Patrick McBride shrugged, throwing her a cheeky grin.
“What can I say, I’m hot.”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “Now we both know that I’m the best looking one in this relationship.”
Katie had always known her parents loved each other, but the depth of it was now startlingly clear to her. Even after thirty years, they were each other’s soul mates, and that love encompassed her and Jake. If she’d been killed in that warehouse, she’d have died without telling them how she truly felt.
“Mom, Dad….”
“What, sweetheart?” Her father came around the bed to cup her face. “You can tell us anything, you know that.”
“I just need you to know I love you, and that I’m sorry.”
Her mother sniffed, and her father hugged her hard, and Katie thought that there was possibly no place better to be sometimes than pressed against someone who loved you no matter what heartache and challenges you brought them.
“We love you too, baby.”
They put away the food after that, then sat on the deck drinking coffee by mutual agreement, as alcohol was still something to be avoided, it seemed.
When they left, Katie sat for a while longer, and then went to the trunk of her car and brought in the things she’d purchased in town.
Taking the cap off the bourbon, she sat down to have a few drinks. She could stop anytime, but right here and now she knew this would help her sleep and make her relax. LA was a long way away, and for now she could focus on healing, and when that was done she had to prepare herself to die, because as she reached the halfway point in the bottle, she came to the realization that the Alessis would not stop in their efforts to find her, and staying here was only a temporary fix. One day soon she would have to leave to keep her family and the residents of Howling safe, and then she would return to LA and get it over with, one way or another.
Chapter Nine
Ten days since she’d arrived back in Howling, and Cubby had seen next to nothing of Katie McBride. Jake said she’d secreted herself away on the Reynolds’ houseboat, only visiting him, Branna, and Rose, or her parents most evenings for a meal. He said she looked pale, her eyes ringed with black, and to Cubby that suggested she was having trouble sleeping.
Jake had asked Katie if she was drinking and she had said no, she wasn’t, but Cubby wasn’t entirely convinced. If she was struggling with her demons and lack of sleep, something was keeping her going.
His friend was worried, and had asked Cubby to call in and see her, but he’d been snowed under with paperwork, dealing with some petty crimes and then an idiot hiker getting lost on the trails. He’d seen her at a distance, to lift a hand and acknowledge, but he hadn’t spoken to her, and if Cubby was being honest, he was avoiding her. Avoiding the fact that she was constantly in his thoughts, and that he wanted to spend time with her far more than he should.
He kept in contact with her sergeant, and an hour ago word had come through that the Alessis had bumped up the bounty for information about the shooting to $150k.
“Everyone in here now!” he roared out his door. Seconds later Cubby heard the sound of feet running and Brady, Tank, and Rick appeared in his office.
“This situation with Katie McBride has just escalated. The Alessis have put the reward up to $150k. Be vigilant.”
They all nodded.
“Holy crap, they must want this information bad to be paying out that much money?” Brady said.
“I think we can be assured of that, but at this stage they have no clue as to who fired that shot and if they are alive. That’s good, and we’re hoping it stays that way, but I need you to remain alert; you see anyone entering Howling who you think looks suspicious, or hear anyone asking questions about Katie, you tell me ASAP. Got that?” Cubby said.
They nodded and then filed back out of his office. He heard them leaving for the day shortly after. For now, Katie was safe and he and his deputies were being diligent, but this amount of money raised the stakes further.
“Mitch Finlay just brought a shitload of alcohol, according to Leroy, who was buying fancy wine so he can woo Roberta.”
Tank reappeared in his doorway. Short, stocky, the man looked like a bull with the temperament to match.
“He’s wooing Roberta Dean?” Cubby said, still looking at the e-mail he’d printed off from Katie’s superior officer.
“Sounds like.” Tank resettled his bulk on the other leg. “Says she’ll do even if she can’t cook, so obviously she’s a keeper.”
“And there was me thinking you didn’t know the meaning of irony, Tank. Damn me if you’re not full of surprises.”
“You want to know what’s ironic, Sheriff? The fact that Sally gave me peanut butter and jelly today when I asked for cheese and pickle.”
“Okay, so there’s the idiot I know,” Cubby said, getting to his feet. “That is not irony, bud, so tonight’s homework is to look up the meaning and tell it to me tomorrow. Now go home and shoot your wife for daring to make your lunch wrong, remembering of course that the rest of us have to buy or make it ourselves.”
