Page 40 of Healer's Call

“It’s the water,” I blurt out. I try to steady my voice. “My friend Ava only drinks water from a bottle; she refuses to drink tap water. And she’s one of the only ones that hasn’t gotten sick.”

“Huh,” Jacob says. He walks over to me with a big smile on his face. “Good work, Healer.” He puts his hand up, and I stare at it. He reaches down and picks up my hand and hits it against his in a high five.

“Knock it off, Jacob,” Maverick says in an irritated voice. “We don’t even know yet if that’s even what’s going on.” I refuse to be discouraged by his words. He's only speaking the truth. But then his next words make me slightly better. “But if it is true, how would we find out?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Cade says.

“Who would even be over the water? Isn’t that the city?” Carl asks.

“No, we have a private company service our water.”Thatcatches everybody’s attention. “We’ve never had a problem in the past, but...” Cade crosses his arms. “It could be nothing, or it could be something.”

“How do we find out?” Jacob asks.

“We’ll need to meet with them,” Cade says.

Jacob snorts. “I don’t think they’re going to just tell us outright that they’re poisoning our water.”

Cade gives him a look, and he goes quiet. “Obviously not. We’re going to have to ferret out the information.”

“Sneak into their headquarters or something? See if we can find evidence?” Van asks. He's been quiet; he’s pretty low-key.

“No, too risky. We don’t want to tip them off that we know. We don’t know if they’re wolves or have wolves with them. If they catch our scent, they’ll know we’re on to them and we’ll never catch them. They’ll be able to cover their tracks,” Cade says. “No, we need to get a confession out of them somehow, but they can’t know we know.”

“Cade, it sounds like something out of a movie,” Amber says with a short laugh. “Somebody mic’d up gets them to confess without them even knowing it.”

It goes quiet in the room. “That would work,” Carl says.

“You’re serious?” Amber asks.

“How would we do that?” Maverick asks. “If they have wolves on staff, they’ll smell us coming a mile away.”

“Don’t send a wolf,” I say suddenly. “Send me.”

“No,” Maverick says without skipping a beat.

The room goes quiet again. “It could work,” Cade says after a moment.

“No,” Mav says again.

Van shrugs. “They wouldn’t know she was with us.”

“And they’ll be too distracted by her to pay any real attention,” Jacob says with a grin. He faces me. “Wear something low-cut with a–-”

“No.”

Everybody goes quiet at Maverick’s growl. Cade faces Maverick. “Think with your head, Mav,” he says quietly. “Itcould work. Stu can get her everything she needs.” He faces me. “Stu is our tech guy, but let’s not decide tonight. Everybody sleep on it, and we’ll meet first thing in the morning. We need to make a move quickly before they figure out that we know what’s going on.”

The guys file out one by one. “Night, Rose,” Jacob says with a grin as he walks past. I manage to give him a small smile. Suddenly, Mav is in front of me.

“You make a habit of parading around barely dressed?” he asks in his usual condescending way.

Knowing what I know now about him, I refuse to let anything he says or does bother me. “I’m perfectly covered, Maverick. Of course, if I would have known I would have been in front of a bunch of men, yes, I would have changed.” I take a chance and reach out and touch his arm. I’ve decided to take any and every opportunity to touch him, to give him what he never had growing up. “Thanks for looking out for me, though.” I wave to Cade and Amber. “I’m heading to my room. Night.”

“Bye, Rose,” Amber calls out. Cade merely nods at me before he’s back in conversation with Eli.

I let myself out and am about two steps down the hallway when somebody steps up next to me. I know without looking that it’s Maverick. For some reason, it makes me smile. He doesn’t say anything, and neither do I. We get all the way to my apartment before I look up at him. “Thanks, Mav.” He says nothing, and I walk into my apartment and shut the door behind me.

When I lay in bed a few minutes later, everything that happened today runs through my mind, especially everything I learned about Maverick. I mentally renew my commitment to giving him the tender care and touches he never received as a child. Some people wouldn't understand, but I do. I understand all too well.

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