The Wild Ways Read Online Free PDF Page B

my chair when I got back from setting up the board room.” She could hear a hint of hysteria seeping out around the edges of his voice. “No one saw her come in. Or go out.”
    “Well, they wouldn’t, would they?” Beckoning him forward, she hoped he’d reward her trust by postponing his reaction to this evidence of just what exactly they were involved in until he left the building. Only the two of them knew about the arrangement, and she’d like to keep it that way. If he said too much, she was willing to declare the stress of the job pushed poor Paul into a breakdown, but she’d rather not. Who had the time to find a new assistant who was both attractive and efficient?
    “This proves they’re vulnerable,” she declared as he reached the desk. “And now they know who holds the cards.”
    “Card,” Paul amended, nodding at the pelt. Her lack of reaction seemed to have helped to stabilize him.
    “There’ll be more. She knows my needs and she’s being paid very well to fulfill them. As for our suddenly pelt-less opposition, they’ve been informed that they’re to give their full, and fully visible support to our well off Hay Island. Once drilling has begun, they’ll get their property back.”
    “They’ve been informed , Ms. Carlson? She’s dropping off ransom notes?” When Amelia nodded, he shook his head. “Writing this kind of thing down . . .”
    “Means nothing. They can’t exactly go to the police, can they?” The fur was surprisingly soft under the longer, coarse, and oily hairs on the surface. This was, Amelia realized, the first time she’d ever touched a seal pelt. “A pity they stopped killing the white coats back in 1987. If they’d kept it up, we wouldn’t have this problem. Not to mention, I’d have an upgraded winter wardrobe.” She pulled the heavy skin from his hands, draped it around her shoulders, stroked it thoughtfully, and looked up to see Paul staring at her, brows up. “A little too Cruella de Vil?”
    He held his thumb and forefinger about a centimeter apart. “Just a bit.”

     
    Charlie’s phone woke her at eleven the next morning. Graham, Allie, and Jack had already woken her at seven, eight, and eight-thirty, further convincing her that she had to get her own place. A “Ride of the Valkyries” ringtone modulated her greeting to a fairly neutral, “What?”
    “There’s no need to be rude, Charlotte.”
    That, she’d expected. The particular voice, not so much. “Auntie Catherine?”
    “How nice your current lifestyle hasn’t entirely rotted your brain,” Allie’s grandmother confirmed. “I have a proposition for you.”
    “A what?” Charlie rolled over and blinked at the ceiling, scratching under the edge of her boxers where the elastic had dug into the skin. Easier to blame the elastic for the itch. “I mean, what kind of proposition?”
    “You and I are not so different, Charlotte . . .”
    Given the shit Auntie Catherine had put them through, Charlie wasn’t inclined to jump on the Wild Powers all together now, rah rah, go us bandwagon. “What kind of proposition?”
    “One that will get you out of Calgary.”
    “I’m happy here.”
    “Please.” That was possibly the most definitive eye roll Charlie had ever heard. “Meet me in Halifax and we’ll talk.”
    “Of what?”
    “Ships and seas and sealing wax, tentacles and kings. As if I’d risk the others overhearing.”
    “Is that what’s causing the buzz in the line?”
    “Have a coffee and jumpstart your brain, Charlotte. I don’t have time for this.”
    Auntie Catherine had a distinctly emphatic way of hanging up a cell phone.
     
     
     
    “Dude!” Charlie smacked the mirror frame on her way by. “Tighten things up. It looks like my skin doesn’t fit.”
    In the store, Allie and Joe stood staring at something on the glass counter. Their expressions suggested a hazmat suit might not be a bad idea.
    “A nail?” Charlie asked when she got a little closer.
    “The nail,”