Wolf Watch (The Madison Wolves Book 8) (15 page)

After that, she helped everyone else. She made everyone sniff both dishes then said, "If you can't stand the scent of either of them, then you're going to hate them. If you like either, then take a little rice and then a little of each of the dishes that smelled good. The aloo gobi can be eaten without rice, but I like it together. The chickpeas you'll definitely want over rice."

Everyone tried the potatoes, but the chickpeas were looked at with a variety of looks from indifference to derision. Zoe saw the looks but didn't seem flustered.

Then we dived in.

I tried one of the potatoes first. Potatoes were one of the few vegetables the pack ate, and so it was safest. Zoe watched me carefully.

"That's pretty good," I admitted. "But we eat potatoes."

"Yeah, but these aren't French fries, and they aren't smothered in butter and gravy. Try a cauliflower."

In the end, the potato dish was pretty good. The chickpeas were edible, but I still eyed the
rapidly disappearing fish mournfully.

Zoe leaned over to me and whispered into my ear, "I wouldn't ever have asked you to do this. I'm happy you tried everything, and I'm sorry you don't like it."

Michaela heard every word, of course, but she didn't say anything.

"You could make the potato thing again," I said back. "And the edamame was good." I eyed the chickpeas. "These aren't bad, but my body doesn't really recognize this as food."

"They taste okay?"

"Yeah, but I'm still hungry."

"There's more."

From past her, Michaela leaned over. She had an extra plate with a helping of fish and steak. "Zoe, will you be offended if I let her off the hook? Her body really does need a lot of concentrated protein. She worked hard today."

"No," Zoe said. "I'm pleased she tried it. I'm tickled pink she liked some of it." She paused. "You know your body, Elisabeth."

And so I found myself with the foo
d my body wanted. I eyed both women, but Michaela nodded permission, and Zoe didn't seem at all upset.

I dived in.

Zoe didn't watch me eat, but when I was done, she leaned against me. "Feeling better."

"Yeah."

"Did you get enough?"

"I'd like more of the potatoes and some rice," I said.

I think I made her day.

"I didn't care for cauliflower though."

"It's better for you," she said.

Michaela leaned over. "She needs calories."

"Of course," Zoe said. "I made plenty."

She helped me serve up, and then Lara asked, "Are there more of those potatoes? What did you call them, Zoe?"

"Aloo gobi," she said. "It's an Indian dish."

"You know," said Scarlett, "I'd try another small helping of those with some rice."

Zoe passed everything down then leaned against me, smiling. A few minutes later, she leaned further and whispered into my ear, "Do they like me?"

Michaela's ears twitched,
I'm sure they did.

"You'll be able to tell later," I replied. "If they tease you."

* * * *

A half hour later, we collected around a modest fire. Rather than chairs, we had large logs set up, and we used them for back rests, sitting on the grass itself. Zoe was pressed against me with my arm around her. We got a fire going, and then Lara stepped forward.

"Does everyone have something to drink?" She looked around. "Good. We had a good day today. It was a nice flight up, a lovely time out on the water, some good fun, and then a surprising dinner."

Lara
looked around. "I want to thank all of you for making everything possible. Michaela and Angel, thank you for the gift of your fish. Zoe, you introduced us to some new foods. I don't believe they'll become regulars in anyone's diet, but it was fun to try something new. Will you have more surprises for us?"

"I'll keep trying," she replied. "I can do a lot with different spices, but if your bodies crave meat, I'm not sure I'll ever be able to satisfy you."

"Karen, thank you for grilling. The food was excellent, as always."

That was when Michaela stood up. She waited for a gesture from Lara before she said, "I want to offer my own thanks." She moved to stand in front of Angel. "Thank you for your help on the flight up." Angel nodded. Michaela moved to stand in front of Serena. "Most of you here work to keep me safe. I know I'm a pain in the ass about it. But it is appreciated. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Michaela," Serena said for all of us. The two clasped hands for a moment before Michaela stepped away.

"All of you are friends," she said. "Okay, the jury is still out on Zoe, but we have hopes."

Zoe smiled up at her.

"And for friendship over these years, thank you." Then she stepped over to Angel and pulled her to her feet, hugging her tightly. I didn't hear what they told each other.

Zoe leaned to me. "Is there more of a story?"

"Angel was her maid of honor. They have a lot of history."

"Oh. Wow. Okay."

Michaela released Angel, who sat down. "And I want to thank everyone for coming. We're going to have a lovely weekend." She stopped in front of Zoe. "There's going to be a lot of kayaking. It might be too much for you. The rest of us are accustomed to it."

"You keep up with them?"

Michaela smiled. "I taught them. I can paddle all day. But you're not used to that. We have two-person kayaks, so talk to Elisabeth and decide if that's a better choice for you."

"So she has to carry me?"

"Well, I can paddle all day, but I'm not built like everyone else here," Michaela said with a smile. "Elisabeth can handle it."

She looked around. "That's all I have, but I'm sure I'll tell a story or two yet." She took her seat.

Zoe whispered into my ear, "Would it be okay if I said something?" I nodded, so she started to stand up. Lara was immediately there, pulling her to her feet. I think Zoe was surprised.

"May I?" she asked.

"Of course," said Lara.

"I want to thank all of you for inviting me this weekend," she said. "I know I'm an outsider, and I'm starting to understand how tightly knit you all are. Thank you for making room for me this weekend."

"You're welcome," Lara said for all of us.

"Michaela," Zoe asked, "Did I annoy you earlier?"

"Not at all."

"Well, I want to thank everyone for being patient with me. I know I'm a little dogmatic."

"A little?" said Karen. But when we looked over, she was smiling. Karen didn't usually engage in the teasing, so I thought perhaps Michaela had put her up to it.

"Yeah, I know," Zoe said. "I guess I'm a little passionate."

"Zoe," said Lara, "so are we. There are going to be some differences, but we are pretty protective of the environment as well. Michaela can tell you more about that. But for instance, we have an eagle's nest on the northwest corner of our property near Madison. You wouldn't believe
what we do to protect those eagles. People are constantly trying to interfere with them. They ignore our 'No Trespassing' signs in order to get closer." She shook her head. "Sorry, I'm going to get myself worked up about this. You and Michaela can talk about that some more, too. Maybe you have ideas for helping us to keep people from harassing the nest. We actually have had three different people try to climb the tree, for what, we're not sure."

"What did you do?"

"We have the area under electronic surveillance," Lara said. "And we dispatch a team to deal with it."

"I threatened to shoot the last one down," Karen said. "I put a bullet into the tree six inches above his hand before he began climbing back down."

"Oh shit!" said Zoe. "Damn, I'd be afraid of doing that." She began to smile. "Buckshot up the ass wouldn't bother me though."

She earned some chuckles for that.

"We haul them out, and then turn them over to DNR," Lara said. "They get a slap on the wrist."

"But if we get a repeat offender," I added, "he gets a late night visit from some very scary people."

"Oh shit," Zoe said again. "Do you hurt them?"

"No, but we scare the shit out of them. We haven't had anyone come back for a third visit, but it's a matter of time."

"My point," said Lara, "is that we won't agree on everything, but we live very close to nature. You should consider us kindred spirits at least on the bigger picture."

"That was the other thing I wanted to say," Zoe explained. "I know you, Lara, and you, Elisabeth, are very wealthy. I don't know about the rest of you, but I wouldn't be surprised even if the fresh college graduates earn more than I do. But you live like this." She gestured. "I don't know exactly what I'm trying to say, but I want to thank you for including me."

"You're welcome," Lara said.

Zoe sat down and crawled under my arm to lean against me.

She felt nice there.

"Anyone else?" Lara asked.

Everyone was quiet, so Lara went on. "Zoe, we have a variety of traditions, and as the leader of our little clan, I get to pick which ones we're going to follow. Usually that really means Michaela picks, and she's already called for stories tonight. Sometimes the stories are true; sometimes they're complete fabrications. From time to time, we even act them out. Sometimes we tell stories everyone has heard before, but most of the time we aim either for new stories or new twists on old stories. The goal is to amuse, entertain, and bring us closer." She smiled. "I know Michaela is going to extort a story out of you, and we have all waited with baited breath to see what she forces you to tell us. There aren't that many of us tonight, so you might get a chance to tell two stories."

Zoe nodded.

"So, while Michaela decided it was story night, she also turned it into extorted story night. So, the way this works is simple. Anyone gets to demand a story from anyone else. If you make a demand, you should pick someone who hasn't gone yet. You will raise your hand if you want to make a demand. The only other rule is this: you cannot ask someone to share a secret that isn't hers to share. We cannot, for instance, ask for a story from Portia that would involve telling secrets that belong to her previous employer. However, lovemaking stories are considered shared secrets, so one of you could demand that Scarlett tell a lovemaking story that involves Angel."

There were chuckles about that.

"I am choosing first. Michaela, some time ago, you spent time away from us, and you served as bodyguard to a fairly well known person."

Michaela began to groan.

"You've told me bits and pieces, but you've never told anyone else."

"Wait," Zoe said. "Michaela was a bodyguard?"

"She's small, but she's fierce," Lara said. "Michaela."

Lara sat down and Michaela stood up. "Thank you, Lara. I will later be asking Elisabeth to tell us stories about your childhood." She got some chuckles. "Or maybe Serena has good stories."

Then she went into public speaking mode. I loved watching her talk. To be honest, I loved watching her, period.

"All right. Most of you know about this, but I don't know if Portia does, and I'm sure Zoe doesn't. Some time ago, Lara and I had a disagreement how something should be done. I proceeded to do it my way instead of hers, and I found myself estranged for having done so." She turned to Portia. "Do you know about this?"

"No."

"I'm not going to talk about that, then. You should ask your boss about it."

Portia nodded.

"But the result was, I was in need of a job, and I was offered a position with a company that I guess is in competition with Elisabeth."

"I wouldn't put it that way. We're in different corners of a similar market."

"In other words, I spent some time as a hired bodyguard." She smiled. "Raise your hand if you know who I was bodyguarding."

Lara raised her hand. Greg hadn't told us; just that he put her on assignment for him to keep her busy until we could get everything in place.

"Is anyone familiar with an actress named Suzette?"

"No way!" said Angel. "You guarded Suzette?"

"For two weeks," she said. Michaela answered a bunch of questions about the actress, along the way admitting she hadn't a clue who the woman was, except she was some sort of action star.

"And so that's the story," she said at the end.

"Oh no
, it's not!" Lara said. "Tell the whole story."

Michaela sighed. "It turns out that Suzette is a bit of a tease. She spent most of the time trying to seduce me."

We all grew still, and then we glanced at Lara, who was sitting calmly.

"I think it was our third night together that we went to a club, you know, the kind where you have to wait to get in, unless you can convince the doorman to let you jump the line. And Suzette wagered on whether I could get us into the club."

"What did you do, Michaela?" Angel asked.