“At least I don’t have to deal with wildlife,” Marlow said. “Well, rats. But they hold their own.”
One side of the road was still open. Cade swung wide around the strung-up tape and drove past. He put his foot down as they cleared it.
“It’s about ten more minutes away,” he said, “if you want to have another catnap.”
Marlow gave him an unamused look. “Very funny,” he said, dry and just off clipped. “I’m fine, thanks.”
Cade gave up with a silentfuck. He didn’t even know how he’d got that one wrong.
“Who are you here to see?” the younger guard at the Reserve checkpoint asked as he leaned down to look in the car window. His dull brown eyes squinted to see against the sun coming through the passenger side. If Cade had wanted he could have grabbed the wolf’s collar and yanked him into the car, shanked him with the ceramic knife he kept in the door, and grabbed the tablet used to interface with the security system. “Invitation only for visitors.”
The guard wasn’t one of Cade’s personal picks. Of course, more weren’t than were these days. The company had reached the point he couldn’t have direct oversight over personnel. Maybe he needed to carve time out of his day, though.
Marlow leaned over, one hand braced on Cade’s thigh, and showed his badge.
“Night Shift,” he said. “We need access.”
The guard gawped for a moment and then nodded as he swiped his finger over the tablet.
“Of course,” he said. “I’ll, um, escort you myself. Where do you need to—”
The other guard—Smith—was one of Cade’s hand picks. In fact, Cade had personally recruited him from a corporate security firm that ran a refinery up in Alaska. He wasn’t on gate duty usually, but Cade liked everyone to take one shift a year in every post, just so they knew the ropes.
Smith tapped his tablet to lock his co-worker out of the system and stepped in.
“Ask for a warrant, Nader,” Smith said.
Nader gave him a dubious look. “He’s Night Shift,” he said, with a jerk of his thumb toward Marlow. “You don’t get in their way.”
“It’s midday, man,” Smith said. He bent down to peer into the car. His eyes flicked to the hand on Cade’s leg and then back to Marlow’s face. “You even on duty?”
“Special assignment,” Marlow said.
“That come with a warrant?”
Marlow grinned, a quick, easy flash of charm that lit up his whole face. “No, it doesn’t.”
He pushed himself off Cade’s leg. The warmth of his hand remained, soaked through cotton and down into muscle. Cade definitely hated that.
“So he doesn’t get in, not until we see the warrant,” Smith said, in the patient voice of someone with a particularly slow-to-learn kid. He pointed at Cade. “Or the boss, who we let in, tells us that the cop is with him. Idiot.”
Nader flushed miserably. He was handsome and clean-cut, the sort of looks that had been scuffed off most of Cade’s recruits after stints in the army or the police. Another problem of his ex-partner’s left behind for Cade to deal with, maybe? He’d thought they needed more “approachable” faces.
“He’s with me. By the way, there’s a moose carcass on the road,” Cade said as he shifted the car out of park. “Five miles back. It should have been cleared already.”
It was part of the contract with the Reserve. The state road crews were responsible for repairs, but the Cold Winds’ crews ensured the roads were passable. Half of the Reserve’s clients were rich enough they only had to work three days out of the year. The other half were so rich they couldn’t even take the usual three days a month off.
Leftovers spilled on the road weren’t what they wanted to see.
Nader frowned and glanced down at his tablet. He jabbed and swiped with a gloved finger as he checked.
“Nothing on the task sheet,” he said. “You sure?”
“I drove past it,” Cade said after a dangerous beat. “Pretty sure.”
Smith grabbed Nader by the collar and dragged him back out of the way. “We’ll get on that, sir,” he said. “Sorry for the oversight.”
Cade rolled up the window as he headed up the road. Next to him, Marlow laughed.
