E.A. Price - Valentine's Wolf (Grey Wolf Pack #11) (4 page)

“And,” continued Conrad, “we know how much work you put in on behalf of Henry.”

Val flushed at that. Henry was the sweetest Project Manager who ever worked at the company. For one thing, he was devoted to his wife, and another, he didn’t get drunk and try to grope all the assistants at the Christmas party. So when Henry’s wife was sick, and he needed to be at the hospital, yeah, Val stepped up and covered as much of his work as she could. She kind of got a feel for what the job was like doing that,
but to be suddenly thrust into a Management gig on her own…

“This is really generous of you, Conrad…”

“You’re welcome, Val,” he interrupted. “Now, you’ll be getting a raise, and you’ll be able to start putting lunches and travel on the corporate expense account, but we’ll talk about you getting your own office when you get back.”

“Wait, back? Back from where?”

Was it her or was this conversation hurtling along like a runaway freight train?

Conrad looked at her indulgently. “Well, you’ll be taking over Glenn’s position, and he was right in the middle of a current project, so you’ll need to pick up where he left off.”

Val frowned. “Can’t Glenn just finish off this project before he leaves?”

Conrad’s eyes narrowed imperceptibly, and although he was still smiling, his face had more of a glacial quality than before.
Think about Mr. Freeze coming to kill Batman.

“No, he can’t. He had a family emergency and had to leave very suddenly.”

Yeah, right
. Glenn would sell his own grandma before he’d up and leave a cushy job like this. Val couldn’t imagine any kind of emergency would lure him away. All the Managers got obscene bonuses for finishing their projects early, so they were always in a rush to get them done as quickly as possible, refusing even to take sick days when they were disease-laden.

She affected her most innocent look. “I’m sorry to hear that, I should arrange for some flowers to be sent to him in his time of need.”

Briefly, panic crossed Conrad’s face. It couldn’t have lasted more than a second, but she saw it before he smothered it with a grin.

“No need,” he said smoothly, “already taken care of by my assistant.”

She nodded and made a mental note to check that with Lois later. Lois was reliable for little else other than office gossip and filing her nails, but she certainly wasn’t good at keeping secrets and actually might be able to give Val some clue about why Glenn had suddenly left.

“So, I guess you should start packing.”

Conrad stood up swiftly, and Val stood up as well, flapping her arms, unsure what to do or say. This was all so sudden. Within ten minutes, she’d been promoted to a job she was unqualified for and was being shipped off to who knows where.
How about a couple of moments to breathe?!

“Wait, Conrad, no, I…”

The genial smile was gone, and he looked at his watch pointedly. “I have a meeting to get to.”

“This is just so sudden…” she admitted lamely.

“We have great faith in you, Val. But if you don’t want this promotion, then you don’t have to accept it. Although, I have to say, I’d be very disappointed if you didn’t take it,” he didn’t
have
to say that, “especially given that we wanted to take a chance on you in spite of you being less qualified that other candidates we looked at.”

Great; she couldn’t have felt worse unless he’d told her that every time a promotion goes unaccepted a puppy dies.

Val sucked in a breath as all the reasons to say no flashed in front of her – right in big neon letters. But then, if she said no, would this be it for her? She stuck to the job she was in because it was safe and easy but was it really going anywhere? She was 30 with no man, no children, a dingy apartment and a cat who snubbed her. Maybe this was the shake up she needed, and after last night, maybe getting out of town and away from Lester wasn’t such a bad thing.

Before she could stop herself the words, “I’ll do it,” leaped out of her mouth, and Conrad was giving her a hearty handshake.

“Excellent; Lois has booked you a flight out to Alexandria this evening and Shannon, Glenn’s old assistant, will meet you at the airport. Lois will give you all the details.”

Val looked at him bewildered. “Alexandria? This evening?”

“Yes, you’ll be managing the construction of a new health spa hotel in a small town called Rose. I hear the locals are a pretty inbred bunch of shifters, but I’ve no doubt you’ll handle them. Now I really must dash, call me if you need anything.”

With that, he strode out of the office. Val slumped into her seat trying to process what just happened.
Hurricane Conrad just happened!

The nerve of him just expecting her to up and dash across the country like that! She couldn’t just up and leave; she had… ah, well, she had to… she had a cat, darn it!
A cat who didn’t really care who brought him food as long as someone did – but still!

Yeah, okay. So apparently, she could just up and leave. All she needed was someone to feed Tumbles and scoop out his litter tray once a day and he’d be fine. In fact, he’d probably relish the opportunity for time apart from Val, she could tell that the crotchety feline was getting a little sick of hearing about her bad dates.

Other than Tumbles, the only other person who would really miss her would be Hilary, and Val was sure that her best friend would be the first person to tell her to go for it. Even to the point that Hilary would be willing to feed her mortal enemy, Tumbles.
The two of them didn’t get on; they were locked in a battle of wills.

Val slapped her desk. She could do this. Since turning 30 and indulging in some truly awful dates, she’d felt a little restless about her life, and this could be just what she needed. A change of scenery and a new job – yep, this could be just what the doctor ordered. And who knows? Maybe there might be some interesting guys in Rose. Conrad hadn’t exactly been complimentary about them, but then he considered anyone who lived outside of a city to be a hick.

She rubbed her aching back as she started making a mental list of all the things she needed to pack. Yes, the more she thought about it, the more excited she became.

Rose, here she comes.

Chapter Four

“Oh my god! You look so handsome! Let me get another picture.”

Carly bounced up and down in front of the sheriff’s station snapping photos of her mate, Cain. The seven-foot bear shifter had been offered a job as a sheriff’s deputy, and after much deliberation, he accepted it.

Both Alec and Adam had been taken aback at Jake’s choice. They weren’t exactly the bear’s biggest fan. They found him to be both aggressive and impatient.
Although, he had calmed a little since mating with the tiny she-wolf, Carly.

Cain fingered the collar of his uniform. “It’s too tight,” he complained.

Carly cooed at him and stroked his considerable bicep, “You look sexy.”

Cain preened.
Maybe a little tightness was worth it
.

Jake gave them both a half-smile. “Ready to go?” he asked Cain.

He ducked into a patrol car as Carly and Cain said their goodbyes. There were lots of kisses and proclamations that he would miss her, and she told him to stay safe… It went on for a few minutes until Jake beeped the horn and, with one last longing look, Cain jogged over to the car, and eased himself inside.

As Jake drove, Cain turned to him, “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For giving me this job; Carly’s thrilled. I know the Alpha and Beta didn’t think it was a good idea.” He let out a small snarl, showing just what he thought about that.

Jake shrugged, but his wolf pricked up his ears, unhappy with the bear’s attitude toward the Alpha. “It’s their responsibility to ensure the pack is safe, if something happened, if you fucked up, then it would be bad for the pack, and bad for Carly.”

Cain tensed but didn’t say anything. The suggestion that he might do something to hurt his mate riled him.

“Humans and shifters get along okay, but there are some humans who aren’t exactly thrilled about seeing shifters in power. And things seem to have been getting worse over the last couple of months. We have to be careful we don’t give them another reason to hate us. So don’t fuck up.”

“I won’t,” said Cain simply.
He would do anything to ensure Carly was happy and safe.

Jake nodded, and his wolf growled softly, pleased with the bear’s acquiescence. They lapsed into companionable silence. He was glad Cain had said yes to the job. With a little training and self-discipline, he’d make a good deputy. He wasn’t exactly bright like Delilah or Deanna, and didn’t have Gabe’s instincts, but he was determined, and lord help anyone who tried to step out of line when he was around.

Other than Cain, Jake had hired two other new deputies. The first was a human who used to work as a deputy in a town to the south. Her name was Susie, and she’d helped them out a few times. She applied for a job at the station; she said she wanted to move out of her old town.

The second was a newly returned pack mate. He had been serving in the army as an MP and was keen to come home and start as a deputy. His name was Ford Carver, and he was currently living with his sister, Felicity, and her mate, Esther.

Jake didn’t know Ford particularly well, having only met him a couple of times when he was on leave. He understood Ford had been a bit wild in his younger days, which is why he chose to join the army. Some of the more aggressive wolf shifters did that to try and learn self-discipline. For some, like Ford, it worked, for others, like Hans Lucas, it didn’t. Although, Hans was a lot calmer than he used to be; meeting his mate had done wonders for him.

He was considering hiring another deputy, but he wasn’t exactly sure who fit the bill or whether he could afford it.
Ugh, that was the part of being the sheriff that was least appealing – dealing with budget matters.

“Where are we going anyway?” asked Cain.

Jake’s face tightened. “The construction sight. They reported some vandalism.”

“Again?”

“Yeah, again.”

It was the third time they had been called out there since Jake took over as sheriff. A few things had gone missing, and there was graffiti, and someone had even tried to set a fire. The guy in charge over there, an oily character called Glenn, was convinced that the pack was responsible for the problems.

Jake was under the impression that the company’s own construction crew, or even Glenn himself, were most likely responsible. A number of them had already been thrown out of the pack bar for harassing women and getting into fights. They were heavy drinkers, and it wouldn’t surprise him if they did all the damage in their drunken haze.
But, Glenn wouldn’t hear of it.

No, in Glenn’s opinion, it had to be the pack. It was a well-known fact that Adam had been opposed to the hotel being built. For one thing, the hotel was being built right next to pack land, and Adam didn’t want strangers wandering into their territory. It could potentially be dangerous for the strangers to come face to face with shifted wolves. For another, the pack wasn’t happy about the increase in visitors the town would receive. The Mayor could spout platitudes about the boost to the economy all he wanted, but ultimately, the pack liked their town for the quiet, safe place that it was.

Already, as well as the run-ins at the bar, the pack Enforcers had reported numerous confrontations with constructions workers who had wandered into pack territory and didn’t like being told to get out. Nothing had escalated to violence yet, but it was only a matter of time. His wolf didn’t like it; he could sense that something else was going on here, something bigger than a few petty crimes that everyone else was happy to blame on unruly teenagers. He’d relied on the gut feelings of his wolf back when he was a SEA agent, and he wasn’t about to stop now.
If the wolf was worried, then so was he.

Jake parked outside the office trailer. He ignored the construction workers as they stopped to glare at him, and knocked on the door. Not waiting for an answer, he strode inside, leaving Cain outside. He tried not to chuckle as he scented touches of fear from the workers.
Cain’s influence, no doubt.
The workers were dumb enough to think that they could take Jake in a fight –
they really couldn’t
– but they weren’t suicidal enough to think they could take the burly bear shifter.

Jake nodded at Shannon, Glenn’s secretary or something. He had yet to see her do anything other than get Glenn some coffee and thoroughly embarrass Gabe by flirting outrageously with him the last time they swung by. Another good reason to bring Cain –
most women were too terrified to try flirting.

Shannon tried to smile when she saw him, but she couldn’t hide the panic on her face. “How nice to see you,” she began.

Jake ignored her. “Where’s Glenn?”

Her eyes darted around the room for inspiration. “Ummm, Glenn left town.”

“When will he be back?”

“He’s not coming back,” she admitted and bit her lip.

Jake narrowed his eyes. She was nervous about something. Every time he’d been in there previously, she’d been nothing but smiles and overt flirts. But now, she was nervous. He was curious as to the reason why Glenn had just upped and left, given that the hotel was nowhere near finished, but really it was none of his business.
All he knew is that nothing about this situation sat right with him or his wolf.

“We got a call that some damage had been done,” he stated plainly.

Shannon shook her head almost apologetically. “Yes, but it’s nothing really…”

He arched an eyebrow, and she gulped. “Tell me.”

“It was just some damage to the foundations, it’s fixable, but has set us back a couple of weeks… it’s probably just teenagers, right?”

“Yeah, probably,” he replied unenthusiastically.

He was surprised by Shannon’s attitude. When Glenn was here he made sure that Jake knew the exact details of everything that was broken, how much it cost and how long it was going to take to fix, and then he went on to criticize their ‘obscure hick town’ and rail and accuse all the wolves of plotting against the hotel.
It was never a pleasant experience to deal with Glenn.

Shannon, on the other hand, seemed to be remorseful over something that wasn’t her fault. Jake already knew that she hadn’t done the previous damage; she’d been installed in Bar Luna, flirting mercilessly with various pack mates, and he doubted she would start doing anything now. He still suspected that Glenn had been causing the damage,
but if he was no longer in town…

“Did you put up the security cameras as I advised?”

She shook her head and managed to look like a naughty schoolgirl. “Glenn said it was a waste of money, but his replacement is arriving tonight, so I’ll talk to her when she arrives.”

“Do, I’ll send you a copy of the report for your insurance claim.”

“Thanks.”

Jake started striding toward the exit. “I’ll just take a look around at the damage.”

It wasn’t as bad as he was expecting, but it was still pretty bad. He tried to get a scent, but he guessed that whoever did it covered their own scent, and because of all the different people working on the site, he couldn’t be sure he would get the right one. He considered asking Don, the pack tracker, to try, but doubted it would help.

His phone rang, and with increasing annoyance, he was informed that an argument had erupted between his pack mate Hans and one of the construction workers. Hans didn’t like the way that the guy looked at his mate, Melanie. Apparently the guy had given her a lingering look. It didn’t take much to set Hans off.
The wolf shifter was as explosive as a firecracker
.

Great
. They didn’t really need the pack stirring things up even more. He was already uneasy about the way things were going. There were already rumors abounding that the pack was trying to undermine the hotel. It was like freaking Chinese whispers. People were making them out to be bullies.

Both he and Adam suspected that the Mayor had been fanning the flames of discontent. A pack member, Jolene, worked for the Mayor, and although she felt guilty about it, she had reported to Adam just how hopping mad the Mayor was over the problems at the hotel. He was keen for the hotel to be built and not at all keen on the pack. Although, thankfully his anger wasn’t directed at Jolene. But it meant that the townspeople were starting to turn hostile to the pack.

He’d talk to Adam and tell him that pack members needed to stay away from the construction site and all the workers. But for now, he needed to deal with the latest blow-up from his pack mate, Hans.

*

1
st
March

Val sighed at the mess of paperwork on her desk. What the crap had Glenn been doing? Where were his plans? Where was his filing system?
Everything was a clusterfuck of a mess.

She allowed herself a smidge of self-pity and rested her head on the desk. In her haste to run home and pack the previous day, she forgot to ask Lois about why Glenn had suddenly quit his job, but she was starting to suspect that something had seriously gone wrong. Glenn was a lot of things – misogynistic asshole sprang to mind – but he’d always been professional in the past.
What the heck had happened with this job?

She slid her eyes over to Shannon and scowled. The young brunette was idly flipping through a fashion magazine. She was absolutely no help. Shannon had informed her that Glenn liked to do all the work himself and that she had no idea about what he was doing. Although she did impart the news about all the vandalism that had occurred; she suggested that Val get onto arranging for some security cameras to be installed.

In exasperation, Val had demanded just what Shannon did for the obscene wage she was apparently paid.
Seriously, her pay packet was more padded than Val’s old one!
Shannon patiently informed her that she was there to ‘deal’ with clients. From that, Val gathered she was there to flirt with anyone who walked through the door, perhaps to distract them from the fact that the hotel project was slowly sinking.

Val had already suggested that Shannon roll up her sleeves and dig into the paperwork and help her sort out the mess. But, after half an hour of Shannon’s questions – how could she not know what an invoice was?! – Val told her to go back to whatever it was that she did. Ostensibly, that was magazine reading.
Clearly, she wasn’t hired for her organizational skills.

What the hell was Glenn thinking? The place was in such a mess. She’d known something was wrong when Conrad threw this job at her and yet she’d allowed herself a moment of happiness. How could she have been so dumb?

Shannon looked up sharply as a fierce growl escaped from Val’s lips. “Are you okay?”

Val felt her cheeks heat up.
Where the heck had that come from?
“It was just my stomach,” she muttered.

Shannon looked at her doubtfully but was soon distracted when she heard a car pull up outside. She ran over to the window with more enthusiasm than Val would have thought possible – based on all the ‘work’ she’d done all day.

“Ooh, the town’s hot sheriff is here again. He probably wants to talk to you.”

Shannon smirked at her, and Val felt a frisson of unease mixed with anticipation. She felt an unexpected amount of excitement all of a sudden.
What was with that?