“No.” He held her gaze.

Laurel wasn’t sure she believed him. She sensed he might be hiding something from her.

“What made you come here? And not go somewhere else?” he asked.

She hadn’t expected that line of questioning, so it took her aback. She and her sisters had carefully rehearsed the reason. “We heard the hotel was for sale and that a wolf pack ran the town. We’re in the small-hotel renovation business—Victorians are our specialty—and we like quaint towns with a resort feel like this one. We liked that you have a ski resort close by and not much lodging available. And…the pack is an added benefit.”

She hoped that would satisfy his curiosity, but she wondered why he’d asked. Had she and her sisters given themselves away somehow? She changed the subject. “Why hasn’t anyone bought it before this?”

“Rumors that it’s haunted. And Darien has been picky about who buys it. All of the businesses in town are run by our kind, and he wants to keep it that way. A couple of big out-of-town developers were interested in buying the hotel, giving the song and dance that the place was in such bad shape it would have to be torn down, that the area wasn’t developed enough to really bring in business, and so on. They were just trying to get Darien to come down on the price. But he kept the price up, making it so unreasonable that no one would have invested in it unless the investor was a wolf, looking to settle down with the pack.

“Folks around here knew he’d bring the price down if any wolf members thought they could renovate and run the hotel. No one had any experience at it though, or any desire to give it a try. When you and your sisters showed some interest, Darien and Lelandi were thrilled. So he gave you a real bargain price to make it work.”

And that they happened to be she-wolves? She and her sisters had noticed that more of the population was male than female and there were lots of bachelor males. “Ahhh. Okay. I wondered about that. We worried that maybe more people had died in the hotel recently, scaring off prospective buyers. Then Darien suddenly dropped the price way down because of too many hauntings, and it really wasn’t a good bargain at all.”

CJ grinned, but then his smile faded. “You say ‘more’ people died in the hotel recently. What made you believe anyone died here in the past?”

She ground her teeth. This was one of the reasons they had avoided having much to do with the pack. Hiding the truth was damned hard. “I assumed it since the place is haunted and had been abandoned for so many years.”

“Ah.”

She couldn’t tell if that satisfied him, not as indecipherable as his expression was. She made a mental note never to play card games with him.

As they climbed the basement stairs to the main floor again, one of the rollers rolled off the roller tray in the sink where CJ had left them to dry. They both looked back at it. “I must have set the roller too close to the edge of the tray and it rolled off.”

“Right.” Laurel wanted to believe him, just like she tried to explain away anything that seemed supernatural. “So how long have you lived in Silver Town?”

“Since I was born.”

She was afraid of that. If any wolf was new to the area, she could scratch that person off their list of suspects in their aunt’s disappearance. Darien had given her a list of the pack members’ names so she and her sister could get to know everyone. But she was really using it to narrow their list of suspects by determining who couldn’t have been in the area when their aunt had been living here.

Then again, the person—wolf or human—who might have had a hand in their aunt’s disappearance could be dead or maybe had just been passing through.

Even so, this was all she really had to go on, and she hoped to cross a lot of the people off the list since it totaled nearly three hundred wolves. They definitely could eliminate newly turned wolves, children, and those who had moved here more recently. She really needed a local wolf who could help her with this. Someone they could trust. But they couldn’t really trust anyone. At least not yet.

When she and CJ reached the lobby, both of their gazes were trained on the freshly painted wall to see if the letter had disappeared. It hadn’t. “I’ll bring the painting over in the morning if the C is still there after you paint the wall again in a couple of hours,” she said.

“How do you know the attic’s haunted?” CJ suddenly asked.

“Since you don’t believe in the supernatural, I’m sure you’ll find nothing that will go bump in the night up there.” Surprised he’d asked, she figured there was no sense in telling him what they’d seen or heard. It was better to let him experience it for himself and come to his own conclusions.

He glanced back up the stairs, but he didn’t look concerned. “So how did you want me to help with Christmas decorations?”

“Could you hang the Christmas lights along the roof of the hotel and some around each second-floor window?”

“Sure. I’ll call my brothers and see if one can help out too. That will make it go a lot quicker.”

“Thanks.” She felt guilty about asking him to do all this when she had said no before, but he was so eager.

Meghan gave Laurel a chiding look, then put on her coat, hat, and gloves. She gathered up more garland and red bows, but couldn’t manage all of it on her own. Laurel hurried to dress in her warm clothes so she could help. They carried the garland and bows outside, and CJ followed them out.

“Okay, Brett. See you in a few.” CJ pocketed his phone.

To Laurel and her sister’s surprise, CJ took one end of the garland and stretched it out along the white fence railing. Laurel held the other end, and Meghan began securing red bows around the garland and the fence.

“So what do your brothers do?” Laurel asked. She knew that CJ was a deputy sheriff because she’d seen him in uniform.

“Eric, my eldest brother—only by a few minutes, but it’s enough to make him think he’s the boss of all of us—is a park ranger. The next oldest is Sarandon. He’s a trail guide, nature guide, whatever kind of guide his clients want him to be. He and Eric love the great outdoors. Not that the rest of us don’t, but they could spend weeks in the wilderness and be perfectly happy. Brett is a reporter for the pack’s new newspaper. He’s always looking for a story—as long as it’s not wolf-related. Unless it’s to showcase wolves in a good way.”

“Full wolves or our kind of wolves?”

“Both, actually. Humor, human interest, special goings-on. He’s the one assigned to do a feature on your newly renovated hotel and some of its history.”

Laurel perked up at the sound of that. “So he’s done some research on it?”

“Yeah. Anytime you want to see any of the old documents, pictures, information on who owned the hotel over the years, any of that, feel free to ask. Darien has more old data—census records, tax information—stored at his house.”

“Thanks. I will. I’m fascinated with the old place and it’ll be…fun to see pictures of it back in the day.” More than fun. Maybe CJ’s brother or Darien had the clues they needed to solve the mystery. And pictures of their aunt at the hotel to learn if she had been a guest or a maid, if they were lucky.

Meghan paused from tying bows on the garland and fence. “And you’re a deputy sheriff.”

He smiled. “I’m one of them. But we all are available to help new members establish their businesses as long as there’s no trouble brewing anywhere.”

Meghan tied off another section of the garland. “We’ve heard it’s a fairly safe place to live.”

“We’ve had a few problems. But nothing we couldn’t handle. It does help to have both human and wolf protection. We run everything here from the jailhouse to the clinic, so we’re all set for any trouble we might have.”

Meghan had been the most excited about moving to a location where wolves ran the town, and she’d already made several comments about setting down roots here. The problem was that Ellie was in total agreement with her. Laurel wasn’t used to that. Usually, her sisters agreed to whatever she said.