“This shit’s heavy!” called another, shriller voice.
Taylor ducked beneath the bushes, pressing his belly to the ground. Isla was at his side, ears upright and alert. They watched and listened as two voices became four, which then became six, and then nearly a dozen people appeared from between the trees and ambled down to the water.
They were carrying something, multiple things, each large enough that they had to hold them between two. Bins, or vats or…drums. William had said something about drums, right?
As Taylor squinted, he realised they were lugging around cement mixers and dumping the contents into the stream. He glanced at Isla, who turned her grey head upstream. They followed, keeping their bodies low to the ground and their breathing quiet. The voices faded as they crested a shallow bank and broke through the thickest part of the woods.
There, in the clearing, was a narrow track with several cars parked bumper to bumper. As they crept further, the track turned into a muddy driveway and several high fences came into view. They looked like they’d been cobbled together with pallets and barbed wire, and it honestly justscreamed“Look at me! I’m a drug factory!”
Then there were the dogs. Massive, fat, lumbering things that tugged on their chains and snarled every time a squirrel ran up a tree. One of them looked up, sniffing the air and turning its broad head in their direction. It started to bark, its fat paws thumping the ground.
Taylor growled, but Isla nipped his tail, making him stop. “Need backup,”she said, slinking back into the undergrowth. “Not safe. Outnumbered.”
Taylor puffed air from his muzzle, because it wasn’t like he was about to storm in there and rip the place apart single-handedly, no matter how cool that might have been. Dipping his head, he followed Isla’s lead, padding around an oak tree before melting back into the undergrowth.
CHAPTER 25
PAMPER SESSION
Taylor
Taylor feltlike a coiled spring after finding the place in the woods, but Isla had completely killed his buzz by insisting they’d have to go about it therightway. Get a warrant, work out logistics, speak to surveillance. Blah, blah, blah. All the shit that sounded far too sergeanty for Taylor’s liking.
He sighed as he lifted a cucumber slice from one of his eyes, the minty face mask the girls had slathered over his cheeks beginning to itch. For some reason, when he’d returned to the pack house that afternoon, they’d decided that both he and Johnny needed a pamper session, and he’d been handed a white robe and a hair-band when he walked through the front door.
Johnny had already been laid out on the sofa with whale music blasting from the CD player, and a towel around his head with Gabriella screaming at him, “Relax! This is relaxing!”
Johnny did not look relaxed.
“Damn, this is some good pudding,” Taylor sighed, digging a spoon into the glass pot Maman had handed to him partway through having his nails painted.
Maman chuckled as she hovered in the doorway. “It has crushed soybeans for creaminess and pears for your sweet tooth. Both are excellent for digestion.”
Taylor took another spoonful from the jar and shoved it into his mouth. “Bloody delicious.”
“How long are we going to have to stay like this?” Johnny complained, placing his own half-eaten jar on the coffee table. He’d taken off his cucumber eye circles ages ago, and Taylor may have accidentally eaten them.
Gabriella scowled as she yanked Johnny’s foot and rested it across her knee. “Stop moving,” she said, repositioning the foam toe separator as she tried to paint his toenails the most disgusting shade of bile green.
Johnny grumbled, wiggling his foot and running the risk of turning his sister’s impatience absolutely nuclear. Clementine was more compassionate, and Taylor sighed with contentment as she gently slathered some cream across his hands.
“Drink, sir?” she said, holding up a glass of apple and blackberry squash.
Taylor hummed and sucked on the end of the curly straw. “Lovely, thanks.”
“I’d like a drink,” Johnny said, knocking Taylor’s knee. “In fact, I’d like whatever the hellthisis to end as soon as possible.”
He waved his injured arm, which was now without its massive bandage, and in its place was a plastic finger splint and a long compression sleeve covering half his hand and forearm. Maman had taken him for his check-up that afternoon, which had apparently gone better than expected. He was healing fast, and it had been a relief to see that most of the swelling had gone down across his face.
“Shut up and enjoy the spa,” Gabriella replied.
Johnny sighed. “Is this because I threw water in your hair?”
Gabriella scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Please.Payback for that will be slow and painful, and will come when you least expect it.”
Yep, Johnny was most definitely a dead man.
“We just wanted to do something nice for you,” Clementine said, repositioning Taylor’s hair-band as she rubbed small circles across his scalp.Man, those tiny fingers were like magic.
