Wolf Tales IV. Kate Douglas
around. The woman had tied a stout rope around the hind legs and attached it to the winch, but the motor groaned and whined, and the bloody body didn’t budge.
Tinker glanced down at his freshly washed and ironed slacks, new Italian leather shoes, and crisp white shirt and sighed. It wasn’t in his makeup to drive off and let any woman deal with her own problems.
Much less one who looked as good as this lady.
Tinker opened the car door and climbed out just as the winch made a loud grinding noise and stopped.
The woman kicked the animal’s body in obvious frustration and muttered, “Aw, fuck.”
“Need some help?” Tinker stepped forward, hand outstretched.
“Shit! Who the hell are…?” She stepped back a pace, hand over her heart, eyes wide. “Oh God. I’m sorry. You scared the crap out of me! I didn’t hear you drive up.”
“Obviously.” Tinker bit back a grin as she realized what she’d said. She slapped her hand over her mouth, blushing beet red.
Tinker nodded in the direction of the dead doe. “You sure you want to touch your mouth with that hand?”
“Oh yuck.” She pulled her hand away and wiped her mouth with her forearm.
Chuckling, Tinker added, “I hope you’re not planning to have that for dinner. It looks a little ripe.”
The woman laughed. Tinker’s head snapped up at the familiar sound. She laughed as though she enjoyed it, as if life was there to be lived. She laughed just like Mik and AJ’s mate, Tala Quinn.
Sometimes it appeared his luck wasn’t all bad. Tinker looked her over with a fresh eye. He’d expected small and wiry, like Tala, not this tall, healthy Amazon of a woman who checked him out with the same interest he showed her.
“Not for my table, thank you very much. I work at the High Mountain Wolf Sanctuary. We’ve got county permits to collect roadkill for the wolves. It’s better than feeding them commercial stuff all the time. More like their natural diet.”
Suddenly everything sort of fell together in Tinker’s head, not to mention his agreeable cock. His assignment to find the missing Chanku female took on a whole new impetus, one that had him grinning like an idiot. He stuck out his hand. “That’s where I’m headed. The wolf sanctuary. I’m Martin McClintock. Tinker to my friends.”
She looked down at her filthy hands, wiped them on her jeans, and shook his. “I’m Lisa. Lisa Quinn. It’s nice to meet you.”
“I thought you must be Lisa. You laugh just like Tala, your sister.” Tinker held on to her hand, aware of a sudden and powerful current between them. A link of souls that had to be her Chanku spirit. He sensed the wildness in her, whether Lisa recognized it or not.
Saw it in the questioning glint in her beautiful amber eyes. Eyes very much like her sister’s…eyes just like his own.
Tinker thought of the supplements stored in his bag, the ugly looking pills that made dreams come true for those with the right genetic soup. She would recognize that wildness soon if Tinker had anything to say about it.
Lisa blinked, her lips parted in surprise, but she didn’t pull her hand free of his. In fact, she tightened her grip, holding on to Tinker as if he were a lifeline. “Tala? My sister’s name is Mary Ellen. You must be mistaken.”
Tinker shook his head. “I’d forgotten. You’re right. She told me she’d changed her name to Tala. It means ‘wolf’ in some Native American language. Can’t recall which one. Interesting, though, that she choose that name, especially with you working in a wolf sanctuary.”
Suspicion flashed across her face, but she didn’t release his hand. “I haven’t seen Mary Ellen or heard from her in years. Not since…”
Tinker nodded, still preternaturally aware of the contact running between them. He wondered if she felt it, if she recognized the link, the sense of a kindred spirit. “Your father’s trial, right? That’s what Bay, your brother, told us. He recently reconnected with your sister, and they’ve both been trying to figure out where you ended up.”
The look of disbelief on her face turned to complete shock. “Baylor, too? Where? I’ve tried for years to find him. To find both of them. Where are they?”
“Mary Ellen’s been in a little town in New Mexico where she went by the name of Tala Quinn. She had amnesia. Up until a few months ago, Bay worked for the government as a special agent. They only recently located you and sent me to track you down. Look…” Tinker released her hand. Immediately he missed the sense of connection. “There’s a lot I want to tell you, and I imagine you’ll have even more questions.”
Lisa stared at her hand for a moment, then brushed both hands against her jeans. “You’re right. I have so many questions, I don’t know where to begin.”
“We can start with this mess. Let’s get your furry friends’ dinner loaded, and I’ll follow you back to the sanctuary.”
Lisa tilted her head and looked up at him. “You’re not quite dressed for the job.”
“No problem.” Tinker leaned over, grabbed the deer by the front legs and shoulders, flexed his muscles, and easily lifted the heavy body into the truck in one quick move, without getting any of the gore on his clothes. He slammed the tailgate shut and grinned at Lisa. He knew he was strutting, damn it, but he couldn’t help himself.
She burst into laughter and clapped her hands. “Uh, never mind. Thank you.”
Tinker wiped his hands on the damp towel she handed him, then helped Lisa into the cab. “How about I just follow you back?”
She looked him over, and Tinker hoped like hell she liked what she saw.
“Okay. It’s only a couple miles.” Lisa turned and winked. “Follow carefully. I brake for roadkill.”
Lisa hoped the hunky guy in the car behind her knew she wasn’t kidding when she said she braked for roadkill. She’d made three stops over the past mile and gathered up two opossums and a raccoon that hadn’t made it across the road. As much as she hated the constant death along this stretch of highway bordering a small mountain lake, she welcomed the chance to feed the confined wolves fresh meat.
Doing this disgusting chore, useful though it might be, also freed her mind to think about more important things. Like who was the unbelievably sexy man who followed her? She never reacted to men as she had to him, and his touch had been absolutely electrifying. There was something about him that went well beyond the fact he claimed to know her brother and sister. Something that reminded her of the wolves she cared for at the sanctuary, a wariness that belied his easy smile and sexy good looks.
He really did look like some sort of cover model, especially with those light-colored slacks and that neatly pressed white shirt. There was something unbelievably lush and attractive about his dark, dark skin next to that white shirt, the way he wore the long sleeves rolled back to expose his strong wrists.
He wasn’t wearing any jewelry. Lisa’d noticed his left hand right away, checked for that telltale band of gold or, even worse, a lighter mark left by the recent removal of a ring. Why she’d notice so much about him left her feeling flustered and uneasy. Generally men didn’t do much for her, one way or another. No, she’d given up on men long ago, but that was another story altogether.
She drove through the open gate to the sanctuary’s visitor’s center, pulled around behind the log building, and parked beside the long, low barn where they kept the refrigerators and supplies for feeding the wolves. One of the regular volunteers, a kid from the local high school who’d started working at the sanctuary shortly before Lisa was hired, ran out to help move the bodies. He was a good kid, suffering from a bit of hero-worship, but always around to help when an extra set of hands was needed. Luckily, his class schedule seemed to give him all the free time he needed to work at the sanctuary.
“Hi,