Page 78 of Murder Mittens

“This is my vacation home. I spend my weekends here, and I often come out whenever I have any time off work. It lets me get away and enjoy privacy.”

“I bet it’s really quiet here.”

“The closest neighbor is five miles away.”

Damn. I wanted a cabin like his, and I wondered if Sebastian would be game. Five miles of empty space between us and our neighbors would help mitigate some of the problems associated with vocal lynxes hunting stubborn lions.

Stupid pixie dust, revving my engine while my damned lion was inaccessible for my enjoyment. I kept from hissing, although it disappointed me even the higher grades couldn’t mitigate my annoyance over being separated from Sebastian.

Nobody had warned me separation anxiety was an issue in lynx lycanthropes. Then again, I couldn’t remember a time when my mother strayed far from my father.

I needed to have a few words with my mother about my overabundance of inherited traits.

As I was a happily drugged secretary who absolutely wanted nothing more than to be taken into a murder cabin, I got out of his car, grabbed my purse and laptop bag, and stared up at it, marveling that a log cabin could be so large or elegant. “I didn’t even know they made cabins like this. This is so nice.”

“It’s custom built.”

Of course it was. Custom meant prestigious, which also meant it appealed to the rich, the famous, and those wishing to become rich or famous.

What a nice place to kill people, and what a nice evening for my dirty, bloody work. I sighed, and I smiled. “I love the outdoors.”

“Why don’t I show you inside, and then if you’d like, we can take a walk in the woods.”

No, there was nothing at all creepy about an invitation to walk in the woods near a cabin at night. Nothing creepy about it at all.

Thanks to the pixie dust, I couldn’t even crack a snide joke about it, as someone that happy wouldn’t behave like that. I would just unleash the bad jokes on Sebastian until he found some sinfully sexy way to shut me up.

Once I finished my job, I would have to inquire with the CDC if it was normal to fall into a severe state of lust. Then again, perhaps the idiot had dosed me with more than just pixie dust.

As far as I knew, their device didn’t detect aphrodisiacs.

Poor Sebastian, destined to be ravished.

“That sounds nice,” I replied, smiling until my face hurt. At least the pixie dust helped on that front. I could handle smiling, especially when I thought about the various ways I could tenderize my target.

“Don’t mind the staff. I have two maids right now, and they stay here during the week. They’ll probably be upstairs.”

I bet the maids were pregnant, and when I took a sniff, they’d smell of fear, especially if they were being forced to pretend they were maids. What I smelled in the cabin would determine my next steps. “Oh, sure. It must be hard for them to get here.”

“It is, and their husbands travel for work, so they’re almost never home.”

How convenient for him. “I see.”

Loureni led me into the cabin, which had a rustic decor, and not a speck of dust marred anything, lending credence to his story he had two maids in residence. A spacious kitchen took up one side of the space, and a huge sitting room with a fireplace dominated the rest of the first floor of the cabin, with a curving stairwell leading upwards. “Lori, Yvonne, we have a guest.”

I kept behind him, taking note of the shoe rack, which had several pairs of women’s shoes in three different sizes, which matched the theory of a female accomplice and two victims.

Two heavily pregnant women waddled down the steps to the second floor, and they reeked of fear.

Like me, both women had scarred faces, although they’d gotten off lighter than I had.

When they caught sight of me, the stench of fear warped to worry.

It made me want to sneeze.

“Yvonne, you will prepare a room for her while I give my brother a call. She has medications that need to be monitored, and Kenard will want to meet her immediately. Lori, make a pot of tea, and keep our new guest company. Vanessa, why don’t you go with Lori and make yourself comfortable? I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Both women looked stricken, but they covered their dismay with admirable speed. One went upstairs, and the other joined me, wringing her hands in front of her.