Page 12 of Were-Geeks Save a Kitten

Yordan sighed, wondering why this was so fucking important. “It’s a way you lift and twist it. Takes half a second to learn.”

“And would this trick make the door unbreakable?”

“What? Of course not.” The doors on the bedrooms were plywood. A hard sneeze could break them. Unless... He frowned at The Scot. “You couldn’t get the doors open?”

McNabb pointed to the closed adjoining door to Cream’s room. “Neither one.”

“What did you try?”

“A locksmith. A chainsaw. A sledgehammer.”

What?

“Then it became—”

Yordan was smart enough to finish the sentence for him. “Another thing on the list.”

“Yup.”

The two of them stared at each other for a long moment. For the first time, Yordan noticed how tired the Scotsman looked. A haunted exhaustion lurked beneath all those ruddy good looks. And a sharp mind.

Fortunately, Yordan could be pretty sharp himself. “How many things are on this list? Things like doors that won’t open and sudden spinning vans in the motor pool?”

“Dozens.”

“And do they all feel like—”

“Fairy tricks? Yeah, they do. Any idea who might have forgotten the Wulf, Inc. motto?”

Never make a deal with a fairy.

“Ummm.”

McNabb straightened with a scowl on his face. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“Not me!” Yordan rushed to say. “But, um, Coffee used to say he had a Get out of Dead Free card.”

The Scot jolted. “What? How?”

“I don’t know!” Yordan rubbed a hand over his face. The conversation had happened years ago when they were both shit-faced. “I didn’t even remember it until this second.”

“Think hard.”

He was trying! “Cream would know.” But of course, Cream died at the exact same instant as Coffee had. “And maybe the others on his team.” His voice was subdued.

“Nero?”

Nero was the alpha of the team and the only one who had survived the mission. “Um, no. Nero had a healthy fear of the fairies.”

“With good reason!”

Couldn’t argue with that.

The Scot ran a hand over his face. “So, what—exactly—was this fairy deal?”

“I don’t know that he had one. We were drunk. He was laughing about his Get out of Dead Free card...” His voice trailed away. They both knew that fairies were the only ones who could give something like that. And they always, always held some sort of trap.

“How can we find out?” McNabb pressed.