Page 14 of Were-Geeks Save a Kitten

Yordan caught his elbow as he swayed. It was just the contact he needed to find his focus again. But damn it, panic was half a breath away.

“You had a bet,” Yordan confirmed. “Did you pay it off?”

“It wasn’t that kind of bet.”

“It was always that kind of bet.”

Yes, it was. And it explained Kit’s horrifying, debilitating problem. The one that had begun days after Coffee had died. God, he was such an idiot for not thinking of that before. But damn it, who remembered drunken bets?

Meanwhile, Yordan shot him a look that promised to poke deeper into that little problem. Wow, that was going to be painful. But for the moment, Kit was able to distract him.

“If this is the only clean place in the room, then it stands to reason that—”

“He’d keep whatever was vital right here,” Yordan said as he began opening drawers on the dresser. It was the usual collection of underwear, sweats, and novelty T-shirts from every random place Coffee had ever been in. And he’d been in a lot.

“This is just his T-shirt collection,” Kit said. That was the man’s favorite bet with new puppies. How many novelty tees are in my dresser? True or false, I have a tee shirt from a dive bar named Titty Galore Gives Blue Balls. (True.) There was an endless supply of humor surrounding his T-shirts, and he never failed to bring them up with new puppies.

“I know, I know,” Yordan muttered as he systematically searched through the drawers. He pressed into the back and the top, looking for secret compartments or hidden folders. Nada. “It wasn’t that he was chaotic, you know,” he said. “He was a creative thinker, always coming up with random facts and the like.”

Kit nodded as he looked around. “As if he had an organization that isn’t obvious to a logical mind.” Which meant Yordan wouldn’t be able to figure it out. The man was a straight shooter. His room probably had his clothing stacked in precise piles and his shoes had the toes flush with an invisible straight line.

Kit frowned, trying to imagine the situation. “When puppies came in to pay up, where would Coffee sit? What was his ritual?”

“You never saw it?”

Kit shook his head. He’d been in a different combat pack and only rarely coincided with Nero’s pack.

Yordan pointed to the office chair. “He’d sit in his office chair like a king on a throne. The puppies would stand there, holding their cash or whatever. Coffee had a lecture he’d give about always paying debts and then make them set down the money, one bill at a time right there.”

Just like Yordan had been doing a few minutes ago.

“And then what?”

“He’d ask if they wanted to try double or nothing, and eventually, everyone learned to say no.”

Kit nodded. He’d heard of double-or-nothing bets that ended up in the thousands of dollars range.

“When it was done, the puppies would have to say ‘I’ve learned my lesson’ and leave.”

“That’s it?”

Yordan nodded. “That’s it.”

Kit went over to the desk and sat down exactly as Coffee would have. He opened the desk drawers. Nothing.

“I already looked there,” Yordan said.

Yes, but Yordan was organized. Coffee was creatively organized. Which was to say, where would Kit put something secret and important that he could grab right from this seat? His gaze landed on the tiny bedside table just close enough to reach if one were as tall as Coffee. The table had a drawer filled with random shit and a few condoms. Kit knew because it was half open and he could see inside. But what wasn’t immediately visible was the back of the table.

He reached behind, fiddled around blind for a second to find the hidden latch, and then popped it open. He pulled out several thin notebooks and what looked like a kid’s diary.

“I would have found that eventually,” Yordan said without heat. “But I never would have thought my way there.”

“Wulf, Inc. has a lot of employees. I’ve learned some require more flexibility of thought when working with them.”

Yordan grunted. “Which is why I don’t work with them,” he said as he took the diary from Kit. “This kind of shit drives me crazy. Without discipline, everything falls apart.”

“Werewolves aren’t exactly known for their discipline.”