling? Eli looked around, sniffing subtly, but there was no one else there or any clue as to what he’d been doing.
“What are you two doing here?” Cody asked with a slight edge. He seemed caught off guard and he smelled nervous.
“We didn’t get a chance to climb the tower yesterday with everything. So we thought we might sneak back for a peek,” Julien said. He sounded friendly and unconcerned. He either hadn’t picked up on Cody’s discomfort at all—possible; Eli wasn’t too clear on how humans noticed things without noses—or he was a hell of a lot better at acting than that goat movie had advertised.
“Yeah, well, unfortunately the cabin is closed to visitors,” Cody said. “It isn’t safe.”
It seemed a whole lot safer up here than the slippery metal steps with an easily jumpable railing between you and death, in Eli’s opinion. There was nice, solid planking for the floor and four walls that were almost entirely window grids with only a low bench circling the room. The bench had accumulated decades of graffiti. Some was carved directly into the wood, but most of it was done in marker. Outside the snow seemed to be coming down in aggressive, billowing swells. As if angry that they were encroaching on its home territory in the sky.
