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“Gotcha. Buzzing bad,” he
commented as he reached up to pull down the attic stairs. “Do you have a
flashlight?”

“I’ll go check for one real
fast,” she said and quickly dashed off in search of one.

She returned a few moments later,
flashlight in hand and turned it on to make sure it worked. “Here you go,” she
said and reached up to hand it to him.

He reached the top of the stairs
and glanced around the small space. He stood up, careful not to hit his already
aching head, and aimed the small ray of light at the ceiling where he noticed a
light with a pull string. With his free hand, he reached up and pulled down on
the string to turn it on. “There’s a light up here,” he called down as he
turned the flashlight off and set it aside.

“That’s strange,” she called back
up. “I’ve only been up there a few times, but the last time I was, there wasn’t
a light installed. It’s been about two or three years since, but mom never saw
the use to one since she hardly used the space for anything but storage for her
junk.”

Cole thought on that bit of
information for a moment, and that too, he filed away for a later time. “Are
you sure you just didn’t notice it before?”

Exasperated, she said, “Yes, I’m
fairly sure.”

He browsed around some more,
mindful of her fear of bats and things that went buzz in the night. He didn’t
notice any bats or bees, or even spider webs. For a small, dark space that was
hardly used, there should have been spider webs everywhere. He’d fully expected
a spider-infested room. She may not know it, but her mother had obviously been
using it for something.

“Lana, I hear no buzzing, and I
don’t see anything that resembles a vampire bat, so I think it’s safe to come
up,” he teased, trying to keep his tone light. He didn’t want to let on his
suspicions until after he gauged her reaction to the room.

She mumbled something under her
breath as she climbed the ladder. He didn’t hear exactly what she said, but he
decided he probably wouldn’t have liked it anyway.

Her head poked through the
opening and he bent over to grab her hands and help her into the attic.

His gaze remained on her as she
straightened and stood next to him. He could tell by the widening of her eyes
that the attic wasn’t at all what she expected. It had obviously changed since
she’d seen it last.

With all that had happened in the
last twelve hours, he was convinced that Lana’s mother was somehow involved.

He wished he could check the
attic out more thoroughly—and alone. Sometimes, small creatures found things
that weren’t clearly visible to a man.

He’d suspected her mother’s
involvement, but now he had proof. On the bad side of things, they found only a
minimal amount of answers and uncovered more questions that needed to be
answered. Every bit of information would help them, even if it left them with
no answers. You couldn’t find those answers if you didn’t ask the right
questions.

“I don’t understand this,” she
said, her eyes pleading for answers he didn’t have.

“My guess is your mom used the
attic more than she let on. As you said, Lana, you haven’t been up here in
years. Maybe she had the light installed recently and didn’t think to bring it
up.” Though it wasn’t exactly something that came up over dinner conversation,
he still didn’t believe his explanation to her. With circumstances being what
they were, anything that seemed out of place was suspicious.

“No,” she argued. “It’s not as
though I haven’t been here since then, Cole. She was my mother. I visited her a
few times a week, minimum. She didn’t want me to know about this, and I’m going
to find out why,” she added hotly.

Cole sighed. So much for that
explanation. “I’m sorry, Lana. Maybe we should reserve judgment until we know
more?” he suggested in his best diplomatic tone. He had no idea why her mom
would hide something from her daughter, but at the same time, he could think of
no reason to tell her. Logically, the explanation could go either way—either
her mom hadn’t done it to hide it from her, or she had. The former would make
it no big deal. If the latter…they’d need to find out why. Over the years, he’d
learned not to make assumptions, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t ask
questions.

He could tell she was still
unsure what to do, but she said, “Okay. You’re right. We shouldn’t jump to
conclusions, even though this entire situation is getting more and more bizarre
by the hour.”

He couldn’t blame her for her
uncertainty, especially when he shared her sentiments. This situation got
stranger by each passing second. With more questions than answers, the time came
to start digging some up. He couldn’t think of a better place to start than in
an apparently secretly renovated room.

“Okay, let’s go through what’s up
here. This place gives me the willies,” Cole joked, hoping to take her mind off
things. He gave a very exaggerated shiver.

It worked. Lana chuckled. “Right.
I’ll start over here, and you can start over there,” she said, pointing.

Lana had made the comment that
her mother had been a bit OCD, but he didn’t think that would make their search
much easier. Organized or not, he didn’t imagine she would go as far as to
label a box ‘
Secret things I don’t want anyone seeing
’. He could hope,
though, couldn’t he?

Fifteen minutes and eight boxes
later, Cole found something of interest in a box labeled
‘Junk’
. He
turned to look at Lana, who sat cross-legged with a box of photos in front of
her and one photo in her hand. She had probably forgotten their reason for
being here, but he didn’t have the heart to chide her for it. “Lana,” he said,
his tone soft.

She set the photo down and turned
to look at him questioningly, her eyes misty.

“I think I found something. It
looks like a journal,” he said as he carried it over to her. If it turned out
to be a journal, then that made it private, and he’d let Lana have a first go
at it. She would tell him if anything seemed off or wrong. Plus, if he asked,
he knew she’d let him read it.

Lana held her hand out for the
journal and traced a finger over the intricate design on the cover. “I didn’t
know she kept one still. She had mentioned starting one after she got pregnant
with me and kept writing in it for a few years after my birth. But she used to
tease me by saying I was such a little terror, she hadn’t had much time for one
after I turned three.”

He could see that. His mom would
tease him in a similar manner. He watched her open the small book and start to
read and it was obvious she was no longer paying attention to him. While she
read, he continued looking for anything else he thought might be of interest.
For all he knew, she could have filled pages with writing about her cravings or
morning sickness. As much as he loved women and wanted to find out more about
them, some things a man just didn’t need to know about. Even he wasn’t brave
enough to venture into territory that dangerous unprotected.

While Lana occupied herself by
studying her mother’s journal, Cole continued searching the boxes, hoping to
find some clue as to why she’d obviously kept the room a secret from Lana.

“What exactly is it that you’re
doing, Cole?” she asked when he started to make banging sounds.

“Just looking for secret doors or
panels,” he said. The look she gave him made him feel foolish. “Okay, so it was
a bit of stretch, but what have we got to lose?”

However foolish he felt, the last
thing he expected was Lana to hold her sides from laughing so hard. His eyes
narrowed. “And just what is so funny?”

He watched as she struggled to
speak without laughing. “It’s just that on the way here, I had a similar
thought. Of course, I kept the thought and the urge to search for one to
myself,” she said, her eyes hazy from unshed tears.

“Well, hell,” he said,
exasperated at being laughed at for trying a different approach. “It was worth
a shot, wasn’t it?”

He didn’t know what look he had
on his face when he’d said that, but it sure started Lana laughing her ass off
again. Well, at least she thought it was amusing. Honestly, he was pleased she
could laugh, but still his reply showed mild irritation. “Oh, go back to
reading that damned journal, would you?”

Her shoulders shuddered as she
tried to hold in another fit of giggles, but she obeyed—barely—and started
reading again.

Ten minutes later, Cole ended his
search in vain. He found nothing else he could think of that would help answer
any of their questions. Unless Lana discovered answers in the journal, they
would be stuck at square one. Hell, he thought bitterly, with them getting only
more questions, they weren’t even at square one.

“Lana, have you read anything of
interest?” he asked, hating to interrupt her. She seemed so enthralled.

She sighed and shook her head,
the movement causing curls to fall over her shoulder. “No, not yet. We might as
well head back to my place. I can read more there.”

He nodded. “Okay, but there’s one
thing I want to do before we leave.”

“What’s that?”

“I want to check out the rest of
the house by myself—without you around as a distraction.” The look on her face
as she stood told him she didn’t like that idea. “Look, we’ve got your mother’s
death, someone breaking into your house and someone who broke into this
one—though we have no way of knowing exactly when that happened. I’ll tell you
if I find anything.” She opened her mouth, but he added, “And don’t argue with
me.”

“You know, I wasn’t going to. I
believe in coincidence every now and then, but I’m not stupid. I can add up the
signs here and I can see they’re not looking good. So don’t you get all macho
on me,” she snapped and stepped closer to him. “This is my life on the line,
and don’t you for one second think I don’t know what the stakes are. And, for
the record, don’t you go and give me orders like I’m your pet, either.” She
poked a finger in his chest. “It’s the quickest way to make sure I’m dead set
against it,” she finished on a huff of breath.

“Feel better now?”

Lana glared and tilted her chin.
“Maybe I do.”

Cole watched her for a moment,
noticing the pink that crept into her cheeks when anger set in and thought
about how sexy it looked on her. He didn’t know what it was about a woman’s
temper that turned him on, but it sure as hell did.

Shaking his head, he put one arm
behind her back and pulled her to him. With his free hand, he caressed the nape
of her neck, wrapped his hand in her hair, and lowered his mouth to hers, hot
and hungry. As her lips parted, he shuddered and deepened the kiss.

His pulse hammered when he
finally released her.

With wide eyes, she looked up at
him. Her swollen lips curved into a knowing smile. “And what was your excuse
this time?”

He couldn’t say that he wasn’t
pleased with her reaction. “Because I wanted to. Do you have any idea how sexy
you look when you’re pissed off?”

“Leave it to a man,” she muttered
and shook her head. “Go have your search. I’ll fend for myself and just meet
you on the porch in twenty.”

“Don’t forget the journal,” he
reminded her. She sent him a wry smile and bent down to pick it up, giving him
another glimpse of her ass. It sure looked good in jeans. Damn good.

“I’ll see you in a few,” she said
as she positioned herself to climb down the ladder.

Cole waited until he heard her
footsteps grow faint and the front door closing before he changed into a mouse.
It wasn’t the animal he preferred, but at least it was small and quiet. At
least in this form, if she came in and saw him, she wouldn’t freak out. A dog
might have been a little hard to explain.

After a quick search of the
house, he found nothing of value and no other secret rooms or hiding places—and
once more no strange scent.

It seemed Lana’s mother’s journal
would be the only clue they had to help them figure out this mess.

Time to leave, he decided, and
switched to human form then went to find Lana.

§§§

Lana relaxed on the porch swing
until she heard Cole’s footsteps trampling down the stairs. If she was hungry,
then she would bet Cole would be too. It’d been several hours since breakfast.
Maybe they could stop for food on their way back to her place.

“Ready to go?” Cole asked when he
reached her.

Lana turned to smile at him, and
then brushed the dust off her pants. “Yup.”

As they started down the porch
steps, Lana’s jaw dropped, and she froze.

A tawny wolf with red eyes sat a
few feet from the steps. It hadn’t been there just a second before.

“Go back inside, Lana,” Cole
demanded as he tried pushing her back through the door.

“I—I’m not leaving you.”

“Run!” he shouted at her.

Her legs wouldn’t move, even
though she tried commanding them to. She stood, glued to the spot.

Cole looked at her, an odd
expression on his face. “I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes on hers.

Before she had time to question
his words or his actions, he started to change.

A look of pain flashed across his
face for an instant, and then it contorted, stretching and changing. Clothes
began to dissolve into white fur and black stripes.

In the span of a few seconds
seconds, Cole transformed from man to white tiger.

§§§

The Evil One had been waiting for
them. It was true, while the shifter was with her he could not sense the
woman’s presence, but this was the logical place for them to be.

He could have gone into the house
at any time and caught them off guard, but what fun would that have been?

He did not come here to cause
either of them harm—no, that would come later. He just wanted to get a good
look at the woman and her shifter companion. He had yet to understand how the
shifter shielded her, but it was of no consequence.