Page 91 of Bright Dark Curses

It was Ian’s eyebrows’ turn to rise.

“How?” I asked.

“I have my ways.”

“Did you spend the day at the edge of the forest spying on Ian’s house with binoculars? That’s kind of stalker-like.”

He choked on the bagel. “No! Paula’s cousin works at the gas station outside town and saw him stop for gas.” He pointed at Ian. “Cavalier. Fix this mess.”

“You don’t even know what’s happening,” I said, irritated now. Sure, Ian had given us a clue about our new main suspect, but we were perfectly capable of fixing this by ourselves.

Other than the whole probably-murder thing.

“Don’t tell him,” Ethan pleaded.

“He’s going to torture Brett until he spills,” I told him.

“What?” Brett screeched through the phone. “Boss, I swear I didn’t do anything wrong, or go furry in front of humans or anything like that!”

Fluffy let out a distressed bark and ran up to me. I leaned down to pat her reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, Fluffy. Hutton understands Brett takes his shifter responsibilities very seriously.”

Hutton didn’t appear convinced. “I do?”

“Who’s Fluffy?” Ethan demanded. “Is someone else there?”

“It’s the dog, dude,” Alex said.

“Who are you?”

“It’s Alex, remember?” Key said soothingly. “He’s one of us. We introduced him earlier.”

“Oh yeah, right. Sorry, man.”

“No worries.”

“Tell me what’s going on,” Hutton said, impatient now.

“You do the honors,” I told Key.

Key jumped in her chair. “Me?”

Shane patted her back. “You, boss.”

She bit her lip, then told Hutton about the strange accidents on set, Brett’s call for help, Ethan’s involvement, our suspects, the possible murder, and everything in-between. First she did it haltingly, but then her words smoothed out and she met Hutton’s gaze straight on. I was so proud of her, my heart was close to bursting.

After she was done, the room fell silent as Hutton digested the information.

Then he pointed at Ian again. “Fix. This. Mess.”

Key and Shane tensed.

Ian shook his head. “They took the job. They can finish it.”

Key’s expression brightened, and Shane’s frown eased.

Ian appeared not to notice, but I knew he did. Aww.

---