I choked on my salad, wheezed, and pounded on my chest to dislodge the rogue piece of lettuce. “You think I’m a prostitute?”
Wayne stared at me, and I gave him credit; his expression remained a neutral mask. “You’re certainly lovely enough to be successful in that field, and it would offer you an opportunity to pay your bills despite limited hours. We tried to come up with other part-time work a young lady might do on limited time, but we weren’t able to think of any beyond evening entertainment.”
How nice. Wayne thought I was lovely. My virus particularly liked Wayne’s attention, and she wanted to find out how lovely he thought I was. If I let her have her way, I’d be reduced to enthusiastically working as his evening entertainment for the rest of our lives.
Ugh. Could my night get any worse?
“We?” I asked.
“My pack. We’re lycanthropes, and we tend to become easily offended by such things.”
“And why would you become offended?”
“Nobody should be forced to work in evening entertainment merely to survive.”
Right. I dealt with protective male lycanthropes. “Well, you can rest easy tonight knowing that I have not been working in any form of evening entertainment, nor do I need to be rescued from my part-time job.”
“Excellent. As I already have spoken with your current landlord, I won’t need to run a credit check on you or even ask for a pay stub. I will be basing your income on different criteria. Shall I bring the contract over for your evaluation?”
“Email it to me and give me a week to think about it, then we’ll talk.”
Wayne chuckled at that. “Should I be grateful you’re only making me wait a week?”
“Absolutely.”
Chapter Two
Forgettingto give Wayne Barnes my email address counted as ruthless, but I assumed he could get it from my landlord if he pressed hard enough. Satisfied the wolf would be distracted for at least a few hours, I tested my luck in the bounty hunter system, which had public and private job offers.
To my delight, I had three private offers; one I automatically rejected, as I didn’t play at being an assassin. The other required someone to clean house, and while I disliked theft in general, I rejected that one, too.
The third bounty wanted me to move a male lycanthrope in my area and keep him busy for a period of three days. I’d bag twenty thousand for the work, which caught my attention. Before I could learn more about the target, I needed to sign an NDA, which would prevent me from discussing the job with anyone outside of my hire, and oddly, the target, who could be told limited amounts of what the job entailed, including a confirmation of his safe return after a period of three days.
I could only assume the hire wanted the target out of the way for a few days to make a move on a female wolf they both wanted. Why else hire a female, unmated lycanthrope to remove a male from an area for such a short period of time?
Sometimes, I hated being a single female lycanthrope. With twenty thousand, I’d be in a better position to deal with Wayne Barnes—or not. An extra twenty thousand would help. No, it wouldn’t just help, it would completely change my life.
I’d only have to take a single day off work to make the bounty happen. I’d happily accept a scolding from my boss with twenty thousand extra in my bank account. Depending on who my target was, I might even opt to allow my status as a single female lycanthrope to go public.
Every single male lycanthrope in the city would chase me if I removed my perfume and made my presence known.
With a lot to lose but twenty thousand to gain, I accepted the NDA to learn more about my target, plugging in my digital signature to confirm I’d review the target and keep my mouth shut if I didn’t want the job.
A rather familiar and handsome face greeted me on the next screen, and if I’d checked the bounties before my unwanted guest had brought me dinner, I would’ve had the easiest bounty ever in the history of all bounties.
To sweeten the deal, I would be paid five thousand in advance to make the man disappear for three days, and the payment would be processed immediately upon acceptance as a deposit.
Wayne Barnes did tend to annoy people and keeping him busy for three days would amuse me, although I’d kiss my nice new bathroom goodbye along with having to bail town with my twenty thousand, as nothing complicated things more than kidnapping my future landlord.
Then, because my life could have silver linings, sunshine, and cookies, a flag on the job caught my attention.
The CDC had vetted the bounty, declared it legal, and authorized use of controlled substances to make containing the target, one Mr. Wayne Barnes, easier.
True evil would be accepting my new leasing agreement before kidnapping the wolf and doing whatever I wanted with him for three days.
My virus liked the idea so much I made it to my phone before I reeled her in. I stared at my phone for ten minutes before grabbing the business card he’d given me and dialing his number.
“I haven’t even had a chance to email you the contract yet. Did you have a question?”
