Veronica hesitated. “You know about shifters?”
“Well, I donow. I thought you were convinced they were some kind of witchcraft cult.”
“I was at first. They’re…not.”
“Clearly.” Clarice didn’t mean to sound snappish, but figured she had every right to.
“Owen wanted revenge on his ex-girlfriend, and when he figured out what she was, he teamed up with an unscrupulous gene company in Las Vegas that is trying to unlock the secrets of shifters. You may have heard of them, Stork Inc.”
Clarice had seen their commercials, pulling at heartstrings with pictures of children with shaved heads and brave smiles, little hands with IVs and stuffies. “Yeah, I’ve heard of them. Does Hunter work for them?”
“Hunter’s new on the scene. I guess Owen told him about me? He’s been trying to use me to get access to Tiny Paws and willnottake no for an answer. He seems to have more of a personal vendetta.”
“And the wizards?”
Veronica laughed. “There are wizards now? What a circus.”
“So, how did you fall in with these fine people?” Clarice asked numbly. “Why would you go along with them?”
“Money,” Veronica said frankly. “Look, it was the cliquish little shifter community that was hellbent on running me out of business. I thought I was protecting my interests, and I didn’t know that the Stork crew was afterkidswhen I agreed to snoop for them.”
“You were snooping on aday care,” Clarice pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean I thought they were going to be kidnapping children. Grown ups work there, you know, and I was told someawfulthings about some of them. I thought I would beprotectingthe kids.”
“Whatawful things?”
“It doesn’t matter. It was just a jealous ex-boyfriend and a gene company with an agenda. I don’t know what was the truth and what wasn’t, but I was a pawn, and now I’m pissed. I’ve been trying to get out of all of it, and I knew it was going sideways when they started talking to each other.”
“So you set me up?” Outrage parted Clarice’s fog.
“I swear I didn’t. This has gotten way out of hand, but I wouldn’t have deliberately sent you to spring a trap set for me. I thought it was a legitimate booking, and you wererightabout not letting you have the best jobs. I’ve been so busy climbing out of this financial hole that I wasn’t being a very good friend. I took the best sales because I was desperate, and you deserved better. Look, I can be a self-centered jerk, but I never meant for you to get caught up on any of my mess.”
Clarice set her jaw, nowhere near ready to forgive Veronica and not entirely sure she shouldbelieveher. “Well, honestly, it doesn’t help a lot. TheykilledBruno.” Her breath hitched. “They’re after his son. This is more than being a self-centered jerk. This is endangering little kids. It’sinexcusable.”
“Ididn’t know,” Veronica said. “I know that doesn’t make it okay, but I didn’t know.”
“So, what are we going to do about it?” Clarice challenged. It didn’t matter what Veronica’s motivations were, the outcome was awful. Bruno was dead and Tiny Paws was their next target.
“I’ve got an idea,” Veronica said. “Go along with whatever I say.”
“Why should Itrustyou?” Clarice demanded. “You lied to me about being poor and going to the prom in a homemade dress! What else have you lied about?”
“Plenty,” Veronica said unexpectedly. “You don’t sell expensive houses if people think you’re poor. I used a PR company that fixes reputations. My family didn’t want me any more than I wanted them, so I invented a past that looked good on social media.”
“Your country singer boyfriend…?”
“He was real,” Veronica said sourly. “I learned a lot from him about fame and fortune, and how fragile it can be.”
Clarice struggled to remember Veronica’s other sins. “Did you bug the pens you gave me?”
“Bugthem?”
“You gave them to me out of the blue and told me to give one to Bruno. It seemed weird.”
“I had a sample credit with the company that does my pens that was going to expire and I thought it would be a nice thing for you to have.”
“Did you bug the day care?”
