Page 60 of Kin of the Wolf

Worried something had happened to Mom, I hurried to answer.

This time, Jasmine wasn’t in her wolf form and noshing arabbit on my threshold. She stood in fitted exercise pants and a midriff shirt that left a couple of inches of her abdomen showing.

“Are you… on your way to yoga?” I wished something innocuous had brought her by and she’d only popped in because she was in the neighborhood.

“Zumba, actually. But I stopped by to tell you I talked to Aunt Martina, and she did, at Augustus’s request, make bacon dipped in chocolate. She said she didn’t see him do anything to it but, when I pressed her, she admitted he’d been alone in the kitchen when someone had rung her doorbell. She also said it had been weird that Augustus had made the request because he never had before. Apparently, he told her it was agift, but he’s not known for giving gifts.”

“I’ll bet he’s not.” I nodded to her. “Thanks for letting me know.”

Jasmine looked around.

“Is there something else?” I wondered why she hadn’t called to deliver that information.

“I thought if I saw that guy—your intern, right?—I’d ask him where he got that mocha. It wassogood.”

“Yes, Bolin is my intern, and I’m sure he would be delighted to tell you.” I glanced at the time on my phone. “He should still be here. If you saw the SUV in a bubble out front, he’s here.”

“That’s his car?”

“Yup.”

“What’s the weird bubble for? It didn’t look antitheft. I could pop it easily.” Jasmine crooked her index finger and made a claw-poking motion.

“It’s to deter bird poop. Or… I guess more to stop the droppings from reaching the paint. From what I’ve seen of the bubble, it’s as much of a target as the SUV.”

“That’s weird. I guess the staff spotsareunder a bunch of trees.”

“Trees that are near bird feeders, yes. I have some tenants that will put food out for anything furred or feathered. I’m surprised nobody threw a pound of frozen ground beef at you when you sauntered through as a wolf.”

Jasmine blinked a few times at the imagery. “My instincts told me to avoid humans on my way here.”

“Because you didn’t know about the wildlife-feeding tenants.”

“I might come back for venison.”

“Do you want me to put up a memo on the community board?”

“No, I prefer to hunt my own food. Anyway, I might see if I can find that guy—Bolin—before I leave.”

“He’ll be delighted to talk to you.”

And her bare midriff.

“What are you going to do about Augustus? If you’re going to strangle him, I’d like to watch.”

“I have a plan to get a confession out of him.”

I remembered that I’d envisioned Jasmine recording it from nearby. Would she be game for that?

“Strangling him might accomplish that,” she said.

“His neck is too thick for me to get my hands around.”

Not to mention that Augustus would kick my ass if I faced off against him while we were in human form. As a wolf, I was his match, but as a man… he could probably crush me by sitting on me.

“Do you want help?”

“With the strangulation?”

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