But the Silver Town wolf pack hadn’t given up on them so easily. During Victorian Days, Silva had brought over tea and cakes, and Bertha had made lunch for them to ensure they enjoyed the celebration too. Several other pack members had dropped by, wearing their Victorian gowns, to say that next year would be the best ever because the hotel would be part of the celebration. Laurel had seen the guarded looks her sisters gave her. She’d noticed even then how much they hated living the lie that they were here to stay. She wished they’d remain as focused as she was on learning the truth about their aunt. Even so, she harbored a secret longing to dress up and have some fun next year.

She had originally thought they would be out of the area well before that, but she had to admit that all the outpouring of wolf camaraderie and, well, falling for CJ were seriously changing her mind.

She couldn’t help but love the way the people in the pack made her and her sisters feel so welcome.

She got a call and looked at the ID. Ellie. “How’s everything going with the furniture?”

“It arrived on time, so that part was good. We’re hoping to arrive back late tonight.”

“Okay. Were you able to…look for anything?”

“No. We’ve had movers with us, and once we inspected the furniture to make sure the pieces were in good shape, the movers bundled them in blankets and packed them in the truck. We’ll have to investigate them when we get in.”

“Okay, sounds great.”

“How’s the grand opening?”

“Everything’s good. We’re cutting the ribbon in half an hour. We need to figure out what’s going on with the three men staying with us.” Laurel looked around for them again. She hadn’t seen them yet today. Maybe they slept all day and ghost busted at night, or maybe they were out looking for ghosts somewhere else right now. She didn’t want to discuss this with her sisters over the phone. They couldn’t do anything about it right now, so why worry them? She’d let them know what was going on when they got home.

“Okay. Good luck with everything.”

“All right, Ellie. And thanks. Talk to you later.” Laurel saw the Wernicke men coming from the direction of the public parking lot. Apparently they’d gone for a drive. To check out the ghost woman and wolf sightings, maybe? Or the haunted silver mine? Maybe they wouldn’t hang around the hotel much. But she doubted it. She was certain they were trying to dig up what had happened with their aunt and uncle, just like she and her sisters were trying to learn about their aunt.

She was dying to ask them how they knew that she and her sisters were looking into their aunt’s disappearance. She wondered if Darien had already questioned them about it.

“Hey,” CJ said behind her, and she turned around quickly, relieved he was there, despite telling herself she could handle the Wernickes on her own. “How are you holding up? You must be tired, as late as we went to sleep last night.”

Her cheeks heated all over again. He smiled. She wanted to sock him for the comment, even if he hadn’t meant anything by it. If anyone heard them, they’d wonder just what went on last night. At least he hadn’t made the mistake of saying they’d slept together.

“I slept really well.” She hated to admit that nothing had disturbed her sleep last night while she snuggled with CJ, and that she had felt perfectly safe and content. No howling wind, nothing. She had enjoyed his warmth wrapped around her, listening to his steady heartbeat and breathing in his sexy, masculine scent of spices and wolf before she’d fallen into a deep sleep.

He suddenly frowned and she wondered what was wrong now.

“What about the paint job?”

“Shoot, I forgot all about that. I need help hanging the picture. I carried it over just fine yesterday, but it’s so unwieldy that it takes two to actually hang it.”

“We could slip in around the back before the ribbon cutting. We don’t want anyone to think you’re ready to let everyone in just yet. It would look a bit odd for the painting to be sitting on the floor next to the other wall. Some might think something ghostly moved it.”

She glanced in the direction of the Wernicke brothers, but they were talking to Sam.

“Sure, let’s do it.” She walked with CJ around to the back of the hotel and crossed the patio.

She pulled her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door. Then she twisted the handle. Locked. Confounded, she stared at it for a moment, then tried her key on it again. Only this time it unlocked it.

“You hadn’t locked the door.” CJ sounded like he was scolding her.

“Yeah, I had locked it. I’m fairly certain. You know how it is when you do something so automatically, you don’t even think about it. Although I was in a rush to get things done, including helping to haul in all the food for the celebration. So…maybe I didn’t. I don’t know. But I really thought I had.” As often as she’d run back to the house for something and then returned to the hotel, she had begun to leave the back door to the hotel unlocked occasionally since she was coming right back. Besides, Darien had told her the town was really safe.

“Everyone’s out front, so I’m sure everything’s fine.” But CJ still sounded worried.

When they walked into the sunroom and continued into the main lobby, he looked around, taking deep breaths of the air scented with Christmas spice potpourri, wassail, and mulled wine. Plus, the sweet cakes—decorated in Christmas themes from drummer boys and snowman frosting to Santas and angels—scented the air. She didn’t smell any new people smells other than of those who had been here helping out recently.

When they walked through the sunroom and reached the main room, she looked at the spot where the painting had been sitting. It was gone.

Chapter 13

Before Laurel could say anything to CJ about the missing painting, he said, “The letter on the wall has vanished.”

She switched her attention from the missing painting to the wall. Goose bumps trailed down Laurel’s arms. No matter how many times she’d had to deal with ghostly happenings like these, they always gave her chill bumps.

CJ smiled. “It must have been just some old shadow of a stencil-painted letter, probably from sometime after the hotel was abandoned.”

“Right.” She was certain he didn’t truly believe that any more than she did.

He looked where the painting had been. “I…thought you had brought that painting in here to hang. Wasn’t it leaning against that wall over there?”

She stared at the wall as if the painting would suddenly reappear. “Uh, yeah, it was.”

He frowned at her. She didn’t want to say it had vanished along with the letter on the wall.

Still, he waited for an explanation.

She let her breath out in exasperation. “I have no idea where it went. Maybe it’s back at the house.”

He looked skeptically at her. “One of your sisters…”

“They were gone and it was still sitting on the floor there.”

“Okay. Why don’t you join the revelry outside and I’ll check the place out.”

Now he sounded like a cop, worried someone might be in the hotel already. “I’ll come with you.”

“Okay.” He checked out all the rooms, including the attic—where the light was still off—and then they went down into the basement. They found nothing out of place. “Let’s go on over to your place and see if it miraculously appeared back home. If it did, you’ll need help hanging it over there, won’t you?”

“Yeah. If it’s over there.”

“The back door was unlocked,” he reminded her.

And that irritated her. “You think someone entered the hotel just to steal one old painting? I wouldn’t think so. And the painting is big. It’s not that easy to hide. Or remove in a hurry.”

“What about this morning when you were getting things ready? Was it sitting there?”