Dreaming of the Wolf (Heart of the Wolf #8)(23)

He sighed, opened the paper to the crossword puzzle, and laid the paper down on the coffee table, then pulled a pen out of his pocket. “Has Carino gone home?”

“Tucker took him back to Denver so Doc can patch him up without the authorities getting any word of it.”

Mario nodded and read: One Across: Lupus, four letters. He wrote: wolf.

“What now?” Danny asked.

Mario looked up at him. “You said the artist met with her in the woods.”

Danny balled his fists in his pockets. “Yeah, she must have planned to rendezvous with him there. I saw his truck parked near her car in the lot, but I didn’t see any sign of him when I brought Carino in. Later, I found both Alicia’s and her lover’s vehicles parked at her hotel. They were still there when you told me to meet you here.”

“All right. Well, she’s not going anywhere. Not when she thinks she’s going to take me down for the murder of her mother. She’ll come after me again. And she’ll do it alone. You can leave a message from me to her ensuring that’s the case.” He grabbed a scrap of paper he’d been using for his daily crossword puzzles and wrote a note: You want me, come and get me. But if lover boy is with you, consider him dead.

He folded the note in half, wrote Alicia Greiston, Room 101 on the top of it, and handed it to Danny. “Go buy an envelope, stick this inside with her name and room number written on the envelope, seal it, and drop it off at the front desk—but only leave it when it’s busy enough that no one will notice you. Can you do that? It’d be easy enough to do when a clerk is busy with a customer. Just leave it on the counter and walk away. All right?”

“Yeah. I can do that.” Danny acted annoyed that Mario had to spell it out for him as though Mario thought Danny wasn’t bright enough to do the job right.

But hell, Mario had made the mistake of trusting him before. The problem was that he needed someone damn loyal, and Danny was it.

Mario glanced back at his crossword puzzle. “Go. As soon as she’s following me again, grab her, and she and I will have a little talk.”

He smiled darkly. This time he’d learn what her mother might have passed along about his operation, and then—he wasn’t sure. He glanced out the window at the ski slopes and felt the waxing moon stirring his blood. The mother wouldn’t succumb to his needs. Maybe the daughter would do.

But he still had another problem. Danny’s brother, Ferdinand, was a loose cannon. Mario needed to get rid of him as soon as he could get hold of him. The last time Mario had attempted to have Ferdinand murdered had only made him madder… and more willing to get Mario back.

***

In a tangle of legs at the ice-skating rink, Alicia laughed out loud as she found herself on her butt on the ice again with Jake. His eyes were bright with laughter as he pushed her hair out of her face and grinned at her. She hadn’t laughed this much in forever.

“I haven’t fallen this many times in an hour on the ice since I was a little girl. And I was a lot lower to the ground then. But then again, I haven’t had this much fun in years.”

And she meant it. She had applauded every wobbly bit of success Jake had accomplished. And when they’d fallen, she’d laughed and enjoyed his good-humored responses. She wasn’t the only one who was interested in Jake, though. From older teens to college-aged women, he had their undivided attention. She was certain they wished they were entangled with the hunk on the ice instead of her and laughing their heads off. She had to admit, they looked fairly risqué at times with his leg wedged between hers and her short flare skirt thrown back, exposing the panties of her leotard.

If Jake hadn’t had such a difficult time staying on his feet and keeping from tripping Alicia up, she figured he would have been more hot and bothered in an intimate way by their close proximity. But he hadn’t let on, and for that, she was grateful.

Two of the women watching him with hungry, desirous gazes had been bold enough to come to speak with him when he told Alicia he wanted her to demonstrate how she did the figure eight and other ice skating maneuvers. She hadn’t wanted to leave him for a second, and now she knew for certain what a mistake that could be.

Even though she had wanted to chase off the voluptuous blond and striking brunette, she concentrated on her performance and gave Jake the show of her life as if she were trying out for the Olympics while he stood propped against the railing, smiling at her with admiration. She loved him for it because no one had ever cared how she skated except for her mother and her grandmother. But this was different, seeing the look in his eyes as she skated for him—a sexual attraction, a feral desirous look in his gaze—and his lips curving upward as if he was thinking sinful thoughts about some of her sexier moves.

When she was through with the last jump, she skated back to Jake. He pulled her into his arms, holding her tight, and gave her a kiss that could have melted the ice. It certainly warmed her from the tip of her cold nose to her cold toes, and he made her feel special all over again.

“You’re beautiful, you know?” he murmured against her ear.

His two new fans gave her simpering smiles, but their smiles were designed to get his attention. He ignored them, thankfully.

She smiled up at him. He was beautiful and fun and the best thing that had ever happened to her. “You make me feel beautiful.” She leaned against him, loving the heat and hardness of his tall body but knowing they needed to skate or leave. Before they got kicked out of the rink for too much sexy cuddling. “Do you want to ice skate some more?”